Zadar

Eight kilometres of gentle pathways and wooden walking trails lead visitors through central Croatia’s Plitvička Jezera National Park. Natural dams of travertine form upper and lower levels with a total of sixteen lakes, each encircled by forest and dotted with waterfalls. Working their way down the mountain, hikers take in the waters’ shifting colours of green and azure, just one beautiful phenomenon of this lush landscape – a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site north of Zadar.

In the littoral city, families gather on a series of long marble steps along Zadar’s Nova Riva to swim and watch the sunset. While children launch themselves off the pier in convoluted dives and titanic cruise ships leave the nearby port, musical notes emanate from below the stone boardwalk in concert with the ebb and flow of the tide. Each lapping of the waves strikes lengths of pipe hidden underneath the stairs, their energy pushing an air column and emitting different chords through perforations in the ground. The resulting Sea Organ, as part of the overall design of the coastal promenade, is one of two art installations on the waterfront by Croatian architect Nikola Bašić. You can hear it here.

The other installation, immediately adjacent, is a solar art display in the form of a 22-metre diameter circle, entitled Greeting to the Sun (Istarska Obala). Embedded under glass that is flush with the stone promenade, photo-voltage solar modules absorb the sun’s energy and transform it into electrical energy, creating a dynamic play of lights. The synergy of both projects makes this urban public space even more successful when charged with its nightly performance.

Potsdam

A jaunt southwest of Berlin is Potsdam, rich in history and lush in green space.

Long before it became known for hosting the Allies’ conference at the end of WWII, Potsdam was a city of Prussian royalty. As such, it houses a beautiful arrangement of gardens and parks, reminiscent of the grandeur enjoyed by kings and emperors during the Prussian Baroque period. And that luxury is exemplified like nowhere else in Park Sanssouci, a triumph of architectural harmony populated by temples, palaces, botanical and formal gardens.

Ironically, sans souci means ‘without worries’ in French, when in fact Potsdam and its surroundings were known for Cold War intrigue and the notable exchanges of spies, particularly on the Glienicke Bridge, connecting the city to West Berlin across the Havel River. Staff members were in the midst of setting up for the annual light show, Schlössernacht (‘Palaces by Night’), the weekend I visited and were busy herding people off the grounds. (I got access, however – it’s amazing what a media pass can do.) With a terraced vineyard in its foreground, Schlöss Sanssouci is an impressive summer residence that King Frederick the Great had built for himself in 1744 where he could live sans souci, in the midst of a European continent engulfed in continuous wars.

Historically a centre of European immigration (predominantly from France, Russia, the Netherlands and Bohemia), Potsdam has an international character evident in its culture and architecture. While it was severely damaged in bombing raids during WWII, many buildings in its historic districts have since been refurbished with great detail and large areas of this remarkable state capital have been granted UNESCO World Heritage status.

At the western end of shop-lined Brandenburger Straße is the Brandenburger Tor, a gate resembling a Roman triumphal arch that curiously, has two different façades designed by two different architects. I hit up the produce market in Alter Markt and perused the one along Nauener Tor, one of three preserved gates in the city, and a splendid example of the influence of English Gothic Revival architecture.

Holländisches Viertel (Dutch Quarter) is an ensemble of some 150 red brick buildings concentrated within four city blocks, Europe’s largest collection of Dutch-style houses outside of the Netherlands. The ‘Soldier King’, King Frederick Wilhelm I, ordered them built (1734-1742) under the direction of architect Jan Bouman for Dutch artisans and craftsmen that he had invited to settle there. If not to see this unique brand of architecture – with its white trim, shuttered windows, and oftentimes-sweeping gable roofs – then head to Maison du Chocolat, the neighbourhood’s undisputed ‘go-to’ for hot chocolate.

Countdown to Milan: Belgium is Design

At the Milan fair and beyond, the country’s top designers – including Julien de Smedt, Gauthier Poulain and Alain Berteau – will flaunt their talents.

Despite its small size, Belgium has three regional institutions dedicated to fostering and promoting good design. In a collective initiative by 101% Designed in Brussels, WBDM and Design Flanders, two exhibits of products and prototypes will be exhibited in the loggia of Milan’s Pinacoteca di Brera – one of the world’s most prestigious museums, best known for its collection of Renaissance and Baroque paintings by such masters as Raphael, Caravaggio and Tintoretto.

The Belgian show marks the first time that design will be showcased at the palazzo. The presentation will create a link between classical art and modern furnishings and lighting in a scenographic framework of architectural modules by industrial designer Stefan Schöning that’s poised to wow visitors.

Meanwhile, Belgian design will also take over a chunk of Salone Satellite at the Milan fairgrounds as well as the enviable locale of Lake Como’s Isola Comacina – a series of villas actually dedicated to the nurturing of cultural interchange between Belgium and Italy.

At Pinacoteca di Brera

Young designers brimming with promise and innovation are handpicked for the 101% Designed in Brussels annual showcase. This year’s select five – architect Julien de Smedt, furniture designer Benoît Beneufbourg, industrial designers Corentin Dombrecht and Julien Renault and recent ECAL graduate Vanessa Hordies – show their most representative furniture and light fixtures. In honour of the program’s five-year anniversary, a retrospective will show 25 photo portraits of the chosen participants to-date.

Meanwhile, the exhibition Lightness explores such notions as physical lightness and a gentle environmental impact and, in a philosophical sense, the folly of design, expressed as the invention of irreverently flexible or modular furniture, textile and lighting solutions. Featuring the works of 21 designers, the curated collection includes Gauthier Poulain’s Wing pendant, a standout design that’s powered by LEDs and is shaped like a disc whose surfaces are peeling away.

At the show and off-site

You can get another fix of Belgian design at the Salone del Mobile’s Rho fairgrounds. In Salone Satellite, WBDM will showcase eight designers from Wallonia and Brussels, including Raphaël Charles, Stuut and Adeline Beaudry.

Meanwhile, an unprecedented design initiative takes place at Isola Comacina – the only island in Lake Como – in a move that reinforces the Bergo-Italian cultural institution. The recently renovated Belgian-Italian artists residences designed in 1935 by architect Pietro Lingieri have been refurnished with the works of a fortunate few contemporaries, like Mathieu Lehanneur and Alain Berteau, displayed alongside iconic Belgian classics by Maarten Van Severen and Jules Wabbes.

Belgium is Design will be held at FuoriSalone: the Pinacoteca di Brera at Via Brera 28, Milan from April 12 to 17.

(Cross-posted from Azure, a Toronto-based magazine of architecture and design)

All eyes on Stockholm

Light is largely absent in Scandinavia at this time of year. Not so during Stockholm Design Week where lighting is a large focus at the design spectacular that centers on the Stockholm Furniture Fair and Northern Light Fair. Here is a copy of the post I wrote for Azure magazine’s blog:

Kicking off tomorrow, the Stockholm Furniture Fair is packed with great new furniture and lighting by such designers as Inga Sempé, Arihiro Miyake and Timothy Schreiber. Here are five things to watch for on the show floor.

With its bevy of Scandi-flavoured furnishings and products – as well as lighting at the concurrent Northern Light Fair, which shares the fairgrounds – this show is a must-see for design lovers.

Homegrown talent gets the spotlight treatment. Manufacturer Swedese is expected to unveil new products by the likes of Claesson Koivisto Rune, Staffan Holm, Lime Studio and Roger Persson; and Design House Stockholm similarly struts the talents of its young collaborators.

But with some 750 exhibitors, the fair can’t help but bring attention to international stars, too, such as guest of honour Arik Levy and Dutch company Moooi. Not to mention German-born Stockholm-based industrial designer and interior architect Katrin Greiling (featured in Azure‘s March/April 2011 issue, on newsstands soon). She has created the cardboard-and-plywood Design Bar and VIP Lounge, which references both European and Middle Eastern cultures. Or, as Greiling puts it, “It calls to mind the genuine European, the old town, but also conjures up an artistic idiom characterized by cultural diversity that harks back to my time in the Middle East.” It’ll no doubt provide a place of repose at what should be a fun-packed fair, with tonnes of great things to see on the show floor.

Here are a few of the highlights.

1. Invited to create a combined bar and exhibition area, Alexander Lervik (who recently won the competition of the redesign of Nordic Sea Hotel) has contributed the Light Bar, filled with the latest lighting innovations – several hundred black pendants that hang in the bar to form “walls” – and a dazzling installation of his own. Also on display is his sculpture, Dimension, custom-made and on loan from Skandia’s head office, which consists of 1,728 heads, half men, half women, symbolizing the company’s employees. Each head is separately controlled with LED lights, which form a three-dimensional screen.

2. Parisian product designer Inga Sempé shows off the Österlen ash chair and table designed for historic Swedish furniture manufacturer Gärsnäs. The U-shaped cuts made into the chair’s legs and bent parts flatten the curves, endowing the surfaces with shadowed or lightened reliefs.

3. London based designer Timothy Schreiber launches the Plooop chair, a follow-up to its sleek armchair precedent. It’s formed from three continuous loops of plywood created with CNC-assisted technology with traditional wood craftsmanship, for a harmonious form.

4. Moooi‘s novelties include faceted table and floor lamps by Arihiro Miyake, as well as new incarnations of the company’s already iconic designs: the 16-task lamp composition Dear Ingo by Rod Gilad – now in white – and the Random LED floor lamp by Bertjan Pot, which complements the bestselling pendant.

5. Design House Stockholm presents new houseware items for 2011: Lena Bergström’s cotton-wool stools recalling birch tree stumps; Catharina Kippel’s bone china tableware hand-painted in deep blue cobalt; and, the Timo glass by Timo Sarpaneva – now available with an outer spiral-shaped layer of silicone for easier handling of hot beverages.

The Stockholm Furniture Fair and the Northern Light Fair run from February 8 to 12.