DomusWeb Best of Design 2011

From car design to typographic design, to major international trade fairs and new product design, Domus recaps the most popular design stories of the year.

The asymmetric racer
The Bisiluro was the product of a collaboration between Carlo Mollino and Mario Damonte, Enrico Nardi and the Giannini brothers. As an "aeroplane on wheels" the Bisiluro presents itself as two long shafts of red, the colour de rigueur of anything fast and Italian. Conceptually, the car appears distinctly inspired by the Tarf bisiluro, made by Piero Taruffi in 1948. A wonderful car made by special people for a celebrated race in a glorious Age of Car Design Innocence, what more can one ask for? Designers everywhere have found excuses to pay homage to the Bisiluro and its kind in numerous projects (even Star Wars,), and we should all be thankful that this unique example is well cared for and still here to inspire us.
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States of Design 06: In your face
Font designers who are able to marry critical and commercial success are a unique mixture of two basic clichés: the artist and the scientist. They are eclectic, curious, obsessive and absorbed, as well as rigorous, punctilious, enamoured of rules and limitations, and loyal to a higher code of design behaviour. They are an even more different breed among the many different breeds of designers working today. Contending now with the dynamic methods of communication provided by tablet computers, smartphones and other supports for text and brand, they deal with each family of fonts as if it were truly made of individuals, live characters that need to be able to fend for themselves once released into the wider world. In this vein, font design might just be the most advanced form of design existing today.
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The Bisiluro racing car designed by Carlo Mollino in 1955 for the grueling  '24 hour' circuit of Le Mans.
The Bisiluro racing car designed by Carlo Mollino in 1955 for the grueling '24 hour' circuit of Le Mans.
Tokyo DesignTide 2011
The name could not have been more fitting judging by the "surge" of visitors that flooded to the Tokyo Midtown Hall in Roppongi this year. DesignTide, now in its seventh edition, is an important rendezvous for designers and artists interested in sharing ideas and views, as well as a major showcase of the latest trends in the air here in Tokyo. "Trading Design, Trading Ideas" is the slogan accompanying this stimulating initiative, held from 29 October to 3 November. About 30 offices—with an average designer age of 30—presented their models, with nearly all the works sharing a constant synthesis of tradition and innovation and high detail standards. Among the most interesting works there is the Dew lamp from Vitro, Daisuke Kitagawa's Rename, Emmanuelle Moureaux's Toge dress, Smile-park's eatable cup, Yuri Naruse and Jun Inokuma 's One for all table-plate and Souvenir from the Kobe Design University.
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Template Gothic by Barry Deck, 1990 (<i>Emigre</i>).
Template Gothic by Barry Deck, 1990 (Emigre).
Textile Field
French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have teamed up with Kvadrat to create Textile Field, a large coloured mat in polyurethane foam and furnishing fabric. With its gentle slopes, it brings spaces to life where visitors can rest while admiring their surroundings. It was made for the 2011 London Design Festival at the Raphael Gallery, the largest and most prestigious space of the Victoria & Albert Museum. The structure is 30 metres long and 8 metres wide.
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An ingenious retake on the traditional Japanese "bento box," the <i>One for all</i> by Yuri Naruse and Jun Inokuma.
An ingenious retake on the traditional Japanese "bento box," the One for all by Yuri Naruse and Jun Inokuma.
Salone del Mobile countdown
Milan kicks off its big event with a trip behind the scenes of the production with popular designers and young talents. Among the designs were Alessandro Mendini's latest version of the undisputed icon of Italian design, the Proust armchair, for Magis; Michael Young's first in a series for Trussardi, inspired by its rich archive; and Wouter Nieuwendijk and Jair Straschnowik's launch of the new brand, Esterni Design. The two young Italian graduates in Industrial Design Valentina Del Ciotto and Simone Spalvieri presented their seamless Sacchetto armchair, while Rotor's design for the Prada Foundation in Brussels debuted. Among the other projects, the Glory lamp by Monica Förster, Francesco Faccin's first industrially manufactured chair for Danese, Omek Rygalik for Comforty, Sezgin Aksu and Silvia Suardi's Asymetrical Table, and Doshi / Levien's Impossible Wood chair for Moroso.
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<i>Textile Field</i> by the brothers Bouroullec was installed in the Raphael Gallery, depicting the exploits of Saints Peter and Paul. These are scale models of the tapestries on the walls of the originally designed Sistine Chapel.
Textile Field by the brothers Bouroullec was installed in the Raphael Gallery, depicting the exploits of Saints Peter and Paul. These are scale models of the tapestries on the walls of the originally designed Sistine Chapel.
<i>Fast collection</i> by Francis Chabloz,  Salone del Mobile 2011.
Fast collection by Francis Chabloz, Salone del Mobile 2011.

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