Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/32301
Berlin’s Baudelaire designs test the boundaries of urban life. BY DAVID SOKOL German architect Jürgen Mayer’s high-tech Technology is Jürgen Mayer’s muse. After all, the Berlin- based architect has designed wallpapers, installations and even a series of glass tiles for Bisazza, which are based on data protection patterns. And furniture series like Heat.Seat, Warm-Up Table, and Perfect for Paris feature surfaces that register the heat emitted by seated and reclining bodies. His Lie bed linens function in a similarly Hypercolor fashion. Since establishing his studio at age 30, Mayer has spent the better part of a decade and a half achieving profundity through digital practice. Rather than succumb to its fads—merely keying in parameters and spit- ting out futuristic products at all scales—Mayer approaches design like a craftsperson. He mines the tools at his disposal for their intellectual potential as much as for their technical assistance. To be sure, Mayer’s buildings look like they belong in the tech-for-tech’s-sake family of bulbous and creased architecture. Yet, besides developing a unique design vocabulary that he calls “an adventure in mixed media,” Mayer has employed his eyelets and curves and branches to meaningful effect. The new airport in Mestia, Geor- gia, for example, combines control tower and terminal seamlessly; the form also recalls Svan towers, the stone fortifications that dot Georgia’s Ushguli region. Bisazza’s Data mosaics will resonate with anyone who has wit- nessed just one camera in London’s CCTV network. Heat.Seat evanescently collects and conveys usage metrics. Whether evoking a building type that’s integral to historic identity or subtly recording the personal nar- ratives that unfold in communal space, one major thrust of Mayer’s work is to focus a questioning eye on 64 CULTURED