DESIGN : Made in Germany

THOUGH SHOWROOMS IN the Pacific Design Center are traditionally “to-the-trade-only,” “Designed in Germany--Los Angeles 1990,” opens the massive center to all (a case of design imitating politics), because it’s spread throughout public spaces between showrooms and in the Murray Feldman Gallery. The exhibition, which runs from May 15 to June 23, displays innovative contemporary household designs--razors, electronic switches, household appliances (vacuum cleaners, coffee machines), carpets--and even the latest in Mercedes-Benz car styling. Note the novel Shelf Under Tension (above), designed by Wolfgang Laubersheimer and made of steel and cable.

The German Design Council/Rat fur Formgebung, organizer of the show, has enticed more than 30 top companies--Braun, Krups, Mercedes-Benz, among them--to display their latest products. And along a more playful line, four avant-garde European design groups were each assigned one corner of a 3x3-meter (about 10 feet square) surrealist “carpet,” which will be on display. Though no group knows what the others have planned, the Pentagon group has divulged that its corner will resemble an oil puddle--it will look like a carpet, but will actually be a basin filled with oil.

Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; for further information, call (213) 652-6566.