FUTURE FORWARD: BEYOND CRISIS
Facing a global crisis is challenging for every one of us. FUTURE FORWARD: BEYOND CRISIS is an online journal that explores five personal stories of how such extraordinary circumstances can also be a catalyst for innovative thinking. Over the course of five weeks in summer 2020, the journal presents thinkers, makers and visionaries from the fields of architecture, health care, science, farming and tourism. The project is a collaboration with Archiv der Zukunft Lichtenfels and Herburg Weiland.
JUST FRIDAYS, Kübra Gümüşay
Activist and author Kübra Gümüşay’s recently published first book Sprache und Sein (Language and Being) hit a nerve. By exploring how language shapes our thinking and determines our togetherness, she raises an important question: how can we all communicate differently in a time of increasingly harsher, more toxic discourses? Read the full interview here.
Spatial Transience by Gonzalez Haase: BAM Office
Gonzalez Haase AAS’ design of the BAM office celebrates raw materiality and geometric simplicity. Staggered linear forms and a methodical arrangement of light and functional materials gives way to an office setting that serves as a showcase and collaborative space at once. Flexibility in the layout is met with monolithic furniture, fashioned with massive raw aluminium – a strong, immobile aesthetic in response to BAM’s work. Combined with haptic, raw materials such as wood-wool and concrete, the two-storey office space serves as a blank canvas for creative endeavours in the centre of Berlin.
JUST FRIDAYS, ELENA SCHÜTZ
As part of our Just Fridays series, architect, Elena Schütz, shares her thoughts on incorporating the possibility of NOT building into the philosophy and work at her agency, Something Fantastic, and rethinking modern consumption patterns across industries. Read the full text by Elena Schütz here.
JUST FRIDAYS, THILO STRACKE
Just before the world got turned on its head, we had begun our new “Just Fridays” series at our office in Kreuzberg. Following the question, “What’s on your mind?”, we wanted to create a platform for some of the inspiring people in our network to share their thoughts in a monthly morning briefing. As soon as gathering is once again a part of our culture, social media manager, Thilo Stracke, will share his ideas on „Social Media: Life after Rona“. For now, he has agreed to answer some questions here.
Gae Aulenti: A Creative Universe
Gae Aulenti was one of the Italian women in architecture and design to rise to prominence in the postwar years. If Italy came to be the dominant force in international product design in the 1960s, her iconic »Locus Solus« series (1964) or the »Pipistrello« lamp (1965) for the interior of the Paris Olivetti showroom played an important part. As an architect, Aulenti (1927–2012) gained worldwide recognition for the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, which she famously converted from a former train station from 1980 to 1986. An exhibition at the Vitra Schaudepot presents her multifaceted body of work, one that encompasses not only architectural projects and design objects, but also interiors, set and costume design, as well as exhibitions.
100 years and 20 visions at the Vitra Design Museum
In the early stages of modern interiors and unlike today, the conversations on how to live were at the centre of highly controversial, often political debates. Between concepts of functionality and reduction on one hand, and those of individualism and ornament on the other. “Home Stories” highlights important societal, political, urban, and technical shifts that have shaped the design and the use of the Western interior over the last 100 years. Presenting 20 crucial landmarks of this development, “Homes Stories” includes visionary interiors of architects, artists, film directors and interior designer.
Edward Hoppers unsettling silent scenes at Fondation Beyeler
While American painter Edward Hoppers emblematic representations of modern life – gas stations, bars and motels – became icons of American realism, to date, the vastness of his landscape and cities has received far less attention. At the centre of Hoppers exhibition at Fondation Beyeler, they witness his virtuoso depiction of light and shadow and an almost non-narrative view deserted by humans, where invisible events seem to occur beyond the canvas.
otto – a ripening of better bites
A GDR bungalow, just 70 kilometers outside of Berlin, hosts the test and research kitchen, in which Vadim Otto Ursus has been experimenting with techniques of preserving and producing complex flavours and textures of wild plants and local, organic products. In unison with a team of friends, professionals and culinary newcomers, Vadim brings these Brandenburg flavours to Berlin with his first restaurant otto. A devotion to natural, seasonal cuisine is captured in a 19 seat Prenzlauer Berg establishment, serving a menu to share.
Tatarstan’s green spruce sprouts
The ambitious revamp of Tatarstan’s public spaces shifts priorities from a trend of private ownership toward a more inclusive, quality oriented one. Natalia Fishman-Bekmambetova and her team implemented a large number of park projects, for a more sustainable urbanism in the post-Soviet context. They were presented and discussed at the World Urban Parks Congress and the Russian Youth Architectural Biennale in Kazan this year.
Le Petit Royal Frankfurt – French elegance in the Main Metropolis
The Grill Royal Group opens the doors of their first location outside Berlin, in the city along the Main. Located in the ground floor of the AMERON Frankfurt Neckarvillen Boutique, Le Petit Royal Frankfurt is characterised by the elegant ambience, known from its Berlin counterpart – custom upholstered furniture, complemented by classic glass Ikora lamps and select contemporary art pieces. The seasonal menu offers modern French classics, resulting from close collaboration with local producers.
Refik Anadol’s concrete A.I. evidences
LAS Light Art Space launches its public activities with Refik Anadol’s first solo exhibition in Germany, articulating the aesthetics of human beings with artificial intelligence and the latter’s potential for creativity. In his site-specific audio-visual installation “Latent Being” at Kraftwerk, a former East Berlin 1960s power plant, representations of the city and the attendees’ presence transform the vast space into an interactive platform.
AMERON Frankfurt Neckarvillen Boutique
In a historic ensemble of buildings in Frankfurt’s Bahnhofsviertel, four former business villas from the Wilhelminian period have been restored and transformed into what is now the AMERON Frankfurt Neckarvillen Boutique. A strong architectural heritage is joined by an impressive design concept, which involved small manufacturers to reinterpret and combine Art Deco influences in a thoughtful ensemble of select materials, classic designs and contemporary accessories.
RESONATING SPACES OF THE IDENTIFIABLE AND THE ELUSIVE AT FONDATION BEYELER
Focusing on the work of a select number of artists, „Resonating Spaces“ at the Fondation Beyeler shows how visual shapes undertake a concrete presence in the artists works but are generally not perceptible. The works of contemporary artists Leonor Antunes, Silvia Bächli, Toba Khedoori, Susan Philipsz, and Rachel Whiteread create a specific quality of spatiality and resonate through individual approaches: versatility; blank spaces; traces; sounds; and memories. Each artist is showing exemplary pieces of their work, which in some cases were specifically made for this exhibition.