Travel Diary Day 4 - Copenhagen

I was a bit sad that this was our last day in Copenhagen – I really love it here. Its clean, there are very few cars, the people are really lovely and friendly, everyone rides bikes, and of course the design and architecture culture seems to permeate everything. The airport is one of the most beautiful in the world I think. Timber floors, quiet, sedate, swan chairs scattered everywhere and the new Georg Jensen store is simply stunning!

Today we went to the Gubi showroom http://www.gubi.dk/ which is a really amazing warehouse space down in the Copenhagen Freeport. They have a great philosophy on design and I have written some stuff on Corporate Culture’s blog if you want to see more about that.

After Gubi we went to see the new Opera House by one of Denmark’s most famous architects Henning Larsen. The opera house was very controversial and the story is quite an interesting one. Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Opera_House While walking around we met a really nice Danish guy on a bike, had a good chat with him about the Sydney Opera house, Jorn Utzon etc.

After that we went to Christiania which is a sort of commune and filled with people who don’t pay taxes or have jobs and who spend the days drinking and smoking dope. I don’t think Stephen was very impressed!

Had a traditional Danish ‘open sandwich’ lunch (no rollmops though) then had a look at the new Royal Theatre which was built at the same time as the Opera House and of course is stunning. I have also noticed that Copenhagen is very conscious of energy consumption. Entire office buildings turn their lights off at night (imagine that!) and escalators and revolving doors only activate once approached. It is very very unusual for an office to be all lit up at night and it makes the Sydney model of leaving every light on very excessive.

After lunch we walked up to see Kasper Salto in his studio (designer of the Ice chair for Fritz Hansen) and spent some time with him before one final ‘healthy cocktail’ (full of honey and lemon to fix Stephen’s cold) before heading off to the airport to fly to Milano.

PS I also went to the church that Princess Mary got married in – very exciting!!!!!

Travel Diary Day 3 - Copenhagen

So on Day 3 Richard arrived from Singapore. We had breakfast together then caught the train to Louisiana, which is an easy 40 min train ride through gorgeous Danish countryside. Louisiana is a modern art gallery that used to be a home, and its called Louisiana after the name of the original owner’s 3 wives (all named the same, just to keep things easy!) www.louisiana.dk We had lunch there and went for a walk in the beautiful garden then back on the train to Copenhagen. The weather has been perfect the whole time we have been here, really crisp blue clear skies (bloody cold though!) and its broad daylight until at least 8.30pm which is a bit disconcerting.
When we got back to Copenhagen we did some shopping, went to Hay and met Rolf Hay and Susannah. Rolf showed us some really interesting new products that are in various stages of launch and development. I got Toby a ‘measuring plant’ wall sticker and a beautiful blanket that was on sale – a rare bargain. Also went to Holly Golightly (lots of Loubitins and cool handbags) and Illums Bolighus.
Pre dinner drink at the hotel bar then off to Umami (Japanese) for dinner. I think that is where all the best looking people in Denmark were last night … and us. Had lots of fun on our last night in Copenhagen, tomorrow is our last day here then off to Milano to meet up with Lisa and Karen and others from Sydney.

Travel Diary Day 2 - Copenhagen

We woke to a beautiful sunrise today, early though at 5.30am! Breakfast at the hotel then off to the Danish Design Centre to see an exhibition on lighting.

Stopped on the way at Arne Jacobsen’s SAS Hotel and tried out the Eggs and Swans in the lobby. We’ve been there before and had a tour of Room 606, which is the room still maintained in the original style and available to be booked as well. After DDC went to Tivoli – which would have been a more exciting experience at night I think and probably with Toby. It’s a cross between Luna Park and the Easter show. Had a very Danish lunch at one of the restaurants there called Nimb, which is very hip, slick and cool – kind of incongruous at the Tivoli. http://www.nimb.dk/ It is also a hotel and has very modern ‘designer’ rooms.

Did some walking + shopping in the afternoon along the Stroget (Copenhagen's main pedestrian shopping strip) then dinner at Soren K restaurant at the ‘Black Diamond’, the nickname for the Royal Library, which is now 10 years old and is on the canal in the Slotsholmen area. The restaurant was beautiful although I struggled through a tiny bit of $50 vegetarian risotto as I think I have caught the stomach bug that half of Sydney had last week. www.soerenk.dk

Travel Diary Day 1 - Copenhagen

Well after only 32 hours of traveling we arrived in Copenhagen! (The A380 was fabulous though, and the new BA lounge at Heathrow Terminal 5 is pretty good too. Managed to have a shower in the spa and felt like a new person afterwards)

Copenhagen has perfect clear blue skies but still very cold. We arrived on Sunday around lunchtime and the streets were deserted. It seemed that everyone was in the gardens of the Rosenborg Slot, which is the castle where the crown jewels are kept. So we went for a look (love a bit of bling) and a walk around the streets. No sign of Princess Mary ... yet.

Our hotel is very cute (although the fridge doesn’t seem to be cold at all so the diet coke is outside chilling on the balcony). That’s really all for day one, we crashed pretty early after all that traveling and took the easy option of room service for dinner. Check out www.firsthotels.com/en/our-hotels/Denmark/Copenhagen/First-Hotel-SktPetri

Design 09 - Introduction

What is 'Design 09'?

Design 09 is a joint Futurespace and Ferguson Design Studio initiative. The objective of Design 09 is to inspire, arouse, invigorate, challenge and promote not only our own design team but also our clients and those we collaborate with (ie: project managers, engineers, consultants, et al)

How will we do this?

Each month we will produce a design calendar. The calendar will show both internal and external events that we would either attend, host, collaborate on or be involved with in some way. The calendar will also show important dates such as competition and exhibition opening dates. Some of the events so far include:

· Design 09 Launch
· Idea Awards Entries– Inside Magazine
· Project AJ with Corporate Culture
· Winner of ‘Design Journey 2008’ Announcement
· Art + Architecture talk at Breenspace Gallery
· DesignEX Melbourne April 2009
· Milan Furniture Fair April 2009

Our team is encouraged to contribute to the agenda of Design 09, to collaborate with each other and to share their knowledge of all things creative via the Design 09 Calendar.

Why are we doing this?

We are doing this because we are passionate about what we do, because we want to remain relevant in difficult financial times and because we want to continue to build and develop our relationships with the people we work with both inside and outside our studio.

All of these events feed our minds but we don’t want to be too serious about it. Its important that we remain relaxed, energetic and flexible and that most of all, we have fun!