studio makkink and bey: werkstadt vienna design engaging the city

MAK exhibition view image © MAK / katrin wißkirchen

 werkstadt vienna. design engaging the city is an exhibition of vienna design week in cooperation with the MAK – austrian museum of applied arts / contemporary art (open till sun, 17.03.2013).

this exhibition, designed by studio makkink & bey and curated by sophie lovell, mixes centuries of craft skills with new design thinking and shows that design can be inspiring to everyone—producer and consumer alike. it is about the soft and hard values of design as a facilitator for bringing people together and enhancing the commercial and creative profile of a city at the same time.

in 2006, inspired by their city’s rich heritage of local manufacturers and craftspeople, tulga beyerle, thomas geisler, and lilli hollein, founders of vienna design week, began a special project, called passionswege, which matched young designers with traditional workshops, manufacturers, and retailers in vienna.

by focusing on the transfer of knowledge and skills between the invited partners and carefully guiding the process—yet leaving the potential for results quite open—they generated a series of encounters that worked quite differently from usual design collaborations.the passionswege have trained the interest of austrian and foreign designers such as thomás alonso (ES), mark braun (DE), marco dessí (IT), philippe malouin (CA), max lamb (GB), mischer’traxler (AT), charlotte talbot (FR), and daniel posta (CZ) on the inestimable material knowledge and skill of both longstanding and new workshops and business, invigorating their innovative potential. many of the more traditional businesses that have exercised considerable influence over viennese design culture, such as j. & l. lobmeyr, neue wiener porzellanmanufaktur augarten [vienna porcelain manufactory augarten] and the wiener silber manufactur [vienna silver manufactory], are closely linked to the history of the MAK and documented extensively in its collection.

‘caps’ by marco dessí with neue wiener porzellanmanufaktur augarten (2008) image © katharina gossow

‘tandem’ by steffen kehrle with jenner & zopf instrumentenbau (2008) image © katharina gossow

‘the scientific nature of jewelry’ by mischer’traxler with rozet & fischmeister (2009) image © kollektiv fischka

‘stamp sewing – sewing stamps” by patrycja domanska with tostmann trachten (2011) image © patrycja domanska

‘time elapsed’ by philippe malouin with lobmeyr (2011) image © kollektiv fischka

‘bristle & horn’ by matylda krzykowski with petz horn manufactory (since 1862) and with norbert meier brush making (2012) image © matylda krzykowski

‘riches’ by mark braun with J. & L. lobmeyr (2010) image © J. & L. lobmeyr / rathmayer

‘link to the past’ by robert rüf with A.E. köchert (2007) image © michael stelzhammer

‘polkapots’ by polka with riess KELOmat (2007) image © michael stelzhammer

‘under the hat’ by tomas kral with mühlbauer hutmanufaktur (2011) image © felipe kolm

‘tea service’ by tomás alonso with wiener silber manufactur (2011) image © wiener silber manufactur