Archive

: sandblasts Douglas firs to create objects of a silent elegance.

Guaranteed no “themed giant flumes” or “hot whirlpool” at Álvaro Siza’s “Piscinas de Marés”. Here you can immerse yourself in Portuguese Modernism.

Architects and designers naturally have their own view on houses, people and exhibitions. So we asked a few of them for their photographic impressions of the 14th Architecture Biennale. And for their related comments of course.

May 28-30, 2014: Attending the third “Global Infrastructure Initiative” in Rio de Janeiro, organized by McKinsey & Co. The gathering is dominated by an almost limitless optimism about the blessings of technology and the belief that innovation by the infrastructure sector (coupled to extravagant funds) will eventually cure all the contemporary city’s ails…

Life is pretty hot in the desert, at least during the day. So what could be more handy than a pool to cool off in. Or to lie in pondering life, the universe. Just be sure to remember the key.

For the architects Meixner Schlüter Wendt planning a high-rise is normally a fascinating task. In designing the new Henninger Turm in Frankfurt/Main they show how living in a high-rise can be both personalized and attractive.

The Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin has announced a new corporate design along with a new font. “bayer next” by L2M3 borrows from the Universal font designed by Herbert Bayer in 1926 at the Bauhaus – carefully transposing it into the present.

Not that long ago the label “residential high-rise” brought to mind images of cheap tenements and social flashpoints. Thomas Wagner talked to Claudia Meixner and Florian Schlüter of Meixner Schlüter Wendt Architekten about new, attractive and high-quality projects.

And we continue our explorations at "3DaysofDesign" in Copenhagen to find out if it's really true the Danes produce their wares sustainably and in their own country.

Is there anything nicer than having a cool dip on a scorchingly hot day? Best of all downtown.

As regards design, Denmark certainly has its finger on the pulse of things. Is this anything more than a re-edition of Danish Modernism? Are objects being made sustainably inside Denmark? A trip to “3DaysofDesign” in Copenhagen provides the answers.

Forget about the mixed sauna! In Bochum, people not only analyze urban interstices, they also get in a sweat all by themselves.

Madrid’s architect duo of Langarita Navarro is among the emerging young representatives of the “Movida Madrileña”: Their latest work, the Medialab building for Prado, stands for an unpretentious and ironic take on history.

Acetate was invented about 150 years ago as the first bio-plastic. Today it is primarily used for spectacle frames. Young designers such as the likes of Jean Baptiste Fastrez, Joséphine Choquet and Virgile Thévoz also create frames, tables and luminaires from it.

The Berlin company “Dark Horse” consists of 30 partners who all have equal status – and has done so for five years. Can a hierarchy-free enterprise really succeed?

Take a backrest, a seat and four legs, add a touch of Scandinavia, pack it all in a box, and you’ve got “Kitt”, the breezy chair Stefan Diez designed for Hay.

Urban hurrah or unhappy rural exodus? People who live in the city are considered cosmopolitan. And yet: The flipside of this humungous influx to the cities reveals quite a different kind of international living: poor cosmopolitans, deprived of urban benefits.

The “Lina Bo Bardi: Together” exhibition at Deutsches Architektur Zentrum (DAZ) in Berlin focuses on an architect who came to fame as a passionate champion of subsidized building in Brazil. Yet she remained an outsider at the “Escola Paulista”.

Astonishing things are happening on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein. Anyone climbing Carsten Höller’s “Slide Tower” will find not just an amazing view beckoning, but a slide with a great ride down. Added to which, grand master Álvaro Siza has created a new promenade that offers a novel route round the campus.