LAUFEN PRESENTS A CURATED ART SHOW. WHAT?
As part of this year’s London Design Festival, Laufen Bathrooms presents “A Curated Art Show. What?” at London Design Museum - the world's leading museum devoted to contemporary design. Featuring exclusive objects by architect and designer Patricia Urquiola and industrial designer Konstantin Grcic, among others.
The concept is based on a three-dimensional platform of art; a collection of high-tech, abstract, and craft objects. Adding to the artistic element, parts of the sculptures have been produced using new technologies, some of which are making a world premiere in ceramics. Its future orientation led Laufen to explore new manufacturing methods such as digital modeling and fabrication in different materials, working closely with an international network of universities, research institutes and academic spin-offs.
THE SEARCH FOR NEW VISIONS
Tomorrow is a question: What will we be able to accomplish? It challenges our willpower: How good can we be? Which new technologies can help? To us, progress is a never-ending process, a step that seems bigger on some days and smaller on others. Because the future is not a time that comes, but a path one must take. A path we want to take. To provide the answers ourselves.
In all that we do.
Patricia Urquiola was born in Oviedo (Spain) in 1961, and lives and works in Milan. She attended the University of Architecture at Madrid Polytechnic and Milan Polytechnic, where she graduated in 1989 with Achille Castiglioni. In 2001 she opened her own studio, working on product design, architecture, and installations. She has won several international prizes and awards, with some of her products exhibited in museums and collections worldwide.
COMPLETE BATHROOM SOLUTIONS
Everything begins with cleanliness. It is the start and the finish. With water came bathrooms, and with bathrooms, the beginnings of a whole new movement: in the middle of the first half of the 20th century, the installation of bathrooms was
accompanied by a plea for hygiene and cleanliness. Today, this concept is so obvious that we cannot fully comprehend the impact it had at the time, especially if we consider that trends have long since made rejuvenation the leading topic when it comes to bathrooms. Bathrooms have gone from an almost shameful, hidden, ideally space-saving, functional space to a room that is harmoniously integrated into the open floor plans of a living space.
Munich-born industrial designer Konstantin Gricic did an apprenticeship with cabinet-maker John Makepeace(UK), then an MA in industrial design at London`s Royal College of Art. In 1991, he founded his studio, Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design, in Munich. His designs are in the permanent collections of such museums as New York`s MoMA and the Paris`s Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
The exhibition will be on at The Design Museum from 16 to 24 September 2017, open 10:00 - 18:00 daily,
224 - 238 Kensington High Street, London, W8 6AG.
