Urban design event The exhibitions and events which take place during the fair in the whole of the inner city of Milan attract not only trade visitors but also masses of private design enthusiasts. read Triennale di Milano It's not just because of its dominant architecture – the Palazzo dell’Arte was designed early in the Thirties by Giovanni Muzio– but also because of its historic past that the Triennale has, for many years, been an especially popular location for exclusive design and architectural exhibitions. read Cities of the Pacific Century The impending Olympic Games in China are dominating the headlines just as much as reports about the current spectacular major projects of the international architectural stars in the country. But what is happening behind, below, next to these individual highlights? read Urban Romanticism “Urban Romanticism” is the motto of the Luminale 08 marathon. Many openings will already take place on April 5th. read Organic Network The Japanese architect Keiichito Sako was one of the first to recognise the potential for his architecture in the growing giant China, and in 2004 he opened his studio in Beijing. read Die Limited Edition des „A’dammer“ aus dem Jahr 1978 Exactly thirty years ago, the Dutch furniture label Pastoe introduced the ‘A’dammer’, an eye-catching freestanding storage cabinet by designer Aldo van den Nieuwelaar (1944)... read Fiction The italian manufacturer Glas Italia presented the impressive mirror serie by the french designer Jean-Marie Massaud at the imm cologne. read Materialica The tenth MATERIALICA in Munich focused specifically on design. For the fifth time the fair presented the Materialica Design + Technology Award to outstanding and innovative performance in the fields of design or engineering. read MaterialVision Innovative materials inspire designers and architects to create ever new products and applications. This was demonstrated at the end of 2007, when the latest developments in the field of new production and surfacing materials were presented at two leading materials exhibitions: Materialica in Munich and Material Vision in Frankfurt/Main. read Golden moon surfaces The designer Alexis Oehler works in the heart of Berlin's Kreuzberg district, but the romantic impression given by his workshop is contradicted by the hardness and roughness of his preferred material, which normally tends to evoke associations of depressing concrete housing blocks. read A swedish bright spot Just one year ago Magnus Wästberg started his lighting company. At the Stockholm Furniture Fair he presents his first collection with names like Irvine und Massaud. read GRP meets porcelain The 'Professorship Project' (Projekt Professur) is the name of the programme at the Karlsruhe College of Design under which well-known designers are invited to become visiting professors at the college and which, after three appointments so far, has proved highly successful. read Architecture in small scale A few separate furniture parts, the half done prototype of a reception chair in the middle of the room – the studio of the furniture designer Eric Degenhardt from Cologne seems like a well sorted working space, a room filled with concentration. read Mingei Design of "Limited edition" obscures the boundary of design and art. Craft elements bring singularity into otherwise mass-produced works and lift them to an art piece in the market. read Design + Research + Industry 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 read The Sacco armchair celebrates 40 years! The armchair by Sacco, Paolini and Teodoro is one of the most meaningful example of design product able to embody an "era", while "contaminating" the living conventions that apparently look very formal. read Nosigner The 26-year old, who does not wish to reveal his real name, presented his poetic furniture and object designs at 100%Design under his 'Nosigner' label, and turned out to be one of the highlights of the show. read

Milan – an initial selection Few exhibitors risk coming to Milan without some new products to show off. And even if not all of these new creations make it all the way to the production stage, they are still a thermometer for trends, vitality and differentiation within the industry. read LED.next technology and “Green Light” “The LED is the light source of the future” is the credo of the Nimbus Group, which is presenting itself at this year’s “Light + Building” fair in Frankfurt with an extensive and powerful LED range based on LED.next technology. read StokkeAustad Since 2004 Øystein Austad and Jonas Ravlo Stokke have formed the design team StokkeAustad, which is based in Oslo. They only opened their design studio last year, although their successful cooperation began during their studies at the 'Oslo School of Architecture and Design'. read Duke Ellington meets King Midas This listed Haus Nürnberg was renovated in 2006 by the architects Reuter Schoger and re-opened as the Hotel Ellington. And, credit where credit is due, guests are confronted with their first unmistakable reference to the jazz age of the golden twenties as soon as they enter the lobby. read Orquideorama The honeycomb-structured roof structure creates an exellent climate for the botanic garden in Medellin, Columbia... read Bizarre I Apocalyptic sentiments. The abandoned futuristic housing complex San Zhi is situated close to the Taiwanese capital Taipeh and was planned in the early 80s as a series of vacation homes. read New Walls, Please! For some years now wallpaper has been celebrating a major revival. Thanks to intelligent materials, new methods of processing and a return of the readiness to risk more graphic wall design, wallpaper is becoming a favoured projection surface for artists, architects and designers. read DDR- Nonstandard Buildings Do the typical ingredients of Berlin, the "Berlin spirit", really exist? Brick, natural stone and concrete, combined with stucco, high ceilings with visible ceiling joists, plastic hard shell chairs, stools with cord seats, large-patterned wallpaper... read Digital Furniture Design With the help of digital technologies it is now possible to create all forms imaginable, whilst streamlining the design process from concept to fabrication. read Upward lighting A new architectural masterpiece is due to be opened on the first of December 2007. With the completion of the Hungerburg funicular, London architect Zaha Hadid will have produced yet another architectural tour de force in Innsbruck to rank alongside her Bergisel ski jump.e Danish designer Jørgen Rasmussen. read The VIA Creation Grants For the maiden run of the 'Meuble Paris' furniture fair, and pursuing its annual Creation Assistance programme, VIA has presented the Carte Blanche grant awarded to designer Jean-Louis Frechin, the ten Project Assistance grants prototypes, as well as the new Partnership Project 'Creation and Skilled Trades', which brought together designer Philippe Nigro and the Compagnons du Devoir journeymen. read The Kevi chair has found a new home Engelbrechts Furniture has just taken over the production and distribution of the internationally renowned Kevi chair and stool series, created by the Danish designer Jørgen Rasmussen. read Crowded House At the imm cologne we our fifth anniversary and we had a big party at the Architonic Lounge and later at the SIDIspot. Thanks for everybody who joined us. It was a great pleasure! Have a look at some pictures! read The logical thought to create useful things For more than ten years the design studio of Luke Pearson and Tom Lloyd has been located in one of Shoreditch's typical small alleys. Today PearsonLloyd Design is one of the most successful design companies in Britain. read Brazilian Design 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. read The power of the empty space The younger generation of japanese architects, including Kengo Kuma, who was born in 1954, has taken a new direction. By using natural materials, traditional methods of manufacturing and very restrained design they are paying tribute to their cultural roots and driving forward a new concept of modern Japanese architecture. read Notes on "Brick: the Exhibition" The European Ceramic Workcenter (.ekwc) in the Netherlands regards itself as an international workshop facility and provides designers, artists and architects with the opportunity to carry out technical and artistic experiments using ceramics and tiles as materials. read

The Architecture of Presentation Because our attention is fully focussed on new products and old acquaintances we frequently overlook the architecture of the stands themselves, which is often of high quality and great elaboration. read Nordic Novelties Stockholm is increasingly establishing itself as the design capital of the North. With almost 40,000 visitors this year the Stockholm furniture fair and the Northern Light exhibition were more successful than ever. read light + building This year's light + building successfully defended its position as the top trade fair in the lamps and lighting systems sector. In spite of the many international manufacturers who displayed their products and the large masses of visitors, the organisers succeeded in keeping the exhibition manageable and well structured. In addition to the stands of well-known established manufacturers, it was in particular the work of a number of smaller young suppliers who were presenting their products for the first time which caught the eye. read Master of Transparency Jean Nouvel receives the Pritzker Price 2008 read The Pink Project In the autumn of 2005 the Lower Ninth Ward, a multi-cultural precinct in the east of New Orleans, was flattened by the force of hurricane Katrina. In cooperation with Graft, the Berlin architects, Brad Pitt developed the idea... read The Eco-machine With its Federal Building in San Francisco the California firm of architects Morphosis, took the Zumtobel Gruop Award in the 'Gebaute Umwelt' (constructed environment) category. read Projekt Vitra The title of the book says it all. What we have here isn't a product catalogue but a rich collage of texts, photographs, sketches, types of paper, layouts and dictionary-like lists of the designers and architects who have worked for and with Vitra in the past and will continue to do so in future. read News from Cologne Even if the imm cologne has lost ground in comparison to the Milan fair, which has now become the major international design event, and the Maison & Objet exhibition which has benefited from the design boom in France, the response of the majority of imm exhibitors was entirely positive read More Colour! A few kilometres to the north of Stockholm, in a picturesque house which lies on the former hunting grounds of the kings of Sweden – this is where Fredrik Mattson has his studio. In recent years the 34-year old furniture designer has made a name for himself on the Scandinavian design scene with his playful and colourful creations. read Greenhouse in Stockholm Like on many other furniture fairs also in Stockholm the exhibition of young designers is a relevant part of the programme. In cosy atmosphere – the exhibition was designed by the swedish studio TAF – international talents present their work. read In spite of all the prophecies of doom On Sunday before last this year's imm cologne closed its doors after receiving 107,000 visitors from 103 countries – statistics which speak for themselves. read Young Design at the imm cologne 2008 This year, too, the imm cologne will provide lots of opportunities to discover young design talent and discover fresh ideas. Here a few suggestions. read Village life in the Greenhouse The Stockholm Furniture Fair, which takes place from 6 - 10 February, is enjoying ever greater popularity with both manufacturers and designers. This is primarily because the fair has set itself the target of making Stockholm a major platform for creative new ideas. read A classic returns At that time the Casala furniture company, which was founded in 1917, was one of the leading manufacturers in Germany. For almost two years the sculptor Alexander Begge worked on shaping and processing a series of monoblocks on behalf of Casala. The result was the Casalino read Globus by Artifort In the hustle and bustle of the modern office, everyone tries to divide their time as flexibly as possible. Globus is a mobile work station (flexi-station) in two guises. In its closed form, this work station fascinates and intrigues. It hides its function and excites curiosity. read Bamboo 2.0 Due to new processing methods bamboo materials, such as bamboo veneer or Plyboo (in other words bamboo plywood) have become important materials for the furniture industry. And the good thing is that it is now possible to overcome the musty colonial aesthetic which bamboo has been associated with. read