Our friend Jakub Berdych is preparing his own exhibition which I co-curate. Some days ago we have visited his studio to look what about is it.

Called "From this year`s end of the year", the show in the DOX by Qubus store in the DOX art center in Praha Holešovice opens 3 November 2011. On the display will be the latest glass works by Jakub. Inspired by everything from comics and history of art to his own older creations, the collection of black glass is poetic and brutal, artistic yet useful.

Come to DOX see more!

During our Lodz trip we visited party in the studio of the famous Polish designer Tomek Rygalik.

Working for DuPont/Corian, Moroso, Artek, Iker, Noti, ABR, Heal's, Ideal Standard, Pfleiderer, BOZAR and EU presidency or Comforty, the Polish designer Tomek Rygalik is one of the busiest in the central Europe.

At The Lodz Design Festival he organized party in his small studio. Half party and half funny performance, the evening was full of surprises. Drinks serving from the special wooden lift, onion soup in the big pot, hummus on the special designed wall and the old bicycle hanging from the ceiling which you could use for the "air rideů, were really interesting party components.

As a highlight of our exhibition Light Sculptures at Lodz Design Festival next week we present two unique lightning designs by architect, designer and artist Růžena Žertová (born 1932) there.

Růžena Žertová is one of the important Czech architects working during the second half of the last century. She was specialized in the design of big department stores, especially during the 1960s and 1970s, when she designed and built Labe department store in Ústí nad Labem or Prio department store in Padubice, among others. These two designs are her most important ones and represent excellent example of the 1960s Czech architecture, as well as very personal approach to brutalism and original thinking about the department store typology.

Architect designed interiors, furniture, lightning design or jewelry as well. In the 1970s she concentrated on design of the lamps mainly. And this is subject of our interest. During 1970s and 1980s she designed several lamps designs in the limited production for Czech applied arts gallery Dílo or for concrete interiors projects. Most of the lamps she produced hand-made with the help of the friends and craftsmen. She used many materials, but metal (brass, copper and aluminum) was her best material to produce her elegant and very minimalist designs. Aluminum gave her a lot of possibilities of the resulted shapes of the shades, especially. Her favorite shapes were round ones. What designer and craftsman Antonín Hepnar did in the turned wood, she produced the same in metal in that time.

Except her limited productions for Dílo, she created many designs for interiors. Most famous is a set of lightning designed for Patria hotel, which was built by architect Zdeněk Řihák in the Slovakian Vysoké Tatry mountains in 1975. Her design of the standing and floor lamps resembles cosmic age aesthetic and looks like an astronaut. The perfect design of the lamp which correspondents with the international design futurist movement of the 1970s, we use for our logo to the exhibition as well.

At Lodz you can see two of Růžena Žertová pieces. One from steel from the 1970s and the second from 1980s made out of aluminum which looks like an strange engine component.

Some informations were taken from the Petra Gajdová Diploma work about the work of Růžena Žertová. Thanks!

You know how we like 1950s Italian design and architecture. And it seems that we slowly are becoming "small experts" for it. Next to OKOLO Mollino book, which was published in the Wallpaper October issue, there is an article about Italian modernist architect Ico Parisi which I prepared for the same issue of this magazine.

My love story with the modernist architect Ico Parisi began some years ago. But this year my interest about his work culminated very much and resulted in my first article for Wallpaper magazine. And how was it? It is interesting story.

When I was in Paris at the beginning of this year, I bought one of the most important books for me there. Quite small book about Ico Parisi published in the 1990s is a really rare publication about this architect. Because about Parisi does not exist almost one book. The work of this hidden icon of the Italian modernist design is very unknown and almost total forgotten. But with my detective eye I found some of his finest creations erected in Como during 1950s in the book which I knew only from few pictures from 1950s Domus until that time. Some of these unique buildings I re-discovered with the help of my brave girlfriend Jana during our visit of Como in April 2011.

It was unbelievable. We found hidden groups of Parisi villas without help of exact address. One of them, villa Bolgiana is featuring in the article in Wallpaper. But it was not enough for true lover of the Parisi work. At the end we visited Parisi flat, where he lived until his death.

After that when I showed my pictures from the villa and the flat to Ellie Stathaki, Wallpaper architecture editor, she was fascinated and said me that Wallpaper want to publish this story about forgotten masterpieces by Ico Parisi.

And do you want to know, who is Ico Parisi and in which he is so great? Now you can read my article about Parisi in the October issue of Wallpaper magazine. Enjoy!

Thanks Ellie Stathaki and Wallpaper. Dreams come true!

Max Lipsey has introduced his own furniture collection called Acciaio which is based on the construction techniques of the bike production.

We met each other at Salone del Mobile and found out that we have the same passions, bicycles and design. So there is our interview with this young Dutch designer.

Your furniture collection Acciaio is inspired by cycling design and construction. Why did you choose this theme?

I didn't really choose it...it just developed. I started with a plan to make a steel chair. At a point, I was looking for a tapered tube to make an elegant leg. I happened to have a race bike frame sitting in the house above my desk ... late one evening I had the idea to use just bike tubes ... they're already manufactured and have a lovely taper. The chainstay has the best proportions for a chair leg, so I built the chair around this element. As the other design decisions came up, it made sense to stay close to a bicycle aesthetic...and even to encourage it. I mean, a steel bike is already so perfect, and so light! In the end, the steel for the chairs is from Columbus! And I should mention that I got to know the materials and craft through a framebuilding workshop with master builder Koichi Yamaguchi.

Did you ride the bike professionaly sometimes?

Not even close. I do like to race against myself though... And I collect old racing bikes.

What do you fascinate on bike design?

First of all, they're fun to ride. But as objects, a steel bike is just beautiful. Simple, elegant, light and strong. And I really love the details where you can see the framebuilder is proud of his craft. The sweet spot is mid 60s-mid 80s for me.

What is your best cycling company for you and why?

I wish I had an old Cinelli Supercorsa. Any professional level 70s steel bike is great. Color is important. Campagnolo parts are too. There were great bikes made in other countries, but somehow the Italian ones have that extra bit of mystique that makes them extra special (and in my mind, extra fast). But Cinelli has all of the class and quality without being too flashy. Somehow, Cinelli is still a great company today.

Do you ride today as well? What kind of cycling do you prefer?

I ride everyday. I'd prefer to ride a nice fixie, but most days my work involves carrying heavy things, so I have a very old Dutch transport bike that does the job. Then I have a few sunday riders, a touring bike, and a folding fixie (to take on the Dutch trains). Recently, my favorite riding was on a fixie in Paris. The city is at a perfect point now, where there is some cycling infrastructure and awareness from drivers, but most often, you're mixing it up with the cars. In such a dense city, you're often much faster than the cars....and feel like you run the city.

What is your opinion about contemporary fixed-gear boom?

Riding a fixie is great. That's what got me passionate about bikes and bike history in the first place. I started by buying old race frames to strip down and build up as fixies. It was the first time I ever got into the guts of a bike, and considered the quality and story of the different components. I don't love all the new 'off the shelf' fixies though. To me, the whole value is building one up yourself and learning about the machine along the way. In fact, the story has carried me full circle. Now when I find a really great race bike, I'd rather not strip it down to a fixie, out of respect.

What is your dream bike?

I would love to have a custom-made fixie frame built. There are a lot of young framebuilders doing great stuff these days, I can't say which I would prefer... And there are a lot of new components made (mostly for the fixie crowd) that keep the quality and simplicity of the good old stuff (Campagnolo).


Do you have some more ideas to work with bike aesthetic in the future as well?

Yes. I have a few plans to continue the Acciaio series into other furniture pieces. Can't say too much yet, but the material and technique have a lot of possibilities. Stay tuned!

Finally we are starting the special collaboration project with www.designeast.eu, for which we prepare the special guest editor articles. We begin with an interview with Slovakian designer Tomáš Král, who works as a professor at ECAL right now and who has collaborated with us on Monster collection. We were discussing with him his last lightning projects. One part of the article you can see on www.designeast.eu, too.

You have designed several lamps. Do you like this theme? And why?

Yes that is true. Among other topics, I was always very concerned about the question of light and lightning. A single lamp is our every day object. Everyone have at least two lamps in each room of the apartment, that’s the fact. So for the designer it’s a very important subject. But it’s a real challenge to make a lamp that produces a good light.

Three of your latest projects are three lights. What they are exactly?

Yes that’s quite funny I know, but it wasn’t a real intension to design only the lamps this year. I was successively asked by different people and companies to design lamps for them. Actually, the glass lamp project began there was almost a year, but we presented it only last November. The terracotta lamp was made last summer and the metal one in January. This tree lamps are very different projects not only because the material is different, but also due the difference of clients.

Terracotta lamps are made out of red ceramics. Why did you choose this material? And what are your impression from work with this material?

Yes it’s made out of clay that is normally used to make flowers pots and bricks. This material has a very good potential because of his good resistance and very nice and natural visual aspect. However there are not so much other objects made out of this material. At the moment, this lamp is for me more a material and shape research a kind of starting point for a work with this material. It’s actually a series of prototypes and the complete new work will be presented during my next shows.

What is the concept behind the Screen lamp? What was the inspiration?

The Screen lamp is design more as a divider – space divider on the working desk for example. It’s a lighting panel that can be use in the office or at home where people share the working space and need the light. The piece was design on the occasion of Ecal’s lights exhibition at gallery Kreo and it’s more sculptural but very simple piece made out of 3 anodized aluminum plates assembled together. Everything is design to be quite slim. The LED stripes are integrated in the 6mm thick aluminum L profile and project the light to the central screen / reflector that helps to orientate and diffuse the light.

And what about the Anemone lamp?

The Anemone lamp is a limited edition designed for the 2nd edition of glass objects by Matteo Gonet, a Swiss glass blower. After his first collaboration with designers on the project of glass urns he decided to ask 5 new designers to design glass lamps that he can produce in his studio. We started to present the lamp in the gallery Triode in Paris last November. My lamp is quite organic. It’s a kind of symbiosis of 2 different glass shapes and colors that cohabiting together strangely.

Every lamp from these three projects is made out of different material. Which material was best for work with?

Yes, this 3 materials are quite different but there is something interesting particular in each. All of them are our every day use and natural materials. Glass is very impressive when the blower transform the hot and almost liquid glass material into a solid skin. He add the color and different parts but for the real result you need to wait at least one day. With the metal you have the result directly. You are in front of this big and beautiful machines that transform your metal block and produce lots of metallic shavings. It’s much more precise and that’s why I also adapt my concept this way and integrate cables and LEDs directly in the metal. The ceramic is more unpredictable material because of the shrinking and deformation. It’s actually become almost liquid while heating in the oven but glazed or natural this material have a very agreeable touch.

What lamp designs from the history are your favourite?

There is more than one. The Castiglioni’s Luminator edited by Flos which is very elegant one as well as the Vico Magistreti’s Atollo lamp. I also like a lot the intelligence of the Arco lamp by Castiglioni. In general, I’m also very impressed by the work of Gino Sarfatti.

And is something from the contemporary scene?

Well, that is maybe more difficult to decide. But one of the most useful lamps is probably the Mayday portable lamp by Konstantin Grcic. I also consider as a vey good design the Tab lamp by Barber & Osgerby for Flos and the Lighthouse by Bouroullec brothers for Established & Sons.

What do you think? What is most important to design good light?

I think that the most important is the choice of the light source. The good light is for me the one that produce very effective, agreeable and functional light for the purpose it’s intended.

Do you have some lamp ideas into the near future?

Of course, but I need to find a good opportunity to develop them.

Photos Courtesy of Julien Chavaillaz, Federico Berardi, Matteo Gonet, Tomáš Král

In collaboration with the graphic designer and illustrator Martina Marešová, currently working in Dolce Vita magazine based in Prague, Czech republic, we have created this special styling editorial based on their drawings.

We have selected some of the most interesting design creations and made almost real interior scenes, where furniture, lightning and accessories became domestic artificial forest.

Last weekend we have visited my father Karel Štěch (1953) at his home in Česká Kamenice in north Bohemia and shot his writing desk, where he showed us some of his most favorite things of his most favorite interest - photography of the local wild life.

Wild life photography is one of the disciplines standing somewhere between art, report, biology and hunting. It is activity of enjoying the silence of the forest and discovering the best unseen moments in the nature. My father was shooting since almost his childhood and whole life he is loyal to his home landscape of the northern Bohemia. During his career he shot some very interesting pictures of the Czech nature illustrating life of the deers, mouflons, roe deers or follow deers. It is a true wood style life with almost every day or evening visits of the forest and waiting for the best moments and standing in hope of the best light and good shooting angles. "You are hunter with the camera.", he said and adds: "when you are waiting in the middle of the forest in total silence with the big objective for your picture, you enjoy beauty of the forest so much. Nobody there, only nature and animals."

With the respect for the tradition and sense for the quality products, my father is one of the most stylish hunters and photographers of the nature in Czech republic. For his endless forest adventures he choose the best equipment such as Leica or Nikon cameras, Barbour jackets and accessories or hand-made damask knife. More about his collection directly in the pictures.

In our Wood Style blog we can not forget the big lover of the forest and nature in general. Charley Harper (1922 - 2007) who created specific colorful world of the wildlife and animals in his ingenious drawings, is one of the most important American illustrators of the 1950s and 1960s. His work includes almost entirely drawings of the animals who became nearly intimate colorful abstract compositions under his creative vision and style.

This creative element we see in his two drawings illustrating forest in general too. More than landscape, he drew concrete animals species usually. But these two works show how he symbolized forest landscape in the larger scale. With the geometrical simplification influenced by period abstract painting, he created strong natural scene, where forest changes into elegant abstract pattern. Only the animals in the scene tell us that it is not abstraction, but very precise artistic look into the deep wood.

Our friend Adam Uchytil, graphic designer and artist based in Prague has prepared only for us this special editorial documenting his wood adventures in Canada and Alaska. Graphic collage of some of the best moments from his trip is accompanied by his own lyrical-based text. Enjoy wood and bears in this unorthodox article!