Werner Aisslinger is a multiple award-winning product designer and co-founder of the Berlin Design Festival DMY. For his current exhibition at Haus am Waldsee in Berlin, he transformed the venue into a “Home of the Future”. Home of the Future is Werner Aisslinger’s first institutional survey exhibition in Germany. The show presents his central theme of material transfer in the form of numerous pieces of furniture and objects. On display, among other things, are modular construction kits, such as stowage spaces and shelves, the renowned Loftcube installation of 2007 in the sculpture garden at Haus am Waldsee, as well as energy storage and renewable furniture, Aisslinger‘s most recent ventures.

Werner Aisslinger: Home of the Future at Haus am Waldsee, Berlin. Interviews with Katja Blomberg (Director, Haus am Waldsee) and Werner Aisslinger. Berlin, Germany, April 21, 2013. Video by Frantisek Zachoval.

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Werner Aisslinger was born in 1964 in Nördlingen, Germany. He studied Design at the University of Arts (Hochschule der Künste) in Berlin. He freelanced at Jasper Morrison and Ron Arad in London, and founded Studio Aisslinger in 1993. During his career, he received numerous prestigious awards. His work is part of permanent collections of international museums such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the French Fonds National d´Art Contemporain in Paris, the Museum Neue Sammlung in Munich, and the Vitra Design Museum in Weil, Germany. His company has offices in Berlin and Singapore. Werner Aisslinger lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

One of his most spectacular works is the so-called LoftCube, a mobile house that can be relocated to a new place by helicopter, similar to Matti Suuronen’s famous Futuro. But Werner Aisslinger’s approach is based on the use of the latest technologies, materials and techniques, rather than on futuristic looks. His “Juli chair” was the first item of furniture to use a new type of foam called “polyurethane integral foam” and became the first German chair design to be selected as a permanent exhibit at the MoMA in New York since 1964.

“Nowadays, future is not about spaceship design, it’s more about systems, about special ideas, which have an impact on your daily life.”

One of the ideas is the concept of upcycling and tuning: prolonging life cycles of products. Another is, also with sustainability in mind, the plantation of products:

“My future vision is that products are planted, that there’s plantations of products, it’s not industrial production any more: You buy some seed in a shop, one is a chair, one is table, the other is whatever, lamp, and then you kind of plant your own products.”

Other projects Werner Aisslinger presents in his exhibition are focusing on urban farming and aquaponics. The retrospective runs until June 9, 2013.

Ideas City is a four-day, biennial festival of conferences, workshops, and an streetfest in New York. Ideas City was founded by the New Museum in 2011. It’s a major collaborative initiative between hundreds of arts, education, and community organizations. Ideas City explores the future of cities around the globe with a focus on arts and culture. The 2013′s theme was Untapped Capital, focusing on resources that are under-recognized or underutilized in our cities. In this video, we attend the Ideas City StreetFest on 4th May, 2013 and have a look at what ideas artists, architects, poets, technologists, and other creative people have to shape their city.

Ideas City StreetFest, New Museum, New York. May 4, 2013. Video by Shimon Azulay.

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Luigi Colani is one of the most successful and controversial designers. The Swiss-born German industrial designer is known for his organic forms that he applied to products such as cars, airplanes, trucks, cameras, and furniture. In 2007, VernissageTV met Luigi Colani at his studio in Karlsruhe (Germany). In this interview, Colani looks back at his career and talks about the state of design.

In this excerpt of our 2007 interview with Luigi Colani, the designer talks about his beginnings as a designer. The complete interview is available after the break.

This is another segment in our series r3 that highlights the treasures of VernissageTV’s huge archive. R3 is a series of VernissageTV classics, now re-mastered, re-edited and reissued in High Definition. Click here for the complete list of videos. Click here for the original post. For more videos featuring Luigi Colani, click here! A re-mastered and re-edited version of our coverage of Luigi Colani’s exhibition at the Design Museum in London will be published in August, 2013.

Karlsruhe, March 29, 2007. Camera: Arno Dietsche. Interview / editing: Heinrich Schmidt.

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Complete interview (43:05 Min.):

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For the 2013 edition of the international art fair Art Stage in Singapore, the architectural practice WY-TO Architects created the entrance and the VIP lounge of the fair. WY-TO has offices in Singapore and Paris. The key element of WY-TO’s designs The Skeleton for the entrance and The Whirl for the VIP lounge is the oversized loom theme. In this video, the architect, designer and WY-TO founding partner Yann Follain talks about the basic idea and concept of WY-TO’s work for Art Stage Singapore. He also speaks about his background and design philosophy, his ambitions as designer and architect, and the challenges of working between East and West. Finally he provides us with an overview of WY-TO’s projects and an outlook on future projects. The video above is an excerpt, the complete interview is available after the break.

“Combining functionality and dream to create spaces for everyday life as well as exceptional occasions” is WY-TO’s credo. As Art Stage Singapore’s Associate Architectural Partner, WY-TO was responsible for the design of the entrance and the VIP lounge of the fair. WY-TO is based in Paris and Singapore. It was co-founded by Pauline Gaudry and Yann Follain. Both graduated from the Architecture School of Paris-Belleville in 2005. Gaudry and Follain both have a rich multicultural experience. They worked in Hong Kong, Goa, France, and Singapore. Recent projects include the exhibition design for Singapore’s ArtScience Museum’s Andy Warhol Show, and the designs for the new Natural History Museum of Singapore and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in Buenos Aires.

Interview with designer, architect, and co-founder of WY-TO Architects, Yann Follain at Art Stage Singapore 2013. January 25, 2013.

PS: Click here for our coverage of Art Stage Singapore.

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Complete interview (23:10 Min.):

LED lamps are known to be not only much more efficient, but also to last much longer than the traditional light bulbs. To highlight this advantage by contrasting it, the Swedish design studio Front came up with the idea to create an LED lamp whose form is built by soap bubbles – the Surface Tension Lamp. Part of the lamp is made of metal and LEDs, but what gives the lamp its fascinating design is the soap bubble that slowly builds and then bursts or glides to the floor and then builds again. In this video, Anna Lindgren and Sofia Lagerkvist of Front Design talk about the idea behind the lamp.

The Surface Tension Lamp is the first result of BOOO Lab. BOOO Lab is part of BOOO, a team of experts from different fields that work in the space between avant-garde design and the consumer market. BOOO is based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The BOOO Lab represents BOOO’s experimental projects and commissions. The Surface Tension Lamp is produced by BOOO in an edition of twenty pieces.

Front Design: Surface Tension Lamp / BOOO at Design Miami 2012.

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This video provides you with a walkthrough of the design fair Design Miami in Miami Beach on the occasion of the Preview event on December 4, 2012. The participating design galleries come from all over the world, presenting 20th and 21st century furniture, lighting and objets d’art. Pablo Reinoso, Robert Stadler, Ron Arad, Zaha Hadid, Gerrit Th. Rietveld, Maarten De Ceulaer, Pieke Bergmans, and many others.

Design Miami 2012. Preview, December 4, 2012.

Coming soon: Interview with Swedish design studio Front, who talk about their Surface Tension Lamp at the booth of Booo in the Design On/Site section of the fair.

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Since the debut in 2009, Beijing Design Week 北京国际设计周 has become an annual International celebration of design and creativity in China, a model set for local communities, and a cultural event for the World. The event is organized into several sections and areas.

The 751 D-Park Tank is one of the premier cultural and creative clusters in Beijing, blending its old industrial landscape with design, fashion and promoting International design exchanges. In exhibition there are works by Design Lobby, Yi Jian Zhai by Space Magazine, Unmade in China, Crystal Design Architects, Republic Space, Nike Flyknit Collective, as well as Dutch Design on the Move.

Caochangdi area presents CCD – The Community Project, a creative incubator hosting a research program rethinking synergies across art, design and technology, to shape encounters among intersecting communities of local and international professionals, innovative makers and thinkers. On display works by RAWR Laboratory, Naihanli & Co., Carl De Smet/ Noumenon Design, installations by Zhang Ke, The Real Network project, The Mobile Museum by Fabrica designers Dean Brown & Philip Bone, Instant City by Blinking City project and TJ China Project Room with Shinpei Takeda installation between others.

IOWA Creative Community in Caochangdi is a very special buzzing art space, a compound of seven greenhouses becoming a residence for young artist and designers, involving drawing, sculpture, installation, video, comic, industrial design, architecture and furniture. The studios are open for the whole week showing works by Zhang Qiang, Elan Zeng, Xia Gao Qiang, Diana Coca – Coca Productions & Paloma Bouteleux from Mira Mira Studio.

Dashilar Alley offers a series of offsite exhibitions, pop-up shops and events. The area in the centre of town, near Tian’nanmen, shows how Beijing’s traditional hutong alleyways and siheyuan courtyards houses can be re-envisioned by creative industries and communities. Designs by Lulu LI, Linlinsays & Jellymon, Lost & Found, Campana Brothers project Brachina, Michael Rogers Arctic Flowers series, Royal College of Art (London) works by the new Interior Design course, Metrobags by Markus M. Schneider with Zhang Muyao, Nono Muaks design, Tangroulou clothes and accessories for kids and the Wuhao Curated Shop with works by Petite Friture, Ibride and Xie Dong.

北京国际设计周 Beijing Design Week 2012. Beijing 北京, China, September 28, 2012. Video: Diana Coca.

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Interview with Car Designer Mark Stehrenberger. The designer, illustrator and artist talks about his career, his current and future projects, and gives his opinion on the state of current automotive design. Mark Stehrenberger is especially known for his illustration of future cars for car magazines such as Road & Track, Auto, Motor und Sport. He is also called the “father of spy shots”. The video above is an excerpt, the complete interview (51:20 min.) is available after the break.

Car enthusiasts know the work of designer and illustrator Mark Stehrenberger from his illustrations in major car magazines such as Road & Track and Auto, Motor und Sport. In his distinctive drawing style and technique, he reveals the design of future models from the world’s carmakers. He is considered as the father of today’s spy shots. While millions of readers know Stehrenberger’s car illustrations, not as many know the person behind the work and his other activities. His company MSD Mark Stehrenberger Design with studios in Ventura, California, and Montreux, Switzerland, he has established an international reputation as consultant to major car makers, and helped creating new automotive trends. He is also active in other design areas, and for fun, he loves to design, develop, and market novelty/gift products.

VernissageTV visited Mark Stehrenberger in his studio in Ventura, California, to talk with the Swiss-born designer about his career, the current state of car design, and his current projects. In this conversation, Mark Stehrenberger let’s us know why he emigrated to the US, how he got into the business of car illustrations, what the ingredients of good automobile design are, what he thinks about the new Volkswagen Golf and the design of other cars – and why he loves his Fiat Multipla, by many considered as the ugliest car ever.

Interview with Automotive Designer Mark Stehrenberger. Ventura, California, September 17, 2012.

PS: More interviews with Mark Stehrenberger: Persoenlich.com; Vecturamag.ch; VeloceToday.com.

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Complete interview (51:20 min.):

Mark Stehrenberger was born in Muttenz, Switzerland, in 1943. Driven by the desire to become car designer, he emigrated to the United States. After his studies at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, he founded MSD Mark Stehrenberger Design in 1969. In 1983, he opened a design studio with Alain Clenet in Santa Barbara, California, designing and developing concept cars for international carmakers. He went solo again with MSD in 1988, and later opened a branch in Switzerland to better serve European clients. Mark has also taught Transportation Design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and Art Center Europe in Vevey, Switzerland for over 15 years.

The exhibition Pop Art Design at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein explores the dialog between design and art in the era of Pop Art. Pop Art Design includes works by artists such as Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, and Roy Lichtenstein, which are contrasted by design objects by Charles & Ray Eames, George Nelson, Ettore Sottsass, Achille Castiglioni, and other designers of the time. The show is complemented by exhibits such as album covers, magazines, and contemporary interior photos.

Pop Art Design at Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein (Germany), October 12, 2012.

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At the Venice Architecture Biennial 2012, the artist Olafur Eliasson showed his “Little Sun” solar lamp, that is also part of an installation presented in the main exhibition “Common Ground”. For the installation, Olafur Eliasson attached two Little Sun lamps to a fan. When the fan is on, the individual lights create a continuous ring of light.

The Little Sun lamp is a work of art / product of LittleSun GmbH, a company founded by artist Olafur Eliasson and engineer Frederik Ottesen. LittleSun aims to make sustainable light available anywhere. In this video the Managing Director of LittleSun, Felix Hallwachs, tells us more about the little solar lamp.

Olafur Eliasson: Little Sun. Venice Architecture Biennale 2012: Common Ground. 13th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Venice (Italy), August 29, 2012.

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The story of the iconic Freitag bag made of used truck tarpaulin began in Zurich (Switzerland) in 1993, when the two brothers and keen cyclists Daniel and Markus Freitag were looking for a practical and waterproof messenger bag. As they couldn’t find one that suited their needs, they just produced one themselves. The inspiration came from the trucks that passed by in front of their students flat. First the Freitag brothers sewed together bags made of used truck tarps, car seat belts and bicycle inner tubes just for themselves and their friends. But the uniquely designed bag became popular and even cult.

Today the Freitag brothers and their company are a both a prominent part of the urban street scene as well as a model of the (not only Swiss) creative industry. Time for the Museum of Design Zurich (Museum für Gestaltung Zürich) to have a closer look at company and their individual recycled freeway bags. The first Freitag retrospective called Freitag – Out of the Bag takes a look behind the scenes and spotlights the history, products, manufacture, organization, marketing of Freitag. Rather than just showing the bags, which can be seen in the streets of cities all over the world, the show presents material from the company archive, observations in film, prototypes, and a number of interviews.

VernissageTV met up with Daniel Freitag and the curator of the exhibition Freitag – Out of the Bag, Renate Menzi to talk about the company and the exhibition, and to follow them on a tour through the show. The above video is a video summary of the exhibition and the interviews. The complete videos can be viewed after the break. Daniel Freitag speaks about the secret of Freitag’s success, their design philosophy, what inspires them, how the brothers work together, the essence of a Freitag product, sustainability, different tastes across the world, future projects – and why he wears a beard. Curator Renate Menzi provides us with an introduction to the exhibition, and points to two different scenarios for the future of the company. The exhibition Freitag – Out of the Bag at Museum of Design Zurich runs until July 29, 2012.

Freitag – Out of the Bag. Retrospective at the Museum of Design Zurich (Museum für Gestaltung Zürich). Interview with Daniel Freitag and Renate Menzi (Museum of Design), Zürich / Switzerland, May 9, 2012.

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The Freitag brothers won numerous awards with their bags and their company. This is a selection of the distinctions awarded: In 1997 they won Distinction, Design Preis Schweiz; in 2003 the Top Cat model is accepted into the design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA); in 2003 the Freitag brothers won Gold for the F-CUT by the Art Directors Club Switzerland in the category of Electronic Publishing; in 2007 they won the Golden Pencil for Environmental Design / Retail & Services, D&AD Global Awards; in 2009 they received the Design Prize of the Federal Republic of Germany: Gold for the F-Shop in Zurich in the Product Design category; in 2011 they won the 6th Zurich entrepreneur award for innovative, sustainable and commercially successful work.

Interview with Daniel Freitag (19:01 Min.):

Almost twenty years after the launch of the first product, the original bag is still the best-selling, but is complemented by additional lines and products. There are 40 models of the Freitag Fundamentals range, and 17 Freitag Reference models. The Freitag brothers expect this year’s sale to reach about 300,000 items. The company employs a staff of 130, and processes around 400 metric tons of truck tarpaulins. The Freitag products are sold through 400 sales partners, the online shop, and nine of its own F-Stores in Berlin, Cologne, Davos, Hamburg, Tokyo, and Vienna, including one across the New Museum in New York and their spectacular flagship store in Zürich, built from shipping containers.

Künstlergespräch mit Daniel Freitag und Kuratorin Renate Menzi (in German language) (58:02 Min.):

Each Freitag bag is made from original truck tarpaulins of different colors, markings and contours, thus every Freitag product is a one-off. Another key element of the design is the green aspect, the use of second-hand material. This is also the biggest constraint on growth: Finding enough suitable tarpaulin for the products.

Photo set on Flickr:

Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity is the title of an exhibition at The Wolfsonian-FIU design museum in Miami Beach that has a look at French design from the 1940s to today. On display are furniture, industrial design, and craft by some of the most celebrated French designers. The show presents models, prototypes and mass-produced designs by Philippe Starck, Pierre Charpin, Laurent Massaloux, Jérôme Olivet, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Piere Paulin, Michel Ducaroy, Martin Szekely, Jean Royère, Serge Mouille, Jean Prouvé, and Roger Tallon, among others.

In this video, Marianne Lamonaca talks about how this exibition came about, the concept of the show, the collaboration between the curators, characteristics of French design, and the future of design. The video above is an excerpt. The video in full-length (11:56 min.) and more information are available after the break.

Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity: French Design from the 1940s to Today / The Wolfsonian-FIU, Miami Beach. Interview with Marianne Lamonaca (Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs and Education, The Wolfsonian–FIU). Miami Beach, December 2, 2011.

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Complete Interview (11:56 Min.):

The show borrows its title from the French national motto Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité and investigates how French design embodies the ideas that have defined French public life. It explores French design and its relationship to national identity. For the exhibition design the curatorial team conceived a system of wood units that are painted in the colors of the French flag. They serve as stools, pedestals, and other display elements, and are based on Swiss-born French architect Le Corbusier’s Modulor, a measuring system derived from the proportions of the human body.

The exhibition Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity is based on the design objects of the Centre national des arts plastiques in Paris. It has been realized in a collaboration between The Wolfsonian’s Marianne Lamonaca, and France-based design professionals Matali Crasset, M/M (Paris) (Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak), and Alexandra Midal.

Philippe Starck is one of the best-known French designers. In the 1990s, Starck as artistic director developed a series of consumer electronics prototypes for Tim Thom, the research and development department of the French electronics company Thomson. Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity presents several prototypes of this Dream Products series, such as the Perso portable videophone or the Krazy Jacket personal stereo.

Another section is dedicated to the work of Roger Tallon (1929-2011), one of the most important French industrial designers. Tallon gave form to hundreds of products as diverse as silverware, chairs, typewriters, tv sets, watches, refrigerators, industrial robots, and trains. On display at The Wolfsonian are his TS folding chair (1967), the Pin Spot floor lamp (1972), and the Portavia P111 portable television (1963), among others.

“Form is Process”. “Mass Customization”. “Infinite Infinities”. “Number is All”. “The Moral Justification for Modernist Standardization… is no more”. “Professor Lalvani is continuing to explore the fundamental principles of geometry where Fuller left off”. This is what Design Miami visitors could read on the walls of the booth of the design gallery Moss from New York. We wanted to know what’s behind the handwritings on the wall and what is so special about the aesthetic, shining white objects that were on display.

We had the chance to speak with Murray Moss, the founder of the gallery about the creative mind behind the objects, Haresh Lalvani, and his mathematical approach to design. In this video, Murray Moss tells us how he got to know about the person and work, and the reason behind the presentation of Haresh Lalvani’s work at Design Miami. He talks about the concept of Moss’s booth at Design Miami, and illustrates Haresh Lalvani’s ideas by explaining the design and production process of the fruit platter, that Moss presented at the design fair. Furthermore he hints at the implications of what the mathematics based mass customization might have for the future of design.

Within the framework of Moss’s exhibition entitled Dr. Haresh Lalvani: Mass Customization of Emergent Designs, two collections were on display: Morphing Fruit Platters 1D Series 300 and HyperSurface. The Fruit Platter series consists of 1,000 variations. Each plate is numbered and sold with a DVD showing an animation of the morphing that determines the design of the plates.

Dr. Haresh Lalvani is Professor of Architecture at Pratt Institute, New York. He is architect, but also sculptor, inventor, and morphologist. For over thirty years, Haresh Lalvani has been working to identify the basic principles that define all forms, both those found in nature as well as those man-made.

Since its inception in 1994, the design gallery Moss has presented artist and designers such as Maarten Baas, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Studio Job, Tord Boontje, Gaetano Pesce, Hella Jongerius, Peter Marigold, Oscar Magnus Narud, Cathy McClure, Kiki van Eijk, Joost van Bleiswijk, Tokujin Yoshioka, Massimiliano Adami, and Andrea Salvetti.

Haresh Lalvani: Mass Customization of Emergent Designs at Moss Gallery, Design Miami 2011, in collaboration with Milgo / Bufkin. Interview with Murray Moss, December 3, 2011.

PS: See also Steven Mesler on Haresh Lalvani at Huffington Post. For more info use our custom search engine to find news, videos, and photos on Haresh Lalvani:

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PPS: Click here for the complete interview.

Full-length video (09:05 Min.):

For Design Miami 2011, Galerie VIVID of Rotterdam realized its second solo presentation with works by Studio Job. The main attraction of the presentation are five new unique pieces, Containers II. In this video, VIVID Gallery Co-Founder Aad Krol talks about Studio Job and their new works.

In 2010 Studio Job created Piece for Peace in association with the Belgian crystal producer Val Saint Lambert. The piece was designed for the Cabinet of Van Rompuy, President of the European Council in Brussels. During a visit to the company, Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel discovered a large supply of hundered years old, hand-blown crystal pieces that were never crafted into finished products. They selected five old vessels and designed a new series of unique pieces that they titled Containers II. The series includes a coffee pot, a waste basket, a pickelhaube, a saucepan and a saucepan. “Containers II are full of paradoxes: the functional and the surreal, rich and poor, good and evil, high culture and low pop.” (VIVID Gallery).

Galerie VIVID was founded by Saskia Copper and Aad Krol in 1999. The gallery was among the first to show contemporary design in the context of both design and art.

Studio Job: Containers II. VIVID Gallery, Rotterdam at Design Miami 2011. Interview with Aad Krol, December 3, 2011.

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The Design Miami satellite exhibition Architecting the Future: Buckminster Fuller & Lord Norman Foster in Miami’s Design District is dedicated to two iconic inventions by architect, designer and inventor Buckminster Fuller: the Fly’s Eye Dome and the Dymaxion 4 car.

In 1961, the Fly’s Eye Dome was envisioned by Fuller as a fully functional, air deployable, low cost off-the-grid shelter. Though never fully realized in his lifetime, Fuller created three prototypes – a 12, 24 and 50 foot dome. A historic restoration of the 24 foot dome was recently completed in Bristol, RI.

Also on display is Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion car. This ‘omni-directional transport system’ (patent 1937) was intended to fly, jump-jet style, when suitable alloys and engines became available. Three cars were produced in Fuller’s lifetime. Renowned contemporary architect Lord Norman Foster recently reconstructed Fuller’s Dymaxion Car in England – Dymaxion 4.

The 24 foot dome is a part of the Craig Robins Collection. It will be installed in a pedestrian plaza currently being developed in the heart of the Miami Design District.

Architecting the Future: Buckminster Fuller & Lord Norman Foster. Design District, Miami. Press reception, November 28, 2011.

PS: For a concept similar to Buckminster Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome, click here: Matti Suuronen’s Futuro – House of the Future.

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The High Line in New York City is a rather new place for New Yorkers to relax and enjoy the city. The pedestrian walkway and park was created by the non-profit Friends of the High Line along a former elevated rail spur in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The first section of the part, from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street, opened as a city park on June 8, 2009. Phase two of the High Line redevelopment opened in June 2011. In this video, we take a walk on the second section of the High Line, running from 20th to 30th Street.

When all sections are complete, the High Line will be a mile-and-a-half-long elevated park. The High Line is not only a remarkable piece of landscape architecture, designed by James Corner Field Operations with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, but also a place where contemporary art is presented to the public.

The Public Art program of the High Line consist of presenting temporary artworks in all mediums in and around the High Line on a rotating schedule. Currently on view are Darren Almond, Kim Beck, Spencer Finch, Charles Mary Kubricht, Julianne Swartz, Sarah Sze. There’s a list of recent and upcoming commissions on the Public Art page of the High Line’s website. See also our interviews with artist Kim Beck and curator Lauren Ross.

The High Line is such as success, that it inspires similar projects in other cities, but there are also doubts whether its success is replicable.

A Walk on the High Line. High Line Park, New York City. September 24, 2011.

PS: Hit the jump for photo set and full-length video.

PPS: See also the review by James Golden at ThinkinGardens and an essay by Phillip Lopate at Places (Design Observer).

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Full-length video (16:50 Min.):

Zaha Hadid is one of the world’s most popular architects and designers. The Iraqi-British architect created landmark buildings such as the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany; the Bergisel Ski Jump in Innsbruck, Austria; the Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion; the MAXXI – National Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Rome, Italy; the Guangzhou Opera House in Guangzhou, China; and the London Aquatics Centre in London, UK. In 2004 she became the first female recipient of the renowned Pritzker Architecture Prize.

The exhibition Form in Motion at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is the first in the United States that features her product designs. On display are works such as her three-wheeled Z-car I, Swarovski crystal–encrusted necklaces and bracelets, and shoes made for Lacoste and Melissa. The Zephyr sofa and the Z-Chair make their US-debut in this show. Zaha Hadid presents the objects in an architectural design that she developed specifically for the exhibition space of the museum.

In this video, Kathryn Bloom Hiesinger (Curator of European Decorative Arts after 1700, Philadelphia Museum of Art) talks about the concept of the exhibition and the exhibition architecture, the significance of Zaha Hadid and her influence on young architects and designers, the evolution of Zaha Hadid’s design language, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The above video is an excerpt, the complete interview is available after the jump.

On November 19, Collab, a group of design professionals and enthusiasts who support the Museum’s modern and contemporary design collection, will honor Zaha Hadid with the 2011 Design Excellence Award. Collab’s Student Design Competition (offered since 1993) challenges area college students studying architecture and industrial design to be inspired by themes closely associated with the Design Excellence Award winner and the corresponding exhibition.

Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Exhibition walk-through and interview with Kathryn Bloom Hiesinger (Curator of European Decorative Arts after 1700, Philadelphia Museum of Art). Philadelphia Museum of Art, Perelman Building, September 27, 2011.

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Complete interview (13:01 Min.): ...

In 2007, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam / Netherlands came into possession of the prototype of a quite spectacular piece of architecture: Finnish architect Matti Suuronen’s Futuro: house of the future.

With its distinctive flying saucer like shape Suuronen’s Futuro is an icon of 1960s design. In 1965 Matti Suuronen was commissioined to design a mobile holiday home that could be erected in poorly accessible skiing areas. The Futuro is made from polyester, measures about 3 x 8 meters, and was conceived for serial production. In part due to the oil crisis of 1973 the production was halted prematurely, but there are still a dozens of Futuros spread across the world.

The Futuro is now on display for the first time after its restoration at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen as centerpiece of the exhibition Futuro – Constructing Utopia, which also presents twenty prints and approximately a hundred design objects from the museum’s collection.

On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition Futuro – Constructing Utopia at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen VernissageTV met up with Jonieke van Es. She is Head of Collections & Research at the museum and tells us more about the history and concept of the Futuro, how the prototype came into possession of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and how it was restored, the Futuro’s relevance as a design icon, and its future use at the museum.

PS: Another Futuro is being restored currently at the University of Canberra.

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The exhibition i-Kosmos (i-Cosmos) at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt am Main is an investigation on the role of design for the success of Apple in the computer and entertainment business. i-Cosmos: The Might, Myth and Magic of a Brand is the world’s first comprehensive show on the design of iDevices as well as their parallel and peripheral products.

Always the brand for people of the creative industry, Apple is no longer a niche player. The market capitalization of the company has even surpassed that of Microsoft. When Wired magazine called to pray for Apple with its June 2007 cover, most people were sure that the company was doomed. With the return of co-founder Steve Jobs, the success story began again: Mac OS X (the new operating system), the iMac, iPod, iTunes, and finally iPhone and iPad.

If you understand design as to be more than styling, more then adding colors and lines according to the latest fashion, and more than adding functions and technology just because it’s available and feasible, then Apple might be one of the few companies today that very consequently use design to create useful products that are reduced to the maximum: the maximum functionality, desireability, salability. The curators of the exhibition state that Apples iDevices have each caused a paradigm shift in their product genres.

Hit the jump for a photo gallery and the press release. The exhibition is running until May 8, 2011.

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Press release:
In March 2011, the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt will present the exhibition “iCosmos: The Might, Myth and Magic of a Brand” – the world’s first comprehensive show on the design of iDevices as well as their parallel and peripheral products.

Apple Inc., the Californian computer company, has been marked by unparalleled success over the past three and a half decades. Like no other company, it has succeeded in shifting the focus of use from utility to coveted possessions when it comes to computers and electronic entertainment devices such as the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.

In addition, each of the products in the i-family have changed their product genres technologically and ergonomically to such an extent that not only have all competitors adopted these new “user guidances,” but hundreds of complementary products have been created around these products as well, from a wide range of accessories to docking stations, i.e., veritable radios with external speakers for the iPods and iPhones that allow users to experience the stored music without headphones.

The iPhone has compelled all manufacturers of mobile phones to add smart phones with touch sensitive screens, the touch phones, to their programs. And the iPad will fundamentally transform the handling of video and news as well. Since the introduction of the iPhone, more than 200,000 special application programs, the so-called apps, have been made available for these i-devices.

In their product genres, these devices have each caused a paradigm shift: they are both leading and cult products, and they represent a development that has leveraged the mobile Internet and delocalized the act of surfing from the home to almost anywhere.

The exhibition and the accompanying catalog document and comment upon this process of “disruptive technologies,” which has taken place only very rarely in the history of technology and design. They leaf through the preconditions and position these innovative devices in product-historical, social, and psychological contexts. “Spiegel” magazine correctly wrote: “The i-cult. How Apple seduces the world.” But beyond any seduction, the “i-cosmos” represents a changed handling of information, media, and entertainment.

For the “Aquariva by Marc Newson”, Marc Newson has partnered with Riva and their official designers, Officina Italiana Design, to reinterpret the “Aquariva” speedboat. Riva is an Italian boat-maker that became famous for its mahogany range of boats. Riva produced boats that were the equivalent to luxury cars such as Ferrari or Rolls-Royce and were bought by royals, sportsmen, actors and celebrities. In 1969, the first fiberglass yacht appeared. Since the year 2000, Riva is owned by the Ferretti Group. Since joining the Feretti Group, Riva has developed a portfolio of 11 models ranging from 33 to 115 meters. New models such as the Aquariva series are designed by Mauro Micheli and Sergio Beretta, founders of Officina Italian Design.

With the “Aquariva by Marc Newson” (presented in September 2010 at Gagosian Gallery New York) the designers chose a wood-like, textile-based laminate (phenolic composite) for the deck area and instrument panel. This material was developed in the first half of the 20th century, and was a precursor of fibreglass. It has an organic feel and aesthetic, but is more durable than wood. Newson also used anodized aluminium instead of stainless steel and chrome brass, to give the exterior a more high tech look. The US launch of the “Aquariva by Marc Newson” took place during Art Basel Miami Beach at André Balazs’ The Standard Hotel & Spa. VernissageTV had that chance to exchange a view words with André Balazs (André Balazs Properties) and Sergio Beretta and Mauro Micheli (Officina Italiana Design), who collaborated with Marc Newson on the Aquariva by Marc Newson design.

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