Author: Henning

Background

gewerkdesign’s suggestion for transforming the 1988 display collection of the Cookbook Museum in Dortmund into a modern exhibition was a simple one: A kitchen at the exhibition’s centre was to be surrounded by cookbooks and their authors, which in turn were surrounded by displays explaining different phases of Dortmund’s culinary history.

A multi vision was to illustrate, how »foreign« dishes grew more and more popular in Dortmund, while the view from the kitchen was to be out onto a garden with gigantic vegetable plants.

Unfortunately the project was put on hold because the structure of the historic building was discovered to be insufficient, necessitating a complete renovation first.

Background

The competition for a new corporate interior design of Germany’s 227 diplomatic offices and consulates abroad asked for a spatial concept, a furniture concept, and a style guide for furniture and signage based on the Federal Republic of Germany’s corporate design, using Germany’s diplomatic consulate in Shenyang, China, as an example.

The competition entry created by gewerkdesign and BCO Architects first established a grid pattern from the 1,600 m2 office space in Shenyang’s business tower into which the different types of space could be fit according to their function. Once established, the planning as well as furniture and signage in all of the consulates would refer to this grid.

One of the suggestions in gewerkdesign’s furnishing concept was to use high quality printed reproductions of sketch drawings and working designs of German inventions and famous industrial products. The drawings were to be chosen for each consulate individually from a catalogue with manuscripts, sketchbooks and preliminary designs from German archives.

Background

For the competition related to a special exhibition of constantly changing exhibits on the cultural region of the Baltic Sea, which was to be shown in seven countries along the Baltic’s borders, gewerkdesign developed a very flexible concept: At each of the exhibition sites large designs were to be projected onto the walls and redrawn with strips of adhesive tape.

Apart from these visuals, which promised a distinctive yet flexible design and low transportation costs, the competition entry suggested offering translations of all seven of the exhibition languages via booklets or a media guide (tablet). In addition to these seven countries, large fabric prints of submarine photographs showing sunken ships were to represent the cultural region of the Baltic Sea itself.