Vienna Insight 
by Karin Sawetz, publisher Fashionoffice
(25 September 2014)

Photo safari at Vienna Design Week

Today, Vienna Design Week invited to the 'Press Safari' one day before the festival starts tomorrow. Lilli Hollein, director of Vienna Design Week, and architect Hermann Czech welcomed national and international journalists at Palais Schwarzenberg where the festival is headquartered this year. Inside the palais at the red, orange, golden 'Czech Rooms', Hermann Czech spoke about the ideas and making-of the legendary rooms where once a restaurant and bar (photo left, below) were located. Highlights were the crystal chandeliers (left on the photo above) which added once a sparkling appeal to the rooms or a carpet in fruity colors on mud, also named after the typical color of the city's dirt 'Wiener Schmutz' - the mud color was used for practical reasons. The tour inside the palais went through the 'Orangery' where fashion and industrial designer Mario Gamser (photo right) represented the University of Applied Arts with an essentials of everyday installation of a lounger (arranged with a wash bowl for cleaning the feet) and fashion pieces on a rack with clothes basket above.

Renault provides the festival's shuttle service. Outside of Palais Schwarzenberg, we met industrial designer Robert Rüf who visualized the small turning circle of 8,6 metres of the new Renault Twingo.

Here at the turning circle, the tour outside of the main building of the palais began and stopped at exhibition spaces such as the one of Hungarian designers of jewellery or clothing pieces like Julia Kaldy's 'Capture Nature Shoes' (photo below left); the shoes have a futuristic appeal despite they are crafted by using traditional techniques. One of the highlights at the 'outstanding artist award' space by the Austrian Federal Chancellery was the 'Melodized Pillow Hammock' by Bless (photo right); the hammock is also an interactive sound instrument.

After visiting some other spaces, we left the area around the palais and began the 'Passionswege'-tour. The first station was the workshop of J. & L. Lobmeyr (co-owner Leonid Rath on the right photo below, left) where the design duo BCXSY (on the photo right from Leonid Rath: Boaz Cohen and Sayaka Yamamoto) presented the J(oy) & L(ove) wine tumblers; the idea is to engrave the portraits of two lovers. It's announced that a single party will be held on 27 September - for the ones who haven't a partner yet.

Vienna Design Week offers from 26 September until 5 October 2014 various tours; one is even by bicycle.

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