If the tiny house philosophy of the smallest possible rooms were not generally dedicated to decrease and reduction, for spiritual and ecological reasons, a prominent increase and expansion of this movement could be celebrated since Monday evening. ZDF is now part of the space-conscious, cute Tiny House movement. Their “news family” (one immediately feels reminded of the Waltons broadcast many moons ago and almost so many special flood programs) is now presented “in a new design and from a technically refurbished studio”.
This applies to a total of eight formats from “heute” to “heute journal” to “logo!”. The most important finding so far: The size of the studio in which the news family has set up homely on the Lerchenberg in Mainz has been more than halved; The approximately 700 square meters of studio space that were once turned into around 300 square meters. It is still unclear whether the rest will be sublet or whether the moderator Claus Kleber, who will soon be retiring, will be used as the venue. It is currently being renovated. In the alleged Putin home on the Black Sea, 300 square meters would be just enough for the room with the Carrera track.
This is what the ZDF news studio looked like before.
(Photo: Jana Kay / ZDF and Jana Kay)
The second insight from Monday’s 7 p.m. broadcast is therefore: You can apparently report from all over the world in the usual serious manner, even in a relatively tight space. The “heute” show has not gotten any worse – and thanks to other relatively restrained refreshments and layouts that are also digitally affine, it seems concentrated. The new premises herald an adequate modernization. It is a balance between the familiar (where necessary) and the renewed (where possible). ZDF is going smart. Again – you could say.
When ZDF broadcast news in 1974, around the time of the Waltons, the interviews with the politicians, always men with thick black glasses, were pleasantly long. And the upper level-looking desk of the “editor in the studio”, always men, with slim glasses, was of a contemporary limited type. But there was still a telephone on the table, white, not red, to be seen on YouTube. Half a century has passed since then, and so that you can tell, the phone has disappeared. Also gone: the analog pointer clock, which, sigh, has given way to the digital. Soon only the clock in the Bentley will be analog. You will move in there.
The old table was a four-foot-long misunderstanding
Fortunately, the titanic dugout canoe has also disappeared in Mainz, this Putin-like XXL piece of furniture in ballroom dimensions, with which one has always wondered until the end whether it is possibly a prehistoric boat that is as complex as it appears archaic that is actually in Humboldt Forum of the Non-European History of Ideas should drop anchor. Or whether it could have sprung from a set idea by Ken Adam for early James Bond headquarters of evil.
You will not cry after this eleven-meter-long misunderstanding of carpenter-wants-to-be-in-the-book-of-records ambition, biomorphism and form-glued floorboards (walnut). In contrast to glue, perhaps. The new, significantly smaller table, which is also demonstratively dedicated to the tiny idea, is pleasantly proportioned. L-shaped, curved (owed to contemporary design), made of wood (owed to contemporary design) – but at least not so … so absurdly futuristic and overambitious. The old table should be given to Putin. He likes that.
By the way, the new table was built in Saxony. That’s nice. And it is made of walnut with a plywood look. That’s okay. And then it was covered with white Corian. It’s not so nice, it’s an artificial stone. The substructure is made of aluminum – and if one were to learn more about the multi-material construction that is so complicated, but as simple as a boomerang, that would inflate the welcome downsizing again a little unwelcome. What kind of insoluble problem do the German broadcasters have with tables?
So here’s something good: The sound of the intro has been sharpened a bit. You hardly notice it. The typical green, due to the virtuality in the studio as before, is still somehow typical green (based on polyurethane, “shock and abrasion-resistant”, as it is called in a strange kind of broker-German). Nevertheless, the news is highlighted in blue. The earlier in the day, the brighter. The blue hour: nice. By the way, the ARD is also blue. Hm. What is new at ZDF is that the virtual space in which Marietta Slomka sometimes seemed to float has given way to a set design that suggests a little more spatiality in a sophisticated way.
In the center is the new XS table, which could also be interpreted as a homage to the ironing board age of the home office pandemic, whereby the system of virtual projection surfaces seems to fit into transparent walls around it. Welcome home, dear ZDF journalists, you now have a kind of roof over your head again. The spatial delimitation, so it is not only one of the smaller areas, but also one of the accentuated spatial formation, is really good. The world out there is big, wide and complicated surreal enough.
This is also emphasized by the emphasized horizontally movable, dynamic key visuals. But, the news family is neatly housed at ZDF, looks seriously smart – and is actually focused on the essentials without too much design fuss. Adolf Loos, today: Zentralfriedhof, Vienna, who didn’t like the design but the spatial art, once said that it was longer than German horn-rimmed glasses: “A change that is not an improvement is a deterioration.” The ZDF has improved almost imperceptibly. In spite of all the tiny innovations, there is a remarkable size and aplomb.