gazing through green glass

For some reason I am attracted to green glass. Not broken Heineken bottles, which sometimes on friday nights you can find right on your bike track in Berlin. I find watching light filtering through green glass mesmerizing.

Countless green tumblers are in our roman cupboards. And plates, of a nice emerald green. To me, drinking fresh tap water (great in Rome) in a green glass makes it even more refreshing.

And then I love books. And bookshelves. And Berlin’s green forests and lakes.

The consequence is pretty obvious. I fell for green glass also in Berlin.

My first finding was this pretty kitsch fruit-bowl, now detournée en vide-poches, bought with the objective to force myself to put keys, USB-key, purse, phone, japanese note pad and S-bahn tickets all in the same place. In a new flat it is just so easy to disseminate key objects (keys!) around and forget them since there is not yet a gravitational law of essentials. Two euros, at my favorite russian flea market. DDR design for the masses. The (other) lives of objects.

Once again, I admit it’s quite fleuri but you are now familiar with my personal theory on “occasional splashes of color – giving the mood of the season – costing next to nothing – and which have a practical use”. Fruit bowl, key bowl, you name it.

The second finding…you will find out about in August! It has something to do with a previous post on Salone del Mobile bookshelves, love for crafted items (like those DDR benches),  green glass  of course…and with a little help from our Viktoria-Luise-Platz friends!

pink tea in Berlin

June in Berlin and spring is in full bloom…orange blossoms, peonies, colors fill the streets, the balconies and even the store window displays. Stunning color combinations at my favourite flower store in Bayerischer Platz – crimson red peonies and yellow daisies! daring! – but beautiful peonies are a temptation also in the not alluring light at Nolle’s U-bahn station…you simply can’t resist them!

Another thing I cannot avoid is my local flea market, so this time the temptation to dive in the green-pink mood was too strong, and the DDR 1960’s cups were simply too cute to be left there on the stalls!

I know, I know. This isn’t either very prussian or bauhaus. But hey, it’s spring…I would NEVER have a flowerly Laura Ashley-esque wallpaper, but I’m all for ephemeral  splashes of color, especially in the bedroom! Some flowers, a cushion. Just to remember what season we’re in.

So this time I wanted to take inspiration from Li Edelkoort’s matches of flowers & objects, and, even if a little predictable, I did like playing around with tea and peonies…and a little pink, the color of balconies this spring in Schöneberg.

Now we can go back to rigorous and linear bauhaus things…in the living room.

Urban farming: Li Edelkoort was late

After Naomi Klein’s “No logo”, are we heading for a “No guru” era?

Since the 90s we’ve been reading more and more about these so-called “cool-hunters” or “trend-gurus”. Those who stitch up trend books and if we buy a lime-green pullover next week it is because 3 years ago they found out that lime evocates purity and freshness and we would crave that at some point in the distant future.

On the Elle Decoration – and other magazines I browsed through in the trains and planes of the last few days – the trend-guru Edelkoort goes about saying that now people want countryside in the cities. Crise oblige.

I’m sorry but this has always been the case in “provincial and poor Berlin”. Berliners understood ages ago how important is to have real countryside in town.

As the italian writer Alessandra Montrucchio wrote nicely in her book “Berlin”, especially West Berlin after WWII had to recreate within the boundaries of the encircled town the seaside, the woods, the countryside, even the “mountains”.

Now countryside in town seem to be the must-have for milanese penthouses, Primrose Hill windowboxes, Chelsea faux-accessible squares. For Berliners, it’s the reality in many Kiez. It is not the ultimate expression of elitism, only for the few,  but the democratic accessible green shore of the Spree in the Regierungsviertel, the summer Tiergarten grill or the tai-chi lesson in the Volkspark across the street.

So, Li Edelkoort was late.

Berlin, trend-resistant, is above trends.  It literally bathes in sound, Birkenstock-sturdy common sense…

PS

on this topic also check Metapolis

photos: StripedCat