El Banquero

What do you do if you want to sit down and there's no chair handy? You take a tree stump, a concrete block, or a suitcase as emergency seating. Although it looks more DIY-fun if you take this or that element and combine them to create seating of your own choice.

Salone 2: New interiors are all the rage, gold and saddle leather seem to be must-haves, color is even more important – and one company is really going big time.

What happens if fashion and furniture embark on a relationship? We’ve made a few matches for you from among the novelties at the Milan Salone and the catwalk couture for the coming winter season. All just coincidence?

Milan in the days of the Salone and Fuori Salone – is a hodgepodge of impressions, encounters and cameo stories. In terms of form and content, they are as different as, say, people, furniture, brands, and markets.

Lounging and dreaming in the big outdoors, preferably on huge sofas and comfy daybeds, into which we lightly sink and forget the everyday rat race.

A little bit of happiness just outside the door: seating furniture, light, delicate, flexible and anything but clunky.

No, there was no revolt. Even Ventura Lambrate had nothing on offer that even came close to a taste of the future. Instead it was above all Konstantin Grcic who once again showed just what contemporary design can do.

Milan 2013, a mixture of prudence, consolidation and solid design work. A little less hype and fewer prototypes, too. This is certainly doing the industry good.

Gardenias, even the name has a special ring to it. In particular as the eponymous collection that Jaime Hayon designed for BD Barcelona offers more than just a touch of garden romanticism.

During imm Cologne, the Museum für Angewandte Kunst opened a special kind of exhibition: “Isn’t it romantic? – Contemporary Design Balancing between Poetry and Provocation”. An homage to the longing for a world that isn’t always perfect.

The imm Cologne is swiftly getting back on an even keel. And how are designers and manufacturers making use of the opportunity? A tour of the trade fair shows that they often resorted to the tried-and-true, reanimating and dressing it up for contemporary use. Even Konstantin Grcic opted for a tongue-in-cheek approach to a design classic.