Having graduated the Design Academy in Eindhoven, Job Smeets (born in Belgium, in 1970) and Nynke Tynagel (born in 1977, in Holland) now live and work together. They have collaborated with galleries in New York, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Paris, London and Milan and have designed the likes of Bulgari, Swarowski, Bisazza, Venini, Royal Tichelaar, Makum and Moooi; they have had presentations at MoMA, Victoria&Albert Museum, FIAC, Copper-Hewitt and the Guggenheim. They work in particular with small production series, sculpted or casted in ceramic bronze or wood, incorporating a fantastic iconography in their designs, drawn, sculpted or casted always in a realistic manner, with close attention paid to fabrication techniques. The symbolism that they use contains biblical themes, historical themes (by which we are given to understand how the past speaks about the present), zoomorphic or anthropomorphic. While the presence of nature is suggested by tranquil, unclouded and somewhat naive icons, the presence of man is instead depicted using an entire arsenal (both a figurative and a literal one): weapons, factories, smoke and machinery. Gluttony, looting, pollution. The strong narrative image that these collections provide is a subjective matter, as much for the designers as for the public. It may be referred to as decorative art revival, as art or as design – it holds something of all of them. Ultimately, the message is a very personal one (and as anything personal, it is a question of preference).

The Freudenstein castle (in translation – the Happiness Stone) was repeatedly modified; built in 1168 to guard Saxony’s silver quarries, it was then transformed into a Renaissance palace in the 16th century, home to Saxon barons, to later serve as arsenal, hospital and granary. For these last functions, the hollows were shrunk and the interior was fitted with layered intermediary wooden platforms. Following a long period in which the building was entirely abandoned, a contest was finally organized to decide the design that would transform it into a Saxon quarry archive and mineralogy museum. The project was finalized in the fall of 2008. AFF Architeketen wished to keep visible the flow of history, all of the interventions, the modifications and the add-ons this construction had endured, in short, the entire fragmented and eclectic atmosphere of the castle, all the while twisted into a symbol of the industry that has made this region one of Germany’s richest lands. Thus, in the rectangular interior courtyard of the so-called Neue Schlosshof, the architects inserted octagonal granite plaques into the asphalt, to suggest the work of minerals.

Completed in September 2008, Golden Tulip Ana Tower, a four star high class business hotel is defined by an architecture that is clear, simple and, most of all, sober. The outside does not communicate with the spectacularly designed interior, with the exception of the panoramic elevator that reaches the 585 Fusion restaurant, which, has a capacity of 120 places and is situated at the highest level. Mostly glazed, the restaurant was designed in two colour tones, white-beige and reddish brown: the accent light emphasizes the longitudinal axis of the space, also underlined by the decorative metallic structure, inspired by Gothic architecture, sustaining the central lighting unit. The public spaces are highly personalized through carefully chosen details, mostly graphic accents. The cultural history of the city of Sibiu is written, in English, on the customized carpet inside the conference hall. The reception area (decorated with life-size white statues) offers a delightful play on textures and nuances (beige stone, white Corian®, large lighting bodies in white glass). The design of the lighting bodies is, in itself, one of the strong aspects of the interior design project, appearing as a combination of technical, punctual lighting, the units displaying unusual geometries and an interesting chromatic.

Blackbox is a new, unconventional sports and leisure space inside the Timişoara Mall, designed by the young architects of Parasite Studio. Armed with an innovative approach to architecture and a keen eye for details, they sat down and talked to us about how the project came to be, starting from the idea of a plane's black box. Thus, the already existing glazing became dynamic, interactive displays that also serve for communicating with the exterior. Although the interior covers an impressive 2 000 sqm, it proved extremely hard for the architects to configure and organize it into a coherent concept, due to the existing technical spaces, scattered randomly across the surface, and to the massive metallic structure. Therefore, the architects first intention was to hide this structure, then they tried to ignore it but eventually realized that the best solution was to make it a part of the design, interpreting and reshaping it as if it were an image projected by the lateral walls.

In most Saxon villages in Transylvania, the ethnic patrimony becomes poorer with every passing day, due to an inadequate modernization process and especially to the indifference of a community that no longer identifies with old Saxon traditions. The original decorative elements of the houses are replaced by modern ones, cement mortar and stone mosaic being the materials of choice, along with PVC carpentry and loud colours, all of these dramatically transforming the look of the villages. The new buildings are one floor houses, atypical for the area, whereas existing ones are being restored using cheap materials and unqualified workers. Furthermore, in many cases, one hundred year old houses suffer due to the appendages - both horizontal and vertical - that permanently alter their once harmonious proportions. Following a visit made by the Bassetti family to the village of Copşa Mare, the Italian couple decided to start up a project of recovering the traditional architecture of the area. Their aim is to protect an especially valuable patrimony, through conservation and the encouragement of tourism and - first of all - through a close collaboration with the locals, vitally important in order for them to start cherishing their traditions.