Vienna Design Week: 1-11.10.2009

One of my all-time favourite cities is hosting its third Design Week! The aim of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK is to show and enable people to experience the many-faceted creative work in the fields of product, furniture and industrial design, but also aspects of experimental design. After two successful festivals in 2007 and 2008, this October an exquisite and colourful programme of events will be awaiting the visitors. Design is an important field in the production of culture: it shapes our material culture, our everyday life and our consumer world, it influences lifestyle and fashion and most fundamentally our aesthetic sense and judgement. This wide-ranging impact is a reason to celebrate design and also to examine it critically; VIENNA DESIGN WEEK has made both of these its mission.

In cooperation with many partners – from Vienna museums to production and retail companies to designers from all over the world – the whole of Vienna becomes a platform and show-case of design. VIENNA DESIGN WEEK doesn't have the character of a trade fair but instead offers a variety of venues and approaches specific to Vienna. The festival sets out to be "international but localised", with an abiding interest to cooperate with the flourishing design scenes of Central and Eastern Europe, and certainly beyond that. Bringing to Vienna an important international design show every October is another example of the long-due international exchange; VIENNA DESIGN WEEK is stimulating.

The festival aims to reveal creative and production processes and encourage experimental work on the spot. It also presents and promotes design that in the first instance withdraws from the scheme of utility value and functionality in order to create awareness and pose questions or also simply just to have fun. The exploration of materials, mood values and the interaction between people and objects lie at the centre of design practice and consequently are important points of reference within VIENNA DESIGN WEEK.

With exhibitions, venue-specific installations, theme specials, discussion events, a programme of films and, of course, enough opportunity to party and network, VIENNA DESIGN WEEK is not only an attraction for the international design scene but most explicitly also aims to interest and appeal to a wide public audience of Viennese and visitors to Vienna. This year VIENNA DESIGN WEEK energetically goes into the third round with the wish and the aim to take up a firm place on the international festival scene and at the same time become a fixed early-autumn cultural event in Vienna.

The programme is here.

The participating designers are here.

The week's calendar is here.


Photo/Concept: Wolfgang Zajc & Rudolf Zündel

And here is our London correspondent!

Why should designers blog? (article published in DESIGN Magazine issue 14)

Since blogging started becoming the next big thing, years ago, more and more designers from all aspects of the industry have started, phrase by phrase, paragraph by paragraph, post by post, becoming seduced by it. Sharing their thoughts, ideas, knowledge about their respective fields, they connect every day with people all over the world with whom otherwise there would be no contact whatsoever.

Should a designer blog then? How can it be possible for people that are so creative in their work, to step aside for a moment (or hours in many cases) and delve into a previously unknown world to them, the one of creative writing? Keeping a blog is no mean deal – if it is for serious, that is. It is not merely a personal diary, especially for a professional who will centre it on his métier. Is it worth all those hours spent in front of a screen, but instead of designing, say, the perfect chair, writing about designing one?

Holly Becker, the famous Decor8 blogger , who is a writer and interior design consultant, seems to think it does. “I think designers should blog because clients enjoy having access to them day and night - they are able to gain insight into your inspirations and ideas 24 hours a day, 7 days a week”, she says. ”It also helps them to learn more about your personality and to deepen their relationship with you. They can view links, shops and other things that you highlight so that they can learn more about the things that you find as a designer. Interior design should not be some mystery society in my opinion; I enjoy sharing what I find with all who visit my site. I believe everyone should have access to good design!” .

Increased exposure seems to be a major advantage of blogging for a designer. Making him stand out between his colleagues, a designer’s blog helps him reach out to an international audience, reach people from all kinds of professions and fields and make his ideas and work known to places that otherwise he could never reach, or have to spend a huge amount of money doing so. That of course leads to another bonus: name recognition. Decor8 had 16 readers when it opened, most of them Holly’s clients. Now she has over 25,000 daily readers and one of the most popular design blogs in the world.

The learning experience is another aspect of blogging. Writing about one’s designs and inspiration leads the designer to further solidify his/her personal style and tastes, find out what he/she likes or dislikes in a more precise way, and have the archive to shift through whenever one feels like it. It also helps the designer become more aware of his personal style.

The obvious reason to blog of course would be networking. Getting in touch with colleagues, possible collaborators and clients from all over the world is a tempting option for the designer/blogger. Richard Haines, illustrator for In Style magazine, J Crew and 5 star luxury hotels. is wondering why not most fashion designers don’t have their own blogs, especially the more famous ones. And having such an immediate and easy way of communicating between them, it makes realizing projects that much easier. It also provides an easy access to the designer for his clients, who can comment on their projects without spending time on time-consuming telephone calls from a city 500 km away. The instant feedback one gets on his work through the blog is as valuable a tool as any. Writing also improves the designer’s communication skills, in writing and otherwise, while at the same time providing a nice variety and distraction from a routine workload.

The blog also can be a pivotal component of an official website, which is the more traditional means of an online presence. It improves the site content for search engines, gets more indexed pages, provides fresh and updated content frequently and also feeds the internet with keywords and phrases that lead straight to the designer and his work when one looks for it on-line.
Writing about one’s respective field also demonstrates his knowledge about it, which of course is another way of promoting oneself. It also provides potential promotion opportunities, as the designers can post their upcoming projects or exhibitions or events and make them known to a wider audience. In combination with social networking sites, this can be a powerful advertising tool with minimum cost.

Is it worth then to steal some time from honing one’s talent, perfecting one’s work, to deal with the hassles and travails of blogging? The answer is yes and I am particularly surprised that more designers have not yet caught up with it: they would be pleasantly surprised with the results.

This article was written for and published in issue 14 of the South African DESIGN> Magazine.

The First Athens Architecture Workshop starts today!

The city of Athens rises to the north of the Acropolis in a vast plain of the Attican peninsula, dotted with low hills and circumscribed by mountains and unfolding to the south towards the sea. To the west of the city stands Mount Egaleo, to the North-West Mount Parnitha, to the North-East Mount Pentelikon and south-east the linear formation of Mount Ymittos. The ancient urban unity of Athens reached its highest level of completeness, Between the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. In this era the polis expanded across the plain from the “sacred rock” of the Acropolis to the sea with the “Great walls” to Piraeus, the port on the Saronic Gulf (Saronikos Kolpos).

WORKSHOP OBJECTIVE

IV century BC - After the Ottoman occupation the city grows beyond its ancient boundaries. Great roads unify the ancient to the new radially towards the North. Actually, the city occupies a vast area, which extends from the aforementioned circumscribing mountains to the sea on the South and from Marathon to Eleusis, east and west respectively. In its contemporary urban form, two images of the city coexist, that of the ancient city integrated with that of the neoclassical period, on one hand and that of the diffused city as a result of the spontaneous growth of the modern metropolis, on the other. Nevertheless, the signs of the ancient city have remained as “indelible” components in the memory of contemporary Athens, which through the years has “rewritten” its history on the ancient traces.

Seven sites have been chosen for the purposes of this workshop, located between the ancient and the 19th century areas of the city centre. These sites, of course, have diverse characteristics due to their location, ranging from residual areas within the consolidated urban fabric, to areas in direct relation with the geological formations in the centre of the urban environment of the city. The objective of the workshop is to attribute an identity and scale to these sites and to inquire through the design process, their hidden potential.

1 • Lycabettus
Between the hill and
surrounding urban tissue
2 • Leoforos Alexandras
Between ‘Pedion tou Areos’ park &
‘Prosfygika’ district
3 • Lykeion park & Liberty park
Cultural garden chain
4 • Plateia Klafthmonos
Between the Neoclassical Triangle & the
Lycabettus district
5 • Plateia Koumoundourou
Between the Neoclassical Triangle & the
Metaxourgeion district
6 • Neoclassical Triangle
Study of its public spaces
7 • Stathmos Larissis
Athens railway complex

Check the program here.

Catwalks : Most Spectacular Fashion Shows

In the beginning, the theatre was the temple of fashion. During the reign of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, whatever was being worn at court was shown at the theatre, on stage, and in the audience. The queen’s dressmaker, Rose Bertin, dressed half-sized wooden mannequins with miniature versions of her latest creations and accessories and had them driven to the various courts of Europe in magnificent coaches. And so the catwalk was born. To this day, great fashion is still theatre and spectacle rolled into one. It is a form of theatrical self-portrayal and a highly charged form of self-dramatisation.

Viktor & Rolf, S/S 08

The Catwalks exhibition will highlight a dozen of the most spectacular shows of the past 30 years: grand performances (Dior), the circus as a theatrical chamber of wonders (Galliano), dramatic performances (Alexander McQueen), or the catwalk as a table set for a celebratory dinner (Dries van Noten). Visitors will themselves become catwalk models. By walking along the catwalk, they will become part of a number of major fashion shows, which will be brought to life and transformed into a 3D spectacle in video projections and multimedia installations.

Alexander McQueen S/S 08

The partners of this exhibition are German Vogue and Alex de Betak, one of the greatest directors in the fashion show business and a man who has worked for highly influential fashion labels such as Viktor and Rolf, Hussein Chalayan, 10 years for Galliano and Dior, and more. The realisation in the hands of Parisian video artists Kai von Ahlefeld and Maria Spahn from "ueberraum".

Chanel S/S 08

When asked to sum up the project, which will include collaboration with some of the world’s most influential designers, Petra Wenzel and Werner Lippert had this to say: ‘We are looking to the future, recording the significance of fashion shows, which for many designers have become more important than the collections themselves.

More information here.

Lanvin S/S 08

Catwalks
27.7-1.11.2009

NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft
Ehrenhof 2, 40479 Düsseldorf

Opening hours:
Tuesday to Sunday: 11.00 a.m.–8.00 p.m.
Friday: 11.00 a.m.–12 p.m.

Ticket prices include admission and headphone rental
Adults:7 Euro
Concessions: 5 Euro
Friday night, from 6.00 p.m.: 5 Euro
Supplement for free admissions (Art Card, ICOM, etc.): 2 Euro

Visitors enter the exhibition at their own risk.

Prada S/S 08

Installations by: Balmain / Hussein Chalayan / Chanel / Comme des Garçons / Christian Dior / John Galliano / Jean-Paul Gaultier / Givenchy / Marc Jacobs / Martin Margiela / Alexander McQueen / Thierry Mugler / Rodarte / Yves Saint Laurent / Dries Van Noten / Victor & Rolf / Yohji Yamamoto

... and in the Catwalks-Cinema: Balenciaga / Roberto Cavalli / Dolce & Gabbana / Gianfranco Ferré / Lacoste / Lanvin / Issey Miyake / Olivier Theyskens / Rick Owens / Prada / Sonia Rykiel / Valentino / Giambattista Valli / Versace / Diane von Fürstenberg / Vivienne Westwood

Photographs courtesy of Wallpaper magazine.

Update: The Archive Episode 2: First day photos

I attended The Archive: Episode Two opening at the Archive space of Thessaloniki. The set up was brilliant, a single shape running around more than half the space, made of many separate smaller shapes of PVC laser cut and printed with the images and drawings of the three architects that designed the Central Square of the Municipality of Thermi: Dimitris Kontaxakis, Maria-Eleni Kosmidou and Spiros I. Papadimitriou. The last day of the event is today, so anyone who has not seen it yet, it is your last chance (access to Archive members only, but you can still see it from the outside if you are not a member).

A projection was also made on the undulating surface.

On the small digital screens one could see a slideshow of the preparation for the event.

The image that greets passers-by from the shop-window.

Another series of photographs of the square. The little blue LED light strip on top of the exhibition surface was an interesting finishing touch.

Dimitris Kontaxakis, Maria-Eleni Kosmidou, Vassilios P. Bartzokas, Spiros I. Papadimitriou, Korina Filoxenidou and Katerina Kotzia

Lots of architects, designers and people that love design and architecture came to the event.

THE ARCHIVE EPISODE 02: Moving Surfaces, Generate Public Space

Episode 02: “MOVING SURFACES generate public space” is inspired by the redesign of the Central Square of the Municipality of Thermi, one of the most interesting urban design projects realised in Greece.

The dynamic form of the square is the result of the use of specific digital animation techniques. Its form is a new material expression, a result of the dynamic behaviours and actions performed. The informal architecture of the oblique and the imbalance is tempting its users to interact with its folded surfaces and provokes new behaviours and unexpected programs. The project has recently received a Distinction at the Architectural Awards 2008 of the Hellenic Institute of Architecture.

In the hybrid enclosed space of the Archive the architects of the square, Dimitris Kontaxakis, Maria-Eleni Kosmidou and Spiros I. Papadimitriou are going to present an installation, through which they will explore a different way of exhibiting a built architectural project. The installation is a deep surface that embeds the required information for the exhibition and at the same time becomes an exhibit itself by generating a new spatial experience in the interior of Archive.

The opening of the exhibition will give an opportunity to the members of The Archive for another creative meeting. Carteco, the company behind The Archive will regularly renew this appointment through the hosting of interesting architectural events and projects.

The Archive Episodes is a project by Katerina Kotzia and Korina Filoxenidou

EPISODE 02:
MOVING SURFACES
GENERATE PUBLIC SPACE
Opening: Tuesday, 23/06/09 at 20:00 at The Archive, Mitropoleos St. 127, Thessaloniki
24/06/09 – 25/07/09 (access to members only)


Photos: Giorgis Gerolympos

New Acropolis Museum video projections at opening ceremony

Last Saturday the New Acropolis Museum was finally inaugurated in Athens. I have written about the building in 2Modern Talk blog back in 2007 and will write again more when I get a chance to visit it (I have only seen it from the outside so far). I did not see the ceremony but I found an incredible video of the projections that were done on the walls of surrounding buildings and the walls of the museum itself during the celebrations. Called "Reflections", they are large-scale site-specific video projections showing mainly sculptures that are exhibited inside the museum or small clips showing how a temple was built in Ancient Greece for example. The projections will be performed until the evening of the 23rd June. The projections were conceived and directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari. Animations were done by: antidot design studio, HAOS Film, Nomint Motion Design, and Oval Image. Music by Stavros Gasparatos.

Thessaloniki International Book Fair is opening tomorrow!

A grand celebration... an established meeting place... a unique experience... every May… in Thessaloniki... the 6th Thessaloniki International Book Fair.

The 6th Thessaloniki International Book Fair is awaiting the arrival of thousands of visitors with much and great anticipation. The wealth of books published in Greece… the presence of Greek and foreign writers and professionals… hundreds of events for children and adults… tantamount to a very special event, to be held at HELEXPO’s facilities, which cover an area of 10,000 sq. m. There will be more than 500 publishers from 40 different countries (China and India will be represented at the Fair for the very first time), 70 of the biggest names in writing, and of course, thousands of books for every preference…

Thessaloniki Book Fair (TBF) takes place from the 28th until the 31st of May at HELEXPO Exhibition Centre (Halls 13 and 15). It offers visitors an opportunity to get acquainted with the latest releases of publishers from all over the world.

* Take your time to roam around the publishers’ stands.

* Choose from a varied programme of cultural events.

* Join in discussions with writers from Greece and abroad, and ask them to sign their books for you.

This year’s Fair will have:

1. A thematic exhibition, entitled “Books and History”, featuring books on all the different periods of Greek history (11 units), visual material, rare publications and manuscripts, documentaries, presentations and various events organized by cultural bodies and organizations;

Poster from the Balkan War era.

2. Germany, the guest of honour, with its impressive pavilion and some of the country’s most important cultural figures;

3. A Children’s Corner, for the younger visitors, offering a series of events featuring their beloved writers and illustrators;

4. A Magazine Stand, featuring literary and commentary journals;

5. A Literary Cafe (Hall 13), a meeting point and a place of relaxation for both visitors and professionals, where they can enjoy a free cup of coffee (kindly sponsored by Domingo).

6. A Foreign Language Bookstore

Also, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture has dedicated the year 2009 to the poet Giannis Ritsos (“Giannis Ritsos 2009 – 100 years since his birth”). EKEBI has therefore planned a special ode to Giannis Ritsos, featuring the mobile exhibition on the poet’s life and work, spotlighting both the originals and translations of his work. On Saturday 30 May (20:00), a concert will be held in the main square of the Fair, with a great festive atmosphere and songs by Mikis Theodorakis, Thanos Mikroutsikos, Christos Leontis and Panagiotis Bousalis.

The Fair is organized by the National Book Centre of Greece (ΕΚΕΒΙ), in co-operation with the Greek Ministry of Culture, HELEXPO and the Pan-Hellenic Federation of Publishers and Booksellers (PΟΕΒ). The Fair is a project co-financed by the European Union (ERDF) and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture (EU Culture Program).

The opening ceremony of the Book Fair 2009 will take place on Thursday, 28 May 2009, at 7:00 p.m. (see invitation above)

Admission is free.

Check the program here! (Greek only I'm afraid). EKEBI has a blog too, so check that out as well!

As every year since it began, the company I work for, Tetragon, has designed and built all the stand that are related to EKEBI: their own, the thematic exhibition stand (Books and History), the Children's Corner and the Literary Cafe. Photographs and more on the next days! See you there!

Architecture Workshop in Athens!

The very first Architecture Workshop, titled (what else?) "1st Athens Architecture Workshop", will take place in Athens, with the initiative of architect Nikos Ktenas and the invaluable participation of Vassilios P. Bartzokas, with Carteco as a sponsor and Brainlab as support. The whole thing is under the aegis of the Municipality of Athens.

This international architecture workshop will take place from the 21st of July until the 2nd of August, in Athens. It is aimed at foreign and Greek students of Architecture as well as young architects working abroad. Prominent personalities of European Architecture will be teaching : Aires Mateus, Piere Allain Croset, Antonio Tejedor, Μichel Kagan, Nikos Ktenas and others. During the workshop, lectures open to the public will be given by João Luís Carrilho da Graça (Lisbon), Antonio Citterio (Milan), Aurelio Galfetti (Lugano), Franco Purini (Rome), while an exhibition of the projects will be organized and a special catalogue published.

The aim is to give the possibility, through a detached view of prominent architects but of young architects too, to form architectural proposals for particular areas within Athens. Seven locations in the city centre have been chosen for this reason. These locations gather endogenously as well as between them a variety of disparate characteristics, and are spotlighted as study areas so that they can acquire a contemporary identity that will highlight their particularity and character.

This undertaking is a challenge to all, participants and teachers as well as citizens of Athens (who will be able to be the recipients of this projects results - an alternative look on their city's public space reality), as a research on one of the oldest cities of Europe, with its particularity of historical, geographical and cultural elements. In other words, this architecture workshop places contemporary Athens in the place of a city whose public space has to be confronted henceforth with an architectural conscience and sensibility from all, beginning mainly from an academic research level that expects to be extended as a collective conscience.

The workshop is addressed to new architects but also to graduate and postgraduate students of architecture and the attendance costs 350 Euros per individual. Everyone will be dealt with on a first come-first served basis. A bulletin of attendance and more information are available at http://www.aa-w.net

Greek Architecture Awards

The Hellenic Institute of Architecture, in co-operation with the Benaki Museum presents in an exhibition that opened on the 15th of April, the Architecture Awards for 2008. On the eve of the opening, the awards ceremony took place at the museum. The awards gathered a lot of press in Greece, which recently was become a bit more sensitive to architectural issues, prompted in a major part by the discussions about the New Acropolis Museum by Bernard Tschumi.

The purpose of the awards, according to the Institute, is to highlight and promote the contemporary architectural projects whose construction, typology and morphology as well as their environmental conformity compose an architectural proposal with renewal elements in the frame of the existing urban environment. The awards are about realised projects in Greece, they are three and are awarded every four years for three different categories. One is about housing, one is about state or municipal projects and one about projects that do not fit either of the previous categories.

For the third presentation of the awards, the international committee (consisting of professors of Architecture Andreas Giakoumakos and Panos Dragonas together with the award winners of the 2004 nominations C. Deligiani, D. Diamantopoulou and D. Tsagaraki, plus at the final stage the president of the GIA Professor N. Kalogeras and Foulvio Irase, director of Trienalle in Milan) gave the following awards:

For the housing category, "House in Psychico" by Pantelis Nikolakopoulos, below and first photo of this post.

For the Public sector category, "Remodelling ofThessaloniki beach front" by Prodromos Nikiforidis, Bernard Cuomo, Atelier R.Castro, S. Denissof, below and second photo of this post.

For the category of projects not fitting in the above two categories, "The Breeder Gallery" by Office 405 - Aris Zambikos with Pulcheria Giova as collaborator, below and last photo of this post.

The exhibition will showcase all participations, so that one can view the trends developing in Greek Architecture in the last five years. The Hellenic Institute of Architecture believes that the basic purpose of an award is the recognition of the quality of the achievement, which means rewarding not only the result but also the effort of all the contributors to it. The show is curated by Nikos Kalogeras and Marianna Milioni.

Photos of the House at Psychico courtesy of the architect.
Photos of the New Thessaloniki Beech courtesy of Lucretius.
Photos of Breeder Gallery courtesy of Vivianna Athanassopoulou

Originally published by me at 2Modern Design Talk

The concert that never was...

We went to see this:



But instead, all we got was this...

Hugo Awards Logo Contest

You can become a part of Worldcon history by designing the official logo for The Hugo Award. Although the rocket atop the Hugo Award has been one of the most visible signs of excellence in science fiction and fantasy for more than fifty years, there has never been an official logo to designate works as Hugo Award nominees or winners. The World Science Fiction Society now aims to change that by soliciting designs for such a logo, with the winning design to be the official logo suitable for use in the publishing and film/television industries.

Prizes

The designer of the winning entry will receive a $500 cash prize (sponsored by SCIFI), a glass trophy featuring the winning design, a membership to an upcoming Worldcon, signed copies of Neil Gaiman’s Hugo Award-winning novel American Gods and novella Coraline and the collection Fragile Things, including the Hugo Award-winning short story “A Study in Emerald.” The winning designer will also have the right to use the logo and identify him/herself as its creator.

How to Enter

Submit entries by email to logocontest@thehugoawards.org . Submit all entries as a scalable vector graphic in EPS format, and also as a JPG. See the Submission Guidelines for detailed instructions. Include in your submission e-mail the name, age, postal address, phone number and email address of the Entrant. There is no fee to enter the Contest; however, there is a maximum of 3 Entries per Entrant. Read the Official Rules before submitting entries; in case of any confusion or discrepancies, the Official Rules govern the contest.

Entry Deadline

The deadline for Entries is midnight (one minute after 23:59) on May 31st, 2009, Pacific Standard Time. All entries should be acknowledged within one week of receipt; however, the organizers cannot be responsible for entries or responses lost in e-mail.

Judging

Entries will be evaluated by a panel of judges consisting of:

Irene Gallo (Art Director at Tor Books and Tor.com)
Neil Gaiman (3 time Hugo Award winning writer)
Chip Kidd (Graphic Designer/Writer/Editor)
Geri Sullivan (Fan & Graphic Design pro)

The judges have been appointed by the World Science Fiction Society’s Hugo Awards Marketing Committee, and the final decision on a winning logo design will be made by the Committee after consultation with the Judging Panel.

Official Rules

See the full list of Official Rules for all conditions and disclaimers.

Questions?

If you have questions about the rules or other aspects of the contest, leave them as comments below or write to logocontest@thehugoawards.org. Although all questions should be answered, no reply is guaranteed.

Photo courtesy of Hugo Awards.

Domestic appliances for the next 90 years: what will they do?

Electrolux is organizing an International competition Design Lab 2009 for undergraduate and graduate industrial design students around the world.

The theme for this year is: «Domestic appliances for the next 90 years»

The brief for the competition’s 7th edition is to create thoughtfully-designed home appliances that will shape how people prepare and store food, wash clothes, and do dishes over the next nine decades. The design ideas should address key consumer insights such as being adaptive to time and space, provide learning and allow for individualization.

2008 1st prize winner, Flatshare refrigerator by Stefan Buchberger

For more information, rules and registration visit Electrolux Designlab.

A jury will select 3 winning entries that will receive cash prize awards. The Design Lab has a First Prize of 5,000 Euro and a six-month paid internship at one of Electrolux’s global design centers. Second prize: 3,000 Euro. Third prize: 2,000 Euro. All cash prize awards include VAT.

2008 2nd prize winner, iBasket by Guopeng Liang

A selected number of students (students are persons who are officially registered as undergraduate or graduate—Bachelor’s or Master’s degree—students with a university at the time of submission of the design idea), will have their idea developed into a 1:1 full scale model of their design. The finalists will be invited to London, England for the finals and be available September 23 & 24, 2009 for this purpose. An exhibition of the finalists’ entries will be shown during a press event in London. Afterwards, the exhibition will travel around the world.

2008 3rd prize winner, Coox, by Antoine Lebrun

Applicant registration and submissions will be accepted through May 31, 2009.

Photos from the 2008 contest courtesy of Electrolux.

My article in Design Magazine from South Africa!

Some of you might have read my post about Lhiangzhu Cultural Centre in China in 2Modern Design Talk. Now there is an article from me about it published in the on-line edition of Design Magazine from South Africa! You can subscribe for free and read the magazine issue on-line, even download it - or part of it - as a pdf file.

Photograph: Christian Richters