Alvar Aalto Foundation

"The Alvar Aalto Foundation maintains the material and intellectual legacy of the world-famous architect and designer Alvar Aalto, and acts to make his work and thinking more widely known. The Alvar Aalto Foundation’s sites in Helsinki and Jyväskylä are meeting points for friends of architecture and design from all over the world. The Alvar Aalto Museum, founded in 1966 in Jyväskylä, is a specialist museum of architecture and design, and a national and international centre for information about Alvar Aalto, with extensive collections that form the basis for its exhibitions and publications."

Bang & Olufsen

“From a small town in Western Denmark… to the world. For 100 years, we’ve been crafting magical moments. Generations of people, listening and watching in wonder. Experiences so unforgettable, they transcend time. This is our story. Since 1925, our iconic audio and home entertainment products have defined entire decades. And we’re nowhere near finished.More than a century of magical moments
It all starts with Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen. Two young engineers with big dreams. They met in 1925, just after graduating from school, and connected instantly over their love of experiments. Little did they know, they’d go on to create iconic sound and vision products that would change the face of the next century.“

iittala

“Since 1881, Iittala has been dedicated to inspiring better living. What began as a glass factory in a small village in Iittala, Finland has grown into an internationally known brand that has played a decisive role in defining the Nordic way of life.

Our roots are firmly planted in Finland and Nordic values are what guide us. For nearly a century and a half, our core set of values have helped us in creating design that is balanced, progressive and essential.

Glass is in our nature. It’s at the core of who Iittala is and what we do. For over a century, we have been developing a deep understanding of glass as a material. Our glass expertise is unrivaled in colour, innovation and sustainability.“

Louis Poulsen

“Established in 1874, Louis Poulsen has collaborated with prominent Danish designers to create timeless, high quality products that provide exceptional light.
Designed to provide exceptional light, our lamps are crafted from high quality materials and made to last a lifetime.
Louis Poulsen works closely with architects, engineers and lighting designers on specific projects. Many of the light fixtures in our product range have originated from projects – products developed specifically to further optimise the project or the atmosphere and image of a given space. Many products have shown great versatility and thus become standard products in our exclusive range of architectural lighting.“

Braun

“Max Braun founded an engineering workshop in Frankfurt in 1921, but the company’s design era did not begin until after his death in 1951, when his sons Erwin and Artur Braun took over the reins. In 1953, they hired Fritz Eichler as design director, who established a connection with the Ulm School of Design (HfG) and brought designers such as Hans Gugelot and Wilhelm Wagenfeld (a former Bauhaus student) on board.
Dieter Rams joined the company in 1955 and took over as head of the design department in 1961. Under his leadership, the distinctive Braun style took shape: minimalist forms, matte metal surfaces, clean lines, and intuitive operation (“As little design as possible”). Iconic products such as the Radiophonos SK 4 (“Snow White’s Coffin”) and the wall system left a lasting mark on the brand’s image.
The influence of Braun design remains relevant to this day; Jonathan Ive (formerly of Apple) explicitly cites Dieter Rams as an inspiration. For its 100th anniversary in 2021, the brand collaborated with Virgil Abloh, who reinterpreted classic Braun devices as “functional works of art.” Today, Braun is considered the epitome of functional, durable, and minimalist design.“

frog design

“frog design (formerly frogdesign) is a company specializing in product design, digital media, software, branding, and business strategy. It was founded in 1969 by Hartmut Esslinger in Altensteig in the Black Forest as “Esslinger Design” and renamed in 1982.

From the 1980s through 1992, the company was led by Thomas Gerlach. Today, the company is headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley; according to its own figures, it employs more than 1,600 people worldwide (as of July 2012) and, in addition to San Francisco, maintains studios in Amsterdam, Austin, Bengaluru, Boston, Johannesburg, Kyiv, Milan, Munich, New York, Seattle, Shanghai, and Vinnytsia. The branch in Taiwan has since been closed. In 2010, the German branch moved from Herrenberg to Munich. Frog Design was owned by the software company Aricent starting in 2006 and has been part of Capgemini Invent since 2021.
Frog Design made its breakthrough with the design of televisions for the Wega company. Other products included early Apple computers such as the Apple IIc and various models from the Macintosh series, as well as the ImageWriter dot-matrix printer. In 1987, Villeroy & Boch launched the “Magnum” collection, designed by Frog Design. This collection consisted of tiles, vanities with drain covers, wall-mounted and floor-mounted toilets, urinals, and wall-mounted and floor-mounted bidets, and was available in numerous colors. Esslinger also designed the NeXT workstations and watches for Junghans. Frog Design also redesigned the graphical user interface for the business software of the software company SAP (starting with version 4.6). By fall 2013, Frog Design had designed nearly 100 products.“

Bruce Percy – Colourchrome

“I’ve always been drawn to the arts: drawing and painting as a kid, music composition as a teenager and photography as an adult.
I’ve been very lucky to have some inspirational people around me during my formative years. I owe a terrific debt to my two music teachers from my time at high school for allowing me the freedom to explore my creative side.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve found that I’m much more attracted to the wilderness and the people that live on the edges of it. Photography is a great way of getting closer to the land and the cultures that inhabit it.”"

Mir

“Our small studio is located in Bergen, Norway; the city where we grew up. Here, tucked in between mountains and fjords, far away from the hustle and bustle of the world, we try to figure out new and exciting ways to remind people that we live in a fantastic world.

The idea when we founded Mir 20 years ago was that we could make a difference for architects by making images that are noticed. Today we are even more convinced of the same principles as back then.

We believe that uniqueness is worth fighting for and that art can change things for the better.“

Saunders Architecture

“A trans-Atlantic practice, with projects throughout Scandinavia and Europe, as well as across North America, Saunders Architecture is well known for its highly contextual approach and a deep-rooted respect for the relationship between its buildings and the natural world. Led by a strong contemporary design sensibility, the studio believes that architecture must play an important role in creating place by using form, materials, and texture to help evoke and shape memory and human interaction. Projects have encompassed original residential work, cultural commissions, and the hospitality sector, including the landmark Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland.“

Jonna Jinton Sweden

“More Than Just Jewelry.

We see our jewelry as something more than just a beautiful accessory. Even though they are physical creations from natural materials, we also see them as extensions of ourselves. Symbols for something beyond what we can touch with our hands. They stand for our inner thoughts, hidden potentials and deepest dreams.

Embrace Your Inner Beeing.

“Only when you take the steps into your inner world, you will find your true self…”“

Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables

"We recommend you have sustainable break here for your holidays in our Casas bioclimáticas ITER. Located facing the sea and next to the Natural Monument “Montaña Pelada”, they constitute a self-sufficient bioclimatic urbanization with zero CO2 emissions. A unique enclave that invites tranquility and calm away from the usual tourist circuits.
Participate in the experience of living in constructions of the future, in unique designs of great architectural interest located within a technological park and at the foot of a wind farm. Enjoy services and activities in accordance with the spirit of respect for the environment and local customs. If you wish, you can combine rest with work or training using our Visitor Center."

Das Buch der Synergie

“Es geht um uns, um unseren Planeten Erde und um die Energie in ihrer vielgestaltigen Form.
Es geht darum, daß es heute – und für alle Zukunft – Energie in Hülle und Fülle gibt.
Und es geht darum, wie diese Energie ohne räumliche und quantitative Beschränkungen allen Bewohnern unseres Planeten zugute kommen kann – ohne ökologische oder wirtschaftliche Beeinträchtigungen der Umwelt und des Lebens.
Als Beleg für diese Aussagen werden hier alle bislang entdeckten und genutzten Formen der Erneuerbaren Energie präsentiert. Als Generalkarte, wie sie sonst nirgends im Netz existiert – und um einen Gesamtüberblick zu vermitteln, der verhindern soll, daß man sich im Gestrüpp der kontroversen Meinungen von Experten und Expertisen verheddert.“

DFAB House (digital fabricated house)

“DFAB HOUSE is a collaborative demonstrator of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication on the NEST building of Empa and Eawag. As part of the full-featured building project, researchers from eight ETH Zurich professorships have come together with industry experts and planning professionals in a unique way to explore and test how digital fabrication can change the way we design and build.“

Polar Night Energy

“A “sand battery” is a high temperature thermal energy storage that uses sand or sand-like materials as its storage medium. It stores energy in sand as heat.Its main purpose is to work as a high-power and high-capacity reservoir for excess wind and solar energy. The energy is stored as heat, which can be used to heat homes, or to provide hot steam and high temperature process heat to industries that are often fossil-fuel dependent.“

BBC Future - Sustainable Batteries

“As demand for electric vehicles soars, scientists are searching for materials to make sustainable batteries. Lignin, the stuff that makes trees woody, is shaping up to be a strong contender.“

ArsTechnica - Next-gen battery tech: Reimagining every aspect of batteries

“From more efficient production to entirely new chemistries, there’s a lot going on. (2024)“