The work of Laurids Gallée is defined by a distinctive sense of colour expressed through transparencies. Working primarily in polymer resin (with occasional experiments in wood or aluminium), the Austrian designer gives the material an almost liquid quality, playing with shape and colour to create objects that defy traditional forms. ‘The creative process is characterised by a mandatory playfulness,’ he says of his work, which is still guided by a serious approach to both traditional and contemporary craftsmanship, and functionality as the final goal (lighting design being a preferred medium).

Despite the glass-like appearance of many of his works, Gallée had never worked with the material until recently, when he collaborated with Moser on a new series of glass vessels. Dubbed ‘Axis’, the collection explores the Czech glassmaker’s creative director Jan Plecháč‘s vision of pushing the expressive boundaries of crystal glass and its manufacturing possibilities. The pieces are defined by an architectural approach (nodding to early 20th-century modernism), with grid-like cuts defining their design in ‘Rosalin’, Moser’s traditional pink hue, which is rendered from a rich brick-like tone on the thick base of the vessels to a delicate shade towards the top.

Within the collection, which also includes tumblers, saucers and a carafe, the vase was particularly challenging to create and pushed the boundaries of the material and the Moser glassmaking workshop. Blown into a mould characterised by a sharp angle, the vase features an angular exterior and round core, both a pure expression of the craft and a feat of technical ability (it can be mouth-blown by only the most experienced glassblowers).

‘Pushing the absolute limits of what’s technically possible is truly exciting,’ comments Gallée. ‘I have immense respect for the craftsmanship of the team at Moser, who have not only surpassed those limits, but even extended them further. It’s an enormous honour for me to work with someone who’s taken their art to such perfection.’

'I never thought the word fragile had negative connotations,' says the curator Valentina Ciuffi, founder of the creative practice Studio Vedèt and the mind behind ‘The Romance of Fragility’, the latest exhibition by Delvis (Un)Limited, debuting during Milan Design Week 2026. Bringing together the work of six designers and design studios – Familiar Form, Serim Kwack, Johan Pertl, Inderjeet Sandhu, Tino Seubert and Maria Tyakina – the show explores the formal limits of glass. 'To me, something that is fragile is something you take care of,' Ciuffi adds. 'It’s something that requires attention.'

Discover Delvis (Un)Limited at Milan Design Week

For the exhibition, Ciuffi selected works with a deliberately broad material expression, from pieces that resemble robust materials such as stone to others that engage more directly with the industrial language of glass.

Prague-based Johan Pertl, for instance, draws on the slow processes of natural land formations. His ‘Erosion’ side table takes cues from the decay of coastlines, with translucent, pink-tinged glass cascading from a white marble plinth, like water gradually wearing away rock. 'It looks as if it comes from another planet,' Ciuffi notes.

Elsewhere, glass becomes a vessel for memory. Familiar Form – founded by Myeonga Seo and Marie Kolářová – revisits the vanishing tradition of Bohemian cut glass, once a staple in Czech homes. Working with craftspeople from the Šumava mountains, the duo repurpose leftover sheet glass into a series of nesting vases, hand-cutting traditional patterns using a diamond grindstone.

The exhibition also pushes beyond functional typologies. The work of Korean designer Serim Kwack, Ciuffi says, 'is like a painting, or a wall hanging'. Using found industrial glass panes, Kwack creates subtle imprints of everyday objects – headphones, keyboards and other domestic items – resulting in ghostly traces suspended within the surface.

For Ciuffi, glass is more than a material defined by transparency and perceived delicacy. It becomes a lens through which to examine our relationship with collectible design itself. 'A lot of the time, collectible design objects are treated as if they’re fragile, even if they’re not,' she says. 'They attract this certain attitude of care about them.'

According to Ciuffi, this project marks the beginning of a broader research into fragility. 'I’d like to work with other materials, like paper, or explore the idea of balance and equilibrium,' she continues. 'But it’s always the same questions: how do we take care of these objects? And how do they inhabit our homes?'

Opening on 21 April 2026, the exhibition features a set design by Space Caviar, a longtime collaborator of Studio Vedèt. The Via Fatebenefratelli showroom will be transformed with glass bricks, creating a material dialogue with the works on display.

Delvis (Un)Limited is at Via Fatebenefratelli 9, 20121 Milano, 10am – 7pm, 21-26 April 2026

The champagne glass is defined by its tall silhouette, slender stem and narrow bowl – designed to highlight the bubbles and keep them from escaping. Yet within these parameters, there is enormous creative freedom. From smooth and streamlined to rough and rustic; geometrically balanced to whimsically asymmetric; and delicate and diaphanous to solid and blocky, the champagne flute is far from a single, prescriptive form. Our selection of design-led glasses proves just that.

14 design-led champagne flutes, hand-picked by Wallpaper* editors

Inside Lalique’s Paris showroom, an imposing townhouse in the 8th arrondissement, the French door panes and handles are masterful works of crystal, reflecting the maison’s meticulous attention to detail. It was here that the brains behind the operation, creative and artistic director Marc Larminaux, presented the brand’s 2026 collections during Paris Design Week.

Lalique’s central offering is ‘Air de Lalique’. Founded in 1888 by René Lalique, a passionate admirer of nature, the brand has always drawn inspiration from the natural world – and more recently, from the elements, which this collection continues to explore. It transforms the intangible into crystal, with pleats, grooves and rivulets of undulating pattern. ‘Designing around air allows us to explore lightness without fragility. It invites us to design not only forms, but sensations,’ says Larminaux.

‘Air de Lalique’ is presented in two iterations: Chapter I, available from March 2 2026, features signature pieces such as the ‘Alizé’ vase, whose colour palette evokes the warmth of a sunset, alongside limited editions in hand-applied rose gold leaf that shimmers like captured light. The collection also includes the ‘Alizé’ bowl, a wide form balanced on three feet, seemingly lifted by an invisible current.

‘Chapter II is unified by the idea of air as movement captured in crystal – whether through light, illusion or elevation,’ continues Larminaux. Launching on September 1 2026, the second iteration of ‘Air de Lalique’ centres around the ‘Alizé’ lighting collection. Each piece – portable lamps, desk lamps, table lamps, wall sconces and ceiling installations – unfolds like fabric moving in the breeze, diffusing light to create a soft, emanating glow.

2026 marks the centenary of the ‘Tourbillons' vase, once assumed to be the handiwork of René Lalique but later discovered, through archival research, to have been designed by his daughter, Suzanne Lalique Haviland, in 1926. The occasion is celebrated with a new edition finished with a coral patina. ‘Revisiting the 'Tourbillons' vase reminds us why Lalique exists: to transform nature, movement and light into crystal,’ says Larminaux.

Larminaux also introduced ‘Teddy Air’, his own personal experiment. These sweet-coloured bear sculptures appear inflated, like balloons, with pink and blue iridescent lusters suggesting a metallic sheen. ‘[They embrace] tenderness and nostalgia, while [other collections] reconnect with Lalique’s naturalistic heritage,’ says the creative director. ‘Both are legitimate expressions of the maison. Lalique has always oscillated between audacity and poetry.’

The creative director reflects on the brand’s evolving identity: ‘I hope [people] will understand that Lalique is not defined by a single era or style. It is a living maison that evolves… while remaining rooted in its values.’ In that spirit, it has ventured into artistic collaborations for the first time: the recurring ‘yawning man’ figure from the work of Chinese cynical realism artist Fang Lijun is brought to life in three dimensions using the lost-wax technique, an ancient method for crafting metal and glass objects. Unlike traditional Lalique pieces, Lijun embraces imperfections, with each head a swirling mass of bubbles and bleeding colour.

From the poetic fluidity of air captured in crystal to collaborations that blur the line between art and craft, Lalique demonstrates in its Paris presentations that true artistry lies not only in preserving tradition but in reimagining it for the future.

'I visited Venice for the first time when I was a little girl. I remember having a Coke on Piazza San Marco at Caffè Florian, being obsessed and mesmerised by the glassware,' recalls jewellery designer Sophie Bille Brahe. Best known for her distinctively modern jewellery, the Danish designer has now launched a collection of glass vases, titled 'Bouquet de Venezia’, perfectly encapsulating that sense of childhood wonder through iridescent glass forms.

Sophie Bille Brahe presents Bouquet de Venezia

Handmade by specialist glass blowers in Murano, the collection comprises eight vases combining traditional forms with a tinted glass normally used in Venetian street lights. It's a nuance the designer has long admired, and spent years perfecting before achieving the right effect in collaboration with master glassmakers.

'There is such a unique tradition of glassblowing in Murano, it feels like its own little world. I have dreamt of doing vases for a long time, and I feel so lucky that I got to do it there,' she says.

In its elegant simplicity, the collection is both an ode to the city and a combination of memory and inspiration for the designer. 'I remember dreaming about how the light reflected on the coloured glass on all the lamp posts in Venice when I was a child,' says Bille Brahe. 'I love Venice at night, when all the reflections shimmer on the canals. It has a special atmosphere that I have never found anywhere else. My favourite thing is to sit on a piazza while watching the city move.'

Available to buy at sophiebillebrahe.com

Glass shakes off its rigid reputation in the hands of Completedworks’ founder Anna Jewsbury, who reinvents the often symmetrical forms of glassware in a playful new collection, ‘Thaw’ – its seemingly melting designs rendered in bold lime-green.

‘Thaw’ lime-green glassware by Completedworks

‘It’s a colour that we’d been thinking about for a while but had been waiting for the right moment – finding the right form and material – and it just works so well for these glass pieces,’ says Jewsbury on why she was drawn to the distinctive fluorescent hue. 

‘I tend to be drawn to quite raw and muted palettes when it comes to interiors, which is why I quite like the opportunity to contrast with a hit of acidic colour through the tableware or decorative objects.’

A recycled glass jug, and wine glasses are inspired by the flow of drapery in a Renaissance painting in their offbeat forms. ‘It’s a really labour-intensive process,’ Jewsbury adds. ‘With the smaller shapes, you have seconds to shape them before the glass cools down. This makes it especially difficult to attach the stem on the “Thaw” wine glass, for example, and it's easy for things to go wrong but I think this is just what makes them extra special.’

The pieces stay faithful to Completedworks’ unique aesthetic, which celebrates a sculptural sensibility with the ripples and flows of hard, precious materials (on display in the new Completedworks London showroom). ‘I find myself always searching for a balance between opposing forces, trying to find the place where opposites meet. There’s something very satisfying about taking a traditional medium such as glassware and subverting it to a place of newness.’

completedworks.com

Canadian artist and designer Omer Arbel stands in the John Madejski Garden at the V&A, watching the most recent element of his series 113 unfold. ‘Material Experiments’ sees a small team of glass-blowers carry out the ongoing series in a ritualistic re-calibration of materials until Friday 23 September and ending in a special late-night performance. 

The process of Arbel’s series begins in local charity shops around London, where a group of 11 artists have selected items made from glass and copper alloys. The objects are then displayed in the V&A’s Santa Chiara Chapel, where they sit until they are chosen by the team to be repurposed. The glass pieces are melted down and blown to form irregular vessels; bowls are stretched into hollow, elongated droplets and a sherry glass is morphed into a lopsided sphere. 

Next, the team melt down the chosen metal object and pour the molten liquid into the quickly contracting containers, causing them to shatter on the surface of the metal and resulting in a carefully designed collision of science and art. 

Arbel’s work is process-based, ‘so a set of parameters are given to us for the design process’ explains Jay MacDonell, glass-blower and director of material explorations at Bocci, ‘then we just choose whatever it takes, and the different aspects come together to form a pathway’.

The input from each decision leaves imprints of the individuals involved in the process. MacDonell describes the patterns within the copper alloy structures as ‘like a memory of the glass form’, and this thread of memories runs smoothly through Arbel’s concept for 113. 

The outcome of the ongoing works, which Arbel started experimenting with in 2019, are spindly copper structures, fragments of metal are left suspended, floating but maintaining their new-found form. The exterior surface of the metal contrasts with its opposing side, having been protected from oxidation by the seal of the now-shattered glass – another shining detail in the experiments that, planned or not, nods to the characteristics of the natural materials. 

Arbel oozes with excitement for the potential of a material overhaul: ‘What I'm proposing is kind of a total reconfiguration of the same raw material,’ he says. ‘I want to ask – what are precious antiquities, what have they lived through and what is their spiritual presence?’

Macdonnell takes a similar tone, explaining that ‘we create this play on the value of pieces from thrift shops that cost so little, but now they’re being shown at the V&A’.

Arbel’s inquisition begs the question: should we melt it all down and start again? And why do we hold so firmly onto relics of the past. His explanation feels like a philosophically fuelled delve into how we value physical forms, and with that query lingering in the air, he sets another intriguing parameter within which our thoughts can flourish. ‘It’s a perfect metaphor for the kind of changes that are happening. Taking old things, melting them down, and then a form being shaped by something that breaks.’ 

See the performance and process

INFORMATION

vam.ac.uk

With 2020 feeling like an unending uphill climb, the open and collaborative sentiment championed by the cult New York designer Lauren Manoogian is a balm for the spirits we didn’t know we needed. The knitwear specialist is currently showcasing 21 vessels by the Parisian designer and artist Lætitia Jacquetton in her Manhattan showroom and online. Delicate, organic glass forms are uniquely paired with rocks foraged in the countryside.
 
‘Showcasing the work of other artists and craftspeople has been an intention for some time,’ Manoogian shares. ‘I like the idea of having a platform to highlight other people’s work that I love and feel inspired by. The first installment in Object came organically through travels to Peru and discovering the interesting ceramic traditions throughout different regions. Now more than ever as we are all pushed further into digital mediums, it feels very vital to have that sense of wonder and emotional connection to objects.’

In Jacquetton’s practice, the artist combines the traditional expertise of glass blowing, which she learnt in Murano, Italy and in Nancy, in Eastern France, with a keen sensitivity to the natural environment. Each of her sculptural pieces involves blowing glass around rocks that she has consciously selected from nature, while paying attention not to disturb the natural surroundings where they were found. Imbued with both a sense of rarity and reverence, these vessels poetically articulate a moment in time captured in solid form.
 
For Manoogian, who met Jacquetton in Paris several years ago, the similarities in their work boils down to the seemingly simplistic, yet transformative use of materials.
 
‘Both are sculptural and have very defined proportions but have a mutable quality that is arrived at in a very intuitive way,’ Manoogian reflects. ‘This makes them approachable and suitable for elevating daily life. In that way both of our work is very intimate in end use and also in the process. There is a tactility that is evident in both our work and experimentation to find that perfect tension point in materials that influences the final form. ’
 
Ultimately, it’s the deliberate connection to nature that Jacquetton’s vessels articulate, that capture the imagination. ‘I like and respect the intention and the uncontrollable elements in the process,’ Manoogian concludes. ‘There is an element of risk in making each piece as she is working quickly and utilizing gravity and fire—the end result is very gestural and encapsulates the moment when everything came together. That is what makes each piece so alive, so unique.’

INFORMATION

laurenmanoogian.com

It’s hard to beat the luck of the Irish, but with regards to a new design collaboration between Irish crystal manufacturers J. Hill Standard and fellow countryman, the artist and illustrator Nigel Peake, it’s not just luck that’s on their side. The two have come together on a beautiful collection of crystal glassware that’s been named ‘Hand Drawn Glass’, which departs from the rigidly cut patterns of traditional cut crystal and embraces a more fluid approach to form and embellishment.

The collection is comprised of a limited edition series of four patterns, and complemented by an open edition of seven other patterns. Peake, who’s known for his intricate paintings and illustrations of build and unbuilt landscapes, has conceived three tumblers in various sizes, as well as a carafe, a decanter and a bowl. The designs embrace clean, elemental shapes and where deployed, cuts in the crystal reveal the imprint of the artist’s hand by capturing the spontaneous and fleeting movements of line drawing.

‘Making cut crystal comes with a heavy weight of visual history,’ explains J. Hill Standard’s founder Anike Tyrell. ‘I found someone who can draw in an effort to usurp the immutable cut patterns. We began to explore a more organic approach to making - honouring the hand that makes and showing it's imprint. The glass is both the drawing and the drawn upon - the creative impulse caught on the wing.'

For this new collection, the company has not only fused traditional craftsmanship with contemporary form, but championed new flourishes as well. Some of the designs are accompanied by robust, oak-wood lids (signed by Peake) that effortlessly transforming simple everyday shapes into versatile vessels, containers and jars that can be cleverly used away from the dining table.

Find the Hand Drawn Glass collection exhibited at Atelier Courbet in New York’s Chelsea district this month.

INFORMATION

nigelpeake.com

jhillsstandard.com

On a wet March day in a small industrial town, under an hour north-west of Venice, Ronan Bouroullec is in the main hall of a vast glass-casting factory belonging to London-based brand WonderGlass. Here, basking in the glow of the furnaces, he is standing atop a platform to get a bird’s-eye view of the factory floor below, where a team of craftsmen wrestle with vats of molten glass, expertly working it into simple but elegant shapes. The sculptural designs are new pieces by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for WonderGlass, set to be unveiled during Milan’s Salone del Mobile.

Although it is the Paris-based brothers’ first collaboration with the brand, it’s not their first with its co-founder, Maurizio Mussati, who recently completed an eight-year tenure at furniture brand Established & Sons. ‘For me, Ronan and Erwan are the best in the business,’ says Mussati. ‘They are very precise. Ronan is also very direct. If he doesn’t like something, he will tell you. He doesn’t compromise.’

Mussati founded WonderGlass with his son and business partner Christian Mussati in 2013, launching an impressive debut collection of lights designed by industry heavyweights Nendo, Jaime Hayon, Nao Tamura and Zaha Hadid.

While the company produces glass collections under its own name – and also runs WonderLab, a research department focusing on innovation, bespoke solutions and the blending of glass with other materials – the Mussatis estimate that more than 50 per cent of their business lies in creating bespoke works in glass for other brands and architects, most of the time anonymously. Chanel’s glass-brick storefront in Amsterdam, designed by MVRDV, was produced at the WonderGlass factory, while architect Richard Meier called upon its expertise to produce some of his lighting collection last year. ‘The industry knows that we are the best in Europe for cast-glass production,’ says Maurizio, who divides his time between Venice and London. ‘The team is fantastic; they’ve worked together for at least 15 years and they are like a machine, each one has his own role.’

Ronan Bouroullec (centre) is flanked by WonderGlass founders Maurizio Mussati (left) and Christian Mussati (right) at the brand’s factory near Venice.

Called Alcova, meaning ‘a place where the lovers meet’ in Italian, the Bouroullecs’ cast-glass collection comprises alcoves and cylindrical vessels that together form shrine-like displays in a delicate palette of grey, green, clear and amber. The alcoves, made in three different shapes, form a backdrop for the thick glass cylinders, which can be displayed individually or stacked to create tall vessels. ‘We’ve designed vases since the beginning,’ says Ronan, who set up design shop with Erwan in 1998. ‘But there has very often been a question of how to display or how to link a composition.’

The arched alcove shape is a familiar fixture in the Bouroullecs’ design vocabulary, appearing in creations such as their ‘Conque’ lights (2010) and ‘Honda’ vases (2001) for Galerie Kreo. The brothers are also experienced in working with glass, having collaborated with both Glas Italia and Iittala on blown-glass pieces. But the glass-casting technique that produces the new collection’s organic, imperfect finish is one that they only discovered in 2016.

‘The starting point for the collection was a project in which we created a table with a cast-glass top and blown-glass legs,’ recalls Ronan. ‘The cast table top was made using a particular technique that we wanted to take further.’ The discovery of the process led the Bouroullecs to WonderGlass, and the Alcova project has been in the works since July last year.

To create the alcoves, a group of eight craftsmen pour the molten glass onto a flat surface and roll it out like dough into an even thickness. The molten glass is then scooped up like a pizza and draped over the mould, where the craftsmen, equipped with masks and all manner of tools, surround the glowing orange form like a pack moving in on their prey, before speedily setting to work trimming its edges, ironing out its kinks and smoothing out the surface until a perfect alcove form is achieved.

The piece is left to cool for a minute, then prised away from the mould before being lifted into an annealing oven (or lehr), where the temperature is carefully controlled to avoid cracking or shattering the glass as it cools. ‘The cooling process can take a few hours or longer depending on the thickness and size of the glass,’ explains Christian as he watches the craftsmen carefully transferring the pieces into the lehr. ‘There’s a very precise formula.’

Ronan Bouroullec examines an alcove. Its thick glass shows off the marks of the production process.

Meanwhile, the creation of the simple-looking cylinders, he says, has been much more challenging. In this case, the glass is poured into a cylindrical mould in a slow spiral motion. Removing the glass from the mould is particularly challenging as it’s prone to cracking if it cools too quickly. If all goes well, the result is thick, glass sculptures that appear like blocks of ice, proudly displaying fold lines and imperfections created by the making process.

‘It is not a decorative effect; it’s the result of the piece’s manufacture, because with all of this imperfection, you understand a bit about how it has been made,’ says Ronan, examining the coiled layers of glass in one of the cylindrical vessels.

‘What is interesting here is to find the parameter of imperfection – the point where imperfection is interesting and where it stops,’ he continues. ‘I am more and more interested in this question of sensuality and vibrations inside a piece. These pieces are full of life because they are not made by a robot or a machine.’

For the Mussatis, the Alcova collection, which they describe as ‘a major investment’, is a chance to demonstrate that their factory is capable of producing much more than just lighting. ‘We understand that, very often, WonderGlass is perceived as a lighting company, and that is not all that we are,’ explains Maurizio. ‘We want to make clear that we are a glass company and we are ready to say yes to everything.’

As originally featured in the May 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*230)

INFORMATION

The Alcova collection by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec is at WonderGlass’ ‘Kosmos’ exhibition, on show from 17 – 22 April at Salone del Mobile. For more information, visit the Wonderglass website and Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s website

ADDRESS

Istituto dei Ciechi
Vivaio 7
Milan

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An inventive, transborder design collaboration sees the light of day at the 15th edition of Zona Maco art fair in Mexico City (7-11 February). Two of Mexico’s coveted designers, Héctor Esrawe and Emiliano Godoy, have teamed up with the LA-based Brian Thoreen to produce a collection that pushes the boundaries of glass design.

Fifteen pieces are on display this week at the booth of Nouvel Studio, a Mexico City-based glassblowing brand and workshop, who commissioned the project — and more pieces are in the making. Combining functionality and innovation, the design objects incorporate materials like steel, brass and stone, and place them into an unlikely dialogue with glass, where minimalism meets organic forms.

‘Our ambition was to confront these materials with glass, and highlight the beauty of Nouvel Studio’s craftsmanship,’ explains Godoy, a leader in sustainable design. When the brand approached the two Mexican designers (who are long-time collaborators), Esrawe quickly suggested to include Thoreen, who is now in the process of relocating his design studio to Mexico City. ‘There’s freedom that comes from affordable space, and a culture of pushing creative boundaries,’ explains the designer of his new adopted home.

The untitled collection is composed of five different strands, each with a distinctive approach to glass work and materiality. At Zona Maco, the series ‘Precarious’ is the most represented, and consists of glass pieces formed around steel and brass plates, co-existing in a delicate calibration. ‘The contrast is quite severe,’ affirms Thoreen, whose previous solo collection ‘Unsettled’ debuted at Patrick Parrish in New York last year. ‘The glass is transparent, while the plates are rougher and less refined,’ he continues.

Meanwhile, the series ‘Bedrock’ and ‘The Upside Down’ introduce the use of locally-sourced stone. The first consists of light, coral pink rectilinear volumes, gracefully proportioned between an open glass container and the stone-based foundation it delicately rests on. And the second combines a rough, chiseled stone pyramid with a glass cylinder, which, depending on its configuration, can be used as a side table or a vase.

‘We left many in-progress concepts and pieces for future collections,’ explains Esrawe of the ongoing collaboration. In the midst of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiation, this feels like a timely reminder that innovation across borders continue to advance the creative fields in exciting and, often, unexpected ways.

INFORMATION

Zona Maco is on view until 11 February. For more information, visit the Zona Maco website, the Esrawe website, the Emiliano Godoy website, the Brian Thoreen website and the Nouvel Studio website

ADDRESS

Centro Citibanamex
Lomas de Sotelo
Hipódromo de las Américas
11200 Miguel Hidalgo
CDMX 
Mexico

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

There's a time and a place for white china and clear crystal. This isn't it. At Wallpaper*, we tend to skew bolder. As summer reaches its peak, so too does hosting season, and colourful glassware is one of the simplest ways to bring a dining table or cocktail station to life.

Jewel-bright and luminous, our edit brings together favourite pieces from Wallpaper* stalwart brands. From hand-blown showstoppers to hand-painted works of art, all make a joyful statement.

Colourful glassware to brighten your tablescape

Beer brewing is a serious business in Norway, rooted in the country’s past. It gets a mention in early Norse mythology, and the Vikings were known to be keen. Local laws from around 1000AD required all farmers to brew and drink beer during special celebrations – or face penalties such as banishment from the country. It’s this history that inspired Oslo-based designer Sverre Uhnger to team up with Norwegian glass manufacturer Magnor on a set of glasses to celebrate local brewing tradition and create the perfect beer-drinking experience.

Uhnger and the team at Magnor had long been keen to collaborate, but when they landed on the idea of beer glasses, Uhnger decided some insider expertise was needed. He worked closely with beer specialist Terje Wiese, manager of Oslo restaurant Sentralen, and Anders Roede, founder of the city’s St Hallvards brewery. Together, they developed the collection, called Brygg (‘brew’ in Norwegian).

‘We started discussing glasses available on the market and their particularities,’ says Uhnger. ‘I wanted Terje and Anders’ opinions on sizes and shapes.’ The designer then developed 3D-printed models of the different forms he had in mind, trying them out over the following months and modifying them to get the ideal performance. ‘We tasted beer from the models and we continued working like this until we were satisfied that we had shapes that would perfectly deliver the aroma and the taste,’ Uhnger adds.

The collection comprises four beer glasses, and an aquavit glass (not pictured), which was developed separately in collaboration with spirits producer Arcus. Each glass is designed to enhance the qualities of a specific beverage, with bell shapes, stem heights and mouth sizes adapted for each type. There’s a Pils glass, an IPA glass, a glass for rich, full-bodied beers like porter and stout, and another for wheat beers (this is the tallest in the collection, Uhnger explains, because wheat brews come in 50cl bottles that have to be emptied fully into the glass).

‘Sverre’s designs work because they are the first series of beer glasses to combine aesthetics and function,’ says Roede. ‘For example, there are other IPA glasses out there, but they are about function only. They bring out the aromas of the beer, but are not easy to look at. These glasses are pleasing to the eye and other senses.’

Each piece is mouth-blown, and Uhnger’s design posed a production challenge. He introduced a subtle visual innovation in the shape of the stem, which points upwards. Glasses usually have a straight or downward-pointing stem, Uhnger explains, which is the result of blowing a glass bowl and reheating its bottom to achieve the stalk. ‘We flipped that around and that was a bit demanding,’ he says. ‘The shape of the bowl is what defines the experience of the user, while the stem is more subtle but one of the main aesthetic features for me.’

The Brygg collection is available to buy from Magnor, and the glasses are being used by Wiese to serve beer at Sentralen and by Roede in tastings at St Hallvards. ‘When I started researching this project, I realised that spirits and brewing is a really dangerous field to go into – people in the business can get almost emotionally involved,’ says Uhnger, only half joking. ‘It’s satisfying to work with experts, making something that works well and that they would want to use themselves.’

As originally featured in the January 2017 issue of Wallpaper* (W*214)

INFORMATION

The Brygg collection, from NOK239 (€26) each. For more information, visit the Magnor website and the Uhnger website

Peter Saville’s new glassware for the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) is a nod to not only Manchester’s part in the industrial revolution, but also to its role in the postmodern cultural overhaul enacted by punk and rave. Styled after laboratory flasks, each of Saville’s three vases has his diagonal warning stripes design etched across it, a symbol he originally re-appropriated for Factory Records when he co-founded it in 1979.

This graphic sampling of hazard stripes for Factory (which was hand-drawn; this was pre-web) was a way of reclaiming Manchester’s industrial identity, which by the 1970s had become associated with unemployment and the past. The stripes appeared across the label’s record sleeves and promo material, and designer Ben Kelly incorporated them into his interior scheme at the Haçienda, most famously on the floor.

The vases are MSI’s first venture into design products beyond your average museum shop merchandise. MSI is part of the Science Museum Group, which is embarking on a new series of product design partnerships with high profile designers at its London museums, starting with a collaboration with Zaha Hadid Architects that pays tribute to the firm's new Kensington mathematics gallery.

This collaboration is part of a current wave of cultural institutions integrating the club scene of the 1980s and 1990s into art history history and design heritage. Saville thinks the realities of ageing and economics are driving the resurgent interest in rave culture in the arts and design world, both among creators and audiences. ‘It’s a cycle,’ he says, explaining, ‘A quarter of a century ago “rave” was the principle youth movement, so it was immersive and formative for many who now form an affluent consumer strata and have cultural appreciation.’

Saville has served as consultant creative director for the City of Manchester since 2004, and the glassware launch comes in advance of the museum’s integration into a broader cultural vision for Manchester, one that seeks to inspire popular enthusiasm by emphasising the legacy of the Haçienda and Factory Records. Saville’s three-stripe design, originally created for MSI’s entrance gates in 2013, combines that recent history with city signage from further back, namely Manchester’s coat of arms, which uses three stripes to represent local rivers Irwell, Medlock and Irk. Saville stripped the number of hazard lines he used for Factory back to three for MSI to echo this symbolism.

As Manchester was the birthplace of the industrial revolution, MSI essentially tells the story of the machine age. Saville’s postmodern reclamation of that faded, jaded era through his design is therefore particularly pertinent to the institution’s purpose. MSI now owns Factory’s archives of design drawings, posters, guest lists and business correspondence, primarily made up of the collection of Rob Gretton (manager of New Order/Joy Division and partner in Factory and the Haçienda), and has on loan a number of objects from the Anthony H Wilson Estate (Tony Wilson founded the Haçienda and was known as Mr Manchester). To top it all off, a new Manchester concert hall, designed by OMA, is set to open beside MSI; it’s called The Factory – a reminder that today’s youthful rebellion will be tomorrow’s cultural canon.

INFORMATION
First editions of the flasks are £99 each. For more information, visit the Science Museum website

Last year, French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec delighted us with a collection of vases made in collaboration with Finnish brand Iittala. The range was titled 'Ruutu', a Finnish word meaning diamond or square which aptly described the pieces’ shapes. Colourful and geometric, the collection was a good demonstration of the brothers’ way with colour and simple forms.

Now the brothers are back with a new exploration of the medium. This time, however, they have taken glassblowing to a new extreme, creating oversized shapes that combine colour and texture in a novel way. Working again with the Finnish glassmaker (which also produced Alvar Aalto’s legendary glassworks), the Bouroullecs created a collection of 14 unique pieces in sizes that pushed the manufacturing possibilities of the material, with heights ranging from 35–63cm high.

To be able to produce vases in this size, the thickness of the glass was increased, resulting in a textured finish, which became an integral part of the design. The set features clear glass as well as olive green and amber colours – when combined the three shades create a series of juxtapositions and shadows that extend the collection’s aesthetic possibilities.

INFORMATION

'Ruutu' One-Off Edition is on display until 24 Decmber 2016. For more information, visit the Galerie Kreo website

ADDRESS

14A Hay Hill
London
W1J 8NZ

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The last ten years have not been kind to Mexico’s glass blowing communities. Increased operation costs and competition from global brands has seen over 75 per cent of the country’s studios close their doors while the remaining 25 per cent are struggling to keep them open.

Determined that their community won’t meet the same fate, Studio Xaquixe, an artisan glass-blowing collective tucked away in the hills of Eastern Oaxaca, have teamed with luxury whisky brand Chivas Regal and social entrepreneurs Apolis to kick start a new social initiative that will secure the future of their community.

Raan and Shea Parton of Apolis, a socially motivated lifestyle brand who are experts in bridging commerce and economic development, made the connection between Chivas Regal and Xaquixe when the former approached them to design a new set of glass tumblers for its ‘Art of Hosting’ gift pack.

Seeing a greater potential in the project, Apolis and Chivas teamed up to donate the surplus glass produced during the manufacturing of the tumblers to Studio Xaquixe’s 380 sq m recycled glassblowing facility. Here, a community of 14 artisans transform the scrap glass into new pieces, which so far encompass a carafe and drinking glass, a scented candle and vase, all designed by Apolis. Then, using Apolis’s Global Citizen Exchange platform, the new glassware is sold online across the globe.

‘With the invaluable support from Chivas and Apolis our carefully-crafted products have the opportunity to be globally showcased; reaching new markets, but most importantly, inspiring people that are eager for change,’ says Salvador Pulido, a spokesman for the Studio Xaquixe Collective. ‘A hand-blown item from Oaxaca demonstrates that glassware can be sustainable, beautiful and created in the most unexpected places.’

INFORMATION

Apolis and Studio Xaquixe’s 100 per cent recycled glassware collection is available to buy via Indiegogo

For decades, the Irish house Waterford Crystal has been synonymous with celebratory times. Its vast collection includes a variety of vessels for any drinking occasion, while its New Year’s Eve crystal ball, which descends on New York’s Times Square every year, is the centrepiece of one of the world’s biggest street parties.

The company is more than two centuries old, but it has never stopped reinventing itself and finding new ways to approach crystal. ‘You have to be very cautious of how you treat a legend,’ says Emily Brophy, who is responsible for the company’s marketing strategy. Her father was an apprentice at Waterford in the 1960s and stayed on as a glass cutter until 2004. Some of the apprentices he himself trained are now master cutters at the company and teaching a new generation of craftsmen. ‘Our crafts of cutting, blowing, sculpting and engraving have been lovingly passed from one generation to the next,’ says Brophy. Passing on this craft is an incredibly important element of Waterford Crystal’s strategy: the 160 artisans working in the Irish factory (based in the southern Irish city from which the company takes its name) have all learned the craft at Waterford as apprentices, and many of them have joined the company through family ties. A new generation of apprentices is introduced every few years to ensure the skills stay alive.

Everything produced in Waterford (in a new factory opened in 2010) is crafted by hand, from the crystal itself, to the wooden tools and moulds the glass blowers use to shape it in its molten form, to the patterns carved by master cutters using diamond-tipped wheels.

The company’s designs have been subtly renewed throughout the years, maintaining a traditional appearance while exploring new languages through the material. The Lismore pattern, the company’s most celebrated design, was introduced by Miroslav Havel, who became chief designer in 1947 after moving to Ireland from Czechoslovakia. It was inspired by the Gothic windows of the castle of the same name, owned by the Duke of Devonshire and located near the Irish town. It’s a pattern that has been applied to virtually every conceivable crystal object, and the most recognisable feature of the company’s production. Designed in 1952, its features have twice been given a contemporary spin: in 2006 by then-creative director John Connolly (who was asked by a customer to create a modern version of her mother’s crystalware) and again in 2012, to celebrate its 60th anniversary, by global design manager Matt Kehoe.

‘Our history is very clear and celebrated throughout our production,’ says Brophy of the company that is gracefully walking the fine line between an illustrious past and a contemporary outlook. ‘We are very serious about protecting the brand’s heritage,’ she continues, ‘but at the same time keeping its culture moving towards a contemporary way of life.’ 

Carlo Scarpa would have been thrilled to learn that the works he designed for art-glass manufacturer Venini is now the subject of a major exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. 'I would rather, on the whole, build museums than skyscrapers - though logic may say otherwise,' the Italian architect once said, 'since the former may be perhaps creative, while the latter requires one to adapt and subordinate oneself to things as they are.'

His appetite for injecting bold new ideas, forms and processes into established traditions is apparent in each of the approximately 300 works in the new exhibition, adapted from a 2012 show at Le Stanze del Vetro in Venice. Scarpa's glass innovations - from his bubble-studded bollicine pieces to the rare, ceramic-like murrine opache works - appear both daring and timeless exhibited alongside the Met's Qing porcelain, ancient Greek and Roman cast glass and 19th-century Murano vessels.

ADDRESS

Metropolitan Museum of Art 

1000 Fifth Avenue 

New York, NY 10028

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