Category: shopping

  • Siebter Himmel, Köln

    I visited two very different bookstores in Cologne. Located in the Belgian Quarter (Belgisches Viertel), see our earlier post about the area here. Siebter Himmel means Seventh Heaven. It was quite a surprising discovery since I had no idea of what it was supposed to be when I first walked in. Is it a bookstore,…

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  • Waschsalon / Cleanicum, Köln

    Continuing with my exploration of the Belgian quarter of Cologne (see earlier post here), I came across this unusual combination of enterprises on Brüsseler Strasse 74-76. The shop floor is divided into two halves, the front is a laundromat while the back is a retail store. The two businesses share the same entrance. So one…

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  • The Belgian Quarter, Cologne

      I (Chris) wanted to visit Köln because it is another big city in Germany (No.4 by population). I liked Berlin (No. 1) and Munich (No. 3) and wanted to see more urban life in Germany. You will see it in the next few posts. Köln is a very compact cityas far as tourists are concerned, because…

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  • The classic section of the Salone Internazionale del Mobile

    This is the penultimate blog post in this series on the Salone. The exhibition halls at the Salone that show furniture were divided into 3 sections: design, moderno and classico. The classico section occupied Hall 1 to 4. The distinction between the designer and modern sections were less clear cut, although the latter only occupied…

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  • driade, Alessi, Kartell at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile

    Continuing with my posts on the stuff I saw at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan … here is a mix bag of brands – avant garde (driade), then mainstream modern housewares (Alessi) and plastic furniture (Kartell) … driade, founded in Italy in 1968, like to define itself as an aesthetics laboratory. See their…

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  • Giorgetti at the Salone

    Continuing with my posts on the stuff I saw at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan … earlier posts on Poliform, Vitra and Knoll are here, here and here. I know nothing about this company until the exhibition. And I liked some of their pieces. Wood is their strong suit. A high level of craftsmanship…

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