Design Alive 2013 Collector's Edition/Milan

trends interiors architecture fashion lifestyle

№ 6 spring 2013 collector's edition

beautiful relations collector's edition 6

COVER BY KYUHYUNG CHO

2 Dział

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6 ARCHITECTURE 36 great houses Extramuros This Portuguese villa teaches stillness and synergy 46 ARCHICONS Japanese school The brilliant renovation of a school building 50 Lisbon’s fado A house with vertical gardens

PLACES 54 Interior architecture on creative Fogo island 84 Wellspring The origin of Dornbracht

NEWSLETTER for a good start

THINGS 24 GRAPHIC DESIGN Coding letters hidden in shapes 26 FASHION Depths and escapism Olga Nieścier about fashion trends 88 PREMIERES review Paris Maison & Objet London Design Week 98 DESIGN ALIVE taking stock 2006–2013 from our collection of Polish design 104 In the Saddle The master of saddlery 108 MUST HAVE Little heroes of everyday selected by Kompott

SCRATCH A new way of decoration. From a new collection by Joost van Bleiswijk. See more on p. 74

LIFESTYLE 64 Like Odysseus My private school of minimalism

ESSAYS 96 AGNIESZKA JACOBSONCIELECKA Can design… …be beautiful?

102 KRYSTYNA ŁUCZAKSURÓWKA Selection Sit down, please 105 JANUSZ KANIEWSKI Drive A Giulietta with a piercing Plates – typography on the road

EVENTS

PEOPLE

111 MILAN preview 117 CALENDAR where to find a good design

66 The Collector Monika Unger and Brazilian modernism 74 Paired autonomy Kiki van Eijk and Joost van Bleiswijk 80 What a beautiful catastrophe Marcel Wanders – postmodernist

92 TRENDBOOK Anthropocene in geology From pyramid to pancake changes in social structures Trend forecasting a job for today Welcome to the era of design writes Adam Swann of Gyro New York

Photo: Studio Joost van Bleiswijk

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Interested in more information?

Discover more about the decor trends of Schattdecor at www.schattdecor.com. designalive.pl

6 editor's letter

beautiful relations

W

hen I was planning this issue, I wanted to show how important it is to build and nurture human relationships. Whether that means our relationships with our families, our partners, or our relationships at work. Because it turns out that the skill of teamwork and mutual understanding isn’t restricted to our personal lives, it’s the key to creative work and, interestingly, an increasingly sought-after quality in business.

A sentence Polish journalist Tomasz Lis heard in passing and jotted down became an inspiration: “In today’s world the hierarchical model is being replaced by a model of interrelationships based on a spirit of partnership, community and trust”. So the skills of listening, being together and mutual respect are becoming a chance for a new society and an alternative to the rat race, which clearly failed and led to a global recession.

It’s difficult to decide which of the articles defines this issue of Design Alive, because the idea of the beauty of relationships is infused throughout the entire magazine.

It’s inherent in the words and images which inspire, symbiotically and non-aggressively.

They suggest ways of becoming still, of making all of our senses more acute and of respecting others. Ultimately, in order to find the beauty of the relationship we have with our own self, with our own longings, desires and emotions. For in order to trust others, we first have to trust ourselves.

Editor-in-Chief

designalive® contact us ul. Głęboka 34/4, 43-400 Cieszyn, Poland redakcja@designalive.pl + (48) 33 858 12 64 Editor-in-Chief: Ewa Trzcionka Design Director: Bartłomiej Witkowski, Ultrabrand Collector's cover: The Garden Kyuhyung Cho typeface changed a love poem into a fairy-tale pattern for us See more on p. 24

Publishing Director: Wojciech Trzcionka Marketing and Advertising Director: Iwona Gach International sale: Mirek Kraczkowski Editorial Staff: Marcin Mońka, Daria Linert, Angelika Ogrocka, Anna Borecka, Eliza Ziemińska, Jarda Ruszczyc, Anna Dębska, Anna SkalskaBogucka, Łukasz Potocki, Michał Mazur Columnists: Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka, Krystyna Łuczak-Surówka, Janusz Kaniewski Contributors: Anna Dudzińska Radio Katowice, Dariusz Stańczuk RMF Classic, Adam Swann Gyro, Mariusz Gruszka Ultrabrand, Jan Lutyk, Dorota Gajewska Translators: Edyta Szcześniak, Eleonora Pawłowicz, David French Editing: David French DTP: Ultrabrand Logo and layout: Bartłomiej Witkowski, Ultrabrand Printed in Poland Advertising: reklama@designalive.pl + (48) 33 858 12 64 + (48) 602 157 857 Subscriptions: prenumerata@designalive.pl + (48) 602 57 16 37 www.designalive.pl Online editor: Marcin Mońka Publisher: Presso sp. z o.o. ul. Głęboka 34/4, 43-400 Cieszyn, Poland presso@presso.com.pl + (48) 33 858 12 64 Copyright © 2013 Presso sp. z o.o.

Reproduction in whole or in part without express permission is strictly prohibited. Design Alive will not return unsolicited materials and reserves the right to edit received materials. The Publisher is not responsible for the content of the featured advertising and has the right to refuse to publish an advertisement, if its form or content are in conflict with the regulations or nature of the magazine or portal.

designalive.pl

Vitsœ – Less is More TIMELESS DESIGN Whoever doesn’t know his maxim "Less is More"? Who doesn’t know his iconic designs for Braun? But do we know his furniture?

This year we'll soon have the opportunity to appreciate the timelessness of the work of the design guru: Dieter Rams. The license to manufacture his designs has been granted to Vitsœ, a Dutch brand operating since 1959.

Among the furniture to be manufactured will be Rams’ famous classic designs as well as the 620 Chair Programme and a modified version of the 606 Universal Shelving System.

The furniture should be available later this year. www.vitsoe.com Marcin Mońka

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Good design is innovative Good design makes a product useful Good design is aesthetic Good design makes a product understandable Good design is unobtrusive Good design is honest Good design is long-lasting Good design is thorough down to the last detail Good design is environmentally-friendly Good design is as little design as possible designalive.pl

Dieter Rams (Born 1932) worked for Braun and later for Vitsoe. He has created hundreds of legendary designs. He is the author of the famous "10 commandments of good design" (below)

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SIMPLY

Photo: press materials

A CZECH TABLE Pure design, elegance and versatility – these words perfectly capture the Delta table created by Austrian designer Kai Stania and signed by the Czech brand Ton. Delta’s minimalist look and distinctive base make it suitable for use in the kitchen, the dining room or the office with many different types of chairs. Made from solid beech or oak wood; it comes in versions for 4, 6 or 8 people, www.ton.cz

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Iwona Piskorz

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Introduction To Pastoe This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Dutch brand Pastoe, known for its consistent focus on the simplicity, functionality and modernity of its products. It was founded by Fritz Loeb (1889-1959) in Utrecht. Today his successors are celebrating this full anniversary with an exhibition at Kunsthal Rotterdam (open until 2 June). Among the exhibits featured are early and recent designs by Konstantin Grcic and Naoto Fukasawa.

The exhibition will also be shown in April at the 52nd edition of the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan. In the photo: Collection Introduction 125M, 1965. www.pastoe.com Text: Deborah Nicholson Photo: Jan Versnel

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FERRARI ON THE TRACK AGV ITALO

Wojciech Trzcionka

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GOURMET MORSEL

keep YOUR VITAMINS NEW LINE OF OVENS

A STEP FORWARD

CHARGING WHILE WALKING

Maybe at some point soon, instead of buying yogurts, cheese and juices in traditional boxes and cartons, we’ll buy food in healthy and tasty WikiCells containers, inspired by the natural skins of fruit and vegetables. And so the saying “I ate it all up” will be justified – with care for the environment. Yummy! Prototype, www.wikicells.com

Prezio Samsung is an elegant black design combined with functionality. Thanks to a special dish and two generators, the steam electric oven makes it possible to prepare light, healthy meals without losing vitamins or minerals. Samsung’s offerings also include other appliances whose design and colour match the line of products including refrigerators, extractor hoods and hobs.

Ovens from 800 euros, www.samsung.com

Exercise is good for you – especially when it turns kinetic energy into “green” electricity.

Simply walking, running or jumping on floor panels Pavegen generates power for street lamps and school halls. A bright future is also offered by Sustainable Dance Club, the maker of power-generating disco dance floors. Made to order, www.pavegen.com, www.sustainabledanceclub.com

EDIBLE CONTAINERS

Michał Mazur

Daria Linert

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Michał Mazur

Photo: press materials

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Its streamlined shape brings to mind a racing car, but it owes its title “Ferrari on the track” to the company NTV, whose president is Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo. AGV Italo, reaching a maximum speed of 360 km per hour, is Europe’s fastest train of recent months. Maximum comfort reigns supreme in its interior: ergonomic leather Poltrona Frau seats, free Wi-Fi and TV. In case of any delays, each traveller receives a text message with the current time of arrival of the train. The exquisite Eataly culinary concept from Bologna offers onboard catering.

Built by Alstom, the train consumes 30 per cent less fuel than the previously fastest train in Europe, the French TGV. Fares on the Milan-Rome route (a distance of 630 km is covered in just over three hours) start at 35 euros. www.italotreno.it

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN DOMESTIC DESIGN FASHION DESIGN COMMUNICATION DESIGN

NEW DESIGN SCHOOL IN POLAND INNOVATIVE TEACHING METHODS WELL EQUIPPED WORKSHOPS AND STUDIOS DEDICATED TEACHERS REAL LIFE CASE STUDIES

UNIQUE CURRICULUM CREATED UNDER CREATIVE DIRECTION OF LIDEWIJ EDELKOORT

Oskar Zięta

Wojtek Dziedzic

Agnieszka Jacobson

Bartosz Mucha

School of Form combines the worlds of design and humanities through a unique, award winning curriculum. Design projects developed here are always based on anthropological, psychological, sociological and philosophical approaches to human needs. The curriculum created at School of Form was awarded three times by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland.

School of Form in Poznań is a department within the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (SWPS) in Warsaw, the best private university in Poland. All graduates receive a BA Bachelors Degree.

All courses are full time and last 3.5 years (7 semesters). Classes start in September and finish in June and are offered in both English and Polish.

Tuition fees are: 5 800 EUR for a course in English and 12 000 PLN for a course in Polish. We offer tuition fee scholarships, see our website for details.

APPLY NOW: WWW.SOF.EDU.PL/APPLICATION.HTML FIND US ON: FACEBOOK, PINTEREST, YOUTUBE.

WWW.SOF.EDU.PL

UL. GŁOGOWSKA 18, MTP HALA NR 1 60-734 POZNAŃ, POLAND TEL. +48 61 869 20 23 EMAIL. INFO@SOF.EDU.PL

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ASHWOOD COLLABORATION JOSEPH WALSH IN A COZY DECOR Studio DiaDiMo’s Joseph Walsh is breaking new ground – he has created a sharp-edged line of furniture associated with the office, in a cozy style. His collaboration with O'Donnell + Tuomey has yielded Falling Dansu, made of solid ash wood. It’s a new take on the seventeenth-century bureau desk, secured to the wall. After opening the front we discover a series of compartments, which can be freely repositioned. The Irishman’s second proposal is a chair created in conjunction with Design Parters. The Historic Chair is carved in ash wood and covered with a leather material

by Erica Wakerly. Made to order, Falling Dansu 14,000, Historic Chair 3,000 euros, www.diadimo.com Text: Angelika Ogrocka Photo: Andrew Bradley

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www.bisk.eu

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CROSSBREEDS 14 newsletter MOROSO HYBRIDS

London-based Italian designer Martino Gamper has created a series of reinterpretations eight well-known Moroso designs for the occasion of the brand’s 60th anniversary. The Metamorphosi Behind is a collage made from ​​ parts of different furniture models, put together in a coherent hybrid. The resulting designs are strikingly deconstructionist at first and then refreshingly novel because although we are familiar with the original furniture, the designer has completely transformed their look. Gamper’s new works resemble his experimental designs such as the “100 chairs in 100 days”. www.moroso.it Eliza Ziemińska

NEW CARPETS FROM JAN KATH

What to do to become a world-famous carpet designer? Put simply, it helps to have been in an emotional relationship with carpets for three generations. Just like the German-born, Jan Kath and his work: classic oriental rugs combined with modern, minimalist design and décor removed from the cool interiors of parlours and introduced to everyday life. Add to that the manual techniques along with the use of natural materials only (e.g. Tibetan wool, Chinese silk, nettle fiber).

Jan Kath, who hails from a family that has been selling carpets for many years, has elevated the production process to a real art. He is also uncompromisingly conservative in what he does, combining the experience of extensive travel (Nepal, Tokyo, Beirut, Sydney) with the industrial traditions of his native Ruhr area. And that shows in his newest collection “From Russia with Love”, inspired by Southern Russian carpets from the early twentieth century, whose leitmotif are flowers. From 400 euros per square metre, www.jan-kath.de Łukasz Potocki designalive.pl

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From Russia with Love

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FOUNTAIN POT ARIANE PRIN’S CLAY MUGS A walk around the city can lead to an idea for a singular technique of manufacturing cups of clay, glaze and pigment. That was the experience of French artist and designer Ariane Prin, who visited a ceramics workshop in Polish Design Centrum Kielce, last year. During her stroll, she noted that people like to gather around fountains. This gave her an idea. She created a unique appliance, consisting of 4 containers and 16 moulds used for the simultaneous production of 16 mugs.

Red coloured clay dripped from the container spouts filling the rotating moulds. Ariane’s work is a reference to the bloody story behind the former prison buildings on the local Castle Hill – hence the use of red.

That’s how the Water Cups Fountain series was created. Prototype, www.arianeprin.com Daria Linert

JUST COOK AND SIT DOWN POT FURNITURE CooKIT – flat items take their intended shape while… well, while cooking. In a hot pot, the polystyrene filling swells up like popcorn. The collection was created by Groomy Irit Cohen, a graduate of Jerusalem Academy of Arts and Design last year. Prototype.

Michał Mazur

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15 AXE

made of CARBON FIBRe Kacper Hamilton combined state-of-the-art technology with the experience of the Zai brand specializing in the production of ski equipment, and created a “wonder” axe. The layered head was made of ​​ carbon fibre, a very light but robust material. It is set on an ashwood handle. The axe weighs just over a kilo. The Zai CORE Axe will hit the stores this year. www.kacperhamilton.com, www.zai.ch Jarda Ruszczyc

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FLOWERPOTs anew

URBAN GARDEN FROM AUTHENTICS

The Urban Garden collection from Authentics, created by Patrik Nadeu, offers textile sacks for growing houseplants. They do not require any additional saucers to drain excess water. The sacks are filled with a clay water-absorbent granulate so that the moisture is distributed evenly. This way plants in sacks need less watering than those in traditional flower pots. These items are the very essence of the Authentics philosophy based on a spirit of simplicity in the creation of functional objects of everyday use. www.authentics.de, www.creativeproducts.pl Olga Steliga-Dykas

YOUR PICK

FRENCHMAN, MILLIONAIRE, TENNIS COACH, FIREMAN

The American company Ramblin’ Brands has created a series of vibrators catering to stereotypical female fantasies. A woman can have her Frenchman, millionaire, tennis coach or firefighter to choose from, and each of them has different assets. Although at first the idea may seem funny, this approach to erotic products for women is very serious. The newly created Smile Makers vibrators look more like drugstore items than XXX toys. These sex shop boys are not vulgar, boring or expensive, and they have unique properties. Each one stimulates different erogenous zones, has three speed settings and a pulsation feature, 39,95 euros. www.comeplaywithus.com Eliza Ziemińska

photo: marie-pierre cravedi, nicolas genta, press materials, MICHAL FLORENCE SCHORRO & PRUNE SIMON-VERMOT

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HEAVY WEIGHT

PÉTRIFICATIONS BOOKMARKS Pétrifications are unusual bookmarks on which to leave books, newspapers or magazines. This collection consists of five triangular geometric forms made of various kinds of stones, including marble, and designed to accommodate different formats of books or magazines. “My goal was to restore the nobility of marble, whose applications are all too often limited to tombstones, and put this beautiful stone in contemporary design.” says Krzysztof J. Lukasik, a Polish-born designer based in Lyon. Diploma project work at ECAL in Lausanne, Switzerland. www.krzysztofjlukasik.com Łukasz Potocki

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TRAVEL WITH LOUIS VUITTON

PATRICIA URQUIOLA, MAARTEN BAAS, OKI SATO, EDWARD BARBER & JAY OSGERBY, FERNANDO & HUMBERTO CAMPANA

What do all of the above accomplished designers have in common? Certainly traveling long distances, but recenty also collaboration with the iconic French brand Louis Vuitton. Each of them has designed an item for the luxury collection Objets Nomades. The series includes both furniture and a variety of travel accessories. Each of the items is made of leather and most importantly, each is foldable and transformable. For example, a hammock or a portable chair can be turned into a suitcase. This after all is their main function – in today’s world, almost all of us are nomads traveling from place to place.

The entire collection consisting of 16 items was recently presented in Miami and Paris, where Design Alive was the only Polish magazine given a special invitation. www.louisvuitton.com

Japanese porcelain

How to take on a 400-year old tradition of porcelain making and breathe into new life into it? The Dutch brand Scholten & Baijings proves it’s possible. The 1616/Arita Japan Collection (1616 is when the Arita Japan porcelain factory was established) is precisely a combination of four centuries worth of tradition and the designers’ new vision.

The collection is exceptionally colourful. Its component elements are in different shades of glaze combined with porcelain’s natural colour, the world’s most unique palegray hue. The collection comprises plates, cups, bowls, candleholders, vases and a tea set. Prices range from a few dozen euros. www.1616arita.jp Daria Linert

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FRESH TRADITION

Photo: press materials, przemek dzienis

Marcin Mońka

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POLISH CANADA

THE NEW NENUKKO COLLECTION Canada is a new Nenukko collection for Spring/Summer 2013. The face of the collection is actor Kamilla Baar whose intriguing beauty perfectly reflects the spirit of the Polish brand. Canada is by far the most experimental of Nenukko’s collections. It radically departs from its streetwear character, moving towards less obvious areas of design: the Spring-Summer collection features elements inspired by camp and references to minimalism. www.nenukko.com Daria Linert

19 taking ROME

BY STORM

NEO COUTURE COLLECTION by pavluchenko

Amidst a loud ovation and great reviews, Natasha Pavluchenko was hailed as the “Conqueror of Rome”.

With new feathers in her hat, she returns from The Eternal City where she presented a new collection of Neo Couture Autumn/Winter 2013/2014. The Belarus-born Polish designer presented her work at the prestigious AltaRomAltaModa.

And it is not easy to get there, as designers from all over the world go through a very complicated procedure just to be given the opportunity to be a part of it. On top of it all they have to face Silvia Venturini Fendi, the stern guru of fashion. As soon as Venturini Fendi saw her collection sketches, she averred that Pavluchenko may be Rome’s next big thing. The audience agreed – the runway was dominated by strong, liberated women. The designer later confessed she was inspired by the image of women warriors and knight’s armour. The colours black, white and beige reduced in favour of form, an almost palpably architectural monumentality, as well as the collection’s internal tension make NEO Couture the epitome of minimalist elegance and haute couture refinement. This effect was possible thanks to the designer’s original technique of creating her items. It consists in shaping, rather than cutting, garments out of a single piece of fabric. www.natashapavluchenko.pl Daria Linert

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DRAPE UP!

THE PATTERN CUTTING BOOK It turns out an original and unique wardrobe does not necessarily have to be difficult to amass. All it takes is to get hold of the Japanese ‘Drape drape’– a book containing 17 trendy pattern cuts – and… well, get sewing. These very minimalist patterns whose only selling points are their surprising drapes which are really simple to make, as the book provides the reader with easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions to take you through the draping process. Hisako Sato, the author of this offering, graduated from the prestigious Bunka Fashion College in Japan (Kenzo Tokada is also among its alumni) and headed a team of designers for the Muji brand. She currently creates for her own company. About 20 euro, www.laurenceking.com Eliza Ziemińska

JAPANESE LAYETTE

AERU is a BRAND CONNECTING 21ST CENTURY CRAFTSMEN WITH OLD JAPANESE CULTURE Aeru’s idea is to bring back the tradition of celebrating the coming of a newborn baby, a tradition forgotten in today’s hurried life. The AERU Layette contains a blouse, a face towel and socks, all of which are made from organic cotton. The colour is obtained by the natural fermentation of indigo tree leaves. This environmentally-friendly art of dyeing has been known in Japan for centuries and is now making a come-back courtesy of small manufacturers. The set is stored in a box, made of fireproof paulownia wood. The brand’s philosophy was honoured with the Kids Design Award 2012 in Japan.

About 200 euro, www.a-eru.jp Anna Skalska-Bogucka

FAREWELL TO PINK! The children’s clothing market is governed by a conspicuous division of colour and form. The girls' section is awash with pink hearts and flowers, frills and sequins, while the boys’ side of the divide is mainly blue, red or green with numerous prints on top of it. The Polish brand Flawless decided to buck this trend. All trousers, blouses, snoods and caps are created from gray, navy blue or brown fabrics. These simple and comfortable clothes are devoid of buttons, zippers, brocades, embroidery patches or any other additions. Seams and tags are the only decoration. Two collections have been created so far: “unisex” for kids from 1 up to 6 years and “oldies” for adults.

12–40 euro, www.flawless.pl

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Photo: press materials, monika wiąckiewicz

FLAWLESS FOR KIDS

24 French Tandem the BROTHERS BOUROULLEC

Ronan and Erwan took the design world by storm with their joint projects. As their joint road to success was quite short, they didn’t have to wait more than two decades for their own monograph. Works – the book’s modest title stands in opposition to the quantity and quality of the brothers' projects. Their hallmark is the spirit of minimalism and organic shapes, captured in each object in a distinctive, poetic way. One of their best-known designs is Vegetal, a chair created for Vitry, which has already gone down in the history of design. The spectacular career of these most influential designers of recent years, has been organized by topic and projects for leading brands and manufacturers such as Alessi, Flos or Vitra. It includes everything from a series of interior design items to limited editions. Stunning photographs personally selected by the brothers, in addition to a wealth of previously unpublished drawings from their archives, help us better understand their way of thinking. “The preparation of the book was a real drama for

me, an internal struggle. After all, we had to sum up our entire professional life, and this requires rejection, selection, endless revisions of what’s more and less important,” Ronan Bouroullec confided to Design Alive at a London meeting with readers. “Although I enjoyed creating this book, I suffered each and every time I had to make a choice.”

The monograph also features interviews with the brothers and their key co-workers, and also includes a theory part developed by Anniina Koivu, the research director at Vitra.

Another book signed by the Bouroullec tandem, Drawings was released this February, presenting their daily work. Why this title?

Because drawings are the first and the most essential tool in their work. The book includes drawings from the years 2004–2012.

The chronological order of the narrative helps trace the way of the designers’ thinking, their choices and rejection of various developmental paths, so that a given object could attain perfection.

Eliza Ziemińska

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Fruit in glass

from fabrica

The Italian Fabrica, a Benetton Group studio presented an unusual glass collection at the Design Miami festival. Its reference to fruit, evident in the name Tutti Frutti, is by no means accidental. Tutti Frutti is a collection comprising 10 glass sculptures, all of which were created as part of a limited edition and which are not only for a person’s viewing pleasure. Their creators recommend that they be complemented with fresh fruit – in this way not only do we promote the health benefits of fresh fruit, we are also able to design unusual three-dimensional compositions in bright translucent glass. Sometimes, the fruit seem to hover in almost invisible constructions, and then they look as if someone suspended them in time. On the one hand, we have colourful fruit, and the fragility of glass on the other. These items can be placed on the wall or, in another variant, on a table. The collection is made up of items including: Carmina – designed by Sam Baron, Summer Rain by Charlotte Juillard or Guglielmo! by Daniel Mesina. The new collection can be seen in Miami and New York.

For more information, visit www.fabrica.it

Photo: courtesy of fabrica

Marcin Mońka

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24 graphic design

A print designed by Kyuhyung Cho and dedicated to Design Alive. The pattern was created by writing the first paragraph of the text below using the Geometry Regular typeface

coding Text: Daria Linert

“I deal with short stories, graphic design and illustrating. I live in Stockholm and Seoul” – this is all that a young Korean man writes about himself. Met one day during an exhibition preview in Spazio Orlandi, Milan, he looks dreamlike as he modestly stands in front of a fabric with geometrical patterns. These patterns shall soon take a new meaning.

He politely asks whether he may show us his latest work. He approaches a computer, types a few letters (each of a different colour), selects them and chooses a typeface named Garden. The letters change into a fairy-tale pattern; flowers overlap and colours penetrate one another.

A casual observer would not be able to decipher the colourful picture. “I wanted to allow the text to penetrate our lives. I used these letters to write my friend’s favourite poem and printed it on a silk scarf,” says Kyuhyung Cho, who created several other typefaces. The Creatures typeface (both regular and in italics) changes

letters into a cluster of strange… creatures. “This boy’s favourite fairy tale written down using those letters decorates his blanket” – Kyuhyung points to a photograph of a little boy wrapped up in a white blanket with golden linear patterns. The fabric with geometrical patterns reveals its meaning as the designer shows another typeface: Geometry. This one changes each letter into something which looks like big pixels and each of these additionally has a geometrical pattern inside. When the text is multicoloured, in spots where characters overlap, the colours and patterns penetrate one another, creating a space of colourful patchwork, densely covered with “writing”. Cho thanks us for our time, bows and gives us his business card held in both hands…

Deep in thought for a while, we plan how many meanings we could encode just for ourselves and those for whom we have gifts and our most genuine feelings. www.kyuhyungcho.com

Depths & esc Asia Wysoczyńska’s illusory stylisation

designalive.pl

s escapism stylist: Asia Wysoczyńska, hair: Marcin Het make-up: Katarzyna Sobura, model: Mag / MangoModels

Although we’re used to artificial speed and the popular, seasonal hunt for trends, this way of understanding fashion alone would be unfair to the deeper, cultural meaning of changes we make to our appearance Text: Olga Nieścier* Photo: Daniel Jaroszek

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ascinating knowledge results from researching tendencies over a longer period of their development.

Our complicated human nature, its evolution and destruction, individualism and social relationships, build the phenomenon of fashion. Every few months, the arena of the fashion market is filled with the new offers of designers and companies.

Careful observation looks backwards and logically understands the consequences of the past and the present. An analytical and intuitive combination of facts leads to predictions based on styles, which concern wider transformations and face the future, refusing to be bound up in an artificial seasonal calendar of premieres and shows. Anxious times lead to serious and extreme searching, towards a long-lost harmony or primordial wildness, towards unknown dreams and fantasies, towards both elusive romance and the chaos of cultural absurdity.

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Photo: courtesy of Maison Martin Margiela

Woman as a revelation.

Maison Martin Margiela reducing decoration to an absolute minimum on the runway

DREAMAWAY

REVELATION

An excess of defined and often unsatisfying reality inclines us towards a poetic escape from consciousness. Entering the world of dreams means vague, distant visions, gentle softness and fluidity. Examining the border between the known and the unknown, between impression and fantasy. Breaking away and journeying into the distance, blinded by the sun and air. The colours of fading memories, the delicacy of illusions. A dream may be bright and shimmering or suspended at the edge of a nightmare precipice, but yet remains light and elusive.

Dries Van Noten has discovered a lucid multidimensionality, freedom and extraordinary lightness in his spring collection. His subtle creations have been called the aftertastes of flower power and the grunge generation; in a sophisticated modern version. The new Danish talent, Anne Sofie Madsen, composes her illustrations and outfits from her dreams. Her clothes are delicate collages of impressions, lightly sketched pleats, drapery and embroidery on ethereal figures.

The creations of Yiqing Yin, the young haute couture designer, lead us into a world of intensified fantasy. Breathtaking flowing dresses are conjured up from interwoven or ruffled layers of shaded transparent silk. They lead us into the depths of oceans and magic. Dreams are the main subject of the inspirational Revs Magazine, where photographer Daniel Jaroszek captured the stylisations of Asia Wysoczyńska like a dream. The work of American photographer Jordan Sullivan amazingly communicates the transitoriness of feelings and memory; breaking away on a distant journey.

The search for truth opens archaic paths of simplicity, breaking away from matter and corporeality. A direction aesthetically rooted in distant history, intensively explored in the 1990s and New Age philosophy, returns in a luxurious, contemplative and contemporary take on the spiritual path. It plunges into the philosophy of distant cultures in the search for harmony and revelation. The forms become harmoniously simple, and serve to shroud the body and the ceremony of life. Time and space are the highest values. Meditation leads to conceiving of the nature of life, clarity and concentration.

The Japanese concept of wabi-sabi talks about the beauty in the imperfection of nature, the beauty of transitoriness, aging, experiencing. And Japanese fashion, unlike its Western version, is interested in the space between the body and the clothes, the space of the spirit.

Yohji Yamamoto, the greatest philosopher of fashion, is searching for an aesthetic of this kind. His designs are timeless and divorced from commerciality or seasonality. His field of interest is the human soul and its darkened labyrinths, his language a severe poetry without embellishments. The current avant-garde also strives for purity. Rock ‘n’ roll and jagged Ann Demelumester sends puristic angels in a black and white arrangement of yin and yang out on the runway, with the flowing tails of long dresses – forming transparent wings.

The conceptual Maison Martin Margiela reduce decoration on their silhouettes – wrapped in unblemished, pale leather – to an absolute minimum. In both his men’s and women’s collections, Rick Owens creates long, shapeless, floorlength tunics from delicate linen the colour of burnt earth. The opposite of what is generally understood to be fashionable, his models more resemble monks or priests communing with eternity.

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Photo: Fernando Lessa, courtesy of Any Rajcevic

Ana Rajcevic’s accessories explore the ideas of mutation and evolution, crossing the human body with animal bodies: creating a more wonderful creature

32 fashion

WILDNESS In an era of untrammelled, overdeveloped technological civilisation, we can observe a move towards the search for one’s primordial nature. A direction marked out some time ago by the visionary genius of Alexander McQueen, it evokes the most intimate contact with our bestiality, with our core existence and its link to the forces of nature. It rejects all social principles, roles, positions and masks. Contemporary primitivism is a call for freedom and integrity, oneness with the earth, rooting our lost existence in a socio-economic game. It calls out to basic instincts, to survival, in which it experiences vitality and energy. What is primitively natural, imperfect, but full of power, becomes attractive. Harmony with the animal in us manifests through a desire to become it, adopting attributes, horns, beaks, wings; a combination of bodies and an exchange of souls.

Ana Rajcevic’s accessories, which decorate the body with anatomical, animal forms, cloak that way of thinking in a contemporary aesthetic dimension.

This unusual jewellery explores the ideas of mutation and evolution, crossing the human body with animal bodies: creating a more wonderful creature. Rituals, magic and mysticism are also a search for one’s roots. This tale beautifully interweaves in the designs of Riccardo Tisci, a deeply religious designer, for Givenchy, with the courage to constantly engage in discussions with spirituality in his work. In his collections, we find jewellery inspired by tribal decorations, made from intricately composed stones, too brutally weighing down the ears or making holes in the female and male models’ noses. This decoration interferes with the body and our sense of classical beauty, showing that great fashion is tired of its superficiality and wishes to touch the truth.

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NEW ICONIC ROMANCE Fashion is also looking for romance in its escapes. The desire for nonexistent perfection and an ideal looks back at history, to archetypes and heroines, and icons of romanticism. Legends are the inspiration. Past aristocracy and kingliness offer symbols, ornamentation and decoration. Perfection and strength go hand in hand with seduction and sensuality. Recollections of forgotten elegance, adornment and attention to the meaning of the outfit.

The Valentino collection, designed by worthy successors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, delights with its delicate romanticism; a hint of the belle époque and innocence. White and cream weave a spider’s web of black lace. The brilliant Tim Walker and his fairytale imagination conjure up in Love magazine enchanted heroines played by, among others, the ever-beautiful Kate Moss.

Balmain make liberal use of historical court costumes, creating simply lavish ornamentation on a delicate figure. Chanel decorate their white dresses similarly with airy jewellery flowers. Dior dresses men in bright, navy blue accompanied by exotic animals and frames them in luxurious dark interiors. The Italians are decorating clothes even more intensely and vividly this spring. Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana are totally abandoning ordinariness in favour of the lavishness and decorativeness of embroidery combined with jewellery. The Londoner Ziad Ghanen is refreshing the haute couture scene with his worryingly rich dresses. He writes about himself as “hopelessly romantic”.

Photo: courtesy of Valentino

A longing for nonexistent perfection.

The new collection of the fashion house Valentino delight with a delicate romanticism, a hint of the belle ĂŠpoque and innocence

A psychedelic sense of humour. Jeremy Scott for Adidas Originals means sport, folklore and kitsch in a smart, luxury edition

fashion 35

COLLAGE TRANSFORMATION

AN ANATOMY OF TREND Trend-watching is a creative branch of sociology, which applies the findings of research data to aesthetics and design. Today it is a growing, respected field. It’s a source of observation, analysis and conclusions which can be applied at the level of company business strategy. It also offers endless inspiration to designers. It confronts them with the work of creators from other fields, linking information from various sources in possible scenarios and directions.

Photo: courtesy of Adidas

A psychedelic, colourful sense of humour is also a source of healthy detachment.

Designers who refuse to compromise in their games with the absurd are becoming the superheroes of fashion. Their main means of expression is controlled insanity and their main technique, collage. They combine glamour with the street in the name of a never-ending experiment. Sport, folklore and kitsch in a smart, luxury edition. Loads of energy, mad colours, optical illusions, vibrations and childlike joy.

Leading this movement is Walter Van Beirendonck, whose insanity is becoming a cultural classic. This designer-artist used colour and sharp graphic design, combining fashion with art, seasoning this blend with modern ethnicity.

His surrealism and playfulness with the male form are simultaneously acute observations of human personalities.

Jeremy Scott, whose talent Adidas are making use of in colourful collaborations, uses kitsch similarly to provoke and dazzle. Manish Aurora, who exploits all of his Indian intensity and vitality in his designs, suggests a total psychedelic high-fashion trip. His last collection is incredibly poised, and in spite of the madness – utterly functional. Kenzo and Opening Ceremony’s new collection is a collage of ethnic and jungle influences with powerful elements of street art and youthfulness. In her latest collection, Mary Katrantzou shows the potential for playing with digital printing and the form of clothes, weaving light and graphically rich tales on her models.

* The author lives and works in Tuscany. She works as a consultant and designer for brands such as: Giorgio Armani, Fratelli Rossetti, Burberry and Valentino. She graduated from Łódź Academy of Fine Arts and Polimoda in Florence, where she currently works. In Poland, she is heavily involved with her work at the Viamoda Polish-Italian Institute of Design and Management, where, as programme director, she is responsible for post-graduate courses, and at the Viamoda Industrial Fashion School (featuring design, technology and fashion management)

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36 Dział

The large patio offers protection from the heat and is a perfect place for a siesta designalive.pl

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links the principles of ancient Roman villas and medieval monasteries with the shapes of modernism. The coldness of concrete with the softness of cork walls. Intimacy with space. This Portuguese villa teaches us stillness and synergy Text: ELIZA ZIEMIŃSKA Photo: laxander gempeler, adria goula sarda

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Y In spite of the open spaces, the house is full of secluded corners. Because of this, everyone will find a little solitude

ou can smell the scent of parched earth in a valley between hills lined with olive groves. The sounds of cicadas among ancient, stooped cork oaks is hypnotising. Arraiolos, a small town north of Évora, is only an hour’s drive from Lisbon. Apart from its rich history, which extends back to the Romans, and its architecture, which is a mixture of classical and Moorish influences, the region is well known for its amazingly peaceful lifestyle, varied cuisine and unspoilt nature. Two Frenchmen – François Savatier and Jean-Christophe Lalanne – fell in love with the place. The Extramuros Villa – a remarkable,

friendly residence – was built here because of their desire to share their passion with other people.

Not far from the castle hill, somewhat out on a limb, they decided to build an oasis for anybody who longs for peace, quiet and to commune with nature. They invited the Portuguese-Spanish Vora Architectura, known for their town square in Vilafranca del Penedès, to join the project.

At first sight, the villa might seem to be just another modernisminfluenced building, but in spite of appearances it is strongly rooted in the region’s architectural traditions. The layout of the house isn’t accidental. The architects have drawn on traditions of the ancient Roman villa and medieval monasteries. Owing to that inspiration,

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40 great houses

The minimalist interiors form the background to a collection of design icons and regional crafts. A chair

by American architect Eero Saarinen on an Alentejan designalive.pl carpet – why not?

Our design is material and abstract at the same time

the building was given a large courtyard with a small water basin and orange trees. Thanks to the warm climate, that space becomes a kind of outdoor room, where life carries on as it does indoors. It’s not only a passage between the various parts of the house, but also a centre around which the life of the house revolves, simultaneously ensuring the comfort of privacy in the apartments arrayed on the first floor around the courtyard.

The pristine, white shape of the building stands out against the beige, sunburnt oaks and olive trees, like a foreign object among the gentle lines of the landscape. That foreignness is illusory, however. The shape, which is strongly influenced by Le Corbusier’s architecture, only serves to emphasise the beauty of the surroundings; creating a poetic, sensitive composition.

The huge expanses of glass, linking the building’s inaccessible structure to the outside world, open it up to nature and are an invitation to enter. The ground floor and patio form a shared area for all the hotel’s guests. Guests can use the living room, kitchen and dining room, where they say that Portuguese, French and Mediterranean cuisine taste the best. Importantly, the rooms are connected to the garden by two wide terraces concealed in the building’s cloisters. The land around the villa has been preserved in its original form.

Visitors can watch wild rabbits and a wide variety of birdlife.

As far as possible, locallyavailable materials were used in the house’s construction. Concrete is the main building material; in some places left rough and in others given a smooth finish. But what makes the greatest impression is the cork lining the interior and the exterior facades. Apart from their interesting texture and natural colour, they guarantee excellent acoustic and thermal

42 great Dział houses Mutually complementing each other, the raw and cold shape of the building is warmed by the natural cork lining

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44 great houses

When we create, we limit ourselves, but simultaneously search for the essence of things

The panoramic views from the terrace give the impression of the horizon being framed in a moving image

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DZIAŁ 45

insulation. The famous Estremoz marble – known since Roman times – adds elegance to the rooms. All of the rooms have been personally furnished by the villa’s owners. The raw expanses of wall form the background to a collection of icons from the 1950s until today. Apart from iconic furniture

by Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand and Marc Newson, we can also find Konstantin Grcic’s geometric Chair One and designs by Pierre Paulin. Objects made by local artisans, such as carpets, blankets, cork bowls and ceramics give the interiors a regional, authentic feel.

The furnishings, however, are only the backdrop. The interior’s central figure is nature, which penetrates inside through the large windows.

This proportion works to the building’s advantage, giving it lightness and framing the natural landscape.

The building’s upper floor has been given over in its entirety to five, spacious, minimalistically furnished guest bedrooms. Each room has access to its own, individual terrace with panoramic views over the surrounding countryside.

Attention to the tiniest detail can also be seen in the bathrooms.

Natural sunlight shines in through skylights, Italian rain showers have been fitted in the bathrooms, and there is underfloor heating.

The architecture of the Extramuros Villa extends well beyond its material structure, melding into the landscape and drawing it into its interior. Relaxing in a place like this is a pleasure, which flows from the equilibrium preserved between the relationship of remarkable architecture and untouched, pure nature. www.villaextramuros.com

46 archicons

Japanese School

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The modernist school of the Japanese city of Yawatahama served children for many years until 2004, when a typhoon destroyed it. Rebuilt by the local community with attention to original details, it has won several awards Text: ANNA DUDZIŃSKA* photo: kitamura toru

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he fifties. The school building is erected, inspired by the achievements of modernism. Children attend it for several dozen years until a fatal typhoon hit the school and reduced it to rubble. For two years the fate of the school was uncertain.

“Finally the decision to restore was made and a consortium of architects, experts, researchers, representatives of the local community including parents of children was formed. The reconstruction plan was a collective undertaking,” explains Weronika Rochacka, a historian of art and specialist in design management. Now the Hizuchi Elementary School of Yawatahama is teeming with life again.

One immediately gets the impression that the building fits the surroundings in a measured and harmonious fashion. “It’s a simple, geometric, wooden structure with a terrace suspended over the water, surrounded by hills and greenery,” says Rochacka.

This description would perfectly sum up the beautiful temples of Japan but it turns out that it may also refer to a building with an entirely different purpose.

Without a doubt, credit for this goes to the architecture inspired

by Frank Lloyd Wright. The famous creator, however, never designed for or indeed even went to Yawatahama. The man behind the school project was Masatsune Matsumura ( 1913-1993 ), a littleknown local architect. “His name later gained recognition when the architectural gems of Japanese modernism were rediscovered,” says Rochacka. The school was built between 1956 and 1958. It served the youngest residents of the city for several decades, until the 2004 typhoon struck the village and destroyed the building.

The building in its original

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Weronika Rochacka for several years she worked for the British Design Council in London, being part of projects related to education and dissemination of knowledge about design among British companies, centres of science and technology, as well as public sector organizations.

form didn’t meet modern safety standards concerning seismic hazards. The new team of experts addressed these concerns in order to find solutions. The school was renovated between the years 2006 and 2009. Many of the original elements that survived the cataclysm were reused in the process. The original colours returned and the windows and corridors were fitted with safety glass. A new wing was also added to the building in keeping with the original plan.

That’s how the Hizuchi Elementary School became the first wooden modernist construction restored in Japan. Today the school abounds with new life.

The children can run around, learn, have fun and relax there.

Its form is not only appreciated by the kids but also by experts and lovers of good architecture from all around the world. Last

year, the school was awarded by the World Monuments Fund.

What is remarkable about the building is not only its architectural shape, but the use of natural light. A long corridor and large glass windows in facing classrooms light up the interior. This unusual implementation of light is striking right from the start when you consider Matsumura’s original plans. Bear in mind that post-war Japan rationed electricity. Not surprisingly, the rational architect thought of the most efficient use of sunlight. Although electricity is now widely available, Japanese tradition calls for respect for the original idea.

“Ideally, such an approach should be advocated in Poland. Rather than demolish monuments of modernist architecture, we should salvage them and use them for new purposes,” Rochacka adds.

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Lisbon’s Fado

During the day, the soothing cool of tiered gardens; in the evening, the pleasant warmth of a sun-heated terrace and the scent of port in the nostrils Text: ANGELIKA OGROCKA Photo: Fernando i Sergio Guerra

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The 100 DZIAŠ51square metres of the façade has been landscaped with 4,500 plants. Each floor is graced by a different fragrance composed out of the gamut of 25 Iberian-Mediterranean species

52 architecture The building has a narrow vertical layout typical of Lisbon. On the roof, some room was found for a token pool, a welcome retreat on scorching days

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ome head for Vasco da Gama’s homeland to discover the secrets of fado and savour port wine. Others seek an adrenaline rush on the towering waves of the Atlantic. The action of all the 365 days of this year will be here, for it was named the best holiday destination of 2013. Portugal. With its westernmost capital of Europe, Lisbon, it is a cultural volcano, and a place of dialogue with nature.

The Fountain – this is the original Arabic name of Lisbon’s oldest district of Alfama, given to it by the Moors.

Apart from sections of Santa Maria de Belém, it was the only part of the city that survived a series of natural disasters and retained its original architectural beauty. The steep rocks that once shielded Alfama from the elements are nowadays designalive.pl

an ideal place for residence. The narrow alleys which offer shelter from the sun’s heat and stairs stretching along steep streets are dreamy postcard images of the district and the city at large.

This picturesque spot was discovered by the group Building with Art, which chooses valuable properties in Portugal in order to restore them in singular ways.

The challenge of revitilizing a building at Travessa do Patrocínio 5 has been taken up by three Portuguese architects Luís Rebelo de Andrade, Tiago Rebelo de Andrade, and Manuel Cachão Tojal, who invested the three-storey structure with cultural traditions and the verticalism typical of Moorish buildings. Constrained by limited spaces, they designed a vertical garden taking up as much as 40 per cent of the façade. Thus, they adjusted their building concept to meet one of the postulates of ecological cities, consonant with the idea that it is time we treated nature as a lifelong partner.

The vegetation featured in the façade is made up of 4,500 plants representing 25 Iberian-Mediterranean species.

This 100-square-metre carpet gives off a different aroma on each floor. The profusion of plants used may give one pause about maintaining such a thicket, but it actually requires little watering.

The integration between the floors is a tribute to the district itself. A single flight of stairs runs from the ground floor up to the very roof, intersecting the subsequent levels very much as it is on the streets of Alfama. The ground floor houses service areas, the living quarters are located on the first floor, while the second includes a social area along with a kitchen and a dining room. The roof serves as a terrace with an unusual, narrow pool, more suitable for the crawl than the butterfly, but certainly ideal for sipping port and drifting to the sounds of fado. bwa.com.pt

Alluding the steep DZIAﾅ》o 53 streets and thousands of steps of Alfama, a long flight of stairs leads from the ground floor all the way up to the roof, through all the levels of the building

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54 Dział

interior architecture In searching for inspiration and a new relationship between a social performance and a look inside yourself, visit the Canadian island of Fogo Text: MARCIN MOŃKA Photo: Bent René Synnevåg designalive.pl

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designalive.pl Tower Studio

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collection of small studios for creative residences have been built on a small island near Newfoundland. The minimalist architecture designed by Todd Saunders allows screenwriters, architects, designers, dancers, artists and poets to find themselves in the “architecture” of their own interior and draw from it in the process of creation.

An appetite for emigration

The great Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki made something of a retreat out of the village of Lutosławice, where he indulges one of his greatest passions: dendrology, planting hundreds of species of trees in the park. His works, which are later performed on all the continents, are written in such an environment. The prose writer and screenwriter Wojciech Kuczok cherishes mountains and caves, where he finds calm. Many other similar examples can be found. The need to cut oneself off from the daily grind, to slow down and look deep inside is not only felt by artists. We aren’t just converting to “slow food”, but generally trying to slow things down. In order to slow down, it’s occasionally necessary to switch off the world and its tsunami of stimuli. For that reason, in order to work in silence and concentration, we head off to some sort of mythical Arcady, or at least to a retreat which will guarantee us peace and quiet, at least for some time.

Jacek Santorski, business psychologist: “We have to recover the equilibrium between extraversion and introversion. Let’s look for a new balance between the element of social spectacle, the external narrative, which naturally has to shine and be superficial, with the element of stopping and looking inside. We are in that fantastic moment, when we are becoming conscious, knowing that we have to restore equilibrium. Right now, companies highly value employees who are capable of functioning efficiently both on the outside and inside themselves.

They are people who are extremely soughtafter in the post-consumer market reality, who can think strategically, are able to listen and synthesise. Creative, but also with the ability to work in teams.”

A Canadian patent

Long Studio

What’s the best place to look at ourselves and the problems we’re facing? From a mountain hut high in the mountains or a studio on the top floor of a New York apartment block? Is an escape from civilisation and submersion in total isolation really necessary? Or perhaps there’s some kind of middle ground.

It looks like the Canadians have come up with it. Everything began with Zita Cobb. This businesswoman, born on the small island of Fogo, 15 kilometres from the north-eastern coast of Newfoundland, wanted to breathe new life – in an original way – into her little homeland, with

its population of around three thousand.

She realised perfectly that making a living from traditional trades – really fishery – would become increasingly difficult. She decided that the key to rejuvenating the island would be artists of various kinds. After beginning collaboration with Change Islands, founding the Shorefast Foundation, inviting investors (including the Canadian government) on board, and investing over 20 million dollars, a remarkable place: Fogo Island Arts Corporation – a collection of studios for artistic residences – was built.

An artists’ colony

Today, Fogo Island Arts Corporation is a genuine residence programme, lasting from three to six months. On Fogo, the residents know what kind of power resides in the fusion of work in solitude with the opportunity to share knowledge and experience with others. Its participants can hole up in one of six free-standing studios, focussing on their own projects but simultaneously remaining in real – not electronic – contact with people, which is offered to them by the conference hotel (under construction). Some of the first participants in a residency were a group comprising architects, artists and designers from Norway, Lithuania and Germany, who gave themselves the task of creating medical clothing for the needs of the local health centre. The artists described not only their work on a blog which was compiled during the residency, but also many other activities.

For example, a music playlist which best corresponded to their mood on a given day.

A theatre festival of Ibsen’s plays by students of the Canadian National Arts Center was also organised on the island.

Ondine Cohane, a journalist for the New York Times called the place an enclave of culture. It was enough for NYT to write about the island for Zita Cobb’s telephone to be ringing off the hook. Regular tourists also began to visit the island. People are attracted to Fogo’s landscape and its modern architecture. How could it be any different, since the well-known architect Todd Saunders – who lives and works in Norway, but grew up in Newfoundland – became involved?

Architectural gems

Todd Saunders’s architect’s office wanted to interfere as little as possible in the island’s landscape and the human settlements already there. It was planned to build a hotel with twenty-nine rooms and six autonomous studios along the coast. Local raw materials, and the expertise and labour of local specialists were used. Many elements were constructed in local workshops. Each building is self-sufficient, with its own compost toilet and power source.

The studios are not for year-round use; the season begins in the spring and lasts until the autumn. The structures are very geometric: on one side they contrast with the surrounding scenery and on the other designalive.pl

Bridge Studio

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Tower Studio

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1. Fogo Island Inn 2. Long Studio 3. Squish Studio 4. Short Studio 5. Bridge Studio 6. Fodo Studio 7. Tower Studio

Fogo Island 25 km long and 14 km wide. Total area 237.71 km2. It is inhabited by 2,706 people (2006 census). The first permanent settlement took place in the 18th century, although migratory fishermen visited it in the early sixteenth century. The island’s residents are mainly descendants of the first permanent settlers from England and Ireland

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they convey its drama. Their shapes express the changeability of nature in the different seasons, but they also make one aware of the changes which have taken place in lifestyle on the island. The buildings face the sea, and are characterised by considerable lightness; thanks to which the artists can enjoy the sense of freedom so necessary for their work.

The first to be built was the Long Studio, which covers an area of 130 m2. The invited artists reside in the living space, while there are spaces for workshops, seminars, conferences, meetings and parties in the shared area. The large windows and skylights provide plenty of natural light. The building is supported on stilts on the seaward side, and “touches” the concrete foundations on the landward side.

A network of introverts join forces

The new plans for Fogo Island is not only architecture, but also a whole raft of events and projects: exhibitions, theatre, film, workshops, renovating old buildings and many other activities which integrate people. “Our projects are based on culture, unlike standard thinking about tourism.

Rather than lightning visits and quick relationships, we offer the chance to slow down and focus on the task for a longer period,” says Saunders. In the same way, he’s breaking away from “fast-tourism”, and offering something exciting instead.

“When I think back, I can recall my grandmother and mom making quilts throughout the entire winter, using various techniques.

We still have the quilts. My daughters use them,” he adds. This lengthy connection is important for the islanders. After the residencies, material traces remain, if only the old buildings renovated with the help of the guests. And anyway, every guest can leave the island not only with memories but also with their own work.

The residents are also seeing Fogo with fresh eyes. Zita Cobb wouldn’t be herself if – during an interview – she didn’t refer to literature and one of her favourite writers. “An artist can look in a new way at old things,” she declared. And quoted Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. “For everything to remain as it is, it will be necessary for everything to change.” www.shorefast.org, www.artscorpfogoisland.ca

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Like Odysseus My father often used to tell me all we need to survive is a ceramic bowl to scoop up water from a stream.

Because each of us has our own school of minimalism.

And it’s been like that for thousands of years Text: MARCIN MOŃKA with Eliza Ziemińska

65 When Odysseus set off to wage war against Troy, he promised his wife Penelope he would return as soon as he could. He kept his promise – but it was ten years later. That’s how long the journey back from Ithaca took him. But it wasn’t only a journey in the geographical sense. He needed those ten years to return to himself, to his “real me”. The knowledge he acquired is difficult to overestimate, and today he’s a genuine superhero, not least for those of us whose deepest desire is to economise. Because a wonderful lesson can be drawn from the Odyssey. Homer demonstrated that human beings are animals who are able to “deny themselves”, and that’s what makes us human beings. Not all of Odysseus’s companions were able to suppress their instincts, desires and longings; and they came to a sorry end. It seems as though more and more people today are setting off on a journey to find their “real me”. All we have to do is look at popular blogs where authors write about their struggles with cravings, and with the mountains of objects they ought to throw out to be happy and fulfilled. For many people, limiting the number of objects needed to function is the point of departure, and the inspiration is Dave Bruno’s “100 Thing Challenge”, which he describes in the book of the same name. But this project can cause problems. And results in questions about the way things should be counted. For example, should every book be counted individually, or should an entire bookcase be considered as one object? Should all our favourite kitchen utensils and cosmetics be included on the list of essential items? There are also provocative comments of the type: “Why does it have to be 100 – and not 108?”

Moderation, please

Of course, is easy to find answers to those questions and also valuable hints. But one minimalist guru, Leo Babauta, stresses that the number 100 is not the goal in itself. And Dominique Loreau describes a situation in The Art of Simplicity where a certain individual complained to Gandhi that he couldn’t part with his books. Ghandi advised him not to do it if he felt they gave him support and comfort. “Ghandi said we ought not to part with things if we are doing it with regret, but also emphasised that it’s easy to free oneself from cares connected with owning material possessions: it’s enough to get rid of them,” says Dominique Loreau perversely. She herself persuades us to take the trouble to limit our state of possession. An excess of objects only causes problems.

It’s better to organise the space around us, with fewer things; because we waste less time looking for them or tidying them.

Feng shui, the ancient Chinese art of caring for our surroundings, persuades people to seek harmony and set limits, in order not to block energy. “Getting rid of unnecessary burdens allows us to increase the energy we have inside us. Becoming detached from material possessions, stopping clinging on to them gives us energy and vitality. It’s the one thing we really have,” convinces Loreau.

One can also seek inspiration in Japanese traditions, where we achieve the state of “kei” (harmony, purity, equilibrium) on the way of aesthetics. Let’s take a tea house: the space for drinking tea (chashitsu) is divided into areas with sliding doors, there is no furniture with specific purposes, nothing has a permanent place, and one can freely organise the space. Aesthetics of this kind help us to achieve spiritual equilibrium.

The era of fixers is approaching

And if it’s still difficult for us to part with many of our possessions which seem to be simply essential for living, perhaps we’ll be inspired by the words of Tim Jackson: “We buy things we don't need with money we haven't got to make impressions that don't last on people we don't care about.” They could be called words of wisdom for a time of recession! But incidentally, the recession has turned out to be a very effective method of returning to minimalism. One recipe for hard times is suggested by fixperts – or designers who fix things. Daniel Charny, independent curator, and the man behind the extremely popular exhibition Power of Making at London’s V&A, is convinced it’s a powerful force. “People get pleasure from making simple things. By fixing something,

they get involved, and become more confident,” he suggests. And above all, the fixpert – in spite of suspicions about having too close an emotional relationship with the object (they fix, because they don’t want to get rid of it) – doesn’t run to the shop to get a new one. The one they have is enough. Particularly, since fixing also involves giving a unique, individual character even to massproduced objects. The key is to become a fixpert, not because of the recession, but because you’re convinced it’s worth limiting yourself. “It annoyed me when I had to keep getting new things, because the ones I had kept breaking down,” admits Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh, the inventor of Sugru, a flexible clay that air dries into tough silicon rubber, which can be used to fix not only a laptop charger but also... a car’s wheel arch.

Life packed into a backpack

This is not just about a kind of asceticism and purging oneself, as some people want. As early as the 1970s, Erich Fromm, the guru of several generations of minimalists, observed in his cult book To Have Or To Be: “Today, consumption is emphasized, not preservation, and buying has become ‘throw away’ buying.” People for whom minimalism is a necessity cope pretty well. People living in small flats paradoxically feel much freer in them than owners of sprawling residences. They buy fewer things, so as not to store them. And not to throw them out.

It’s unnecessary to search for philosophies, theories or advice.

The principle “the less, the better” applies always and everywhere.

We live in times when frequent changes of residence (for example; uprooting to search for work) are becoming unavoidable. We recall the advice given by the George Clooney character in the film Up in the Air. He instructs people to “pack” their backpack with their entire lives, from utterly tiny objects, through TV sets and sofas to a car and a house. “Is it getting heavy? But life is all about movement,” he tries to persuade. The principle “the less, the better” can be applied at every step. We buy less food, we eat less; we’re healthier, and we waste less. We use less water and electricity; we have lower bills and we care for the environment.

We leave our car at home and take the bike or we walk. A bit of exercise won’t hurt us. Or perhaps we should also apply the principle of limiting ourselves at work and stop working so hard?

Perhaps we should get used to sending fewer emails, not posting every little trifle on social networking sites, and spending more time in the real world – and not the virtual one.

Not swans but sharks

The cinematic allegory of the backpack has a sequel. After things, the time comes for people. Clooney’s character, Ryan Bingham, encourages people to put everybody: people they’ve met by chance, co-workers, right up to our close friends and family – into their backpack. And maintains that our relationships are our heaviest load. We aren’t swans, created for a life in monogamous relationships. “We are not swans. We’re sharks,” is how he finishes. There’s no Hollywood-style “and they all lived happily ever after” ending to this film. If we go too far with limiting ourselves and begin to get rid of people too (although it’s always worth doing that with the noisy ones and the complainers!), will we be happier? Would Odysseus have returned to Ithaca if not for the knowledge that Penelope was waiting for him? As you think about an answer, throw out all your minimalist advice manuals, delete all your links and turn off your computers. Do other people really know better how we ought to live? How about a walk?

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THE COLLECTOR Monika Unger the first years of her life in Warsaw, a culturally and politically demanding city at that time. A forced escape from her home country led her through Belgium and the USA to Italy. How was one of the most interesting modernist collections in Europe created?

What was her father Leopold like? In what language does she think? – Monika answers all these questions in her Milan apartment in a conversation with Ewa Trzcionka

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Monika Unger’s apartment is like a continuously changing landscape of contemporary and modern curiosities.

Foreground: a Cappellini sofa designed by Jasper Morrison, Italy; a rosewood table, unknown designer, Brazil, 1960s; yellow armchairs, unknown designer, Italy, 1950s; a green armchair, unknown designer, Denmark, 1950s; a Costanza, Luceplan lamp to the right, designed by Paolo Rizzato, Italy, 1986; a Fontana Arte lamp to the left, unknown designer, Italy, 1954. Background: a Cappellini table designed by G. Fronzioni, Italy, 1964; Hans Wegner chairs, Denmark, 1950s; a Cappellini lamp designed by Marcel Wanders, Italy, 1998

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The objects in my collection must have their own history: I need to know where they come from

I

do not know what language I think in. I went from Poland to Belgium with my whole family when I was 12. In essence, I am Belgian. That was the time when the Jews were leaving for Israel, but we landed in Brussels, where my mother’s family lived. We did not have passports, so the return to our home country was impossible. We all learned life anew. My father (editor’s note: Leopold Unger) was a journalist, so he had to start writing in French. That was not easy because he was 45 at the moment of leaving Poland. He was a tough and determined person, so he took up that language, but, like the majority of Poles from that emigration wave, he spoke French with a horrible accent. Actually he had a peculiar accent while speaking any language, be it Spanish or English. Still, he started writing; they helped him with translations at the beginning, but then he began to flourish incredibly. Nonetheless, he could not go to Poland for 20 years. He wrote for Kultura [Culture] in Paris and signed his texts as a citizen of Brussels.

And yet your journey did not end in Belgium.

In 1980, I went to USA for two years and I returned to Italy, not Belgium. After many years, when things changed in Poland, so that father could come back to Poland and write for Gazeta Wyborcza, designalive.pl

I was already a permanent resident in Italy. I went to Poland in the 1990s with my father, when he published his first book there: its title was Intruz [The Intruder].

That was my first visit to my home country after my departure, so I found it hard to speak Polish then. While my father could read Polish, I could not. My French was fluent and I finished school in that language. Then there was the USA, and it turns out that the language which should be the most important one – Polish – is not the language I speak best.

I also have an older brother, who lives in Hong Kong. It seems we got scattered all over the world…

How would you explain your strong interest in the design of the modernist period?

My love for all that, for modernism, for modernity, originated in Poland. In our house in Warsaw there was furniture by Ład (a cooperative designing and producing furniture in communist Poland); actually, almost everyone had them. We did not know classical furniture at all: we had no grandparents or houses for us to inherit anything. We did not have a so called inheritance, either, so it was normal for me that we had small, simple pieces of furniture made of pale wood, with a bit of folk spirit. The objects by “Ład” were precisely like that. When I came to Belgium, I realized that people had no modern furniture

there: they had furniture from specific periods, in Louis XV or Louis XVI style. Those flats were full of history, then; some objects could be as much as 150 years old. I experienced some sort of culture shock because I realized that not everyone had new furniture. Since we left Poland with our own furniture, the flat in Brussels still looks like the one in Warsaw in Koszykowa Street.

While creating your collections, did you introduce geographical limitations on purpose?

I was interested in the common denominator for that “home style” of ours. In the 1980s I started searching for similarity in thinking of the future, for creators looking at things the way I looked at them.

I became interested in Scandinavia and began to buy furniture from there; quite a large collection was created as a result. Then I started examining Italian furniture more carefully, though I liked it less and it was always expensive. I was also in touch with an acquaintance who was a collector and showed me Brazilian modernist furniture. I grew very interested in that, too. A funny thing is that Jorge Zalszupin, a very important Brazilian designer, was in Romania during WWII, just like my father and they knew each other. What is more, my father had some affair with Zalszupin’s sister. Father was never interested in visual arts – painting, graphics

A collection of porcelain vases; from the left: a Fischietto collection piece (it forms a set with the rightmost vase in the picture), Habitat, designed

by Ettore Sotssas, Italy, 1969; Habitat, unknown designer, France, 1980; a M–18 Royal Tichelaar Makkum model designed

by Hella Jongerius, Holland, 2007; Yantra Y–31, Bitossi, Ettore Sotssas, Italy, 1969; Yantra Y–15, Bitossi, Ettore Sotssas, Italy, 1969; Cappellini, unknown designer, 1980, Italy; Yantra Y–28, Bitossi, Ettore Sotssas, Italy, 1969

70 people A Brazilian lunch suite designed by Joaquim Tenreiro. To the left, a side-board made of tropical jacaranda wood and plywood

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“Dear Ewa, we have just added some very interesting and original objects by Zalszupin. We paid a lot of money for them in Brazil and had them renovated in Italy. See for yourself – I enclose photographs for you. Regards, Monika”

or architecture. He was involved in music and literature. One day I showed him a list of designers which I had created for the purpose of an exhibition and he exclaimed, “I know Zalszupin! But he is Jerzy [Polish for George], not Jorge!”. Father was still in touch with his sister, but I have not managed to contact Jerzy’s daughter, who now takes care of his collection. I must say that Zalszupin has become very fashionable and respected; sadly, I do not own anything designed by him.

I guess that there are more European-Brazilian stories like that.

The connections of Europeans with Brazil after WWII were very intense. Many Poles, Germans and Italians left in search of asylum; numerous great creators landed and worked there. That is why the influence of European culture in the Americas was so strong.

Those “tropical modernism” works are very popular e.g. in the USA; shops with those objects open every now and then, for instance in New York. It does not concern design only because Brazil is full of culture: they have excellent painters and sculptors, too.

Tell us something about your collection.

My Brazilian collection includes about 60 objects: by Joaquim Tenreiro, Sergio Rodrigues or Giuseppe Scapinelli. One can compare this with Art Twenty Century, a New York gallery which

has the largest collection of Brazilian design: they have gathered 500 objects. However, their prices are absurdly high. My Scandinavian collection consists of nearly 200 showpieces, including those

by Hans J. Wagner, Arne Vodder, Grete Jalk, Verner Panton or Finn Juhl. Scandinavian vintage objects are what I mainly sell; these are often cheaper than new furniture by, say, Minotti. Italian vintage furniture is expensive because it is rare: few people bought modern objects in the 1950s and 1960s. Still, I have quite a few of these showpieces.

How do you obtain your showpieces?

The market is quite large, though it is harder to get Brazilian objects because they are less known and more expensive. Brazilians did not have a furniture industry: they had pre-industrial plants. That is why these objects are relatively few and hard to buy. I was wondering whether I should sell my Brazilian collection, but I am still hesitating because it includes rare pieces. When I sell Danish objects, I know I will be able to buy them again somewhere, even the next day. It would not be that easy with the Brazilian ones.

Where can we see your collections?

I have a showroom just next to this place. It houses Scandinavian objects. “Be Modern” does not have a gallery: we organize exhibitions where we show, for instance,

designs coming from Brazil. I work a lot via the Internet – it has a global market for everything.

To you, what does it mean to “be modern”?

It is a form of a mixture of things, a lifestyle. I do not like excessive extravagance. I reckon that objects should be pretty and functional, so I agree with the whole modernist philosophy, especially with the Scandinavian one.

While Brazilians made modernist objects for the rich, in Scandinavia one can feel that democratic sense of design. The objects are small, but comfortable, industrial and well-designed. They also think of what a given object may “do” with other objects, how they can coexist and complement one another, and that is visible, too.

I guess it is not just a job for you…

Objects in my collection must have their own history: I need to know where they come from.

This is how various anecdotes are born, like the one about Zalszupin or Sergio Rodrigues, whom I met and visited in Rio de Janeiro. I have also been to Finn Juhl’s marvellous home in Copenhagen. He used to live there and today it is a museum. I am interested in people who do it all with passion and with society in mind. Maybe the reason for this is that I was brought up in a communist country and something of communism has remained within me. www.bemodern.net

Sofa Presidencial, L’Atelier, designed by Jorge Zalszupin, Brazil, 1960

Monika Unger Interior designer, architect and collector of modernist design objects. She moved to Brussels with her family in 1968, where she graduated in architecture in La Cambre post-Bauhaus school established by Henry van De Velde. She also graduated from the Environmental Design Department of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in the USA. Moving to Italy was another big experience for her: an architecture intership with Giancarlo De Carlo and then working for Olivetti in the corporate image department in Milan where she lives.

In 1994 she established the Creative Communications. She is also a co-founder of Creative Project foundation, which promotes Polish design abroad. She is building the Modern project with Cinzia Ferrara: they are creating a unique collection of 20th-century design, especially Scandinavian and Brazilian design. She organizes and arranges exhibitions, furnishes interiors, conducts research and works as an advisor. www.monikaunger.it

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paired AUTONOMY Kiki van Eijk and Joost van Bleiswijk. She was born in 1978 – two years after him. They are both graduates of the Design Academy in Eindhoven and are leading Dutch designers. They run a studio and a gallery together, but each of them maintains their own independence in design. Is it easy to be together 24/7? Craft paired with design – is it good business? – by Ewa Trzcionka

A

portraits: lisa klappe

pleasant hubbub fills the usual day of unusual people. Dusk light seeps through big factory windows of the postindustrial architecture, lighting Kiki’s fairy-tale objects and the fruits of Joost’s fascination with technology. Separately and together – no dominance, no pushiness. Family and friends surround them as we meet in their studio. A thread of understanding is evident as they finish each other’s sentences: just a glance is enough. They are independent in creation, occasionally making objects together, yet in their daily life they form the most exciting couple in contemporary design.

Do you know that you have quite a large circle of fans in Central Europe? How would you explain our passion for Dutch design? What is it that attracts us to you and does not let go?

Joost: The Dutch do not wait for anyone to do our job. Production, promotion – we take it all into our own hands. When we

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begin, we are a bit of artists, but then we take care of production and sales ourselves, so we can afford to do uncompromising stuff.

Kiki: I do not know Poland well because I have never been there, but I can imagine that, like us, you are used to doing everything yourselves for many reasons – your history, for example. We have that in common. And the school, of course! Li Edelkoort’s school was established in your country (editor’s note: Lidewij Edelkoort, a highly regarded Dutch trend observer, is a mentor for the School of Form – a higher school of design in Poznań). Lidewij has told us that there is a lot of interesting craft in Poland. That could create a strong bond between us; it would be marvellous to start working with Polish craftsmen.

It is true that in Poland we learn craft from its masters, not from books, but one can feel this is the last moment to act. And how did you master your craft skills?

Your studio is full of pliers, tools, wire and vices – it looks more like a workshop than a design studio.

Kiki: During our degree courses we did not learn much of the craftsman’s trade, but we were taught that one needed to know how to search for one’s own way while making something. The school had machines and we knew how to operate them, but we were allowed to experiment.

Moreover, we learned a lot due to cooperation with companies – it helped us to find our own way.

As designers, do you feel that learning a trade is important? That requires effort; it is not easy to create something on one’s own.

Kiki: Our work is all about ceaseless tests, workshops and cooperation with manufacturers. We try artistic metalwork, carpentry and ceramics. We learn a great deal about the process this way. Having such knowledge, one can think about a different material and try to “translate” it into one technology or another. Your steps become more confident.

Joost: Speaking of craft techniques that we use in our manufacturing methods, we sometimes think of the standard ones, known

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„ In these days of fast changes, it is important to create everyday articles with love. In my work I value autonomy – the freedom of being myself without getting distracted by a client’s wishes, as well as the freedom to decide about my own time. This way, while creating a new series of products, I can obtain the best original effect and the highest quality possible. I have chosen the path of sustained development: not only do I work with durable materials, but I also create products with an eternal, timeless image.

Kiki van Eijk

(Floating Frames Clock) (One More Time Clock) na stole Heavy Metal (Joosta van Bleiswijka)

Floating Frames Clock

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„ When creating new techniques I use construction methods which function like dogmas in my design. The form follows the structure! The objects receive a classic and iconic look because I draw inspiration from the past, embracing hundreds of years of a product’s design, which is when archetypes emerged and conclusions about shapes such as “desk”, “clock”, “hourglass” or “chessboard” were reached.

When the only trend is the lack of trends, people do not buy things urged by fashion. They buy those things because they simply fell in love with them! That is when objects become timeless.

As a designer I know this is not something to strive after. It just happens.

Joost van Bleiswijk

One More Time Clock

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for centuries. Some other time, however, we develop entirely new manufacturing methods.

Which object shows your own techniques?

Joost: These are best visible in Kiki’s design which she has called “Floating frames”. She took some wire, bent it into an outline of an object and then wrapped this “sketch” with coils of the same material. Nobody had done anything like that before her, so it was an entirely new discovery for that material. The beginning was not easy, though. The first versions did not satisfy us, so we did many tests.

We started using matrices, forms and whole systems. We perfected the manufacturing process, thus creating a totally new technique.

Speaking for myself, I invented a new method of decorating in the “Scratch” collection: I covered the furniture surface with white paint, then I put blue paint on and finally I scraped off the latter one, thus scratching a pattern. I had not seen anyone do that before.

You can be called craftsmen of the new era: you are designers and entrepreneurs at the same time. The conviction that craft is not profitable is still widespread. Is combining these several skills a good model of business?

Joost: Yes, it is a great, economically sensible symbiosis, but such is the future of production and the whole economy. In recent years, we have noticed that the transport of goods is becoming more and more costly, both financially and environmentally. That is why local manufacturing, as well as manufacturing of more durable and sustainable goods, will soon be very important. Sustainability here means not only appropriate designalive.pl

materials or similar factors, but also emotionally sustainable goods.

We are beginning to create products which are more sincere and sentimental, so that people love them longer. Of course, mass production will not disappear altogether, but a large portion of manufacturing will be taken over by local craftsmen-manufacturers, who will make personalized products specially for their clients.

Kiki: At the same time, one more aspect of workshop activity can be developed, so to say. This sofa and these textiles, made for Bernhardt, are an example. Patterns of the fabrics were created here, in the workshop. They are a record, a sort of processed photograph of scattered wood pieces, sawdust and paintbrushes. All experiments and tests of sofa prototypes were also done here, manually, blandly, like craftsmen do.

It was here, too, that we conducted the process of design, research and development. Still, the final product was “translated” into the industrial language and is presently manufactured in North Carolina.

For you, such a method of manufacturing is intuitive and obvious, but will the majority reflect on this the same way?

Joost: I feel we lost focus some 100 years ago. We lost the path.

We forgot that it used to work perfectly in the past: someone round the corner – a blacksmith, a shoemaker, a potter – could make for us precisely what we needed in a given place, time and situation. We received tables, shoes and pots and needed no big brand to be sure that they were good products. The craftsman himself and his reputation were the brand itself.

Kiki: And this is just how it

works here with us, today! People who buy our products directly in our studio are more involved and interested in the very event of purchase and in us. They are glad to see the place where the product is made, the workshop, and us, the creators. I think this is becoming widespread, hence the falling popularity of galleries which only act as sales agents. Personally I am curious about the future of art galleries and design...

You work together on a daily basis, but you are also a couple in your private life, aren’t you?

Joost: Yes, we are and we sometimes work together, but usually on our own.

Kiki: We try to do our best!

Life together 24/7 – is that easy?

Kiki: Working simultaneously in the same place makes many things easier. First of all, we can discuss solutions as we search for them.

Joost: Luckily, such a way of life seems rather logical to us. At least to me (laughs). Even in our mutual designs one can clearly see which of us did what. For instance, in our mutual design for Laikingland (editor’s note: Light a moment), the “soft” and ceramic base is Kiki’s, while the geometrical frame with mirrors has my name all over it. So there you have them: two different looks in one object. And take these two clocks: both of a similar type, mode of operation, colour and size, both made of anodized aluminium, and yet entirely different… Though the initial archetype was the same, the results are totally different. And this is what we call being honest to oneself. We do not cooperate – we only work close to each other. Each of us has autonomy. www.kikiworld.nl, www.joostvanbleiswijk.com

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What a beautiful catastrophe This Dutch eccentric is capable of putting on a clown’s nose, hound’s tooth patent leather shoes and a shirt unbuttoned to halfway down his chest, allowing him to put joy and fun more effectively into the often po-faced world of design. A smart, level-headed postmodernist removes his clown’s mask interviewed by Ewa TrzcionkA Photo: Erwin Olaf

Marcel Wanders Dutch product and interior designer. He designs for such leading brands as: Alessi, Puma, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, MAC Cosmetics, Cappellini, B&B Italia and Moroso. Apart from running his own design studio, he’s the co-owner and artistic director of the Moooi brand (2001). His projects can be found in the important MoMA collection in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the V&A Museum in London

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is designs are on the cusp of kitsch, tradition and jokes, and nothing gives any hint about how clever what Wanders does is. But actually he’s a very responsible thinker with a clear mission. A long time before the interview, I asked Gosia Mozolewska what it was like to work for Wanders. Particularly since many people treat him – to put it mildly – with a dose of scepticism. “He has a clear, intelligent vision of what he does and what is important,” said Gosia. “I admire him. I like him a lot as a designer, but also as a person. He really is a bighearted guy. It’s great that you’re writing about him. He can inspire people!

We meet at Portobello Docks in London, near his showroom. Before I’ve even asked him a question, he puts down his telephone and begins to start talking animatedly: “We live in a postmodern time. But ninety percent of designers don’t know which it means and are still stuck in modernist thinking.”

And what does postmodernism mean to you?

If we want to create a more sustainable world, we have to stop creating a world where we look for the “new” every day.

Modernism is rational and rule-bound.

It seems to us that technology and innovation are the solution to all the world’s problems. For me, it’s a direct route to a catastrophe. Modernist ideas assume we are making something for the future, not looking back at the past. In this way, we create objects like orphans – children without parents. If we bring them to life tomorrow, they won’t be new the day

after. And we’ll be needing something new once again. Which means that the things we create – and even worse, our psychology – are totally at odds with sustainable development, at a time when it’s the one thing we ought to be doing.

Sustainable development and recycling are not immediately associated with your name and designs.

I’ll begin at the beginning. The world today is egocentric and negative. That’s a mistake. We keep creating modernist ideas. We try to make new – always new – things. We say: “OK. Now we’ll change the material, and now we’ll change the technology and now the output.”

But that isn’t important, that isn’t the essence of the problem we have to face in today’s world. The really important thing is to begin to think sustainably and not to manufacture sustainably. We have to change psychologically. For the last fifteen years, I’ve personally been trying to get into the market’s head that design can be between the past and the future. It may be between my mother and my daughter and may function for both of them. I don’t need design which struts around saying: “Look at me – I’m new; I was made today!” No. Let it be something we already know from our surroundings, something that already functions in our consciousness, maybe a little bit unclear when it’s made.

It can last forever like that. So engineers who make all that technical gear and we – designers, and poets, and the cultural people of this world – all have to change the psychology of

NEGATING THE PAST EVERY DAY HAS NO FUTURE

Up: glass handmade mozaic designed by Wanders for Bisazza Bottom: kitchen accessories named Dressed, Alessi

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our consumers and our own psychology, because right now we are behind them. Our culture is quicker than us, the designers, and we are hanging back towards the non-sustainable side. We’re training lots of designers now, who create products with recycling in mind. Why? Why not just make things that people simply won’t want to throw away?

What’s the point of recycling an antique Chinese cabinet? There isn’t any, because no one would even think of throwing it away, when it’s so beautiful, so wonderful! So as you can see, something’s not right with our psychology.

So what’s beauty to you?

That cabinet is beautiful. But it’s not old beauty, or futuristic beauty, or today’s beauty. It’s simple something we like, because it demonstrates the skill of the craftsman who built it. It’s said that we’re standing on the threshold of a new culture. Digital printers, the fashion for DIY. What will happen to style, trends and beauty then?

What will happen if beauty becomes democratic? Or chaotic?

Do you think people will only design something because they can?

It’s tempting, since they have the opportunity.

But they have now. To give you an example: making your own clothes.

People have been able to do that for years. But is there a mass movement of people designing and making their own clothes? The fact that people can design something is not new. People can design and even make themselves a little

candlestick. Or make themselves a nice skirt. But that doesn’t change the idea of fashion. There are designers, there is fashion and trends. Perhaps people really are more interested in fashion, are paying more attention to what they wear. …but that doesn’t change much.

Exactly. Let’s say I’m a dentist. I don’t want to think what my table should look like. I need someone to tell me that table is great and I ought to have it. For that reason, I have an interior designer who will decorate my house. For the same reason, when I look for music I turn on a radio station, because I know that someone has made a selection, has suggested what I can listen to, what has just come out. He’s my adviser. I don’t have to listen to the entire contents of a music shop. I have an authority in the field of music. And that is precisely the role of a designer. To give advice in the field of design. I mean, people don’t have to design their own chairs.

A dentist can be a dentist and an insurance salesman can be an insurance salesman. And they want to be designer they should have studied design.

So we assume he has a vocation, he will get an education and the tools are secondary?

I also have a dictaphone. So what?

I can run an interview. And do you think I’ll do it? No, because I don’t like to. Just because I have the tool, I don’t have to do the job. I can also buy scissors and needle and thread. But I won’t make myself a suit. I’m happy that someone does it. Because they love doing it.

Unless, like the theoretical dentist, you decide to change your profession.

Of course, that’s always the case. Anyone can say they want to be a designer.

They can always do that. But believe me, they don’t need 3D computers or 3D printers, which are incredibly complicated. To be honest they are so complicated that I – as a designer – don’t know how to operate them. But there are people working in my studio who do.

And believe me, they aren’t designers... …they’re operators.

That’s right. My little daughter can design her own online girl: she chooses eyelashes, hair, legs and clothes for it. There’s a limited number of combinations. Perhaps that’s how people will make their own chairs in the future, but that doesn’t change anything. It’s unimportant.

Is it hard to be a designer?

Not at all. It’s the most wonderful job in the world. But, when I think about the need to change the thinking, I confess it’s sometimes hard for me to live in a world of ignorant people, who don’t want to solve their problems. I’m really tired of that. We have to put more pressure on.

A world of permanent novelties is unacceptable. Negating the past every day has no future. We have to slow down.

Do you believe it will happen?

Yes, because it has to. We have to keep pressing. We have to stop throwing away what is best every day. Children without parents.

The concept behind Performing Water emanates the experience of Dornbracht in the design of bathrooms, where water is a gift which assumes the form of a pure spring, a soft rain or a powerful and generous stream designalive.pl

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Wellspring They are a family company, currently managed by the third generation. They design and manufacture only in Germany, cooperating solely with companies within a distance of 70 km from Iserlohn, often for many years. Still, they sell successfully worldwide. Dornbracht is true “glocalness”

I photo: press materials

Text: WOJCIECH TRZCIONKa

serlohn is a small town in western Germany.

A few years ago a huge explosion took place in one of the local plants and a major part of the production line in the neighbouring company Dornbracht was destroyed. The company was threatened with bankruptcy because of the inability to complete orders. It was then that Andreas Dornbracht, its president, started answering one phone call after another: all the cooperating companies and neighbours offered their help in reconstruction. The employees themselves suggested that their salaries be withheld...

Though the downtime lasted several months, the company regained its position. “That was a very difficult time, but that crisis revealed great human solidarity and showed us that it is worthwhile to rely on localness,” Andreas Dornbracht tells me during a visit to the company’s new factory. The Dornbracht plant produces high-quality

bathroom fitting as well as bathroom and kitchen accessories; it is composed of modular halls which were erected after the memorable explosion. If a similar event took place today, the downtime would concern just one module, while the remaining ones would continue working. We can access only the exhibition parts; the production line and the testing hall are closed to visitors. Austerity and minimalism are omnipresent – the interiors reflect the company’s philosophy.

The enterprise was established in 1950 by Aloys F. Dornbracht and his son Helmut; the latter is currently 86, but you can still meet him in the company’s corridors. “The Dornbrachts began their production in a garage and advertised the fittings on trains because… people could not escape from them.” Visitors hear this anecdote, commonly known here, from smiling employees.

In the post-war period, the bathroom did not constitute a separate room; its function was fulfilled by

a tub full of water placed in the kitchen. Dornbracht’s invention, a removable kitchen spout with a hose, facilitated everyday life and was a great commercial success.

At the beginning of the 1960s, the economic boom in Germany began to change the situation, so bathrooms became common. Dornbracht was acting confidently also in these new circumstances, introducing increasingly innovative products: a shower with a thermostat, a washbasin with a lever tap and mirror cupboards with shelves and lighting. In 1969, the company presented Edition 2000, the first de luxe bathroom fittings line, which created an entirely new market segment. Thus, the company from Iserlohn has become a specialist in unique first-class bathroom fittings. Nonetheless, the most famous one is still Tara, a minimalist two-handle mixer characterized by truly simple lines, designed by Sieger Design in 1992.

It quickly became a prototype for modern bathroom fittings: one

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Water changes the surroundings, creating unique places.

This elementary force is reflected in the architecture of Elemental Spa, a line

by Dornbracht

million Tara mixers have been sold to date and the company itself estimates that as many as 270 pirated versions of Tara have appeared!

In mid-1990s, Dornbracht strategists decided that, in order to distinguish itself on the increasingly competitive market, the brand needed to take a new direction.

They placed a bet on culture and set up the “Culture in the bathroom” project in cooperation with artists, photographers, musicians and designers. The project features thematic events related to rituals and culture in the bathroom, and it benefits both parties: the artists have funds for creative activity and the manufacturer of the fittings utilizes their potential.

One should know that the artists often suggest interesting ideas which are later applied in manufacturing the fittings. In the course of this project Dornbracht has learned that the bathroom is no longer just a place for body care.

It is often a place where we search for peace and quiet, for example by reading, or, just the

opposite, we strengthen family ties bathing our children and talking to them. This way the ritual bathroom was created, with separate areas for relaxation, bathing, massage, putting on make-up, washing feet...

Novelties are introduced on the market every three years.

Dornbracht does not hire popular foreign designers: Sieger Design has been the company’s partner for years. “Stars do not fit us.

We value long-term cooperation with family companies because family ties are very important to us,” Andreas Dornbracht claims and Mike Meiré confirms his words. Mike is the owner of Meiré und Meiré creation agency from Cologne, which has organised cultural events for Dornbracht for 20 years. “The Dornbrachts are amazing people with incredibly open minds,” the 49-year-old states.

“Our strength lies in the fact that we are a fully German family company who specialise in premium class products. What distinguishes us is that we do not manufacture

whole bathrooms and thus let the architects show off their skills; individual orders are completed as well. We use the latest technologies, but we can operate like a preindustrial plant. Moreover, our distribution is very selective: we do not have to be everywhere. Our best markets are Germany, the USA and the UK. And Poland? It is developing well,” the president adds.

Dornbracht is an enterprise which has made bathroom style the main theme of its activity.

The Iserlohn plant is still working on new cultural projects and searches for innovative solutions.

They have recently developed a shower under which the bathing person lies on a warm stone.

The share of electronics has been increasing. “Such is the general trend and we cannot alter that, but electronics in bathrooms is not going to change as fast as our mobile phones. A bathroom must look fashionable and function well for 25 years,” Andreas Dornbracht concludes. www.dornbracht.com

88 things 1. MANGAS SPACE This time, Patricia Urquiola designed for the Spanish brand Gan not only beautifully woven wool carpets, but also sets of multicoloured pouffes. The modular collection allows for creating various compositions. Pouffes from 870 euros, carpets from 780 euros, www.gan-rugs.com

The Maison & Objet fair in Paris is pure chic and elegance. This event takes place twice a year and always features many premières. Below, we present a few of those from the January edition of the fair

Par

2. TABOURET TOUL A stool created by Joran Brian, a design student, as part of the VIA scholarship programme conducted by the French government. The seat is made of jute mat mixed with resin.

The design was created in Bangladesh, where jute fibres are used to make traditional mats. Prototype, www.via.fr 3. BYZANCE LALIQUE A new collection of crystal household accessories by the famous French brand, inspired by Gothic, Baroque, Venice and Byzantium. The collection includes objects made of white and black crystal. From 1,000 euros, www.lalique.com

4. AOYAMA A table made of tempered glass, from a new collection named “Ligne Roset” and designed by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance.

Aoyama (“Blue Mountains”) is on the outskirts of Tokyo, where Japanese culture and Zen meets modernity. On demand, www.ligne-roset.com 5. COLOURED VAPEUR Mustache is a young French brand which is becoming increasingly recognizable owing to products with an interesting look created by well-known French designers. One of them is Inga Sempe, who made the Coloured Vapeur lamp two years ago; this time, she gave it entirely new colours. Prices: unknown, www.moustache.fr 6. DROPIT One of the many novelties of the Dutch brand Normann Copenhagen is the Dropit hanger designed by the Asshoff & Brogård duet. You can create any wall composition using these oak hangers. A set of two hangers costs 26 euros (small) or 34 euros (large), www.normann-copenhagen.com

7. Eclectic Last year, Tom Dixon’s British studio showed a new collection named Eclectic, comprising household accessories made of noble materials. This time, the collection was extended by adding new elements such as a tea making set, a mortar and candle holders. Individual elements were made of copper, brass, cast iron and, for the first time, a hundred-million-year-old fossilized tree. Prices: unknown, www.tomdixon.net

8. EDA A cutlery set by Tusbame, a Japanese company which combines tradition with modernity and craft with new technologies.

The cutlery and the whole new collection were designed by Ken Okuyama, former head of the famous Pininfarina design office and chief designer in General Motors and Porsche, as well as the creator of… Ferrari Enzo and Maserati Quattroporte. Prices: unknown, www.kenokuyamadesign.com 9. FAZ A summer couch by the Spanish brand Vondom, designed

by Ramón Esteve, who claims that he was inspired by the form of the crystal. The couch is fitted with hidden audio equipment controlled via a smartphone, as well as with lighting. When sunrays get too strong, you can tilt the small roof. Price: unknown, www.vondom.com

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Photo: press materials, Noboru Murata

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90 things

Enoki Tables designed by Philipp Mainzer for e15: a clever play with form, colour, size and shape. You can choose a marble table top to match an adjustable metal base, which is available in a wide range of colours. The table is delivered as two flat parts.

452 euros, www.e15.com

Bolon by Missoni An excellent cooperation of a Swedish producer of woven fitted carpets and the Missoni texstile brand from Italy. Now you can have Missoni’s characteristic fabric patterns on the floor! The series included 9 types. Please place orders, www.bolon.com, www.marro.com.pl

Lond From ceiling to floor, the London Design Festival has left behind fascinating novelties: fewer this time, but much more intriguing

Slingerlamp Designed by Richard Hutten for the Dutch brand NgispeN, the lamp is incredibly simple in production: it is cut from a small metal sheet. The lampshade does not retain the light, at the same time creating a pleasant atmosphere above the family table. 650 euros, www.ngispen.com

Emma & Daniel They come from Adelaide, Australia and their design motto is “simply pleasant”.

These small desk articles are simple solids, but the colour and material is different for each of them. That enables you to arrange them into your own compositions serving as boxes, candle holders or paper-weights. www.daniel-emma.com

Spiral Box An inconspicuous spiral object turns out to be a jewellery drawer. The surprising box with an intriguing form was designed by Laszlo Tompy from Hungary and is an example of diligent carpentry work in cherry wood. On demand, www.tompakeramia.hu

photo: press materials

don 4a Chair Instead of empty runs due to decreased demand for production, machines in China serve the designers in their experiments.

That was how Michael Young created the EOQ brand and its first product – the 4a chair.

The production utilized both advanced technologies of aluminium injection moulding and cheaper, recycled raw material.

From 420 funtów, www.eoq-design.com

Pelt i Tenda Two novelties by Benjamin Hubert. The first one is a chair made from one plywood sheet with a simple structure of legs, prepared in collaboration with De La Espada. 12 months of tests produced a stable, simple seat. Price: on request.

The second novelty is a lamp being a combination of glass fibre used to produce kite frames, sports Lycra, high stretch mesh used in manufacturing underwear and the structure applied in tents.

This attractive result of searching for new solutions is available in four sizes. From 500 euros, www.benjaminhubert.co.uk

Jubilee cabinet An inconspicuous piece of furniture for precious objects. Designed by Cees Braakman in 1952, it has become a showpiece of the Pastoe brand. Today it shows us a new face. www.pastoe.com

92 trendbook

FROM PYRAMID TO PANCAKE social

changes in social structures Josephine Green is a woman whom no CEO or director of any structure should ignore because her vision of the world could shake the present hierarchy in society. Every day, on behalf of the British organization Beyond20, she helps companies and organizations to think and implement the human-centered approach to innovation and development. Her speech entitled “A commitment to the future in another way: from pyramid to pancake” is a new look at the present and future assessment of the world and its structure of functioning. According to Green, we live in an apparently ordered and predictable world, whose views are based on linear, materialistic and industrial thinking. They are also present in each discipline, from preschool education to government. On

the top of the pyramid there is always a boss – a president, chair or director; in the course of our history he has in turn represented God, Science and Money.

Lower layers feature employees of various ranks, i.e. the “better” and “worse” ones.

Work in such a team lacks a healthy flow and creativity, and thinking is narrowed considerably because people mind their own business. That system has no right to exist because it heads for self-destruction. Several times during her lecture Green stressed that the world was chaotic, unpredictable and fluid. To be able to act, we need to depart from the hierarchical system, the pyramid, and re-

environment

ANTHROPOCENE Whether we want it or not, we live in a new… geological era. What is more, some scientists claim that it has lasted for over 200 years.

Though the most important scientific institutions (including the International Commission on Stratigraphy) have not acknowledged this era yet, one feels that there is something to this idea. Ladies and Gentlemen, we live in Anthropocene. In short, Anthropocene has not been filled with geological activity, but with human activity.

Such a bold thesis has been made possible by an analysis of climate data. Scientists, mainly those from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, have stated that one indicator of the new era is the increase in the average temperature by several tenths of a degree in comparison to Holocene, which began over 13 000 years ago. designalive.pl

Other features of Anthropocene are the accumulating layers of deposits “documenting” the use of technologies created by humans (such as plastics!) and transformations on the Earth’s surface, visible to the naked eye: garbage dumps or enormous “islands” of floating plastics falling to the ocean bottom are but a small portion of our activity.

Some scientists begin to warn us, saying that the human species may disappear as soon as within the next 100 years if the temperature increases by 5–6 degrees. The Earth is expected to survive, just as it did thousands of years ago after being hit by a huge meteor which ended the era of the dinosaurs. A change of thinking and rejection of civilization afflictions may, however, prove a rescue for us. text: marcin mońka

place it with a new one, flat as a pancake.

In this new system we are no longer the masters of a structure: we are only part of it. According to Green, if we want to ensure a good future for ourselves, we should start supporting and respecting different ways of thinking, living and acting from today. These forms are already visible via new technologies and social networks because an increasing number of people are becoming individualists: they create their own music, films and recipes. Passive consumers transform into active organizers of their own lives. www.­pyramids2pancake­s.­com text: anna skalska–bogucka

Forecasting WORK

Trend forecasting focuses on a deeper understanding of markets, products and services in order to help us comprehend as best we can the spirit of the times or the structure of organizations or companies. In the current multilayered world it is more important to grasp the essence of an undertaking than focus on the latest tendencies and simply follow them. “This is the wrong track,” forecasting specialists thunder and advise us to keep our wits about us. If you are interested in scientific research, technologies, social and political development or even poetry, these specialists wish to give you tools which will help you find a way in the infoglut and draw the most important conclusions. The Trend Forecasting School is a special course of forecasting trends, which could in fact be viewed as a kind of screenplay writing. Organized by the Second Sight school, the course started in Amsterdam in March. The classes are conducted by specialists in various disciplines, among them Truus Dokter – a well-known trend forecasting expert. www.secondsight.nl text: jarda ruszczyc

trendbook 93

Welcome to the Era of design

All businesses, no matter what they make or sell, should recognize the power and financial value of good design

O

text: Adam Swann head of strategy at Gyro New York

bviously, there are many different types of design: graphic, brand, packaging, product, process, interior, interaction/ user experience, Web and service design, to name but a few.

In this article, I am referring to design as a broad and deliberately applied discipline, with the aim of creating simpler, more meaningful, rewarding experiences for customers. You see, expecting great design is no longer the preserve of a picky design-obsessed urban elite – that aesthetically sensitive clique who‘d never dare leave the house without their Philippe Starck eyewear and turtleneck sweaters and buy only the right kind of Scandinavian furniture. Instead, there’s a new, mass expectation of good design: that products and services will be better thought through, simplified, made more intuitive, elegant and more enjoyable to use.

Design has finally become democratized, and we marketers find ourselves with new standards to meet in this new “era of design”. To illustrate, Apple, the epitome of a design-led organization, now has a market capitalization of $570 billion, larger than the GDP of Switzerland. Its revenue is double Microsoft’s, a similar type of technology organization but one not truly led by design (just compare Microsoft Windows with Apple’s Lion operating system).

Every day my Twitter feed populates with astounding growth facts about the likes of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Pinterest and the more recent designalive.pl

travel site, AirBnB. It is no coincidence that these successful brands seem to really value design and utilize it to secure a competitive advantage.

Even the UK government has issued its “design principles,” naturally on a clean, easy-to-navigate website.

But why have people become so design sensitive? Why does that credit card mailer look so bad and dated now? Why can’t you access my account details? Why does airport signage seem so unhelpful? Why doesn’t that technology plug and play?

Perhaps Apple’s global dominance has elevated our design expectations, or Ikea’s vision to bring great design at affordable prices to everyone on the planet has finally taken effect, or perhaps the Internet has taught us what well-designed user experiences and good design really are. Likely, it is a combination of all.

What is certain is that the design bar has been raised and designoriented businesses are winning.

Think how swiftly and strongly a design experience shapes our opinion of that brand, company or store, for good or bad. For instance, we know quickly when a website is bad. And we associate that feeling of frustration, or worse, disappointment with that brand.

Design-oriented organizations invest in thinking this stuff through.

They put design at the heart of their company to guide innovation and to continually improve products, service and marketing. They recognize that a great design leads to differentiation, customer loyalty and higher profits.

First Direct, a UK bank, has designed all its service touchpoints so carefully

that it has become the most referred financial brand in the UK, with over 82 percent of customers happy to recommend it to friends. It’s a joy to use via any channel, and despite being a bank, I’d happily recommend it.

When you buy Apple Care, instead of receiving the standard bland letter or email, you receive a nicely designed box containing the paperwork, guidance and all the information you need.

You have questions? No problem. There are clear user diagrams and a simple section on the website to help you.

The impact on brand is that customers see these brands as both progressive and customer-centric. Thoughtful and innovative design makes us feel good.

It is no surprise that we are happy to advocate them, talk about them in social media and can be fiercely brand loyal.

As Michael Eisner, former CEO of Disney, once said, “A brand is a living entity – and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures.”

That thinking still holds true, but it all happens a lot faster now. Thanks to the Internet and a hyperconnected, social-media-fueled society, brands can be instantly undermined and that experience shared with millions.

So this is a call to action for executives to recognize this new era and make the effort to transform even a mundane product or service into something more rewarding and more memorable. Try to assess each element of your service or product and better it – to see design not just as a marketing thing but as a genuine source of competitive advantage, customer and employee satisfaction and, lastly, a route to higher profits.

trendbook 95

Customer

nowadays needs well-designed products and services. Well thought out, simplified, more intuitive, elegant and pleasant in use.

Brand

is a living being, enriched or damaged by the passage of time, says Michael Eisner, a former general director at Disney's. Today, everything happens a lot faster.

Like it!

The reputation of a brand can be undermined immediately, and a negative opinion can spread by word of mouth through a network of users numbering in the millions.

Design

is a real source of the competitive edge, customer's satisfaction and the way to a higher profit.

$600 billion

is what the design-conscious brand Apple is currently worth on the market. This is twice the value of Apple's competitor Microsoft.

82%

of customers would recommend First Direct to a friend. This is thanks to the British bank's careful design of its entire customer service.

96 agnieszka jacobson-cielecka Can design…

…BE BEAUTIFUL?

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n discussions concerning what design is and what it is not, as well as what it is for and what it can do, the issue of aesthetics is often omitted or disregarded. One can frequently hear that perceiving design in aesthetic terms makes it trivial and oversimplified.

One could draw a conclusion that an object’s beauty is embarrassing. This is just as true as the statement that a beautiful woman cannot be smart. We know this is false. We also know that at the outset beauty is often enough, but it can be an obstacle in realising one’s intellect and virtues. However, research proves that we trust beautiful people more than those who are unattractive, disabled or too eccentric. Still, faced with a pretty person and an exceptionally beautiful person, we will more readily approach the former, classifying the latter as self-centred, big-headed and standoffish, features that are usually a projection of our own fears and anxieties.

The situation is the same with objects. We choose a chair with our eyes and test it with our bottom. A pretty yet uncomfortable one we soon replace, or change its label from “functional” to “decorative”. A pretty and

designalive.pl

*The author is a winner of Design Alive Awards 2012, journalist, design curator and director of the School of Form, a higher school of design in Poznań

comfortable one we recommend to others. We most likely never discover the advantages of a functional eyesore like the advantages of a chair made of an eccentric, unknown material.

In discussions about design we encounter a mixture of notions. We speak of a process, research, needs and audience. We use the same words, but we think of different things. We mix categories of design as a research, humanist, social, industrial and conceptual

discipline. In discourse about whether “nice” is a compliment or an insult we speak of industrial design, i.e. of widely available products or goods, massproduced and addressed to the masses.

If we arrange it all this way, everything becomes fairly simple. One just needs to ask oneself a few questions: What does it mean when an object is “nice”? Does it equal “well designed”? What is an icon?

Is the icon a well-designed an object?

Let us use the teapot as the basis for our considerations. What is “a nice teapot”? One we like. Type “nice teapot” in your browser... You do not like every single result this query produces, do you? Thus, the notion of “nice” is relative, but it is also absolute: “nice” does not mean the one which best fulfills our needs or is the most comfortable, the cheapest or the handiest.

“Nice” is not even the one which fits best... Nice is nice. To each his own.

Each of us has quite a large collection of such “nice” objects, but they are not necessarily nice for us. These are usually gifts. Following the Commandment saying “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”, we buy for others things we would like to receive ourselves. Sometimes the empathy is more noticeable:

photo: wojciech trzcionka

Real design means objects which are timeless and, to a certain extent, invisible. Their beauty is not evidenced by appearance or price, but by functionality, proportions and aging with grace. By being ordinary

school of form 97

One could draw a conclusion that an object’s beauty is embarrassing. This is just as true as the statement that a beautiful woman cannot be smart

Proportional, functional chairs by Michael Thonet: since the 1830s, they have been made in all possible variations, of all possible materials, copied, interpreted and stylized. They do not plan to grow old – unless with grace, that is

we buy for someone what they like most or what they are interested in: something from the automotive industry, a Garfield cartoon, a frog... perfect inspirations for (not) handy and (not) pretty gifts. Unfortunately, a designer object often equals “weird”, “expensive”, “fashionable” or “useless”. Just a gadget. Do not be surprised, then, that to a designer the words “nice object” and “designer object” sound like insults.

Take the Hot Bertaa kettle, designed

by Philippe Starck for Alessi in 1989. In those days it was just as obligatory during interior photo sessions as Panton’s chair (still) is today. It was also a best seller, an icon and a status symbol. Today it is hardly used or sold. Why? Well, it has aged and ceased to be fashionable – it has ceased to be an object of desire. The return wave of the style of the 1980s has not helped. Even worse, the kettle has proved not to be functional.

Starck himself speaks of it with aversion: “…this is one of those objects of which I am ashamed the most…”. Still, it has not disappeared without a trace.

It has earned a place in museums and design textbooks because Starck not only attempted to amaze the world: he also took the challenge of questioning the

ever-present functional layout of the kettle/teapot. The dynamic object without a lip, handle and lid was an attempt to solve an old problem in a new way. In the functional aspect, though, the attempt was unsuccessful. Thus, the once “nice” and “designer” Bertaa proved to have been up in lights only for some time; its beauty is not timeless. Maybe, then, real design means objects which are timeless and, to a certain extent, invisible? Nameless objects – because nobody remembers who designed them and when. Finally, objects which undergo stylistic modifications and last without losing their character. These are frequently usual forms, too simple and decent to deserve a adjective “designer”. They are often treated with disdain: “Is this supposed to be design? Just a table, that’s all…”, one hears. Or even a table. Their beauty is not evidenced by appearance or price, but by functionality, proportions and beauty which ages with grace. By being ordinary. Ordinary tables and chairs, ordinary pots. Chinese bowls from the times of long-dead dynasties. Clay, enamel, porcelain, cast iron, brass and silver teapots. They have handy handles and lips which pour the drink evenly.

They bear lids which do not fall when

the teapot is tilted and do not let the tea out. They are neither too heavy nor too light. They are comfortable. Functional.

Proportional. Available... well, nice. That is why they were or have been manufactured for 100, 150 or 200 years.

An example? Michael Thonet’s bent chairs. They have enjoyed constant popularity since the 1830s. Made in all possible variations, of all possible materials, copied, interpreted and stylized, they do not plan to grow old.

Let me finish with a quotation from Richard Buckminster Fuller, the American architect and philosopher, a great engineer and construction engineer, who cannot really be suspected of love for gadgets, showing off or sentimentalism: “When I work on a problem, I never think in terms of beauty. I only think of how to solve the problem. However, if the solution does not prove beautiful at the end, this simply means it is bad”.

That fits all: Thonet, the Ming dynasty and Starck. Even Garfield. The works of Fuller himself are the best proof of this suitability. Those words do not fit in where design has a more philosophical, conceptual, narrative, critical or speculative function. But that is another story… www.sof.edu.pl

DESIGN ALIVE TAKING STOCK 2006–2013 We often don’t realize how much we’ve accumulated over the years until we start packing to move. Leaving the old Design Alive warehouse for a new one proved to be the perfect moment for reflection text: ewa trzcionka Photo: mariusz gruszka / ultrabrand

Termo armchair

Nel lamp

Mały Łoś coffee table

stool Trefl

Fireplace Small

design: Tomek Rygalik producer: NOTI

design: Mikołaj Wierszyłłowski i Wojciech Barański producer: IKER

Design: Małgosia Malinowska, Filip Ludka i Tomek Kempa producer: Tabanda

Design: Piotr Kuchciński producer: NOTI

design: Arik Levy producer: planika

Flai sofa Design: Małgorzata Bronikowska producer: NOTI

carpet Moro Design: Michał Biernacki Moho Design

rzeczy 99

Al–Verd B lamp

Maple chair

Comma chair

Design: Sonia Słaboń, Monika Brauntsch producer: Kafti

Design: Gernot Oberfell i Jan Wertel producer: Iker

Design: Renata Kalarus producer: Noti

Slim armchair design: Grzegorz Niwiński, Jerzy Porębski producer: NOTI Spider chair Design: Michał Biernacki producer: Iker

designalive.pl

100 things

Kosmos lamp

Plopp stool

Design: Ewa Bochen i Maciej Jelski

Design: Oskar Zięta producer: Zieta Prozessdesign

designalive.pl

A-1840 stool

Falon stool

Moho Hej Dia carpet

producer: Paged

Design: Małgosia Malinowska, Filip Ludka i Tomek Kempa producer: Tabanda

Design: Magdalena Lubińska, Michał Kopaniszyn producer: Moho Design

Messy tablecloth Design: Anna Kotowicz, Artur Puszkarewicz producer: Aze design

Siadanie na trawie stool Design: Marta Niemywska

Photo: Mariusz Gruszka Asystent: Dawid janik Aranżacja i produkcja: ULTRABRAND logistyka: michał hanus

F

or the past seven years the most interesting Polish products have come our way.

Whether mass produced items, small scale, custom made, unique specimens, simple copies or prototypes.

Designers and makers wanted to put themselves to the test, to seek our opinion and listen to constructive comments. Some of the objects didn’t pass our exacting tests and went back to the drawing board before they could eventually hit the market. Most of these items became symbols of Polish contemporary design.

This is where we the start the stocktaking of Design Alive.

DZIAŁ 101

Diamonds coffee table

emblem blown

Lemming sofa

lamp Puff

toy Soofa

design: Bashko Trybek

Design: Bartosz Mucha producer: Poor

Design: Tomek Rygalik producer: iker

Design: Anna Siedlecka i Radek Achramowicz producer: Puff–Buff

design: Krzysztof Kubasek

Antistress chair design: Bashko Trybek

102 Krystyna Łuczak–Surówka selection

SIT DOWN PLEASE We spend a major part of our days, and sometimes also nights, sitting. We sit while eating, working, studying, listening to music, drinking coffee, talking to friends... This is one of the most democratic processes of our everyday life, a big space for design and therefore my next excavation site of Polish design archeology dr Krystyna Łuczak–Surówka*

S

itting down is so common that we hardly notice it. The 20th century, marked by mass production, consolidated our awareness of social equality also in the sphere of everyday articles. We no longer ask ourselves why we sit, but we will always ask questions concerning what we want to sit on and by.

The table is viewed as the heart of the home. We feel the beat of the daily life as we gather around it like blood vessels joined in one organism. The table and chairs designed by Rajmund Hałas have performed that function for over 60 years; today they serve another generation. They are an element of the type 1329 combined suite – a very popular solution in Poland at the end of the 1950s.

The suite comprised a table with 6 chairs, a sectional bookcase, a small table with 3 stools, a couch-divan and a small table with a newspaper holder. Manufactured

by Bydgoska Fabryka Mebli [Bydgoszcz Furniture Factory] of solid wood (with Scotch elm veneer), it cost 12 500 Polish zlotys in 1960. It allowed the multifunctional arrangement even of a small interior. Skilfully chosen proportions, asymmetry, line angles, rounded edges, soft seat shapes – such is the work of that “Poznań school of furniture” representative, one of the most outstanding designers of post-war furniture manufactured

*A historian and design critic, a lecturer at The Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and a specialist in Polish design. Visit her blog at designby.pl

in a large series. Hałas created a lot of furniture with a simple structure, which matched the requirements and capabilities of Polish industry, but at the same time had an individual character. It can still be found in Polish homes and sometimes also on the second-hand market, but few people know that its utility value hides the history of Polish design.

I wanted to stay true to Hałas’s style, so I chose objects from the same period to accompany his furniture. The service and the fruit bowl on the table remind us that sitting down to drink coffee has enjoyed increasing popularity from the second half of the 1950s. Services intended for that purpose feature smaller

cups and have become a fixed element of the Polish home landscape despite the poor coffee quality at that time. The vividly red Elżbieta coffee service (form design: W. Górski, 1958 ), manufactured in Zakłady Porcelitu [Stoneware Plant] in Chodzież, and the fruit bowl with an image of a couple sitting at the table (signed “W”, 1960s) are examples of porcelain decorated using the sprayand-scrape technique. That decoration method, very popular in the 1950s and the 1960s, gave series-produced objects individual character. Porcelain was first covered by spraying and then an image was created against a template by scraping off the paint. Creators mention very simple but precise tools used to reproduce those images: needles, razor blades or scalpels. That is why my friend once said with a hint of doubt in her voice: “I have a fruit bowl identical to yours, and yet somehow different”.

The background of the photograph shows porcelain statues of three women: “Sudanka” [Sudanese] and “Dziewczyny siedzące” [Sitting girls], designed by Henryk Jędrasiak for the Ćmielów factory ( 1958 ). They remain further away from the table and the chairs because they sit cross-legged, like they do in the East.

The chair belongs to the Western cultural circle and it has had a staggering career here. We sit everywhere, though in different ways, but that is another story, worth… joining its storyteller at the table.

103

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in the SADDLE This is the story of a leatherworker who has achieved world-class mastery in his craft Text: ANNA DĘBSKA

I

t is hard to say if leatherwork and equestrian sport are a passion or rather a family tradition for Bogdan Dąbrowski.

In professional sport, “Dąbrowski” is a brand – a name of competitors and trainers. Bogdan has practiced sport since childhood and he has dealt with saddles since he was 16 as he ran a leatherwork and saddle-making company with his father. The young rider’s trademark was the participation in competitions in saddles made by his family.

At the end of the 1990s, the market was flooded with cheap Asian products and second-hand saddles of well-known brands. The family company fell into decline, so Bogdan went to England, the cradle of horse riding, where he worked in a saddle service centre. designalive.pl

He familiarized himself with nearly all models, including the most exclusive, custom-made ones. He returned to Poland and got a job in another company, but carried out his designs after hours. Those saddles were very carefully made in terms of comfort for the rider and their horse, but made of cheap, plain materials. Though their quality became evident in everyday use, they were difficult to sell.

Dąbrowski handed over his first saddle with a refined look for testing to his acquaintance Wojciech Rowiński, a competitor and trainer. The saddle was a monoflap – a difficult-to-make minimalist construction allowing for better horse-rider communication. The surprised rider found out that the “no name” craft product was as good as his previous professional saddle produced abroad. A day

A HB-Contact saddle costs 1,100–1,900 euros.

For a comparable custom-made saddle produced abroad one needs to pay 2,900–4,800 euros. Work on one saddle may take up to one month

later, he took part in a three-day event, a very demanding discipline, riding on Dąbrowski’s saddle. One can compare that to a situation where a ski jumper leaves behind his Fischer skis and puts on skis of an unknown brand just before the jump. That day, the leatherworker from Pleszew realized that he could compete with the best producers in his field.

Bogdan established HB-Contact – the first Polish company producing only custom-made saddles.

He and his wife Honorata staked everything on one roll of the dice: they aimed at a segment previously reserved for big and strong players. Imagine a market of custom-made suits, dominated by companies like Armani and Hermès, witness an emergence of an unknown designer and tailor, who is incredibly able and wants to convince the demanding clients that his products are worthwhile.

Still, the company was a success and the list of satisfied clients grew longer; today it includes professional competitors and trainers.

The latter recommend the saddles even to beginners because they make a noticeable difference in working with pupils. One should remember that a saddle always has two users: man and horse.

The latter expresses its opinion very clearly: if the equipment fits well, the horse works willingly and effectively. That is why HB-Contact devotes a lot of time to fitting the saddle to the build of both users’ bodies.

The schedule of the company from Pleszew is full about a year ahead of time and the order list is growing longer. However, Bogdan Dąbrowski, who is 38 years old, does not want to increase the production speed at the expense of quality. He wants the product to always be unique and compliant with all the client’s wishes, comfortable while working and impeccably finished. The saddle is made by the same pair of hands from the measurement to the last stitch. In the future, the saddles are going to finally cost their worth – that is, quite a lot.

“I am really glad that I bought Bogdan’s saddle earlier on, when not everyone understood that HBContact actually was a functional work of art in the leatherwork craft. I guess that in the near future I will not be able to afford it – but this is what I sincerely wish Bogdan,” Wojciech Rowiński says. www.hbcontact.eu

photo: press materials

104 things

drive janusz kaniewski 105

A Giulietta with a piercing It’s been confirmed.

Fiat and Mazda are working on a joint project

E

xpectations are high, because the future car’s DNA will be drawn from experiences of the cult roadsters the Mazda MX-5 and the Alfa Romeo Spider.

It’ll be a joint construction. The Japanese version will offer the pleasure of the ride and the Italian one, the aesthetics and style. And what’ll that style be? For quite a while now, the Milanese brand has been searching for a conceptual way forward. A lot of interest was stirred up by the most recent prototypes: the 8C Competizione and the Dueottanta from Pininfarina. But where will we find the current style of models like the Giulietta on the map of those experiments?

A delicately sculpted form. Discrete musculature. Zero geometry. The car looks best in dark and metallic shades: casual threads tightly hugging a typical, five-person hatchback possibly leaves too much smooth, empty space – the

He designs specialised vehicles, train interiors, cars, petrol stations and architecture. He works for Ferrari and Pininfarina and advises local governments.

He lectures at the RCA in London and IED in Turin.

High in the ranking list for innovativeness (Forbes) and creativity (Brief) in Poland. Co-organiser and curator of the Gdynia Design Days 2012. www.kaniewskidesign.com

car’s sides are somewhat banal. To make things worse, the sports version of the Quadrifoglio is equipped with spoilers and side skirts which additionally raise the profile optically. This dubious compromise is rescued by tasty details: the lights, air intakes, the design of the rims, the attractive, opulent interior, the difficult-to-keep-clean but easy-on-theeye dials, controls, the sexy seats, the sophisticated note of the engine. And a controversial peculiarity: a sentimental return to the past, with the front number plate once again positioned off-centre.

Which looks good with a short, Italian plate, but awful with a big, long British one, which sticks out like a snowplough.

When we look at the beautiful prototype of the Dueottanta and we imagine the production roadster we can’t avoid asking the question: isn’t that sophisticated body being harmed by a piercing in the form of a large, mottled rectangle? designalive.pl

Plates I’ve never heard of anyone judging the appearance of a car on the basis of the number plates Photo: mariusz gruszka / ultrabrand

France, 1970s.

Charm et chic

One of the most elegant in Europe. Aluminium, embossed like the old British ones, using technology which retains sharp, straight edges, so the letters look as though they were cut from sold metal on that shiny, black background. One of the reasons why films shot on the streets of Paris during that period charm us with their discrete elegance, even if it’s a comedy with Louis de Funès. Found in a street, probably in Paris.

Italy, contemporary Front Short, with unnaturally narrow letters and numbers. The rear one is a little longer.

The letters don’t refer to the city where it’s registered but the chronology of registration. The city’s symbol is set on a blue band: TO – Turin, MI – Milan, NA – Naples etc. the symbol of the city only appears if the owners are brave enough, because cars from TO were scratched in NA and vice versa. And rides from MI were damaged everywhere except in MI. The design is fairly new, because Italians, as you’d expect, follow fashion and change the designs of their number plates, stamps, and the logo for the Post Office and railway every ten years. I got this number plate from the bottom of the River Cesano after a catastrophic flood, which devastated the entire region and destroyed the bridge.

Nepal, contemporary

Italy, 1980s.

Scooter In Italy, the number plate is registered to the vehicle irrespective of changes of owner. To compare: in Belgium and Switzerland it’s registered to the owner and passes to successive cars. Unfortunately, a friend made an unsuccessful suicide attempt. He fell from a window onto my scooter. He ended up in hospital for two weeks, the scooter went to the Land of Eternal Buzzing, and the number plate to Poland as a souvenir.

USA, 1955

Motorcycle

Tractor number plate

A thick, steel number plate, with hand calligraphy. During an expedition to Kathmandu I was descended upon by a gang of kids offering local titbits, crafts or simply begging. My attention was caught by a smart little boy, perhaps five years old, holding his runny-nosed little sister by the hand. He spoke English pretty well, and advised me seriously that he could sort anything out. Laughing, I said to him: “Not, anything.” He didn’t give up. I told him about my collection. “Follow us,” he instructed. Imagine my astonishment when after wandering down some backstreets we reached a basement, where dextrous scribes were hand painting number plates! What a star! His expression said: “When I say anything, I mean anything.” I bought a number plate and paid my guide a tidy sum.

A solid, embossed steel plate, with dimensions a little smaller than contemporary ones. I was given it by a Mennonite farmer in Pennsylvania, who I worked for for several months.

United Kingdom, 1980s.

Plexiglas letters Dug out of a junk heap in Oxford. Legibility faultless. The freedom to choose the font occasionally reduces legibility. The use of such a gaudy element on stately Jaguars and Bentleys makes me uneasy. A row of parked dark limousines in an elegant avenue and a row of shining rectangles – like black and yellow tape from a building site… In the 1960s, British number plates with letters identical to today’s were black with aluminium letters.

It was even possible to order a sticker with the number for the bonnet in order not to spoil the noble line of Jaguar E-Types, Lotuses, Daimlers and Bristols.

designalive.pl

lates drive janusz kaniewski 107

Poland, 1980s.

Before the reform

Yugoslavia, 1980s.

Made from steel plate. Aluminium ones were introduced in the 1990s. Although we were used to black number plates like we were to the People’s Republic of Poland, and we greeted the white ones like a swallow heralding modernisation, I regret the passing of the old ones. What do I mean? In an intelligently designed car, three colours occur on the outside: the colour of the body, shades of black and grey, and the red casing of the rear lights. There’s almost no white: a “For Sale” sign, a fine or a price tag can be white. And the white rectangle of a number plate is precisely that kind of dissonance. Being excessively inspired by the calligraphy of one’s rich neighbours turned out to be treacherous. On becoming independent, the select Eastern European society of Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Lithuania, Latvia etc. emphasised their links to Western civilisation by cribbing the design of number plates from Germany. And the Germans played a prank on us and introduced their own – very interesting – typeface, which can’t be forged. Just remind yourself what you think when you’re behind an articulated lorry from the East and or behind a Swedish tourist. Go figure. Seemingly a nuance, but the number plate is a document and represents prestige. It says more about you than you think.

With a red star

Registered in Belgrade. Narrow, shorter than standard European ones. The shapely font indicates the proximity to Italy and the size – to Austria. A friend brought me the number plate from Belgrade, the first Balkan War broke out a short time later and Yugoslavia ceased to exist.

USA, 1980s.

The state of Illinois, “The Land of Lincoln” Federal Republic of Germany, 1970s.

Sample A unique, oval, embossed aluminium plate, with pre-war lettering. During communism a symbol of seasonal work and a better world, like Grüner Apfel soap and Aldi carrier bags. I got this number plate as a child, from an older cousin, who, of course, came back from working in Germany in a green Passat, and it hung in a special place next to, of course, my collection of foreign drinks cans.

One summer I drove to a forest. Coming back, I found two German plates on the ground, which hadn’t been there before. Just like that, someone had swiped a motor from Germany and changed the plates. As a decent, teenage citizen, I took them to the police headquarters in Mostowski Palace, Warsaw. I handed them over, submitted a lengthy explanation and rashly added that judging from the letters the car might have been from Oranienburg. And because of the dirt (one clean but covered in flies, the other very dusty) it might have been a Golf II, which had such an unfortunately shaped rear that it got dirty very quickly. The policeman looked at me suspiciously, then ordered me to wait and went to call somebody.

I waited for three hours and was then asked tricky questions for another hour to see if I really hadn’t seen the car. A Golf II with those number plates had been reported stolen in Oranienburg! The policeman looked at me even more suspiciously. But I was only interested in the shapes of cars…

In the United States, the slogan of a given state is often written at the bottom of the number plate. In various states, various colours of background and letters are required by law. A front number plate isn’t always. Personalised number plates are permitted. I saw a photograph from the 1980s of a car with the number plate “WALESA”. Steel plate, embossed, found in a street in Philadelphia.

Italy, 1980s.

Found The symbol of the city of registration still features here. The five-pointed star doesn’t symbolise sympathy for communists like the Yugoslavian one, but is just the emblem of the Italian Republic and the seal of all documents it issues.

Italy, 1970s.

Caravan Tiny, of a similar size to front car number plates of that time. It can’t be called a “plate” as it’s pressed out of plastic. The concentration of characters on such a small area seriously limited its legibility, the Mafia would love it. Found on a scrap heap.

108 must have

LITTLE HEROES EVERYDAY This is what we call objects which facilitate daily life or simply give us a bit of pleasure. We like them for their durability, quality of material and workmanship, and of course for their charm selected by: Maja Ganszyniec i Krystian Kowalski designers, founders of the Kompott studio

Oire Nomi

Pina Espresso

Technics SL1200 MK

Honda CB 550 Four Super Sport

Less table

Red Wing Iron Renger

Hand-forged, special-purpose carpenter chisels: they are used to make dovetail joints. Designed by Kohozo Iyoroi, a Japanese master blacksmith.

From 36 euros, www.dluta.pl

A light piece of furniture with a simple form and a homely character – this is the way I designed it. As I fix my eyes on the beautiful rings of ash wood, every day I discover this charm anew. www.lovekompott.com

The perfection of this turntable is evidenced by the fact that it was produced from 1972 to 2010 in unchanged form. My exceptional affection for it is connected with my first journey to New York and the unfulfilled dream of becoming a famous DJ. 225–550 euros, www.ebay.com

Boots manufactured since 1905 for miners working in iron ore mines in Red Wing, Minnesota. Perfectly made using doubly strengthened leather, which gradually adjusts to the shape of the foot. 250 dolarów, www.redwingheritage.com

photo: press materials

An excellent motorcycle from the 1970s: pure minimalism and efficiency. You can virtually disassemble it using only two tools! When you do, it turns out that this machine doesn't have a single unnecessary part!

Bought second hand, www.ebay.com

A coffee maker designed by Piero Lissoni for Alessi.

It changes making morning coffee into an incredible pleasure. From 70 euros, www.alessi.com

designalive.pl

must have 109 Biały jeleń

It is so retro that it is actually avant-garde. The soap manufactured in Poland since 1921 using traditional methods still proves good: it is hypoallergenic, which makes it perfect for those allergic to aromatic soaps.

0,75 euros, www.bialyjelen.pl

La Cie CooKey

Ottagonale

Kindle Paperwhite

6 degrees

Tolomeo

Bernhard Willhelm X Camper 2012

The USB data carrier designed by 5.5 Designers is an object which I have used for over two years, several times a day. Attached to the keys, it is exactly what it should be. Price (depending on storage capacity): 15–40 euros, www.lacie.com

A suite designed by myself: a bookcase, a sofa table and a bedside table. It has wandered around my flat for several years and still gives me joy.

Modules made of natural oak are definitely my cup of tea. Price of one module: from 92 euros, www.majagan.com

When someone feels like buying me a gift, please make it this one: a teapot from the Ottagonale set

by Carlo Alessi. Designed in 1935 and manufactured again from 2010, it is an example of design which remains fashionable despite the passage of time.

112 euros, www.alessi.com

A lamp designed for Artemide Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina in 1986. One hobby of mine is following this lamp in movies – it is hard to count films in which it has appeared! In real life it stands on my desk and works with me. I have particular affection for this particular lamp – I received it from Ernesto Gismondi himself. 300 euros, www.artemide.com

It combines all the advantages of contemporary e-book readers with the naturalness of paper. The display was made with the use of E Ink technology, owing to which it delivers a perfect image in any lighting conditions. The device is incredibly energy-saving.

Moreover, you can select the typeface and font size, so important for the elderly and people with poor vision. To me, it is the closest cousin of the book.

From 160 euros, www.kindle.amazon.com

I value them for comfort and durability. They were my payment for work on the interior of the Camper shop at Bond Street in London on the occasion of introducing the 2008/9 collection. I still wear them.

A result of Bernhard Wilhelm’s 2012 design is the eclectic Wilhelm collection and a line of sports shoes named X. From 215 euros, www.ebay.com

designalive.pl

DESIGN ALIVE AWARDS

EXHIBITION AND TALKS ON TOUR 2013 Animator 2012

Creator 2012

Strategist 2012

Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka

Robert Konieczny

Wojciech Szczurek

director of School of Form architect

president of Gdynia

honourable mention

honourable mention

Aleksandra Gaca

Zdzisław Sobierajski

designer

entrepreneur

09–14/04 Milan Design Week, Milan 10–12/05 About Design, Gdańsk 05–09/06 DMY International Design Festival, Berlin 05–14/07 Gdynia Design Days, Gdynia 06–22/09 Wawa Design Festival, Warszawa Partners:

www.designalive.pl/awards

photo: jan lutyk (1), rafał placek

Meet us at:

photo: Resident Spar floor light black projektu Jamie McLellan, courtesy of Resident

to see

Mi LA N 111

112 milan 2013 “I did not want to determine a direction, but I tried to look into the future.” – Jean Nouvel, architect, curator of SaloneUfficio

i Sa lo ni Text: ewa trzcionka

A

hundred journalists from all over the world: Brazil, China, Russia, USA, UK, Mexico, India, Argentina, Japan and Poland, to name just a few countries.

I am the only Polish journalist invited among over 6500 journalists accredited to iSaloni each year to get to know the secrets of the next edition of the Salone Internazionale del Mobile fair in five days and enter the bloodstream of Milan – the city that has design in its DNA. We started with an international press conference on the top floor of the UniCredit skyscraper.

“From that spot one clearly sees that iSaloni is the commercial heart of this city. Politics, culture and economy listen to one another here,” says Claudio Luti, head of Kartell and the new president of Cosmit, which is the fair’s organizer. He reckons that iSaloni is an engine for the Italian economy. “Crisis or no crisis, our factories work at full steam because we have extraordinary culture and tradition in this area, as well as courage to take a risk and introduce innovations,” he adds.

A section devoted to office (or work area) equipment is hoped to surprise the audience this year. Jean Nouvel, a wellknown French architect and a curator of this section, explains its concept thus: “I did not want to determine a direction, but I tried to look into the future.

I see there multidisciplinary teams of specialists working in an interchangeable and flexible manner. I see there that we increasingly often work from home and we sometimes bring our home to the office. We domesticate work,

which penetrates our lives. At times we also take work with us when we go to town or on a journey. All that influences space and equipment design. We search for warmth, safety and intimacy.

Other special guests of the conference were world-famous designers: Patricia Urquiola, Pierro Lissoni and Antonio Citteiro, whose design studios are located in Milan itself; we had an opportunity to visit them as well.

“I am often asked: Why go to Milan if everything is online? I reply that this is like comparing real love with love online. Milan during this April week of design is an entirely different city: it is a multinational explosion of creativity and an experience of work done by so many people,” Lissoni insisted. For Urquiola, in turn, iSaloni is the real New Year and she counts the time to that date in April: “Preparations for this celebration are filled with immense work, but also with joy because another year begins”.

The iSaloni fair shall take place for the 52nd time; last year it had 330,000 visitors. As always, the fair will play host to the biggest market players in the sector of interior furnishing: Vitra, Kartell, Magis, Flos, Cappellini... over 2500 exhibitors overall. Apart from the main fair, we shall see young talented designers at SaloneSatellite, lighting at Euroluce and offices at Salone Ufficio. “What happens at the fair is the most important business event in our trade, but other activities which draw the crowd supplement our fair. Without those lively events we would be incomplete,” states Luti. www.cosmit.it

Photo: courtesy of cosmit

Technologists from Kartell laboratories have only recently managed to produce the plastic armchair by Joe Colombo, though he designed it in the 1960s. Presented at last year’s iSaloni fair, the armchair enraptured the audience with the artistry of forming and joining of elements

designalive.pl

114 MiLAN 2013

FU ORI Sa lo ne Text: wojciech trzcionka photo: Mark Whitfield

W

hen hundreds of exhibitors do business in Milan’s fair zone, the city “fuori Salone” (Italian for “outside the fair”) changes into the world’s centre of trends.

Last year, Milan’s celebration of design created a new space – MOST (after Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci at Via San Vittore), arranged by Tom Dixon, the well-known British designer. The designers’ work was presented there among great ships and submarines, robots worked next to age-old steam engines and guests ordered

dishes via Facebook while sitting in rustic interiors converted into a restaurant.

This year, Dixon is coming back to that extraordinary museum to show not only his own novelties, but also those of other companies and designers. One of these will be the Ming collection created by Neri&Hu studio from Shanghai, China for the Japanese brand Stellar Works. The Ming furniture and accessories combine craft tradition with new manufacturing technologies, constituting an eclectic mixture of Asian decorative art and Western functionality. The exhibition of Stellar Works will also present the newest works

by Space Cph, a Danish studio which designed and furnished the interiors of

Noma in Copenhagen, considered the best restaurant in the world. Another intriguing event shall be “Light Years From Home”, a lighting exhibition by Resident – a New Zealand brand incredibly combining ceramics with noble metals.

While at the world’s biggest celebration of design, one must not omit the Ventura Lambrate zone, where the avant-garde of design has been active since 2010.

In various spaces of the district, European design schools, organizations and studios present bold concepts, experiments with new materials and unconventional ideas and manifestations. It is there that one comes to learn trends for the upcoming years. This year, Łódź

Design Festival shall be present in VL for the second time: it is going to show an exhibition entitled “Must have”. Śląski Klaster Designu, in turn, is going to put up an exhibition of Silesia’s achievements in the field of design.

At the 2011 London Design Festival, a new zone appeared: Designjunction made the audience go into raptures right away because the best design was shown in marvellous interiors of an old tram depot. The next year was even better – excellent design was exhibited in London’s old post sorting office. This year, Designjunction is going to appear in Italy, under the name of “Edit”. During Milan’s events it shall be located in

the extraordinary interiors of La Pelota, an old sports hall at Via Palermo – in the heart of the exclusive Brera district where the most distinguished brands have their showrooms. The media patron of “Edit” is Design Alive. “Milan is the most important meeting place for world design and we want to be at the heart of these events,” says Deborah Spencer, director of Designjunction.

Designjunction shall also present “Designlink.pl”, a Polish exhibition organized by the Creative Project Foundation with participation of “Design Alive”. www.mostsalone.com, www.venturaprojects.com www.thedesignjunction.co.uk

London’s old post sorting office, where Designjunction enthralled the audience with a fresh look and a mixture of business attitude with conceptual courage. Pendant fixtures by Innermost, a standing lamp and a mirror

by Gubi, a sofa by Hitch Mylius with a blanket

by Wallace & Sewell.

A table to the left by De la Espada with a bowl

by Plus Stone. A carpet on the floor by Helen Yardley. Yellow stools

by Artek, round tables

by E15 and armchair by Fritz Hansen

designalive.pl

Ming Collection projektu Neri & Hu, courtesy of Camron PR

116 MILAN 2013

9-14 04 2013

see you!

events 117

CALENDAR april–december 2013 APRIL Salone Internazionale del Mobile 9-14/04 Milan www.cosmit.it The most important furniture fair in the world: it is at iSaloni in Milan that the greatest brands present their hottest novelties, up-and-coming talents are discovered and new interior trends appear. The fair is taking place for the 52nd time; last year it attracted over 330,000 visitors and almost 3,000 exhibitors from all over the world. The main programme, created with the interior decoration sector in mind, is accompanied by “solution seeking” and conceptual exhibitions and presentations.

Design Miami/Basel 11-16/06 Basel (Switzerland) www.designmiami.com Every year, this event connects two distant continents, Europe and North America, because it has two parts: in Miami (December) and in Basel (June). Each edition has the following slogan: “The Global Forum for Design”. Design Miami/Basel features presentations by galleries and museums from all over the world, and the exhibition part is accompanied by panel discussions and other events. This event is especially important for collectors from all over the world because it is in Basel that one can encounter exciting and often unique designs from small offices, workshops and studios.

MAY

SEPTEMBER

Clerkenwell Design Week 21-23/05 London www.clerkenwelldesignweek.com

Helsinki Design Week 6-16/09 Helsinki www.helsinkidesignweek.com

Every year CDW strengthens its position among British design events. It is located in the office district of London, among showrooms of many companies dealing with design, architecture and trends. All these offices and studios open their doors for visitors for the three-day festival because the whole district lives and breathes the event.

Last year CDW had over 30,000 visitors and approximately 150 brands from all over the world presented their achievements.

Professionals talk about design and its role in the capital of Finland. The festival is going to take place a year after the events connected with the World Design Capital, into which Helsinki transformed for 2012. This year, the Design Week’s motto is “Action!”. As always, during the event we shall also learn the names of the “Best Of Helsinki” competition winners. The festival is taking place for the 9th time.

International Contemporary Furniture Fair 18-21/05 New York www.icff.com, www.designweeknyc.org This year ICFF is celebrating an anniversary: it will take place for the 25th time. The organizers expect 500 exhibitors from 30 countries and over 26,000 visitors, all involved in the design sector.

The following brands have already confirmed their participation: Artek USA, Bernhardt Design, Brizo, Fermob, Jake Dyson LLP, molo, Rich Brilliant Willing, Tom Dixon and Vitra. The fair will be accompanied by meetings, conferences and workshops, as well as the events of Design Week New York City.

JUNE Belgrade Design Week 3-9/06 Belgrade (Serbia) www.belgradedesignweek.com For 8 years, the capital of Serbia has played host to the biggest design event in the Balkans. The invitation to the Design Week is accepted not only by designers from Serbia and neighbouring countries, but also by creators from other parts of the world.

DMY International Design Festival 5-9/06 Berlin www.dmy-berlin.com For the 11th time the German capital will transform into a platform for contemporary design.

As always, we can expect many pioneering solutions and a multitude of conceptual designs created worldwide. The festival is located at the closed Tempelhof airport. Beside exhibitions, DMY features panel discussions, meetings and workshops. It has several sections: DMY Exhibitor, DMY New Talents, DMY Universities, DMY Market and DMY Satellite.

Paris Design Week 9-15/09 Paris www.parisdesignweek.fr A festival where design, fashion, graphics and art all have equal rights. The event plays host to European brands and designers, but a significant number of premières are prepared by French designers. This year’s edition is the third one; last year, the festival had well over 50,000 visitors.

London Design Festival 14-22/09 London www.londondesignfestival.com 11th edition of Great Britain’s most important design event. Every year the festival presents a multitude of novelties in all its locations, including the 100% Design and Tent London fairs. Pay attention to Global Design Forum, too – introduced last year, it plays host to the world’s most outstanding personalities, who talk about design.

Vienna Design Week 27/09-06/10 Vienna www.viennadesignweek.at The festival in the capital of Austria is taking place for the 7th time. During the Design Week, Vienna advertises itself as “A City Full of Design”, and so the festival’s events are scattered all over the city, in a few dozen locations. Each year VDW has tens of thousands of visitors, too.

OCTOBER Łódź Design Festival 17-27/10 Łódź (Poland) www.lodzdesign.com Poland’s most important design event is taking place for the 7th time. It is devoted to various aspects of design. A significant part of the festival are competitions, including “make me!” for young creators.

Dutch Design Week 19-27/10 Eindhoven (Holland) www.dutchdesignweek.nl The small Dutch city of Eindhoven is the source of the latest trends. You will leave no other event with so many ideas. The Design Week is eagerly followed by designers from all over the world and over 1500 designers and artists present their works here every year. This edition will be the 12th one.

NOVEMBER IDA Congress 15-17/11 Istanbul www.idacongress.com A large forum not only for discussions, but also a fair and exhibitions. This year’s main theme is “Design Dialects” with two subtitles: “confrontation” and “collaboration”. Turkey will receive speakers and exhibitors from all over the world.

DECEMBER Miami/Basel 4-8/12 Miami (USA) www.designmiami.com This is the American part of the festival which takes place on two continents. The European part is held in Basel in spring, while in autumn the lovers of unique design must travel to the American coast. It is here that actors and other famous people buy exceptional objects. This year the event will feature Global Forum for Design: the world’s most eminent minds are sure to come to Miami.

Business of Design Week 2-7/12 Hong Kong www.bodw.com Designers, brands and companies from all over the world participate in this conference. Beside the presentation of achievements from Asian countries, the organizers focus on showing the capabilities of countries from other parts of the globe; this year, Belgian design will be the special guest.

Maison&Objet 6-10/09 Paris www.maison-objet.com The fair takes place twice a year; the first edition this year was organized in January. The event mainly concerns interior furnishings; the September edition shall be linked with Paris Design Days.

The fair reaches beyond France: it has already been held in Moscow and next year it is taking place in Shanghai.

designalive.pl

118 Strong back

LIGHT SHOW

Let them fall in love, inebriate themselves with sweetness Let them agonise, suffer bitter punishment Let the emotion cut through the heart like a ray of Proxima Centauri

Light Show at the Hayward Gallery in London, is the first European exhibition that showcases distinguished artists and their works created since the 1960s to the present day. As one critic put it, “a dazzling light show that takes visitors to the Moon�. Each of more than 20 works explores a different aspect of light such as colour, intensity, duration or its perceptual phenomena.

The photo: Carlos Cruz-Diez's Protect-mosaturation (2008).

Photograph: Linda Nylind

designalive.pl

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www.parisdesignweek.fr

designalive.pl

Part of

* Next meeting: 8-14 September 2014. preview, © Getty Images, GraphicObsession. SAFI organisation, a subsidiary of Ateliers d’Art de France and Reed Expositions France

120 Dział

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