Milan Report 2010
There was a new exuberance and optimism this year at the Milan Furniture Fair.
It was welcome change from recent years where there had been a decidedly dark and cautious outlook on design. The economy wasn’t forgotten, but rather than a bleak, intellectual conceptualising of the world’s financial woes through design, there was a consistent sticking-to-one’s-knitting approach by all of the big design companies. This meant an absolute focus on quality and detailing, the small moments that reinforce the value of a quality design piece. urbis
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On the Haus
Designed by Herzog and de Meuron, Pritzker Prize-winning architects based in Basel, VitraHaus is a showroom for Vitra’s residential ranges.
The building takes its form almost directly from its name. Stacked one on top of the other are long extruded gabled house forms, their box base and triangular roof as simplistic as a child would draw, but the proportions – each slightly different to the other and taken from measurements of local houses – gives the blocks a true regional form.
What is successful about this is that from a...
Word Game
John Reynolds lets the words spill out in his sweep through through pop culture, philosophy, New Zealand art history and New Plymouth road names.
Artist John Reynolds continues to explore his fondness for words and lists in NOMADOLOGY [Loitering with Intent] on at the Govett Brewster Gallery in New Plymouth until 13 June. Trawled from sources as far afield as indexes of philosophy texts, Iggy Pop lyrics and the New Plymouth street directory, these lists are recast as symbols that hint toward what Umberto Eco calls the ‘poetics of the “etcetera”’ in his recent book...
Southern Comforts
Some of the world’s most innovative fashion is put on show at iD Dunedin Fashion Week.
Dunedin might just be New Zealand’s fashion capital. Its cold winters and brooding gothic architecture provide the perfect backdrop to the typically Antipodean dark and edgy style, while the city itself has been a hotbed of talent, fostering established fashion designers like Nom*D to talents like Charmaine Reveley. But perhaps more than anything else it is iD Dunedin Fashion Week that cements Dunedin’s spot on the country’s sartorial map. This isn’t just some provincial strut down a cobbled-together runway, no,...
Urbis - Issue 56 on sale now!
The latest issue of Urbis is on sale now. Inside you’ll find coverage of all the Urbis Designday installations including the spectacular Paper Sky collaboration between Poggenpohl and Oh.No.Sumo that features on our cover. We also have a comprehensive report on the novelties, innovations and trends from this year’s Milan Furniture Fair as well as a City Profile on this Italian design locale. From furniture to fashion, we look at the latest events, shapes and ideas in our local and international fashion scene. Be sure to pick up this issue, and if you...