The K67 kiosk
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I'm spending my last day in Slovenia (tomorrow i'll be in Graz to see the BIX facade and the Island in the Mur, two building i was dying to see for such a long time now). Here i fell in love with the K67 kiosks designed in 1966 by Slovenian architect Sasha J. Mächtig. They are all over the city and used as newspaper kiosks, parking-attendant booths, market stands, shelter booths, fries and hamburger stalls, ice cream stalls, lottery stands, etc.
The polyfibre reinforced modules can be used as single units or combined into large agglomerations. Patented in 1967, K67 was prepared for its serial production in 1968 with the first exhibition of prototypes in Ljutomer (Slovenia). In April 1970 K67 was published in an English design magazine with the article "Low life from the streets" and the Museum of Modern Art in New York included it into its collection of 20th century design. The K67 was sold in large quantities not only to the countries of Ex-Yugoslavia, but also to the COMECON countries and other continents (eg. Japan and New Zealand). Due to the fact that the K67 principle is copied several times by other companies, K67 came to embody the Eastern European kiosk culture. In the early nineties, the production stopped due to radical changes in the Slovenian economical system. See also K67 - The Kiosk Shots that collects and maps the kiosks -both, the original design and its several copies all over Eastern Europe. |
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Yes, I Like these pictures. I live in the Balkan, I know what these people feels. It's design and their feelings are different.
kiosks. I want one. Now I am hungry.
I was surprised!! great!!
hey regine .. there was a great project about kiosks by raumlabor-berlin. do you know about it already?
http://kioskisierung.net/
cheers! ragna
You would be happy to know, that Sasa J. Maechtig is working on a new kiosk. It will be produced by the same company Imgrad, Ljutomer in Slovenia. http://www.imgrad-ljutomer.si/si/index.php?sklop=ostali_izdelki
have you heard about the kiosk-project by raumlabor?
website: http://kioskisierung.net
why do you say New Zealand is a Comecon member?
the berlin based design network baukasten.berlin (www.baukasten-berlin.de) bought a k67 in poland and will show it at the design exhibition ENTRY 2006 in Essen.
helloooo, i wrote "the COMECON countries and other continents (eg. Japan and New Zealand)" doesn't sound to me that i include new zealand or japan in the COMECON.
The BIX facade is gorgeous. It's like some relic from the Russian Space Programme.
Finally some information about it! I know the k67 only from Poland and I'm trying to create a huge sculpture out of it for a couple of years, but I never managed to get any contact. You will find some sketches and kiosk-movies on http://www.space-mission.info (have a look at "artists" "Markus Schlaffke"!)