As many of you know we officially gave up reporting on private design awards a couple of years ago – for us the emphasis in such awards is more often than not too heavily biased towards generating income for the organisers rather than helping or otherwise furthering the designers and their works.

And as such don’t merit our support.

While some awards are obviously more honourable than others; we decided ignoring all would be fairest.

However as Angela Merkel continues to teach us: what is the point in clearly defining your position on something if you can’t alter it occasionally.

Especially for a design studio as congenial, convivial and charming as Delphin Design.

Sign by Delphin Design for Trendglas Jena (The tea lamp candle is in the base...)

At the 2013 iF Awards Thomas Wagner and Dirk Loff, aka Delphin Design, picked up product design awards for their S 160 and S 170 conference chairs for Thonet and their teapot “system” Sign for Trendglas Jena.

A well deserved hat trick of success for a design studio who continually produce high quality work – most recently of course their PS 07 Bureau for Müller Möbelfabrikation – but always remain just outwith the spotlight of public attention.

Launched by Thonet at Orgatec 2010, the S 160 and S 170 are families of multi-purpose chairs which can be used individually or en mass. Although in principle very simple objects the majesty of the S 160 and S 170 families lies in the carefully reduced, single piece seat shell. It’s not revolutionary, but has been realised by Delphin Design with an all too rarely seen ease and grace. More revolutionary is the mechanism that allows the chairs to interlock via the armrests. The result is a combination of technical innovation and clearly defined form that one has come to expect from Delphin Design.

We know absolutely nothing about Sign for Trendglas Jena other than what we have read on the website, and so can’t and wont comment any further on it.

The awards aren’t Delphin Design’s first ever success at the iF Awards. But three in one year isn’t the sort of thing that happens every 12 months.

The 2013 awards list features no Bouroullec, no Antonio Citterio, no Naoto Fukasawa, and just one mention for Konstantin Grcic

And three for Delphin Design.

Hence our congratulations.

As we said at the beginning, private design awards are not really our thing. As so often however we find ourselves on this point in a minority, and several of the truly international awards – such as the iF Award – have become established as industry wide indicators of quality and innovation. The industry looks at the winners and takes them as benchmarks. And that is what makes Delphin Design’s success ultimately so pleasing, it means their work has not just been formally recognised on an international scale in competition against similar pieces, but will now reach a much wider, specialist audience that may have been the case.

Which is the least it deserves……

Thonet S 160 by Delphin Design

It being January, IMM Cologne once again provided the backdrop for the presentation of the A&W Designer of the Year Award. Following on from Tokujin Yoshioka in 2011 and Patrica Urquiola in 2012 the 2013 accolade went to everyone’s favourite Bretons Ronan And Erwan Bouroullec

In addition to the undoubted kudos of winning, as part of the award the Brothers Bouroullec are also being honoured in an exhibition at the Kölnischer Kunstverein.

Featuring an overview of their more recent works the exhibition can’t be called a retrospective, for that it is too small, too incomplete; however, it does provide a nice opportunity to compare their work for companies as varied as Vitra, Magis, Kvadrat or Lignet Roset and so examine their approach to and recurring motifs in their work.

For our part we spent most of our time cursing the exhibition design concept that saw the straight lines interrupted with curtains; thus making it impossible to get any sort of decent long, all-encompassing, shot.
Only in conversation with Erwan Bouroullec did we discover the troublesome textiles were in fact their latest product for Kvadrat – an off the peg and ready to hang curtain system.

They were still in the way. But at least we knew why!

We decided to spare the brothers the trauma of another interview with us, they’ve suffered enough over the years, but here a few impressions from the exhibition

If you happen to be in Cologne the exhibition can be viewed until Sunday January 20th at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Hahnenstr.6, 50667 Köln

Older readers will be well aware of the high esteem in which we hold the Bauhaus educated designer Marianne Brandt.

And of the fact that every time we write about her we invariably end up offending half of Saxony.

So. Deep breath. Fingers crossed. Here goes…..

In 2013 the Chemnitz Art Society Villa Arte will be hosting the 5th International Marianne Brandt Contest.

A triannual celebration of international contemporary design the 5th edition of the competition not only continues the search for objects and photographs that represent the “Poetry of the Functional” but also promises a one day Marianne Brandt symposium.

Which we think is an excellent idea.

Marianne Brandt Contest 2010: Marlen Pelny performs a Marianne Brandt poem under the artist's watchful eye.

One of our highlights of 2012 was the exhibition “Bauhaus. Art as Life” at the Barbican in London.

Not just because the flight to “The Island” meant the chance to enjoy a couple of genuinely decent beers on the way home, but also because of the new dimension to many of the Bauhaus proragonist’s outputs it presented.

Including of course Marriane Brandt.

In our interview with the curator Lydia Yee she flagged up Brandt’s collages as being among those rarely seen objects that had helped her better understand Bauhaus and its legacy.

We can only concur. But not just the collages. The exhibition was awash with rarely seen perspectives on Brandt’s work.

Design being what it is it is all too easy for a designer to be reduced to one or two “trademark” objects while the rest of their life’s work is simply ignored.

Yes Marianne Brandt’s tea service is excellent. But is one project. Exploring the rest of her work you discover aspects of her character and philosophy that you simply cannot extrapolate from a tea service.

“Bauhaus. Art as Life” presented that chance and while the International Marianne Brandt Contest is without question an excellent platform for keeping the life and work of Marianne Brandt in the public eye, a little more explanation of who she was, what she did and why she is so important wouldn’t go amiss. And would ensure that she remained relevant for young designers. We hope the symposium can achieve that.

A selection of lamp designs by Marianne Brandt at "Bauhaus. Art as Life"

In addition to the regular Product Design and Photography categories, the 2013 International Marianne Brandt Contest includes the special category “Cradle to Cradle” for Sustainable Design.

Which makes our hearts sink a little. Or to be honest, a lot.

For us “Sustainable Design” awards are a bit like 3D films – a passing bandwagon that everyone suddenly feels that they need to jump on. Regardless if they know the final destination or not.

Why not just make sustainability a criteria for winning the prize?

Job done.

Looking back at the 2010 International Marianne Brandt Contest many of the entries were sustainable. Very sustainable even. And it is to be expected that many 2013 entries will also be. Intelligent contemporary designers working outwith the confines of commercial contracts invariably consider resources, life-cycles, energy supply and recycling/disposal when developing their projects.

Making “Sustainable Design” an extra category doesn’t help advance any dialogue about sustainability in design, rather it keeps it as a “feature” in the public’s view. However if design is to be truly sustainable we all – designers, consumers, “lifestyle bloggers”, manufacturers, politicians – have to understand stability as part of design’s remit.

Regardless, we’re just happy to have the International Marianne Brandt Contest back.

We’ve missed it. Honest.

The 2010 International Marianne Brandt Contest famously introduced us to two projects that still excite and fascinate us – Mechthild by Christoph Schmidt and Damensattel by Caspar Huckfeldt – and we fully expect the 2013 edition to be just as stimulating, invigorating, innovating and challenging.

Entries for the 2013 International Marianne Brandt Contest cannot be submitted until May 2013 and so you’ve got time to develop a killer project.

The competition is open to all designers, regardless of how professional. The only proviso is that you must be under 40: which of course sadly rules out most residents of Chemnitz.

So close. Sooooo close.

More details on the 2013 International Marianne Brandt Contest can be found at http://marianne-brandt-wettbewerb.de

International Marianne Brandt Contest 2013

Ever since DMY Berlin inaugurated their “Three from Ten” Awards in 2009 the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin has honoured the nominees and prize winners with an autumn exhibition.

2012 is no different and the exhibition “DMY Awards and Jury Selection 2012″ can be viewed in Berlin until mid-October.

It is of course only logical that the Bauhaus Archiv should take an interest in largely experimental and conceptual design projects.

For although today heavily stained with cliché and tainted by the passing of time, the Bauhaus was largely an experimental and conceptual institution that challenged students to think in new ways and so discover new answers.

And so in hosting the DMY Awards exhibition the Bauhaus Archiv is simply remaining true to the tradition they aim to maintain through the more “regular” historical, muséal, exhibitions.

Bauhaus Archiv Berlin: DMY Awards and Jury Selection 2012

As an exhibition “DMY Awards and Jury Selection 2012″ is pretty self-explanatory. It doesn’t tell a story. It doesn’t explore anything. It doesn’t challenge.

It presents 10 projects that do all those things.

Back in June Andrea Brena promised us a new “Knitted Army” piece for the Bauhaus Archiv exhibition. And he hasn’t disappointed. Taking the results of a little arm knitting and combining it with a metal frame he has turned an otherwise abstract piece into a chair.
And so taken the project up a level.

The other projects are pretty much as you were. Which is fine. Not least because most of them were largely “complete”
But also because in the more relaxed and unhurried surroundings of the Bauhaus Archiv one has time to reflect a little longer and question a little deeper than one did in Tempelhof.

We, for example, still don’t really see the long term aim of Jólan van der Wiel’s Gravity Stool project. In the Bauhaus Archiv exhibition we have the space to consider it.
And indeed at a workshop on October 11th to discuss it with Jólan.

Gravity Stool by Jólan van der Wiel.

Elsewhere Mobile Gastfreundschaft by chmara.rosinke and Future Travels by Hanemaai are still challenging our sedentary nature, Agri-Expo Yunlin are still promoting bamboo and Rockwell Group are still getting kids to do the work and build their own play parks with their Imagination Playground.

But then all ten projects have something to say and a reason to explore them.

“DMY Awards and Jury Selection 2012″ can be viewed at the Bauhaus Archiv Berlin until October 15th.

If your in the German capital we’d recommend you do.

Full details, including information on the extensive accompanying programme can be found at www.bauhaus.de

Andrea Brena's new "Knitted Army Chair"

Return by Sa’ Bella Design/Sally Lin. Part of Farmer's Creativity

Bauhaus Archiv Berlin: DMY Awards and Jury Selection 2012

Back in January Benjamin Hubert was awarded the A&W Audi Mentorpreis 2012. Presented in conjunction with the A&W Designer of the Year Award the Mentorpreis can in many ways be considered as being the “Young Designer” category. The interesting aspect of the A&W Audi Mentorpreis is that the winner is nominated by that year’s A&W Designer of the Year. So in 2012 Patricia Urquiola.

After the award ceremony we caught up with Benjamin for a quick chat; however, we very cleverly managed to lose the interview, and only recently re-discovered it. Hence the delay.

A graduate of the Industrial Design and Technology programme at Loughborough University, Benjamin Hubert first crossed our radar when we saw his “Spinning” lamps for &tradition at CODE10 in Copenhagen: a product that caught our attention on account of its simple, uncomplicated elegance. As an object it doesn’t do very much but has a form and a presence that just makes you feel good about yourself and the world around you.

In addition to &tradition Benjamin Hubert currently works with an impressive roster of international manufacturers including De La Espada, Cappellini and De Vorm who produce his genial “Pebble” series and “Pod” chairs. In April his entry “Juliet” won the Poltrona Frau Centenary Armchair contest in Milan and has since been taken on by Poltrona Frau.

Back in January we spoke to Benjamin Hubert about the A&W Audi Mentorpreis 2012 and his carear path until now. Or until “then”, to be perfectly correct…..

(smow)blog: Firstly congratulations on the award, how did it come about?

Benjamin Hubert: I got an email telling me I’d won the prize…

(smow)blog: …so you didn’t even know you were in the running?

Benjamin Hubert: No. Which is actually quite nice. With most awards you do know in advance, because people want to make sure you’re at the awards show, and so you kind of know what’s happening. But here it was an email out the blue from A&W telling me that Patricia had nominated me and that together with Audi they had selected me and would I like to accept it? To which the answer was of course yes! And it’s just really nice to know that Patricia appreciates the work we do. And so all in all it’s very nice.

(smow)blog: If we understand the situation correctly you used to focus on more “industrial” projects and then later started doing more furniture….

Benjamin Hubert: The studio was started in 2007 and the first three years or so was principally working for other studios while developing my own projects at weekends and evenings, before in 2009 / 2010 I bit the bullet and gave up the day job as it were to concentrate on my own projects. Initially that was mainly lighting and then gradually came more furniture and now we work across a wide range of products from fashion accessories to lights, furniture and onto small installations and bit of art direction. And I think that’s what’s so great about design is that you can move across different disciplines.

(smow)blog: And so was the plan always to set up your own studio, or….?

Benjamin Hubert: No, not all! I had aspirations of climbing the corporate design ladder, if there is such a thing, and becoming director of a company and all those things. But I think it was when I graduated and showed my graduation work at a few exhibitions and visited Salone Milano, that all really opened my eyes to an industry that I wasn’t really aware of. Obviously I knew there was an industry there, but I wasn’t really aware just how big it was, how many possibilities it offered and that was something I think I just fell in love with.

(smow)blog: And presumably now given the roster of companies you work with, you must be learning ever more?

Benjamin Hubert: Yes, all the time. Going to the factories and the workshops and seeing the people actually making things is the most rewarding aspect of the whole thing. And the best companies to work with are the ones who are open to new ideas and new ways of thinking and who, for example, will introduce us to a new material or we’ll present them something new and they’ll be receptive to the idea. That’s how the best projects develop, in co-operation with the producers and the workshops.

(smow)blog: Final question and coming back to the A&W Audi Mentorpreis, Oscar Zieta, your predecessor as winner, is in the current Audi advert. If they ask you, are you available?

Benjamin Hubert: Sure, as long as they don’t ask me to do anything ridiculous. Why not!

The Pebble series and Pod chair by Benjamin Hubert for de vorm. Here at Neue Räume Zurich 2011

Our first experience of Benjamin Hubert's work. Spinning for &tradition at CODE10 Copenhagen

As we always say one of the joys of visiting design festivals is the chance they offer to explore different parts of the host city.

Normally it is the visitors who travel.

In Leipzig, it’s Designers’ Open that travels.

The true minstrel under the European design festivals, Designers’ Open has been annually packing its kit bag and moving on ever since leaving its, figurative, family home in the Grassi Museum in 2006.

Designers Open 2012 will be held from October 25th to 28th in the Ernst-Grube-Halle of the Leipzig University Sport Science Campus.

A location that is grander than it sounds.

The more commercial, product, part of the festival DO/Market features new for 2012 three special foci; “Off/Spring” with design for children, “Open/Air”  for garden/balcony/outdoor products and “Spin/Off”  which promises to present current diploma and masters projects. In addition to a, hopefully, sizable collection of international designers with their latest projects.

The more technological component DO/Industry meanwhile features, in addition to innovative design solutions, a conference under the title “smart technology – new design”

Designers’ Open 2012 also features the exhibition and award ceremony for the “Sachsen Design Prize 2012″. Here’s hoping the 2012 jury do better than the 2009 jury who inexplicably decided to award 2 second prizes and no winner rather than doing the decent thing and proclaiming one entry as being better than all the others

We’ll keep you updated.

And will indeed bring you all the highlights of Designers’ Open 2012.

The obvious question of course now that we all know where Designers’ Open 2012 is being held is where will Designers’ Open 2013 be held.

If you follow Designers’ Open’s tour through Leipzig in recent years from the Merkurhaus in 2009 over Hôtel de Pologne and onto the Spinnerei prior to this years hard right back towards the city center, then for us there is only one geographically logical location for 2013.

Leipzig Zoo.

And then hopefully 2014 they will finally make it to Halle.

For us the better, and much more obvious, natural location for the show…..

Designers’ Open Leipzig 2012 takes place at the Ernst-Grube-Halle, Leipzig University Sport Science Campus from October 25th – 28th 2012.

W1 by Nicolai Gulliksen @ Designers' Open Leipzig 2011. Let's see what 2012 brings....

As already stated, DMY Berlin 2012 is hosting not only the Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 2012 exhibition but also the jury meeting to decide which entries should be nominated – and as such go forward to the short list from which the winners will be selected.

The  jury have done their work and until June 10th we all have the chance to not only view all submitted entries. But also disagree with the jury’s decisions.

It’s why jury’s make decisions!

The first thing to say is that the exhibition does resemble in certain respects a car park – the “air side” of the hangar being taken up by a continuous string of automobiles and motorbikes. German engineering in its most universally recognisable form.

Yet judging from what else is on show Germany isn’t too sluggish when it comes to producing taps and shower heads either.

But it’s not all high end industrial design.

There are some wonderful examples of graphic design, small, playful items intended to make our daily life that little bit easier. And a stuffed felt rhino and elephant called Ronny and Peggy.

The problem however with displaying shower heads, notebooks and stuffed animals in a space such as Tempelhof, is that they are tiny.

Relatively speaking.

The exhibition hanger isn’t particularly well filled as it is, and the large number of smaller objects means that if one isn’t careful one runs the risk of drowning in space.

Understandably keen as the organisers are to use the whole hangar – they may have been better advised to have only used 75% or so of the room. Or maybe they are just expecting an awful lot of visitors.

The section that most interested us was of course the furniture; and there we must say there wasn’t a great deal that caught our attention. Bao by EOOS for Walter Knoll still rocks our boat and, in our opinion, has rightly been nominated.

Otherwise the furniture section just looked tired and uninspired. We really missed any obvious signs of innovation.

What for us was also missing from the exhibition was the entries from younger design studios and producers.

Part of the DMY concept for the Designpreis is and was that through the reduced entry price more younger studios and producers should be motivated to participate.

We didn’t see them. Or at least not any where near as many as one would have expected.

It was admittedly quite dark in the hangar when we were there.

But we still managed to see all the products from Germany’s industrial elite.

But not those from the next generation.

This may however not be DMY’s fault alone. The condition that all submissions must have been awarded a prize by a regional design award of course means that if the young studios aren’t entering – and winning – design competitions in Bavaria, Sachsen or Saarland; then entry to the Bundespreis can be free. They still couldn’t enter.

And so maybe the time is rife to take a closer look at the regional contests and make a sober judgment as to how fair and democratic they are.

Design and innovation are after all a major economic factor in Germany.

As we say the hall did seem quite empty.

While this may have been to do with the vast scale of the hangar, we feel to suggest this as the main reason would be over generous to the organisers.

We’ve not seen any official figures as to how many entries were submitted, but we’ve got unofficial figures that seem confirmed by a quick look around the exhibition. And they all suggest the number of received entries is well below the expected.

As in “well below”

But as we say we’ve not seen any official figures. Once we have we’ll be better placed to assess and analyse if expectations were reached. And if not, why not.

The success or failure of a design prize however isn’t decided by the number of entries alone  – but by the quality of the winners that come out.

If the winners reflect the true quality of a country’s design output – then job done.

We’ll all be better placed to judge when the winners are announced in October.

And until Sunday June 10th we all have the chance to make a first impression.

Although we know better, sometimes we could almost believe that this blog is planned.
In our “Belgium is Design” post from Milan we wrote

“Tim Baute from interror was for several years one of the true highlights at Designers Fair in Cologne.”

And a couple of weeks later in pops the information that he will be making his debut at DMY Berlin.

If his new “Stealth” product range will be a highlight remains to be seen. And certainly the competition is tough.

New Zealand designer David Trubridge, whose Kete lamps blew us away at Milan 2009, will be presenting his Mini Grow Seed System kitset lights, the ökay project by Berlin based Philipp Kaefer looks very interesting as does Perspective_s from Poznan which promises an overview of contemporary design in the Wielkopolska region of Poland.

To name just three from a very interesting exhibitor list.

An exhibitor list that features an awful lot of Dutch exhibitors. We’ve not seen any information that Holland is a focus or guest country at DMY Berlin 2012.

But Tempelhof Airport will have a distinct orange glow.

In addition to the “established” range of exhibitions and events, DMY Berlin 2012 will also host the exhibition of all entries for the “Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 2012“. We’re looking forward to seeing how they organise that.

As ever we’ll be in Berlin for the festival and will bring you regular updates, photos and interviews here in (smow)blog, on the (smow) facebook page and at smow.posterous.com

Do let us know what you think……

DMY Berlin 2012

A couple of years ago we were sat, late one Friday evening, in the kitchen in the Moormann Berge in Aschau, when Nils Holger Moormann came in.

Beaming.

He’d just returned from collecting a “German Design Prize” in Gold for Berge and enthused how, in comparison to other design prizes, winning the Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland was like winning Olympic gold.

He may not have compared it to the Olympics, our memories may be fuzzy on that point. But it was certainly high praise.

And he was definitely beaming.

Established in 1969 the Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland is Germany’s official national Design Prize and until now was administered and run by the German Design Council on behalf of the German Economics Ministry.

From 2012 it will be administered and run by DMY Berlin. Apparently a controversial decision.

At the launch press conference Secretary of State Hans-Joachim Otto from the Economics Ministry repeatedly stated that the decision to entrust DMY with the competition was definitely not a snub to the German Design Council.

And did so with a frequency and unmistakable “read my lips” clarity that indicated that someone’s nose had been put mightily out of joint.

Just how insulted the German Design Council feel can be perhaps be best seen in their decision to start their own competition, the German Design Award.

Or as we used to understand such decisions “If we can’t be striker, we’re taking our ball home and are going to play by ourselves”

There is, as far as we can see, absolutely no justification on the part of the German Design Council for starting their own competition; not least because it clouds the waters and hinders a clear and precise global presentation of the current quality in German design.
Which theoretically is something the German Design Council should be interested in.

German Design Award 2012: Not to be confused with the Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 2012

And not only the German Design Council seem put out by the decision.
One colleague at the press conference appeared very, very cross that the German Design Council were no longer running it; as far as we could make out because he was afraid it would now become too commercial. Would somehow lose the purity it has enjoyed until now.

Without wanting to openly challenge our colleagues competence on German design matters – something we suspect would end with us vanishing into the woods whimpering with our tales between our legs – he should probably have a look at the entry rules of the competition as organised by the German Design Council. And ask why the German Design Council felt obliged to start their own contest? Sour grapes and hurt pride aside.
And also look a little more critically at how the Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland has performed of late under the German Design Council’s stewardship.

Something the Economics Ministry clearly have done.

While attempting to realign the GDCs proboscis, Secretary of State Otto also let it be known that the Ministry were the opinion that holding the prize ceremony during Ambiente had failed to provide the necessary resonance.

Yup

No disrespect to Frankfurt Messe. But Ambiente isn’t a design fair. It’s a home accessories and gift fair. The closest it gets to graphic design is probably wallpaper.

But the German Design Council are based in Frankfurt and often seem unable to think beyond the banks of the Main. For example, the “Foundation Board”  for the new German Design Museum planned, admittedly, for Berlin is composed entirely of individuals from Frankfurt.
Presumably because the German Design Council aren’t aware of any competent individuals based in Berlin.

Had they been aware of a design festival based in Berlin, say Germany’s largest, we suspect they could have organised a co-operation with them earlier and held their awards ceremony and exhibition at least parallel to if not directly integrated into the DMY festival. A decision that would have a created a much larger media echo than that generated amongst the plates, towel racks and manicure products of Ambiente.

Watch this space for our report from inaugural “German Design Award” ceremony.
And then check google to see who else reports……

The Messeturm at Frankfurt Messe. Since January 2012 it houses the HQ of .... you've probably guessed (Photo: Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH / Helmut Stettin )

We suspect the German Design Council’s devotion to all things Hessen may have been part of the reason for the decision to award the contract to DMY. If so they only have themselves to blame.

For our part we welcome the decision to give the competition to DMY Berlin.

At the press conference we heard the phrase “generation change” and that fits very well.

A lot of people are very scared of generation changes; but they are important if an organisation, event or relationship is to develop and master future challenges.

Speaking as we do to an awful lot of German designers, young and old, established and less so one often hears a criticism that the existing German design institutions focus too much on the “gute Form”, still operate in a world where Dieter Rams defines what German design is and for all that they spend to much time telling designers what they should be doing rather than helping them promote what they are actually doing.

Largely because the organisation is dominated by a generation who came through the ranks when that was the case. Which is fine. But today it isn’t the case. Which is also fine.

With DMY running the Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland we expect that the competition will not only be a more contemporary affair; but will also be more democratic and open.

For all through the flat rate Euro 350,00 entry fee. A fee that in comparison to the thousands of euros winning design prizes usually costs should see a lot more smaller companies and design studios applying.

(Note to all who don’t know. Winning a design competition is very expensive. There is one, for example, where the winners are obliged to pay a Euro 2,800 “Winners fee” in addition to compulsory costs for catalogue entries. And of course the initial entrance fee. Which is obviously a barrier for anyone on a tight budget)

It is of course possible that DMY Berlin make a complete pigs breakfast of the competition and the whole thing is a disaster. That is always the risk when changing partner.

We’ll know by mid-May when details are announced of how many applications have been submitted, from whom and from which disciplines.

However looking at the concept as developed by DMY and comparing it to both what has gone before and all other design prizes in Germany we see a real chance to reinvigorate the Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland and so help German design and German designers better promote themselves in the global market.

As we say, if the German Design Council leave the ball where it is and accept their position on the wing….

A&W Designer of the Year 2012: Patricia Urquiola

For a decade and a half the unofficial start to Cologne Furniture Week has been the honouring of the “A&W Designer of the Year”

Awarded by the German magazine “A&W Architektur & Wohnen”, the prize was inaugurated in 1997 to honour a designer whose work has particular defined the home furnishing style of our time. Previous winners including Philippe Starck, Antonio Citterio or Tom Dixon. To name just three from 15.

The A&W Designer of the Year 2012 is the Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola.

Perhaps best known for her work with Moroso, B&B Italia, Kartell or Molteni, Patricia Urquiola initially studied architecture in Madrid before moving to Italy where she completed her studies at the Politecnico di Milano. In 2001 she established her own studio in Milan and in addition to furniture design work has also completed numerous interior design projects and since 2002 has been a Guest Professor at the Domus Academy.

Ahead of the awards ceremony we spoke with Patricia Urquiola about her career and specifically, and in keeping with both the award and the exhibition “From Aalto to Zumthor Furniture by Architects” in the MAKK, discussed if architects make better furniture designers.

(smow)blog: You studied architecture, now work principally as a designer. Was it your intention to follow a career as an architect, or was that just a way to means?

Patricia Urquiola: From my early teens my intention was to become an architect; I was one of these adolescents who is already certain what they want to do. And so I studied architecture at the Politecnica Madrid and there I met Marco Zanuso, Achille Castiglioni and many other very interesting architects who were working in both architecture and design. And that made me focus more on design. And so in a way the Italians led this change of focus.

(smow)blog: And then you moved to Milan where you later you went on to work with another architect and designer, Piero Lissoni…

Patricia Urquiola: Yes, but with the background I have and amongst my contemporaries it was quite natural to work across the borders of architecture and design. Which of course is part of the reason Milan became important as a centre for architecture and design.

(smow)blog: At the moment there is an exhibition here in Cologne looking at the role of “furniture architects”. Do architects make better furniture than designers with a different background?

Patricia Urquiola: No, I don’t think so. I am, for example, a big fan of Konstantin Grcic and he is not an architect. The discipline of design can be approached in many ways, and for me the border between the two is on the one side the “habitat” and the other “tools for living”. That was my education, that’s me and that is my approach. But the disciplines leave a lot of space to approach it in many ways and we’ve got to be open to listen to new voices. And I think there is currently some very good research and some very good schools, I think, for example, Eindhoven is currently very interesting. But, as I say, there are a lot of possibilities for working in these disciplines and we have to remain open to read the situation.

(smow)blog: You’ve been living in Milan for some 25 years now. Have you noticed a change over the decades? Is it still a city where one feels creativity?

Patricia Urquiola: I moved to Milan in a very creative period. The likes of Castiglioni or Vico Magistretti were still active and the Memphis group were in their best period. But then obviously Milan changed a lot, became more bourgeois, and today we have all these crises. But like all design centres in Italy in Milan there is still a desire to produce quality work. I had the luck in Milan to meet people who believed in design and who gave people like me a certain credibility, and I’m very grateful for that. But then my life is not only about Milan, and the work that I do in Milan is only part of my work.

The sofa Volant for Moroso by Patricia Urquiola

Silver Lake by Moroso and in the background Comeback Chair for Kartell by Patricia Urquiola

Maia Egg swing for Kettal, the lamp Chasen for flos and Tropicalia for Moroso, all by Patricia Urquiola