A stone’s throw from Milan city centre, a new urban district, Milano Santa Giulia, is under development as part of a regeneration project. At the epicentre is a collaboration between global consultancy Arup and David Chipperfield Architects, which has designed a new arena to accommodate sporting and cultural events. Its first duty is to turn into an ice rink for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, which take place from 6 to 22 February. (And for which developments also include the new 2026 Winter Olympics Village, already completed in Milan’s Porta Romana, by SOM.)

Step inside Milano Arena, home to the Winter Olympic ice rink

The new building, construction of which began in 2021, is a contemporary nod to the city’s former Roman amphitheatre, and is able to accommodate up to 16,000 visitors. As visitors approach, they are first drawn up a wide flight of steps to a raised podium, which occupies the majority of the site. It provides a 10,000 sq m piazza-like area that can be used as a venue for outdoor events.

Atop the podium, the arena’s exterior appears as three rings, seeming to float one above the other. These aluminium tubes, which are lit up with LED strips during the evening, bring a sense of fluidity, movement and almost gentleness to the arena's hard materiality.

Inside the building, visitors will see two tiers above the ground-floor seating and standing area, echoing classic theatre design. Seating is accessible through lobbies on all levels (including catering and other facilities), while lounges and sky boxes are nestled on the upper level. Parking is located on the northern part of the site.

In an effort to minimise consumption of resources and CO2 emissions, the architects integrated photovoltaic systems on the roof. Green spaces outside are scattered with trees that also cascade down the staircase. When the Winter Olympics are finished, the arena will host concerts, festivals and other sporting events to come, providing an enduring social hub for Milan.

olympics.com davidchipperfield.com

Miami Design Residences Designed by Chipperfield, the newest offering by architect Sir David Chipperfield, has just been unveiled. The design for a new development is currently underway in Florida, located in Miami’s design district. The new residences mark a first foray by Chipperfield in the area, and are currently the architect's only development underway in the Sunshine State.

The new piece of residential architecture scales 26 stories, and covers nearly two acres. Within its elegant, contemporary envelope, Miami Design Residence will offer 143 condominium homes, each designed to melt into the laidback, luxurious lifestyle of Miami. The project is also set to contain the first flagship hotel of a high-end international hospitality brand (yet to be named).

Step inside Miami Design Residences by David Chipperfield Architects

The design features ceramic columns that wrap around the exterior, designed specifically to capture and reflect Miami’s distinct light. Meanwhile, custom, pale-champagne mullions frame the floor-to-ceiling windows. Such design details reflect Chipperfield’s distinct architectural language, adding to his studio's portfolio, which includes the Neues Museum and James-Simon-Galerie in Berlin and the Turner Contemporary Museum in Margate, UK.

Miami’s Design District is an important global destination and the city’s most creatively vibrant area, also home to Design Miami. Filled with contemporary art galleries, boutiques, art installations and intriguing architecture, it's a neighbourhood where the new building is well at home. Additionally, it is a stone's throw from Miami Beach and other waterfront destinations in the wider region.

Says the Pritzker Prize-winning practice: ‘This is an exciting opportunity to shape the identity and experience of Miami’s Design District with its first large-scale residential and hospitality masterplan. The project prioritises high-quality public spaces and proposes an alternative architectural approach for the city – one that responds to climate through structure, substance and materiality. The buildings and garden work together to create both a distinctive presence and a civic contribution to this evolving cultural quarter.’

miamidesignresidences.com

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A double exhibition opening

Hannah Silver, Art, Culture, Watches and Jewellery Editor

This week I was thrilled to visit the Hepworth Wakefield, the David Chipperfield-designed gallery with impeccable programming. Opening today are two exhibitions, by Helen Chadwick and Caroline Walker. I loved discovering the work of both in the beautiful space, and speaking to Caroline about the influences behind her large-scale oil paintings depicting women’s spaces.

A food-filled week

Tianna Williams, Staff Writer

With chrome surfaces coupled with a stunning stained glass ceiling, The Dreamery in Islington has been on my radar for a while. Curious to see if it was just social media hype, I finally ventured over to the part ice cream parlour, part wine bar (a match made in heaven?), and it did not disappoint. Another evening involved dining in Gloria, a 70s-, Capri-style trattoria in Shoreditch. It is a colourful, playful spot to bring friends from out of London, which is exactly what I did when I caught up with my cousin over fresh pasta served on beautiful crockery. Delicious.

A wild book launch

Ellie Stathaki, Architecture and Environment Director

I attended the launch of Wild Sauna, the new book of our lovely contributor editor and my long-term colleague and friend, Emma O'Kelly, in North London. Bubbles and a talk between Emma and journalist Bee Rowlatt helped delve into the topic further. I am still fairly new to this wellness practice, but it's such a captivating one! Relaxing and intense at the same time. Emma's book is essentially a guide to UK saunas among nature, and here's hoping I get to explore some in person in the future.

An electrifying exhibition

Gabriel Annouka, Senior Designer

I went to Miłość Gallery on Thursday evening for artist Maite de Orbe’s first solo – grief, God, car crashes, and best friends knotted in light. Obsessive, cinematic, and achingly beautiful. Go immediately.

Cocktails at The Savoy

Melina Keays, Entertaining Director

I slipped into The Savoy one afternoon for a cheeky cocktail or two. The bar at The River Restaurant is a lovely place to do some people watching over the rim of a Martini glass; its setting at the back of the hotel, overlooking the Thames, provides a glorious retreat from the bustle of The Strand. There is an excellent selection of cocktails; my favourite is the Monarch Martini, created to mark the present king’s coronation. It has remained on the menu as it is so delicious, with delicate notes of Earl Grey tea, peach and elderflower.

A motor yacht medley

Anna Solomon, Digital Staff Writer

I was bound for the coast on Thursday, where the British Motor Yacht Show was kicking off in Southampton. Italian yacht builder Sanlorenzo told us all about the ‘green methanol’ revolution, which could pave the way for carbon-neutral yachts, before asking us to scrap our shoes and step aboard the vessels it had brought to the show. My favourite was the intriguingly asymmetric Sanlorenzo SL96A (and not just because it was the biggest boat in the marina).

‘A piece of architecture in miniature,’ is how the founders of German leather brand Tsatsas, Esther and Dimitrios Tsatsas, describe CARD-CASE, a new wallet design created in collaboration with seminal British architect Sir David Chipperfield.

Indeed, the sleek, geometric design – which folds outwards on a metal rivet to reveal an interior space for notes and bank cards – reflects the feeling of minimalist restraint at the heart of Chipperfield’s architectural oeuvre. ‘Simplicity and functionality are not easy to achieve,’ he tells Wallpaper* of the project, which marks the third chapter of an ongoing collaboration. ‘Despite the persistent effort required, we look back fondly on this project... Tsatsas’ dedication to craft and design sets a fine example.’

Sir David Chipperfield x Tsatsas: CARD-CASE

Esther and Dimitrios Tsatsas first met Chipperfield in 2017, having founded the eponymous Tsatsas in 2012 in Frankfurt (leatherwork runs in the family; Dimitros Tsatsas’ family has run a leather studio in Offenbach/Main for over 40 years). ’The three of us share a dedication to detail, whether it be in architecture or bag design,’ say the husband-and-wife duo of the common ground between them and Chipperfield, whose projects include the recent renovation of Germany’s Neue Nationalgalerie. ‘We share the same appreciation for the deep significance of craftsmanship and quality in all components of a project and product.’

In 2020, SUIT-CASE was born, a minimalist travel case Chipperfield designed alongside Tsatsas to fulfil his personal travel needs. ‘I have spent most of my life travelling. Instead of complaining that every bag I buy does not work, it has been an opportunity to design a bag that suits my lifestyle,’ he said at the time of the case, which is designed to carry a suit without creasing. In 2022, the CASE COLLECTION followed, comprising a series of travel cases, including a glasses case, document wallet and pencil case, each in the architect’s reduced, minimalist style.

The latest addition is CARD-CASE, which, like the previous chapters has been rigorously tested and refined by Chipperfield and Tsatsas in the former’s Berlin offices. ’The leather material, an understated design and a smart structure were key elements for CARD-CASE,’ say Esther and Dimitrios Tsatsas. ’Offering enough space for your cards, notes and receipts, while remaining as compact and slim as possible, was critical to its design.’

Released today (26 August 2024), CARD-CASE offers a sleek solution for the wallet-averse, slipping discreetly into a pocket or handbag (all the better slid into one of Chipperfield’s previous designs for Tsatsas, which remain on sale). It adds to Tsatsas’ growing roster of leather goods, which span handbags, travel cases and accessories, which were celebrated in a 2022 exhibition at the Deutsches Ledermuseum in Offenbach.

’We have always tried to design our bags with a constructive eye,’ say the pair. ’It is about how each individual element comes together: a base, handles, two gussets at the side - how can you join them? In many aspects designing a bag, making patterns and prototypes is the same as architecture – dealing with form and space, with the user and their environment.’

The Sir David Chipperfield x Tsatsas CARD-CASE is available at selected international retailers and at Tsatsas’ website.

tsatsas.com

The Ned Doha, a new boutique hotel and urban retreat in the heart of the Middle Eastern city, has opened its doors; the result of an elegant transformation of the former Ministry of Interior building of Qatar by Chipperfield Architects. 2023 Pritzker Prize-winning architect David Chipperfield and his team worked in collaboration with Soho House Design on the interiors and the adaptive reuse of one of the oldest and most historical brutalist architecture structures in the country – dating from the 1970s. 

The Ned Doha by David Chipperfield

The Ned Doha is housed in a building originally designed by Lebanese architect William Sednaoui. Placed next to Al Bidda park, and in close proximity to the Diwan (the Emir's seat of government) and the Grand Mosque, the structure is not only part of the city's heritage but also one of its most prominent 20th century structures – as well as a fine example of brutalism worldwide. 

The ministry's generous four storeys were renovated and redesigned over a period of two years. While adaptations were implemented as necessary to fit its new use and 21st century requirements, key elements of the building's identity were carefully maintained – such as the geometric façade and the original concrete waffle ceilings in the bedrooms. 

Meanwhile, a selection of new, high-quality materials, such as green Tinos marble for stairs and lift cores, white Calacatta marble for the interior walls and light-coloured travertine for the podium, were added to wrap the space in subtle luxury. 

David Chipperfield said: 'Transforming the striking former Qatar Ministry building – one of the earliest in Doha’s urban development – has been a rewarding process. We are excited to see how our project demonstrates the value of reuse and contributes towards the growing movement to preserve Doha’s architectural heritage. Ensuring continuity and diversity in the built environment is fundamental to our sense of place, identity and quality of life.'

davidchipperfield.com 

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Berlin’s contemporary art museum Neue Nationalgalerie – defined by its glass-and-steel pavilion that hovers above the vast below-ground space where most of the art is held – was one of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s final projects, first opened in 1968. Yesterday evening (12 June 2023), in a continuing world tour of his menswear collections for the house, Anthony Vaccarello of Saint Laurent took over the gallery to host his Spring/Summer 2024 men’s collection (previous shows have taken place in Morocco and Los Angeles, as well as Paris last season). 

The clarity of its design – since renovated by David Chipperfield Architects in a six-year process that culminated in 2021 – reflects Vaccarello’s ongoing desire to distill and perfect his own menswear codes. At his previous menswear show, the designer noted that the O-shaped set in the newly opened Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection gallery in Paris was ‘a symbol of perfection and purity of execution... a recurring, pertinent thread at Saint Laurent.’ At the time, he described the collection as one of ‘ultra-focus’, a continuing exploration of silhouette; namely, the juxtaposition of sharply drawn tailoring and something more louche and diaphanous, which he accounted to the growing synergy between his mens- and womenswear collections. 

Saint Laurent S/S 2024 menswear at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie

Amid the Neue Nationalgalerie’s upper pavilion, here swathed with vast curtains that alluded to a sense of performance (‘dark curtains and smooth surfaces create a dialogue with the building's distinctive grid frame’, said the house), Vaccarello continued to blur the lines of gender in a collection titled ‘Each Man Kills the Things He Loves’. ‘Ideas examined in recent Saint Laurent collections are reprised and developed,’ read the collection notes. ‘Foremost a free interplay between elements considered masculine and feminine. Echoes of the house’s last womenswear presentation emerge in new configurations.’

One such look was a series of plunging scoop-neck satin tank tops worn beneath a broad-shouldered tailored jacket. In the womenswear show, a similar combination had been teamed with a skirt for a suggestion of both sensuality and power; here, Vaccarello teamed them with a narrow high-waist cigarette trouser. ‘It all starts with this gesture,’ said the house at the time of distinct padded shoulders, a silhouette which continued in the menswear collection, including a slew of broad tuxedo-style eveningwear (crisp white shirting and bow ties beneath) and trench coats sliced along the back and amplified at the shoulder. 

Elsewhere, the house noted an ‘unexpected lightness’ – trailing mousseline and silk shirting wrapped elegantly around the neck or crisscrossed the body, while asymmetric one-shouldered tops fell away into a train of fabric below. Leopard prints and polka dots recalled some of Yves Saint Laurent’s most memorable collections, a reflection of the house founder’s innate understanding of sensuality and desire.  

The collection came with an accompanying printed publication about the Neue Nationalgalerie, which would be Mies Van der Rohe’s only post-Second World War building – it was constructed between 1965 and 1968 – and is largely considered a masterpiece of modernist design. In it, Saint Laurent describes the architect’s ‘distillation of building elements into an essential language’. It is an apt parallel to Vaccarello’s own pursuit of rigour and clarity in both his mens- and womenswear collections; the search for an essential language of Saint Laurent.

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Neighbours of this ‘contemporary palazzo’ by Munich’s Isar River will notice the quiet elegance of a David Chipperfield design. And for all intents and purposes, it is one. Commissioned by German developer Euroboden in 2012, the 12-unit block was developed in-house by the 2023 Pritzker laureate and his then-design director, Mark Randel. When Randel, after more than two decades with the practice, left to set up his own practice in Berlin, the Kolberger 5, as the housing is known, came along. The high-end residence represents a baton-passing from the established Chipperfield approach to Randel, who is slowly finding his own design language. 

David Chipperfield's ‘contemporary palazzo’

'I find I’m more into imperfection, and fighting for materials that are less refined,' he says. 'When I use real stone, I just let it be.'

You can spot the difference outside, in the subtle contrast between plaster applications, and in the cast-bronze lattice balustrades – perhaps less ascetic than the typical project by Chipperfield. Incidentally, the team erected a 1:1 model of the façade ahead of construction, to test the materials against weather and determine the fit. 

Euroboden spared little expense on this bowed residential street in moneyed Bogenhausen, where every unit gets a sweeping view of parkland in one direction and city spires in the other. The two-storey penthouse, equipped with a circular staircase of solid travertine, tops out the five storeys, as per the neighbourhood vernacular established by city planner Theodor Fischer during the Gründerzeit, or 'boom', of the late 19th century. Prices are more vertiginous, climbing from €20,000 per square metre for the ground-floor flat. 

A certain buyer would recognise the value of living in a Chipperfield joint. The vaulted foyer, enveloped in European oak, is lit from clerestory windows and a Viabizzuno pendant system from Munich lighting boutique Occhio. The concierge gets his own suite, with discrete storage for deliveries. The entry stairs – travertine again – were finessed by Munich’s top stone mason, amusingly named Steininger, almost a direct translation. 

‘I can count on one hand the different materials we used in the construction,’ says Julia Wöhr, Euroboden’s project manager. She stands beneath the main stairwell, a sculptural oak ziggurat winding upward through a skylit void. To preview the impact it would make in the space, she travelled to London’s Old Bond Street, where Chipperfield designed a similar wood stair for the Valentino flagship.  

Visual interest comes through striations in the wood and the aforementioned imperfections. ‘The luxury is understated,’ says Randel. ‘It is walking barefoot on real wood, on real stone, living with all natural materials.’ In the main bathrooms, Steininger carved soaker tubs from raw blocks of Travertini paradiso from Tuscany. 

Randel says hundreds of trades worked on site over ten years. Now that they’re gone, the occupants are left with birdsong from the serpentine gardens and a swish-swish from trees you can almost touch. 

davidchipperfield.com 

studiomarkrandel.com 

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David Chipperfield has been awarded the 2023 Pritzker Prize, it has just been announced. The prestigious accolade, one of the field's highest international honours, marks the British architect's continuous and expansive work over four decades and celebrates his 'commitment to an architecture of understated but transformative civic presence', the jury stated. 

Master of memory, context and minimalism, Sir David Alan Chipperfield cut his teeth in London – studying at the Architectural Association, then working at the offices of Norman Foster and Richard Rogers. He opened his own office in London in 1985, and later became known for his work in Germany, where he completed a remarkable renovation of the Neues Museum on Berlin’s Museum Island in 2009. A respect for history, urbanism and landscaping brings a wholesome slant to the architect's minimalist architecture and modernist aesthetic.

2023 Pritzker Prize winner: David Chipperfield

The British architect's London office may be the international studio’s flagship, but the multi-award-winning practice’s presence spreads evenly across different territories, with busy outposts in Berlin, Milan, Shanghai, and Santiago de Compostela. Each has its own slew of projects – including the recently completed global Akris retail concept, Cava Arcari in North Italy, the Bryant in New York, the James-Simon-Galerie in Berlin, the extension for London’s Royal Academy of Arts, and the Xixi Wetland Estate in China. 

Each of Chipperfield’s designs is marked by consideration for the environmental and historical impact of his work – and his portfolio spans every architectural typology, from residential to cultural, and from commercial to temporary and product design. His architecture always balances a pared-down sense of minimalism and refinement, with warmth and textured materiality that transform even the simplest shapes into quietly powerful, vibrant hubs for life. 

The 2023 Pritzker Prize's jury citation praised Chipperfield for his approach and output: 'This commitment to an architecture of understated but transformative civic presence and the definition – even through private commissions – of the public realm, is done always with austerity, avoiding unnecessary moves and steering clear of trends and fashions, all of which is a most relevant message to our contemporary society. Such a capacity to distill and perform meditated design operations is a dimension of sustainability that has not been obvious in recent years: sustainability as pertinence not only eliminates the superfluous but is also the first step to creating structures able to last, physically and culturally.'

The 2023 Pritzker Prize is the culmination of a long and lauded career for David Chipperfield. He has already received, among other accolades, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal (2011), and the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – the Mies van der Rohe Award (2011). He was the curator of the Venice Architecture Biennale n 2012, and the architectural mentor for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative in 2016–2017. He was also appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2004, knighted in 2010 and appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2021. 

'I am so overwhelmed to receive this extraordinary honour and to be associated with the previous recipients, who have all given so much inspiration to the profession,' said Chipperfield. 'I take this award as an encouragement to continue to direct my attention not only to the substance of architecture and its meaning but also to the contribution that we can make as architects to address the existential challenges of climate change and societal inequality. We know that, as architects, we can have a more prominent and engaged role in creating not only a more beautiful world but a fairer and more sustainable one too. We must rise to this challenge and help inspire the next generation to embrace this responsibility with vision and courage.'

This year's prize announcement follows last year’s recognition of Diébédo Francis Kéré, and that of 2021 joint laureates, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal – and sees Chippefield join the group of highly respected architects from across the globe to have been honoured since the Pritzker's creation in 1979.

The 2023 Pritzker Prize ceremony, where Chipperfield will be formally presented with his award, will be held in Athens, Greece, in May 2023.

davidchipperfield.com 

Fashion, just like architecture, is about more than what meets the eye. Akris creative director Albert Kriemler knows this well: ‘For me, fashion is not just visual; it is about feeling, it is tactile. In the end, we wear clothes on our skin. This is something you need to feel, not just look at. In interiors, as in fashion, it is always about material and fabrics first.’ It was this intangible quality, this sense of elegance but also comfort and ease that Kriemler wanted to replicate in spatial terms when he embarked on the search for the right partner for a new series of concept stores for the century-old Swiss label. He soon found his perfect match in the studio of David Chipperfield. 

David Chipperfield Architects for Akris

Kriemler and Chipperfield have known each other for more than 20 years, having first met at a party in Zurich through a mutual friend, German architect Christoph Sattler. The British architect’s ‘sensitivity towards context and site specification’, as well as his distinct balance of ‘traditional requirements with a modern, minimalist design approach’, were what attracted the Akris designer to offer him the commission. ‘There is a sense of minimalist beauty and precision, a love of quality and functionalism in this new concept, which I can relate to,’ Kriemler says. ‘He is very experienced in dealing with existing structures, and that is what we need. When we look into new locations for our boutiques, we have to make compromises, because we do not build a house from scratch. David can reconsider old complex situations with the utmost respect – that is what I admire.’

Chipperfield, who famously kick-started his London practice by designing a series of stores for the likes of Issey Miyake, Kenzo and Equipment, is an experienced hand in the fashion world. Now the celebrated architect has additional offices in Berlin, Shanghai, Santiago de Compostela and Milan. The latter is helmed by Giuseppe Zampieri, the practice partner who also heads up the Akris project. ‘We immediately found common ground with Peter [Kriemler, president of Akris] and Albert Kriemler in our discussions about how to best represent Akris values,’ Zampieri says. ‘Materiality and craftsmanship with an international vision are the pillars of this Swiss brand. It was important to translate “Swissness” into something conceptual while avoiding cliché – an expression of heritage, precision and accuracy, celebrating the brand’s roots in Saint Gallen, one of the world’s leading textile centres.’  

The practice is known for its ability to work with a brand and translate it into architectural space in an extremely tailored way. Here, highly refined architecture meets a deep understanding of fashion identities and the ever-changing needs of the particular market, Zampieri explains: ‘Through the years, our approach and language changed according to the evolution of the brands and of the wider industry itself. Our clients are increasingly characterised by a richer research into craftsmanship, as well as a greater attention to the local sourcing of materials. In recent years, fashion houses have come to us to develop an extremely adaptive store concept that can respond to their need for repetition in various locations.’ 

Launched to coincide with the fashion house’s centenary in 2022, a prototype of the new concept debuted in Washington DC in early May 2022, quickly followed by the Tokyo Ginza store the same month. Another, in Chicago, is currently in the works, due to open in the second half of 2023. The design draws on the pillars of the Swiss brand – materiality and craftsmanship. The architects found inspiration in Italian modernist artist Bruno Munari’s tensile structures, using the same technique as a device to craft space. The result is an interior that appears solid, but also delicate, almost floating, with white painted wood panelling serving as a background to a minimalist display system of taut steel cables and shelves. Akris’ signature material, ivory-coloured horsehair fabric, features in the fitting rooms. 

Akris aims for timeless modernity, stresses Kriemler, who also counts Adolf Loos among his sources of architectural inspiration. The Austrian modernist also wrote fashion reviews, and Kriemler recalls how the architect once outlined that ‘a garment was modern when the person who wore it did not stand out’. This corresponds perfectly with Akris’ vision for collections that are selbstverständlich (natural, effortless and self-evident). 

The new concept by David Chipperfield Architects certainly delivers on this approach – these spaces are a representation of the brand’s future. And what would the ideal Akris store say to its visitors? ‘That fashion is about the person first,’ says Kriemler. ‘That is why it is also important to us how women feel in our store. Our mission is to make a woman feel her best self through what she wears – determined and free so she can express her own personality and charisma. Fashion is a language, as we all know. But, first and foremost, it is a conversation between a woman, her body, and her clothes.’   

davidchipperfield.com 

akris.com 

A version of this article appears in the March 2023 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today!

Cava Arcari is hard to categorise. The project is set in the countryside outside the Italian city of Vicenza, in the Arcari caves – a rich source of Pietra di Vicenza stone until operations stopped in the 1950s. Between 2010 and 2018, the Milan-based arm of David Chipperfield Architects transformed the site from a working quarry to a multifunctional event and performance venue like no other, deep beneath the ground in the richly wooded land of the region’s Berici Hills. High drama and a powerful connection to nature dominate throughout.  

Cava Arcari by David Chipperfield

The interior, which was developed in collaboration with local Venetian stone and marble producer Laboratorio Morseletto, is imposing and distinctive, with a deeply geological quality that aligns with the site’s origins and former life. A series of platforms, steps and ramps inside offer circulation, stage and seating options in a loose, flexible layout – referencing the stepped tiers in ancient Roman theatres, or Swiss architect Adolphe Appia’s legendary stage sets. ‘The intervention has created a dialogue between the accidental architecture of the caves and the formalised stage and seating platforms that represent occupation and performance,’ writes the Chipperfield team. 

Naturally, everything inside is made out of Vicenza stone. Honouring the site’s history and working with the noble, natural material, the architects added and carved out volumes in the calcareous rock to create an atmosphere, which, combined with surrounding water-filled chambers, befits the striking visual spectacle of the caves. The lighting, designed by Viabizzuno, becomes a crucial element in the dramatic character of this unparalleled venue. 

 davidchipperfield.com 

The newly extended Kunsthaus Zürich has opened its doors to the public. The extension, designed by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin, makes the art museum the largest in Switzerland.

The bold geometric form of the new building, situated on the northern side of Zurich’s Heimplatz, places an emphasis on urban space, with the creation of new outdoor public areas. Situated opposite the museum’s existing building – originally designed by Karl Moser in 1910 and extended by various architects over the decades – the new addition opens two new spaces to the community: an urban square located south of the building and, to the north, the new Garden of Art, which celebrates nature. These two open areas are linked by the extension’s light-filled entrance hall, with visitors passing freely through it. Meanwhile, an underground passageway connects the new and existing buildings.

The extension, which has been 12 years in the planning and building, stays faithful to David Chipperfield’s emphasis on purity of form, with a stark grid-like pattern and graphic interiors. Useability is maximised with the division of the space into four key areas, including a display of art dating from the 1960s onwards that unites different genres, including sculpture, painting, photography and new media art in an exploration of the artistic possibilities of the period. Also accommodated is the Emil Bührle Collection, temporary exhibitions, and the Classical Modernism display.

The central entrance hall of the new Kunsthaus Zürich extension becomes a hub for community events, as well as a showcase for art. On the ground floor, a café bar – now home to the largest surviving work by Max Ernst – a museum shop and an events hall serve as an entertaining hub, while the two upper floors, flooded with natural light, house the exhibition spaces.  

‘The project for the extension of Kunsthaus Zürich brings together the fundamental concerns of museum design with the responsibilities created by both the urban context and the relationship with the existing museum,’ says David Chipperfield. ‘From the outset, we have sought to invest the museum with the physical qualities that enhance the experience of the museum visitor while considering the civic nature of the building and the institution. We hope that the quality of the architecture, its spatial, formal and material resolution will guarantee that the extension, like Karl Moser’s original building, becomes an integral part of the physical, social and cultural infrastructure of the city of Zurich.’

INFORMATION

davidchipperfield.com

kunsthaus.ch

You don't need to be an architecture scholar to know of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and opened in 1968, the museum is not only a key cultural destination within the German city, holding a rich collection of modern art, but it is also a global icon of 20th century modernism. But years of use and no major renovation works since its original opening left this seminal building in need of an update. Enter David Chipperfield and his team at Chipperfield Architects, and the venue has just reopened following an extensive, six-year-long facelift. 

The architects worked with the landmark piece of architecture's clean, almost minimalist form that became emblematic of the International Style its creator represents – a glass-wrapped low, orthogonal shape using grids, metal and concrete that was pioneering for the time. It is also the only project by Mies van der Rohe to be realised in Europe, before the modernist emigrated to the USA.

The refurbishment works include the interior and exterior of the main structure as well as its outdoor sculpture gardens, prioritising ‘a minimum of visual compromise,' explain the architects. Functional and technical updates ranged from air-conditioning, lighting and security repairs, to redesigning the café, museum shop, disabled access and art handling infrastructure. Intervention to the original fabric of the building, however, was kept as light as possible.

‘Taking apart a building of such unquestionable authority has been a strange experience but a privilege. The Neue Nationalgalerie is a touchstone for myself and many other architects. Seeing behind its exterior has revealed both its genius and its flaws, but overall it has only deepened my admiration for Mies’ vision. Our work was therefore surgical in nature, addressing technical issues to protect this vision. Certainly carrying out such a task in a building that leaves no place to hide is daunting, but we hope to have returned this beloved patient seemingly untouched except for it running more smoothly,' says David Chipperfield. 

Apart from the architectural celebrations linked to the building works, the reopening also sees the launch of a number of new exhibitions and displays in the gallery's vast spaces – including one focusing on American sculptor Alexander Calder.

INFORMATION

davidchipperfield.com

The acclaimed architectural photographer Dennis Gilbert has died at the age of 70. Gilbert was not only an exceptionally talented photographer in his own right, but he also established View Pictures, one of the foremost agencies for architectural imagery. Set up in 1983, when Gilbert was just 32, View was well placed to chronicle the growing international reputation of British architecture.

Gilbert personally worked with some of the best, including Norman Foster, David Chipperfield, Walters & Cohen, O’Donnell + Tuomey, and 2020 Pritzker Prize winners Grafton Architects. Other architectural photographers who contributed to the agency include Peter Cook, James Brittain, Fernando Guerra, Christian Richters, Richard Glover and Edmund Sumner. The result is a vast archive of imagery of architecture from around the world.

Gilbert trained as an engineer in his native South Africa before studying photography at the California Institute of the Arts in the 1970s. He subsequently moved to London, where he established View and began his career at the very height of traditional film technology, when each and every shot was the result of the painstaking relationship between careful planning with Polaroid film, and meticulously calibrated exposure and processing, resulting in detail-rich transparency images that will retain their vibrancy and life for decades.

Digital brought a new challenge, one that Gilbert rose to with skill and patience, never losing sight of the enduring power of the image, despite the exponential increase in competition from all quarters. He was equally adept at capturing context as well as details, making use of different times of day to emphasise light and shadow playing across façades.

Gilbert also worked extensively for the National Trust in the UK, and in 2005 he received an honorary fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) for his substantial contribution to contemporary architecture. He transitioned to the creation of short films towards the end of his career, bringing the same levels of care and meticulous attention to detail that characterised his photography.

‘Dennis was a joy to work with, an incredibly poetic and gentle man, trusted and admired by the architectural community,’ says Wallpaper* editor-in-chief Sarah Douglas. ‘It was always a highlight seeing him – contact sheet or transparencies in hand, beaming with enthusiasm for the building that he had just shot. Dennis made a tremendous contribution to architectural photography – he will be missed, and his impact and legacy will live on.’

It would be churlish to say that architectural photography had a heyday, when so much of what we do depends on the supreme talents of the men and women who work hard to capture contemporary architecture in all its splendour. But modern architectural photography is definitely different; new technology and new timelines, plus an almost infinite number of platforms and outlets have democratised the art to unseen levels of ubiquity.

Dennis Gilbert was one of the modern era’s originals, a photographer with a rare talent for showing architecture as both beautiful and functional, helping shape our perception of what makes a great building.

INFORMATION

Viewpictures.co.uk

The Turner Contemporary in Margate is one of the country's leading cultural destinations outside London, and now there's one more reason to visit the David Chipperfield Architects-designed, world-renowned centre for art – the launch of a brand-new minimalist shop interior, courtesy of London-based studio Daytrip. The retail architecture project marks ten years after the Margate seafront art hub's grand opening.

Invited by cultural consultancy The Seeking State, the design studio devised careful plans to refresh the Turner Contemporary's shop area, which sits right by the main entrance and next to the gallery spaces. Daytrip drew inspiration from Chipperfield's majestic, pared-down architectural approach, as well as the wider context. 

‘It was felt that the new renovation should not only relate to the architecture but should reflect JW Turner’s admiration for Margate, and the surrounding landscape and light qualities, as well as speak to the community and enhance a local narrative that is rich with creativity,' say Daytrip founders Iwan Halstead and Emily Potter.

The building's poetic minimalism is reflected in the shop's interior concept. A neutral colour palette and sleek, unfussy materials make up the internal envelope, while the large openings, with long views of the sea, remain a key protagonist in the space. The existing poured screed flooring, linear glazing and prominent ribbed concrete ceiling were taken as cues for the interior's new composition, internal arrangement and overall rhythm. 

A series of bespoke display tables, shelving and plinths are moveable around the space to provide flexibility. The uncluttered look feels calm and even ethereal, using soft, dappled grey veneer panels, metal frameworks in brushed stainless steel and rippled textured glass. A specially designed workbench that nods to a maker's workshop sits at the space’s heart – though everything can be rearranged as needs dictate. 

More humble materials in muted tones, including matt, white oiled oak (‘chosen for its sandy tonality and honest craftsmanship', explain the designers), grey Valchromat, and a lacquered wood fibre board set the mood that was conceived to celebrate Turner Contemporary's architecture and the seaside setting's colour and tones.

INFORMATION

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David Chipperfield Architects has just completed The Bryant, the latest addition to New York City's every-changing luxury residential development landscape. Adding elegance and poise to the Big Apple's iconic skyline, the project, created by David Chipperfield and his team in London, is a 32-storey tower building located by Bryant Park, which lends the property its name. 

The project mixes private residential with a hotel located on the lower levels and up to the 14th floor. Two retail units are placed on the ground floor. Marking this array of uses through its design, the building nods to the historical skyscraper typology that the city is so well known for. ‘The building articulates three separate parts following the traditional tripartite composition of the New York tower: base, middle and crown,' say the architects. 

As a result, the ‘base' occupies the full length and width of the plot and reaches up to the fourth floor. The rest of the structure is confined to a smaller footprint, which spans up to the top, where a visually distinct ‘crown' contains the double-height spaces of two penthouses at the top of the tower. 

The facade also responds to local Landmarks Preservation Commission guidelines, which stipulate that a new building needs to relate to its surroundings. This, The Bryant, certainly does. While in keeping with its context, the project offers a contemporary interpretation of surrounding volumes and patterns that mixes minimalist calm and a concrete modernist grid, in the graceful and at the same time majestic style that defines Chipperfield Architects' work.

This approach is continued inside, where built-in furniture and carefully chosen materials – think: wood and exposed concrete – are matched by large openings and Juliet balconies with wide views of the park, and New York skyline beyond.

INFORMATION

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‘It was a meeting of true minds,' Esther Schulze-Tsatsas, co-founder with partner Dimitrios of the Frankfurt-based handcrafted leather accessories brand Tsatsas, says of their collaboration with architect David Chipperfield. Unlike Chipperfield’s architectural creations, SUIT-CASE is an inner exploration of form and functionality to create an item that answers to his own desires and aspirations. 

Three years ago, the architect became aware of Tsatsas’ work when he sought a partner with whom to develop a suitcase that met his very personal needs. ‘I have spent most of my life travelling. Instead of complaining that every bag I buy does not work, it has been an opportunity to design a bag that suits my lifestyle.' As a rule, he rarely takes check-in luggage, which means the bag would need to be good enough for a week’s trip and, importantly, carry a suit without it creasing.

The joint project dovetailed with both parties’ areas of expertise. Esther and Dimitrios’ background in architecture and industrial design distinguished the brand’s approach to manipulating leather; each design, be it a handbag, backpack or clutch resembles a miniature piece of architecture, in which making patterns and prototypes is treated in the same way as dealing with form and space, connecting the user and their environment. And for Chipperfield, working with the duo was reassuring: ‘We had the security of people who knew how a bag should be constructed and were able to provide a material form for what the bag was to be used for and its priorities,' he says.

This was not Tsatsas’ first attempt at creating a luxurious and timeless suitcase. In 2013, the duo was commissioned by Wallpaper* Handmade to create a one-off wheeled piece of luggage ‘Kage’. Although not commercialised, it laid a solid foundation for the collaboration to come. The design for SUIT-CASE started from a quick sketch by Chipperfield (literally on a paper napkin), built upon each other’s ideas and gradually came together as they developed all the parts.

From Tsatsas’ previous research, they knew of a biodegradable and emission-free wood fibre that would work for the base structure, which they then covered with calfskin leather from a sustainable local tannery. The interior was lined with soft lamb Nappa leather and natural canvas; a metal folding coat-hanger and other metal fittings, were made from recycled brass in Italy. Handcrafted in Offenbach in the workshop of Dimitrios’s family’s 40-year-old leather business, the genius of its construction is reflected in its mere 2.7kg weight. The thickness of the leather has been great reduced while still leaving it sleekly resistant and stable.
 
Plans for a physical launch of SUIT-CASE in April in Chipperfield’s studio during the Salone del Mobile in Milan were scuppered by Covid-19. And the pandemic was to change not only the original release but also the way its creators re-evaluated the concept of travelling: ‘It became clear to us that it was not just another piece of luggage but also the desire for a different approach to travel in the future. We need to make decisions about which flights are really necessary; move away from travel as something stressful and towards the direction of a more conscious perception and experience of travel,' says Dimitrios. Accompanied by a SUIT-CASE, whose material and finish stand for longevity and an appreciation of the world that surrounds us.

INFORMATION
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tsatsas.com

Consisting of 92 marble Greek and Roman works, the heavily-anticipated The Torlonia Marbles. Collecting Masterpieces exhibition has opened to the public. The pieces were selected from the 620 works in the private and extensive Torlonia collection spanning two centuries, and are now returned to full splendour with a restoration sponsored by Bulgari and carried out by Fondazione Torlonia.

The exhibition, also sponsored by Bulgari and designed by David Chipperfield Architects Milano led by Giuseppe Zampieri – partner and design Director, is organised into five chapters which show both the evolution of the collection over time and place the sculptures in their historical context. The chapters tell a story, conjuring historical Museo Torlonia for the viewer then leading her to the sculptures from the archaeological excavations carried out in the nineteenth century in the Torlonia’s family property. From there, she will view the marbles from eighteenth century collections kept at Villa Albani followed by artefacts from the collection of Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani, before finishing with a series of works from fifteenth and sixteenth century collections.

The staging is inspired by the 1885 catalogue of the Collezione Torlonia, early photographs from which portrayed the sculptures against a black background. Here this dramatic set is translated into a three-dimensional display of flooring and plinths, made from traditional bricks of dark grey clay which reference the foundations in blocks of cappellaccio in the buildings of ancient Rome. As a result, the statues appear to be almost emerging from the floor, held in sharp relief against contrasting pastel walls.The plinths, rising to different heights, are both architectural structures in their own right and foundations for the statues, effectively conveying the differing dimensions of each piece.

Each chapter of the story is defined by its own colour hues, making for a compelling storytelling. ‘As architects, it is a privilege to work with these sculptures of timeless beauty and to be tasked with developing spaces for them within the historic Villa Caffarelli,’ says David Chipperfield. ‘We feel a great responsibility to ensure that we are providing the ideal setting in which the public can encounter the sculptures as remarkable individual artworks, each with unique characteristics and history, while also allowing them to be seen as part of an almost mythical collection accumulated over centuries.’

For Bulgari CEO Jean-Christophe Babin, this cultural patronage offers another chance to enhance Rome’s archaeological riches. ‘The main significance of this exhibition is in sharing beauty: for the first time ever these 92 masterpieces of Greek and Roman art are unveiled to the general public,’ he says. ‘When we first got in touch with the Torlonia Foundation we understood the immense beauty of these marbles, and an enthusiastic drive for enhancing them immediately arose.’ With their role, Bulgari aim to preserve the Roman artistic heritage, handing it intact to future generations. ‘Our commitment is a way to give something back to a city we owe so much, whose treasures have indelibly forged our sense of beauty,’ Babin adds. ‘Private companies constitute the economic and social structure of a country and they must do their part for cultural growth, as much as possible.’

INFORMATION

The Torlonia Marbles. Collecting Masterpieces exhibition, until 29 June 2021

bulgari.com

In February, Italian accessories label Furla unveiled its redesigned sans serif logo, its sleek typography inspired by arches found inside the palazzo of the brand’s Furla Foundation in Bologna. The city too is renowned for its signature porches. It's this architectural element which has inspired the construction of the brand’s newly renovated flagship in Milan’s historic Piazza Duomo, designed by David Chipperfield Architects Milan.

‘We were inspired by the history of Milan, the heritage of the great Italian designers pervades the city even now,’ Chipperfield explains of the design of the double floor space, which has been enlarged to 263 sq m. ‘Gio Ponti, Vico Magistretti, Achille Castiglione, Gae Aulenti and many others.’ Arches are a focal element, noted not only in the boutique’s architecture, but also in the curving shapes of fixtures and furnishings, formed from anodized aluminium. The store’s walls have a tactile finish, coated in rough plaster formed from different clays, which contrast with original enclaves and niches, which have been left intact.

Tactility is integral to the space, which also features smooth flooring formed from pastellone plaster, tables in lacquered wood and sugary coloured marble and circular hemp carpets. 

Chipperfield – who has designed retail spaces for Bally, Valentino and SSENSE – remains positive regarding the endurance of bricks-and-mortar retail. ‘Although our shopping habits are changing and our lives have become more influenced by the virtual, we still value the physical experience and the quotidian rituals of urban life. In designing the Furla store we continue our commitment to the importance of the physical qualities of the retail experience and the importance of presentation of beautiful objects,' he says. The space also features an additional physical space, for pop-ups and events.

In light Covid-19 restrictions, Furla fans keen to get a glimpse of its new space, will have the chance to do so digitally, with an online 3D virtual tour.

INFORMATION
davidchipperfield.com
furla.com
furlaopeningparty.com

Designed by David Chipperfield Architects, Shanghai’s West Bund Museum, which houses the Pompidou Centre’s first overseas branch, is part of the city’s master plan to see a nearly-nine-square-kilometre piece of industrial land transformed into one of Asia’s prime cultural districts by the end of next year. It is also the practice’s seventh completed project in China since it opened a representative office in the city in 2005.

Situated on the Shanghai Corniche, which enjoys an uninterrupted shoreline of nearly 11.5km, the new West Bund district will see 20 cultural and art institutions along the stretch. Among them are Sou Fujimoto’s Yuz Museum, Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee’s Shanghai Center of Photography, the Long Museum by local firm Atelier Deshaus and Tank Shanghai by Open Architecture. The West Bund Museum, the latest-comer, sits on a triangular plot on the northern edge of a new public park where Longteng Avenue and the Huangpu River converge.

The architects were given a fairly generic brief for the museum when the project was commissioned in 2013, and the idea of the three independent yet interlocking volumes came from the possibility that there would be multiple users for its 22,000sqm of exhibition and event spaces. The Centre Pompidou x West Bund Museum Project, as it is known, is part of a Sino-French cultural collaboration to import curated exhibitions from the French institution to the museum for the next five years, although the ambitious scheme was confirmed only when the building was almost built. Alexander Schwarz, design lead of the project recalls: ‘Pompidou could have lived with some other arrangement. When they came in, we did some reinterpretation of what was already built.’

Traditionally, a museum is built because there is a collection to house. ‘It's quite easy to build a good museum around a good collection. You just make sure the artworks look good and you create the optimum encounter between the visitors and the art,’ he says. ‘The West Bund Museum was the opposite – the content came afterwards. It's almost as though you abstract architectural scenes and develop them in a way that could work for other uses as well. But in the end, it's all about good spaces and good light.’

The three volumes set around a central lobby with a double-height atrium – each 17m high and sited over two storeys – are covered in opalescent recycled glass. The upper levels are given to gallery space while the lower levels are multifunctional and include art studios, education spaces, a bookshop and a café. The atrium roof cantilevers beyond the building towards the river and road; it also features a huge, supporting column that draws the eye to the entrances.

Schwarz says: ‘There is another aspect to this building, which is its publicness. The foyer spaces are highly accessible and their views to the city are something that won’t change. And I think the architecture can rely on this. And whatever people do here, or the content they create, will be put in the context of this extraordinary setting.’

The unique economic and social environment in China certainly inspires new ways of thinking and designing. ‘When the museum was being built, it was expected all to be clad. But this experience with refitting the building has allowed us to experiment on the possibilities of the concrete structure with daylight. Everything in China happens quite organically and it’s almost like dealing with nature. You need to find alternative strategies in order to work there,’ he says.

INFORMATION

davidchipperfield.com

Back in 1998, David Chipperfield Architects (DCA) beat 145 other contenders to win a global competition for an extension to the Venetian island cemetery of San Michele. Thanks to the vagaries of Italian funding and bureaucracy, work didn’t begin until 2004. Another 14 years on, and the second (and potentially, last) phase of a revised scheme – including a new dock to supplement the existing pontoon on the island’s west side, and an administrative building – is now complete.

San Michele has been the city’s sole burial ground since 1837, and within its wave-lapped walls lie the tombs of generations of Venetians, as well as some illustrious foreigners, including ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev, composer Igor Stravinsky and poet Ezra Pound. After nearly 200 years of internments, the cemetery was running out of space, so the 1998 competition called for new columbariums, a chapel and a crematorium, plus an addition that would have seen an entirely new island constructed alongside the old.

Giuseppe Zampieri, design director and partner of DCA Milan, explains the genesis of the Chipperfield design partly as a reaction to the existing layout of the site. ‘Being an island cemetery in the Venetian lagoon, the conditions of San Michele make it pretty unique,’ he says. ‘In recent years, however, the increasingly municipal character has become a contrast to its romantic exterior. Our design tried to address this imbalance and restore some of the cemetery’s original monumental physical qualities. Rather than the existing arrangement of tombs in parallel rows, the scheme is a new arrangement of walls enclosing rectangular courtyards. The walls are blind on the exterior but lined with burial recesses internally to emphasise this interiority and sense of intimacy.’

The project was developed in two main phases. The first element, the Courtyard of the Four Evangelists, was completed in 2007, and its design – being internally subdivided into smaller courtyards of different sizes, with basalt walls and pavement inlaid with text from the four gospels – served as a prototype for the subsequent courtyards on the site. The second phase, completed in 2017, includes an ossuary in white Istrian stone, the Courtyard of the Three Archangels, and a service building in red brick. For the moment, a third phase, including more courtyards, an ossuary and the new island extension, is still to be confirmed, pending appropriate funding (the city having vastly overspent on the controversial, still-unfinished barrage that is supposed to protect it from major floods).

Death, in Venice, has a history as picturesque as anything else in this strangest and most alluring of cities. In the Middle Ages, the rich were buried in churches and the poor in campielli dei morti, or ‘little fields of the dead’, which sound deeply romantic but in reality were hellishly dank, overcrowded scraps of land. The campielli were finally closed in 1837, thanks to reforms introduced under the Napoleonic occupation, and the city’s departed began to be shipped across the lagoon to San Michele, which from then on was devoted entirely to the dead. Surrounded by high walls and shaded with cypress trees, the island is a haunting spot. But it’s also quietly lively: the pressure of space is such that most tombs have to be vacated after just ten to 12 years, so plots are visited on a regular basis and decorated with flowers left by those for whom their loved ones’ memory is often all too fresh.

Given the refined modernism of Chipperfield’s designs, one might think that florid inscriptions and floral tributes would be, to use an architect’s cliché, unwelcome interventions. Yet Zampieri seems unworried. ‘Our design is intended to create a general unity and a sense of dignity, but not to control every detail,’ he says. ‘We have left space for inscriptions and flowers, and we are relaxed about how visitors will introduce their own items – though of course we hope that they find the courtyards beautiful resting places that do not need too much embellishment.’

Chipperfield’s cloistered courtyards are, indeed, dignified and beautiful. As Zampieri points out, Venice is a city of enclosed public spaces, and the new buildings on San Michele ‘offer a model for a series of spaces that can be interconnected, differing in size but sharing similar characteristics. The island has been in constant development for 200 years, and will likely continue to develop in the future, so it was important to find a device that can be used in varying ways.

As originally featured in the November 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*237)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the David Chipperfield Architects website

Brick can be a truly marvelous material. Combining the warmth and tactility of timber with the sculptural qualities and flexibility of concrete, while still feeling approachable and familiar, brick has been the material of choice for many an architectural masterpiece; and the recently completed Hoxton Press in east London is a case in point. 

The residential development, created as a collaboration between Karakusevic Carson Architects and David Chipperfield Architects, is an elegant composition of two towers that form part of a wider estate renewal for Hackney. Part of a larger project designed by Karakusevic Carson in 2010, Hoxton Press is the third phase of the development – a joint venture between the borough and property specialists Anthology.

The two high rises, spanning 16 and 20 storeys each, are entirely externally clad in brick – one in red-hued and the other in grey-coloured handmade blocks in stack bond style. The skin is seamless and beautifully executed in a way that enhances the design’s aesthetics, creating a truly powerful whole. Undulating landscaping around the towers and a ground level that remains true to the overall approach (with curving fully brick-clad walls and floors) further underline the scheme's identity as an ode to brick.

Yet, this project is not just about looks. Including some 200 apartments, the two towers’ dynamic presence also acts as a gateway to the wider estate. The circulation core was placed right at the heart of the towers’ hexagonal footprint, allowing for flexible outward-facing floorplate areas for the apartments, which are bright and open throughout. The rotation of the overall volumes minimises overlooking, even though every unit has outdoors space with the top duplexes also spilling out to green roof terraces. Generous lobbies, retail space and a parking garage entrance occupy the ground level, creating an coherent and transparent base. 

‘Through their solidity and robustness, the buildings challenge contemporary preconceptions about high-rise residential developments. The permeable ground floors, which open up to the public realm, also address the limitations of public interaction that we often find in high-rise buildings,’ says Chipperfield. Meanwhile, ‘the sale of the apartments will cross-subsidise the construction of new council homes across the rest of the estate,’ adds the team. 

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Karakusevic Carson Architects website and the David Chipperfield Architects website

Bastian has unveiled its first international outpost in Mayfair’s Davies Street, coinciding with the Berlin-based gallery’s 30th anniversary. Taking up residence in a 20th-century mansion block, the London space helmed by Aeneas Bastian (son of founders Céline and Heiner Bastian) has been renovated by David Chipperfield Architects. The firm previously designed Bastian’s Berlin gallery on Am Kupfergraben, which opened in 2007 and has recently been donated to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

The inaugurating exhibition presents a series of 60 Polaroid portraits by Andy Warhol of his illustrious coterie, some of which have not been shown previously. These casual instant pictures were an integral – if overlooked – dimension of Warhol’s practice, forming the basis of his paintings, drawings and silkscreens. The artist was partial to Polaroid’s Big Shot camera: launched in 1971 specifically for shooting portraits, it has since garnered a cult-like status in spite of its cumbersome size and rigid unpracticality.

Still, this eccentric device seemed appeal to an equally eccentric artist, who turned his lens on the likes of Joseph Beuys, Paloma Picasso, Yves Saint-Laurent, and Jean-Michel Basquiat among others through the 1970s up until his death in 1987. ‘My idea of a good picture is one that’s in focus and of a famous person,’ he once said. Looming large over his star-studded inner circle at Bastian is a fittingly supersized portrait of Warhol himself.

Warhol’s photography is having a moment: never-before-seen photographs and filmography by the pop art pioneer are going on show at Casa Perfect in Beverly Hills from 15 February, while Brookyn gallery BlackBook’s current showcase features portraits of art, music, and fashion royalty. Last year, Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center published a trove of over 100,000 unseen photographs acquired from The Andy Warhol Foundation. 

INFORMATION

‘Andy Warhol: Polaroid Pictures’ is on view from 2 February – 13 April. For more information, visit the Bastian website

ADDRESS

Bastian
8 Davies Street
London W1K 3DW

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Next summer will see the opening of a sixth building on Berlin’s Museum Island, and the first entirely new building there for almost a century. The James Simon Galerie is named after James Simon (1851-1932) who was one of the great patrons of the German arts. He not only collected and donated a great deal of historical art and objects to the Berlin State Museums, but also funded expeditions to Mesopotamia and Egypt – including the one that brought the bust of Nefertiti to Berlin.  

But this new building is not a museum. Designed by David Chipperfield Architects, it will serve as a visitors’ centre for all five museums on the island. The building will provide direct access to the neighbouring Pergamon Museum (home of such treasures as the Ishtar Gate and the Pergamon Altar) and the Neues Museum (home of the Egyptian collection, including that iconic bust of Queen Nefertiti) which was reconstructed by Chipperfield in 2009. The exterior of what appears essentially to be a long, raised colonnade alongside a vast stone staircase belies a surprisingly large interior at ground level and below, which contains a central ticket office and information centre, a cloakroom, museum shop, a café, a 300-seat auditorium and a 700 sq m exhibition space.

Urs Vogt, the project architect, describes the James Simon Galerie as ‘landscape architecture', essentially a ‘welcoming public space' that allows access and provides visitors with a place to hang out and enjoy the city views, as well as use the facilities before and after entering the museums. It will not be the only entrance and exit – all the museums will retain their current ticket offices and facilities – but it will be the first port of call for large groups and coach parties so, put bluntly, the building is a transit space. One that will relieve the pressure on the historical buildings and help control the flow of the traffic of a projected six million tourists per year.

As such, the materials selected by the architects have been chosen to last, but they are of superb quality and there is a sense that no expense (of the 134 million euro budget) was spared in this respect. The main building is precast concrete with a special aggregate of local marble, sandblasted by hand to give attractive variations in the surface quality. The floors are limestone or dark oak parquet. The huge reinforced glass window panels are framed in bronze, the door handles and handrails are also bronze, and the wood panelling of the shop and cloakroom areas is lavishly-patterned walnut veneer. Additional materials are thick felted wool-covered bench seating and huge floor-to-ceiling Kvadrat grey wool curtains as well as softly burnished copper mesh ceiling panels in the café area.

This luxurious interplay of simple materials, combined with views of the surrounding buildings provided by strategic openings cut into the monolithic concrete, could be seen as signature Chipperfield: the classical historical allusion is powerful but not dictatorial or defined, rather, the modern and past intersect one another continually.

INFORMATION

For more information visit the website of David Chipperfield Architects

Eagle-eyed shoppers might have already noticed a sleek new minimalist box on the Selfridges block in the heart of London; David Chipperfield's new entrance scheme on Duke Street for the landmark department store has just been completed and opened to the public. 

The project, which started in 2014 and spans some 5,000 sq m, consists of the entire east wing on the ground level and was designed to not only unite Selfridges’ two historic buildings, but also create a brand new continuous floor plan for the store's new accessories hall. 

Combining old and new in a coherent, functional and aesthetically pleasing way is no mean feat; but it is an area in which Chipperfield excels. It's not that long ago that the celebrated London architect launched his design for the Royal Academy of Arts' expansion to wide acclaim, while projects such as the Neues Museum in Berlin were key in cementing his reputation in the field. More coveted commissions, such as the renovation of Mies van der Rohe's famous Neue Nationalgalerie in the German capital are currently in the works.

For the Selfridges project, the challenge involved bringing together the venue's original, grand, beaux-arts style building and its 1930s somewhat more sober art deco addition, through a contemporary element that is as discreet as it is fitting. Chipperfield's architectural slight of hand easily negotiates the different styles, offering much needed floorspace for retail, as well as clarity in circulation as a whole. 

‘Selfridges has a deep understanding of the architectural heritage and urban presence of the department store, as well as a clear vision for the future of luxury retail', says the architect. 'Our task was to unite these elements while stitching together various buildings along Duke Street. Externally, we have sought to reinforce the civic function of the store with a grand new entrance. Internally, we have established a sense of coherence between the brand concessions, and reasserted a hierarchy under the strong neo-classical architectural elements of the original building.’

INFORMATION

For more information visit the website of David Chipperfield Architects

David Chipperfield’s office is pretty busy in the landmark department at present. Hot on the heels of the completion of a new entrance and accessories hall for the historic Selfridges building in Duke Street, London and with their new James-Simon-Galerie in its final stages on Berlin’s Museum Island, they have also just completed the first stage structural restoration of one of Berlin’s biggest landmark buildings: Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie.

The Neue Nationalgalerie is Mies’ only post-war building in Europe. Built between 1965 and 1968, its black, low-lying, minimalist steel and glass form – a sort of low-rise high rise – is one of the world’s most significant and recognisable 20th-century architectural structures. Chipperfield was a shoo-in for the restoration of this listed monument – which badly needed updating after 50 years of traffic and hosting the city’s modern art collection. His track record in the sensitive and sensational renovation and partial rebuild of the 19th-century Neues Museum, which is also owned by the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, had already won him the city’s trust when it comes to their most treasured architectural heirlooms.

But unlike the Neues Museum – which was badly bomb-damaged during the Second World War – the restoration of the Neue Nationalgalerie requires as little visible interference as possible. The five-year project involves upgrading the building to ‘current museum standards', which means dismantling and restoring pretty much all of the building’s components before precisely reinstalling them as well as ‘updating air-conditioning, lighting, security, and visitors’ facilities, including cloakroom, café and museum shop, improving disabled access and art handling'.

When it is fully completed the building needs to look as if the original has barely been touched. In the words of the client: ‘The refurbishment and modernisation aims for maximum preservation of the existing fabric, with minimum visual compromise to the building’s original appearance.' What this means in practice is faithful restoration combined with the introduction of essential and unavoidable new features that are ‘are nevertheless discreetly legible as contemporary elements' in a process of ‘respectful repair'.

The core structural elements are now complete. The next stage is to concentrate on the interior, including the huge underground part of the gallery (the total floor area is 13,900 sq m). The expected completion date is 2020, which can’t come soon enough: five years without being able to marvel at the sunset through this extraordinarily massive, yet floating building when you pass by on a winter evening seems a long time to wait. But, as the shocking and culturally devastating example of the fire that recently gutted the National Museum of Brazil so painfully showed, looking after our museums is an essential responsibility and well worth the investment and the inconvenience.

INFORMATION

For more information visit the website of David Chipperfield Architects

When David Chipperfield was called to design a new headquarters for Asian skincare brand Amorepacific in Seoul, one of the primary concerns that emerged was creating a building with a strong identity; but one, which would be intrinsically connected to its surroundings forming a valuable part of the city’s fabric, in both a social and architectural sense.

The building, which had been in development and construction for eight years, has just opened its doors to the public and its tenants, making a distinct mark on the Seoul skyline and the district of Yongsan-gu, where it is located.

‘It is more than an office. The building suggests generosity of spirit to the people who work here and the citizens’, says Chipperfield. ‘It is something that mediates between the company and the city. It shows how a company can participate in the larger community.’

Amorepacific’s new HQ is, on a very basic reading, a simple, cubic volume; yet upon closer inspection, the design’s instricacy shines through. The facade is a carefully balanced grid of glass and aluminium that appears both confident and lightweight. Green terraces and a central courtyard, featuring trees and water basins, are cut through the massing, offering different spatial options to users. Exposed concrete and natural stone complete the structure’s material palette.

Inside, on the ground level, the visitor is led straight through to the heart of the building. This is the building’s main event space for art installations, concerts, lectures and other cultural activities, where the architecture was designed to act as space for social interaction. These activities will be surrounded by a variety of public facilities such as a museum, a library, a tea room and retail. A variety of functions occupy the levels above and lead to the company’s main workspaces on the upper floors. Here, connectivity is the name of the game, with flexible office space provides ample opportunity for meeting and working.

Sustainable strategies were used throughout, such as the shape and the size of the facade fins, which have been specifically crafted to reduce unwanted solar radiation and glare; due to this approach, the building is expected to receive a LEED Gold certification later in the year.

‘This concept of a high-rise courtyard building – offering a silhouette and more importantly a place to be – takes reference from Korea’s rich and versatile architectural heritage’, explains David Chipperfield Architects partner and the project’s design director Christoph Felger.

Information

For more information visit the website of David Chipperfield Architects

Every other year since 2002, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative has brought together leading artists, writers, architects, musicians, film-makers, theatre directors and other creative titans with early-career contenders. Past mentors include Magaret Atwood, David Hockney and Anish Kapoor. In November 2016 we profiled the latest seven lucky protégés, paired with guiding lights such as Philip Glass, David Chipperfield and Robert Lepage. The protégés reveal what mentoring has meant to them and how their lives have changed as a result.

Born in 1982, Simon Kretz is a Swiss architect and theorist of urbanism, who took his MA in architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). He co-founded his first practice in 2010, and in 2014 became a founding partner of Salewski & Kretz Architekten, based in Zurich. He has worked for several international firms, including OMA Rotterdam, and has been senior lecturer for urban design at ETH Zurich since 2013. His Rolex mentor is the architect David Chipperfield.

W*: What form has your mentorship taken?
Simon Kretz: We used the year as a thought experiment, with theoretical and practical sides. The theoretical part is both a critique of a purely market-based urbanism and a manifesto for a relational, collective, diverse and domestic future of our cities. The practical part is an urban masterplan for the Bishopsgate Goodsyard in London. We collaborated with Professor Kees Christiaanse at ETH Zurich and conducted an urban design class on the project with 36 students this spring. David was a guest at the design course and we produced nine different options for the Goodsyard, which served as applications of our theories. David was also here for the final reviews.

W*: Have any projects developed out of your time together?
SK: Yes, we’ve developed a theoretical project that reflects on planning processes, planning culture and urban design as the underlying fundaments of architecture. We are planning to publish the joint project early next year, and we’ll exhibit the work in February in Berlin, and probably in the summer in Venice.

W*: How do you feel your work has developed or changed as a result of the time that you’ve spent with your mentor?
SK: I am fascinated by the way David constructs his arguments. His thoughts are at the same time pragmatic and idealistic, while his holistic approach and depth of thinking are helping me to extend my theoretical and mental vocabulary. This integrity of thinking has had an impact on my mindset.

W*: What are your plans for the future?
SK: To finish my PhD and to work on two competitions that our office has recently won. And to spend a couple of weeks biking around Europe.

As originally featured in the November 2017 issue of Wallpaper* (W*224)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Salewski & Kretz website and the Rolex Mentors & Protégés Initiative‎ website

The newly opened ‘David Chipperfield Architects Works 2018’ show in Vicenza is neither a retrospective nor an architect’s vanity project. It is rather a multi-leveled and carefully orchestrated exhibition that celebrates the genius and talent of a single architect – David Chipperfield – through select works from the practice’s four different studios in London, Berlin, Milan and Shanghai; and through those studios’ individual interpretations of the principal architect’s vision.

The show is made up of 17 projects that are either recently completed, or currently in progress, and subtly outline the practice’s methods and approach, as well as the range of possibilities these create. The work is not anchored in a particular, obvious style, but instead embodies a language that is able to rethink the ordinary and push the boundaries of what is possible.

It is evident through his work that for Chipperfield, it is important to restore public interest in architecture. Through the show we also see the return of that ‘common ground’ that the architect talked about in his statement as curator of the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennial. This is an exhibition that highlights the importance of teamwork – it is a sort of manifesto, signed by all the members of all the Chipperfield studios. 

Delicate lighting creates focal points exploring models, photographs, documents and technical drawings. Each of the studios has interpreted the architect’s design concepts using the tools and nuances that distinguishes them from their counterparts.

The Milanese studio presents the flagship stores for Maison Valentino complete with models and a selection of materials, while the Shanghai studio offers the Zhejang Museum of Natural History in Anji through large-scale drawings and video documentary. The Berlin studio shows studies and models of the extension of Zurich’s Kunsthaus on a shelving installation with large compartments to clearly demonstrate each separate phase in the creative process. Finally, to illustrate the Hoxton Press Headquarters, the London office works with models of the scheme’s two towers and the technical and photographic descriptions of how the project was translated from drawings to reality. 

Another key qualities of the show is the dialogue it opens up with the building in which it is hosted, Vicenza’s Basilica Palladiana. Using both vertical and horizontal space, the displays honour and complement their surroundings. Video projections that highlight the scale of the buildings represented make the most of the basilica’s full height, while the entire width of the large hall is used in an installation that forms three aisles, punctuated by displays of individual architectural projects. 

See all the latest news and stories from Venice Architecture Biennale here

INFORMATION

’David Chipperfield Architects Works 2018’ will run at the Basilica Palladiana in Vicenza until the 2 September 2018. For more information visit the David Chipperfield Architects website

ADDRESS

David Chipperfield Architects Works 2018
Basilica Palladiana Piazza dei Signori
36100 Vicenza

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‘Architecture remains site-specific, not only in ideological terms, but above all in its locations,’ said Rik Nys, director of communications at David Chipperfield Architects, at the launch of the studio’s new monograph. Nys is the editor of the hefty tome designed by John Morgan Studio that summarises the work of DCA to date and beyond – Chipperfield won’t be retiring anytime soon.

‘You can gather a bunch of Rembrandts in a single gallery, but you cannot gather a bunch of buildings in a single place and look at them. For better or worse, the book remains a powerful collection of disparate ideas and geographically disconnected photographs. Collectively, I believe that they communicate a solid body of work, in our case, over the last 30 years,’ he continued.

The monograph opens with Chipperfield establishing architecture practically as a response to conditions and aspirations, and admirably as a product of collective efforts, across the office and with collaborators. From the Architecural Association, to the offices of Foster and Rogers, to when he opened his own office in London in 1985, Chipperfield’s architectural past and understanding is laid out like foundations in a following text by architectural historian Fulvio Irace. Irace credits Chipperfield’s empathy for historic settings and landscapes to his early career working on redevelopment projects in Europe, referencing a poignant Chipperfield quote that belies the vision alongside the practicality: ‘I think we are in a continuum, and that our responsibility is to find clues in memory and context.’

The ‘German perspective’ is presented by Bernhard Schulz who acknowledges Chipperfield’s successes in Schulz’s home-country: ‘In this difficult country, where debates are always more ideological than pragmatic in nature, David Chipperfield has enjoyed undisputed appreciation,’ he writes, heralding the success of the Neues Museum on Berlin’s Museum Island as the ultimate creation of ‘refurbishment, reconstruction and redesign in equal measures’. Two ideas from his chapter echo over the ensuing pages of architectural photography: the Miesian ‘less is more’ evident in Chipperfield’s work, yet also his interest in ‘life’ above purely ‘architecture’.

Like many monographs, projects chronologically ordered and grounded by opening texts, yet this monograph reaches superior status through its incredibly restrained and evenly-paced formatting that glides across the whole volume. It is a monograph that flows like a scroll. In such a fluid way in fact that it also celebrates a decade of DCA working with John Morgan Studio, the designers behind the firm’s trademark typeface – ‘so small we managed to cram over 60 projects in one volume, telephone book or not’, jested Nys.

Private houses from London’s leafy neighbourhoods of Kensington and Richmond to Zurich and Seoul, swell into a red-brick residential building in Madrid and a smart grey block at Antwerp’s port. Civic and educational responsibilities soon set in – the Palace of Justice rises in Salerno; a laboratory in Basel forms; a creative campus in Berlin tucks into a terrace. Soon, the museums and galleries, where space exists in its most experiential and experimental form gather – the Neues Museum in Berlin; Museo Jumex in Mexico City; the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

While Luis Fernandez-Galiano’s essay titled ‘A Disciplined Heart’ sets a humorous tone comparing Chipperfield to Copperfield: ‘Like Charles Dickens’s almost homonymous character, he tenaciously strives to temper his sensibility with rigour; however unlike David Copperfield, the architect has disciplined his heart from the beginning of his professional Bildungsroman.’

By the end of the monograph, you will agree with Fernandez-Galiano, that Chipperfield’s adaptability through a ‘temperature fusion of traditional and innovation’ will continue to carry him through architecture – and life.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the David Chipperfield Architects website and the John Morgan Studio website

I remember standing in the dark outside 6 Burlington Gardens, escaping the hubbub of ‘Sensation’ at the Royal Academy of Arts (RA), five minutes’ walk and a world away. Peering out gloomily into the greyness of late 1997, the building – home to the Museum of Mankind for almost three decades – was now shuttered up. It was a squarish slab of neoclassical architecture in the high style. It had once been white. It was sparely ornamented with statuary dedicated to British cultural heroes and a few ‘illustrious foreigners’ accorded (almost) equal status. Its columns and porticoes were beautiful, but burly, Victorian approximations of Hellenic originals, coarsened once by Roman tastes before finally being given a dose of Anglo-Saxon heft.

Creatively, as an ethnographic offshoot of the British Museum, the Museum of Mankind certainly had its moments. As a destination space, it had been a dead loss. It was a dead block in a deadening part of town. Savile Row had never spilled round the corner and the Albany, the apartment complex next door that had been home to Basevi and Byron, kept its own counsel. This was a building no one quite knew what to do with.

Or so it seemed. A tortuous two decades of planning disagreements and false starts later, astonishing new gallery spaces, a 250-seat double-height lecture theatre that updates Epidaurus for the digital age, and for the first time a splendid, adventurous physical connection to the main RA building on Piccadilly will help create a whole new cultural hub in the heart of the capital, courtesy of the most in-demand art-world architect.

Burlington Gardens has all the signature elements of David Chipperfield’s topology, which is to say, the complete absence of signature. It’s what has made him, along perhaps with Renzo Piano, the pre-eminent shaper of cultural spaces today. After years of ebullient art space architecture – often much hated by the artists themselves – there was demand for more rigour, honesty and restraint. Chipperfield offers that in spades.

‘He is so good at context,’ agrees RA artistic director Tim Marlow. ‘He doesn’t have a signature style but can work interestingly in so many different styles. So when you think about the Neues Museum in Berlin, the Hepworth Wakefield, Turner Contemporary or his museum for literature in Germany, you see he’s got such breadth but there is a real rigour to him as well. More than anything, he understands artists; I think he would be very interesting to talk to about ways of engaging with the space on a programming level.’

Chipperfield himself characterises projects such as Burlington Gardens or the Neues Museum as ‘interventions’ and is happy to downplay their import. No one, he says, will leave Burlington Gardens talking about a David Chipperfield project, and that is exactly as it should be. ‘I don’t think architecture should be waving all the time,’ he says. ‘I mean there are some times when it needs to be waving more than others. If you are in an industrial site in the middle of Wakefield and you’ve got to help rejuvenate a city that has been beaten to bits, then you have to start waving your hands a little more than you might do if you’re in the middle of Berlin or London. But generally I think the time for icons has passed. People are now rather suspicious; they ask why is this building so expensive. Museums had become confused with branding.’

All the same, his beautiful work at Burlington Gardens is, if anything, even more radical than at the Neues Museum. The interior certainly offered a less promising palette than Berlin. It was a dull misto of years and styles: all corridor and hallway, not nearly as large as the façade made it appear. It had served successively as space for the University of London, the HQ of an ill-fated National Antarctic Expedition, and Civil Service offices, all before its stint as the Museum of Mankind. Since 1997, parts of the building have hosted temporary exhibitions for the RA, and galleries such as Haunch of Venison and Pace. But in all the principal rooms the years had left their mark – partition walls, Formica desks, false ceilings and grubby greige paint. There were modifications and mezzanines. An institutional memory lingered. Much of the circulation around the building had happened through fire doors and up cramped service wells, brightly lit by bare 100W bulbs, like a Martin Parr Polaroid.

This was what the RA acquired in 2001. In theory, it had added a large listed Italianate building 30m to the rear of the Royal Academy Schools complex, with which it could connect to expand its footprint. In practice, it was much less straightforward.

‘We wanted to bring the grandeur back,’ says RA president Christopher Le Brun. ‘But as the years passed without real progress, the discussions intensified with people wanting to knock it down and keep only the façade.’ Le Brun, a Royal Academician since 1996, actually started working on the project before the RA had raised the funds to buy it. The original master plan, by Michael Hopkins, had involved an ambitious scheme to glaze over the space between the two buildings, British Museum-style. The costs exploded, and the plans were shelved. A second, more modest, plan by Sandy Wilson was then adopted. But the RA Schools, located between 6 Burlington Gardens and the RA’s main site at Burlington House, wouldn’t let a link go through their space, and there was nowhere else on site to relocate a 50 or so-strong student body. ‘So Sandy’s plan made the link go all the way around the outside,’ explains Le Brun. ‘This wasn’t popular. I remember a meeting where we showed it to all the architects in the RA. As of one person they said no; they hated it. I think Piers Gough even used a rude word. They said it’s obvious, you have to go straight through the middle to connect the spaces.’

The project stalled again; the second master plan lapsed on Wilson’s death in 2007. It seemed for a while that a grand project might never happen – until a third competition was held. ‘David Chipperfield won it, with a scheme that did indeed go through the middle of the site, and everything changed,’ says Le Brun. ‘I went to talk to the schools with David’s project architect, and they saw the quality of his scheme and quickly agreed to it. That made all the difference. And as soon as we could go through the middle of the site, all of David’s ideas – a light touch, being straightforward, respecting the integrity of the original building: they all worked. We could start to see it really was a beautiful building underneath. He had just done the Neues Museum. He was clearly ideal. Not only was he an Academician, he was able to treat a historic building with tact and sympathy but also fairly robustly, not over-respectfully.’

Now, finally, this plan is coming to life, just in time to mark the RA’s 250th anniversary. Like the Neues, much of the pleasure is in the detailing. Chipperfield’s favourite space is a former brick vault he reclaimed from acres of piping, which now serves as an exhibition space. Lit by pendant lamps designed by the architect, the grand circulation spaces lead to impressive new display areas. Tacita Dean will open the space, and then a major Renzo Piano show will bring architecture to the new building, something that is envisaged as an essential part of the new programming. A permanent architectural studio will host a programme of year-long interventions, and for the first time there will be a full event and lecture programme. ‘Having this amazing lecture room is key,’ says Marlow. ‘There is so much discussion and debate at the RA. Now we have the space to programme as much as we want.’

All told, the plan increases the RA’s gallery space by 70 per cent. Chipperfield has also retained the windows in a new middle gallery that overlooks the centre of the site, and created a huge gallery in the west, where the RA will show some of its permanent collection – much of which is currently in storage – for the first time.

But the absolute key, the proposal which unlocked the whole site, is the link bridge. Bar the lecture theatre, it’s the only bit of what Le Brun calls ‘freestanding Chipperfieldness’, and it’s spectacular. From it you look out into the hidden courtyard and the schools at the heart of the RA. And because the collections galleries are free, they will surely help the RA become a destination between its hugely influential shows.

‘My feeling about architecture,’ says Chipperfield, ‘is that visitors don’t have to look at everything all the time. They have to be happy in the ambience of the place, and only then do they realise someone has put a lot of time into the detailing of it. Detailing has no purpose on its own. Design has no purpose on its own. But I do think that someone can smell or feel when trouble and care has been taken. That was our experience of Neues, and that is what we are hoping for here.’

As originally featured in the June 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*231)

INFORMATION

The new Royal Academy of Arts opens on 19 May. For more information, visit the Royal Academy of Arts website and the David Chipperfield website

ADDRESS

Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House
Piccadilly
Mayfair
London W1J 0BD

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Since it was founded a little over two years ago, the fledgling furniture company Radnor has been hard at work creating a collection of accessible, yet well-made objects that celebrate handcraftsmanship and natural production processes. Founded by Susan Clark, Radnor began by carrying a collection of lighting, furniture and homewares, including exclusive product lines produced collaboratively with each designer.

At its core, however, Radnor has always wanted to produce its own collection – a box that’s been ticked this month for New York Design Week with the unveiling of the Radnor Made collection. Installed in a two-bedroom apartment within the David Chipperfield-designed residence, The Bryant, Radnor’s full offering will be presented in an enviable setting, titled ‘Material Interiors’ co-curated by the design studio, Workstead, and available to experience until the end of June.

‘Radnor is built on an ethos of accessible, elevated living. We seek out and support designers who create unique, mindfully-made objects… [and] strive to enable more people to enjoy the texture and depth of handmade products in their homes,’ says Clark. ‘The Radnor Made Collection was developed with the goal of creating a series of pieces produced with an integrity of process. We considered the materials, production processes and mindsets that went into their conception and actualisation. This rigorous exploration of alternative approaches is integral to Radnor’s philosophy and at the heart of our goal of contributing to a highly skilled, ethical and sustainable community of design and craftsmanship.

Offset by The Bryant’s herringbone oak floors and terrazzo accents, Material Interiors highlights a sophisticated cross-section of American design, while celebrate the warmth of Radnor Made’s inaugural collection. Featuring designs from the New York firm Bunn Studio and the Portland, Maine-based craftsman Adam Rogers, the debut offerings include Bunn Studio’s Pillar series – a range of Danish-inspired solid wood seating, its Halyard textiles, which put a contemporary geometric spin on nostalgic corded rugs, and Rogers’ Mae series – a sofa, set of upholstered lounge chairs, desk, shelving system, leather cushioned bench and bed frame with a cane headboard that all exude the same simplicity of form and affection for the woodworking process.

‘[These] works elevate, while simultaneously celebrating the process of their making in the essence of the design,’ explains Clark. Whether its the understated, visible joinery in Rogers’ Mae bed, or Studio Bunn’s enhancement of the wood’s natural grain with the shape and positioning of dowels in its Pillar chair, each piece in the new collection exemplifies the collaborative open dialogue between designer and brand that underlines the Radnor Made collection’s pieces.

Rounded out by other introductions from a roster of talents, including Julianne Ahn, Oyyo, Marie Eklund and Workstead, and pieces from Pelle, Egg Collective, Loic Bard, Pat Kim and Farah Sit, Material Interiors is an inspiring effort from Radnor that speaks well beyond its years.

SSENSE MONTRÉAL is a flagship boutique of firsts. Not only is the five-storey 13,000 sq ft space the first brick-and-mortar store of the avant-garde retail platform – founded in 2003 by brothers Rami, Bassel and Firas Atallah – it is also David Chipperfield Architects’ inaugural Canadian commission.

And it’s one that doesn’t disappoint. Housed in narrow 19th-century structure, SSENSE MONTRÉAL functions as a building-within-a-building. Inside the traditional facade stands a concrete construct, boasting eight minimalist fitting rooms, and a fair faced concrete and glass roofed café, that calls to mind the canteen of a spaceship.

SSENSE MONTRÉAL functions as a building-within-a-building, with a concrete structure housed within a 19th-century facade

A blend of the classic and the contemporary, the double layer space is a symbol of the concept behind SSENSE MONTRÉAL. Not your typical boutique, it acts as a touchpoint between the online and offline shopping experience. Through a newly developed digital interface, customers are able to order from over 20,000 pieces online – by innovative brands including Wales Bonner and Kwaidan Editions – before trying them on in the stark, spotlit and padded bench-lined changing points of the space, all within 24 hours.

‘E-commerce enables scale but it is suboptimal in important ways, especially in terms of fostering human connection,’ says SSENSE co-founder and chief executive officer Rami Atallah, of the concept which allows customers to book personal shopping and merchandising appointments online. It’s a physical dialogue that digital retailers are continually developing. Take, 24 Sèvres, which launched last June, and brings the architectural atmosphere of Parisian store Le Bon Marché to the screen, or Chanel’s decision to partner with Farfetch to bolster its e-commerce output.

SSENSE MONTRÉAL is sublimely futuristic. David Chipperfield Architects – whose luxury retail clients include Bally, Valentino and Brioni – developed a 60-cm grid system throughout the space’s concrete structure, allowing for hidden convertible systems to house mechanical and technical elements. Just as seamless, a ‘vertical lift module’ was constructed to allow for swift storage and delivery of items. With the space opening on 3 May, we can’t wait to place our order.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the SSENSE website, and the David Chipperfield Architects website

ADDRESS

418 rue Saint Sulpice
Montreal
QC H2Y 2V5
Canada

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A first glimpse inside Julian Opie’s studio in Shoreditch, East London, does not reveal much about its recent architectural transformation. Its battered floorboards and hefty timber roof trusses could have been there for centuries.

In fact, hardly anything in this refurbished old furniture workshop, which has served as the artist’s base – and, for a while, live/work space – since 1987, screams ‘new’. Yet new it is, following a complete overhaul by Carmody Groarke in a process that lasted over four years. It is testament to the London practice’s masterful sleight of hand in merging old and new.

The idea for the project was born when planning permission was granted for a big new hotel in a plot just feet away from the studio’s back wall. Concerned about privacy and changes in light, Opie decided to take the opportunity and start a project of his own. The plan was to extend his workspace – outgrown by his studio team – adapting it in response to the construction next door.

Kevin Carmody and Andy Groarke were already his go-to architects and this would be the latest in a series of collaborations with the artist, the first being Opie’s London home back in 2006. ‘I appreciate Carmody Groarke’s straightforward approach and brilliant understanding of space, so they seemed the obvious choice of architect,’ Opie explains.

It was not just their established relationship that made the young London practice the perfect partner. Groarke and Carmody met at David Chipperfield’s office while – rather fittingly – working together on another artist’s studio, this one for Antony Gormley. They joined forces and set up shop soon after, and their independent practice turned ten years old in 2016. Yet their portfolio shows a maturity and diversity rare in an emerging practice. Indeed, ‘emerging’ hardly seems an appropriate tag. While it is not uncommon for a new practice to take the better part of ten years just to complete its first flagship project, Carmody Groarke has already had plenty of attention-grabbing commissions, including a temporary nightclub, a collaboration with Carsten Höller for Fondazione Prada, and timber pavilions for the Frieze Art Fair.

The pair have a knack for creating experiences and navigating different typologies and scales, especially when it comes to projects merging arts and architecture. Their affinity with the arts has been key since the practice’s inception, their output ranging from large-scale galleries to artists’ ateliers and exhibition design. ‘Our first project, and the springboard to set up our practice, was a competition win, the Coney Island Parachute Pavilion,’ recalls Groarke. ‘It combined culture, pavilions and temporary architecture, art, and our desire to seek and create opportunities. All seem to be themes that became recurrent in our practice.’

Their work often straddles creative disciplines and they are fascinated by artists’ take on the environment, built and otherwise. ‘Artists have very precise ways of seeing and experiencing the world, which enriches the discussion of what an architectural project can be,’ explain the architects. ‘We also admire artists’ ability to maintain a conceptual clarity throughout a body of work. Making exhibitions for fine art or museum collections has always been a great source of research for the studio. It forces us to think of how to make sense of our culture and our times.’

The Opie studio project called for a complete reimagining and extension of the four-level, mid-19th-century brick building, increasing space while safeguarding privacy. The architects’ solution was topping the existing industrial building with a profiled anodised aluminium sheet structure that captures and reflects daylight. The new design’s skylights ensure the studio’s creative operations remain out of sight from its neighbour, while light can flood in.

There is a playful contrast between brick and aluminium, a nod to the architects’ ongoing interest in material experimentation. Their choices always respond to each project’s needs, so there’s huge variety in their work, from the structural bricks of the 2016 Highgate House, to the sculptural concrete volumes of a house and studio in Lambeth, one of their upcoming works. ‘We like to manipulate materials and light in a way that increases your awareness of your surroundings,’ says Groarke.

Inside, working with the building’s original character was important to Opie. ‘I did not want to lose the inherent mid-19th-century industrial qualities that remained; the wooden floors and beams, the steep, open staircases and tall windows,’ he says. The architects obliged, employing a soft touch and some skilful architectural handling. Any new floorboards are reclaimed, the roof and external openings were maintained and, while the interior was almost completely gutted and cleared from additions and tweaks spanning decades, the current composition feels remarkably organic and natural. The steel-beam addition at the back manages discreetly to increase overall floorspace by some 100 sq m.

Each floor was opened up to create spacious studio rooms and open-plan desk areas, and circulation was streamlined. Hints to the building’s past live/work use were carefully removed, and domestic areas were transformed into functional workspaces – the place is usually buzzing with up to ten employees.

Opie’s studio is just coming out of a busy period with the opening last year of two major solo exhibitions – one in Suwon, South Korea, and the other at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Next up are shows at London’s Alan Cristea Gallery in April, and at Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria in November. Careful planning of the layout was essential in order to boost efficacy during the most demanding times.

The architects have been just as busy. They are currently putting the finishing touches to a summer pavilion for the White Cube gallery at Glyndebourne in East Sussex and working on a spectacular new suite for the Burgh Island Hotel in Devon. One of their largest buildings to date, the Windermere Jetty Museum, will open later in 2018, while future work includes the renovation and extension of the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester and the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.

But for now, they can enjoy the appreciation of a satisfied customer. Opie, meanwhile, hopes his new studio will provide a model for other developments in his area. ‘We deal with the building almost exclusively from the front and inside, and the new extension exterior is at the back in a narrow, graffiti-covered alley,’ says Opie. ‘I only recently went out there to take a look and I am proud of how my building looks both cared for and dynamic and ready for work. It’s a good mix of 19th- and 21st-century industrial functional design with no frills but with good materials and sensible generous proportions. It looks like much of the street will soon follow suit.’

As originally featured in the January 2018 issue of Wallaper* (W*226)

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Julian Opie website and the Carmody Groarke website

Business finance specialist Lawrence Salem and project manager Gabriel Chipperfield had been looking for some time for the perfect project to kickstart their joint property venture when they came across a Grade II-listed house on Eccleston Street in Belgravia, London.

‘It was a mess, so the project was primarily about straightening everything out, restoring the original 1850s building, as well as adding several modern extensions to the top, bottom, and back of the house,’ recalls Chipperfield, who developed and designed the house, with Salem, ‘under the watchful eye’ of his father, David Chipperfield.

The pair focused on opening up the old house, adding a new basement, rear facade and steelwork ‘to frame everything and support the new top floor and those marble bathtubs’ – and the results prove that the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. The clean, white interiors, featuring Carrara marble, restored original timber flooring and Pietra Serena limestone, feel warm yet modern, thanks to the incorporation of leather elements and custom-designed ironmongery and joinery. Lighting was provided by Milan-based firm Viabizzuno.

The property spans 3,900 sq ft and six levels that include four bedrooms, a reception room, screening room, garden room and terrace. An 800 sq ft kitchen and dining area sits in the extension’s lower level, amply lit by lightwells, and the views through the different levels, skylights and double height spaces, coupled with the crisp interiors, give the house its particularly airy feel.

With Eccleston Street complete and awaiting a new owner, the team is focusing on its next steps. ‘This is the first in a series of projects,’ says Chipperfield. ‘We’re honing our skills. We still need our big idea, but there are a lot of basic things to get good at; we do our own contracting, which helps save time and money without compromising on quality, but it’s a lot more work. As we become more experienced, we’ll up the ante. I’d like to do a small hotel but I haven’t told Lawrence yet.’

As originally featured in the March 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*204)

The ultimate Berlin dream home is a ‘Haus am See’, a property with waterfront access beside one of the many attractive lakes surrounding the city. The earth is almost pure sand around here, so the shorelines are beach-like and the lakes are clean. Summers on the outskirts of Berlin tend to involve lots of wild swimming, barbecues and messing around in boats. Understandably, such lakeside houses are much in demand and good ones rarely come up for sale, so the chance to do up a waterside house features quite high on the bucket list of any self-respecting Berlin-based architecture practice.

A couple of years ago, David Chipperfield Architects Berlin got the call to refurbish an unusual building for a private client on the banks of the Wannsee in Zehlendorf, one of Berlin’s biggest and most popular bathing and recreation spots. The Wannsee has several yacht clubs and, with the magnificent nearby 1930s Strandbad Wannsee lido, one of the biggest inland stretches of beach in Europe. The lake also has its own lifeguard facility and, until recently, its boathouse was located in a concrete Brutalist building designed in 1970 by the architect Robert Tepez, who also designed the massive SFB TV Centre at Theodor-Heuss-Platz in Charlottenburg. A two-storied terraced volume, the boathouse is set back slightly from the lake below a large 19th-century industrialist’s villa on a gently sloping site complete with its own little harbour.

After buying the villa and its grounds, the owner wished to convert the now empty boathouse into a studio, perhaps with the option of turning it into a publicly accessible museum at a later date – and who better to call when you want a museum refurb than the architects of one of the most stunning museum redesigns in Berlin, if not Europe: the Neues Museum in Mitte.

‘Our design was quite simple and strong,’ explains Alexander Schwarz, the design director responsible for the project. ‘We wanted to highlight the beauty of the 1970s Brutalist architecture of the house, but we also wanted to clarify the relationship between the villa, the boathouse and the beautiful landscape around.’

The original boathouse building was extremely functional: a stepped concrete slab with tiny windows. The architects cut out big sections of the walls at the front to allow light into the building, then wrapped the entire structure in a green-painted wooden layer interrupted by a regular series of large rectangular windows. The wood softens the concrete brut impact from without and the deep forest green colour helps this, really very large, building recede visually into the slope. The two flat roofs are also planted, increasing the camouflage effect. From the water the boathouse now looks a bit like an orangerie and has echoes of the terraced buildings of Frederick the Great’s famous Sanssouci palace in nearby Potsdam. Project architect Christof Piaskowski agrees that this was the intent: ‘The green colour was one we found on several existing metal pieces inside the house, and we decided that this should be used for all the built objects in the garden and at the waterside. This made the villa at the top of the hill the main focus of the property.’ Indeed if you passed by in the twilight in your boat you would hardly notice the boathouse was there, despite it having a far larger floorplan than the main villa above.

But there the Sanssouci similarity ends. There is not a single rococo curve or swirl in the Haus am See. The walls, floor and ceiling of the interior – half of which is filled with a double-height studio space – are almost entirely raw concrete. The staircase leading up to the mezzanine and balcony elements has a pared-down, industrial aesthetic. The light fittings – thin slivers of strip lights or simple pendants hanging from long cables – are black, as are the fitted furniture elements: a kitchen and a leather sofa landscape.

Only the rooms on the upper floor have soft oak floors giving off a delightful woodland scent from a special natural lye mix they have been treated with. Here too some of the concrete walls have been simply plastered (‘The concrete up here really was in a bad condition,’ explains Piaskowski).

Surprisingly, the intense dark green of the exterior is barely visible from the inside. ‘It is a really straight industrial green called Reseda Green or RAL 6011,’ says Piaskowski, ‘a colour often found in electrical facilities. There is no Farrow & Ball here.’On sunny summer evenings, the interior of the northwest-facing Haus am See is bathed in a delightful play of slanting light. Berlin light often seems lovely and golden, but here, magnified and reflected by the glittering lake, it is alive and playful, physically adding its presence to the architecture and bringing beauty to the brut beast.

As originally feautured in the October 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*211)

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the David Chipperfield Architects website

One of the most rewarding moments of the fourth edition of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale is an exhibition quite simply called 'Building Site'. Curated by André Tavares, who is also the Triennale’s co-curator along with the late Diogo Seixas Lopes, the show explores the politics, economics and labour of making buildings, as well as often neglected aspects of the construction process, such as well-being and time.

The building site is the ‘crucial moment’ when architectural design becomes form, the exhibition argues. For months and sometimes years it is a ‘public performance’, a place teeming with hundreds and thousands of workers, huge cranes and awe-inspiring scaffolding, as well as a place where massive sums of money are invested. All this requires huge human and intellectual effort, and the smallest details can have enormous ramifications.

Stills from a short film entitled 'Choreographies' by Pedro Alonso and Hugo Palmarola, in which US and Soviet cartoons are shown side-by-side

In a section devoted to time, the show looks at how OMA’s famed Casa da Música in Porto was the result of both a hugely ambitious deadline for the concrete outer shell (designed to coincide with Porto’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2001) and major delays. The former was completed in record time, based on an existing design for a single-family home that the architects repurposed. When various bureaucratic and political delays hit the construction programme, architects were able to devise the interiors with the benefit of time. The richer palette of ideas and materials inside the building is the tangible result.

The show persuasively demonstrates that at every stage of the construction process human input is fundamental, even in an age of digital tools and machinery. In a section called 'Communication', a fascinating drawing by David Chipperfield Architects maps out the restoration of the ceiling of the Roman room at the Neues Museum in Berlin. The printed drawing instructs conservators as to how to deal with the building surfaces, but a series of pencil markings added on-site record when the work has actually been carried out.

One of the lighter moments of the show is provided by a film called Choreographies, showing a host of American and Soviet cartoons side-by-side. These feature a panoply of hair-raising construction scenes, where steel cranes whizz various characters on steel beams and concrete panels into the sky. It’s amusing, beautifully timed and set to music, but there is a more serious point being made here, as across the exhibition in general – that building sites are a choreography of moments that come together to make a greater whole. All the various interests at play – commercial, political, social and architectural – require human negotiation, and a delicate dance and equilibrium.

INFORMATION

The Lisbon Architecture Triennale is on view until 11 December 2016. For more information, visit the website

Every two years since 2002, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative has conducted an experiment in creative fusion, flinging some of the best-known creators in the world together with talented young artists at or near the start of their careers. The roll call of past mentors features an astonishing selection of illustrious names, including Margaret Atwood, Peter Zumthor, Robert Wilson, Trisha Brown, David Hockney, Martin Scorsese, Brian Eno and Sir Anish Kapoor. Each mentor spends a minimum of 30 working days with their protégé, but in practice, many invest far more time than that; how they structure the partnership is up to each pair to decide.

Run from Rolex’s gleaming green-glass HQ in Geneva – which bears more than a passing resemblance to the Emerald City in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz – the programme has an intriguing modus vivendi. For each iteration of the scheme, a special advisory board is appointed that suggests mentors for each discipline – currently architecture, dance, film, literature, music, theatre and visual arts. Once the mentors have been appointed, separate panels for each discipline identify a shortlist of potential protégés, although the final selection is left to the mentors themselves.

You can’t apply to take part: in fact, protégés-to-be don’t know they have been chosen until they receive an email inviting them to participate in the scheme. Given that this year’s mentors include Sir David Chipperfield, Philip Glass, Joan Jonas, Alfonso Cuarón and Robert Lepage, we suspect that few, if any, potential protégés turn the opportunity down. It probably also helps that they are each given a grant of CHF25,000 (€23,000) and their travel expenses for the year, plus the same amount again at the end of the scheme towards the creation of a new piece of work. The mentors, for their part, receive CHF75,000 (€69,000) each for their time and advice. 

When we meet in Geneva, this year’s protégés have just been introduced to each other, although most of them have already spent some time with their mentor. They are a typically diverse bunch, both in terms of their interests and their backgrounds. Architecture protégé Simon Kretz is the only local: based in Zurich, he has co-founded two practices and has a special interest in ideas of urbanism, which he is exploring with his mentor, Chipperfield. By contrast, South African dancer Londiwe Khoza was born in Soweto and started dance lessons at the age of five. A soloist at the Cape Dance Company by the age of 22, she will spend her year studying and dancing with Israeli dancer and choreographer Ohad Naharin.

Born and raised in Mumbai, film protégé Chaitanya Tamhane has already spent time on set with the director of Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón. Tamhane’s first feature film, Court, premiered at the 2014 Venice Film Festival and has gone on to win numerous awards. São Paulo-based writer Julián Fuks is planning to write a metafictional novel under the watchful eye of Mozambican novelist Mia Couto, winner of the 2014 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Pauchi Sasaki is a Peruvian sound artist and performer, creator of (among other things) a musical dress; she has already been touring Japan and Europe with her mentor, American composer Philip Glass. 

Legendary stage and film director Robert Lepage, for his part, will be mentoring young Argentinean playwright and director Matías Umpierrez, whose work has included simultaneous international performances. Meanwhile, artist Thao-Nguyen Phan, who studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago but now works in her native Vietnam, will be working with great American performance artist Joan Jonas. As Rebecca Irvin, head of philanthropy at Rolex, says: ‘The chance to benefit from the experience of one of the world’s greatest exponents in their discipline is an unparalleled opportunity for these young artists.’ They must be very glad that email didn’t go into their spam folder.

As originally featured in the November 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*212)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative website

The annual Wallpaper* Architects Directory was conceived in 2000 as the ultimate little black book of new architectural talent, in an effort to both celebrate and map out the world’s best young practices, year-by-year, spanning countries and continents; and what a journey has it been.

We’ve so far featured over 450 practices from all continents (OK, maybe not Antarctica – yet) and photographed over 100 of them in the most amazing architectural sites across the world, from Tokyo’s Shibuya Station by Tadao Ando, to Diller Scofidio and Renfro’s Lincoln Centre project, Richard Rogers’ Heathrow T5, the Neues Gallery in Berlin by David Chipperfield and the Shard in London, by Renzo Piano.

Not that the Architects Directory was the first time we supported budding talent. Leading names such as David Adjaye, Seth Stein, UNStudio and MVRD, all made an early, pre-2000 appearance in the pages of Wallpaper*.

Nurturing emerging practices and seeing them grow into global creative brands has been an exciting story in itself – and there’s been a lot of that. Our ever-growing roster includes now-internationally acclaimed names, such as Allied Works, Brian McKay-Lyons, Claesson Koivisto Rune, Niall McLaughlin, Sean Godsell and Grafton Architects.

For more on the Wallpaper* Architects Directory in our 20th anniversary October 2016 issue (w* 211)

dRMM 
Featured in 2001
Alex de Rijke, Philip Marsh and Sadie Morgan founded dRMM in London in 1995 and have been prolific, working with equal ease on projects of all scales, from large housing projects to smaller ones, such as artist Richard Wood’s home and studio, WoodBlock House (pictured here). Their innovative and socially relevant approach is renowned.

Atelier Oi 
Featured in 2004
Founded in 1990 in Switzerland by Aurel Aebi, Armand Louis and Patrick Reymond, Atelier Oï is a multidisciplinary firm that blurs the boundaries of design; its body of work features a diverse bounty of products, set design, architecture and interiors, such as stores for Rimowa and Pringle of Scotland.

Sean Godsell
Featured in 2001
Australian architect Sean Godsell is revered for projects like the St Andrews Beach house (pictured here) and RMIT Design Hub. He applies his minimalist, refined aesthetic to residential and commercial structures alike, keeping in touch with his country’s climatic characteristics and using a modern material palette - inspired by its locality - to perfection

Deborah Berke 
Featured in 2002
Apart from leading her namesake New York-based firm, Deborah Berke has also just kicked off her time as the Dean of the Yale School of Architecture. Her prestigious practice’s work includes the Bard College Conservatory of Museum and interiors for 432 Park Avenue in New York

Claesson Koivisto Rune
Featured in 2000
Swedish firm Claesson Koivisto Rune founded by Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto and Ola Rune in 1995, started off as an architecture firm, but evolved into a successful multidisciplinary uber-practice, experimenting with furniture, textiles, and even confectionery. Their wide-reaching skill set soon propelled them to international design stardom.

MAD Architects 
Featured in 2007
MAD Architects, established in China in 2004 by Ma Yansong, started small but quickly transformed into a global brand, becoming one of the country’s leading firms. MAD is behind some of the world’s most striking structures, such as the Harbin Opera House (pictured here). 

Brian MacKay Lyons 
Featured in 2002
Brian MacKay-Lyons – currently the co-head of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects together with Talbot Sweetapple – is based in Halifax, Canada. The practice works on an array of cultural, commercial and, most notably, residential projects, such as the Sliding House and the recently completed Enough House on MacKay Lyons’ own famous farm and education project, Shobac

Grafton Architects
Featured in 2000
Grafton Architects, founded by directors Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara in 1972 are now globally acknowledged for their refined, contemporary style. The firm has a number of exhibition participations and education projects under their belt, such as the modern and minimalist Luigi Bocconi University building in Milan. 

Allied Works
Featured in 2002
Allied Works, the 40-person practice led by Brad Cloepfil, has offices in Portland, Oregon and New York City. They first graced our pages in 2002 but the firm quickly grew since, working on a roster of impressive projects. Key completions include the Sun Valley Residence (pictured here) and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York

Tuckey Design
Featured in 2006
A context-sensitive approach sits at the heart of all Jonathan Tuckey projects. Over the years, the designer has perfected the art of transforming historic buildings into chic, contemporary spaces. With offices in London and Andermatt, Switzerland, the firm is renowned for its seamless weaving of old and new. 

David Adjaye
Featured in 1997
With offices in London, New York and Accra, David Adjaye’s firm has acquired international prestige through a diverse range of projects. Works such as the Aishti Foundation in Beirut (pictured here) and the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington – about to open its doors this month – are a case in point of Adjaye’s skilful architecture.

UNStudio
Featured in 1999
Amsterdam-based UNStudio’s early work includes architecture classics such as Mobius House and the Erasmus Bridge (pictured here). Not that directors Ben Van Berkell and Caroline Bos rested on their laurels after that. The firm is now working internationally and has recently expanded with three additional offices in China. 

MVRDV
Featured in 1999
MVRDV, founded in 1993 in the Netherlands by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries, made a splash with early work such as the WOZOCO housing complex. They since developed into a global super-practice, applying their unique approach to offerings such as their impressive Rotterdam Market Hall, located in Rotterdam (pictured here). 

Seth Stein
Featured in 1998
Award-winning architect Seth Stein is a master of minimalism, combining a pared down approach with contemporary flair and luxurious materials. While best known for one-off houses in stunning rural settings or modern urban boltholes, his recently completed equestrian centre near Melbourne highlights the firm’s far-reaching skills. 

After a year of design work and preparation, Italian menswear brand Brioni has opened the doors to its new David Chipperfield-designed store on Paris’ label-laden Rue Saint-Honoré.

Conceived as both a ‘gallery of clothes’ and a ‘destination point’, David Chipperfield Architects Milan set out to create a store concept that intertwines Brioni’s Roman roots and tailoring traditions with a new vision for its future set out by newly-appointed creative director Justin O’Shea. Following his appointment in April, O’Shea wasted no time in making his mark by revamping Brioni’s historical logo with a gothic-style font and hiring Metallica to star in the A/W 2016 ad campaign.

Architecturally, this fusion of past and present translates into classic materials such as grey travertine floors and walls – a reference to ancient Rome – being placed alongside more experimental elements such as a series of transparent metal mesh partitions and fixtures that generate a sensation of openness.

Spread across two floors linked by a giant stage-like staircase, the studio has created three zones within the 590 sq m space – the main store space, the VIP area and the changing rooms – all of which are defined by the change of experience and ritual rather than by the change of materials. ‘The idea behind the store display furnishing is that it should be adaptable and flexible, positioned in such a way that the store architecture becomes the background of the products,’ explain the architects, citing Mies van der Rohe as a key influence.

O’Shea affectionately describes the new concept as ‘a cool mix between branding, design and retail… and definitely one of the most beautiful stores I have ever seen.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Brioni website

Photography: © Kristen Pelou

ADDRESS

Brioni
370 Rue Saint Honoré
75001

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

You can’t truly enjoy a hotel if you don’t treat it like a home. Often, we spend our time in spectacular places in a half-unpacked limbo, items scattered across bed, suitcase, bathroom and desk. Given Handmade’s hospitality focus, we set out to commission the perfect piece of hotel furniture. Hotel Wallpaper* wouldn’t be complete without its ‘Butler’, a piece that blends the architecture skills of David Chipperfield, the craft and design knowledge of E15, and fine materials and wood expertise from the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC).

The ‘Butler’ is a modern interpretation of several items of largely redundant hotel furniture: from the bag stand to the dressing table and the neglected chest of drawers. Chipperfield and his team have drawn together functional influences to create a piece that manages to be practical, elegant and quirky, inviting engagement the minute you enter your suite.

‘Unpacking in a hotel is never enjoyable,’ says Chipperfield. ‘I always find hotels have badly designed wardrobes and cupboards you don’t really want to use. The ‘Butler’ is a different approach, a combination of dressing table, valet stand and storage that brings all these things together to make unpacking more of a joy than a chore.’

Chipperfield’s chosen collaborator was E15, an accomplished furniture design studio originally founded in the eponymous London postcode by German architect Philipp Mainzer and Iranian designer and art director Farah Ebrahimi. E15 previously collaborated with Chipperfield on the ‘Fayland’ table and ‘Fawley’ bench, bespoke pieces for a modern country house, as well as the ‘Leighton’ coffee table and ‘Drayton’ sideboard. The studio’s way with solid, seamlessly jointed wood aligns closely with the English architect’s aesthetic and a shared interest in domestic scale design.

The collaboration with AHEC also has precedents. David Venables, its European director, has overseen the organisation’s many forays into designer collaborations over the years. The long-running partnership with Wallpaper* is especially valued. ‘This year marks our fifth collaboration with Wallpaper* Handmade,’ says Venables. ‘It’s proved to be a brilliant platform for us to experiment with our various timbers through partnerships with some great designers. It was a real honour to team up with a world-class architect such as David. Together we were able to explore willow, which is a relatively unknown American hardwood, and create a beautiful object that was one of the centrepieces of the Handmade exhibition [in Milan earlier this year]. It has been a really rewarding and exciting process.’

The ‘Butler’ is a compact, freestanding piece, with a sculptural presence that evokes an architectural composition. The luxurious material palette includes American willow, brushed brass, light vegetable-tanned leather and a square of thin Bianco Carrara marble. Filling the four capacious drawers or hanging clothes on the sleek brass rails is designed to be a delight, while the light and mirror ensure you take a closer look.

The prototype shown in Milan was handmade in Frankfurt by one of E15’s trusted carpenter collaborators. Every joint and junction was given careful attention. The E15 team describes American willow as being much softer and more malleable than the European-sourced oak it usually works with. It not only has a fine texture but can be polished to a near-perfect surface, with concealed gaps to accommodate any dimensional changes as the piece ages.

The ‘Butler’ creates a focal point, giving our fantasy space a touch of truly sybaritic enjoyment without compromising function. Chipperfield, E15 and AHEC brought clarity and class to the travel experience.

As originally featured in the August 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*209)

See more from Handmade here and check in to Hotel Wallpaper*…

Pictured left: the surface treatment of a drawer front with mineral white oil before assembly. Right: the partially built prototype, in American willow with Carrara marble and leather, in a carpentry studio in Frankfurt. The brass fitting is for a light in the finished version, set before a mirror

INFORMATION\

For more information, visit the David Chipperfield website, E15 website and AHEC website

David Chipperfield’s vision of designing new urban landscapes in a ‘traditional, linked-up way’ chimes with notions of simple ideas, generating rich social impact at this year’s Architecture Biennale in Venice. The just-announced 2016–17 Rolex architect mentor will put philosophy into practice as he spends the next year in a generous exchange with the Swiss architect Simon Kretz, of Christian Salewski & Simon Kretz Architekten GmbH, Zurich.

The Rolex Mentor & Protégé programme, entering its fourth year in architecture, aims to propel young arts professionals to the next stage of their careers. Thus, Kretz will work on a specific project with Chipperfield, who will dedicate at least 30 days over the next 12 months to Kretz’s professional development. That last year’s architecture protégé, Gloria Cabral, has just picked up a Venice Biennale Golden Lion award for best exhibition on behalf of her Paraguayan practice, Gabinete de Arquitectura, adds further shine. She spent her year assisting mentor Peter Zumthor on his design for a Seoul tea chapel.

'Simon and I need to start to find the right vehicle,' Chipperfield revealed during the opening week in Venice. 'Conceptual development realisation processes are time consuming but Rolex is committed to creating a dialogue between mentor and protégé as opposed to looking for an end result; it’s very much a relationship exercise.' Naturally, the chance to play with 'ideas that you can’t do in everyday practice' appeals to the seasoned professional and to Kretz too – the first Swiss architecture protégé, who likes the prospect of their project 'being an experiment'.

Both, however, admit a shared vision as 'architects who like to build things'. So to let the opportunity pan into a totally theoretical exercise is not the end goal, at least as much as the scheme’s short time frame, in architecture terms, allows. 'Simon is teaching urban design and works as an architect – also with the city. He’s not just interested in urban theory, he is a practising architect, as I am,' Chipperfield says. Kretz, meanwhile, is keen to explore 'the specific impact that building projects have on the wider city surroundings'.

To that end, one of the ideas the pair are bandying around is starting with an existing site, 'maybe one that has been developed in an unplanned manner. Something I’d be quite critical of,' offers Chipperfield. 'We could reshape it in a traditional, joined-up way where one can subject a sense of idealisation into the realisation.' He cites the notion of all decision-making parties being involved in one vision – designers, engineers, city planners working as one. 'We could set a precedent. That would work. It’s amazing how linking up thinking can create an environment.' It's a theory we know he's already putting into practice.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Rolex Mentor & Protégé website

Following a wave of unprecedented popularity and demand comes a new supper club at David Chipperfield Architects’ in-house Berlin eatery, Kantine.

For many of us, our work canteens are places of reprieve, sanctuaries in which you can escape the company of others. For workers at David Chipperfield Architects, however, this is not entirely the case. Kantine, which officially operates as the cafeteria to the architecture practice, has become so popular with eager connoisseurs in Berlin that Chipperfield and the other architects who work there now have to reserve their tables to assure a seat. Chipperfield is aware of its position within a professional environment, as evinced when he states that 'it architecturally has got something, but it's a social place which should create a condition in which you can get on with your life, work, dialogue and be comfortable'.

Renowned for serving delicious, locally sourced food by Gary Hoopengardner and the team behind the popular Lokal restaurant, Kantine is currently only open for breakfast and lunch but is still inundated with visitors hoping to get a taste. Evenings at the venue have typically been unavailable, occupied mostly by galleries celebrating particular exhibitions – until next week, that is. 

Launching on Wednesday evenings is a ‘Kantine Klub Dinner’, which will host friends to the practice with a menu by Icelandic chef Freyr Ævarsson – offering three courses for €32 or four for €40.

With Kantine also set to open for brunch this weekend – to tie in with Berlin Gallery Weekend –  its popularity and adaptability seem resolute. 

INFORMATION

Kantine will be open for brunch this Saturday and Sunday; 9.30am – 2.30pm

ADDRESS

Kantine at David Chipperfield 
Joachimstrasse 11
Berlin-Mitte

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Everyone is well aware of the mesmerising qualities of marble. Its decadence, its power, its weight, its sculptural qualities – the list goes on. In a unique Japanese-meets-Italian collaboration during Salone del Mobile, it was the intensity of its colour that was celebrated. Nendo presented Marsotto Edizioni’s marble inventory cut completely in half: Carrara on one side, Marquina on the other.

Titled ‘Light and Shadow’, the concept seemed relatively simple, but the effect was magnificent (and very Instagram-friendly). Upon entering the slightly off-piste Brera location, one visualised the almost illusionary monochromatic, symmetrical divide. The result was perfected thanks to Nendo’s new novelties for the Verona-based marble kings, half produced in each shade. In true Oki Sato style, he created a plethora of new products, each available in both black and white, some even split into both, including abstract tilted side tables called ‘Sway’ and ‘Split’ low tables.

Both sections were atmospherically enveloping. On the white side, a slightly illuminated, purist vibe was felt among David Chipperfield's grand dining table and James Irvine’s imaginative shelving. These were set against the blinding white walls, flowers and books that decorated the space. Alternatively, the dark side evoked a romantic sensuality through semi-matching pieces that the designers realised in both tones. Visibility was skewed as we focused on whimsical designs including Naoto Fukasawa's 'Marbelous' low table and Ross Lovegrove's bookends. Outdoors, the Italian brand showed off its Carrara with a garden set utilising alternative shapes created from the brand’s divine wares, including the mighty ‘Arena’ table by Wallpaper* Design Award winner Jasper Morrison.

'It is tinged with surprise, irony and delight – it is also however part of a universal language,' explains Mario Marsotto about the familiarity of all the natural material, elegantly set on a pedestal by Sato. 'And during its realisation all of us were captivated and spurred by a pleasantly harmonious energy.'

INFORMATION

For more information on the new collections, visit the Marsotto Edizioni website

In celebration of the opening of Bally’s new David Chipperfield-designed Tokyu Plaza store, the Swiss house has chosen a selection of shoes from its archive to star in a new travelling exhibition, ‘Bally Untold, Part One: 1851–1951’.

Spanning a hundred years of the house’s shoe-making history, and on view until 8 May in Tokyo, the exhibition traces major design movements in its heels, from the Belle Époque to the art nouveau and art deco periods.

Divided into five themed spaces – the first, 'Cocoon', dating from 1851–1900; 'Bloom 1900–1920'; 'Freedom 1920–1930'; 'Decadence 1930–1940'; and 'Defiance 1940–1951' – the exhibition also explores changing materials over the decades, from exotic skins, silk and leather in the pre-war period, to cork, rope and wood during the war, through to new plastics in the later mid-century.

We spoke to design director Pablo Coppola about the house and its history...

W*: Tell us about the 165 year-old brand's policy of archiving shoes from every year since founding?
PC: The Bally family were big shoe lovers. They started collecting shoes in the 1850s and their private collection grew and became a museum in 1942, which is housed in the original home of Carl Franz Bally, in Switzerland. Today the museum has 1,000 shoes and there are 35,000 more in our private archive.

How did you get down to just 100? What was the criteria?
It was a hard task. We had to draw a line somewhere so we decided to focus on the first 100 years of Bally. So this is part one of the archive exhibition – leaving it open to further shows in the future.

What was your main aim with curating this show?
Bally has the most important archive in the industry but no one knows about it – and we wanted to change this. We thought it would make sense to take the archive out of Switzerland and bring it first to Tokyo; the Japanese culture has a true appreciation for heritage and craftsmanship.  

We were surprised at how contemporary many of the designs are, especially those from the 1920s and 1930s. Do you visit the archive often?
I was surprised too. Before I joined Bally I always thought of it as a men’s brand. Then I visited the archive and I couldn’t believe the amount of beautiful women’s shoes – all these golden shoes for women in the 1920s and 1930s you mention. I was amazed at the sophistication and size of the women’s range. I love our archive and go back whenever I can.

What time period appeals most to you?
I’m going through a 1960s period. I was looking at girl bands – Martha and the Vandellas, The Shirelles, The Shangri-Las – and they ended up inspiring the Bally woman in our A/W 2016 collection, but as a whole I really like the 1930s. I guess back then Bally was the king of shoes! No doubt about that.

You can trace design movements through the shoes, and some directly reference particular artists. Do you have any favourite styles?
I like to use and especially mix references. For example, in this collection we were into booties and I specially like the gold python with pink accents – on one hand it looks really crazy, but on the other it is almost a replica from our archive (circa 1964) so in my mind it all makes sense.

To coincide with the travelling exhibition’s first stop, Bally has reissued four shoe styles – based on archive pieces dating from 1934 to 1936. The limited edition shoes in the D’Orsay style, fashioned with a Louis XV heel, come in red and blue silk, and are adorned with gold and silver leather.

INFORMATION

’Bally Untold, Part One: 1851–1951’ is on view until 8 May. For more information, visit Bally’s website

ADDRESS

Bally Ginza
5-2-1 Ginza Chuo-Ku
Tokyo 104-0061

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Following on from the success of a collaboration last year, German furniture manufacturer E15 and British architect David Chipperfield will be presenting a new furniture collection at this year’s international interiors show IMM Cologne.

The collected works emphasise the importance of clean, robust design fashioned from high-quality materials. These sturdy designs embrace practicality but by showcasing the best of European handcrafted production lose nothing of their design credentials.

In keeping with the architectural roots of both Chipperfield and E15 founder Philipp Mainer, several of the key designs derive their names from historical British buildings. Chipperfield’s 'Leighton' coffee table and 'Drayton' sideboard will take their place amongst the established design dynasty showcased at Salone del Mobile 2015. 

The collection includes a range of furniture, accessories and lighting, including woven blankets and stoneware. It is unsurprising to see the table featured so heavily amongst the assortment – it was a love of this piece of furniture that initially united the designers. Chipperfield describes the table as the heart of the house, facilitating the rhythm of social interactions. It was his decision to design the main tables in both of his own residences that saw him first venture into the world of furniture design.

Similarly, Mainer founded E15 on the back of his substantial oak table, ‘Bigfoot’. The collection offers a tribute to this important design in two thick-set oak figurines, ‘Mr B’ and ‘Big B’ – playful personifications of their nominal predecessor.

INFORMATION

IMM Cologne is on view from 18–24 January. For more information, visit E15’s website

ADDRESS

IMM Cologne
Koelnmesse GmbH
Messeplatz 1
50679 Cologne

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Rolex's far-reaching mentoring programme, that sees gifted protégés matched with masters in their fields, has generated a plethora of new and extraordinary works since its inception in 2002. From great literature, to beautiful music and inspiring architecture, each of the Arts Initiative projects follow a year of collaboration and creative mentoring that span generations and cross continents – an opportunity that's simply unavailable anywhere else. Past mentors have included the likes of Martin Scorsese, Stephen Frears, Toni Morrison, Anish Kapoor and David Hockney, to name just a few.

For the initiative's 2012–2013 edition, architecture was added to the programme, with Japan's Kazuyo Seijima of SANAA inaugurating the role alongside the young Chinese architect Zhao Yang of China. Together they created a community meeting house in the Japanese fishing port of Kesennuma, as part of the rebuilding effort following following 2011's tsunami. For 2014–2015, elusive Swiss architect Peter Zumthor paired with his protégé Gloria Cabral of Paraguay to create a tea chapel at a religious site in South Korea; and last week it was announced that British architect David Chipperfield will take the baton for 2016–2017.

Fittingly, the announcement was made last weekend within Mexico City's monolithic, Chipperfield-designed Museo Júmex at a ceremony honouring the mentors and protégés of the 2014–2015 edition and which also saw the esteemed architect deliver an address about the Júmex project and the ideas behind it. Also named as mentors for the 2016–2017 cycle were Mia Couto (literature), Alfonso Cuaroón (film), Philip Glass (music), Joan Jonas (visual arts), Robert Lepage (theatre) and Ohad Naharin (dance).

'The practice of architecture involves complex and overlapping concerns and skills from the theoretical to the practical,' said Chipperfield following the announcement. 'Intentions are often obscured by jargon and inappropriate concerns. I would hope to remind my protégé that the issues that confront us are those that confront us all, we have different tools and methods with which we can contemplate and with which we can hopefully act.'

The protégés however, will not be chosen until June next year, when each mentor will be presented with a list of three or four finalists selected by a panel of influential artists and arts professionals from all over the world. The mentoring year will begin shortly afterwards, with each protégé receiving a generous 25,000 Swiss francs to support his or her participation in the programme, with a further 25,000 francs available for the creation of a new work at the conclusion of the mentoring year.

'These seven artists have had a profound influence on their disciplines for decades and are held in high esteem by the public and their peers,' said Rebecca Irvin, head of philanthropy at Rolex. 'We acknowledge their generosity in serving as mentors in the Rolex Arts Initiative. They will join the family of internationally acclaimed artists who have committed to passing on their passion and expertise to a younger generation and to be reinvigorated in their own art in return.'

For an architect so closely associated with Englishness, Sir David Chipperfield is about to make some very significant contributions to the New York landscape. Having been chosen to redesign the Metropolitan Museum’s wing for Modern and Contemporary Art, and with last week’s unveiling of a design for The Bryant, a new 37-story tower in midtown Manhattan, the London architect is making quite a mark on New York. From a showroom overlooking his midtown site, Wallpaper* caught up with Chipperfield to discuss his first large-scale residential project in New York.

‘Doing commercial projects can be difficult because there is a confrontation that tends to get set up between the commercial viability and the architectural aspirations of a project,’ he explains. ‘This is a project where we managed to resolve those aspirations, making sure we build something that is commercially viable and architecturally interesting.’

Much of this resolution comes by way of the building’s polished concrete frame. Using a custom-made mixture, Chipperfield arrayed a concrete grid along the building’s perimeter. But rather than treat it as just a facade, those concrete members define both the building’s interior and exterior. ‘We are sitting in a sea of glass-clad buildings,’ he bemoans. ‘There’s a danger that architecture loses its substance, so what we did here is to use this concrete cladding that comes into the building.’

The Bryant, which offers expansive views of the New York skyline and Bryant Park, will house 57 residential units, ranging from one to four bedrooms, and including two triplex penthouses. David Chipperfield Architects also designed the interiors.

Design aside, one of the project’s other big selling points has to do with something a bit more bookish: the city’s historic landmark regulations. Because the site for The Bryant is positioned amidst buildings designated as historically important, it will be the last new development on the perimeter of Bryant Park—and a subtle complement to its historic neighbors. ‘I am told my buildings will make very good ruins,’ Chipperfield says. ‘With this project, we aspired to a calmness, a timelessness.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit The Bryant’s website

ADDRESS

16 West 40th Street, New York, New York, USA

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It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a decade since Loic Le Gaillard and Julien Lombrail opened Carpenters Workshop in London. In those years, the Frenchmen have undoubtedly secured their place (and the place of design-art) in the art world, having championed the artistically functional creations of Joanna Grawunder, Maarten Baas and Nacho Carbonell, just to name some.

This week, the duo is poised to reach new heights with the opening of a New York gallery space, literally. The American outpost is perched on the 19 and 20 floors of the ex-Takashimaya building situated on Fifth Avenue, which was originally designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee. Following the move in of Valentino last year, the building also features David Chipperfield-designed interiors on its first three floors.

Way up above that, the Carpenters Workshop space is comparatively raw and unvarnished, though the double height windows, private elevator and array of collectible design certainly commands its own presence.

‘The American market is very savvy to the decorative arts and design, generally speaking. We’ve been doing a lot of our business with American clients already. Almost 40 per cent of our business is done in the States on a reactive basis. We thought it would make sense for us to come and start knocking on people’s door,’ says Lombrail.

‘We want to convey not only the aesthetic of the gallery but also explain to people how you can live with these pieces,’ he continues. ‘We are very fortunate to have this amazing space on Fifth Avenue. The 19th floor stays mostly as a white box where we will stage some rigorous exhibitions, sometimes showing just one artist at a time to explain the work, and on the 20th floor, we’re going to do something more domestic, where we almost transform the 20th floor as an apartment, which I’d like to believe would become my perfect bachelor’s pad.’

For its opening, the gallery has installed an assortment of its greatest hits; works from recognizable names such as Baas, Carbonell, Rick Owens and Studio Job are mixed in with Wonmin Park’s ‘Haze’ stools, Random International’s interactive wall sculptures and Studio Drift’s swirling ‘Flylight’ chandelier - many of which have on been created specially for the occasion. And since there’s nothing quite like seeing and experiencing the scale and tactility of these thought-provoking pieces in the flesh, we’re predicting that the gallery won’t stay a quiet house for long.

INFORMATION

Website

By appointment only

Photography: Courtesy of Carpenters Workshop

ADDRESS

Carpenters Workshop Gallery
693 Fifth Avenue
19th Floor
New York

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For two thousand years, Hangzhou has been celebrated for its incomparable tableau of unruffled lakes at the foot of green hills, and ancient waterways lined with gardens, temples, and graceful buildings designed by a succession of dynasties enamored with the landscape.  

All the more reason to applaud David Chipperfield Architects' latest project in Hangzhou's western outskirts for its sensitive regard for the city's historical and botanical nuances. Almost a decade in the making, the Xixi (pronounced 'see-see') Wetland Estate is exactly as it sounds - a residential project that's framed by the leafy, wild setting of Xixi, a bucolic national wetland park of droopy willow trees, long stretches of marshland, and aquatic causeways.

Lead architects Mark Randel and Libin Chen have been careful to ensure the apartments blend into the natural and built landscape, stressing that 'the omnipresent relationship between landscape, architecture and water is key to the atmosphere in Xixi.'

That the relationship is explored so sympathetically and unobtrusively is thanks largely to the facts that the buildings - set on rectangular stone plinths that are a hallmark of local village architecture - barely peep over the natural height of the thick vegetation, and that it is nigh impossible to tell where the landscape design by Singapore-based Belt & Collins ends and the natural vegetation begins.

The architects add that the plinths form 'the base of a village group with various levels, walls and balustrades creating a sequence of exterior spaces that enable access to the buildings.' 

Indeed, the sense of a bona fide village compound surrounded by a limpid water garden is unusually well executed. The facades of the two storey-buildings - clad in geometrically striated layers of dark and light stone, and stretched along a central spine of internal courtyards - add to the sense of organic growth.  

Meanwhile, the interiors of each of the forty apartments are marked by a generous flow of space that's awash with natural light that stream in from room-height windows. Needless to say, the soothing views of greenery, water and sky - bolstered by the drawing power of the David Chipperfield brand - have all the makings of a sell-out development. 

Information

Photography: Simon Menges

Last year, Italian company Driade enlisted architect David Chipperfield to curate the brand’s artistic direction. The first steps included introducing new designers to the collection and redesigning the Milanese showroom, now an all-white sculptural space.

As well as contributing product design for the brand, Chipperfield also introduced Driade’s inaugural Image Book, a photographic volume which presents the new pieces as well as furniture from the permanent collection through the art direction of John Morgan. To emphasise the continuity between past, present and future, the latest crop of Konstantin Grcic’s shelves were presented alongside archive pieces by the likes of Nanda Vigo and Marco Zanuso, while the book also includes Driade staples such as Fredrikson Stallard’s 'Basalt' collection and new pieces by design giant Enzo Mari.

Eschewing a standard catalogue style, the pieces, all with a strong sense of modernity and creative flair, were photographed by Berlin-based photographer Simon Menges against the suggestive backdrop of a stone quarry outside Verona.

‘Since its beginnings in 1968, Driade has, through its selection of designers and through the development of objects and furniture, represented a particular attitude, encouraging innovation and individuality, and enjoying a spirit of design diversity,’ says Chipperfield, who since taking the helm of the company has been quietly directing it while celebrating its roots. ‘Going forward, it is the intention of Driade to maintain its contribution to this culture and to continue to develop the generous balance between the individuality of the designer and the lose coherence and perspective so brilliantly determined by [founders] Adelaide Acerbi, Antonia Astori, and Enrico Astori.'