At VOGA our love of great design is a global obsession, from Missouri to Stockholm, we’re fanatic about finding icons of design. So, this summer we’re looking at the best holiday spots for style obsessives like us.
Denmark
Design is incorporated so deeply into Danish life that for a tourist it can seem hard to reach. After all, the great mid-century designers wanted their designs available to all, so design exists in Denmark in a very natural and unforced way. But, if you look below the surface...
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Shop
Grab some phenomenal lighting fixtures at GUBI, craft beer (complete with designer labels)at Mikkeller and geometric stationary at Stilleben. Not only are these unique, perfectly Danish design institutions, but their actual buildings have also been designed and fitted as bespoke objects of art.
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Visit
The Danish Museum of Art and Design is housed in a beautiful house on Bredgade and contains more chairs than you could dream of. There are also giant-sized reproductions of legendary pieces of Danish design including Hans J. Wegner’s CH07 Lounge Chair and a giant terrifying rocking chair. Why? Who knows. But you can briefly pretend you are a giant of mid-century furniture design.
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Admire
In Denmark mid-century design is not only in museums and galleries but absorbed in the cities themselves. For pilgrims of mid-century design, of Scandinavian style or organic functionalism Denmark is where you will find enlightenment. Copenhagen is overflowing with buildings designed by the mid-century designers that we love, including stunning churches designed by Kaare Klint and his father, various Arne Jacobsen projects, including the Radisson BLU Royal Hotel and the Danish National Bank, and Jørn Utzon’s modernist Ørestad Gymnasium.
Interestingly a lot of the most exciting design was going on outside of Copenhagen, by craftsman and designers looking to revitalise traditional approaches to wood and mass-production. Head to the more rural Charlottenlund to tour the house Finn Juhl lived and worked in or Aarhus for Jacobsen’s legendary design for the city hall.
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Italy
Italy has a long and distinguished history of incredible and varied design. Italian design covers everything from high-end fasion to urban planning and industrial design. If we had to choose just one city to represent Italy on our designer tour, it would be Milan. Milan is arguably the world capital of design; if anything, there is too much design in Milan, it is overwhelming. Design culture in Milan moves fast too and if you’re not careful your trends will become embarrassingly out-dated before you’ve even unpacked your suitcase.
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Design
Milan is Italy’s second most populated city and the birth-place of Anna Castelli Ferrieri, Vico Magistretti, and Achille Castiglioni. Ferrier and Castiglioni even studied at the same university, the Politecnico di Milano that would much later train Renzo Piano, the architect of London’s Shard.
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Design
Let’s start with the obvious first, see the Santa Maria delle Grazie, the Milan Cathedral (it took 500 years, it would be rude not to) and the Art Deco central train station. It would be easier to choose a week where there wasn’t an iconic design event happening. Between Design Week, the Triennale di Milano’s permanent collection and competition every three years, MIlan Fashion Week and the Salone del Mobile, don’t worry about seeing modern design. You may have missed the furniture expo this year, but you’ll be seeing the modular furniture that dominated the show everywhere soon enough.
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And More Design
To really experience design in Milan you need to forget about all that. Try exploring Chiesa Rossa. This small enclave of warehouse and arches has been intensely brewing the next generation of design talent as well as great coffee (you can’t move without stumbling into a hybrid coffee shop/art space serving delicious brews). Just pacing its narrow streets is a pleasure and it is overflowing with industrial chic. We’d recommend Forma, it’s an exhibition space, print lab, bookshop, school and restaurant.
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Japan
Furniture design and interior style in Japan is directly connected to life and popular culture. From high-rises to Shinto temples, the Japanese see design as central to their national identity and life.
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Visit
In Tokyo modern and traditional life is combined very closely and this can be seen in fashion, architecture and art. The Meiji Shrine is obviously gorgeous, but extremely crowded too. Head to the Suginami Animation Museum for some popular art forms and then wander opposite to the grounds of a quiet and beautiful Shinto temple away from the busy crowds.
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Eat
There’s only so much design you can take in on one trip, so take a break and head to the Tsukiji fish market. Before you stop reading, Tsukiji the world’s largest fish market and you can watch tuna auctioned for incredible prices, before heading to the sushi restaurants inside to try the freshest fish in the world. But you do have to get up at 4am to see it and it does smell bad.
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Design
Look out for the wabi-sabi design approach. This economical and craftsmanship focused aesthetic is drawn from Buddhist teaching about impermanence and balance. It can be seen everywhere from ceramics to homewares and variations off it have influenced modern designers, such as the complex asymmetrical forms of designers such as Isamu Noguchi.
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