Cardboard office 3 Written on March 29, 2009, by Ingeborg.

Lack of time was why Paul Coudamy chose cardboard. The 160 m2 industrial emptiness turned into an office for 20 people in 7 days. Using only glue and tape Paris add firm Elegangz now has a flexible office that reacts on more or less employees in angled style. It’s flexible, speedy, cheap, stylish and recycled. Crisis can do that.

Stop recycling Written on March 28, 2009, by Ingeborg.

Start repairing! This manifesto describes the creative qualities repair offers. Smash/Repair is the bare repair: what is left from a repaired stool after taking the original away? It shows repairing as an act of love. Rachel Griffin:”If an object is made from the material that is used for a repair, it will never be broken.” Her duct tape glasses remain intact forever.

Recycled office too Written on March 27, 2009, by Ingeborg.

It’s a giant lego-like puzzle. 7300 Pieces of BeeBoard all have their unique place in the interior of graphic company ScherpOntwerp. “Everything here is cardboard,” explains architect Ad Kil from Ro-Ad. “Tables, walls, ceiling.” Rooms are voids in a giant cardboard block, almost reminding of the Vals Therme by Peter Zumthor where slates of stone are stacked to model space.

Mahlangu handwasher Written on March 26, 2009, by Ingeborg.

Which Dutch Design has concurred the world in 2008? The inevitable storm umbrella but also a surprising project: the Mahlangu handwasher. No conceptual fresh looking form as is expected of Dutch Design. Irene van Peer uses empty plastic beverage bottles. She has devised a clever method for turning these into hand-washing devices to help prevent the spread of disease in Africa.

cardboard office Written on March 13, 2009, by Ingeborg.

When you make a temporary interior for an office that claims to start each commission from scratch, what do you come up with? Alrik Koudenburg went back to the beginning himself and built a life size cardboard model that is now the most hyped office online. “No I will not build one again. I like to start without knowledge. I need alienation which can only happen once.”

Voyeuristic setting Written on March 12, 2009, by Ingeborg.

When entering the performance You are here you are given a key to a hotel room. Alone in a bed in a hotel, the mirroring ceiling starts to ascend. Slowly 39 occupants appear. Answers to questionnaires slid under the door take part in a story read aloud. Dries Verhoeven: “Although we’re alone, other people are very closeby. And yet I’m here and you’re there.”

Drawn from clay Written on March 11, 2009, by Ingeborg.

Ceramics can be bought from a shop or they can be dug up. Nadine Sterk and Lonny van Rijswijck (Atelier NL) dug up the clay for their tableware from various parts of the Netherlands. A frosted yellow cup from Brunssum, a smooth, shiny, dark brown from Woerden, a rough terra cotta from Gilze-Rijen. The set shows the relation between origin and identity.

Design/Art Limited Edition Written on March 6, 2009, by Ingeborg.

Is it made to serve a practical cause? Does the price well exceed production costs? Can it not be made in an assembly line? At which number a Limited Edition becomes mass production? Questions to distinguish art from design. Enter designart. How about this Joris Laarman bone chair from cast marble resin?

Recycled office Written on March 5, 2009, by Ingeborg.

As Gummo will rent the space in the old Parool newspaper building in Amsterdam for only two years, interior architects i29 sourced the furniture via Marktplaats (the Dutch eBay), charity shops and whatever was left over at the old office. Everything was then spray painted with polyurea Hotspray (an environmentally friendly paint) to conform with the new colour scheme.