Dear Readers,

For this newsletter, we decided to focus on a very special topic: Brazilian design.
Our research was definitely worth the effort and we are now able to present you a substantial selection of outstanding manufacturers and designers. Furthermore we choose the example of the Myto Chair, designed by Konstantin Grcics, to show, how productive the cooperation between research, industry and design can be.
The international furnishing show in Cologne is going to be a very special occasion for us, since we will be celebrating our 5th anniversary and we hope to welcome you to our festivities.
Architects, interior designer and architectural planners get the chance to win one of 500 free tickets for the imm. We are looking forward, to meeting you in Cologne.


Be inspired!

Yours, Team Architonic
Zurich | Frankfurt | Berlin | Barcelona | London

Brazilian design can look back on a long history. And although it was initially strongly influenced by European design ideas, it has since developed its own, unmistakably Brazilian aesthetic.

One of the first Brazilians who turned away from the predominantly traditionalist style was Joaquim Tenreiro (1906-1992), the son of a Portuguese furniture maker and an early advocate of modernism. He is regarded as the founder of the modern Brazilian concept of design. His furniture designs dating back to the 1940s are manufactured mainly from materials, which are characteristic for the country and they show that Tenreiro adapted their design - entirely in line with the functionalists - to the economic, geographical and social circumstances in Brazil, in this way giving Brazilian design an identity of its own. Oscar Niemeyer, who will by the way celebrate his 100th birthday in December, proved to be a strong admirer of Tenreiros and furnished his buildings with the designer's furniture. Another icon is Sérgio Rodrigues, born in 1927, who aroused international interest in Brazilian furniture design with his "Poltrona mole" at the beginning of the Sixties. Rodrigues created an unique and innovative design vocabulary, whose nonchalance distinguished it from the aesthetic standards of that time - thanks to his work, Brazilian design became an international trend. In 2001 the Brazilian manufacturer LinBrasil got the production rights for his designs and meanwhile produces 28 works from Rodrigues.
The Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm, cultivated the close relationship between the Brazilian and the European design community. Because of its international orientation it has long maintained a dialogue with Brazilian students and has had considerable influence on their concepts of design. When in 1963 the first Brazilian school of design, the Escola Superior Desenho Industrial (ESDI) was founded in Rio de Janeiro, among others by former Ulm students, it was on the basis of the Ulm methodology and interdisciplinary approach.

Brazil can now look back on more than half a century of modern design history. There are schools of design in every town of any significance, and Brazilian design has been awarded with range of international prizes. Nevertheless, the response of the media has been relatively modest, except in the case of the designer duo Fernando and Humberto Campana, who have enjoyed enormous international attention since the early Nineties. The two brothers have taken the social and ecological circumstances of their hometown São Paulo as an opportunity to occupy themselves with designs and furniture as a product which can be recycled. Among others they design for quality manufacturers like Edra in Italy or Habitart in Brazil. However, in addition to the Campana brothers, with their prominent media presence, there is still a large number of other manufacturers and designers who have received, despite the quality of their work, little international attention. The minimalist and delicate Tensor series designed by Pedro Useche, who was born in Venezuela, or the perfectly formed Fenda chair by Ilse Lang, who produces her designs under the Farodesign label, are good examples of work beyond the European horizons, that are worth exploring. In our new special topic of 'Design from Brazil' we would like to present a selection of our personal favourites.

Text by Nora Schmidt

With more than 1300 international exhibitors the imm cologne exhibition is still one of the world's major furniture fairs. Eagerly awaited this time is Hall 11, which has been designed by Ben van Berkel and has contents which will be curated for the first time.
For Architonic the next imm, which takes place from 14 - 21.01.2008, will be a very special reason for celebration: We are celebrating our fifth anniversary and would like to toast the occasion with you. For each year of our existence we are inviting 100 architects, interior designers and planning specialists to our stand, and consequently to the imm. Participants must belong to one of the above professions.
All those who register by 14.12. 2007 will have the opportunity to receive one of our 500 complimentary imm tickets.

With the designfabrik™ founded by BASF in 2006 - the focal point for industrial designers who wish to consult plastics experts on production processes, tool design etc. - the world's leading chemical company demonstrated that it intended to explore new routes in its market strategy. The close cooperation between designers, research facilities and manufacturers has proved extremely fruitful for all concerned. Materials manufacturers can get an impression of the requirements which designers and manufacturers have on their materials, and are able to adjust their research accordingly. In return designers receive an insight into the available technical possibilities, which provides them with new scope for their design operations.

The cooperation between BASF, the German industrial designer Konstantin Grcic and the Italian furniture manufacturer Plank came into being as a result of the Universal Days workshop, to which BASF invited a number of designers in order to present the new plastic Ultradur© High Speed to them.
This material, which is exceptionally fluid, was actually developed for the automotive sector and is intended to replace parts such as extrusion sections which are at the moment still made of aluminium. With Ultradur© High Speed they can be cast from a single mould.
After the first strategic discussions between Mr Grcic and BASF it became clear that a chair would be the best design to demonstrate the extraordinary mechanical characteristics and technical production advantages of this material. And in fact it seems that Konstantin Grcic wants to extract everything from the material which it can offer. With previously existing plastics it would not have been thinkable to produce the filigree cantilever chair in monoblock form, in other words using only a single mould. The net-like perforations on the seat and backrest of Grcic's design were only made possibility by the high degree of fluidity of the new material. Thanks to the committed work of the experienced BASF materials experts and plastics engineers, the series-production tooling for the Myto Chair was completed in the record time of one year. With some slight design changes, Plank - the furniture manufacturer was brought on board by Grcic right at the beginning of the project - will present the chair at the Milan Furniture Fair in April 2008.

Text by Nora Schmidt

After Stuttgart, Vienna and Tokyo, from the 23rd till the 25th November, shortly before the stressful Christmas shopping will begin, the Blickfang is taking place in Zurich - the fair for fashion, furniture and jewellery. It is important to mention Christmas at this point, since Blickfang is a so called sales fair that goes beyond marvelling at the beauty of the exhibits, by selling them. Also, design aficionados get the chance to see the latest collections from 200 Designers, presenting a broad spectrum of works - ranging form furniture, luminaries and fashion to jewellery and accessories. And of course, you can also take one or two of them home with you. Besides the usual fair related standards, it will be possible to visit the fashion shows of some of the contributing fashion designers. By the way: Childcare will be available. We hope you will enjoy Blickfang!