I have been at the surface exhibition at the designers fair in cologne last month. see the previous post. I was disappointed that the company responsible for the project – heimatdesign (who describe themselves as a platform for young local talent) – did not actually present any german designs.

2 weeks ago they moved with the exhibition to dortmund, germany to participate in the transversale – an event about art and design. they settled down in a great location and added a new designer. one of them is dortmund-based designer pierre kracht who was one of 30 contributors at the [d3] design contest at the imm.

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I have seen the stool’s of dutch designer willem de rider already last year at the design academy graduation show. but I totally forgot about them and saw them again in the yksi design store in eindhoven. unfortunately I didn’t take a picture with the cow tag on the side..

the (nothing to) HIDE stools are made of identical leather covers, shaped by their own nature, says the designer

when you find yourself in the south of the netherlands and you talk about bathroom facilities you are automatically talking about sphinx. It is an important player in the european bathroom market, which is celebrating 175 years in business.

the amazing things is that you imagine hundreds of people working in the factory. especially because my experiences with ceramics are reduced to making some cups. I’ve expected that working with this fragile material is a primary manual work. but in fact there are just 15 employees in the rotating shifts. basically the hole production is accomplish by machinery. just the technical details and frequent observations are still done by humans.

sphinx factory inside – on the right is the massive oven
around 1000 sanitary arrangements are manufactured every day

toilet mould made of porous plastic material – its more expensive than plaster but can be used about 30.000 times

freshly moulded clay washbasin

air-dried, glazed toilets with a screenprinted logo
which are ready for baking

on the way into the oven – assembly line baking at 1200 degrees

strijp x is a new cross-over store in the industrial area of eindhoven. its a place where different creative disciplines melt together in a single location, an old industrial building.

check the strijp x website for more informations. see the video from designguide.tv for a proper view on the hole concept store. and if you think your work is worth to exhibit and can be sold contact them!

concrete animals by nacho carbonell

wire chaise lounge by dave keune

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here some more pictures from the designhuis glass exhibition
in eindhoven.

guerrieres by ghislène jolivet

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before I ended up at the design in detail award I’ve visited the exhibition ‘glass’ at the designhuis in eindhoven.

the exhibition explores glass as a medium from a purely industrial approach to an autonomous design. the result is a display of beautiful pieces that range from functional objects to sculptural forms. I will show my favourites in 2 parts because they were to many.

blizzard bulbs by hella jongerius

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last thursday. design in detail, an event in eindhoven, presented by design concept brainport, platform for design and technology.

the issue: how can a city be considered a design city when it’s appearance suggests it otherwise? ambition: revitalisation of the retailarea.

marie-josée lacroix, design commissioner of the city of montreal, was giving a speech at this event. she described the dramatic improvement of montreal’s image after the city had sponsored a design award. the awards purpose was to motivate designers and the retail industry to work together to make the city of montreal appear more attractive. the resulting concept aimed at improving city life. the goal of her speech was to discuss such an award as an idea for the city of eindhoven. I don’t think that a lot of people would disagree when I say that eindhoven is probably the shabbiest city in the netherlands. so, bring it on. It can’t do any harm.

location: witte dame haal

design in detail award 2009 – will it work?

ingrid van der wacht from design connection brainport

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