Exhibtion: Objects and Projects - Alessi

One of the really great figures of design – Alessandro Mendini – is curating and designing a retrospective of the last 30 years of Italian design specially for Die Neue Sammlung. Mendini focuses his exhibition on a key player in the design world: the Alessi company, which has very successfully morphed from a small metal-working firm into a creative factory in the field of design with global operations. Not only with its products but above all through its influential ideas, actions and meta projects Alessi wrote European design history and provided inspiration for reflections on the future of design.

Objects and Projects - Alessi: History and Future of an Italian Design Factory, May 22 - September 19, Die Neue Sammlung Museum, Munich, Germany

Shape & Form Wallpaper from Graham & Brown

Shape & Form was inspired by architecture and the textures and shapes that surround everyday life. The wallpapers feature geometric shapes, optical illusions, and natural forms which explore the ways light and shadow affect perceptions. Graham & Brown has created a unique collection that fuses simple designs with complex techniques; including high gloss, metallic sheens and fine tones that embellish and conjure optical effects.

Shape & Form Wallpaper, by Graham & Brown

Kulango Pounder Spoon at Sotheby’s Auction

The recent Oceanic and African Art Auction at Sotheby’s in Paris included this Kulango Pounder Spoon from Côte d’Ivoire.

Kulango Pounder Spoon, Hammer Price: € 78,750, Oceanic and African Art Auction,
Sale PF1017, Sotheby’s, Paris

The Scent of Crystal by Tokujin Yoshioka for Swarovski

Tokujin Yoshioka has designed a perfume bottle concept, in collaboration with Swarovski, with a throughly new approach which is to affect the senses; rather than by rearranging visual shapes, the intent of the symbolic design is to bottle crystal within perfume, and to let the crystal fit in the scent. The concept is “wearing the scent of crystal.”

The Scent of Crystal, by Tokujin Yoshioka, for Swarovski

Marc Newson Works at Phillips de Pury Auction

The upcoming Design auction at Phillips de Pury in New York includes some important early works by Marc Newson as well as some more recent prototypes.

Top to Bottom:
Pod of Drawers, 1987, by Marc Newson
Fiberglass-reinforced polyester resin core, blind-riveted sheet aluminum, paint. Produced by Basecraft for Pod, Australia. From the edition of ten plus two artist’s proofs and one prototype. Estimate $300,000-500,000

Prototype Micarta desk, 2006, by Marc Newson
Linen phenolic composite. Prototype for the edition of ten plus two artist’s proofs.
Estimate $150,000-200,000

Prototype Voronoi Shelf, 2006, by Marc Newson
Bardiglio marble. Prototype for the edition of eight plus two artist’s proofs.
Estimate $100,000-150,000

Event Horizon Table, 1992, by Marc Newson
Enameled aluminum, polished aluminum. Produced by Pod Edition, UK. Artist’s proof for the edition of ten. only example produced with a yellow body. Estimate $250,000-350,000

Marc Newson Works, Design Auction at Phillips de Pury & Company,
June 9, 2010, New York

Exhibition: Space Age Lights at Triennale Design Museum

Triennale Design Museum presents a selection of over sixty table lamps designed and made in the 1960s and early 70s, dubbed by historians of design as “Space Age”, it is an era of great social change, but also the era in which international politics were focused on the imaginary collective achievements as a landing space for a fruitful and truly progressive modernity.

The lamps on display come from international collections, ranging from the mass produced, to pieces made by well known designers such as Joe Colombo, Vico Magistretti, Gino Sarfatti and Giotto Wick.

Space Age Lights, 12 May - 05 September, Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy

Exhibition: Richard Neutra in Europe

Austro-American architect Richard Neutra (born 1892 in Vienna, died 1970 in Wuppertal), one of the most important representatives of “classic Modernism”, was best known for his houses in Southern California. His designs combined light metal structures with stucco elements to create light, pervious ensembles, which he embedded with great sensitivity in carefully arranged gardens and landscapes.

For the first time ever architectural projects will be shown that he realized in Europe in his 10 final creative years (1960 – 1970). He created eight villas, four in Switzerland, three in Germany and one in France.

Richard Neutra in Europe: Buildings and projects 1960 - 1970, 8 May - 1 August 2010, at MARTa Herford Museum, Herford, Germany
Photography (top to bottom): Iwan Baan, Karl-Hugo Schmölz, Unknown, Charles E. Young Research Library UCLA, Martin Hesse, and Martin Hesse.

Mozzarella Chair by Tatsuo Yamamoto

Tatsuo Yamamoto presents the Mozzarella Chair in Milan this year. The chair is made of stretchable fabric suspended by a stainless steel frame.

Mozzarella Chair, by Tatsuo Yamamoto

Exhibition: Greta Magnusson Grossman Retrospective

Swedish furniture designer and architect Greta Magnusson Grossman may not have achieved quite the fame of her contemporaries, Charles and Ray Eames, but, a decade after her death, she still has a devoted following. Now her star is being heralded in the first major retrospective of her work in Stockholm’s Arkitekturmuseet and the launch of a new book, Greta Magnusson Grossman: A Car and Some Shorts.

Greta Magnusson Grossman Retrospective, Arkitekturmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden
via: Wallpaper*

Breed and Retreat by Frederik Roijé

To eliminate the estrangement from our origin, respecting nature will be necessary. Designing a special place will give nature its space, even in urban society.
- Frederik Roijé

Exhibition: Breed and Retreat, Hen House, by Frederik Roijé, Ventura Lambrate Gallery, Milan Design Week 2010