Austria/Vienna & Germany/Berlin
Herny and I took a two-week holiday in September to visit his childhood home country Austria/Vienna and attended a design conference in Berlin with Alliance Graphique Internationale.
We went to look for Henry's childhood house in Baden (30 mins away from Vienna by train) and found it! We also attended a re-inauguration of a Synagogue in Baden.
Henry was invited by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and Association to serve as a guest speaker for a half day seminar in Vienna on "Design for Asia".
After the seminar, the chamber organized an afternoon programme for all the guests to visit several very creative and successful design studios. These visits were very interesting and eye opening for us. For example, we saw this conference room chair that cost them 2 million Euros in 2 years solely on research and development focusing on the design and engineering of the back of the chair. Their professionalism is extremely impressive.
We both loved Vienna and its people and had a fabulous time there. They have the best potatoes, cucumbers, cream cheese and COFFEE on earth!
In Berlin, the AGI congress was creatively inspiring and was also a lot of fun. Henry had a great time seeing old friends from all over the world. Men who love their work become natural high when they get to mingle and interact with their colleagues! Next year, it will be held in Tokyo and Kyoto. I hope I will be able to schedule it in.
Highlights in Berlin - we visited the two new Holocaust Memorials designed by Peter Eisenman and Danial Libeskind. Eisenman has turned a plot of land into a spectacularly powerful scantuary, whereas Libeskind has built a clumsy sculpture to imitate a scantuary. Tis the difference between a master and a student disguised as master.
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