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Spectacular Vernacular: contemporary applications of craft-based building methods
There was a time when context was everything in construction. Local materials were transformed by the ambition and skill of the builder into a functional, stylistically appropriate structure. In the face of an, at times seemingly inexorable, movement towards a homogenous, global design language in architecture, a number of architects have recently completed projects that embrace low-tech, craft-based building methods to add real environmental and cultural value.
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The Milan Four: Jean Nouvel
In the first of four interviews from the 2011 Milan Salone Internazionale del Mobile with four very different figures from the creative world – an internationally celebrated architect, a grand master of Italian design, a strongly concept-led designer and a leading manufacturer – Architonic meets Jean Nouvel, Pritzker-Prize-winning architect of such projects as the Torre Agbar in Barcelona and Paris's Fondation Cartier, as well as designer of a growing body of highly considered furniture and lighting pieces.
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A look back at ISH Frankfurt 2011 – Living in a spa
The bathroom is an environment which doesn't only adapt constantly to the changes dictated by design and fashion, but has also been revolutionised in a technical sense.
At ISH 2011 in Frankfurt Architonic went on the track of the latest developments and trends in innovative bathroom design.
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Neo Geo: geodesic construction in contemporary architecture
The principles of geodesic construction were developed by the pioneering American architect and engineer R Buckminster Fuller in the middle of the last century as part of his efforts to use science and technology to address universal issues. His vision has inspired successive generations of architects and geodesic designs have played a fundamental role in defining the architectural landscape of the past few decades. Architonic takes a look at some recent projects that combine the brilliance of Buckyʼs ideas with twenty-first century technology, resulting in complex yet efficient structures with a futuristic aesthetic.
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Trade fair retrospective: BAU Munich 2011 - Section 3
In January one of the world's major trade fairs for architecture, materials and systems took place in the halls of the new Munich trade fair site. We now round off our collection of reports with this third part of our look back at the exhibition, in which you can read among other things about luminescent concrete, surfaces with compound eyes and shimmering crystalline solar glass.
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The Milan Four: Alessandro Mendini
In the second of our series of four interviews with four leading design figures from this year's Milan Furniture Fair, Architonic meets Alessandro Mendini – designer, architect, writer, theorist and all-round provocateur. Mendini, who turns 80 this year, discusses, among other things, the importance of irony, the increasing lack of polemic in design, and why certain detractors of the 1980s postmodern Memphis movement might be talking 'bullshit'.
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Switched On: Benjamin Hubert
'Awards come and go,' says Benjamin Hubert. 'They're not a mark of good design, that's for sure.' You'd be forgiven for thinking that there's more than a touch of false modesty or disingenuity at work here, given the celebratory press coverage the young British designer received a couple of years ago, not to mention the numerous plaudits. But not so. In a recent interview with Architonic, Hubert reveals himself to be as pragmatic and self-aware as he is creative.
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Trade Fair Review: Euroshop Duesseldorf, The Global Retail Trade Fair, 26.2. - 2.3.2011
More and more prestigious manufacturers of up-market design products participated in this year's EuroShop, a clear indication of the significant international role of this Düsseldorf trade fair. As a result this successful trade fair is a model of what the retail industry is looking for - increased growth and high turnover levels.
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Death by Architecture
Shuffling off this mortal coil is something we all, sadly, have to do. There's no opting out. But while mortality might be a great leveller, a number of architects have shown recently how designing environments that process death – be it in practical or psychological terms – can be elevated above the uninspired builds that we've been used to, which have all to easily embraced historicism or, perhaps worse, anonymity. Architonic presents a selection of projects that put some life back into designing for the dead.
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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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Quiet Musings: Michael Govan
A series of new architecture commissions and exhibitions suggests that museums might no longer be in the business of pageantry. In this third, and final, part of a series examining the notion of the post-spectacle museum, Architonic meets Michael Govan, director and CEO of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
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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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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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Water, Water Everywhere: ISH Frankfurt 2011 preview
With ISH Frankfurt 2011 – the leading international trade fair for all things bathroom – about to open its doors, Architonic takes a look at just some of the new products that will be on show. We've kept it clean.
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Wanderlust: Architonic goes walkabout in Cologne for Passagen 2011
With thermal under-apparel in place, Architonic ventured forth from the exhibition halls of the Koelnmesse during this January's imm cologne to visit Passagen – the ever-growing programme of off-fair exhibitions and events in showrooms, galleries, museums and design schools throughout the city. Here are some of the highlights.
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Designer Portrait: Miljana Nikolic, Dimitrios Stamatakis and Masa/Mia/Dora
Miljana Nikolic and Dimitrios Stamatakis are two of the 14 winners of the 'Young Balkan Designers' competition initiated by the Mikser organisation who exhibited their work under the same name at Salone Satellite 2011...
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Yorgo Lykouria: Industrial Poet
It's somewhat fitting, given the almost lyric quality of his name, that Canadian-born designer Yorgo Lykouria should be interested in reintroducing the poetic into everyday life. His latest product for premium bathroom brand Alape is a wash basin that eschews preconceived ideas of what such an object type should look like in favour of designing the actual experience of washing, one characterised by quietude and wonder. Meeting up with Lykouria at the recent ISH fair in Frankfurt, Architonic got its hands dirty with some serious design discussion.
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Ausstellung „Wir sind alle Astronauten“ - Universum Richard Buckminster Fuller
In Kürze eröffnet eine Ausstellung über Buckminster Fuller im Marta Herford Museum. Gestaltet wurde sie von Sir Norman Foster, der mit Richard Buckminster Fuller zwischen 1968 bis 1983 an verschiedenen Projekten zusammenarbeitete.
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Quiet Musings: Brad Cloepfil
A series of new architecture commissions and exhibitions suggests that museums are no longer in the business of pageantry. In this second part of a series examining post-spectacle museums, architect Brad Cloepfil talks about the phenomenon of 'collecting' cultural architecture, and how his own museum designs aim both for spectacle and counterpoint with it.
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Trade fair retrospective: BAU Munich 2011 - Section 2
The impression we got during our visit to BAU 2011, which took place in Munich from 17 to 22 January, has been confirmed by the published visitor numbers. The fair was a resounding success and is therefore fully justified in describing itself as "The world's leading trade fair for architecture, materials and systems". We took a close look at what was on show there and have documented our impressions in a series of reports. After the first part of our trade fair retrospective this second section now offers you a number of further highlights.
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