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Plastic - the mouldable material of modern chairs
In the visual arts the term 'plastic' is used for any form of creation involving a medium that can be sculpted or moulded, but it is also the term for a type of material that revolutionised the twentieth century. Using a number of plastic chairs as an example Architonic outlines the metamorphosis of this item of furniture which more than any other is deeply involved in cultural history...
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So PoMo! – 'Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970–1990' at London's V&A Museum
It's forty years since the love-it-or-hate-it, style-driven phenomenon that was postmodernism first emerged in architectural practice, soon manifesting itself in design, art, fashion and music. The V&A's major new show, 'Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970–1990', examines its vibrant, playful forms and, sometimes contradictory, meaning.
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Keeping It Real: Claus Mølgaard
Behind every great design there's a great designer. But, more often than not, there are a number players involved. Meet Claus Mølgaard, the go-to Danish design engineer whose work on products for the likes of Ron Arad and the Bouroullec Brothers reminds us that design is an iterative, and often complex, process, as much as a finished product.
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Precision Casting from the Witch’s Kitchen
When designers and leading industrial enterprises put their heads together, it usually gets exciting. While such a collaboration allows industry the possibility of demonstrating its special capabilities in a completely new context, its manufacturing processes, conversely, provide an unexpected treasure trove of new design solutions for creative minds. This is what happened in the collaboration between SCHMOLZ + BICKENBACH Guss Gruppe and the Berlin-based design studio Formfjord.
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Je ne regrette rien (most of the time, that is): Ronan Bouroullec in conversation with Architonic
'Regrets, I've had a few,' sang Sinatra in his classic ballad 'My Way', while Piaf famously insisted that she regretted absolutely nothing. Somewhere between these two lies Ronan Bouroullec, one half of the distinguished French go-to design duo, the Bouroullec Brothers. 'We've done a lot of disasters. But we've had the chance to do best-sellers, too. It's a mix, really,' he tells Architonic at the recent Cologne Furniture Fair.
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Cooking with taste: well designed household appliances
During the age of the economic miracle electrical household appliances became an integral part of every home as kitchen aids to the modern housewife. There were only a handful of manufacturers and the head designers and engineers of the market leaders worked on the principle of creating timeless and functional design, which makes some of these appliances coveted vintage items today. Some designs of the period are nowadays even being reissued as retro pieces featuring present-day technology...
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Furnishing the Future: Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret's Chandigarh furniture
Having received the brief to plan and design a new state capital for the Punjab, Le Corbusier, true to form, delivered a striking urban entity that's a veritable 'Gesamtkunstwerk'. A forthcoming exhibition at the Galerie Anton Meier in Geneva of the Swiss architect and Pierre Jeanneret's furniture for India's first postcolonial city demonstrates neatly the level of consideration given to the shaping this modernist gem.
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Design Miami/ Basel 2011
For the first time since it was founded in 2005, Design Miami/ Basel was this year under the new direction of Marianne Goebl, who curated the trade fair with an expert eye. In February 2011 she followed in the footsteps of Ambra Medda who, after splitting up with her partner Craig Robbins, also lost her commitment to her position as director of their joint baby, as was indicated at last year's press conference.
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People Will Talk: Dornbracht Conversations 3
Put a group of designers, curators and design writers in a room and what do you get? The Dornbracht Conversations. The third annual platform for intelligent dialogue on the state of design, past, present and future, hosted by German design manufacturer Dornbracht, took place last month, with a hundred or so invited design journalists and PRs in attendance. Here's our report on some of what was discussed, plus an invitation to you to have your say.
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![When We Were Young: [D3] Design Contest at imm cologne](http://image.architonic.com/imgTre/01_11/_DSC5381-bearbeitet-teaser.jpg)
When We Were Young: [D3] Design Contest at imm cologne
Punching well above their weight this year at imm cologne were the young guns exhibiting in the sixth edition of the [D3] Design Contest, the platform for emerging international design talent. Here, we talk to one of the two joint-winners, Harry Thaler, plus select some of the most interesting designs from the convincing and highly polished body of creative work on show.
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The Fondazione Targetti's Lighting Academy shines brighter with Architonic
The respected online lighting-design portal migrates to www.architonic.com
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How Many Designers Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?: Samuel Wilkinson
When young British designer Samuel Wilkinson set out to redesign the standard low-energy light bulb, with the aim of making it work just as hard aesthetically as it does environmentally, he was in for a long trek. Journeying beyond the safe and familiar territory of the archetype is seldom easy, particularly when you have to develop a new set of manufacturing methods to realise your product. In conversation with Architonic, Wilkinson sheds some light on his award-winning 'Plumen 001' bulb.
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The Milan Four: Lorenza Luti from Kartell
In the third of our series of interviews from this year's Milan Furniture Fair with some of the creative industries' leading figures, we meet Lorenza Luti, marketing and retail director of established Italian brand Kartell, which, after 50 years in business, continues to innovate in the use of its signature material – plastic.
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Love in a Cold Climate: Architonic meets Artek chief Mirkku Kullberg
Few design brands evoke as much warmth on the part of consumers as the heritage-steeped Finnish company Artek, currently celebrating 75 years in business. Co-founded in 1935 by the hero of Scandinavian modernism Alvar Aalto, Artek has certainly earned its design stripes. Here, its managing director, Mirkku Kullberg, in conversation with Architonic during the recent Cologne Furniture Fair, discusses how the manufacturer's longevity is matched by its long-sighted, forward-facing vision.
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Helvetian Heroes: enduring Swiss design
It's fair to say that certain countries have, over the years, been more successful than others in terms of marketing a distinctive and compelling national design identity abroad. The very human kind of modernism expressed in the furniture of postwar Scandinavia, for example, is still very much associated in the international imagination with those Nordic countries, contemporary Scandi design profiting from this legacy as far as consumer interest is concerned...
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