Just as I predicted earlier: the Arab fed the guests well. There was no shortage of salads, main courses, sweets and pastries at lunch

The only drawback: these conferences force you to gain weight. In Germany I was able to loose some weight: lots of walking and only a soup at the TYPO conference. [...]

The International Design Forum saw the launch of a very interesting book today: Al Manakh. It is one of those “books” that reminds me of another Rem Koolhaas related book called Mutations, in that it is an hybrid amalgamation of articles, graphs, architectural drawings and photos, contributed by countless participants. The publication is a special [...]

This morning during the opening of the International Design Forum it was announced that Zaha Hadid will not be showing up. This was quite disappointing. Hadid is a provocative speaker and she has been creating more work in the Gulf recently.
Not that this conference is devoid of other Big Design Egos.

Karim Rashid has been one of the most visible figures of the International Design Forum on the first day. And that’s not only because of his pink pants, cool boots and weird glasses. He was the most outspoken at the opening session and he had the floor all to himself in the evening to deliver [...]

Updates on the sessions tonight. For now I will just share some images

Opening plenary

Rasem Badran

Karim Rashid

At the registration desk

Rem Koolhaas

Dubai criticism

Koolhaas: “The end of star architects”

I was barely able to catch my breath after attending the 3 day TYPO conference in Berlin and yet here I am at yet another design conference. I am blogging from Dubai, where I will be attending, and speaking at the International Design Forum (IDF)
Of course I cannot but see the contrasts: I mean, the [...]

Try to imagine this: around 50 graphic designers, laptops, cameras, a mixing board and a fast internet connection all crammed up into a small room at the 35th floor of a Berlin hotel. This was the scene Wednesday night as the SYNTAX crew gate-crashed the temporary headquarters of Type Radio.

Type Radio is, usually, a podcast [...]