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Kortrijk Remembered: in conversation with Interieur co-founder Pol Descamps
Punching above its weight, the respected Belgian design biennale Interieur, held in the small town of Kortrijk since 1968, has always thought big. What it lacks in scale, it makes up for in discernment and ambition. 'We saw how international and influential Milan was and we wanted to be on that level,' explains one of its founders, Pol Descamps, while talking to Architonic about the fair's origins and significance...
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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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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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Robin Day: 1915–2010
Robin Day, one of Britain's greatest designers, whose illustrious career spanned seven decades, dies at the age of 95
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'Life is important. Design is not important': Architonic goes for a walk with Alain Berteau at Interieur 2010
Alain Berteau is often told by journalists that he is representative of Belgian design. He's not so sure. Architonic caught up with architect-designer Berteau at the Interieur 2010 design biennale to discuss his latest work, the trouble with defining design in national terms, and why designers aren't as important as perhaps they (or, rather, we) think they are.
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Designer Portrait: Rich, Brilliant, Willing
Rich Brilliant Willing – even if the name of the design studio run by Theo Richardson, Charles Brill and Alexander Williams has a slightly ironic touch, it is an accurate characterisation of the trio – they are rich in ideas, their designs are brilliant and they are always willing to create something new and extraordinary.
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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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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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Who? Me?: the multiple identities of Jephson Robb
His very first furniture design – for established American brand Bernhardt Design – is an exercise in form follows comfort. Once you're sitting on Jephson Robb's new 'Amri' chair, it's seriously hard to get up again. This invitation to stay put for a while is rather ironic, given the restless career of the Scottish artist-designer, which has seen him study at the Royal College of Art and work in London's finance sector, create a number of public artworks, design websites and develop a handy product for hairdressers. Confused? Then, read on.
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'There shouldn't be one rule about how to make furniture': in conversation with Interieur 2010 Designer of the Year Bram Boo
He's big in Belgium. And increasingly elsewhere, thanks to him being named Designer of the Year by prestigious design biennale Interieur 2010. Bram Boo's furniture designs delight and challenge in equal measure with their chaotic, often ironic, forms, which belie their resolutely practical functionality. Architonic made a date with the Belgian designer in Kortrijk to discuss his typology-troubling work.
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The In-Betweener: matali crasset
She may elect to spell her name all lower case, but matali crasset's work is big on concept and ambition. Yet, the Paris-based designer, who's collaborated with the likes of Established & Sons and Pallucco, insists she's not that interested in products in themselves. Une contradiction? Pas du tout. Architonic invites you to read on to find out why.
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Designer Portrait: RENDS Design by Masanao Furukawa
Following his training at the DOMUS Academy in Italy and at Central St Martins College of Art & Design in the UK, Masanao Furukawa returned to Tokyo and set up RENDS Design Studio.
At this year's Salone Satellite, RENDS presented for the second time its modest, considered designs, whose elegant wood joinery fascinates audiences.
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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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Man of the Cloth: Cristian Zuzunaga talks textile and more
In the (unfortunate) hierarchy of design disciplines – just ask any architect and they'll confirm this – textile design has traditionally occupied a less-than-superior position. Spanish-born Londoner Cristian Zuzunaga has been troubling the creative order of things recently, however, with his conceptually and technically innovative work for such leading textile manfuacturers as Kvadrat and Nanimarquina. Architonic met up with Zuzunaga at the Design Post in Cologne during this year's Orgatec fair to pick at some threads.
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Détente Cordiale: when Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance met Bernhardt Design
Already a contemporary classic, French designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance's 'Corvo' chair for US manufacturer Bernhardt Design is certainly no flash-in-the-pan object to be consumed briefly and then forgotten. Highly considered in terms of its design and production, it invites an equally considered, long-term engagement from the user, one that's as much about emotion as it is utilitarian use. Architonic spent some time with the trained sculptor at this year's London Design Festival, discussing, among other things, his experience of transatlantic collaboration, why he's not a modernist, and the particular commercial – and physical – demands of the American market...
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Designer Portrait: Studio IVANKA Concrete Works
Concrete has in recent times become a highly popular material for product and furniture design. One of the founders of this trend is Studio IVANKA, which was established in Budapest by Katalin and Andras Ivanka in 2003...
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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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The Bearable Lightness of Being: Architonic meets Tokujin Yoshioka at imm cologne
'Maybe I don't like objects.' It's not every day you hear such a statement from a designer, particularly one as celebrated as Tokujin Yoshioka, who was recognised as A&W Designer of the Year 2011 during this year's imm cologne, But, then again, there's a certain (pleasing) contradiction in the design language of the Japanese creative's work, which, through its ongoing engagement with the ideas of transparency and lightness, gives expression to objects that sit somewhere between presence and absence. Architonic met up with Yoshioka in Cologne to trip the light fantastic.
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A Life More Ordinary: Architonic meets Jasper Morrison
Respected British designer Jasper Morrison has learnt many things in the course of his career. For example, how to design products that create 'atmosphere', as he describes it, yet have longevity, and how to ignore the marketing machine that would turn design professionals into superstars. And how a violent pink can sometimes be, well, a bit too violent. Architonic spent some time at the recent Orgatec fair in Cologne with the thinking designer's designer.
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When in London...: In conversation with Giulio Cappellini
This year's London Design Festival, now in its eighth year, was not only bigger than ever, it was also more international in complexion, with a significant number of non-British brands exhibiting in their permanent showrooms, in pop-up spaces and at the somewhat-past-its-sell-by-date 100% Design fair. Part of this foreign presence, but by no means a new one in relation to the UK, came in the form of Cappellini's exhibition at the V&A Museum, which reflected on the manufacturer's collaborations with British designers for over two decades. Architonic was there to talk to the company's art director and creative-talent scout, the ever dapper Giulio Cappellini.
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