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Plusdesign Gallery in Milan showed ‘Bakelite Borgo’ during the Saloni di Mobile. The piece is a series of house-shaped boxes that can be individually arranged. The pieces are made from Bakelite.

Here is a clip by Abitare that explains the project:

I have been included in the top 20 list of designers who Paula Antonelli, curator of design at the MoMA, and Alice Rawsthorn, design critic at the New York Times, believe will influence design in the next decade.
You can see the full list here: http://www.domusweb.it/en/news/rolling-stone-design-special-issue

We visited the award-winning Siglufjordur Icelandic Herring Era Museum, only a stone’s throw from our studio. It charts the rise and decline of the former ‘Herring Capital of the World’ and the great ‘Herring Adventure’ that lasted from the 1867 to 1968.

Hundreds of herring barrels being packed in Siglufjordur harbour. The photograph was taken in the heyday of the herring adventure, long before people started to give thought to the idea that the stocks might not last forever.

The museum consists of three buildings, showcasing different aspects of life and times in the herring capital. We particularly liked the boathouse with its rebuilt pier and fishing boats. The display was developed together with theatre set designers and includes everything from projections to sounds and smells of the harbour.

Here a view of Siglufjordur in the early 1900s…

— and here for comparison the town at maximum capacity. The population had risen from 380 to just under 4000 people. Today, the harbour structures and most of the factories have been dismantled the town has shrunk to 1200 inhabitants.

Another glimpse of the museum, a rebuilt fishing storehouse.

And a final view of Siglufjordur at the start of the herring boom.

Design can be understood as adding value – it is employed to add value to materials and objects to generate a commercial profit and functional, emotional benefit in the process.

Based on the rules of a popular German children’s game, the students take this notion to the extreme and create their design piece or design inspiration from and apple and an egg.

The rules of the game:

At the beginning of the project the students split in groups of two to three people and each group will be given an apple and an egg. This is their capital for this project. Now it is up to each team to make the most of their capital by finding people who will trade with them.

The following days we create design proposals and projects from the inspiration and the objects traded on day one.

How could anyone resist trading with Magali and Juliette?

...but what to make of it all?

Projects emerge from the trade -by Clara, Nina & Yuan

development of the ideas - by Nina & Pierre

…and on to the final presentation tomorrow, with our ‘external examiner’ David Dubois…

Today a great article by Alice Rawsthorn about my work was published in the International Herald Tribune. You can permanently read it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/arts/27iht-design2.1.20486090.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=julia%20lohmann&st=cse