Rotterdam

Since two weeks I swapped the the peaceful verdant valleys of the German Mosel river with the industrial and architectural Rotterdam.
I am blessed with this ridiculously spacious apartment downtown Rotterdam; on top of which it is in a nice neighbourhood not far from the old harbour area, where the Atelier Van Lieshout is located.
More about this and my lovely experiences at the Atelier very soon.
Enjoy the summer!

Ps: My Dutch mobile number is definitely no longer in use!! For urgent matters please ring my UK one. My excuses for any inconveniences.

Shaking it

Being truly positively sensitive to rural furniture, all kinds of analogue tools and other objects I associate with my late grand-parents premises, I am rather excited to share with you some nice images from the good ol' Shakers.
We are overly familiar with their furniture from the US. The objects here make no exception.
For once, however, I find it refreshing to see some colorful pieces from this generally dark portrayed community.

I feel even more attracted to these objects since, as testified by the previous post, I am lucky enough to be spending a few weeks in rural Germany, close to Luxembourg, where it is quite peaceful and very agricultural. Informed by my childhood's influences, these two attributes prominently feature on my rather short checklist encapsulating the perquisites for my conception of a name worthy country side.

Particularly, devices like the apple processor, the cheese press, the spinning wheel and the broom vise bench intrigue me with their trans-medieval mechanical characteristics. Also the light looking but inevitably heavy wood stove gives props to the pleasing philosophy of its makers. Even the contradictory, manually intensive water deeper looks very convincing.

Nearly every object on this site has such a disarming beauty. Naturally, the marketing folk have done their homework, hiring in some adequate photographers for the auction images. Nevertheless, even after a few Design History introductions, the overall logic and consistency of the objects still shake me up, unleashing that compelling urge of running towards workshops and spending hours fabricating stuff. Although I am afraid I can't compete (not merely because of the disciplinary necessity!). I guess them Shakers were the veritable masters of the 'mass production'. They should found a proper design school or something similar! That is, of course, if they still 'exist'?

Greetings from the sunny Deutschland.

Korlingen

Past few weeks I have been traveling all over Europe... And now I am lucky enough to spend some wonderful times here in Korlingen! That's a few minutes ride from Trier, German's oldest city. A nice contrast with the attractive but busy London.

Milan Review 2008

Repeatedly I have been asked to report about my first visit of the Milan Fair in April of this year.
So, quite cheeky, but I opted to direct the attention of this topic to the review Ben, our course director have written.

Apart from being a clever storyteller he is also a good writer. Some of the stuff he writes are about pretty much everything. But then in relation to Design. I enjoy reading his savvy articles about things I didn't suspect to have much connection with the contemporary design practice. The nice part is how this unexpected connection is illustrated or sometimes even shaped.

As his students, reading his articles is not officially part of our curriculum, but it is highly valuable. The articles are a rich source of down to earth discourse of the design practice. The topics deal with the current issues industrial design is subjected to. They are straight forward and fun to read too! I find them somehow motivating. Anyway, find out for yourself!
Above are a few pics during our delightful 'workshop' at Naba.

AVL

Starting from the 08/08/08 I will be staying in Rotterdam for seven weeks, were I will be hanging around AVL (Atelier Van Lieshout), building stuff of all kinds.
If you happen to be around, drop me a note or give me a call, I will be delighted to receive you, especially those international people:). In other words, read this as a welcoming invitation to visit the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, have a nice summer!

AA School

If you happen to be around and haven't been at the Architectural Association's Projects Review 2008 already, I think you might want to. For all kinds of reasons, it is really worth it! The exhibition is not very big so it won't take much of your valuable summer break time. It is not often that I get impressed by architecture, but this sure does it. Maybe that's partially because the projects deal with same issues as we are looking at within product and industrial design; but then on a much bigger and static scale, naturally.

One love.

Burn Up

Yet another dazzling propaganda about sustainability:). No, this ain't nothing new. Looks like drama too openly jumped on the band wagon and play, as usual, with the society's doubts and fears...? Or is there any rich and mighty personality trying to send some message through;)? I am talking about this brand new two episodes series recently aired on BBC2: Burn Up. Surely it is corny and is full with clichés, but the whole idea is quite actual and highly evocative. See for yourself.
Cheers!