Looking at China as a Creator, Not Manufacturer by Alice Rawsthorn

A round housing complex designed by the architects Urbanus in Guangzhou, China. The design is inspired by ancient toulou, the circular buildings that provided communal housing in China for centuries.

The ever-perceptive design observer and critic Alice Rawsthorn has written “Looking at China as a Creator, Not Manufacturer” in the Arts section of The New York Times, looking at the developing Chinese design scene and two exhibitions of Chinese and Western design and architecture, “daringdesign,” an exhibition running through 20 November 2011 at the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam, and “China New Design,” which will be presented at La Triennale Design Museum in Milan through 11 September 2011.

See our other posts on articles by Alice Rawsthorn: Visually Stunning, Technologically Ingenious, Poetic, Subversive – The Lighting of Ron Gilad for FLOS by Alice Rawsthorn,  Quietly Excellent Design – The Annual Post-Salone Sigh from Alice Rawsthorn, Skull and Crossbones as Branding Tool,  A Taxonomy of Office Chairs – You’ll Never Look at Them the Same Way Again, and more, here.

image: Netherlands Architecture Institute/The New York Times

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Visually Stunning, Technologically Ingenious, Poetic, Subversive – The Lighting of Ron Gilad for FLOS by Alice Rawsthorn

The 2620, by Ron Gilad, a chandelier unveiled by Flos at the Salone del Mobile 2011

The astute and refined Alice Rawsthorn has written “Creations of Poetry and Chaos” in the Arts section of The New York Times; a short, fine article looking at the creations, notably the lighting, of the designer Ron Gilad, which Rawsthorn calls “visually stunning, technologically ingenious”; how can one not agree?

Here is a link to the official site of the, seemingly now defunct, brand Designfenzider (the link to Ron Gilad’s own site redirects to the Designfenzider site).

Here is a link to the Google image search for Ron Gilad, which yields upward of 99000 images; here.

image: Flos

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Quietly Excellent Design – The Annual Post-Salone Sigh from Alice Rawsthorn

 

Quietly good designs include Wasara‘s eco-friendly plates, which are biodegradable and chic

The astute, perceptive, sensible and persuasive design critic and journalist Alice Rawsthorn has written “Four Examples of Quietly Excellent Design” another fine article, in the Arts section of The New York Times.  Rawsthorn’s sharp perspective on the excess that is the design world’s annual Salone del Mobile in Milan, once again inspires a more calmly thoughtful, nevertheless rigourous, look at what is so aptly called “Quietly Good Design” or a bit more intensely, “Quietly Excellent Design”, as is the case this year.  Rawsthorn cites four examples of what could, certainly, fit at least the first category: 1. Penguin Great Food books; 2. Wasara eco-friendly dinnerware; 3. Domus magazine and 4. Jaime Hayón’s tableware for Maruwakaya, and offers convincing reasoning for why each should be thusly considered.  We, of course, find Domus truly marvelous, and the Wasara dinnerware quirkily, engagingly eco-modest.  We’ll certainly take a closer look at the Penguin Great Food books collection, finding daily life turning (or not) as often as it does on the successes and failures of graphic design.  As for Jaime Hayon’s tableware for Maruwakaya, well, we’re awfully glad his over-exuberant use of color has been tamed.

In any case, click through to Rawsthorn’s article, always a pleasure to read.  And for more by one of our favorites observers of the design world, click here.

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Here’s a link to Alice Rawsthorn’s official site: Alice

image: wasara.jp /The New York Times

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Wallpaper* Magazine’s Best of Salone del Mobile 2011 in Milan

‘Entre-deux’ by Konstantin Grcic for Azucena

 

Wallpaper* Magazine has done it once again, offering us their own discerning and fabulous edit of the best of the extravaganza that was this year’s Salone del Mobile 2011 in Milan in a 218-image-strong truly excellent slideshow, here.

 

As Wallpaper* puts it… 

Once again, Salone mania was unleashed and the design world honed in on Milan. This year’s fair, which finished Sunday 17th April, mobilised hundreds of thousands design disciples off their Danish-modern couches back home and through the giant fairground’s gates, as well as key events across the city which included Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines’ Hermès Pavillion, the Rossana Orlandi gallery, Ventura Lambrate and, of course, the Wallpaper* Handmade exhibition at the Brioni House.

Didn’t make it round to all the events? Fear not. We snapped away during the week to show you all the wonders the design world has to offer for 2011…

And take a look at all the rest of our Salone del Mobile 2011 Milan posts, here.

image: Wallpaper* Magazine

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Salone del Mobile 2011: New Classics – Stand-Outs From the Furniture Fair

Tip Ton for Vitra by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby

image: Estelle Hanania/Nowness.com

Laura Houseley (The Independent Design Guide, Innovative Products from the New Generation (2009)*) has, in a short article entitled “Salone del Mobile: New Classics”, selected, for the site “Nowness” ** a few of the nearly infiinite number of creations on exhibition at the Salone del Mobile 2011 Milan (Milan Design Week, or, more restrictively, Milan Furniture Fair, to some) which she feels stood out from the crowd.  Now, whether or not they should, or could, be called “New Classics” is up to the future to decide, really, though we’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject…

A very nice slideshow is included in the presentation of Houseley’s short article.

See our other posts on the Salone del Mobile 2011 Milan, here.

Notes:

* Max Fraser (London Design Guide editor) has written a very good review entitled “The Independent Design Guide by Laura Houseley“ discussing Houseley’s book for The Architects’ Journal.

**Yes, that is certainly one of the worst names possible.

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