Materialdesign at Milan Furniture Fair
In the context of the accompanying program to the Milan Furniture Fair (April 8 — 13, 2014) students of the Field of Teaching Material Design presented material projects and exhibits in the exhibition district Ventura Lambrate (link). The Milan Furniture Fair is the largest international fair of its kind and attracts some 350,000 visitors every year. Numerous special exhibitions and showroom presentations in Milan’s various districts attract up to 500,000 visitors.
HfG Offenbach’s “Material Design” show was presented alongside other universities from around the world under the title “Ventura Academies” in an industrial hall at Via Privata Oslavia 7.
The world of materials and structures, form and design exerts a fascination all of its own. The exhibition’s aim was to give visitors to the Milan Furniture Fair an impression of this fascination.
Many of the student projects on show came about through playful exploration and also involved unconventional approaches. Not only was the emphasis on getting to know materials, structures and systems, but also technical-physical or chemical properties and a sense for sensory properties. Often ideas evolved from an experimental and physical exploration of materials and three-dimensionality. Otl Aicher talks in this context of understanding and grasping things.
Apart from digital design and manufacturing tools, contemporary design is also decisively influenced by materiality. Only though their materialization do our ideas and design intentions become understandable. Materials with sensitive, smart or gradually varying properties lead to new and complex design ideas, which open up unimagined options with regard to concept, form, structure and surface. This paves the way from static to dynamic, process-oriented properties. Creativity and design are part of an industrial value-added and moreover an important cultural task. Mateo Kries, Director of the Vitra Design Museum, recently wrote: “Today, museums have to treat design as what it is – as a crossover discipline between art, science and technology.”
Milan Furniture Fair, 2014
Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach
Participating students
Nadine Auth, Joong-Youn Cho, Raffael Costa, Lilian Dedio, Timothy Ekins, Anna Michèle Hamann, Florian Hundt, Alix Huschka, Steven Kaufmann, Marlies Kolodziey, Frederic Kreutzer, Markus Mau, Marianne Pforte, Martin Pohlmann, Ricardo Ponce, Julian Schwarze, Friedrich Söllner, Chi Sohns, Marc-Samuel Ulm, Claire Wildenhues, Johannes Wöhrlin, Benjamin Würkner
Curated by
Prof. Markus Holzbach, Prof. Petra Kellner
Sponsored by
Hyundai, BASF designfabrik, TechnologieTransferNetzwerk Hessen
