If we’re honest when we initially saw Speiseschrank by Nadin Jahn at the Bauhaus University Weimar 2012 Diploma exhibition we kept on walking.

It just didn’t tickle us. Didn’t seem that interesting or relevant.

But when we approached it a second time we stopped and considered it properly.

Thankfully!

Back in the day fruit and vegetables were stored in cellars, garages and similar naturally cool, dark spaces.

Today they are stored in heated kitchens and as most of us only go shopping once a week and invariably buy too much, fruit and vegetables rot and are thrown out. Needless waste.

Speiseschrank by Nadin Jahn is, in effect, a cellar for the modern kitchen.

In essence little more than a conventional kitchen unit with specially created ceramic containers in which fruit and vegetables are stored, the secret to Speiseschrank is an air conductivity effect we admit we don’t really follow, but which according to Nadin creates an environment that keeps the interior of the unit cool and moist: thus extending the life cycle of the contents. And reducing needless waste.

A couple of years ago the Bauhaus University Weimar Diploma show introduced us to the brilliant R2B2 by Christoph Thetard, an object that still makes us go weak at the knees.

Speiseschrank by Nadin Jahn is very much in the same tradition, namely an approach to making modern kitchens culturally and socially responsible locations rather than the consumption driven dens of debauchery and waste they have become in recent decades.

Ultimately changing consumption patterns must be the goal if we want to ensure that our lifestyles are to cease impacting negatively on our environment, and obviously if we have kitchens – and indeed houses – that are so designed that they actively help us move towards such then that must be good.

Speiseschrank by Nadin Jahn is definitely a positive step towards such a reality.

Speiseschrank by Nadin Jahn. One of the ceramic containers.

Speiseschrank by Nadin Jahn. Closed.

Speiseschrank by Nadin Jahn. Interior.

Among a decent if not especially vintage selection of Diploma projects on show at the Bauhaus University Weimar Summaery 2012 exhibition, the one that was getting the least attention when we were there was also, in our opinion, the best.

Schwarz auf Weiss by Jenni-Fee Hahn.

Modern communication is all well and good. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s universal. But we all know it is also, as Blur so very nearly put it. Rubbish.

It doesn’t satisfy us. It doesn’t motivate us. It doesn’t inspire us.

Schwarz auf Weiss by Jenni-Fee Hahn does.

A concept more than a product per se, Schwarz auf Weiss is in essence little more than a writing set complete with a postage stamp. And the perfect antidote to sitting in a coffee shop checking Facebook or taking another Instagram photo of a cappuccino to tweet to your friends who are invariably doing the same.

Write a letter. Make some notes. Sketch something.

Rediscover that wonderful feeling of losing yourself in your thoughts and imagination. Oblivious to what the rest of the world is doing.

Digital communication is a necessity. Analogue communication is a pleasure.

Honest!

The real beauty of Schwarz auf Weiss is of course that it provides a means for escaping the digital. Many of us know there is more to life than what we currently accept, but breaking the cycles is difficult. Finding that moment to step out of life and do something stimulating isn’t that easy.

A writing set that you can order with your coffee is perhaps the simplest, most delightful way imaginable to help us reclaim our space in the world and our sense of self. Because it involves no effort. Just the desire to do such.

And that is what really appealed to us.

Bauhaus University Weimar Summaery 2012: Schwarz auf Weiss by Jenni-Fee Hahn

Schwarz auf Weiss by Jenni-Fee Hahn. A small postbox is also included so that you can post your letters before rejoining the digital age.

When we mentioned it last year it was just intended as a cheap pun. But slowly we can see a lot of sense in changing the name of the annual end of year exhibition at the Bauhaus University Weimar to Autumnery.

For as with Summaery 2011, Summaery 2012 wasn’t.

And although we had the feeling that this years show was less extensive than last years, we still found plenty to distract us from the unseasonal weather.

Among the highlights for us were the results of the classes “Falter” which challenged students to create products through folding, bending, arching etc, not processes that necessarily always create good products but the results presented certainly reinforced the value of such processes in product design and “ex und hopp” which looked at increasing the lifecyles of products. The highpoint in “ex und hopp” was probably Juusto by Josephine Peterknecht a device for turning “old” milk into cheese and which we’d really like to see in action as, and despite reading the brochure, we still don’t really get it. But love the concept.

Juusto from Josephine Peterknecht

Regular readers will be aware that there is one room in the Weimar campus complex that always contains a presentation that mildly disappoints us.
Was would now be the correct verb form.

Having taken the hint from our constant whinging, that particular room wasn’t open this year; and so the mildly disappointing show was forced to move across the courtyard.

For us the “Hygiene – Händewaschen hilft, nützt aber nichts!” class looking at improving hospital hygiene missed the point a little. Now we know the students had specialist assistance from Jena Uni Hospital and we don’t want to pick a fight with microbiologists…..

…..although that said, there is one member of the (smow)blog team who almost got into a brawl once over the generic name of the bacteria that causes the bubonic plague. And so, in that tradition.
We can well believe that those bacteria which cause infections are mainly transported by the hands. But the hands aren’t the cause. They are the mechanical transportation.

Classic product design in the sense of objects to make disinfecting your hands easier is therefore no long term solution – except of course for the financial worries of the global disinfectant industry – as it doesn’t tackle any problem. Reducing bacterial spread is a process design issue, and while there were admittedly a couple of nice attempts at influencing staff behaviour for the better, for us too much of the exhibition focused on making sure medical staff always had a ready supply of disinfectant. Which we felt was a shame because it is an area where designers have a lot to offer.

Although that said reducing infection is ultimately a medical question, a question of how hospitals work and if hospitals shouldn’t use less drugs and perform less operations. And indeed admit fewer patients.
As a society we medicine too much, and in terms of remaining fit and healthy, less is, as any design student should know, more.

Elsewhere the 2012 Diploma show contained one and half, possibly one and two half really good projects, the rest just not really floating our boat, but more on that later; the results of the class “Lernen Kochen und Essen” exploring how to improve and optimise the experience and pedagogic value of school meals produced a couple of outstanding responses; and the now traditional exhibition of workplace solutions contained an intoxicating mix of the sublime and ridiculous. But hey, that’s what such courses are all about, setting the students a brief and seeing what they make of and with it.

A special mention must also go to the band who played the Rolling.Stage.Solar on the early part of the Thursday evening. We’re not sure what they were called, they did however make one of the most gorgeous and infectious sounds we have heard in a very, very long time. Top notch!

Catching insects in front of the Van De Velde Building, Bauhaus University Weimar. Possibly.

The Bauhaus University Weimar’s principle focus is architecture and art, product design has an important but not central role in the institution. A situation which means that while the majority of what is on show is interesting, it’s not something we can really get excited about. Room upon room of architectural models and sketches are undoubtedly important, but not something we want to spend too long trying to decipher. Especially when we neither know nor particularly care about the context of the object/area involved.

However it is exactly this focus away from our principle focus that always makes a visit to Summaery fascinating, because we do find ourselves being forced to continually reappraise situations and are invariably led down new paths of thought. And that is why we always make the effort to go to Weimar.

That and the fact that it doesn’t matter what the weather is like during our visit, heading back to Leipzig we are always treated to the most fantastic sunsets. The sort of sunset that truly reaffirms your faith in the world and makes you feel you can take on anything the future may hold for you.

Summaery 2012 at Bauhaus University Weimar can be viewed until Sunday July 15th 2012.

Below a few impressions from Summaery 2012 at Bauhaus University Weimar.

Professor Bernd Rudolf

One of the more interesting anomalies about Bauhaus Weimar is that it never had an architecture department.
Despite Walter Gropius’ desire to unite the arts and crafts with, and in the service of, architecture.

The modern Bauhaus University Weimar does have an architecture department.

A very good and award winning architecture department.

At Summaery 2011 the faculty presented the results of numerous research projects: including, greenhouse – globally the first building constructed from a wood-concrete composite – and a very interesting looking, if difficult to explain, carbon dioxide fixing algal photobiorector designed for use in modular building facades.

We spoke to Professor Bernd Rudolf, Dekan of the Architecture Faculty, about the university’s research work, the future of architecture – and that name!

(smow)blog: Looking at the various projects being presented here it is clear that modern architecture isn’t just building buildings. What are the principle focuses here at Bauhaus University Weimar ?

Professor Bernd Rudolf : We have two major tendencies here in the faculty. On the one hand we are in the process of extending the area urbanistic. We have recently started a bachelor course, and are hoping that the research interests of those who participate will then fuse together in a coherent network. And the other principle focus of our work is designing with aim of advancing applied research. The first projects in this context are currently taking shape. The first is the greenhouse from Prof Walter Stamm-Teske, with the wood cement composite and the second is the research platform x.stahl where in the future we will showcase all projects that involve applied architecture research, intelligent hybrid materials or energy relevant questions.

(smow)blog: And looking to the future, and in context of the research being carried out here in Weimar. What do you see as the role of architects in the future?

Professor Bernd Rudolf : There is currently a lot of discussion around the question if the classic architect will still be needed in the future. As a designer, I think architects will increasingly give their role as author of the building up to their collaborators, at least in respect of the technical elements of a building. But I believe a construction always needs someone who can moderate and who can act as an interface in order to ensure that the structure in all its complexity can be realised. Such a person will always be needed. And he must be a team player. The star architect who submits his design and then leaves the country and hopes that everything works out as he planned, they are a dying breed. The majority of the students who come to us, come with this image of the star architect as representing the typical career path, but we quickly manage to cure them of that.

(smow)blog: In that respect, looking back has the average architecture student changed over the years, or….?

Professor Bernd Rudolf : It is still that case that they all want to make the world a better place. That remains the principle reason for studying architecture; I want to make the world a better place. Maybe what has changed is that previously the students came with a continuous biography based on experience; nowadays its more a case of a patchwork. They’ve done this and that, and from this patchwork comes the impulse. They have maybe, for example, spent some time overseas, realised what architecture for a value has there and then want to learn that here.

(smow)blog: Changing the world is maybe a good point to ask, the name Bauhaus in how far is it helpful and in how far is it a handicap?

Professor Bernd Rudolf : I always see it as being very positive. I think we have established here a college just as Walter Gropius would have wished. In terms of construction we currently have a complexity here far greater than that during Gropius’ time. I think that through the exchange between designers, media professionals, computer professionals and engineers the circle closes itself and we now have this complex knowledge base here.
Technically what we have here is a realisation of Gropius’ idea of art and technology: that may sound banal, it is a lot more. But maybe Gropius knew that it would so come, that one needed other disciplines, would need to engage the other disciplines, to be able to correctly order our complex world.

Green:House. The first house built from a new wood-concrete composite. As seen at Bauhaus Uni Weimar Summaery 2011

The experimetal carbon dioxide fixing algal photobiorector. As seen @ Bauhaus Uni Weimar Summaery 2011

Arable farmers are famously living, breathing weather databases. Ask one what the weather was like in July four years ago and they’ll tell you.
While explaining why it was bad for the crop. Regardless of how the weather was.

Designs journalists are similar.

Summaery 2010 lived up to its billing and was very Summery.
Summaery 2011 wasn’t. It was more Autumnery.

Which of course didn’t distract from our enjoyment. We just wanted to crowbar that pun in.

The Opaque.Pavillion @ Summaery 2011 Bauhaus University Weimar

A central feature of Summaery 2011 was a series of 9 pavilions created from inter-disciplinay cooperations and coordinated by the architecture department.

The highlight for us was without question the Opaque.Pavillion

In essence a dome created from a normal IKO8 Mero System, the Bauhaus Weimar students adapted the structure through the addition of triangular panels on the outside – panels which provide protection from sun and rain, while maintaining an open feeling inside. The optical illusion created by the “openness” meant that it integrated beautifully in the garden of Bauhausstrasse 15 – and presumably can therefore be integrated in almost any environment without dominating it.

The killer detail for us was the form and position of the panels which are so combined that rain water runs down the outside – flowing from one panel to the next. As we were there it was, fortunately, dry – it had however rained the evening before and according to the students the pavillion had functioned perfectly.

In the product design diploma show there was nothing that could match the almost biblical experience that was R2B2 from Christoph Thetard at Summaery 2010
But then there couldn’t be. And never will be.

We currently have 2 interviews with Christoph in preparation. They are every bit as good as his work.

What did strike us in the diploma show however was the number of pieces that showed a return to traditional handcrafts and featuring a nice mix of “traditional” materials.
Also there was nothing on show that looked modern in a computer controlled way. Or that needed an App.
And we liked that.

Klara by Stephan Bohn - part of the Diploma show at Bauhaus Uni Weimar. Klara is a range of glass vessels suitable for induction cooking.

We’ve noted in the past that product design students at Weimar often get a little too arty for our tastes – the 2011 diploma year was much more applied arty and so to our taste.

Among the other shows, we especially liked Plastic Fantastic – a seminar which challenged students to create a household device normally made from plastic in ceramic – and Workabilly: Kreativer Arbeitsplatz a seminar concerned with creating creative work-spaces.

Plastic Fantastic produced a few very nice variations, including the espresso machine Seppl, a porcelain computer keyboard and a wonderful skeletal foot foot warmer. Although none of the products particularly won us over, all showed that with a bit of imagination one can quite simply remove plastic from products – the question however remains in how far the use is compatible with mass production.

The stand out piece at Workabilly was without question “Über Eiermann” by Ludwig Fehn and Weiwei Wang. On the one hand on account of the gorgeous pun, but principally because it offers a further solution to organising your Eiermann Desk.

Wilbur by Daniel Wahl provides the perfect solution to storing and organising cables and external drives and “Über Eiermann” the same for organising all those things that sit on your desk. “Über Eiermann” simply takes the steel tubes of the Eiermann table frame, extends them above the table top and in doing so creates a framework which one can use for a range of functions. Ludwig and Weiwei’s rustic prototype had some nice shelf adaptions – but one could also develop, for example, acoustic elements, magnetic sections and cable holders and so make the Eiermann Table truly the modular system that it secretly is.

But it wasn’t all happiness. Never is with us.

There is one room in the backyard of the design department at Weimar that is becoming something of a curse for us. Or perhaps better put: Us for it.
Last year it hosted the seminar on prison furniture – and this year on “water”. Neither of which worked for us, both somehow just not reaching the goals they set themselves.
We’ll probably give that room a miss next year.

One of the things we like most about the Bauhaus University is the – as far as we can tell – easy mixing between faculties and consequently the cross- disciplinary nature of the learning structure.

We know its not unique to Weimar, but our gut feeling is that Weimar do it with a little more grace and style than other institutions.

Summaery 2011 not only once again demonstrated this fact, but also gave us hope that this will continue into the future.

And so with the sun finally shining in the Weimar sky, we bid our farewells and headed off to Einblick at the FH Potsdam….

We’ve uploaded a few further photos from Summaery @ Bauhaus University Weimar in a facebook gallery at facebook.com/smowcom

“Über Eiermann” by Ludwig Fehn and Weiwei Wang @ Summaery 2011

Many of you will no doubt remember our summer tour 2010.

We’ll it’s that time of year again.

Our 2011 summer tour kicks of on July 7th with the semester show at the HTW Dresden – the first time we’ve visited their show. We don’t know why, we just feel we should go.

Then on July 14th we’ll be in Thüringen for the opening of Summaery 2011 at the Bauhaus University Weimar, Friday July 15th is Potsdam and the annual end of year show at the Fachhochschule.

Then, as ever, its gets complicated.

The weekend of 16th/17th July sees the annual shows at the Universität der Künste Berlin, KH Weissensee Berlin and Burg Giebichenstein Halle.

For us the interesting aspect of such shows is less the graduation projects – as a general rule we’ve seen them at other design weeks – but the projects of those students just starting on their journeys….

We’ll bring you all the best and most inspiring results here.

R2B2 by Christoph Thetard

When we visited the “Summaery” exhibition at Bauhaus Uni Weimar one object stood out amongst all the others.

Sadly, at that point we were asked not to say too much about it; for reasons all designers will understand.

But now we can.

R2B2 by Christoph Thetard is well on it’s way to being our “Design of the Year”, and having caught up with Christoph Thetard at Designers’ Open in Leipzig we have to say that the industry could well use a few more designers with his approach.

But more on Christoph later.

R2B2 is currently a concept – not a product. But we’re confident that will soon change.

For his final year project at Bauhaus Weimar Christoph concerned himself with sustainability and principally the problem that “green” electricity still powers electrical goods: Not only are these resource intensive in their production but the problem of electronic waste is one that is both increasing and for which we have no real solutions.

Christoph’s approach is to remove the electricity out of those systems where it is not necessary – a wonderfully simple, obvious, yet brave approach.

The heart of R2B2 is fly wheel powered by a pedal. The user “revs up” the fly wheel with the pedal and the resulting mechanical energy can power a range of appliances; currently a coffee grinder, hand blender and food processor.

R2B2 as a coffee grinder....

With the fly wheel running at 400 rpm R2B2 can store enough energy to provide the equivalent of 350 watt for 1 to 1.5 minutes.

More than enough time to grind some coffee, chop celery or beat egg whites.

Fly wheel driven devices are not new, their use just having been superseded by a blind electrification of everyday products.

R2B2 contains technology that makes the renewed use of fly wheels in everyday domestic situations not only possible and attractive, but also desirable.

R2B2 is still in development, but we genuinely hope that in the not to distant future we can report a commercial version.

The commercial version will almost certainly not have the rustic charm of the current prototype, but we can accept that when the technology helps reduce our dependency on electricity and so allow us to head towards a more sustainable future.

As we say, we won’t forget the moment we first saw R2B2 in Weimar, because something went “click” and we suddenly started to question a whole load of things that until that point we had taken for granted.

Which is surely one of the principle features of genuinely good, innovative industrial design.

More details can be found at http://christoph-thetard.de/

R2B2 by Christoph Thetard - pedal power rather than electrical.

The various utensils can be stored within the body

Bauhaus University Weimar Summaery 2010

On account of other commitments we sadly had to cancel our trip to Karlsruhe, and so the (smow)summer tour 2010 started at Bauhaus University Weimar.

Or better put start on a wonderful summers evening at Bauhaus University Weimar.

Over the years and the trade shows Bauhaus University has always been the university that has left us feeling a little bit under-nourished: the few tasty morsels on display whetting an appetite that couldn’t be satisfied by the remaining works.

For all the “My Bauhaus is better than yours” exhibition tends to lean more towards art than design. It may be that those students who are attracted by Weimar do have artistic leanings; but one needn’t automatically bring that into the furniture design. Or at least not so prominently.

My Birdhaus is better than yours - as seen at DMY Berlin 2009

And so we were glad to see one of the few “product” products from “MBIBTY 2009″ now being produced by the Bauhaus Univeristy Transferzentrum: Birdhaus by duunddu Design.

Proof that at least “My Birdhaus is better than yours”

Furniture per se was relatively thin on the ground at Summaery 2010, something which given our past experiences didn’t actually disappoint us – and indeed those chairs that we did see belonged to the category “Seen the same a thousand times, ain’t going to waste our time again”

A further disappointment was the project which had set itself the goal of designing furniture for prison cells. As one of our crew rightly commented it all just looked a little like “Inspired by I***” Not just in form and quality, but also in materials and colour. In addition, is your average career criminal really going to “feel” the green of the shelves or care that the coat hook looks like tree branch? The ones we know certainly wouldn’t.

But enough moaning, for us Summaery 2010 was a wonderful exhibition that inspired and amused as much as it questioned and irritated.

Among the high-points for us were “Tischzeug” by Viola Ahrensfeld, “R2B2″ by Christoph Thetard and “The Knife” by Mareike Hornof.

Tischzeug by Viola Ahrensfeld at Bauhaus Uni Weimar Summaery 2010

Tischzeug is one of those almost obscenely obviously products that you know you’ve actually developed yourself a thousand times – yet only subconsciously.

Or at least it is if, like us, you focus on the plate and the plate alone.

A plate that fits over the corner of your laptop and as such solves that eating/typing problem.

So simple, so well executed.

The Knife by Mareike Hornof at Bauhaus Uni Weimar Summaery 2010

Equally simple is The Knife by Mareike Hornof. Not a product, The Knife is a beautiful piece of criticism on the design industry and the completely over saturated “design” market.

On the left had side of the table a knife; on the right hand side a collection of objects, found in almost every home, and which can all be replaced by a knife.

Yes the pizza cutter is a nice idea; but is it necessary? Do they have to be produced? Or could we just all use a knife?

Indeed The Knife caused us to consider if the current Vitra Design Museum exhibition “The Essence of Things. Design and the Art of Reduction” didn’t need a 13th thematic section “Reduction by not producing but rather using that which already exists”

All in all Summaery 2010 provided a wonderful overview of the past years work in Weimar and as we headed back to Leipzig the warm glow in our souls was matched only by the sunset over the Thüringer Wald.

A few more of our impressions from Summaey 2010 can be found on (smow)flickr

And from Weimar the (smow)summer tour 2010 continued on to Halle and Burg Giebichenstein.

The journey back from Bauhaus Uni Weimar Summaery 2010

Yesterday afternoon took us over the border to Thüringen and the opening of the annual summer exhibition at the Bauhaus Univeristy Weimar.

Our full review of Summaery 2010 will follow in the coming days, along with those of the summer shows at Burg Giebichenstein, UDK Berlin, KH Weissensee Berlin and the HGB Leipzig.

Until then a couple of photos, and the recommendation that if you are in or near Weimar – or indeed merely using the A4 through Thüringen – a quick stop at the Bauhaus Uni is definitely worth it.
Although obviuosly we do have one or two “issues” :)

We wouldn’t be us if we didn’t.

The Bauhaus Lamp by Wilhelm Wagenfeld as part of the path to enlightenment?

Bauhaus Uni Weimar Summaery 2010

An architecture atelier at Bauhaus Uni Weimar

(smow)blog - never knowingly stationary