In the heart of Cap Ferret – a quaint oyster village situated on France’s west coast often dubbed the French Hamptons – Hôtel Villa Colette has just opened its doors, marking the first outpost of the Utopik Collection outside of Paris. The brainchild of French entrepreneur Laurent Taïeb and designer Philippe Starck, also behind Maison Heler Metz and Brach Madrid, the two long-time friends set out to capture what they call a ‘happy nostalgia,’ their poetic interpretation of a destination which they are deeply tied to.

‘We wanted to bring something special, and we designed Hôtel Villa Colette as if our friends and I were going to be the future guests,’ says Starck, who is not a stranger to the area.

Down the street, Starck owns a home where he spends much of his time with his wife and daughter. ‘I have been living here for 45 years now, which has felt like 45 years in paradise. It is a magical place that perfectly embodies the French spirit,’ he says.

The first 5-star hotel in Cap Ferret, Hôtel Villa Colette is a welcome addition to the limited hospitality landscape on the peninsula, which has long been known as a discreet hideaway for the rich and famous. With just 28 rooms, the property is designed as an intimate hideaway, a sort of secondary home that guests will want to return to over and over again.

Wallpaper* checks in at Hôtel Villa Colette, Cap Ferret

What’s on your doorstep?

Just a few steps from Hôtel Villa Colette is the main shopping street, lined with independent boutiques offering everything from laid-back surfer fashion to niche labels, design furniture and art galleries, and restaurant shacks and cafés perfect for a casual bite.

On one side of the peninsula, the calm waters of the Arcachon Basin; on the other, the wild Atlantic Ocean, where surfers can catch waves over two metres tall. For guests eager to discover the bay from the water, the hotel can arrange private boat charters with a skipper. A stop at the Dune of Pilat is an absolute must – the tallest sand dune in Europe – bordered by the bay on one side and an expansive pine forest on the other, before docking at an oyster shack, the most famous of which is La Cabane Hortense, for a platter of fresh oysters farmed a few metres from the restaurant.

Who’s behind the design?

Starck may be the creative force behind the interiors of Hôtel Villa Colette, but the project is, at its core, a shared vision between the designer and Taïeb.

‘My vision for Villa Colette began with my fascination for the elegance and singularity of French actresses from the 1930s to the 1950s. I imagined the story of one of these great actresses: at the end of her career, she leaves her Parisian apartment on Avenue Foch, to retreat to the countryside, settling into a humble house near the beach, in an oyster-farming village,’ explains Starck.

‘She repaints the interior of her home in soft tones – faded powder pink, very pale lemon yellow – creating an intimate and soothing space. Throughout the house, she scatters her memories: fragments of her life as an actress, family mementoes, traces of a rich past that inhabit the space,’ he continues.

The opening space – part lobby, part foyer, part bar – perfectly embodies Starck’s vision, with paper flower bouquets, geometric cushions, ruched lampshades, a wood-burning stove and a Klein piano from the 1950s.

In the dining room, reminiscent of a Spanish patio, the eye is immediately drawn toward an open kitchen framed by a still life by the Parisian classical painting house Troubetzkoy. Above, a retractable glass roof opens up on warm summer nights, allowing guests to dine beneath the stars.

The room to book

The hotel features 28 rooms and suites, each carrying through the same design language, from the classic rooms to the Prestige Suites spanning over 55 sq m. Every room includes an outdoor space – a garden on the ground floor or a balcony overlooking the bay or pine trees on the first floor. For the best view and stunning sunrises, book one of the two Cap Ferret Prestige Suites, looking out over the square and the bay.

Washed in powder pink, the rooms feel light and airy. Beige furnishings, mahogany headboards and side tables, pink-and-grey veined marble, and touches of stainless steel create a cohesive aesthetic. Mirrors hung on the wall frame photographs of Cap Ferret landscapes enhanced by AI, bringing to life a dreamlike version of the destination.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

The on-site restaurant led by chef Benjamin Six adopts a culinary approach designed to complement the peninsula’s existing offerings, rather than compete with other local restaurants. The cuisine leans international, with strong Asian influences, resulting in dishes that feel both creative and bold in flavours.

From breakfast to Sunday brunch, lunch, tea time, and dinner, the restaurant offers a variety of experiences, ensuring guests never feel limited in choice.

At the bar, order one of the five signature cocktails or a non-alcoholic creation. Drinks are crafted using syrups made from local pine and spirits infused with regional flowers – subtle nods to the surrounding landscape, captured in a glass.

The verdict

It was almost inevitable that Philippe Starck would lend his name to such a deeply personal project in a destination he knows and loves so well. From the moment guests step onto the property, they are transported into Starck’s universe: a dreamlike hallucination that feels perfectly at home in Cap Ferret.

Hôtel Villa Colette is located at 39 Bd de la Plage, 33970 Lège-Cap-Ferret, France

Philippe Starck is a designer with a kaleidoscopic mind, one forever brimming with playfully subversive ideas that strike a perfect harmony between form and function. While his industrial work often leans towards the nuanced and pared-back, it’s in his hospitality projects that his imagination erupts into full rhapsody.

Earlier this year, the French creative unveiled his vision for Brach Madrid, the Evok Collection’s second Brach property following its Paris debut. For Starck, the interiors were never meant to feel like ‘decoration or architecture’. Instead, he conjured a love story to drive the design: a woman, adored by a man who fills her space with objects that evoke their romance. Rooms, accordingly, are joyously eclectic with elements like castanets, a tambourine, or a guitar dotted around.

Philippe Starck designs Maison Heler Metz

Now, 771 miles north of the Spanish capital, Starck has unveiled another hotel, one just as grounded in fiction as in form. In Metz’s Amphitheatre neighbourhood, Maison Heler Metz, part of the Curio Collection by Hilton, makes an arresting first impression: a towering brutalist base topped with a perfectly preserved 19th-century Lorraine house. This nine-storey monolith, housing 104 rooms and suites, joins a city already dense with Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Art Nouveau influences –and somehow doesn’t feel entirely out of place.

‘Maison Heler is a game on uprooted roots,’ Starck says. ‘A symbolic construction of Lorraine, whose historical identities create an inspiring intermediate state. The fortress-like houses of the region served as the central soil for this project, and the surreal story of its owner, Manfred Heler.’ That imagined owner is the protagonist of The Meticulous Life of Manfred Heler, a fictional tale written by Starck himself and published by Allary Éditions, which became the conceptual backbone of the hotel’s design.

Starck recounts: ‘Manfred Heler has inherited his parents’ beautiful house. As an orphan, he finds himself all alone in this mansion surrounded by a large park. One day, suddenly, the earth begins to tremble. He looks around and realises that he’s rising into the air. He climbs and climbs, until the shaking stops. His house has been extruded, as if a cookie-cutter had arrived from below, sliced off a piece of the earth, and mounted it vertically.’

Needless to say, there’s nothing cookie-cutter about the look of Maison Heler Metz. Guests (and curious non-guests) can access the house in the sky by heading to the ninth floor, home to the hotel’s restaurant, La Maison de Manfred. Open from breakfast through to a final nightcap, it offers a warm take on comforting French cuisine, with scenic views over the city below.

Inside, fiction continues to bleed into form. Warm, tactile details add a sense of familiarity – think natural wood and leather furniture, terracotta tiles, stacked logs, and central columns wrapped in deep green, embossed leather. Meanwhile, Starck’s daughter, Ara, created 19 stained glass windows for the restaurant, including one monumental piece that bathes the dining room in a cathedral-like wash of colour.

Maison Heler Metz, Curio Collection by Hilton, is located at 31 Rue Jacques Chirac, 57000 Metz, France.

For years, Madrid’s luxury hospitality scene was defined by a classic trio: The Ritz (now The Mandarin Oriental Ritz), The Westin Palace, and the historic Gran Hotel Inglés, which has stood since 1886. But the landscape is shifting. Since The Madrid Edition’s debut in 2022, the city has welcomed a wave of bold, design-forward newcomers. The latest to shake things up? Evok Collection with its new Brach Madrid hotel, its second in the Brach series, following the debut Paris property. When asked ‘Why Madrid?’, co-founder and managing director Emmanuel Sauvage doesn’t hesitate: ‘It’s simple, Brach is energy, it’s warm, it’s lively, it’s magnetic, and well, Gran Via is lively, it’s magnetic, it’s life, it’s energy!’

Wallpaper* checks in at: Brach Madrid

What’s on your doorstep?

From the hotel's spot on Gran Vía – Madrid’s beating heart, full of boutiques, cocktail bars, cafés, theatres, and cinemas – the real question isn’t what’s nearby, but what isn’t. This vibrant thoroughfare, a melting pot of Vienna Secession, New York Art Deco, Plateresque, Neo-Mudejar, and Haussmannian architectural styles, has earned its reputation as the city’s Broadway. Just moments away, the famed Paseo del Arte – home to the Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza, and Reina Sofía museums – offers a direct line to the artistic and cultural influences that have shaped the hotel itself.

Who is behind the design?

Acclaimed French industrial designer and architect Philippe Starck is no stranger to the world of luxury hotels, with over 40 projects to his name. Nor is he new to Evok Collection, having designed the original Brach in Paris. While Brach Paris was conceived as a ‘cultural hotel’, Starck describes Brach Madrid as one built on ‘love and passion’. ‘It is not about decoration, nor architecture; it is the opposite of trends,’ he explains. ‘Brach Madrid is a unique hotel for its desire to immerse us in a poetic, romantic Madrid story of happy nostalgia.’

The hotel stands on the site of the former Palacio de Masserano, built between 1919 and 1922 by architect Jerónimo Pedro Mathet Rodríguez – where French Romantic writer Victor Hugo lived as a child. Brach Madrid embraces the past in its details while speaking the language of contemporary design, a form of modern nostalgia. Its listed façades have been restored to their original condition, while interiors channel the spirit and energy of 1920s and 1930s Madrid. The public spaces hum with the city’s vibrancy, but the guest rooms and suites? They offer a world entirely their own.

The room to book

Brach Madrid offers 57 rooms, including three suites, designed to feel like an intimate, eclectic private home. Wood panelling, leather, pottery, and basketwork create a sense of warmth and softness, while pops of bright pink and orange in the tassels and trimmings nod to the vibrant chaquetillas of traditional bullfighting attire and the energy of Spanish dance. The bathrooms make a statement with breccia floors and an oversized mirror framed in glazed terracotta. Abstract botanical swirls and organic patterns emerge from the deep moss-green enamel, accented with bronze highlights.

Every inch of the space is layered with meaning. Starck envisions a love story – a woman adored by a man who fills the room with objects that evoke their romance: castanets, a tambourine, a guitar, a travel diary drawn across the leather headboard. ‘Everything has been imagined, specially created, crafted, or sourced. The colours, fabrics, materials, and furniture all weave the story of this couple. But guests are free to reinterpret it in their own way,’ he says. For ultimate comfort, book the Antonio suite, which can be interconnected with a deluxe room via a shaded terrace overlooking the city.

Minibar high?

The minibar is well-stocked with soft drinks, wines, champagne, and premium spirits like Clase Azul Reposado Tequila and Belvedere Organic Vodka – perfect for mixing cocktails at the in-room station. The ‘Épicerie Evok’ section adds a gourmet touch with truffle chips, praline almonds, and, naturally, jamón. There’s also an in-room mini-concept store that offers an eclectic mix of Brach merchandise, including candles, perfumes, toiletry bags, and even a bike bell.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

For Brach Le Restaurant, Starck set out to capture the spirit of a grand café in 1920s Madrid – a lively, intellectual hub where poets of the Generation of ’27, an influential group of writers, including Federico García Lorca and Rafael Alberti, might have gathered. The space boasts rich, wood-panelled walls, tilted mirrors, a dramatic fresco, leather accents, and theatrical lighting. Chef Adam Bentalha curates a sun-soaked Mediterranean menu – begin the journey with warm Challah bread and a refreshing olive and fig tapenade to dip in.

Meanwhile, La Pâtisserie pays tribute to the coffee-and-pastry ritual cherished by both Parisians and Madrileños. Whether you stay in or take away, expect regal Paris-Brests, indulgent éclairs, creamy flans, and more. Tucked within this space is an intimate cocktail bar. All of the objects and paintings seen across the food and beverage areas were sourced by Starck for over three years, from auction catalogues, aiming to evoke the artistic soul of early 20th-century Spain.

Where to switch off

While the rest of the hotel is rooted in rich, weighty materials, La Capsule spa takes a different approach – a serene, cloud-like retreat. ‘Weightlessness changes relativity and the weight of the body is replaced by pure spiritual energy,’ Starck explains. Cream marble interiors set the tone for a tranquil escape, featuring a 20m swimming pool, mindful movement sessions, and fitness coaching. Wellness extends to high-tech therapies, including a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, guided ice baths, an infrared sauna, a steam room, a flotation bath, and a recovery room. Guests can also indulge in specialised treatments such as cupping, Tui Na, Chi Nei Tsang massages, electrostimulation, LED photobiomodulation, and cryotherapy.

The verdict

Brach Madrid offers a stylish stay that resonates with the city’s artistic energy. Starck’s design philosophy – crafting spaces that tell a story and invite interaction – feels dynamic and refreshing. The rooms are playful and inviting, while the dining and bar areas strike a balance between sophistication and relaxed charm. It’s a place that captures Madrid’s cosmopolitan spirit, blending creativity, comfort, and elegance in equal measure.

Brach Madrid is located at Gran Vía, 20, 28013 Madrid, Spain; brachmadrid.com.Rates: from £405

Available to book on Expedia.com

‘A mental illness called creativity’, is how the French designer and architect Philippe Starck describes his industrious work ethic, which has seen him create some of the 20th and 21st centuries’ most memorable objects – among them the 1990 Juicy Salif juicer for Alessi and the Louis Ghost Chair for Kartell (deemed ‘the most copied plastic chair in the world’).

He is an apt face, then, for Stone Island’s new Ghost campaign, part of an ongoing series that drafts international creatives – spanning a multitude of disciplines, from acting to architecture (and recently including Joseph Grima) – to front the cult Italian streetwear label’s collections. Starck is the latest in the line-up, chosen to wear Stone Island’s Ghost line, one which is often favoured by designers for its minimalist codes, whereby each single-colour garment is stripped down to its essence (it is recognisable for its monochrome version of the signature Stone Island compass badge, which is ‘conceived to blend with the garment’).

‘The Ghost collection, based on the concept of camouflage and monochrome, suited me very well. Living in the middle of nowhere and being invisible, I was able to become visible without being totally in the spotlight,’ says Starck of the David Sims-shot images, which were released today (17 September 2024).

Here, speaking to Wallpaper*, the seminal designer talks about appearing in front of the camera, living like a monk, and the rules of good design.

Philippe Starck on his Stone Island campaign, and what makes good design

Wallpaper*: What did you know of Stone Island prior to beginning this project? Were you a fan?

Philippe Starck: First of all, I have a mental illness called creativity, which means that I live like a monk, high up in the mountains of Sintra in Portugal, in total autarky. This [is] in order to find the level of concentration I need for the several projects I am working on at the same time. I don't usually go to cocktail parties, I don't read magazines and so I am not aware of what is coming out in the design world, nor in the fashion world.

With Stone Island, I discovered a brand whose values and convictions are centred on research and innovation in materials, looking to the future, which immediately interested me and echoed my work. I am delighted to be one of the great creative minds asked to take part in the campaign.

W*: Tell me a bit about the jacket you are wearing in the image. Did you choose it? How did it feel to wear it?

PS: I am used to wearing mainly functional, hard-wearing and technical clothing, mostly monochrome, which can be used in all conditions, depending on where I am. I have therefore a range of hooded T-shirts that I have had made to measure.

Following various suggestions from the Stone Island team, I chose pieces that suited me and that I could wear on a daily basis, technical and monochrome, such as the down parka made of a very fine merino worsted wool twill and resin-coated inside for a wind-stopping feature. It is created with a hood, raglan sleeves, pockets with flap and snap fastening, so it is very practical, comfortable, and created from intelligent materials.’

W*: Why do you think you were chosen for this project? What do you think you and Stone Island share?

PS: Based on research, innovation, industrial design, dedicated to pushing the boundaries of fabric technology and garment experimentation; while focusing on elegance and functionality. I found the link quite logical.

For 40 years, I have been researching new materials, pushing manufacturers to go ever further in design and technicality to realise the creations I have in mind. I think the most modern words nowadays are longevity, transmission and heritage. Things have to be intelligent, honest and sustainable, taking into account love, poetry, humour and, above all, vision. These are values that Stone Island seems to share.

W*: What do you think makes good design?

PS: I am convinced that design work is a question of intuition, of desire to do something, of an idea. But it is also a question of harmony of the parameters. We have to understand a creation like a ball: you work on it and at first it is a little wobbly. We work on it a lot and it becomes more and more polished, perfect. And, when it becomes a stainless-steel ball, a crystal ball, we can consider that all the parameters are balanced.

We can reorient certain parameters, also pull it and make it an oval ball, but at a given moment there is harmony, there is balance.

stoneisland.com

Mortlach announced Philippe Starck as the whisky brand's first creative director.
Famous for having developed the spaceship-esque Juicy Salif citrus juicer for Alessi and Louis XIV-inspired transparent chair for Kartell, the French designer has been a stalwart of the industry for over six decades. 

The polymath has applied his shrewd savoir-faire and idiosyncratic sensibility to everything from hotel interiors and furniture collections to yachts, entire buildings, and even the International Space Station. His bold, often eclectic, aesthetic is matched by his mastery of material and engineering. Paradigm-shifting propositions like the 1990 Tabouret WW have pushed us to rethink how we interact and utilise the everyday objects around us. In this case, one is invited to lean-against rather than sit-on a bar stool. 

Philippe Starck and Mortlach Whisky

With the announcement of his appointment as Mortlach Whisky creative director during this year’s Miami Art Week, it’s clear that there’s no limit to Starck’s scope of influence. 'I feel more like a semiologist (the study of signs, processes, and meaning-making),' he says. 'That's why I can work on so many different things. I make everything. Regardless of whether or not I’m developing a chair or a boat, it's always the same process: what is the legitimation of something existing or that doesn't exist yet and how can I help it come to life.' 

With an inaugural collection debuting in spring 2024 and other endeavours underway, the revered talent will tap into that critical approach when helping to guide various product concepts and creative ventures. The new partnership centres on both the designer and brand’s ability to push new boundaries and promote continuous transformation; challenging the conventional uses of raw material as much as storytelling. 

'The refinement of whisky over time stems from empirical intelligence,' Starck adds. 'It all started with one fibre, a rotten seed, water, and heat but over time became better and better. It was a natural evolution.' In many ways, the improvement of this spirit is similar to the ongoing advancement of product design and architecture. It all comes down to trial and error.

'One of the most visionary contemporary creators, Philippe Starck, joins Mortlach as our true partner and we are proud to be the first Scotch whisky brand he has ever worked with,' says Pedro Mendonça, Diageo’s (Mortlach’s parent company) Global Reserve Managing Director. 'Together we will venture into creative new heights, reinventing what whisky will represent to a generation, reimagining and rebuilding the spirit of Mortlach.' 

The boutique producer has long seen the design as the perfect industry to tap for unique and consequential collaborations. Over the past few years, The 200-year-old brand has developed numerous projects with various like-minded talents and companies.

mortlach.com

Alessi celebrates the official launch of the Poêle Collection by Starck, at the boulevard Raspail flagship store. Fresh from its debut at Salone del Mobile, shown at the historical Palazzo Borromeo d’Adda in Milan as part of Alessi's Ars Metallica initiative, the Poêle Collection is now available across the French and European markets.

Alessi Poêle Collection by Starck

What started as a serious joke - a simple drawing of a pan with legs - the Poêle Collection turned into the first furniture design created for Alessi by long-term collaborator, creator Philippe Starck, and includes a chair, an armchair, a coat hanger and a stool in two different sizes.

The muse for this collection was an unlikely collaborator, with “Poêle” being French for “pan”; the designs are reflected on the humble, utilitarian steel frying pan. A sturdy kitchen utensil found in almost every kitchen, this reference pays a perfect homage to Alessi’s metalwork and is a nod to the company’s origins as a metal workshop founded in 1921. They have harmonised traditional techniques with modernised efficiency, by using the classic cold-press metal technology from the 1950s to create the collection.

Having collaborated with Philippe Starck for 30 years, president of Alessi, Alberto Alessi, says: ‘I have been trying to make a chair with Philippe Starck for around 20 years now and, finally, we did it. I asked him if it was possible to design a chair that is manufactured like a frying pan [...]. As is always the case with Starck, it started with a subversion.’

Starck, known for his philosophy when it comes to creating - to improve the lives of as many people as possible, no matter what form it takes - began the collection with a simple drawing. He observed; ‘The Poêle Chair started as a serious joke, with a sketch of a pan with legs and the great idea of adapting an existing high-technology to different purposes.[...] The Poêle Chair elegantly incarnates the most beautiful symptoms of human intelligence: humour and technology. Very much like my relationship to Alberto and Alessi.’

alessi.com

French designer Sam Baron brings an easy elegance to outdoor furniture in his collaboration with Dior Maison. The collection, encompassing a chair, armchair and round and square tables, nod to Dior design codes in a symbolic surfeit of references.

The curved forms of the French-made chair rethink the oval silhouette of the classic medallion chair, a motif common to both French art de vivre and Dior itself, recentrly reinterpreted by Philippe Starck during Salone del Mobile 2022. Crafted from green metal, they are set to become ubiquitous, appearing at The Pâtisserie at 30 Avenue Montaigne and in Dior cafés worldwide, as well as being available in store.

It marks the latest creative partnership for Baron, who rethinks traditional symbols in his work. Intertwining historicity with contemporary design, Baron’s creative direction and design consultancy creates both physical and digital projects.

In the past, he has partnered with those including Dior, Pierre Frey Mobilier, Guirland, Jardim Botânico, Bitossi and La Redoute. This new collection builds on past collaborations with Dior, including 2020’s ‘Blé’ Cruise collection, composed of delicately drawn glass candle holders, vase, decanter and domes.

Universally acclaimed for his designs - he was named as one of Philippe Starck’s ten designers of the decade as well as receiving the "Grand Prix de la Creation de la Ville de Paris" in the design category during the 2010 edition of Maison & Objet - Baron is a natural choice to work with Dior Maison. These new pieces stay faithful to the eclectic designs which characterise Dior Maison’s collections, in a homage to Christian Dior’s mantra: ‘Living in a house that doesn’t suit you is a little bit like wearing someone else’s clothes.’

INFORMATION

dior.com

Philippe Starck is the latest designer to put his stamp on Dior’s Louis XVI Medallion chair, creating 24 interpretations for the French brand’s presentation at Milan Design Week 2022.

The Louis XVI Medallion chair dates back to the late 18th century, and has been associated with Dior since 1947, when decorator Victor Grandpierre selected it for Monsieur Dior’s shows at 30 Avenue Montaigne. A version of the chair, upholstered in blue-and-white toile de Jouy, is part of the Dior Maison collection today.

While Dior commissioned 17 international designers and artists to reinterpret the Medallion chair for its Milan exhibition last year, this year’s presentation focuses on Starck alone – a reflection of the designer’s singular stature and renown. 

‘Whereas some people have been searching for years for the perfect little black dress, I dreamed of the perfect little chair,’ recalls Starck. He was drawn to the Louis XVI chair for its ‘ergonomics, ecology, symbolism and culture – it is a real exercise in style, extremely complex and precise’.

Starck has taken the Medallion chair down to its basics: his version is characteristically streamlined and graceful, with a dash of glamour and whimsy. As he explains, ‘I have always tried to reach the centre of my subject, to find its soul, its spirit and finally, the elegance of the minimum. My interest was to get to the heart of the matter, to find the backbone of this Medallion chair.’

In lieu of the traditional wooden frame and fabric upholstery, Starck’s Medallion chairs – all titled ‘Miss Dior’ – are injection-moulded in aluminium, and then either left natural, or finished in pale rose copper, black chrome or gold.

Starck says of this material palette: ‘The choice of aluminium was obvious: it is a noble material, a result of men’s intelligence: recyclable and very light.’ Meanwhile, he was drawn to the pale rose copper for its softness, black chrome as an embrace of technology, and gold for its sacred connotations.

Some chairs are smooth and gleaming, others have been given a satinated finish. A few have twin armrests, others have none, the more idiosyncratic ones have just one.

‘Miss Dior’s sleek appearance belies meticulous research and development. To produce the chairs, Dior and Starck called on an injection-moulding specialist in Brescia, Lombardy, who developed a unique process and sourced aluminium of the highest purity. Liquid aluminium is poured into a concrete tank and then injected into a precise mould. The pieces are then polished to remove any imperfections, before being dipped into an electrolytic bath or vacuum sprayed to achieve the desired finish. 

Between now and 12 June, 24 ‘Miss Dior’ chairs are presented in an immersive experience in the lower level of the Palazzo Citterio – an imposing 18th-century building in the heart of Milan. Within the cavernous, windowless space, each ‘Miss Dior’ chair sits on a glowing cylindrical plinth beneath its own spotlight, which serves to emphasise the varying materials and finishes. 

As viewers enter the installation, they are invited to observe the chairs from the periphery as the lighting alternates, unveiling Starck’s designs one by one; once all the chairs are shown, viewers are free to wander around the room to take in the finer details.

The sense of theatre is accentuated by a custom piano composition by Soundwalk Collective (Stephan Crasneanscki and Simone Merli), based on a work by the turn-of-the-century French composer Erik Satie. 

‘[Soundwalk Collective] has composed something extremely moving,’ comments Starck. ‘We worked for almost six months to exalt the very idea of Miss Dior. I hope visitors will find the installation as breathtaking as I find it.’

This is the designer’s first collaboration with Dior. He reflects, ‘When Olivier Bialobos [chief communication and image officer of One Dior and director of Dior Maison] proposed to collaborate, it was like an open door of a temple. I felt like I was completing a circle.’

Dior has additionally given over the façade and windows of its flagship store on Via Montenapoleone to Starck, arranging more than 100 ‘Miss Dior’ chairs in a concentric pattern, dramatically lit from behind. And for those who can’t get enough of ‘Miss Dior’, the chairs are available in a selection of boutiques from late 2022 too.

INFORMATION

‘Dior by Starck’, until 12 June, at Palazzo Citterio, Via Brera 12, Milan. dior.com, starck.com

Designer Philippe Starck needs very little introduction. One of the most prolific creative minds of our generation, the French designer has applied his humorous but rigorous design approach to everything from a superyacht to furniture and accessories. Some of his design classics include kitchen accessories for Alessi, chairs for Kartell (also featuring sustainable materials) and lighting for Flos.

He also served as Wallpaper* Guest Editor in October 2009, for which he gathered a group of scientists, as well as an artist and a musician, for a curated series of pieces that touched upon time, space, matter and the meaning of life – a project that clearly demonstrated the depth of his creative thinking.

Starck continues to be one of the most inspiring creatives working today, and a point of reference for anyone approaching design as a hopeful young creative. In a recent conversation with Wallpaper* (more to come), he offered a few generous words of advice, in verse form, to the next generation of creatives: a small poem that translates his optimistic, democratic point of view into poetry. 

In classic Starck style, the poem is the right amount of cryptic, inviting aspiring creatives to observe the world with curiosity, creativity and independence. It is a serious manifesto for creativity, and good advice that should be taken in consideration by emerging designers, established creatives, and anyone needing a bit of encouragement and inspiration.

INFORMATION

starck.com

Few designers have done more to re-shape the identity of the modern superyacht than the Frenchman Philippe Starck. Over the course of two decades, naval architecture and design has formed a considerable – if largely unseen – chunk of Starck’s consultancy work. His best-known boat was the late Steve Jobs’ impressive Venus, a sleek 79m superyacht built by Dutch yard Feadship.

Starck has also turned his hand to two monumental commissions, the 119m Motor Yacht A and 143m Sailing Yacht A, both owned by the self-made entrepreneur and industrialist Andrey Melnichenko. At this end of the market, clients rarely invite the world’s media into their grand saloons, so much of what we know about these boats comes from spy shots, yachting enthusiasts, rampant speculation and the occasional glittering spread in the specialist press.



A keen yachtsman and boat-builder himself, the designer likes to explore new techniques and technologies on a small scale before ramping up to meet the demands of his clients. Wallpaper* spoke to Starck about the business of building boats, what drew him to the industry in the first place and what keeps his ideas afloat.

Portrait of Philippe Starck. Photography: James Bort

W*: How did your first naval project come about?

Philippe Starck: One day, a gentleman called me to ask if I could design a 120m yacht. My answer was yes. He said: ‘perfect’. When I asked him about the programme, he said: ‘Make what you want’. One month later, it was designed. He loved it. We did it. The owners are happy.



W: What are the key differences between designing yachts and designing buildings?

PS: Except for monuments, buildings have functions, they are useful, we hope at least. A yacht is not made to be useful, it is the ‘crystallisation’ of a childhood dream. The territory is not the same; it is a sentimental imagination built with the highest rigorist technology. It is a paradox.



W*: What yachting innovations are you most proud of at Starck design?

PS: My first job was to replace the vulgarity of the power of money by the elegance of intelligence and happiness. Afterwards, there was an interesting work about harmony with the sea, then I worked on the elegance of the religious minimum of invisibility and other high-tech inventions.



W*: What is next in the future of yachts? Can you speak about any upcoming projects?

PS: The future is electric and hydrogen for all sizes of boats, from 3m to 300m. I am ready to help Elon Musk to make the same revolution he made for cars but applied to boats. After saving the earth, now it’s time to save the sea.



W: Does yacht design ever bring innovations that you can translate into products or buildings?

PS: Absolutely and that’s also the reason why I design boats. A mega yacht is a free advanced technology laboratory which explores thousands of challenges. When they are won, they can be applied to everything.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Philippe Starck website

Think of the Italian company Driade and its hard not to also think of Philippe Starck, the designer has been one of the most pivotal figures in its success having worked for the brand – now entering its 50th year – for over 30 years. During this year’s Salone del Mobile, Wallpaper* had the opportunity to sit down with the French designer to discuss his successful longstanding partnership with the Italian behemoth.

‘Its an old story, a very old story,’ says Starck of his shared sensibilities with Enrico Astori, the founder and art director of Driade. ‘Enrico was an incredible person; an angel, a dreamer, a thinker, and a philosopher. He was the most poetic person I ever met in my life, except my wife of course’.

As is the case with many of the family-owned Italian furniture brands, the creative relationship between manufacturer and client thrives when the professionalism and quest for design innovation is also fuelled by genuine passion and an emotional investment. Driade and Starck clearly found their match as the Frenchman says of his collaboration with Astori: ‘to work with him was more than work, it was like a love affair, it was very elegant. For me, it was not about products, but about the person himself and the family behind it.’

To celebrate this synergy Driade looked back into the archives and decided to reinterpret some of its most prolific designs by Starck. For example, the highly technical Miss Lacy chair (originally designed in 2007) has been realised in a limited edition copper version: ‘we made it pink because it’s the colour of love,’ says Starck.

‘When I started working with Driade it was a very small company, producing very high quality pieces but very small.’ Starck continues. In a way the brand and Starck have grown together, now Driade is also a global success working with a fleet of stalwart designers including Fabio Novembre, Enzo Mari, Patricia Urquiola and Ron Arad.

Driade also tasked Starck to give new life to the Costes chair, originally a mahogany model made for legendary Hotel Costes café Paris. Made in 1985, this marked the start of Starck’s collaboration with the Italian brand, and now the functional bistro chair has been given a luxurious leather finish. ‘When I first designed it, there was no money or technology,’ Starck muses. ‘It was a piece of folded wood and a piece of tube, and that’s all. It purely functional.’

The final re-edition to further anchor the French designer’s influence in the brand’s DNA is an ode to the plastic Lou Read Family: a version of the Lou Eat dining chair without arms.

While reminiscing about the past, we took a moment to find out what the future holds for Starck: ‘the only thing that is important to me is ecology, sustainability and affordability, and still democratic design. Although we have definitely won the battle, we have about five more years to win the war.’

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Driade website, and the Philippe Starck website

For 30 years French art director, scenographer and designer Alexandre de Betak has pulled off some the fashion world’s most outstanding catwalk shows. Who could forget the 59 ft mountain of blue delphiniums he constructed in the courtyard of the Louvre for Raf Simons’ final Dior show in 2015, or last year’s Paris show for Rodarte in a 16th-century hospital garden cloister – a location de Betak himself found.

In addition to pulling together more than 1,000 catwalk spectacles, the runway producer has also designed furniture and houses and amassed a vast collection of art and objets. On 28 March, Paris auction house Piasa holds a sale of more than 200 pieces taken from his Paris apartment. Among them are minimal and kinetic artworks and lights, furniture from the 1940s to the 1970s and prototypes of his own pieces.

INFORMATION

‘Alexandre de Betak, My Parisian Interior Art + Design’ is on view from 22 – 28 March. For more information, visit the Piasa website

ADDRESS

Piasa
118 rue du faubourg
saint-honoré 75008
Paris

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Bentley kicks off this year’s Geneva Motor Show with the launch of the very first high luxury hybrid. By kitting out the Bentayga SUV with an advanced electric motor – and adding a charging dock designed by one-time Wallpaper* Guest Editor Phillippe Starck – the British manufacturer has stolen a march over the competition.

The ultra-low emission vehicle pairs a petrol V6 with battery power, giving a 50km electric only range as well as assisting the marque’s trademark bottomless reserves of power.

Tipped to be launched in the second half of 2018, the new variant was showcased alongside another luxury accessory, the Philippe Starck-designed Power Dock. Combining pressed eco-linen, resin and aluminium, the Bentley by Starck Power Dock is a bold piece of domestic sculpture designed for use in conjunction with a new smartphone app. If you’re lucky enough to have an industrial power supply at home, charge time is reduced to just 2.5 hours.

For now the Bentayga stands alone in the luxury SUV field, with an options list and bespoke options that run rings (and cost considerably more) than its rivals. As Bentley’s first hybrid, it marks the start of a new focus for the company, which hopes to bring increased electrification to all its models in the years to come.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Bentley website

Xavier Lust’s new home and showroom in the leafy Ixelles neighbourhood of Brussels is an early modernist structure that still bears a sign declaring ‘Imprimerie des Sciences’, a relic of its past as the nearby university’s in-house print shop. It is lower in height than the neighbouring buildings, but Lust was drawn to its ample floor space. ‘I started my career with no money, no collection, and no space’, says the Belgian furniture and interior designer. ‘My previous house had small rooms, tiny stairs. I needed a place like this.’

The building’s two-year restoration involved only relatively minor modifications, bar one major change of Lust’s own devising. Together with a local glassmaker, he developed laminated glass skylights to replace four polycarbonate half-cylinder ceilings on the ground floor. The double glazing shuts out all noise, from the lively chatter of the nearby school playground to the pattering of rain, and creates fascinating patterns of light on the showroom walls.

‘Renovating was not easy or fun,’ says Lust, ‘but I really appreciate it now that it’s finished. I can combine work with life here. There are no hours for me; I work all the time, everywhere, anywhere. My brain is always active. We designers are all like that. It’s more difficult when you have a family. Sometimes they require your presence when you’re not ready,’ he laughs, referring to his girlfriend and their young son. ‘Now I’m closer, and can say hi a few times a day.’

Lust’s office is adjacent to the white-walled gallery and showroom on the ground-floor. Upstairs, the living spaces are in a ‘Belgian style’, he says: classically proportioned rooms with herringbone parquet floors and high ceilings. His designs take pride of place throughout, including in the dining area, where his Calder-inspired ‘Fireworks’ chandelier hangs above a glass ‘S’ table with bronze base – ‘an emotional piece’. Lust knocked down a wall here, opening up the space into the living room, in order to create a ‘long proportion, as in a Venetian palazzo’. The living space is furnished with more of Lust’s designs, all tied together by their fluid sensibility and ingenious construction.

On the roof terrace, the breadth of Lust’s output becomes clear. Larger outdoor pieces such as the striking ‘Volupté’ bench, a couple of ‘Flow’ sofas, and ‘La Grande Table’ with four folded aluminium ‘Bwb’ chairs create an inviting setting that Lust happily employs for social functions and public events. There’s also a playful ‘Picnik’ table thrown in for good measure. Produced by the Belgian company Extremis, it is the result of a collaboration with its owner Dirk Wynants.

Lust studied interior design at Brussels’ Institut Saint-Luc, and continues to receive commissions for renovations and extensions. He was drawn, though, to the different challenges of industrial design. ‘I like the outlook on design as formulated by Raymond Loewy in his book Never Leave Well Enough Alone,’ Lust says. ‘For me, design is the result of an equation that takes into account four parameters: functionality, beauty, technology and culture. Design is about making life better, more beautiful. It’s one of the elements of an interesting life.’ Lust was soon tagged ‘Starckino’ – not because of any similarities in aesthetic with Philippe Starck, but rather for his remarkable career trajectory.

Still, Lust is keen to emphasise that what has inspired his sculptural, organic forms most is constant play and experimentation with materials. ‘In 1998 and 1999, I was self-producing models of furniture in an old house that had a café on the ground floor,’ he recalls. ‘I had the time to go back to purely creating, and I had the idea of folding a metal sheet three-dimensionally.’ In collaboration with a company in Antwerp, Lust put this to the test and loved the result. Seeing that it had worked, he continued to produce chairs using the technique. But when he went about making a bench in the same way, a deformity occurred, a gentle curve that characterises the design. It’s as if ‘the material participated in the process’, says Lust. ‘An induced movement determined the final shape.’ He considers the self-standing bench, called ‘Le Banc’, a ‘perfect project’ in its ‘economy and functionality’. ‘The shape is natural,’ he says. ‘It’s close to vegetal shapes and body shapes.’ The bench was presented at the third edition of Milan’s Salone Satellite in 2000, where MDF Italia picked it up. At the show, Lust was introduced to other major Italian brands, such as Boffi, De Padova and Cappellini, which saw the young designer’s potential. He also met Terence Conran, whom he discovered lying on the floor, inspecting his aluminium bench’s underside.

Seventeen years on, Lust is self-producing small editions but also creating industrial design on a larger scale, experimenting with economical ways of producing. ‘I like to operate within different scales of work and between different typologies,’ he says. ‘I don’t like to repeat myself. When a piece materialises and you stand in front of it, it’s always a surprise. Even if you know what it will look like – the emotion of seeing this new object’s soul is extraordinary.’

Lust’s designs have a particular rhythm to them, a charm that has helped them make their way into galleries such as Ralph Pucci in New York, Nilufar in Milan and Galerie du Passage in Paris. In Brussels, his home/gallery covers all of his output to date: ‘It’s a luxury to have these different atmospheres in which to show my work’, he beams. ‘From the industrial style of the office, right up to the atmosphere of my own home. It’s great to see my furniture being used.’

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

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Xavier Lust website

This month marks Wallpaper’s coming of age: our 21st anniversary. It’s also my tenth year as editor-in-chief, having switched from being creative director in April 2007. I must confess that my coming of age came a number of years earlier. Time flies.

One of the earliest projects I worked on in my new role was our inaugural October Guest Editors’ Issue. Now, many media outlets have given over their editorial reins to appropriate talents in order to bring a fresh perspective and generate some PR buzz. But because of Wallpaper’s multi-faceted editorial remit, we felt our spin on the concept should be equally all-encompassing – we would invite not just one, but up to three diverse creatives each year who would reflect our offering, but also push us to try new things.

So year one saw a purist industrial designer, Dieter Rams, an iconoclastic artist, Jeff Koons, and a much-more-than-a-fashion-designer fashion designer, Hedi Slimane. To rebalance the unintentional male bias for 2007, the next year saw Louise Bourgeois, Zaha Hadid and Rei Kawakubo bring art, architecture, and fashion girl power to our pages. Subsequent editions have seen Karl Lagerfeld, Philippe Starck, David Lynch, Robert Wilson, Kraftwerk, Christian Marclay, Lang Lang, Ole Scheeren, Taryn Simon, Laurie Simmons, Elmgreen & Dragset, Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, William Wegman and Liz Diller have fun at our expense. That makes 21 in total, and therefore a convenient excuse to take a retrospective look, as well as request some updates for our latest issue. (Our thickest issue yet, the spine also happens to measure a serendipitous 21mm)

In addition to a 20-plus page section within the magazine, each of our Guest Editors was also invited to design a cover. Many called for unusual paper technologies – Hedi used specialist printing inks to simulate glitter, whereas Karl invited readers to strip the Dior Homme suit off his muse by means of a peelable layer. Starck constructed a transparent front cover using three layers of tracing paper. And Kraftwerk’s Ralf Hütter tacked on a pair of 3D specs, to go with his 3D cover portrait and portfolio of exclusive images tied to key Kraftwerk compositions.

If I had to pick one favourite project it would be Zaha’s. Her cover was a gatefold construction using multiple die-cuts, while inside she produced a 16-page die-cut sculpture, which was a take on her ‘Lotus’ room installation at that year’s Venice Biennale. ‘I want to put a big hole in the magazine’, she told us. We dutifully obliged.

Zaha was profiled by art critic Matthew Collings, who visited her at her London offices and provided a pleasant distraction from discussions about cement. Collings and ‘Big Z’, as he affectionately called her, hit it off immediately. ‘Her architecture is the greatest art of the moment,’ he said.

So it’s a huge pleasure for me and I think a fitting tribute to Zaha (who tragically passed away 18 months ago) that this anniversary issue’s cover was created by Zaha Hadid Architects and its principal and torchbearer, Patrik Schumacher.

Enjoy this special issue and raise a glass to Big Z.

Tony Chambers, Editor-in-Chief

As originally featured in the October 2017 issue of Wallpaper* (W*223)

Our thickest issue yet, the spine also happens to measure a serendipitous 21mm, in keeping with our celebration of 21 years, and 21 guest editors

INFORMATION

The October 2017 issue of Wallpaper* is out now. Subscribe here

Argentinian property developer Carlos Rosso is completely transparent in his devotion to Miami, hailing the ‘tremendous growth of its cultural institutions, public parks and retail and entertainment offerings.’ This, he says, was the impetus for the aggressive output of ‘top-tier residential projects’ by his company Related Group – projects like the Philippe Starck-designed SLS Brickell, 11o0 Millecento and One Ocean.

Rosso's latest gambit is Brickell Heights, twin residential towers in the midst of, well, Brickell, for which he tapped the wonder team of Arquitectonica and interior designer David Rockwell.

Lead architect Bernardo Fort-Brescia found inspiration for the towers' soft-angular shape in the sharp edges of the immediate surroundings. Indeed the financial district might feel sterile were it not unaccountably heaving with some of Miami’s best restaurants, retail and street art. With Brickell Heights, The Related Group boosted the lively factor by commissioning a 35,000-square-foot series of hand-painted colour-block murals by Argentine artist Fabián Burgos along the base of the tower.

‘This is an intensely urban site,' says Fort-Brescia, by way of explaining why the organic shapes of the towers ‘fade into the sky asymmetrically and taper to the side to create southeast-facing terraces toward Biscayne Bay.’

David Rockwell counterposed interiors for the one- to four-bedroom units and two rooftop pools, on the 47th and 49th floors, with views over the new Frost Museum of Science and Miami Beach. They layer mid-century design with judicious lashings of stone, wood and metal, while orienting the eye outward towards Miami’s winning trifecta of skyscrapers, sky and sea.

The facilities are equally impressive, ranging from a screening room, spa, and community vegetable gardens to a putting green, SoulCycle studio and a sprawling outpost of the Equinox gym.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Brickell Heights website

ADDRESS VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Brickell Heights
850 South Miami Avenue
Miami
 

The Related Group, designer Philippe Starck and lifestyle hospitality firm SBE have joined forces on a striking new project that is about to throw open its doors at the heart of Miami’s Brickell neighbourhood. This is not only the team’s first collaboration, but also SBE’s second SLS Miami hotel; one that will comprise a rich selection of private residences, lending it the scheme its name – SLS Hotel & Residences.

The complex is designed by Arquitectonica and consists of a 55-storey tower and podium, within which sits 124 Starck-designed hotel rooms and 450 SLS-branded residential units. The modern architecture is infused with a healthy dose of contemporary art, such as a mural by Markus Linnenbrink and a striking lobby sculpture by Bernardí Roig.

‘SLS Brickell epitomises what we stand for; an uncompromising, yet modern approach to luxury, infused with playfulness, spirit, creativity and world-class cuisine and design’, says SBE CEO and founder Sam Nazarian.

Culinary treats are matched with 24-hour amenities for residents, such as concierge services, valet parking, in-room dining, babysitting services and a BMW 7 eries house car. A fitness centre and spa within the property will complete the wellness facilities. The hotel, on the other hand, will offer an urban oasis for guests – providing access to pools and al fresco dining options at the pool deck – and mesmerising Starck interiors. 

‘SLS Hotel & Residences Brickell is envisioned as a sophisticated and contemporary urban paradise, and serves a pivotal role in reshaping Miami's financial district with tremendous culture and hospitality,’ said The Related Group’s founder Jorge Pérez. ‘I’m extremely pleased with our debut SLS branded residences and excited for our partnership with SBE to grow with forthcoming ventures, including SLS LUX Puerto Madero in my hometown of Buenos Aires.’

The scheme will be unveiled to the public for the first time on 3 October, but this, as Perez suggests, does not mark the end of the road for this talented team. More joint ventures are on the cards, with a sister property to SLS Hotel & Residences – called SLS LUX Brickell – set to be the next stop in its expanding portfolio. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the SLS Hotel & Residences Brickell website

As one of the world’s pre-eminent designers, it’s hard to imagine any gaps in Philippe Starck’s enduring career. In truth, Starck, who spent most of his childhood in a perfumerie that his mother operated, has long been fascinated with the idea of scent, which makes his latest undertaking – a trio of fragrances – less of a surprise than it seems.

‘I loved to take refuge in [that] place,’ Starck recalls of the environment that ignited his creative mind. ‘Because of the aromas, the exponential sum of the perfumes, beauty creams, lotions and shampoos, I travelled through an uncharted territory filled with incredible riches. What I did not know at the time was that I was growing up inside the most powerful vehicle for the mind and the unconscious.’

Of course, Starck has worked in the olfactory world before, having most memorably redesigned the iconic bottle of Nina Ricci’s ‘L’ Air du Temps’ as a limited edition in 2013. This new collection however, which has been simply labeled Starck Paris, owes its entire creative direction to Starck. Produced by the Spanish company Perfumes Y Diseño, the project is a sincere and conscious effort from the designer to articulate what he thinks perfume should be, covering everything from the bottle and packaging design to the concepts that drive the fragrances themselves.

Harking back to the ideas of evolution – a continual thread in the designer’s work – Starck has tapped into the notion of male, female and androgynous identity with the three scents. Working with famed perfumers such as Dominique Ropion, Annick Ménardo and Daphné Bugey, Starck challenged them to reinvent these ideas of identity, while capturing the mystery of each and what he calls ‘the space between’.

Ropion, the creator of the more feminine ‘Peau de Soie’, opted for a seductive blend of woody, animal and vegetal notes to distil the paradox of strength, beauty and mystique that women exude. Bugey’s ‘Peau de Pierre’ takes the opposite tack by bringing a feminine skew to a masculine fragrance; woody, smoky notes are mixed to exude a conscious sensuality, not often seen in men’s perfumes.

Ménardo’s ‘Peau d’Ailleurs’ is the most intangible. Starck explains, ‘I wanted a perfume that you can’t remember because it doesn’t exist... the perfume of the shadow, of the cosmic scent of emptiness. The idea was to grasp the ungraspable, to explore abstraction, to make the invisible visible, to make the air vibrate. This unending territory transports us into the total unknown, to that far-off place that sends us back into our unconscious, to pure spirit.’

The resulting scent, an almost invisible blend of earthy musk notes, woods and minerals, conjures up the impression of nothingness, as inspired by the picture of a meteorite on a long voyage.

Design-wise, the bottles are unequivocally Starck. Each minimal flaçon is imprinted with an amorphous form in a frosted, clear and textured finish, visually articulating the collection’s union of science and poetry. Simply capped with a shiny black top, the bottles redirect attention to their contents, making each scent the collection’s main focus. 

INFORMATION

$100 for 40ml and $150 for 90ml, exclusively available from Neiman Marcus. For more information, visit the Neiman Marcus website

'Bike to the Future' is the latest testament to a cycling revolution we've been witnessing since the 1960s. But the Design Museum Gent isn't interested in the past; between 25 March – 23 October it showcases a collection of contemporary models from the new millennium, including Philippe Starck's electric bike 'MASS' or Tobias Knockaert’s laser-cut bicycle, and prototypes and experiments for the future, with unusual aesthetics, materials and functions. 

Wood is popularly employed across exhibition; designer Ross Lovegrove went as far as using bamboo to build a bike frame (it's a surprisingly ideal material, being both flexible and robust). Experimenters went mad with storage space, considerably expanding the awkwardly sized basket we're currently used to, and placing it on ground level – like an amalgam of wheel barrow and a bike – or even in the middle, between the seat and the steering wheel. To further adapt the bicycle to today's hectic life and long commuting distances, Gianluca Sada created a folding bike the size of an umbrella. A few additional accessories join the bikes at the exhibition, such as the magnetic bicycle light ‘iFlash One’, designed by the Danish studio KiBiSi.

It seems like spring is the season for bike events, with Bristol's Bespoke handmade festival taking place from April 15–17, and the Urban Bike Festival in Zurich recently animating the Swiss city between April 1–3. In a society obsessed with health and increasingly aware of environmentalism, this velo-mania testifies to how two wheels have increasingly become an essential part of our urban visual identity.

INFORMATION

'Bike to the Future' is on view until 23 October. For more information, visit Design Museum Gent's website

ADDRESS

Deisgn Museum Gent
Jan Breydelstraat 5
9000 Gent

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At last year's Salone del Mobile, Italian stalwarts Kartell travelled back in time to pay tribute one of the forefathers of Italian design, Ettore Sottsass. For 2016, they are taking it back again, but this time in scale and age with the launch of an inaugural kids collection.

This isn't the first time the Italian brand has toyed with the concept of children’s furniture. The first entirely plastic Kartell '4999' chair by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper – created back in 1964 – was intended for kids, while 'Sistema Scuola' by Centrokappa also tapped into this smaller world. Over 50 years later, the Milanese brand is revisiting the idea with these 'toys for living' that nod to the fun aesthetics of Kartell’s lively collections.

The company chose from their star-studded list of international designers for this first haul of whimsical plastic silhouettes, all in pastel and pop hues. In keeping with simplisitic styles, Japanese designer Nendo created a transparent curvaceous rocking horse alongside 'smile' stools; Philippe Starck presents a streamlined 'Airway' swing; Piero Lissoni provides a toy car and tractor; and Ferruccio Laviani, a vibrant games table.

‘As well as being functional, our products are intrinsically playful, fun and engaging’ says Claudio Luti, president of Kartell. The new kids line allowed the designers to experiment in an area that they perhaps have not before, engaging with a younger audience. Where Nendo approached his stools with the idea of the emotion of a smile, creating a face in the imprint of the seat, Laviani got into the youthful mindset for his building game, which he describes as 'trying to approach their world more than ours'.

In full celebration of the launch, the brand is also bringing back its loved icons in a new child friendly palette, as seen in Ron Arad's 'Bookworm' and Giulio Polvara's modular bookcase. They are also providing a customisation service, adding names and drawings to the 'Lou Lou Ghost' or 'FL/Y' lamp – a little added interactive design fun for smaller people to enjoy.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Kartell’s website

It’s difficult to imagine that long before it bristled with high-rises and high-density developments, Singapore’s Beach Road was exactly that – a bucolic, breezy strip fronting the sea.

Soaring land prices and reclaimed land have put paid to all that. The newest kid on the block, just down the road from the still regal Raffles Hotel, is the massive South Beach mixed-use development that one Lord Norman Foster and Aedas have built around the heritage-listed buildings and officers’ club of a former army base.

This being Singapore, the jewel in the crown is the 654-room hotel. The interiors are courtesy of Philippe Starck whose DNA of white furniture, silvery Ghost Chairs, and acres of mirrors is writ large in every nook. Clearly, no expense has been spared, a fact seen to best effect with his 11,520-light ceiling installation in the grand ballroom and in the dazzling expanses of the Chairman and Presidential Suites with their gasping panorama of Marina Bay’s skyscrapers.

It’s all the more reason to enjoy the less charged moments from the aerie of two sky-gardens, each with its infinity pool. The women’s only guest-floor is a genuinely thoughtful touch that does much to redeem the hotel’s odd insistence on describing itself as a H.I.P hotel for 'Highly Individualised People and Places'.

ADDRESS

30 Beach Road

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Fifty-one Charles and Ray Eames Wire Chairs reinterpreted by artists will be auctioned in Paris today (14 December) to raise money for La Source, a charitable association created by French artist Gérard Garouste to help children express themselves through art in four French centres.

The chairs were donated by Vitra and reinterpreted by leading artists, interior designers, fashion designers and architects, many of whom also participate in La Source workshops each year. Famous names on this year's list include Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec, Philippe Starck, Matali Crasset, Antoine + Manuel, Odile Decq, Christian Louboutin, India Mahdavi, and, of course, Garouste himself.

The designer one-offs come under the hammer of Simon de Pury, chairman of the Philips art auction house. Maître de Pury explains that the charity auction is exceptional in his experience, as artists surpass themselves to transform the object for auction into something unique.

'The Wire Chair's grid seems to have particularly inspired the artists, we're seeing a great deal of invention and a lot of humour,' he says.

5.5 designstudio reinterpreted the chair as a barbeque, Christian Louboutin added a backrest in the form of his signature red leather sole, while Philippe Starck added padlocks in a tribute to the Pont des Art bridge. Most poignantly, Sarah Lavoine and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac created a tribute to Paris following the recent tragic events.

The chairs will be exhibited in the Hôtel de l’Industrie in Paris until today; the auction begins at 8pm French time this evening.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit La Source's website

ADDRESS

Hôtel de l’Industrie
4, Place Saint-Germain-des-Près
75006 Paris

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The Flos stand at Milan's Salone del Mobile is always packed with cutting edge lighting by the design world's hottest talent. At the centre of the swirl is Piero Gandini - a creative minded businessman who hand-plucks every designer he works with (including this season's Philippe Starck, Jasper Morrison, Michael Anastassiades and the Bouroullec brothers) with meticulous care. Gandini sold the majority of his family's lighting company to a private equity firm in January, but he has maintained his role as CEO and has just launched Flos' first outdoor lighting range. Gandini insists that the creativity is as sizzling as ever and he tapped Ron Gilad to design an art gallery for Flos, complete with a special piece of video art and a sculpture garden inside Milan's Fiera, to prove it.

Wallpaper*: Why did you pick Ron Gilad to design your booth?
Piero Gandini: We were very behind in January, so I thought: 'Who is the man who can help?' Ron sent us the art gallery project in just 10 days. It was beautiful, poetic really. Then he came to the company and worked like crazy, day and night! He was sending me text messages at 2am, leaving the studio at 3am and he was back the next morning at 6am.

W*: Wow! He's as crazy as you.
PG: It's a good challenge, yes! But everybody loved the project from the beginning - it was like an incredible tsunami of energy that submerged us all.

W*: Was the short timeframe the most complicated aspect of the project?
PG: The construction itself was very challenging because we have ceilings everywhere. We basically built a house, and then Ron created this unbelievable artificial garden to show our outdoor lights.

W*: What were the trees made out of?
PG: The poles were made of wood and the branches were made of either aluminum or flexible fibre-reinforced plastic.

W*: Tell us about your special art project - the video of the ladies and lamps getting dressed together - created for the gallery. It was pretty racy, Piero!
PG: Really? You think it's provocative?

W*: Well, it's just fun to see naked ladies at a light show - it's a first.
PG: I didn't find them very sexy [laughing]! Maybe I have to check my testosterone levels. Seriously though, the idea was to show what the products do and how they are built. We kept referring to Philippe [Starck's] lamps as naked and dressed, so Ron said 'I know what we're going to do! We are going to do a video where we have a naked lady and a floor lamp naked and somebody dressing them both up!' So he called Francesca Molteni and they shot the whole video in one night. The guy that's dressing the girl and the lamp is my driver. He drove them to the studio.

W*: One of the most impressive things about you is the way you inspire such creativity with the designers you work with. What's the secret with working with them?
PG: The only secret is that I'm a ballbreaker.

W*: You're a ballbreaker? And that works?
PG: Look, if you are working with talent like Philippe Starck, Michael Anastassiades, Ron Gilad, you really need to go deep into their souls and see what we can all get together from our qualities. Once you have a sense that you've got the right person with real talent - it doesn't happen that often - you share with them the idea of challenging each other. This is what gives you a real reason to be out there in life, to share and to improve.

W*: What changes do you see for Flos now that you have a new investor?
PG: Nothing. We sold the majority of the company to Investindustrial for two main reasons. One; I didn't want a third generation of my family to be hostages of this profession. Two; we were doing our job a little bit on autopilot. You can't continue to walk on a path that you've already trodden ten thousand times.

W*: Will you remain?
PG: Absolutely. Today the company is the same, the team is the same [as before]. They haven't put one person in the organisation. I still make all of the decisions.

ADDRESS

Flos
Corso Monforte 9
20122 Milano

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The world's most popular bathroom biennial, ISH, invited spectators to be more imaginative with the way we set up our sanitary rooms this year. With new versatile shapes, materials and colours, the evolution of the bathroom as a living space - rather than pure utility - continues.

Among our top picks were German bathroom players, Dornbracht and their modern experiment. They presented a new glass washbasin in their new CL.1 range with an adaptable bowl that allowed patterns created by 40 individual tap jets to be visualised, whilst being able to be placed upon - and against - any surface. Also introducing new materials to their range was Duravit, with their collection by Philippe Starck, Cape Cod. The fresh oceanic range included structured wooden and chrome vanity consoles to match washbasins.

On the colour front, Ceramica Flaminia brought a darker shade to the set-up, with new two-toned versions of the 'Roll' range by Nendo. The foldout standing sinks came in a chic monochrome scheme, with a black exterior and the classic white ceramic inside. Italian brand Cielo featured the same palette with chalky black and grey curved sinks, whilst Valdama added brighter hues to proceedings. The Civita Castellana-based brand and first time ISH-goer brought a colourful splash to its ceramic sinks with sunny yellows and earthy greens.

As always, the fair took pride in its technical innovations. Our favourite was the long awaited, fully-fledged SaphirKeramik collections by Konstantin Gricic and Toan Nguyen for Laufen. Using ultra-thin ceramic, the designers added clean structured bathtubs to their detailed bowl washbasins and trays. Grohe also showed a pioneering design with subterranean bathtubs, allowing the feature to neatly (and literally) become a part of your bathroom, staying hot even longer through clever insulation. Now that, we could really sink into…

Philippe Starck, Patricia Urquiola, Ron Arad and M/M (Paris) were among the glittery, and largely well-behaved, guests at the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2015 party. Held at auction house Bonhams’ thoroughly modern New Bond Street sales room, guests sipped, never guzzled, champagne - Veuve Clicquot if you ask - and tackled ‘chinmi’, Japanese delicacies served in miniature takeaway cartons, just like the ones in the movies. (Peroni and Glenmorangie cocktails, including a smoky, pokey Yuzu whisky sour were also much enjoyed).

The exhibition design, by the generously talented friend of Wallpaper* Gary Card, gloriously showed off a selection of this year’s design winners while main sponsor BMW managed to squeeze its eye-catchingly curvy electric sports car, the i8, through the door (and parked the punchier, more pugnacious i3 outside). Tunes, as we heard them described, were provided by DJs Lou Hayter and Yasmina Dexter, who looked lovely on duty as did the waiting staff from the Cellar Society, decked out head-to-foot in G-Star, this year’s Best Denim winners.

Explore the Design Awards exhibition at Bonhams auction house

Guests left with a bulging goodie bag, which included: products from London Fields Soap Company, 'Moustache Wax' by Neville for Barber & Parlour, and 'Volcanic Ash Wax' by Windle & Moodie, all winners in our Best For Men Only category; a BMW laptop cover; a specially-made miniature pot of Negroni marmalade by Melbourne gin distiller Four Pillars, a winner in our Best Breakfast in Bed category; and a Wallpaper* City Guide of this year’s Best City, Tokyo. More committed guests took their haul to the Awards after-party, upstairs at L’Escargot. And after that, frankly, the details get blurred.

Standing at the counter of his new prefabricated home - indeed, his actual home - Philippe Starck reminded a small group of visitors that shelter is life's second-most critical necessity after food. That well-worn axiom that necessity births invention: well, we were inside it. The house, a prototype on the outskirts of Paris, is named PATH, for Prefabricated Accessible Technology Homes. And in his mind, it represents the modern living ideal.

This vision had been in development for five years, when he first entered into discussions with Riko, a Slovenian engineering and manufacturing company that specialises in industrial prefabrication and energy production technology. Turns out, it's not so easy to conceive a home that can be delivered in six months and constructed in two weeks.

Starck, however, maintains that he has always been driven by environmental goals, recalling a chance encounter as a teenager with an American ecologist on the island of Formentera, where his family lived for a short time. 'Fifty years ago, I understood,' he says from the home's bedroom. 'It is in my DNA.'

If Starck had his way - this seemed like a rare concession - we would have arrived at the home via his own V+ Volteis electric vehicles. Alas, its open-air cart design was not suited to the blustery autumn morning. Instead, we were shuttled by a fleet of Renault ZE (zero emission) concept cars. Soon after setting foot on the property, some 40-plus km southeast of the city in the commune of Montfort l'Amaury, Starck explained that the transportation arrangements were more deliberate than simply swapping out the black Mercedes for an eco alternative.

The French designer traces his dream for viable prefabricated housing back to his early fascination with Jean Prouvé's prefabricated homes, but more recently, to American president Barack Obama's 2008 pledge to make electric vehicles more affordable by 2015. He got to thinking about young couples and retirees alike, and how investing in a house carries such high risk - to say nothing of consumption costs once the home becomes occupied.

Living in something 'deeply modern' is rare, he insists. 'We almost all live in old houses, old plans, old materials, old styles,' he says. Modern engineering, by contrast, 'opens your mind because there is less materiality and there is more human. And the human is you and your family. And if the home is structurally ecologic and energetic, it's even more coherent.'

Accordingly, his prototype features rooftop energy-producing technologies, co-developed by French companies DualSun and IRFTS, that consist of 58 photovoltaic thermal hybrid solar panels, wind turbines (designed by Starck and fabricated by Pramac), rainwater recovery and heating pumps. In case there was any doubt, a camera-equipped quadcopter provided a live view. With this energy system, the home will produce 50 percent more energy than it consumes.

While this is the deluxe option, each PATH energy system will be determined by need; the entire concept, in fact, is highly adaptable with 34 possible floor plans (the smallest is 140 sq m) and myriad customisable features. This helps explain how the price per square meter ranges from €2,500 to €4,500.

But with its façade of glass and aluminium, the 350 sq m two-storey home reveals no sacrifice of form to function. The fluted cornice conceals the rooftop 'factory'. The all-over spruce interior panelling, which Riko claims produces 40 percent less waste during manufacturing, has the appeal of a Starck-style lodge. Other details, such as the space-saving sliding closet mirrors that double as bathroom doors would be welcome in any residence. Slim venetian blinds set within the glass panes are as clean and clever a window covering as they come.

Most of all, Starck and his wife Jasmine make the case that it doesn't take much to turn a 'habitat' into a home (they expect they will finally be able to settle in a month or two from now when the travel calms down). For now, visitors can curl up on sofas propped with Jules Pansu's Pablo Picasso- and Miró-upholstered cushions, leaf through Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century or a catalogue on contemporary artist Gérard Garouste and snack from jars of hazelnuts or bowls of grapes. The seating and lighting, unsurprisingly, is mostly a hodgepodge of Starck's greatest hits.

Still, he is adamant that PATH does not prescribe a Starck style. 'The house is the idea of Philippe Starck. It's the philosophy, the ethic of the life of an old man called Philippe Starck,' says the 65-year-old, unable to resist the self-deprecation. 'But it is not an architectural work. It's completely understated from my side. It's very humble and just made with the best engineering and the best technology.'

Riko's CEO Janez Škrabec also downplays the wow factor in favour of a purer purpose. 'We have to replace beauty, which is a culture concept with goodness, which is a humanistic concept,' he says, noting that he and Starck share similar values. 'We reinvigorate each other.'

This idealism is not altogether unwarranted, especially when looking out onto the terrace with its dual-function as a reflecting pool (part of the structure drops down in an impressive feat of engineering).

Starck notes how PATH is the continuation - his personal Version 2.0 - of a wood house he created for the mail order catalogue 3 Suisses 20 years ago. And he's already thinking ahead to 3.0: truly affordable housing. As the ivy projecting from the cornice sways against the bedroom window where we sit, he agrees these projects are especially rewarding - with a caveat. 'For regular people, it's very satisfying,' says Starck. 'But for me never, because I'm never satisfied.'

Blending streamlined style with serious water conservation, Philippe Starck’s new Axor Organic collection for Hansgrohe brings fluid simplicity to the bathroom suite with a gentle, elegant shape inspired by the natural world.

But the real beauty, as with most things, comes from within. Starck collaborated with Hansgrohe’s technicians on a revolutionary spray technology that consists of 90 individual jets. The delicate waterfall covers a larger surface area than a conventional flow, making it both efficient and light to the touch – it gives the feeling of more water while using less. In fact, the Axor Starck Organic collection sets a new standard, consuming only 3.5 litres of water per minute, compared to the average 6 litres (a special ‘boost’ setting can increase the flow to 5 litres per minute if necessary).

What’s more, a temperature-preset function at the top of the unit means you can choose to keep to an energy-saving cool setting, while still adjusting for hotter water when required.

Starck’s intuitive design taps into our lust for all things ergonomic. He’s put the flow control at the mouth of the spout, so your hands are ready and waiting for the water to emerge – not the other way around. Turning the tap off at the spout also means you’re likely to get fewer water drops on the chrome.

It’s refreshing to see a designer tackle water conservation. And even finer when he elevates form in the process.

As enthusiastic observers of all things that hail from Brazil, we were rather excited to hear that a new furniture company from one of our favourite countries was making its debut at Salone this year. Unveiled this week, TOG is the brainchild of Brazilian footwear company Grendene SA, whose portfolio includes Ipanema and Melissa, and whose expertise lies in plastic manufacturing.



TOG stands for 'All Designers Together,' a name that also serves as a motto and mission statement for a brand that was born with the goal to create an extensive collaborative network between designers, customers and manufacturers.

The large debut collection gathers an impressive list of international designers that range from Nicola Rapetti, head of TOG's design, research and development, to Industrial Facility duo Sam Hecht and Kim Colin. Philippe Starck's contribution to the range is the most far-reaching, with eleven collections that span from colourful plastic models, such as the 'Alfie Funghi' tables, to the exquisite 'San Jon', a foldable chair in aluminium and natural leather.

The mood of the new range is playful, and some pieces even lead double lives. French designer Ambroise Maggiar's 'Vodo Masko', an unasuming stool, conceals a voodoo face underneath. Dai Sugasawa's 'Os Hen' is a sculptural bench in the shape of an oversized bone.

At the core of the TOG concept is the union of manufacturing excellence, technology and individualism. The latter is achieved in-store or with an app that allows customers to add customised features by a selection of artists and designers during the production process.

ADDRESS

TOG Flagship Store

Piazza Gae Aulenti,

Torre B Ground Floor,

20154 Milano

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Technology always amazes us more when it actually works, regardless of the big name on the box. But when that big name also turns in a very creditable performance, you get something rather special.

French tech company Parrot is best known for its hands-free devices, not a market segment that gets that much attention. For its first foray into wireless headphones, it turned to fellow compatriot Philippe Starck to inject a little panache into the proceedings.

The result is the Parrot Zik, a chunky piece of industrial design that eschews Starck’s familiar neo-baroque in favour of something rather more technical and functional.

Pair up the headphones with your iPhone or Android device and the result is instant music, controlled by an invisible touch panel on the right headset (for volume) and the left (for skipping through tracks).

Take the Parrot Zik headphones off and the music pauses. Throw in Parrot’s patented noise reduction system - which clicks in and literally blocks out all external noise while isolating speech - and you have a straightforward, simple and fine-sounding piece of kit.

‘It is almost invisible,' says Philippe Starck, of the new Port Adriano marina in Mallorca. 'The architecture exists only on the second view. When you first arrive, you don’t notice anything and after a while you start to see.’ So don't expect a grand architectural statement then. It may have been designed for mega yachts, but there's nothing bling about Starck's design. Instead he has opted for a pared down, low slung and elegant structure that is home to restaurants, bars, a car park, fashion and nautical stores, as well as a marina.

The architect was brought on board by Antonio Zaforteza, owner of Ocibar – the island’s flourishing nautical-management company. Starck's love for all things oceanic and his experience in yacht design, however, ensured he needed little coaxing. ‘I cannot survive without the sea,’ he explains, adding: ‘I design mega yachts for other people, but I only have a small boat. It’s grey and incredibly ugly with lots of boxes of wine and mattresses for the children.’

Located on the south-west bay of Palma de Mallorca, the capital of the Balearic Islands, the marina has up until now been a rather disappointing docking space for yachts and speed boats. Inspired by his intense dislike for onsite car parking spaces, Starck’s mission was to create a structure that artfully concealed an underground car park below sea level. ‘I’ve seen a lot of harbours - they are all horrible. And there is worse - there are marinas. Marinas for me are basically huge parking lots.’

Instead Starck has created a clean, linear, two-level structure featuring concrete columns, topped off with a slatted wood roof and a striking staircase lit from beneath. Design details include street lights modelled on standing lamps, handsome numbered steel mooring plates and chic bollards. ‘When I design something I try make it so that it doesn’t become obsolete in 20 years,’ says Starck. ‘We are stuck in a ‘Kleenex’ society and the only way to work is to create timeless design.’