Hasta La Ideas

There is no other place, this time of the year that I’d like to be other than Munich. The pride of Bavaria played host to the 2014 iF Design Awards Ceremony. As media partners, YD was at the event, covering the Awards Night & Gala. We (Nancy Wang and I) got to see and meet some interesting people. Stefan Diez, Claus Potthoff, Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby, Ralph Wiegmann, BMW Welt … ring a bell?

Thankfully Munich was a warmer city this year, with temperatures steady at 9 degrees Celsius, we didn’t have to layer up too much (last year it was around -10 C). Day 1 was all about visiting the BMW Welt and getting acquainted with the Museum. Two main things to report back from here: the BMW Concept Cars that are hidden from the spotlight. We had exclusive access to this area and got up close with the Gina. The other area of interest was an introduction to the BMW i3 City Car.

We had a one-on-one session with the head designer, Jacob Benoit, who told us all about this Mega City Car. Some of the details like a pure carbon roof and plants (material) used on door panels impressed us very much. Did you know that the front and back door open from the central point and the middle divider is completely removed? So, when you open both the doors together, it gives you such a sense of space! Zaha Hadid has designed an exclusive factory space for the manufacturing of i3 and i8 cars! Too bad that 35,000 Euros is out of our budget!

The next stop for the day was the Neue Werkstätten, where we met with Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby. They were brought in by Knoll to discuss the collaboration on the Lounge Collection. Many of us associate Knoll with office furniture only, so this new sofa collection comes as a pleasant surprise. What stand out is the modular legs of the sofa; they are designed to fit in a modular fashion and compliment the body very well.

The evening rounded up with dinner with CEO of the iF Design Awards, Ralph Wiegmann. Dinner discussions included an in-depth view on watches, especially the beautiful Panerai he wore. What impressed us were his views on value, he still treasures his humble Swatch (gifted by his father) over the most expensive watch in his collection. Sweet!

Day two began with an elaborate visit to Munich’s very own Furniture Designer – Stefan Diez. We love him, period! His is the kind of place where every one is welcome; the studio has a warm homely atmosphere. We spoke a lot on how the current generation of students are not as dedicated and focused on their craft and have too many distractions to cope with. Yes, Stefan is a teacher as well and feels that 90% of the students are not committed and only 10% are above the bar. His association with Rosenthal is legendary. His main forte has been working with glass, ceramics, steel and plastic. He is constantly inspired by the car industry; we guess the proximity to BMW, Audi and Mercedes may have something to do with it.

What caught our fancy was this sideboard – storage project that he was working on for Hayes. It was light and super-super thin. He has done away with the hinges and instead used plastic. Interestingly, the material used is the same as Tupperware; it is very durable and tough. Not a great fan of MakerBot and other instant 3D printers, Stefan relies on the expertise of his trusted printers with the real deal. His word of advice is not to get involved in many projects at one go (he works on only 10 at a time) and keep questioning if the company you are collaborating with is investing the right way, are they moving in the right direction?

Post lunch we moved to the International Design Museum where we caught up with Claus Potthoff, Head of Design Strategy AUDI AG to view the Audi Wall. Audi has commissioned this very impressive installation using 1800 cars on the wall, milled in metal (aluminum), and each car weighs one kilo! A towering Audi in white hangs vertical on the wall. Still reeling under the magnitude of this installation, we walked passed curated design products from the early days to the new-age product design.

A quick change and our latest 7-series BMW drove us to the BMW Welt for the iF Design Awards Night and Gala. The red carpet welcomed designers from across the globe. This year marks the 61st year of the iF Awards. A total of 75 iF Gold Awards were handed out to ecstatic designers from across the globe.

A total of 4,615 entries were received and 1,626 were awarded the iF Label (Product Design, Communication Design and Packaging Design). A new introduction this year is the iF Design App (get it here), you can view all the award-winning entries in a stunning digital format. Two things warmed our hearts: watching the designers pose like crazy in front of the iF Design Winner’s Wall and dance like crazy at the after-awards party! Aww, designers you’re the best!

We got to our hotel early (3:00 am) because we needed to head to Hamburg in the morning. Why? Because the award-winning entries were on display at the iF Design Exhibition at the Harbor City. The Communication Design winners were displayed in a digital format, however the Product Design and Packaging Design winners will be showcased in three shows. It was nice to have a visual connect with the award winning products.

This just about wraps up our three-day stay in Germany! Met great people from across the globe, connected with a lot of designs that we saw and overall enjoyed watching the hard work of our beloved designers get its due recognition. As they say in Germany, bis wir uns nächste!

 

–
Yanko Design
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(Munich Musings and the iF Design Awards 2014 was originally posted on Yanko Design)

Related posts:

1. Yanko Design And iF Design Awards – Live In Munich!
2. The International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) 2014
3. IDSA’s IDEA Awards 2014

The not-yet-realised interior of Herzog & de Meuron’s Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg can now be toured by computer and tablet users via a fly-through model created by digital studio Neutral (+ movie).

Herzog & de Meuron originally asked Neutral to produce a simple animation depicting the architecture of their philharmonic hall under construction beside the river Elbe, first planned for 2012 but which now won’t open until 2016 due to stalls in the planning process.

Neutral decided to instead create an interactive 3D model that allows users to take in 360-degree views of different rooms, gradually making their way towards the 2150-seat auditorium at the heart of the building.

“Users experience the spaces as they build up to the grand hall,” said co-founder Christian Grou. “The novel 3D technique developed by Neutral expands traditional architectural narrative, transposing the user into future spaces, giving architects new possibilities for articulating visions long before they become reality.”

Spaces featured include the main atrium, stairwells and a multi-purpose room offering a panoramic view of the river. They can be viewed by visiting the Elbphilharmonie 3D website or by downloading an app for Apple or Android devices.

The Elbphilharmonie is being built over an existing brick warehouse built in 1963 by Hamburg architect Werner Kallmorgen. The new upper section is made of glass and was completed last month.

Once open, the building will offer three concert halls, a hotel, apartments and a public square elevated 37 metres above the adjacent river.

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Herzog & de Meuron’s Elbphilharmonie appeared first on Dezeen.

Whether or not you’re familiar with the name Steven Vogel, it’s more than likely you’ve ogled his work in one field or another; be it his pioneering music and menswear blog, his expert projects for big shots like Burton and Levi’s, or his…

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German practice J. Mayer H. has replaced the gridded facade of a 1950s office building with organically curved glass and white render.

“We tried to design a facade that would be a bit more free, something less strict and linear” explained Wilko Hoffmann of J. Mayer H.

Located above the Schlump underground station in west Hamburg, Schlump One is a seven storey building and the architects have extended it to accommodate more offices and the facilities for a private university.

The curved forms continue inside the building, where partitions have rounded openings that form surfaces beside the corridors.

Combined with the extension, the building has a U-shaped plan that wraps around a courtyard at the rear.

We’ve published a few stories about J. Mayer H. over the last year, including a round-up of projects in Georgia and proposals for a building made from scaffolding.

See more stories about J. Mayer H. »

Exterior photography is by Jan Bitter and interior photography is by Ludger Paffrath.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Schlump ONE – Hamburg, Germany
Office Complex and University Building

The project “Schlump ONE” is located directly at the underground station Schlump in Eimsbüttel district in Hamburg.

The original administration building from the 1950s and 90s was gutted, renovated and expanded, and has now been converted into an office building with four possible rental units per floor.

The existing data processing center in the courtyard has been transformed into a private university and expanded to include a new building.

The building’s facade has been completely renovated and redesigned to form a single unit that freely interprets the original building’s 1950s linear design.

The organic formal language of the facade is continued in the design of interiors.

Above: original office building

The project is embedded in a sophisticated, open space planning design with oversized tree sculptures.

Site plan – click above for larger image

Project Team: Juergen Mayer H., Christoph Emenlauer, Mehrdad Mashaie, Ana Alonso de la Varga
Project Architect: Hans Schneider

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Project: 2010 – 2012
Completion: Summer 2012
Client: Cogiton, Projekt Eimsbuettel GmbH, Hamburg

Typical floor plan – click above for larger image

Architect on Site: Architekturbuero Franke, Hamburg
Structural Engineers: WTM Engineers
Building Services: Energiehaus Ingenieure, Sineplan, Hamburg
Landscape Architects: Breimann Bruun Simons, Hamburg

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by J. Mayer H. appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat has completed a mixed-use block in Hamburg with a facade that parts like a pair of red curtains.

Located in the Hafencity development area of the city, the ten-storey Sumatrakontor is clad in stone that references the red colour of brick buildings nearby on the harbour.

Shops line the building at ground level, while offices, luxury apartments and a five star hotel are contained in the floors above.

Where the facade parts, glazing screens a ground-floor lobby that extends up through the full height of the building.

Erick van Egeraat also recently completed an underground museum extension – see it here and see more projects by the architect here.

Photography is by J Collingridge.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Erick van Egeraat completes ‘Sumatrakontor’ in Hamburg

At Hamburg Hafencity the brand new ‘ Sumatrakontor ‘ by Dutch Architect Erick van Egeraat was officially opened. The 37.000 sq-metre, ten story – multifunctional building houses a variety of inner-urban functions such as; a five-star Hotel, Offices and Conference rooms, retail, high-end housing and an underground parking garage.

The office and conference spaces maximize the variety in use due to the flexible structure offering units from 400 to 4.000m2. The retail in the lower floors ensure vitality in use and dynamics throughout the day. Erick van Egeraat’s design refers to the richly detailed existing red-brick harbor buildings of the ‘Speicherstad’  but does so in a contemporary manner. The large volume appears to be ‘cut’ in 4 different volumes and this is underlined by a specific dialectic play between glass, aluminium and red natural stone slabs for each of the different volumes. The inner courtyard on the other hand emphasises on the calm comfort of the traditional white plastered facades in the city center of Hamburg.

“I wanted to elaborate on the existing quality of this historic waterfront in a contemporary manner, so the Sumatrakontor needed to combine a number of qualities in both function and appearance. In this way the building really becomes an attribution in the activation of the city “ says Erick van Egeraat.

Whilst the original Masterplan set out to develop the ‘ Hafencity ‘ with simple building blocks, Erick van Egeraat’s interpretation is an evolution. In a playful manner the Sumatrakontor evolves upon the urban-rules set out in the masterplan, but it also leaves room for chance, for interpretation. One of the ‘cuts’ in the northern façade creates a void which in itself is the access to the inner courtyard. This courtyard is the inhabitants private garden in a environment which is largely dominated by stone.

The Sumatrakontor was initially developed by property investors ING REim, SNS property finance and Gross + Partners the latter was recently acquired by real estate investor Pramerica.

On an urban scale, the building’s shape allows a semi-public space and stimulates social interaction, while its architectonic appearance strongly relates to the character of Hamburg. The new building designed by Erick van Egeraat and his team is therefore a perfect example of the specific theme Erick van Egeraat introduced in his design for the Überseequarter: connecting the inner city with the revitalized waterfront and making the Überseequartier an integral part of the new and dynamic 21st century Hamburg.