Lugi Colani: Shapes of the Future / 11th RecyclingDesignprize—Outstanding Ideas

Two design exhibitions will open at Marta Herford in the Gehry Galleries: The Forms of the Future show focuses on the creative breadth and visionary potential of German designer and aerodynamicist Luigi Colani, while the 11th Recycling Design Award exhibition brings together innovative developments in the field of sustainable design.

The Museum Marta Herford, located in the centre of the wood and furniture industry, has often addressed themes from architecture and design and is thus focusing now on the influence of Luigi Colani as a pioneer who was not only active and influential in the region but also attracted worldwide attention.

Luigi Colani (b. 1928 in Berlin as Lutz Colani; d. 2019 in Karlsruhe) distinguished himself from dominant straight-line trends in design with his streamlined designs modelled on nature and developed his own, rigorous and innovative formal idiom. Many of his approaches are visionary from today’s perspective because he made use of the energies and forms of the natural environment and translated them.

This exhibition offers insight into the breadth of Luigi Colani’s work and show objects ranging from the prototype to the popular mass design. Vehicles from the bicycle by way of the bobsleigh to prototypes for the luxurious Pierce Arrow illustrate Colani’s ideas about mobility. There are also everyday objects from the home, including a drinking glass with an indented grip, computers and televisions, diverse seating furniture such as the curving Sadima recliner for Kusch+Co and regional productions such as Interlübke’s Zocker stool for dynamic sitting posture. The presentation is supplemented by bathroom fixtures for Villeroy & Boch and designs for skiing outfits.

Going beyond industrial productions, Colani developed innovative objects for education such as furniture for children that ‘grows along with them’ and the Learning Egg (1971), with which Colani applied his idea of a functional spatial capsule to computer-aided learning situations.

Finally, the show does justice to the designer’s manner and far-reaching effect, especially in Ostwestfalen-Lippe, with a participatory project that accompanies the exhibition: in the Bring Your Own Colani action, visitors are invited to bring their own Colani-designed objects as well as their memories of and experiences with him in a separate area of the exhibition.

For the 11th time, the RecyclingDesignprize is dedicated to visionary ideas and original new uses for residual materials and discarded objects. With innovative developments in the field of sustainable design, Marta Herford is the first venue to present this exhibition for the renowned design competition, which is organized by Arbeitskreis Recycling e. V. Herford. For the first time, this prize will be prominently presented in three of the galleries on the first floor.

A current variety of imaginative as well as functional upcycling products can be seen alongside material explorations or projects from the fields of circular economy, social design or transformation design. The most convincing designs will be selected by an expert jury from several hundred submissions from all over the world. The winners will be honored at the exhibition opening.

In addition to the first to third prizes, a special prize - donated by FUTURZWEI.Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit, Berlin—will once again be awarded.

The Shapes of the Future exhibition has been curated by the guest curators Tobias Henschen and Julian Puszcz (Zweieckig design studio) as well as Prof. Tim Brauns (Technische Hochschule OWL).