This summer, brighten up your evenings with the best portable lights and rechargeable lamps. Designed by some of today's most brilliant creative minds in collaboration with leading lighting brands, these indoor and outdoor portable lamps are the perfect adaptable companions for your everyday needs, perfect to add a bit of comfort to your home, and able to swing between home and (home) office with impeccable ease. 

PORTABLE LIGHTS: 26 DESIGNS TO ILLUMINATE SUMMER

‘Salt’ portable lamp by Grau

A classic hourglass form conceals the advanced cable-free technology in these compact portable lights by German lighting design specialist Grau. Fully portable with no compromise on intensity, the ‘Salt’ lamp presents a literal beacon of light, comfort, and kinship. A development of Grau's popular 'Salt&Pepper', the new portable lamp is designed with wellbeing in mind, with a warm sunset-like light conceived to boost melatonin for better sleep. 

'Salt is mobile wellbeing, wherever you are,' say its makers, Timon and Melchior Grau. The lamp is equipped with a Sunset Dimming function, whose glow 'has proven relaxing effect on body and mind'. Offering 150 hours of average illumination, the lamp is recharged via USB-C cable and includes a sleep light option with a 30-minute timer. 

€335, grau.art

Nastro Portable Lamp by Studiopepe for Tooy

Italian lighting brand Tooy presents the latest design by long-term collaborators, Chiara di Pinto and Arianna Lelli Mami of Studiopepe. Part of the Nastro family (a collection of designs based on the theme of a ribbon), the new portable lamp (also available in a wired version) is imagined to illuminate outdoor dining, or as an occasional lamp around the home. The ribbon-like shade helps diffuse the light downward, contributing to creating a warm ambiance. The collection is defined by a strong palette that ranges from lemon yellow and mint green to terracotta, eggshell and black.

tooy.it

The Portables by Tom Dixon

Tom Dixon made his Euroluce debut at Salone del Mobile 2023: among his new launches is a series of portable lamps. Dubbed 'The Portables', the series includes Melt, Stone and Bell lamps that offer a new practical yet still expressive interpretation of Tom Dixon's distinctive lighting offering. 'Increasingly we want our light to move with us,' says Dixon. 'Thankfully the magic of technology has come to the rescue with powerful batteries and low energy light sources combined to allow us to illuminate wherever we choose with complete adaptability.' 

From £240, tomdixon.net

Ale portable lamp by Catellani & Smith

The playful proportions of Catellani & Smith's Ale portable lamp are enriched by the fluorescent colour scheme of its latest launch. The design features a semi-cylinder attached to a v-shaped structure, with a small fly-shaped object concealing the connecting screw. The lamp is part of the brand's wider Ale collection, featuring an interpretation of the design as large table lamp, a sconce and a ceiling lamp.

catellanismith.com

Welcome portable lamp by Fabio Novembre for Driade

The latest creation of Driade creative director Fabio Novembre is a portable light whose function is extended beyond just lighting, becoming a tray or holder that can be adapted to several possible uses. Available in three colours (white, black and red), the lamp features a simple circular shape with a generous tray at the top. ‘The technology we use in our daily lives has led to a hybridization of functions that is now part of our lives,’ comments Novembre. ‘I’m no longer sure that a lamp has the sole purpose of illuminating. Perhaps these small objects, that are present in different environments and atmospheres like on a dining table or on a bedside table, could hold other objects, to highlight them or simply help us to have them within reach. Welcome was born from a gesture of inclusion, a happy coexistence of functions for unexpected combinations.’

€200, available from driade.com

Panthella Portable Lamp by Verner Panton for Louis Poulsen

Verner Panton's Panthella lamp has been declined in several interpretations by lighting design brand Louis Poulsen. The Danish brand's offering of the 1971 design includes a portable lamp, available in a series of delicious shades that nod to the chromatic enthusiasm of the 1970s. The lamp emits a suffused non-glaring light, while its domed metal shade provides practical downward illumination.

louispoulsen.com

£270, available from Finnish Design Shop

Iside Table Lamp by Dolce & Gabbana Casa

The distinctive, majolica-inspired Blue Mediterraneo motif by Dolce & Gabbana gracefully adorns this contemporary portable light design. The bold pattern balances the lamp's minimalist forms, adding a touch of eclecticism to any interior while doubling as practical and versatile illumination. 

dolcegabbana.com

£2,698, available from Amara

 Turn and Turn + by Nao Tamura for Ambientec 

The Turn + portable lamp by Nao Tamura is inspired by the familiarity of a lantern and featuring four settings that range from candle-like intensity to practical illumination for hosting and reading. Available in brass or stainless steel, this portable light promises over 500 hours of light between charges and is waterproof for outdoor use.  Japanese lighting brand Ambientec was started by Yoshinori Kuno in 2009, following an extensive experience developing professional lighting for underwater photography. Drawing from this background and working alongside some of Japan’s leading designers, Kuno evolved the brand to produce portable lamps that are durable and waterproof, featuring exclusive LED technology and a minimalist aesthetic.

ambientec.co.jp

From £702, available from Farfetch

Camellia portable light by Andre Fu Living

Andre Fu’s collection of portable lights merge technology with impeccable design conceived to bring a sense of wellness and sparkle into any space. The growing collection includes the Camellia, whose silhouette is inspired by the sinuous shapes of the eponymous flower, featuring a minimal brass base and an elegantly pleated white textile shade. three levels of brightness are available, lasting up to 40 hours between charges. 

From HK$4,500, andrefuliving.com

Gustave portable light by Vincent Van Duysen for Flos

Vincent Van Duysen's portable lighting debut is a compact rechargeable lamp inspired by Adolf Loos and whose name pays tribute to Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel. The essential forms of the lamp conceal rechargeable batteries and an intuitive touch -activated on-off mechanism, and its technology makes it waterproof suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. Available in seven finishes and two light temperatures (2700K and 3000K), the lamp is suitable for indoor and outdoor illumination. 

flos.com

£310, available from The Conran Shop

‘PC’ portable light by Pierre Charpin for Hay

Suitable for indoor or outdoor use, the Hay PC portable lamp by Pierre Charpin is updated with a colorful palette and up to ten hours of light per charge. Featuring a composition of shapes characteristic of Charpin’s work, and a chromatic arrangement referencing Memphis colours, the battery-powered light’s injection-moulded plastic body is completed with a matte finish that is both scratch- and water-resistant.

hay.dk

£99, available from Finnish Design Shop

Caret MF1 portable lamp by Matteo Fogale for &Tradition 

Imagined as a response to the increasingly blurred boundaries between work and home, Matteo Fogale's portable lamp for Danish brand &Tradition is inspired by the green-shaded lamps traditonally found in libraries (and known as bankers lamps). The essential design features a shade with a triangular silhouette, standing over a conical base and available in grey and burgundy.

andtradition.com

£180, available from Andlight

Quasar Portable Lamp by Samy Rio for Petite Friture

French designer Samy Rio has created a new portable lamp for Petite Friture, whose name, Quasar, is a tribute to the brightest star in the galaxy. Strong and durable, the rechargeable lamp features a body in anodized aluminium, available in emerald or olive green, black, sienna and grey, equipped with a nylon rope (extending up to 5 meters) to enhance its portability. The light comes in three hues (warm, neutral, and cold white), and the battery lasts up to 12 hours between charges.

petitefriture.com

£215, available from Holloways of Ludlow

Ray Portable lamp by Daniel Schofield for Menu

The ‘Ray’ portable lamp by British designer Daniel Schofield for Menu references traditional mining lamps. Utilitarian in its inspiration and sophisticated in its execution, the ‘Ray’ portable lamp features a simplified silhouette defined by a cylindrical base surmounted by a wide circular shade, both made of powder-coated metal. A slim handle on top of the lamp makes it easy to transport and move around. ‘I think the portable lamp is an interesting area for lighting right now,’ says Schofield. ‘The way we live and work, and use our indoor and outdoor space has changed a lot in recent years so more flexible lighting is arising to accommodate this.’ The ‘Ray’ lamp is also waterproof, making it suitable for use as an outdoor portable light as well as in the home.

menuspace.com

£239, available from End

Piton portable lamp by Tom Chung for Muuto

Canadian designer Tom Chung was inspired by flashlights and outdoor gear to create the Piton portable lamp for Muuto. The lamp’s industrial aesthetic is informed by its functionality: this ultra-light aluminium portable lamp sits, rests, clips or hooks, and it is imagined to adapt to older buildings or off-grid scenarios. ‘I wanted it to be a contemporary interpretation of a torch lamp, that could act as the only lamp you might need in any context,’ continues the designer. ‘The lamp aims to influence you to find nature in the city or find comfort in nature.’

muuto.com

£235, available from Finnish Design Shop

'Shades' portable lamp by Sowden

Legendary Memphis designer George Sowden has been creating captivating products under his eponymous label. The latest in a series of silicone-shade lamp designs is this collection of portable lamp in bold colours and simple forms. The specially-developed Sowden LED lightbulb is controlled by a light touch, while the battery can be removed and swapped with a fully-charged replacement, to avoid waiting for a full charge between uses.

sowdenlight.com

£69, available from Holloways of Ludlow

‘Obello’ lamp, designed by Bill Curry, made by Gubi

In 1972, American designer Bill Curry conceived the Obello lamp as the first single module lamp, crafted from a single piece of glass in a stylised mushroom shape. To design the lamp, Curry was inspired by the atomic age, space race, and pop culture from 1970s LA. Five decades after its conception, Gubi puts the lamp into production for the first time. Made of frosted, mouth-blown glass (the same that was used for Curry’s original lamp designs), the Obello lamp now becomes a portable light, offering over 40 hours of glow with each full charge.

gubi.com

£249, available from Heal's

‘Goodnight’ by Philippe Starck for Kartell

For his lighting debut with Kartell, Philippe Starck was inspired by the romantic glow of a candle to create a smart portable light that is minimal as it is high tech. ‘The light of a candle is the most beautiful, natural and almost the first light of our civilization,’ says Starck. ‘But sadly modernity does not like candles. With Goodnight, [we] reinvent this iconic pure light to warm our dreams.’

kartell.com

£216, available from Heal's

‘Bellhop’ portable light by Barber Osgerby for Flos

Originally designed for the Design Museum’s restaurant and inspired by a simple formal intuition, Barber Osgerby’s ‘Bellhop’ lamp for Flos is a small but mighty portable light. The flexible, rechargeable lamp now features brand new bright shades – yellow and grey-blue – which light up the product’s existing rich palette of red, white, grey and brown. The compact portable light lasts up to 24 hours between charges, and the designers selected edge-lighting technology that ensures an evenly lit surface. ‘Bellhop’ also includes anti-glare glow and a dimmer to modify the light’s intensity from ten to 100 per cent.

flos.com

£230, available from Heal's

‘Pepa’ by Francesco Faccin for Astep

Italian designer Francesco Faccin was inspired by the movement of a pepper grinder to create this wireless portable lamp for Danish lighting brand Astep. As you would twist a pepper grinder to finish a dish, the ‘Pepa’ rechargeable lamp is switched on by twisting (the action also adjusts the light intensity). Made of a solid wood body concealing a technological soul (featuring a sophisticated multi-axis magnetic field sensor technology that eliminates the need for wiring), the tactile lamp is a marriage of craft and innovation. It’s a design that exemplifies Astep’s approach to lighting: founder Alessandro Sarfatti creates meaningful pieces that celebrate the design heritage of the lighting industry while looking to its future.

From €490, astep.design

‘Sylvestrina’ by Enric Sòria and Jordi Garcés for Santa & Cole

A 1974 design revisited to fit with contemporary life, Enric Sòria and Jordi Garcés’s portable lamp design for Spanish lighting company Santa & Cole was originally conceived with the intention to reproduce the effect of an oil lamp. After nearly five decades, the simple formality of the ‘Sylvestrina’ lamp is updated as a rechargeable lamp that preserves the original’s warmth with the added practicality of LED technology and long-life battery.

santacole.com

Daphinette by Tommaso Cimini for Lumina

Lumina founder Tommaso Cimini’s ‘Daphinette’ table lamp is updated as a new portable version. The simple lamp is defined by a decisively industrial aesthetic, with an articulated arm holding a pivoting diffuser and mounted on a transformer, and its new version features a limited edition red inspired by the holiday season. Cimini’s ‘lots of light, little lamp’ motto for Lumina is exemplified by the essential design of this portable lamp, with performance and durability at the heart of the design.

From £274, lumina.it

‘Arca’ by Philippe Malouin for Matter Made

Philippe Malouin continues his collaboration with Matter Made with the new ‘Arca’ portable lamp. Developed as a multifunctional rechargeable light, it features a 110lm LED module and promises up to 30 hours of use depending on the setting (which can be selected from night, ambient, reading or task). Demountable to easily pack and take it on trips, it’s the perfect flexible light, ‘from bedside to bath-side’. 

£270, mattermade.us

‘Folia’ portable lamp by Saint-Louis

The ‘Folia’ collection of lanterns is inspired by the patterns from the forests surrounding the Saint-Louis crystal manufacture. Its design is defined by the contrast between the smooth wooden top and geometrically cut crystal, its organic bevel-cut patterns created as an homage to the Moselle woodland. The portable lights are suitable for indoor and outdoor use, and can last up to 25 hours between charges. The perfection of the crystal craft is evident when the lantern is on, casting a charming, enigmatic patterned shadow on its surroundings.  

saint-louis.com

£3,138.72, available from 1stDibs

Lanterns by Zanellato Bortotto for Louis Vuitton Objets Nomades

Italian designers Daniele Bortotto and Giorgia Zanellato have created a duo of rechargeable lamps for Louis Vuitton Objets Nomades, featuring a blown glass dome diffusing light through the intricate leather pattern of the shell. Characterised by a honeycomb pattern made of interwoven strips of Louis Vuitton leather, the lamp also includes details inspired by the maison’s bags, such as a practical carrying strap and three brass feet protecting the leather. ‘A journey east, a summer dinner with friends, a walk on the beach: we imagined this project as a collection of memories woven into a lantern,’ say the designers. ‘An intimate and personal object to keep with you to gently illuminate precious moments.’

Price on request, louisvuitton.com

‘Nui Mini’ outdoor portable lamp by Meneghello Paolelli Associati for Luceplan

Part of a family of outdoor rechargeable lamps comprising floor and wall lighting defined by simple geometric compositions, the ‘Nui Mini’ portable lamp by Luceplan is an outdoor table lamp whose rechargeable nature makes it perfect for an evening in the garden. Featuring a transparent crystal base and a top available in three colours (white, greige and sand), this elegant, dimmable light seamlessly transitions from terrace to indoors.

luceplan.com

£249, available from Lights.co.uk

‘Haute’ by Federico Peri for Purho

Designer Federico Peri’s ‘Haute’ portable light bridges innovation and tradition. Working with Murano glass artisans, Italian manufacturer Purho has been developing a new approach to an ancient craft. ‘Haute’ takes this collaborative method to the next level: Peri experimented with glass textures and minimal contemporary shapes to reinterpret the ancient craftsmanship traditions. The rechargeable glass lamp is the result of Peri’s research around the theme of glass engraving, with techniques such as banding, pleating and ribbed excavations creating three different models. Inside, the lamp’s technology merges with more artisanal marvels, with a multilayered coloured glass composition (called ‘murrina’) which adds depth to the illumination. The final effect, the designer explains, is like ’a soul is suspended inside’. 

purho.it

From £715, available from Artemest

‘Mūn’ rechargeable lantern by OEO Studio for Stellar Works 

This rechargeable lamp’s design combines Asian aesthetic sensibilities with Danish design practice OEO’s signature timeless aesthetic, packaged in a practical portable lamp. Designed to be ‘playful, analogue and sculptural’, the ‘Mūn’ lantern’s design marries essential form and function and is part of a larger family of lighting accessories. Its name references the Japanese word for moon, and its sophisticated appearance mimics its subtle movement. 

Price on request, stellarworks.com

‘Bontà’ by Davide Oldani for Artemide

The ultimate combination of light and gastronomy, chef Davide Oldani’s ‘Bontà’ light conceived for Artemide is intended as a tool for conviviality. The rechargeable light bottom is topped with bowls of different shapes and sizes, to combine serving food with illuminating the table. ‘Bontà is not a decorative element,’ says Oldani. ‘It creates an atmosphere, it supports and enhances food, it is open to welcome different shapes of containers.’ 

artemide.com

£658, available from Lights.co.uk

‘FollowMe’ by Inma Bermúdez for Marset

Portable in name and spirit, these classic rechargeable lamps by Inma Bemúdez for Marset comes back in a new palette of pastel hues. This small lantern’s playful spirit makes it a perfect indoor or outdoor lamp, adding a touch of after-dark whimsy and serenity.  

£181.00, marset.com

Practical architectural ironmongery and functional door handles give an aesthetic refresh to your interiors. From the minimalist to the bold, colourful and sculptural, we select the best architectural, design-led door handles, pulls and knobs for a quick update of your domestic space.

DOOR HANDLES AND KNOBS: THE WALLPAPER* EDIT

Hansa door handle by Sebastian Herkner for Ento

The formal simplicity of Sebastian Herkner’s new door handles for Italian brand Ento conceals a deeper story. Featuring smooth forms and a soft curve, the handle design, Herkner explains, is inspired by ‘buildings and concepts in the Hansaviertel complex in Berlin, a social housing project of international importance.’

ento.it

Atelier Collection by Reform Kitchen

Danish brand Reform Kitchen has collaborated with four creatives on a range of door handles in a range of materials, with the aim of reinterpreting the kitchen as a familiar, personal space. In the collection are pieces by Alberte Tranberg, Maria Bruun, Nina Nørgaard and Yukari Hotta, who used metal, wood, glass and ceramics to give a new sense of tactility and imagination to the mundane object. Each creative brought their personal aesthetic and craft approach to the project: Bruun focused on the familiarity of wood to create her two classic-inspired handles, while Hotta was inspired by the organic forms of rocks to create colourful, unglazed clay objects. Meanwhile, using glass, Nørgaard created a cast piece on the border of handmade and industrial, and Tranberg created his pulls by bending a tube of metal.

reformcph.com

Ogun Joinery Pull by Vbrokkr

Australian silversmith Ned Vernon returns with his fourth collection of pulls and door handles that combine traditional artisanal techniques with organic, soft forms. Each object is unique, such as the Ogun series of pulls made utilising blacksmith hot-forging techniques to create sinuous silhouettes in brass. 

vbrokkr.com

Lever door handles by James Shaw

James Shaw’s hands-on approach has resulted in a unique design language featuring innovative takes on material waste to create beautiful objects. The latest in his Plastic Baroque series - a highly imaginative take on plastic recycling featuring pastel coloured squiggly forms made of extruded post-consumer plastic - is a door handle whose organic shape conceals a lever mechanism. A mix of precision engineering and design innovation.

jamesmichaelshaw.co.uk

Copenhagen door handle collection by Frederik Delbart for Quincalux

This refined collection revisits traditional handcrafted hardware with a contemporary twist. Conceived by Belgian architect Frederik Delbart for architectural hardware specialist Quincalux, it is available in textured black and white, satin brass, matt bronze, and stainless steel, and the design encompasses handles for doors and windows, plus pulls and knobs. 

quincalux.com

Leather door handles and pulls by Ochre

The simplicity of these door handles by Ochre is elevated by the leather wrapping, contrasting the stark polished nickel knuckles with a rich palette of yellow, blue, burgundy and green as well as neutral including white, grey and black. Available in six variations of size and shape and nine colours, the collection fits into Ochre’s mission to create ‘objects of style and beauty which are both timeless and contemporary’.

ochre.net

Sculptural hardware by Spaces Within

A new design brand hailing from Stockholm, Spaces Within creates timeless door handles, knobs and architectural hardware. Founders Nadja Bari and Karin Wallenbeck explain that the brand's mission is ‘to explore a refined elegance, a paired back yet distinct expression, essential and pure without losing the poetry.' Conceived as ‘jewellery for spaces' and made in Florence by expert craftsmen, the delicate designs are made of brass and polished nickel in organic and minimal shapes that adapt well to a modern interior. 

spaceswithin.se

‘INC’ door handles by Piet Boon

The unassuming minimalism of Piet Boon's door handles for Dutch brand Formani is always enriched by distinctive details that enliven the essential designs. Take the INC door handles: when viewed from the front, they appear as standard cylindrical forms, but once held, the hand feels the flattened shape, whose inclination and tapering offers a smooth, comfortable grip. The door handle is complemented by a full collection of pulls for furniture and window fittings in the same design, available in PVD satin black and satin stainless steel.

pietboon.com

‘Macaroni’ Pull by Sam Stewart

New York based designer Sam Stewart has launched his e-commerce venture with a whimsical yet practical design that ‘looks good enough to eat.’ The playfully dubbed ‘Macaroni’ Pulls feature a candy-hued palette of translucent pink, purple, green, orange and yellow, chunky handles that can brighten up every corner of the home

store.smstwrt.com

‘Oasis’ by Robert AM Stern Architects for Rocky Mountain Hardware

Solid bronze architectural hardware specialist Idaho-based Rocky Mountain Hardware presents a new collection of sculptural handles for doors and cabinets created by Robert AM Stern Architects. The 13 new designs in the collection feature door handles, handles with back plates and a series of knobs and pulls, featuring continuous forms crafted in bronze. ‘While designing “Oasis”, we were inspired by historic architectural references and the Arts and Crafts movement,’ says Lawrence Chabra, Robert AM Stern Interiors Studio director and associate. ‘The result is a sculptural collection that juxtaposes the structural quality of doors and millwork with the inventiveness and craftsmanship of jewellery, featuring design elements that are similar to gem cutting.’

rockymountainhardware.com

Michael Graves collection for Schwinn Originals

Knobs designed by the late American architect Michael Graves are reproduced in natural linoleum from linseed by Schwinn Originals. The sustainable material meets Graves’ simple, modern design, available in blue and burgundy, with shiny and matte steel and brass hardware details. 

schwinnoriginals.com

‘Twine’ door handle by Superfront

Swedish cabinet specialist Superfront has released its latest design, inspired by the Bauhaus: the ‘Twine’ collection includes door handles in four finishes (brass, steel, copper and black), with a utilitarian design. A thin metal wire is wrapped around the handles for a sleek, industrial look. Two door handle sizes are available, and there is also a furniture leg, for a full furniture refresh. 

superfront.com

‘Milano’ by Antonio Citterio for Olivari

Italian company Olivari perfected door handle craft and design during a century of creative experimentation, in collaboration with some of the greatest minds in design. Its latest collection is inspired by an imaginary journey from Milan to Lugano, in collaboration with modern masters such as Antonio Citterio and Carlo Colombo. Citterio, whose door handle is named after Italy’s design capital, created an understated and timeless piece, an evergreen addition to the home that celebrates Milan and its discreet creative force. 

olivari.it

‘Clémence’ by Pierre Daems for Maison Vervloet

Based in Molenbeek, Brussels, Maison Vervloet has been making decorative hardware since 1905. Its door handles have been designed in collaboration with some of today’s most respected creators, from India Mahdavi to Glenn Sestig and Charles Zana. Its latest collection sees the essence of Pierre Daems’ work being scaled back to the small forms of a door handle: the Belgian interior designer’s signature sinuous lines are replicated on the hardware, which nods to an art deco inspiration. 

vervloet.com

Note Design Studio for Haven

Created for Swedish bathroom specialist Haven, Note Design Studio’s collection of handles and knobs is suitable for any room of the house. The minimal, well-considered design is available in a palette of metals that encourages mixing and matching, while maintaining a discreet, sophisticated aesthetic. Designed as simple geometries, the elements are ‘additional graphic expressions’ to enhance the look of a cabinet door. For the brand, the design duo have also created a series of complementary trays and boxes. 

haven.se

‘Nexxa’ by Zaha Hadid Design for Izé

Zaha Hadid Design has created a new sculptural door handle concept for architectural hardware specialist Izé. The ‘Nexxa’ door handle is designed and engineered to maintain a strong aesthetic. ‘We looked at how we could make it more innovative and at how we could design a handle in a single continuous line that isn’t broken even if the handle is being turned,’ says Woody Yao, co-director of Zaha Hadid Design. ‘We did a lot of research into how to make use of the break between the two elements as part of the story. Izé is all about the bespoke and the customised, so the idea was to create not an off-the-shelf design but a sculpture.’ Available in a range of finishes (including satin, polished black titanium and solid rose gold, a material never used on a commercial door handle before), the design was first conceived in 2006 by Zaha Hadid herself and further developed by her team in collaboration with Izé. 

ize.info

‘Madeleine’ by Inga Sempé for Dnd Martinelli

A tribute to the eponymous French cake, Inga Sempé’s ‘Madeleine’ door handle replicates the delicate ridged surface of a shell. The compact, elegant handle is made of hot stamped brass and available in polished antique gold (pictured), matte black, polished nickel and and satin gold, graphite and copper.

dndhandles.it 

‘Symbols’ by Adam Nathaniel Furman for Swarf Hardware

British artist and designer Adam Nathaniel Furman has created a series of handles inspired by building blocks for British manufacturer Swarf Hardware. The geometric, modular designs of the ‘Symbols’ collection follow Swarf’s engineering-led approach and can be combined to create diverse compositions both horizontally or vertically. The shapes are hand-finished to provide a comfortable grip, and each piece is available in satin brass, polished brass and four powder-coated shades (with bespoke colours available on request). ‘“Symbols” is a little celebration of diversity in the home, like a set of beautifully crafted geometric emojis for quotidian life,’ says the designer. ‘They are a parade of small characterful personalities for you to pick and choose from, combining them in various fun ways to populate and animate your furniture.’

swarfhardware.co.uk

‘Fela’ handles by House of Eroju

Since 1997, London-based House of Eroju has been crafting door handles ‘that privilege a sense of touch’. Brothers Keji and Tunde Eroju specialise in architectural ironmongery defined by attention to craftsmanship and precision engineering, using materials such as bronze, concrete and leather. Their ‘Fela’ handles (available as pull handles or door lever handles) combine a minimal slate form with leather details in tan, red, olive and white. ‘Our use of leathers is second to none, from the hand-picking of skins, hand-cutting and hand-stitching techniques to the attention of an individual craftsperson,’ say the brothers. ‘Each piece is instilled with passion and pride incorporating years of experience.’

houseoferoju.co.uk

‘Seppa’ by Vbrokkr

Melbourne-based design studio Vbrokkr specialises in creating unique architectural hardware using traditional silversmithing and hollow-ware techniques. Its growing collection of limited-edition door handles, knobs and pulls was developed by founder Ned Vernon, who studied craftsmanship and design in Europe before launching the brand. His time in Europe led him to appreciate architectural ironmongery and its carefully considered designs and traditional symbolism. ‘Different cultural rituals and mythical symbolism of the door, such as protection, transience and the family unit’, became driving inspirations for Vernon, who also looked at architecture throughout history with a particular focus on brutalism and Italian midcentury design. 

vbrokkr.com 

Designers have found new ways to to consume, store and present marijuana, with sleek aesthetic and a functional approach. Far from being something to be stashed away, these bongs, ashtrays and grinders are conceived to be part of a home and blend in with an eclectic interior.

From luxury marijuana smoking pipes to tech-driven vape pens for cannabis consumption and sleek accessories such as trays and containers, browse our edit of the best marijuana designs by entrepreneurs, artists and makers – as well as actor Seth Rogen. 

Discover the best marijuana accessories and brands

 Laundry Day

Launching Laundry Day in 2018, maker & artisan Vic Ashley wanted to ‘to change the visual narrative behind cannabis use and normalize smokeware via thoughtful, modern design’. A couple of years on, and the brand offers a full range of smoking accessories, including pipes in glass and ceramic, trays and lighters in bold colours. 

Soon after launching, however, Ashley noticed that her distinctive pieces were often bought to use as home decor by non-smokers – prompting her to add a line of homeware goods such as candles and vessels to the range with the plan to further expand into furniture and interiors in the future. 

Laundry Day’s aluminium grinders are a fitting embodiment of the brand’s ethos, inspired by modernist architecture and featuring a minimalist, unassuming design. The sculptural Silo Grinder is imagined as a discrete tabletop object and features four compartments that connect via a magnet; two portions for grinding, a middle chamber to collect ground herb, and a bottom compartment to gather excess kief.

Weed'd

Led by designer Simone Bonanni, Weed'd is a Milanese brand of smoking accessories made by Italian craftsmen. 'Wee'd does not perceive the act of smoking as an opportunity to get high, but rather as
a chance to slow down, relax and take a break from the hectic pace of modern life,' reads a statement introducing the brand. For the first collection, Bonanni created his own version of a bong, also asking Valerio Sommella and Maddalena Casadei to do the same. Made of ceramic and each available in three colours, the bongs were soon joined by a flurry of bold, colourful accessories, from pipes to ashtrays.

Houseplant by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg

Actor Seth Rogen and film producer Evan Goldberg joined forces to launch cannabis brand Houseplant in their native Canada in 2018 (later expanding their offering with cannabis delivery to California). Selling one-of-a-kind marijuana as well as related accessories, born from, as Rogen puts it, ‘our love and passion for cannabis, design, and art.’

Houseplant has since expanded its reach offering a series of household pieces to complement the cannabis experience. The Housegoods collection includes a marble lamp and a clay ashtray set designed by Rogen to ‘evoke a sense of nostalgia while sliding seamlessly into a modern lifestyle’. The set is the result of Rogen’s newfound love for ceramics, and comes after years of research and development: the ashtray features a deep well (to avoid ashes flying away), a generous notch and a compartment to hold essentials such as a lighter.

Vessel

Hailing from Carlsbad, California, Vessel is ‘a community-led company that uplifts the cannabis consumption experience with luxury accessories.’ The brand’s offering includes thoughtfully-designed cannabis vape pen batteries as well as dry-herb accessories, created with sustainability in mind and a tech approach.

Founded by tech, wellness and sports enthusiast entrepreneur James Choe, Vessel started as ‘a collaborative environment to inspire both the people within the company and the consumer.’ The Vessel cannabis devices include details such as optimized airflow technology, extra-long battery life and low temperature settings.

Summerland

Summerland Ceramics was founded with a mission to ‘change the way we think about bongs and to promote a cleaner, more sustainable way to smoke’. The San Francisco-based brand offers bongs that are hand-crafted and come with a glaze option. The Summerland bongs are available in three shapes and sizes, and are designed to offer a safe experience, avoiding the smoke and ash resulting from pipe use. The company’s small-batch production is entirely made by hand in Northern California, using local clay to create functional and beautiful pieces. 

Omura

Designed by Michael Young, next-generation cannabis device Omura Series X is a new whole flower vaporizer fitted with a heat-not-burn technology. The device allows for the benefits of the whole flower without the combustion, and the brand offers uniquely developed flowersticks (sativa, indica, hybrid, or CBD) to deliver a precise dose with each use. The sleek device created by Young conceals the technology and is available in slate, gold, quartz and jade. ‘Like drinking wine, the Omura Series X allows users to choose the right amount by layering Flowersticks. This lets people perfect their dose and unwind without worry,’ says Co-CEO Michael Simpson. ‘It exemplifies cannabis consumption as nature intended it.’

Yew Yew

In 2017, Jenny Wichman was contemplating her smoke kit: it consisted of a ziplock baggie, bobby pins, and 'a scary-looking pipe from a head shop'. She recalls hiding her stash every time someone would come over which, she notes, 'didn't align with who she was: She was proud to smoke and knew it made her life richer and more vibrant.'

Yew Yew was born from that sentiment, to create smokeware so good, you'd never want to hide it. The brand's offering includes pipes, bongs, ashtrays and more, plus Yum Yum Gummies featuring a blend of 5mg THC and 3mg CBG, 'to spark creativity, focus, and high-vibrational energy — minus the paranoia.'

Abask, which launches today, was created by Nicolas Pickaerts and Tom Chapman to counter a shortage of cohesive interiors offerings, and to help revive craft techniques they had found to be dying out since they embarked on their curatorial journey. In their online shopping platform, which currently reaches 165 countries, they have co-curated their way through a labyrinth of homeware items, now divided by room and style for ease of access, and comprising a 2,000-strong collection. 

The styles selected cover the themes Modernist, Classic, Minimalist and Bohemian, and the initial launch spans four rooms: The Dining Room, The Study, The Games Room and The Bar.

Abask boasts ‘a unique mix of established designers and local makers with a layer of vintage collectibles’, explains Pickaerts. The vintage objects include games of mancala and mahjong, brassware from Austria’s Carl Auböck, and glassware from Japanese studio Hirota. Such a rich collection took time and travels to curate; buying director Bryony Rae Sheridan describes how the team spent ‘nine months travelling the world and working with experts to curate and source locally’ from destinations all over the world. 

The website is – as with any creative process – an ongoing project, and the Abask team have plans to expand by opening new rooms every eight weeks, with The Flower Room and the Artist Studio set to be added in the coming months. 

The team have also worked closely with glass house Venini to revive archived re-editions, and NasonMoretti museum to reissue a collection of vintage glasses, further delivering on their commitment to preserve crafts that struggle in the modern buyer’s landscape. Chapman expresses the hope that Abask will provide people with a chance ‘to delight in the beauty and function of future heirlooms’.

abask.com

These days, the idea of being clean goes well beyond standard hygiene. Airsign, a newly launched home products company, takes this very seriously. Its first product, a compact HEPA vacuum cleaner, is not only high-performing, but sustainably made as well. The brainchild of the New York-based designer Joseph Guerra of Guerra Office (formerly known as Visibility Studio), Airsign is committed to creating products that are designed beautifully and function better while using as few resources as possible. 

Airsign’s reimagining of the humble vacuum cleaner features a powerful HEPA-14 filter with charcoal, so that it catches 99.995 per cent of particles over 0.3 microns, states the company, making it one of the most powerful vacuums on the market. Designed to be repairable and built to last, the vacuum also boasts a 1200W motor, giving it 250 air watts of suction, which in layman’s terms means it’s strong enough to power an electric scooter and will get what most other vacuums won’t.

The cleaner has also been equipped with a sealed system to prevent particles from escaping the machine – a common problem with other units. Combined with a four-layer filtration system – dust bag, pre-motor filter, HEPA-14 filter and charcoal filter – it actually cleans the air while you vacuum. 

Airsign’s vacuum is made from 20 per cent recycled plastic. It’s also been designed to assemble and disassemble without the use of glue or snap fits, so that it can be repaired without any wasteful discardment. This sustainable ethos extends to the compostable, biodegradable air bags it comes with, as well as the use of recycled aluminium for its handle and wand. Made without glue, paint or co-moulded parts, it's easily recyclable. Even the HEPA filter replacements are mostly plant-based.

Armed with a five-year warranty, Airsign’s design is also game-changing on the price front. Available at a comparatively modest $295, the distinctly utilitarian unit, in a matt black finish, even boasts an unobtrusive footprint. Designed for city living, the compact machine packs away neatly and weighs in at just under 11lb (5kg). It doesn’t scrimp on the bells and whistles either. Equipped with a telescopic wand, brush tool, crevice tool and multi-floorhead, this could quite possibly be the last vacuum cleaner you will ever own. 

INFORMATION

airsign.co

We have always had a taste for minimalism here at Wallpaper* HQ, from architecture to design, fashion to beauty. So it’s no surprise that our interest was been piqued by a few new South Korean beauty brands with bold, sleek packaging that played right into our minimalist sensibilities. K-beauty might have skyrocketed to popularity with its ten-step regimes, but these brands prove the power of simplicity. 

RboW

Body care and fragrance brand RboW was founded by former contemporary gallery director Sohyung Kim as a way to combine her passion for art and fragrance. 

All the products come in packaging decorated with abstract drawings that express the mood of the scent inside. For instance the packaging of O.A.C, a woody floral scent, displays two circles to demonstrate the symmetry between its dual aspects. 

The artistic inspiration also applies to the scents themselves. Take, for instance, OooooF, a potent blend of ceder, musk, and vanilla that draws its inspiration from minimal art by combining a few elements to have a highly impactful result. 

rbowofficial.net

Tamburins

Designed by the minds behind Gentle Monster, Tamburins’ products feel more akin to a designer accessory or mini object d’art rather than, say, a hand sanitiser. 

Take, for instance, its signature hand cream, which comes on a gold chain, or its new The Shell hand cream, which is designed to be used as both a perfume and moisturiser. It comes in variety of curious scents, including Fear (a blend of ‘hard soil, grapefruit, and fresh air’) and Posy (‘rose bushes, patchouli, and wet soil’). 

We also recommend trying the brand’s signature Tiger Leaf masks in the morning before make-up application. They quickly hydrate the skin without making it greasy, making them a perfect primer for foundation or tinted moisturiser. 

tamburins.com

Nonfiction

Nonfiction’s efficacious and easy to use product line is designed for the realities of everyday life. Body odour, dry hands, snd chapped lips are all alleviated by the brand’s coolly packaged products. 

We recommend trying the Santal fragrance if you’re a fan of the Le Labo classic, but would rather wear something a bit less ubiquitous. The Vegan Lip Balm is an ideal addition to any handbag as winter starts to settle in. And the Hand & Lip Care Trio with soap, lotion, and lip balm makes an elegantly packaged gift to please anyone.

nonfiction-beauty.com

Hay launches Hay Play, a series of portable, classic table games infused with the Danish brand’s signature sleek and colourful design. The series of three games were created by Clara von Zweigbergk, a Swedish designer and creative director who has been a long-term Hay collaborator, both on products and accessories as well as art direction and brand identity.

Hay Play: popular table games by Hay

The collection includes three individual games: chess, backgammon and yatzy, a popular Scandinavian game based on rolling five dice. Simply created in resin, paper and wood and with portability in mind, the sleek table games are encased in individual colourful boxes containing all the playing elements including slim, colourful boards. 

Colour and playful design have always been key aspects of von Zweigbergk’s work (two things she shares with Hay), and the designer was able to bring her chromatic sensibility to the set, also referencing classic games palettes. The backgammon box features a white, red and blue arrangement, while the chess set comes in a novel combination of blue and teal. The Yatzy set comprises five dice in candy-like green, pink, blue, orange and black, and a minimal pencil for score-keeping. The series adds to a set of poker cards, previously designed by von Zweigbergk for Hay with a minimalist interpretation of the classic playing cards.

The new series of games is part of Hay’s Fal 2021 launches, including a sofa by Doshi Levien inspired by sartorial details, and accessories by Muller Van Severen, Scholten & Baijings and Danish design studio Phanta Enterprises.

The collection marks a new foray into games by the Danish company, and their patterned boxes are imagined to look great as decorative items around the home. The series, the company explains, was inspired by the increased amount of time spent at home with family and friends during the COVID-19 era and newfound appreciation for screen-free entertainment.

INFORMATION

hay.dk

Issey Miyake Parfums unveils its latest female fragrance, A Drop d’Issey, with a bottle created by American designer (and former Wallpaper* Handmade contributor) Todd Bracher.

Issey Miyake Parfums and Todd Bracher 

It may come as a surprise that fashion designer Issey Miyake, creator of the slouchy pleats that have become the go-to uniform for the culture biz elite, loves a pun. 

Miyake’s first fragrance, L’Eau d'Issey, is a homonym for l'odyssée in French, or ‘odyssey’ in English. His 2009 release, A Scent by Issey Miyake, could also be read as ‘ascent by Issey Miyake’. This latest scent is A Drop – aka ‘a launch’ – of Issey Miyake perfume. It is also, thanks to Bracher, an actual drop of perfume, with a round glass bottle that can be cradled in the hand like a water droplet. 

A Drop d'Issey is the third bottle that Bracher has created for Miyake, and the pair are clearly well matched. For both, design should be equally ergonomic and elegant, innovative but not so trend-driven that it falls out of fashion. As Bracher told us, ‘the work is not shrouded in shape, or colours, or patterns. The result is exposed. Honest.’ 

Place a piece of Miyake’s ultra-chic, ultra-comfy pleated clothing next to one of Bracher’s minimal but unforgettable designs for Georg Jensen and you'll see the connection. 

A Drop d’Issey Miyake: the perfume 

Issey Miyake revolutionised fragrance in 1992 with the launch of L'Eau d'Issey. The first ‘aquatic floral’ fragrance for women, it was inspired by the purity of water infused with notes of lotus and rose. Compared to the heady, flavour-saturated scents of the 1980s and early 1990s, L'Eau d’Issey was a breath of fresh air and would prove to be the olfactory equivalent to the era's minimalist aesthetic. 

A Drop d'Issey is not as impactful as its predecessor, but it carries on the brand’s tradition for watery florals. Perfumer Ane Ayo tried to capture the essence of a water droplet falling off a lilac petal by infusing lilac accord with notes orange blossom and an almond milk accord. It's a gentle, clean fragrance, well suited to those who prefer to go light on perfume. 

Bracher’s bottle design

‘My approach was twofold,’ says Bracher about the process behind his droplet-shaped bottle design, which is intended to lie on its side rather than stand upright on the dressing table. ‘Firstly, giving a unique experience by how the bottle is cupped in hand, providing for more intimate interaction.

‘Secondly, this “lay down” approach allowed me to reduce the material for the bottle by about 10 per cent, which saves on cost while eliminating 10 per cent of the total footprint the entire Drop collection will have in our world.’

It was key for Bracher that the design have as little environmental impact as possible. ‘The glass [for the bottle] is 100 per cent recycled,' he says.

As for the packaging, where, typically ‘much of the environmental strain is felt’, he adds, ‘this new approach made for a smaller outer box, which means more can be transported at once, and more can stock a shelf for less wholesale reordering and shipping.’

The future of perfume packaging 

Bracher hopes the move towards more sustainable practices will extend throughout the perfume industry, although he recognises that process won’t happen overnight. ‘I believe the future of fragrance will split into two paths. The traditional path is what we know now.

‘The production processes that are in place that make 99.9 per cent of all fragrance packaging in the world are well established. If you are working with the traditional supply chain, it is nearly impossible to do something radically different. So for the foreseeable future, there will be little disruption to the typical typologies of fragrance packaging.
 
‘That said, I am confident we will see an offshoot of technologies crop up that will be really interesting. Some led by adventurous vendors, others by smaller players looking to disrupt. Such as solid perfumes (non-liquid) that open up a new world of techniques to apply fragrances and, therefore, form factors.

‘I can also see wearable vessels and what will initially enter as experimental offerings opening up access to a new markets. Over time, I believe these pioneers will be adopted by the large houses, and we will start to see some diversification to the known offering – and it will be exciting, and I look to be front and centre.’ 

Whatever the future of fragrance, we look forward to seeing what Miyake and Bracher come up with next.

INFORMATION

isseymiyakeparfums.com

Pen usage (and penmanship) may be rare sights these days, but for the faithful, the writing implements made by Ajoto, a Manchester-based pen company established in 2011, continues to prove that writing is far from dead. Famed for its timeless designs that combine precision manufacturing with the warmth of craft, Ajoto’s pens range from minimalist brass and silver specimens, which naturally patina over time, to limited editions that brandish more ornamentation, or are made in ebonite, a vulcanised rubber material, that are always produced in small batches and designed to last a lifetime.

Off the back of developing its ebonite writing tools (a material that is still the top choice of fine pen makers around the world), Ajoto’s founder Chris Holden sought to recycle previously non-reclaimable waste materials. The result is an elegant duo of pen rests, created in collaboration with Nottingham artisan Olivia Aspinall, who specialises in bespoke surface and terrazzo design.

Ajoto pen rests: recycled materials transformed into products

‘The Ebonite we use is produced by the combination of two core ingredients: natural rubber latex and sulphur. The mixture of materials passes through multiple production stages before it becomes the ebonite material that we can precision-machine,’ explains Holden. ‘Once the machining is finished we are left with a beautiful pen, but also boxes of curly machining swarf. Unlike metal, which can be easily recycled, the ebonite would need to be processed further to fully remove contaminants, and shipped to Germany. Overall this has a very limited environmental or financial benefit, so this prompted us to set out and find alternative ways to repurpose this material and potentially produce a range of products that would be both practical and beautiful.’

‘The main challenge with the development process has been achieving the correct balance of ebonite to the binder,’ adds Aspinall, who completed a degree in textiles at London’s Central Saint Martins. ‘The challenge has been to make a beautiful surface design that is also strong, whilst not overloading the background material. This unique material is made in a similar way as regular terrazzo, but instead of using terrazzo chips, marble or granite, they re-purpose small ebonite shaving from the Ajoto Ebonite collection and casting with an eco-resin.’

Once the material was made, it was another challenge to cut and sand it. Here, Ajoto turned to Lazerian Studio, a multidisciplinary creative studio and fellow Mancunian. ‘The whole collection is produced in the United Kingdom,’ states Holden. ‘The manufacturing process is the result of modern craft; combining manual and traditional processes with state of the art machinery. We worked alongside Lazerian Studio to carry out the precision machining process. Liam is an experimental artist and designer that fully understands the project and worked with us to precisely carve each rest from our experimental material.’ 

Once machined, the pen rests are hand-finished and waxed in Nottingham before being given a naturally vegetable-tanned leather base at Ajoto’s studio workshop. Available in two distinctive designs; a crown that allows a pen to be held in multiple positions, and a grooved triple, which can accommodate three pens, the pen holders provide an elegant resting place before its user makes their next mark.

INFORMATION

ajoto.com

From Philippe Starck’s squid-inspired juicer to Alessandro Mendini’s anthropomorphic corkscrew and Michael Graves’ kettle with bird-shaped whistle, the Italian brand Alessi has become synonymous with humorous designs that combine colourful resin details with playful shapes (many of which are made of stainless steel, the firm’s material of choice since its founding in 1921).

But when third-generation owner Alberto Alessi first entered his family business in 1970, there was nothing colourful about the company. While his grandfather and father had established a successful business producing well-made objects, there wasn’t a strong creative element to its products. ‘In 1970, Alessi felt a bit grey,’ he recalls. ‘Everything was made of metal, and the factory smelled like car oil. I was young and hopeful, and my plan was to introduce a bit of fun.’ He did so by inviting what he calls ‘an exaggerated number of designers’ to boost the aesthetic quality of the company, setting a new course for what over the next 50 years would establish itself as one of Italy’s most recognisable and relevant design brands. 

Alessi icons by Achille Castiglioni and Philippe Starck

This year, Alberto Alessi is celebrating his family firm’s centenary with a year-long project that pays tribute not only to the design masters he worked with over the years, but also the values that have shaped the company during this time. Every month for the next year, a new product will be unveiled, either a previously unreleased design or a novel version of an Alessi classic.

Most recent releases include the Bulbul kettle, designed in 1995 by Achille Castiglioni and representing irony. 'People often ask me why irony as a rhetorical notion is often to be found in our products.' says Alessi. 'It probably responds to the attempt we make not to take ourselves too seriously, to lighten up our daily lives.' He recalls working with Castiglioni on the project: 'Achille often reminded me that I would ask him to design kitchen utensils that he was unaccustomed to using: as an example, his kettle presents a new way of handling this object: almost as if to suggest an invitation to play by sliding it across the kitchen surface.'

Another anniversary reissue is Philippe Starck's iconic Juicy Salif steel juicer, one of the most recognizable kitchen utensils originally designed in 1988. The new launch features a previously unseen research sample defined by a twisted design and released in a limited edition of 999.

Alessi at 100: a celebration through iconic design

The celebrations kicked off in Spring 2021 with a project dedicated to Industrial Craftsmanship, a fitting theme for a company that has described itself as ‘a cross between a mass production industry and craftsman’s workshop’. The initiative’s first offering is Twergi, a collection initially conceived by Ettore Sottsass in the 1980s, and now released in new colourways. Inspired by local wood-turning traditions, the designer’s iconic colourful totems are scaled down into mundane objects such as jars, corkscrews and pepper mills. Also included are wooden photo holders and a corkscrew by Bortolani Becchelli Associati, Kuno Prey and Andrea Branzi.

Further chapters in the Alessi 100 Values Collection explore ideas of Art (with dotted vases by Mendini), Research and Poetry, with more obscure themes (such as Paradox) devised to delve deeper into previously unrealised projects. The products also paints a picture of Alberto Alessi’s own experience, one that has been inextricably linked to the 300 or so designers – including Achille Castiglioni, Aldo Rossi and Enzo Mari – he met along the way. It started in the early 1970s with Sottsass, who left a deep impression on Alberto Alessi. ‘He said to me, “as an entrepreneur, you have a great cultural responsibility, because you’re going to fill the world with millions of objects”.’ Over the years, Alessi saw designers work in radically diverse ways, from Richard Sapper’s ultra-precise drawings to Rossi’s often childlike sketches (‘his concepts were so strong that they’d survive any changes our technical department tried to impart on them’). ‘Meeting each of these design masters slowly transformed us into one of Italy’s great design factories,’ he says.

The key to this success? Patience: ‘My job is to plant seeds, and wait for them to give signs of life,’ he says. ‘The results are sometimes small, sometimes interesting. Patience is important because I work with an unpredictable material, which is creativity applied to an industrial and artisanal context.’

INFORMATION

alessi.com

Clean lines, whiter-than-white elegance and direct, no-fuss ultra-minimalism. These are the qualities that give Apple its unmistakable Apple-ness.

But Apple’s product packaging, though the source of less limelight, seems to involve almost as much artistic consideration as the device it shrouds. Every inch is considered: superfluity is a sin, and simplicity provides ecstasy in a messy world. 

In photographer Johann Clausen’s new personal project, it’s Apple’s packaging, not its products, that have been given the floor. The series came about, as many interesting things do, by accident. ‘The inner part of the packaging of my AirPods was flying around the studio and looked kind of interesting. So I held it in front of the camera and started playing around with it,’ he says. 

Liberated from their function to conceal, protect and generate anticipation, the packaging becomes sculptural, exaggerated and abstracted, taking on a life of its own. ‘You don’t usually pay attention to the packaging: it’s hardly noticeable when you’re excited about your new product’, explains Clausen, who has brought his delicate and daring approach to collaborations with the likes of BMW, Cartier, Hermès and Wallpaper*. ‘They are well-engineered and well-designed white cardboard objects which are negative shapes of the objects they contain. These supposedly unimportant objects convey the “spirit” of the Apple products that have taken so much importance in many of our lives. They speak the same visual language and give off a familiar, comforting aura.’ 

Here, Apple’s product packaging is far more than the sum of its rapidly-discarded parts. It’s as much about what’s absent as what’s present. Clausen’s series leaves much to the imagination: the AirPods casing is straightforward to spot, the rest is an intriguing game of deduction – familiar shapes become abstracted, sensual and glowing in an aura that leaves us wondering just how familiar we are with the objects so ubiquitous in everyday life.  

Collaborating with art director Martin Golombek, Clausen worked with a view camera and digital sensor for the series. ‘The set-up is designed to bring out details of textures while creating distortion-free reproductions of the objects. A soft studio light was used to sublimate the relief and emphasise the greyscale,’ he says. Here, negative forms are given life; positive forms are merely suggested. ‘I also backlit the packaging to heighten the objects’ sacred symbolism, making it almost see-through like ancient alabaster statues or pots.’

For Clausen, creating the series became almost meditative. ‘We were surrounded by all the different white objects resembling each other,’ he says. ‘After a while, we started to forget the scale of the objects and the small packages suddenly became spacious and imposing. At this point, it felt like photographing utopian architectural models rather than just packaging.’ 

INFORMATION
johannclausen.com

Under the UK government Covid-19 restrictions, London’s public museums will remain shuttered until 17 May 2021. But the Design Museum and Bombay Sapphire have thought up an inventive solution to welcoming back art- and design-deprived visitors for a vital dose of creative fuel. Taking advantage of non-essential retail restrictions lifting on 12 April 2021, the Design Museum shop will transform into a pop-up supermarket stocking its shelves with essential sundry items packaged in artworks created by a line-up of emerging artists.

Ten emerging artists and designers were hand-selected to create original artworks for the essential stock, and hail from myriad backgrounds and disciplines. They comprise Charlotte Edey, Holly Warburton, Isadora Lima, Jess Warby, Joey Yu, Katherine Plumb, Katie Kimmel, Kentaro Okawara, Michaela Yearwood-Dan, and Ruff Mercy. ‘It’s about the role of creativity and the all-pervasive nature of design and creativity, how it involves all areas of our lives. But it’s also giving a platform to designers who wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to design this sort of quotidian packaging,’ says Tim Marlow, chief executive of the Design Museum.

The products will include kidney bean tins and face masks by Kentaro Okawara, pasta boxes by Holly Warburton, toilet rolls by Michaela Yearwood-Dan, rice boxes by Joey Yu, washing-up liquid by Jess Warby, and Bombay Sapphire gin and tonic bottles by Ruff Mercy. ‘The past year has been really challenging for artists who haven’t been able to show work or collaborate as normal. “Supermarket” is a great way to not only support the Design Museum, but also shine a spotlight on the ten brilliant young artists who through this project have a new platform for their work,’ Walala explains. All proceeds from the initiative – which will be available both ‘in store’ and online until 25 April – will be directed towards the Design Museum’s new Emerging Designer Access Fund, a ‘pay it forward’ scheme that offers free Design Museum tickets to up-and-coming artists and designers, supported by Bombay Sapphire.

The space will be a hybrid of gallery and supermarket, decked out in Walala’s signature immersive, polychromatic design and pattern clashes. The artist, who is known for vibrant outdoor and indoor interventions, drew inspiration from 1980s supermarkets and the Memphis design movement for the project. The exterior of the supermarket resembles a collage: bold pastel colours punctuated by stark black and white stripes. Inside, the colour riot continues with an eclectic meld of patterns and hues including Bombay Sapphire Blue on the floor tiles. ‘Camille uses colour in an incredibly inventive way that is both gently confrontational but also immersive and reminds us of joy, energy and verve', says Marlow.

Each product in the supermarket will be available in a (somewhat generous) limited-edition run of 1,200 per item, offered at similar price points to goods found on regular supermarket shelves. ‘We wanted the pricing to be accessible because that really underscores the point of this, that creativity is essential and we wanted people to buy pieces of art at everyday prices,’ says Natasha Curtin, global vice president of Bombay Sapphire, a brand that has a track record for collaborations with emerging artists. ‘I just hope we don’t have people stockpiling our beautifully designed and not overpriced lavatory paper at the end of it,’ Marlow adds.

INFORMATION

‘Supermarket’ will be open physically and online from 21-25 April 2021 at the Design Museum

designmuseum.org

bombaysapphire.com

ADDRESS

224-238 Kensington High St
London W8 6AG

Ikea launches its latest Art Event Collection, presenting a range of domestic objects that blur the boundaries between art and design. The collection features new work by Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis, multidisciplinary creative Daniel Arsham, as well as artists Gelthop, Humans Since 1982 and Stefan Marx.

‘Art places an important part in our everyday lives; it triggers emotions, sparks conversations. Having this imaginative space and time in our lives enriches us as human beings,’ says Ikea’s creative leader Henrik Most. ‘This collection explores the sweet spot between art and design.’ Designs feature five everyday objects reimagined by the artists, who tapped into their own creative experiences, artistic backgrounds and Ikea’s own vernacular. 

Ikea's Art Event Collection: everyday objects reimagined with an artist's eye

The collection comprises ten objects including lighting by Sabine Marcelis, a wall clock by Daniel Arsham, a table lamp and a torch by Japanese collective Gelchop, a vase and a throw by Stefan Marx and a wall box by Humans since 1982. Every piece in the collection has a formal simplicity at its foundation, and it is enriched with the artists’ own sensibility.

Wallpaper* Design Awards judge Sabine Marcelis' pair of wall sconces is based on the interaction between light and colour, with a warm chromatic glow elevating the experience of the piece. Humans Since 1982 recreated a classic insect box, but substituted the traditional butterflies with miniature drones. ‘The iconic shapes of drones fascinate us,’ explain the artists. ‘Drones trigger many feelings, conversations and discussions that can connect people.’

Daniel Arsham drew on his Falling Clock, a 2011 art piece featuring a standard-looking wall clock disappearing into the wall and referencing the artist's own preoccupation with the theme of time. For Ikea, he revisited the design with the clock becoming wrapped into the seemingly moving rigid textile. ‘I think the position of the artist should be neutral, so i see the works as provocative to a viewer who can make their own assumption about it,’ he says. German visual artist Stefan Marx contributed a blanket and a vase to the collection, emblazoned with his signature scribbled motifs spelling out the messages “I’m so so so sorrryyyy” and “I wait here for your forever as long as it takes”. 

And finally, Japanese collective Gelchop found inspiration in Ikea itself, recreating the familiar shapes of the company’s Allen key wrench (necessary to self-build any Ikea furniture) into a lamp and torch pair. ‘Our inspiration comes from everyday ‘aha moments’,’ say the artists. ‘A small, insignificant tool is blown up into a larger item that acquires new meaning.’

The objects will be available to test virtually via a new AR effect available through Ikea’s Instagram, for users to try them in their own home ahead of the April launch.

‘Ikea is a home furnishing company, and we normally put functionality at the forefront of our collections,’ continues Most. ‘Here, experience becomes the primary function. Everyday life is also about creativity, using our imagination to spark our fantasy to become more in tune with ourselves. We have been democratizing design for a long time, and we believe art should be affordable and accessible for people around the world. Art belongs in the home.’

INFORMATION

IKEA Art Event 2021 will be available globally at IKEA stores and online from April 2021

ikea.com

Cooking is not technology, it is comfort and sustenance; high-tech materials, gimmicky gadgets and – heaven forbid – smart devices have little place in the modern enthusiast’s kitchen. New French start-up Soufflé has grasped this from the outset, filling its debut range of high-end cookware with emotional ingredients. The company’s identity, as well as the four-piece cookware set itself, was designed by acclaimed agency Pentagram.

Owner Rocco Ghrenassia commissioned the studio to create a design that evoked the age-old French traditions of informal yet exceptional cuisine. The company’s pans and dishes are intended to be long-term investments, with the comforting solidity of enamel and steel implying a long functional lifespan.

These are dishes designed to go from oven to table, so the aesthetics must match the performance. Soufflé was committed to manufacturing in north-eastern France using traditional methods, so the design process involved extensive research into processes and materials. The pans also use existing manufacturing tech, which imposed further limitations. Within this framework, the design team has managed to create a cookware set that references the very best of French industrial design, from the proto-high tech furniture and architecture of Jean Prouvé to the ribbed metalwork of the classic Citroën H Van.

The pans use carbon steel coated with enamel and are offered in four different colourways, clementine and Mediterranean blue, as well as lemon and peach. The ribbed pressed metal handles allow for easy hanging on the matching hook and rack system. The graphic design is just as important, combining a serif word marque with a ligature and upturned accent, ‘giving a feeling of lightness and joie de vivre, paired with hand-written graphics by Marion Deuchars and whimsical packaging illustrations. The result is a recipe for success, appealing to the heart and the eye, and hopefully the stomach as well.

INFORMATION

soufflekitchen.com

Repeated lockdowns around the world have caused havoc within the retail world, from tourist-attracting luxury flagships to neighbourhood outposts, multi-brand department stores on commuter belts to high street hotspots. Traffic through retail corridors has slowed to a trickle, shop doors have shuttered and boutique windows have been boarded up, some including stalwarts like Neiman Marcus, Century 21 and Brooks Brothers, to never reopen, or Debenhams and Topshop to enter administration.

In order to survive, brands have had to adapt to the new dimensions of the digital world, where innovations in e-commerce are key, across not just websites, but social media channels – from Instagram to WeChat – too. According to McKinsey’s State of Fashion 2020 report, 13 percent of European consumers were, as a result of the pandemic, set to browse e-tailers for the first time this year, while, in April, a quarter of US and European shoppers were set to spend online using social media channels. In November 2020, LVMH announced the creation of a conglomerate-wide position of ‘chief omnichannel officer', to respond to the surge on luxury shopping online. 

From 3D store experiences to AR changing rooms, Savile Row robots to shoppable Instagram filters, there's a host of innovative and immersive solutions which brands are bringing to spending online today. Here we round up the brands and boutiques who are leading the way.

Khaite

For those keen to shop New York label Khaite's cool-inflected sophisticated styles, from its drop-shouldered hand-knitted bouclé Sile Hoodie to its body-skimming sweetheart neckline Allegra Dress, digital help is at hand. In celebration of the launch of its A/W 2021 collection, the brand has launched an exclusive partnership with try-on technology pioneers Bods, culminating in an immersive digital experience which allows shoppers to view pieces on a replica of their own body, and note how they drape, cling and sculpt.

To create their digital alias, customers are required to submit two photographs, one profile and one-side on, alongside input measurements including height. Once their avatar begins rendering, they can then adjust personal physique according to skin tone, bust and bodily curves. It's not only expert computer graphics which ensure you can simulate clothing to a intricate version of your own body, Khaite's tactile, sculptural and sensual creations are also presented in expert likeness. Each digital clothing design has been constructed using original patterns to ensure it is accurately represented in 3D real-time.

Can't decide on Khaite's fluid sleeved cardigans or snuggly fitting leather jacket? Now you can try on both with online ease and customer confidence.

P.E Nation

For the launch of P.E Nation’s sustainable ski collection – an offering of retro-toned and colour-blocked alpine essentials crafted in recycled fabrics – the Sydney-based label launched a fitting room-inspired Instagram filter, allowing shoppers to try on three ski jackets online. ‘We decided to work with the Institute of Digital Fashion (IoDF) who are globally renowned for the production of digital clothing, for having a strong ethos of sustainability, inclusivity and always innovating within the fashion sphere,’ says co-founder Pip Edwards, of the filter, which features impeccably lifelike garments that were delivered in 3D stitch by stitch, right down to the final flicker of faux fur. ‘This file, an extraordinarily large size was then painstakingly manipulated, to fit into the tiny frame of Instagram's space by decreasing poly counts,’ Edwards adds.

In a snow-sprinkled spin, shoppers sport P.E Nation's ski jackets against a series of enchanting alpine backgrounds, allowing them to escape to icy online altitudes. ‘The background scenes are a manipulation of multiple different places, created by IoDF’s digital environmentalists, inspired by our moodboards,’ Edwards says. They resemble pine tree-circled perfection.

Gucci

In June 2019, Gucci became the first fashion label to incorporate augmented reality into its App, allowing fans of the label’s GG logo and star motif-swathed Ace sneakers to virtually try on their favourite styles. For the innovative launch, the Florentine house collaborated with Belarus-based startup Wannaby, which seeks to solve the disconnect between online merchandise and the at-home shopper. It launched the try-on AR sneakers app Wanna Kicks in January 2019, which garnered 500k organic users in the first days of its launch. For Gucci’s Ace Sneaker Try On technology, sneakerheads can select their Ace styles of choice, point their mobile device’s camera at their own feet to virtually try on their chosen pair. They can also snap their favourite styles and share them via social media.

Gucci's dedication to immersive shopping technology runs parallel to its renewned dedication to customer service. In April 2019, it opened the Global Client Service Center, a 2,300 sq m space in Florence, with over 150 multi-lingual client advisors, assisting customers across 26 countries via email, phone and live chat. The brand also plans to expand with six more global centres, from New York to Seoul, which will be designed to resemble the brand's physical boutiques, and provide more localised customer service experiences. 

Huntsman

A sense of touch is integral to the bespoke suiting industry of Savile Row, so when social distancing prevented Huntsman’s cutters and tailors from fitting clients in their Mayfair outpost or from travelling to visit them across the globe, they knew they had to provide a cutting-edge digital alternative. Enter, Mr Hammick, Huntsman’s first telepresence robot, named after its famed Head Cutter of the Seventies, who, with the aid of a local assistant, travels to meet clients, and executes fitting tasks directed from Huntsman’s Cutter in London or New York.

Mr Hammick – who boasts a touch screen and robotic arm – can be manouvered remotely – allowing Huntsman's cutters, who appear via a live video link, to manoeuvre around the body and zoom in, record and photographic specific garment details, and be with their client virtually from baste to final fit. Cutting out physical travel, the service actually speeds up the tailoring process and allows for more appointment flexibility.

There are other elements of Huntsman's home-focused efforts. This includes Hero, a live video chat for shopping, and Toshi, a white glove delivery service, allowing customers to receive pieces to their door, and with the help of an assistant, pin and measure garments to their chosen specifity.

Salvatore Ferragamo

Some lament the difficulty of shoe shopping online – finding it difficult to settle on size, and scope out the quality of a fabrication or the depth of a shade of leather. But fans of Ferragamo’s classic Tramezza shoe need not fret, as the Italian label has developed an immersive shopping experience, in collaboration with Microsoft, that allows them to personalise their preferred style, and see the result in 3D.

Harnessing Microsoft’s Hevolus Augmented Store at Home platform, Ferragamo allows customer to custom order its Tramezza shoe using a selection tool online, which offers up a 3D reproduction in a host of materials, from lizard to suede, colours, including rouge, stone and black and hardware details. Should they require more made-to-order help, shoppers can connect to a shop assistant through an online appointment, who wearing a Microsoft's HoloLens 2 holographic computer, can virtually enter their digital fitting room, and visualise and advise on their selections. At the end of the appointment, customers can also see a digital twin of their Tramezza shoe in augmented reality. 

Christian Dior

There’s something enchanting about entering a boutique’s beauty department and catching the aroma of a scent that suits you perfectly. There’s little that's sensorily stimulating about making an olfactory purchase online, but Dior’s virtual fragrance consultation provides a well-scented antidote. The service, hosted by the French maison’s UK Fragrance Ambassador Carl Groenewald, live from the Dior Salon De Parfum in Harrods, London, allows customers to book a fragrance consultation online, before being sent a fragrance tester set, featuring mini samples of hero scents to their home. Groenewald then talks clients through each perfume, including the spicy, woody notes of Purple Oud and the smoky incense aroma of Bois d'Argent, before they make their final decision.

In April, Dior also launched its first virtual beauty boutique, bringing the walls of its Avenue des Champs-Élysées boutique in Paris, to customers at home. Here, beauty fans can take a tour of the brand's space using clickable arrow tools, and watch short films relating to Dior's products, before making a purchase.

Browns

Sneaker heads and watch obsessives, rejoice! Browns’ latest Virtual Try – powered through its Browns Fashion mobile App, allows customers to try on their favourite trainer or timepiece using AR technology, from their comfort of their own homes. ‘As augmented reality technology has evolved over the past few years, we saw huge potential in bringing physical store experiences into the palm of your hands – specifically, “virtual try on”’ says Mohammed Said, Director of Technology and Product at Browns, of the launch. This was developed in collaboration with Farfetch. By simply pointing their phone's camera at a heel or wrist, Browns fans can virtually sport a selection of styles including for sneakers, a Converse high top, Alexander McQueen oversized sneakers and Axel Arigato's White Clean 90 low tops.

Browns' Virtual Try On technology responds to the growth in footwear and watch categories, experienced by the London retailer, connecting the dots between its e-commerce arm and at-home customers. ‘With the global pandemic restricting many of our customers from travelling to stores, we accelerated our investment in this space,' says Said. Start working your AR angles now.

INFORMATION

brownsfashion.com
dior.com
ferragamo.com
gucci.com
huntsmansavilerow.com
khaite.com/
pe-nation.com

‘My first homeware collection is a continuation of design work inspired by my own British Nigerian heritage and childhood,’ says designer Yinka Ilori. His work has traditionally been developed as a ‘colourful celebration of two cultures, expressed through abstract, technicolour pattern and contemporary craft,’ and this new venture seamlessly follows this path.

Ilori selected a small range of functional household items that evoke memories from his own upbringing and reworked them with bold patterns: think enamel cups, printed placemats, plates and pillows, as well as tv dinner-ready trays and carefully crafted rugs and tablecloths. Each item, he explains, has its own story, ‘meant to instil a sense of optimism and joy, to act in their own small way as a distraction to the dark times that we’re facing this year.’

Ilori is no stranger to positive initiatives inspired by the recent pandemic. Earlier in 2020, the designer’s colorful graphics were applied to public buildings across London featuring encouraging messages such as ‘Better days are coming I promise’ and ‘As long as we have each other we’ll be ok’. Commissioned by the NHS, the pieces bounced all over social media and helped create a sense of communal hopefulness. ‘Online, I’ve seen a growing audience interacting with my works that promote positivity and act as a form of creative hedonism on social media feeds,’ admits Ilori. ‘With a number of public installations put on hold, this year has given me time to work on a joy project that could translate this creative optimism offline.’

Each item is meant to instil a sense of optimism and joy, to act as a distraction to the dark times that we’re facing 

To build the collection, the designer spent a long time researching suppliers, focusing on craftsmanship, quality and durability. He sourced stoneware, jacquard table linens and cushions from Portugal, hand-knotted wool rugs from Nepal and tableware from the UK. ‘This collection has been a truly uplifting and fascinating project to work on,’ concludes Ilori. ‘It allowed me to to bring my artworks, which are normally associated with large scale installations and public exhibitions, into a new setting within the home.’

INFORMATION

yinkailori.com

Bosnian craft brand Zanat has called upon its international roster of designers to create a collection inspired by the isolation resulting from pandemic-related lockdowns implemented across the world in the past few months. ‘The recent lockdown has been a good opportunity to stay closer to our household members, to relax a bit and ponder about the future, the human condition and what truly matters to us,’ says founder Orhan Niksic.

The origins of Zanat date back more than a century, when Niksic’s great grandfather stumbled on a primitive hand-carving technique that originated near his hometown of Konjic. He established a woodcarving workshop and passed the now Unesco-protected technique down through family generations. Niksic started Zanat in 2015 with the aim of preserving this family legacy and he saw the recent pandemic as a chance to discuss themes of family and home.

Niksic took up discussions with some of Europe’s most celebrated designers, including Monica Förster, Ilse Crawford, Sebastian Herkner, Jean-Marie Massaud and Ludovica and Roberto Palomba. ‘Their enthusiasm about post-Covid-19 future and how Zanat’s vision relates to it was both heartening and inspiring,’ he says. ‘We all agreed that the future cannot look like the past, that environmental sustainability and ethics pertaining to how products are made, brought to market, and consumed can no longer be a matter of choice, but must be a design imperative.’ And so the Lockdown Dialogues Project was born as a way to channel these ideas and create objects that reflect this vision of ethical design.

‘Our aim was to create a collection of functional objects that improve the experience of staying at home and hopefully become heirloom pieces, objects made from responsibly sourced, renewable natural materials that clearly demonstrate the value of craftsmanship.’ The collection includes mirrors by Förster, stools and candleholders by the Palombas, and bowls by Crawford among others. They are small objects whose carefully considered craftsmanship, Nikisic hopes, can enrich our lives while creating employment opportunities as well as preserving important artisanal skills and cultural heritage.

INFORMATION

The Lockdown Dialogues collection by Zanat is available from Wallpaper*STORE

Creative consultant Daniel Baer has launched a new line of timeless tableware essentials, from plates to platters, inspired by the art of coming together. Called Monoware, the collection is intended to 'to endure and to grow with the people that lay them. We call it a table set for life,' he says.

For Baer, every mealtime is an event. ‘Whether it’s a picnic with friends, a solo supper in front of the TV, or a family breakfast, they all bring nourishment, nurture creativity or sustain relationships,’ he adds. How then to bring a proper sense of occasion to every repast?

Merging his background in graphic design (a stint as Wallpaper’s senior designer was followed by the founding of his own creative consultancy, Studio Baer, with clients ranging from Dior and Comme des Garçons to Rizzoli) and an interest in studio pottery, his answer to looking for the perfect table setting, was to create his own.

The Monoware launch collection features dining staples such as plates, bowls and mugs, as well as serving platters and pitchers, with reduced silhouettes and a palette of earthy tones, from chalk to slate. The debut pieces were created in collaboration with ceramicist Ian McIntyre. ‘What appealed to me in Ian’s work is the way he mixes industrial design and traditional craft skills,’ explains Baer, who was particularly attracted by the ceramicist’s extensive experience with stoneware. The plates' design was carefully considered, and each piece was crafted in high-quality materials ('We've perfected the plates, so you can bring the party', reads Baer's mission statement.)

Longevity (both physical and aesthetic) was a priority for the collection, as was informality – ‘to respond to a new generation of creative cooks and hosts who don’t feel the need to follow established table formalities, but, at the same time, value quality, timeless design and durability.’ Our habits and the dishes we serve may change, observes Baer, but our tableware is for keeps.

INFORMATION

monoware.com

Selfridges presents the latest installment of Bright New Things, an initiative born in 2018 to support and celebrate emerging talent with a focus on sustainability and innovation. Closely linked with the London department store’s Project Earth programme (cementing its commitment to a new business model based on more sustainable and responsible retail), Bright New Things offers a novel outlook on food, homeware and fashion. 
 
Part of the store’s selection is GoodWaste, a London-based brand founded by Ambra Dentella, Ewan Alston and Rafael Muldal el Baz, a group of RCA Product Design Graduates whose homeware pieces feature marble offcuts, leftover concrete and stone from building sites and other found and recycled materials which the collective reimagines into contemporary objects. 

The project was kickstarted by a brief the designers worked on during their studies, which involved exploring and designing a response to the area of Park Royal in West London (one of Europe's largest industrial sites). ‘While exploring, the three of us shared the insight that there was an incredible amount of high-value and diverse materials that were leaving the area every day as waste; most of which were offcuts from manufacturers who simply had no business-need for a piece of that size,’ explains Alston. Their first response to this observation was a new model of localised circular manufacturing and a collection of objects created using waste materials sourced from the skips of Park Royal manufacturers. The inaugural collection primarily featured marble offcuts (‘we felt it was particularly amazing that such beautiful pieces of marble were considered waste,’ observes Alston), and the pieces were noticed by Selfridges who supported the project and helped the trio with a launch in 2019. 
 
Now presenting their second collection for Selfridges, GoodWaste has looked at the store itself and the surrounding area to source new waste materials, creating an impressive material library as the starting point for the designs. As well as a series of perforated steel sheets that had been stripped out from a recent pop-up shop (which inspired two different lamp designs), the group also used rubble sourced from building sites around the store to make a bowl, waste Corian sourced from West London manufacturers and wax from nearby pubs, restaurants and churches which became a series of candles. This was an initial step towards a ‘super local’ production loop, the brand’s ultimate goal. 

‘Finding manufacturers that are happy to work with reclaimed materials is a real challenge,’ continues Alston. Another challenge, he notes, is to design around the imperfections of a certain found material, something that has at the same time inspired the group to test their design skills and approach in a new way. ‘In terms of creativity, it can actually help,’ he says. ‘We enjoy the challenge of figuring out the most interesting ways of working with just one material, and with local production methods. It forces us to be more creative, as we can't just default to the "normal" means of designing or producing.’

INFORMATION

Available at Selfridges. For more information, visit goodwaste.net

With the yearning to travel and escape in full tilt these days, the exotic locale that offsets Beni Rugs' latest custom collection is certainly a sight for sore eyes. In spite of the stay-at-home orders that were enforced around the world, the emerging label chose to make the most of an unfortunate situation by creating a fictional world that is equal parts Brazilian modernism, Bauhuas cleanliness and desert sensuality of Morocco, all effortlessly blended into one.

Designed in partnership with illustrator Charlotte Taylor and her multi-disciplinary creative studio Maison de Sable, which collaborates with a collection of 3D rendering artists to create distinct, yet highly varied imaginary environment, the sumptuous setting evocatively sees pieces from Beni Rugs’ new customizable flatweave collection situated beside a cool stone plunge pool, covering a sun-scorched terrace or beckoning from the shaded interior of a terracotta lodge.

‘When stay at home orders around the world canceled our planned shoot in Copenhagen, we decided to let our imaginations wander,’ recounts the company’s co-founder Robert Wright. ‘At the core of Beni is a melding of ancient craft and modern technology; so a virtual shoot that drew on historical references of the Bauhaus and Brazilian Modernism seemed like a fun way to travel the world despite being stuck at home. We asked ourselves, if this collection were a home, what would it look like? Then we dove deep into our archive of images, settling on a dreamy modernist villa nestled into the dunes of the Moroccan Sahara. Charlotte and Maison de Sable were the perfect partners to create this mirage.’

‘The settings and architecture came about from a desire to create something between Brazilian modernism, desert architecture and Barragán detailing,’ adds Taylor, who teamed up again with the CGI artist Victor Roussel (they both worked on Sight Unseen Offsite Online in spring) on the project. ‘Whilst all the spaces inhabit the same world, the variant landscapes and materials create a sense of a placeless place which is a very curious topic for us. To bring the images back to an essence of reality, we focus[ed] on some domestic details. like fruit and sculptural objects. Rendered space can sometimes seem sterile and lifeless, [so] we tried to disassociate our images from this cold appearance.’

This imaginary is certainly an appropriate place to consider Beni’s new customizable designs, which like their original Ourain styles, can be tailor made from a choice of ten different background and line colours. With 19 designs available in eight sizes to choose from, all traditionally made by hand from 100% natural wool, each rug is truly one of a kind and every design fan’s dream.

INFORMATION

benirugs.com

‘Are you from the industry? I don’t work for industry anymore.’ Such was the response of octogenarian Paris-based ceramic artist Alev Siesbye to the founders of Danish design brand Raawii – Bo Raahauge and Nicholai Wiig Hansen – when they approached her about a collaboration.

The pair, who founded their brand in 2017, regarded Alev Siesbye as an icon. ‘We had this idea that we shared the same DNA in our approach to design,’ says Wiig Hansen. That turned out to be truer than they could imagine: when they finally met (after some persuasion from the duo) at Siesbye’s Paris atelier, she showed them photographs from her time in Skagen, northern Denmark, an artist hub in the 1960s. Several were taken at Wiig Hansen’s family home (his parents being Danish artist Svend Wiig Hansen and ceramist Leila Sallyman). Siesbye had been a ceramicist at the Royal Copenhagen factory, creating stoneware and porcelain pieces, while experimenting in her studio. She moved to Paris in the 1980s, and developed a signature style that mixes precision, simplicity and vibrant colour.

Within minutes of Raahauge and Wiig Hansen’s arrival, Siesbye started sketching. ‘They convinced me by their eagerness for quality, their enthusiasm and their energy,’ she says. And so began Raawii’s new collection. Titled Alev, it features cups, vases, bonbonnières and bowls in a palette of blue, green, pink and grey. ‘Colours are very important to me,’ says the artist. ‘It is often the shape that decides the colour, or the opposite.

When shown together, the collection has to be harmonious, like a musical phrase.’ She visited Raawii’s factory in Portugal and spent a week working closely with the almost all-female team to perfect shapes and colours. Working alongside makers, she notes, has always been a source of joy. Adds Raahauge: ‘It became almost symbiotic, everybody played a vital role, and Alev’s positive vibes and creativity were at the centre of it all.’ 

INFORMATION

The Alev collection by Raawii is available from the Wallpaper*STORE

Lebanon has previously gained cachet for producing red-carpet fashion designers such as Elie Saab, Rabih Kayrouz, Zuhair Murad and Reem Acra, but its product designers are the ones now claiming their rightful positions in the spotlight. As the fourth House of Today Biennale kicks off in Beirut, the high quality calibre of this growing industry is clear.

House of Today, a non-profit organisation that has showcased Lebanese design internationally – from Design Days Dubai to Design Miami – uses its platform to fund scholarships for promising young Lebanese designers, aiding a new generation to step in and continue the trajectory set by leading lights such as Nada Debs and Karen Chekerdjian.

With Beirut Design Week having celebrated its seventh edition in May, and the newer Beirut Design Fair hosting its second run this past September, the country’s growing appetite and appreciation for design has created an increase in local production, with many traditional artisanal practices being revived as designers define a unique language from their small country.

This is evident in the Biennale’s main exhibition, ‘Elevate, the Quest for Heightened Senses’, at 3Beirut where selected designers were tasked with producing tables that go beyond function to elicit emotional responses through sensory considerations. Tamara Barrage’s ‘Bodily’ tables, made from a mix of resin and concrete, appear as otherworldly forms, while Charles Kalpakian’s ‘Faros’ bedside tables in verde bamboo granite and black-brushed ash wood continues his fascination with reinterpreting motifs found in decorative arts.

Elsewhere at 3Beirut, ‘The Shop’ by House of Today in collaboration with WallpaperSTORE* opens. Following the success of its inaugural 2016 edition, the pop-up store and exhibition space features newly commissioned exclusive works by flourishing Lebanese talent including Dima Haidar, Layal Chacar and Elie Metni displayed amongst the store’s inventory of international designs.

Collaborating with US brand R & Company, House of Today has paired designers from both countries to realise additional table designs. The Haas Brothers teamed up with fellow siblings Carlo and Mary-Lynn Massoud, while Rogan Gregory worked with Flavie Audi, and Katie Stout produced a table with Sayar & Garibeh.

R & Company principal Evan Snyderman, who is the biennale’s exhibition ambassador, will be one of the speakers at the CraftPorn lecture series, which will also welcome Humberto Campana, Peter Marigold, Pascale Mussard, Formafantasma and Bernard Khoury.

Khoury has curated another stand-out show for the programme – a retrospective of furniture pieces designed by his late father, the modernist, brutalist architect Khalil Khoury, on view at the Sursock Museum, where CraftPorn will also take place.

INFORMATION

House of Today Biennale is on view until 28 December. For more information, visit the House of Today website

‘Going into the archive room and finding a door handle is part of the magic of working with them’, says Stéphane Parmentier musefully, when recalling the many years he has worked with Maison Vervloet.

More than a century old today, the Brussels-based atelier that creates high-end handcrafted hardware is a favourite among top-tier designers like Paris-based Parmentier. ‘Everybody in my field loves this company, as it makes no compromises on style or quality’, he says, calling the Belgian family-owned company ‘one of the best hardware companies in the world.’

Maison Vervloet is known for its extensive collection of door handles, but most of all for its exceptional team of artisans who don’t shy away from any technical challenges. With Parmentier’s ‘Starlight’ and ‘Stardust’ collections, both launching at Maison & Objet in September, they venture much further than the usual door, window and furniture handles. It has become a true lifestyle collection, an idea that arose after many conversations. ‘Stéphane didn’t have just one idea, but ten at a time,’ says Isabelle Hamburger, director of Maison Vervloet. ‘When he presented his sketches to us we [were] convinced immediately – stunned that he understood the direction we wanted to go in so well, without having to explain it.’

The industrial-style Stardust collection consists of door handles and doorknobs that integrate Parmentier’s signature ‘double zero’ motif, developed further through elongations and distortions.

The perfect perforations are found here – described by Parmentier as ‘tattooed on the collection like an industrial code’ – were a technical feat that proved challenging to the artisans on the atelier team. To Parmentier’s delight, they persisted – and succeeded in creating meticulous circular perforations even in the smooth curvatures of the handles.

Alongside these straightforwardly functional pieces, Parmentier, renowned for his knack for graphic experimentation, also created the enigmatic ‘Starlight’ collection, which comprises limited edition objects ranging from desk accessories, a side table, a box set and a totem set. These last two, named ‘Motu’, can be seen as families, or ‘petites architectures that live on their own or in a group: like people do’, explains Parmentier.

‘Each box is a small altar devoted to beauty and craftsmanship’, says the designer, who looked to the idea of gods and symbols from Maori culture for the objects’ aesthetics. The solid bronze totems, which have an aluminium base covered with pure gold, have no function as such, Parmentier admits, ‘but on the other hand, I would say that beauty is a kind of function for me. I tried to have this feeling of graphic and vibrant shapes. They are very sensual and mysterious at the same time: like little gods keeping an eye on you.’

INFORMATION

The Starlight and Stardust collections will launch 7-11 September at Maison et Objet. For more information, visit the Maison Vervloet website

It has been six years since lighting brand Allied Maker hit the New York City design scene. Founders husband-and-wife duo Ryden and Lanette Rizzo started by designing lights inside a garage, and now they have taken the brand to the next level by opening their first 185sq m showroom in Manhattan which they have created in collaboration with architect Marshall Shuster.

‘Lanette really wanted to find the perfect ground floor space with architectural interest. Frontage was a must. A cast iron building was a plus’ explains Ryden. These architectural qualities are found in the Le Corbusier-inspired arches that mirror the vast curves seen throughout the collections, showcasing the couple’s keen interest in sacred geometry.

Originally existing as a dental office, the light filled space in Tribeca offers oak floors, terrazzo details with brass inlays; the lighting designs are also part of the architecture as they are found framed into the walls and hanging from the ceiling.

The couple have built a unique model for their brand, being both designers and manufacturers means they offer a fully bespoke service whilst behind the scenes, their Long Island production team is predominantly made up of female artisans. ‘Craftsmanship has been, historically, a male dominated field. I personally love hiring a good craftswoman, Lanette says, ‘We have female engineers and fabricators. I love that our company is participating in the cultivation and growth of women in this field. Our company is about one third women.’

This modern company philosophy, the new showroom and the latest modular releases in wood and steel continue to anchor Allied Maker’s strong position on the competitive NYC lighting design market. Their passion for craftsmanship also led them to explore new territories for the showroom, outside of the lighting realm. They created a stair baluster for the space and this could be a sign for a furniture designing future, ‘we have talked about hardware, furniture and home accessories and are looking forward to keeping the work fresh and expanding our offerings’ Ryden says. Watch this space.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Allied Maker website

ADDRESS

Allied Maker
81 Franklin Street
New York
NY 10013

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Patricia Urquiola makes her London residential debut this year with The Lincoln Square development in Bloomsbury. Due for completion later this year, the project by developers Lodha has been realised by PLP Architecture as a ten-storey residential block sitting firmly in the buzz of academia row – a cultural hub of literature, law, medicine and the arts.

Urquiola has designed the amenities at Lincoln Square – 17,000 sq ft of luxury, sophistication and warmth in the form of a pool, spa (with ice and mist showers), cinema, private club, snooker room, an on-site library and children’s play area. Each space exudes Urquiola expertise in seamlessly melding materials; bronze mesh gilding can be found in both ceilings and room dividers, while a mix of coloured glass, timber and marble create opulence throughout the spaces.

‘At Lodha we pride ourselves on working with the best designers in the world,’ says Gabriel York, managing director of Lodha UK. Urquiola’s spaces join interiors by design agency Bowler James Brindley, while landscape architects Gustafson Porter + Bowman (responsible for Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial in Hyde Park) will realise the residents’ private courtyard.

‘It was in the process of designing various aspects of Lincoln Square that I immersed myself in the world in which this beautiful building sits – not just physically, but also in an abstract way,’ says Urquiola. ‘The cultural landscape of London is one of the most exciting anywhere. It’s a city that makes you feel alive and is full of the riches of life.’

The twice crowned Wallpaper* Designer of the Year has also launched 30 limited-edition sculptural sand timers, each uniquely blown in Murano glass to celebrate the warmth and sensuality of the residential development. ‘This project made me more aware of the luxury of time, the investment we make in our education and in our understanding of culture and history,’ Urquiola explains. ‘The privilege we have in being able to expand our minds in these ways, is made possible by the luxury of time’.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Lodha UK website

’Sand Timer’ by Patricia Urquiola is available from WallpaperSTORE*

London-based fire-starter Knnox is shedding light on non-disposable design; plastic is passé and the heat is back on longevity.

Its first product, the Knnox lighter aims to extinguish visual noise through a distinguished tool to ‘reimagine light’. The intricately crafted device requires ten different manufacturing processes, fueled by expertise from 15 separate UK manufacturers.

Realised by Australian husband-and-wife duo, Desmond and Jessica Ware over an extensive development period, their sophisticated product is ethically and proudly made in England. ‘We’ve spared no expense when it comes to the finer details and quality, which is why we offer a lifetime guarantee,’ explains Jessica.

There’s no doubt that Knnox has a flair for refined design, in its 1970s-inspired attention to curves and contours, and contemporary approach to technology. With precision-machined brass mechanisms, stainless steel hex tool, fierce flint fire-starters and custom felt inserts; the flame-making business may finally have met its match.

The consumer’s story begins with the packaging; a neat navy box with gold embossed typography, designed by London-based SocioDesign. The lighter is presented as a kit, with each component itemised and ready for assembly. This tactility extends to the product itself; the device is encouraged to age naturally through touch and continued use.

The Knnox lighter is sure to spark compliments, defying disposable culture, and feeling firmly at home in our hall of flame.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Knnox website

Three years ago, the Wallpaper* brand expanded to e-commerce, creating a marketplace for refined design in the form of the WallpaperSTORE*. Since then, the digital store has collaborated with world-class talents from emerging brands and designers to established companies and stellar names in the design world firmament – delivering objects, furniture and products by the likes of Zaha Hadid, Hay, Gucci and more to our audience. With over 100K followers on Instagram and a flurry of pop-up stores under the WallpaperSTORE* belt, the idea has travelled beyond the realms of e-commerse; below, we take a look at all of the creative concepts from around the globe and which ones you can catch now...

WallpaperSTORE* pop-up at MCBW, Munich, March 2019

For its first German pop-up, WallpaperSTORE* enlisted local designer David Lehmann to create a playful environment of recycled plastic inflatables at the newly opened Andaz Munich Schwabinger Tor hotel. The whimsical installation, titled 'Fragile Welt,’ opens during the annual Munich Creative & Business Week (MCBW), and offers wares from the store’s inventory that celebrate German creativity. Until 17 March.

Andaz Munich Schwabinger Tor , Leopoldstrasse 170, 80804 Munich, Germany

WallpaperSTORE* pop-up at Designblok Prague, October 2018

The store has joined in the 20th anniversary celebrations of Prague’s Designblok festival with a pop-up shop at the fair’s main spot – the 19th-century Industrial Palace. Czech designer Lucie Koldova was invited to realise the installation and she used new glass concepts by Brokis Lighting to structure the set as an ode to the country’s rich history in glass craft. On view until 29 October.

The Industrial Palace, Prague 7, Czech Republic

WallpaperSTORE* pop-up at MUDAM during Luxembourg Design City, October - November 2018

WallpaperSTORE* turns its eye to Luxembourg’s bourgeoning design talent during Luxembourg Design City in an exclusive collaboration with MUDAM (Musée d’Art Moderne Grand Duc Jean, Luxembourg). Open from 19 October - 18 November, visitors to the store are met with products from Luxembourg locals like Christophe de la Fontaine, Meyers & Fugmann, Kianpour & partners, Roxanne Flick, as well as exclusive products from WallpaperSTORE*-stocked designers including Bohinc Studio, Bitossi Ceramiche, Phil Cuttance and Dimitri Bähler.

MUDAM 3, Park Dräi Eechelen

Inflorescence at Hay House, Copenhagen, 2018

WallpaperSTORE* launched this architectural flower shop, its inaugural Copenhagen pop-up, at Danish design pinnacle Hay House. The floral project was launched alongside the annual 3 Days of Design event, and was created in collaboration with some of the city’s best in the business: flower stylist Emelie Johansson and Tableau, a new space in the Danish city that showcases flora as art. Using WallpaperSTORE* vases including structural ceramic models by Dimore Studio, copper infused silhouettes from Nude and vibrant acrylic works by Studio Hattern, Johansson adorned the vessels with a range of flora, such as peonies, Lupins, Snapdragons and Zinnias.

The WallpaperSTORE* GUILD pop-up, Cape Town, 2017

Anchoring South Africa as a global design destination, WallpaperSTORE* celebrated the opening of Cape Town’s Zeitz MOCAA with its first South African pop-up store. Taking over The Guild Group’s V&A Waterfront flagship space, WallpaperSTORE* brought together exclusive pieces from The Guild Gallery collections by young South African design talent, alongside regular favourites. Featured works included ceramics by the renowned Clementina van der Walt, customised Converse sneakers by local artist Dad Khanyisa and hand-crafted wooden Bluetooth speakers by Shibby Beats. The local pieces were engaged in a design dialogue with WallpaperSTORE* pieces by Artek, Tom Dixon, Hay, L’Objet, Vitra and more, displayed across white floor-to-ceiling shelves.

WallpaperSTORE* pop-up at MAD Museum, Brussels, 2017

During Brussels Design September in 2017, WallpaperSTORE* curated a selection of Belgian design objects and furniture at the MAD Museum. Featured products focused on local design talent, including colourful tables and chairs by Muller Van Severen and smaller pieces by Le Typographe and Michael Verheyden. A corner of the space was dedicated to ceramics, with highlights including Isabelle de Borchgrave’s pieces for Serax, as well as Destroy Builders.

WallpaperSTORE* and House of Today at Beirut’s Le Yacht Club, 2016

In an exclusive collaboration with House of Today, a platform for emerging Lebanese talent, WallpaperSTORE* brought a pop-up store to Beirut during the 2016 festive season. Curated by Carwan Gallery’s Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte, a mix of flourishing design from the Lebanese capital met products from the online store’s archive at Le Yacht Club. Specially commissioned pieces alluding to the Lebanon’s contemporary craft brought Beirut into the global landscape of design, and included brass salt and pepper shakers by Sayar & Garibeh; Thomas Trad’s copper bowls; Marc Dibeh’s decadent marble pieces; and 200 grs’ ways with wood.

WallpaperSTORE* pop-up at Venice Biennale, Venice, 2018

WallpaperSTORE* teamed up with the Venetian Design Studio Zanellato/Bortotto for its concept pop-up shop within DESIGN VE. exhibition (Biennale Design Walks through Venice).  The environment was a homage to Venice and its its ‘Acqua Alta’ apocalyptic recurrent syndrome, when waters from the Canals & Laguna invade streets and campo around town due to high tides, the STORE* was serviced by local Venetian architecture students. Unique previews of limited edition pieces from Minimalux, Salvatori, Venini, La Chance, L’Objet, Michael Anastassiades and Nason & Morreti featured, and the store’s design installation was powered by local Italian metal furniture excellence De Castelli.

WallpaperSTORE* pop-up at Wallpaper* Handmade, Milan, 2018

Design duo Atelier Biagetti provided a playful design for the WallpaperSTORE* pop-up store concept at the Wallpaper* Handmade space during Salone del Mobile 2018. Taking its inspiration from the Brillo prints by Andy Warhol, the space was an ironic take on commerce with rows of washing powder cartons plastered with BUY NOW interspersed with refined pieces up for grabs.

Golden Forest at Salone del Mobile, Milan, 2017

WallpaperSTORE* tapped London-based Analogia Project during Salone del Mobile 2017 for an installation entitled Golden Forest. The installation was located inside an apartment peppered with pieces from the online creative marketplace. Filaments of brass drape from the ceiling of the Mario Bellini-designed building, divided the set that included Vitra chairs, Menu sofas and Tom Dixon lighting.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the WallpaperSTORE* website

Two years ago designer Yves Béhar tapped into the philosophy that a well-appointed environment, lacking uniform cubicles and sterile lighting, can boost work ethic and foster productivity. He collaborated investor Steve Mohebi and designed Canopy with developer Amir Mortazavi, an elegant and ergonomic co-working space in San Francisco with an emphasis on refined and innovative design.

Following on the success of Canopy’s inaugural space on Fillmore Street, the Swiss designer has created a second location on Jackson Square, with the aim of creating more communities for small American businesses. Known for his innovation within the realm of domestic design (recent hits include an intelligent vinyl record player and an crib that rocks babies to sleep), Béhar’s interior design projects bear ample evidence of his technological expertise.

Béhar has infused the space with references to nature, as suggested by the name ‘Canopy’. A prominent yet minimalist tree-like canopy stands in the middle of the unconventional office space, with its ‘trunk’ and imposing network of ‘branches’ pragmatically doubling as shelves. The material palette is rich and tactile, with solid ash communal tables interspersed among conference tables of blackened ash and green and black marble.

Canopy members can work on Béhar’s Sayl chairs and among his Public Office Landscape furniture system, both by US furniture brand Herman Miller – the latter implemented with Live OS technology to auto-adjust desks to their preferred height. Meanwhile, a handful of mid-century designs, including Eames chairs and Preben Dahl lighting create a warm atmosphere, perfect for mustering creative ideas. Glass-walled meeting rooms, a signature element from the original Canopy space, allow natural light to flood in, complementing the bold colour scheme of green and pink.

Canopy’s Jackson Square location is also is carefully considered – the neighbourhood borders the culturally significant North Beach, whose cafés and bars became the epicentre of the Beat Generation in the 1950s, and ultimately contributed to the rise of the San Francisco Renaissance.

See more co-working spaces here

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Canopy website

ADDRESS

Canopy Jackson Square
595 Pacific Avenue
San Francisco

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Much like many current creative collaborations, it was Instagram that alerted German furniture brand Stattmann Neue Moebel to the architectural work of Atelier ordinaire in 2017. ‘We were so intrigued by the wooden houses that we had to send the owner of atelier ordinaire, Thomas Walter, an email immediately,’ says Nicola Stattmann, co-founder of Stattmann Neue Moebel. A couple of clicks later and they have just designed a sustainable and minimalist prefab wood house together in Bourgogne in France. 

A mutual love of wood (and each other’s work) officially kicked off the project. ‘For me, the rooms in the houses of atelier ordinaire are themselves like well-made furniture,’ Stattmann explains. ‘The outside corresponds exactly with the inside. There is no disconnection – only wooden volumes, soft transitions and clear lines. I cannot picture our furniture in a better space.’ The wood for the structure and the furniture inside is all sourced via sustainable forestry, a mutual ethos for both companies.

The furniture chosen for the project from Stattmann Neue Moebel’s vast collection are perfectly paired with the simple internal architecture. Spread sparsely across the angular walls of the building are Brussels-based designer Sylvain Willenz’s Profile series of highly crafted oak and ash products that create a pleasing sense of continuity throughout. Clusters of Add stools by German designer Steffen Kehrle also pepper the space alongside his Plug shelves, that Stattmann explains ‘work equally well next to the wall or as a room divider.’

Stattmann Neue Moebel and Atelier ordinare ensured the bucolic French landscape outside was highlighted by the design too. Large windows throughout the space act as cinematic frames for nature. The outdoors is also reflected in the tones and textures used, the dark hued weather resistant exterior of the house nods to the bark of the pine trees, while Stattmann chose 11 tones of this natural wood for the furniture. ‘We selected the grey-green, white, nude-grey, and grey which match the garden, the light and the natural pine tree wood of the interior walls perfectly.’ she details. ‘To create contrast, we selected the black-blue and the dark-blue, which are strong without being loud. The harmony with the surrounding environment is not just a question of the colours. It is also the matt surface which shows the grain of the wood very naturally and beautifully.’

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Atelier ordinaire website and the Stattmann Neue Moebel website

The dust from the LA Design Festival may be just settling, but at its hub at the Row DTLA, Poketo’s ever-changing Project Space is still abuzz. All this month, the Los Angeleno design destination is hosting a pop-up for the Swedish label Hem, which has brought a selection of its design-centric, yet accessible line of furniture and homeware to the West Coast for the first time.

‘As an established destination in the Los Angeles design scene, we are thrilled to debut our Los Angeles pop-up in partnership with Poketo,’ says Hem Founder and CEO, Petrus Palmér. ‘We’ve had our sights set on opening a physical retail space here for some time, as we knew from our online sales that it was a key market for us, so it was just a matter of finding the right venue.’

Installed within Poketo Project Space’s austere concrete space, Hem’s rich and colourful pieces create a warm and inviting atmosphere. These include newly launched pieces fresh from Milan, such as Anderssen & Voll’s Kumo sofa, an easily configured multi-seat sofa that can fit both row and corner formations, wool rugs by the Milan-based fashion designer Arthur Arbesserand the ergonomic Kendo armchair by Italian designers LucidiPevere. This comprehensive showcase is capped off by a statuesque wooden shelving unit, filled with the vibrant home accessories and soft goods that Hem is best known for.

‘Hem's vision of quality and forward design for the home is in line with [our] own ethos of bringing art and design into the everyday,’ states Poketo co-founder, Ted Vadakan, who runs the business and its three other LA locations with his wife Angie Myung. Best known for its curated and in-house designed housewares, clothing, stationery, books and gifts, Poketo’s light-hearted ethos makes this joint effort a seamless match.

INFORMATION

Hem at Poketo Project Space is open until 30 June. For more for information, visit the Hem website

ADDRESS

Hem at Poketo Project Space
777 S. Alameda St #174
Los Angeles
CA 90021

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The work of Vienna-based designers Nadja Zerunian and Peter Weisz is akin to alchemy. Using materials such as copper, marble and glass, the pair create unusual, sophisticated pieces, often combining them with quirky vintage objects found at flea markets and antique shops around the world.

The resulting limited-edition collections are as unexpected as they are seductive. Each piece is covetable in its own right, but it’s the ingenious way they are put together that really draws the eye. ‘We believe we can push the conversation about craft a lot further by realising small collections that tell stories, and by drawing people into our world of little wonders,’ explains Zerunian. ‘By combining works made by artisans with new and vintage design, you elevate the craft items and show how they can hold their own among a range of exquisite objects.’ It’s all about ‘taking the sentimentality out of craft’, adds Weisz, ‘and making it relevant for today.’

Zerunian and Weisz have different but complementary backgrounds. Zerunian studied painting, and later product design with Ron Arad and Carl Auböck, and has been a designer at Calvin Klein and creative director for Georg Jensen and Swatch, while Weisz is a master tailor who had his own atelier and eponymous label for 25 years, and has also worked as a fashion director for magazines and brands such as Swarovski. They both ‘collect, hoard and hunt’ objects, which often become the starting points for a new collection.

‘Nadja and I engage in our designs in a very playful way,’ says Weisz. ‘When we work, it’s almost like entering a fantasy realm.’ Humour is a constant, as is a conversational game of ping-pong that ends up pushing each project further. In their four years of collaboration, this eclectic approach has led to five collections that highlight different craft skills and embody different narratives. These include Nos Trucs en Plumes, inspired by French ballet dancer Zizi Jeanmaire, and Ways to Disappear, a range of objects that seem to vanish when combined with trays finished in the same colours.

The latest collection, launched this spring, is called Perfect Stills. A series of tableware made out of glass, ceramic, metal, wood and stone by craftspeople in Austria, the Czech Republic, Romania and Italy, it draws its inspiration from archetypal elements; the pair refer to the pieces as meditative totems. Functional yet enigmatic, they appear almost to dance or float thanks to curved bases. As with many of the duo’s works, the individual elements can be fitted together to compose a single object or separated out into different pieces to create a ‘product landscape’.

‘Each piece is a generic or archaic shape, but once you put them together, it becomes a Zerunianandweisz piece,’ says Zerunian. ‘The idea was to show how utilitarian objects can become highly decorative,’ adds Weisz.

Zerunian and Weisz kicked off their design partnership in 2014 with a collaboration with Roma craftspeople in Romania. Initially, Zerunian was taken on as a pro bono advisor by the Austria-based Erste Foundation to help marginalised Roma craft communities reinterpret their products for a global, design-savvy audience. She soon asked Weisz, a friend of a friend, to come on board to help create a fashion collection with Roma seamstresses. Their collaborators in Romania were the dynamic Bucharest-based social enterprise Meşteshukar ButiQ (MBQ).

MBQ runs a boutique in Bucharest (and is due to open another in Vienna late this year) that sells pieces made by 18 Roma artisans, whose skills range from basket weaving to woodturning. The artisans make traditional objects with a design edge, as well as more complicated items in collaboration with the likes of Zerunianandweisz and up-and-coming Romanian designer Radu Abraham, with whom they have worked on a collection of vases and trays, due to be launched during Romanian Design Week in late May.

Thanks to the support of the foundation and the team at MBQ, Zerunian and Weisz have been able to offer the artisans a level of commitment that many others haven’t. ‘The Roma are wary of people arriving with a great idea and then never coming back again,’ says Zerunian. So the fact that the pair did come back, almost every month, for close to four years, meant they were able to build up trust. They made minor but key suggestions, such as making the legs of traditional stools less chunky, and exploring new basket shapes. The fact that MBQ paid the craftspeople better than other wholesalers had positive effects too – the artisans had more time to interact with the pieces and were slowly able to invest in new workshops and tools. ‘More respect towards them led to more respect towards the product,’ says Zerunian.

The artisan who has had the most impact on Zerunian and Weisz is Victor Clopotar, a talented coppersmith from the Caldarari community in Brateiu, Transylvania. It was their admiration for his abilities with copper, silver and brass that led to their first range as a duo, a series of sculptural tabletop items called ‘7,000 blows’ in reference to the amount of times a sheet of metal has to be hammered to achieve the shapes they were after. ‘To do something elliptical or asymmetrical is a real craft challenge,’ says Zerunian. ‘Victor is one of the few people in the world able to do this.’

For the designers, working with the Roma or other marginalised communities in Algeria and Lebanon is not about a worthier-than-thou mission (they are ‘accidental activists’, says Zerunian). The pair, above all, want to shed new light on fast disappearing traditional crafts. These objects, and the vintage pieces they find, can be functional, frivolous or purely symbolic, but they all share something in common. ‘They invite you to take your time with them, and not only use them but also view them in a different way,’ says Weisz. The pieces might not be large in size but they are, nevertheless, unexpectedly powerful. §

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

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Zerunianandweisz website

What will future workspaces look like? What is the ideal office environment? These are questions arising within our evolving world of modern working; offices have morphed into multifunctional spaces that include gyms, meditation rooms, retail spaces and some even come equipped with champagne buttons. Now Danish design stalwarts Muuto are getting in on the act with a pop-up co-working space at Nomad in Copenhagen.

‘Well-designed workplaces are a key elements of keeping employees inspired throughout the workday,’ explains Muuto design director Christian Grosen. Opening as part of 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen, the project aims to address the idea of a working space through the lens of art and design. Using the brand’s dynamic contemporary collections, they have built an installation that includes lounge, conference room and a communal working space in a vibrant yet minimalist Muuto finish

‘We believe that the workspace of tomorrow will evolve towards a more residential expression, bringing the aesthetic and functional sentiments of home into the workplace’ says Grosen. With this in mind, the brand commissioned interior designer Natalia Sanchéz of design consultancy Spatial Code to realise the welcoming space, ‘we wanted to make people feel at ease within the spaces that they’d inhabit, using the underlying emotional sentiments of colour throughout the space to communicate the feeling that we’d like for people to have when entering,’ she explains.

This aura of calm is reflected in the textures and muted palettes, as seen in Anderssen & Voll’s Connect Modular sofa in the lounge, the new Enfold sideboard by Thomas Bentzen in the workspace (launched at Salone del Mobile), and Cecilie Manz’s Workshop chairs. In addition, quirky artworks pepper the space in the same palette, including a wall installation by Copenhagen/Malmo-based Wang & Söderström who have created playful patterns using Muuto’s The Dots coat hooks to form a cosmos-inspired backdrop for the communal workspace.

A celebration of new perspectives in creativity is an ongoing part of Muuto’s design ethos, and Nomad is the perfect place to express this. Formerly existing as an old courthouse in the city centre, it has now transformed into a hub for an eclectic group of creatives. Hans Peter Hertz, co-founder of Nomad Workspaces explains ‘we have people working within an array of disciplines, whether it be artificial intelligence, graphic design, drone technology, software development, art or any other discipline.’ We hope they all will feel at home with Muuto.

See more co-working spaces here

INFORMATION

Muuto at Nomad is on view until 26 May. For more information, visit the website

Jennifer Lee has been crowned this year’s winner of the Loewe Craft Prize 2018. The Scottish ceramicist and RCA alumna was selected from a diverse range of 30 global finalists originating from 18 countries. Works on show include a Japanese straw wallhanging, Belgian folded ceramics glazed with red Ferrari paint, a shingled wooden screen from the United Kingdom and intricately engraved Singaporean paper.

Lee is known for utilising traditional techniques, but has developed her own method of colouring by mixing metallic oxides into clay. The hand-coiled vessel that scooped her the prize features planetary bands of these oxidised pigments, some coloured decades before creation – to capture ‘a sense of frozen time'.

Dame Helen Mirren followed in the footsteps of Charlotte Rampling, who presented last year’s inaugural award in Madrid, presenting the €50,000 prize to Lee at the award’s cerermony at London’s Design Museum. She was selected by a jury led by Loewe’s creative director Jonathan Anderson, together with the director of the Design Museum Deyan Sudjic, former director of the National Museum of Korea Hong-Nam Kim, industrial designer Patricia Urquiola and winner of last year’s prize Ernst Gamperl. In addition, Takuro Kuwata and Simone Pheulpin received special mentions, winning €5,000 each.

Anderson, who inaugurated the prize last year to ‘help modernist craft and make it more accessible’, has a longtime passion for artisanal technique. Loewe began as a collective craft workshop in 1846, and since taking the helm of the Madrid-based house in 2013, Anderson has been working to unite its contemporary aesthetic with its craft heritage. Take ‘Loewe Blankets’ an exhibition presented as part of last month’s Salone del Mobile celebrating the skill and innovation of blanket and tapestry makers worldwide, from Senegal to Salasaca. ‘The prize is about presenting craft in the now,’ Anderson said after the prize giving ceremony. ‘We don’t have to make it nostalgic, with images of a man sewing in a dark room. It’s about telling these craftspeople’s stories.’

 ‘I have a store of clay which I keep in my studio,’ Lee explained of the 30-year-old elliptical bands which featured in her winning design, also referencing old nails, river clay pipes and bucket handles from her family’s Aberdeenshire farm as objects of inspiration. ‘I leave it to mature and it changes over time. I’m not decorating or glazing, my work is all done as you make it.’

Pheulpin, a Nancy-based French textile sculptor was hailed for her layered cotton sculptures, which are created from folds of monochrome industrial cotton and secured using countless pins. Her winning entry ‘Croissance XL (XL Growth)’ took four months to create, and its densely packed folds resemble the crevices of a rock or the rings of a hewn tree, and nodded to the enormity of the earth’s topographic history. 

Experimental Japanese potter Kuwata’s ‘Tea Bowl’ comprised of a bold green glazed vessel layered with cracked splodges of platinum and steel, which appeared to drip over the lip of the bowl like molten metal. Fascinated with dysfunction, Kuwata uses stones and needles during the kiln process to disrupt his ceramic designs, finding a joy in the spontaneous and imperfect approach to creation

The work of the 30 global finalists will be displayed in an exhibition at London’s Design Museum as part of London Craft Week. Loewe will also present a series of ‘Craft Conversations’ with the museum, in an exploration of how today’s digital-focused world is affecting the concept of craft. ‘There can’t be a better time to look at craft,’ Sudjic said. ‘The digital age is destroying whole categories of objects, our cameras and smartphones do all sorts for us, but there’s something essentially human about making, touching and feeling, and that’s what this award is all about.’

Loewe’s champion of craft, and a keen collector himself, Anderson added ‘It’s more exciting to see, feel and touch. It’s important today that we are more emotionally connected.’

INFORMATION

The Loewe Craft Prize Exhibition is on view from 4 May - 17 June 2018. For more information, visit the Loewe website and the Design Museum website

For Danish Italian designers GamFratesi, a chance to collaborate with Italian furniture giant Poltrona Frau provided the perfect opportunity to get creative with the Italian manufacturer’s main material – leather.

The Copenhagen-based studio – a collaboration between Danish architect and designer Stine Gam, and Italian architect Enrico Fratesi – is renowned for their material and technique-driven approach, so the decision to draw upon Poltrona Frau’s rich heritage in the production of leather was a natural one.

‘With this collection we aim to reach an aesthetic that is embracing the design values of Poltrona Frau as well as the contemporary needs of an everyday functional environment,’ explain the designers.

The studio was keen to experiment and explore new ways in which it could take the traditional material and techniques and create something unexpected. The result is a rotund coffee table with a handwoven basket-like base made from saddle leather straps with tone-on-tone-dyed edges.

Named Cestlavie, the table’s upside down dome doubles as a storage container hanging neatly from a tubular aluminium frame, and a Pelle Frau® leather table top folds open to reveal generous storage inside.

In addition to Cestlavie, the brand also created Soffi – a series of pendant lamps that pair blown glass with elegant buckled leather collars.

Available in three sizes, the lamps are made up of two globes – an outer globe in milky-white or smokey-grey glass and a smaller inner globe in an opaque white etched finish that houses the light source. When lit, the result is an even and diffused light that highlights its curious layered form.

A camel or taupe Cuoio Saddle leather band with contrasting stitching and a dyed tone-on-tone trim wraps each lamp’s stem. A leather buckle hides the join and all internal metal parts feature a warm natural brass finish.

‘We were inspired by the beautiful glass vessels created in the Fifties, where different layers of glass are blown into a single form – almost like a jewel inside the shape,’ say the Copenhagen studio. ‘The form of Soffi is held surreally by a leather band communicating a suspended atmosphere.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the GamFratesi website and the Poltrona Frau website

‘Miguel Castro Leñero is one of the most important artists working in Mexico today,’ says Alexis Fabry, deputy artistic director of Hermès’ home universe, who first discovered the work of the Mexico City-based painter in the early 1990s. Castro Leñero is known for his graphical representations of objects and natural elements, and Fabry was especially taken ‘by the way he uses animal forms and imprints’.

Hermès has now given a new life to the artist’s stylised animal silhouettes – specifically his horses, to reflect the French brand’s equestrian credentials – on a trilogy of blankets to be unveiled at Salone del Mobile. Each is made of bicoloured, hand-dyed double cashmere decorated with block prints, appliqué and embroidery. To create each horse outline, one single hand-cut piece of cashmere was sewn to the main fabric, then finished with tiny coloured glass beads. Traditional Kantha embroidery stitches were used to emphasise some of the details.

In the background are naïve, irregularly-placed block prints of houses and abstract forms. These nod to architectural rhythm and texture as part of the ‘nature in the city’ theme of Hermès’ new home collection.

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

INFORMATION
See the limited-edition blankets and Hermès’ latest home collection, 17-22 April, at Salone del Mobile. For more information, visit the Hermès website

ADDRESS

Il Palazzo della Permanente
Via Turati 34
Milan

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All year round, we journey through design weeks, fairs and galleries scouring for the most refined, innovative and spectacular designs from across the globe. From sublime exhibition sets and nifty product launches to compelling collaborations and sophisticated new brands, we bring you our guide of the best in design for 2018...

Bec Brittain installation at Want Les Essentiels

For over a decade, the Canadian label Want Les Essentiels has defined what travelling in style can be. To coincide with the appointment of a new creative director Christine Charlebois at the helm, the label will host a series of designer showcases at its West Village boutique in Manhattan, devoted to the furniture, lighting, sculpture and visual arts worlds. Its inaugural presentation kicks off with a custom-designed lighting installation from the designer Bec Brittain. The installation riffs on Brittain’s Shy Beam design; ‘Climbing Beams’ that connect the wall to the ceiling, while ‘Flags’, which pair the brass tube lighting with sheets of smoked and coloured glass, appear to creep up the walls. Writer: Pei-Ru Keh

Want Les Essentiels, 301 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10014, USA

Warby Parker hand mirrors collection

The handheld mirror has always been a component of the Warby Parker experience. In all of the eyewear label’s stores, portable mirrors that resemble ping pong paddles have long been kept at the ready for customers’ use. In fact, the mirrors have become such a presence that Warby Parker approached eight designers from New York and Los Angeles to reimagine the staple accessory. Ranging from Brendan Ravenhill’s elegantly angled brass and aluminium piece (pictured) to Egg Collective’s playful, kinetic sculptures and Chen Chen and Kai Williams’ archaeological dripped cement versions, each of the eight lighthearted renditions are being displayed in Warby Parker’s Greene Street (New York) and Abbot Kinney (Los Angeles) stores for the next two weeks. They will are also up for sale during this time on Paddle 8, with all proceeds benefitting Free Arts – an organisation that empowers undeserved youth through arts and mentoring programs that help develop their skills, confidence and creativity. Writer: Pei-Ru Keh

Zero Space at Musashino Art University, by Igarashi Design Studio

Igarashi Design Studio has revealed the Zero Space at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. A moment of calm amidst the busyness of university life, the space is dedicated to both independent and group study, and geared to accommodate its students’ dynamic working habits. The core design motif is inspired by a river: soft, rounded pebble benches direct the flow of visitors meandering through the space. Highly flexible, the benches can be freely rearranged and stacked at will to help stimulate ticking minds at work. Meanwhile, the internal lighting (designed in collaboration with Yuko Yamashita) is carefully controlled to get the best out of the space. During the day, natural light is sourced from a pair of sprawling 35 m tall windows. At night, hidden overhead lighting bounces off the wooden floor giving the zero-shaped panel at the room’s heart a gentle glow. Photography: Nacasa & Partners Inc. Writer: Luke Halls

Musashino Art University, 1 Chome-736 Ogawacho, Kodaira, Tokyo 187-0032, Japan

‘Lane’ and ‘Primavera’ tiles, by Barber & Osgerby, for Mutina

Design duo Barber & Osgerby are no stranger to tile design. Once more teaming up with Italian brand Mutina, the London-based studio have revealed a pair of new releases at Cersaie ceramic tile and bathroom furnishings fair in Bologna: ‘Lane’ and ‘Primavera’. The former is inspired by an abstract exploration of colour, informed by a detailed study of London’s architecture and neighbourhoods, and is available in 12 variants of white, black, grey, aubergine and terracotta. Meanwhile, ‘Primavera’ visually emulates the natural environment through randomly enclosed coloured ceramic inserts that highlight the imperfections of nature. ‘Primavera’ comes in white, grey, blue, green and black hues, and 22 per cent of each tile is made from recycled raw materials, highlighting the duo’s reverence for nature. Writer: Luke Halls

(Montblanc M) RED, by Montblanc and Marc Newson

Montblanc has rekindled its design love affair with Marc Newson on (Montblanc M) RED, a new writing instrument raising funds in the fight against AIDS. Available as a ballpoint, fountain pen and roller ball pen, it combines precious red resin with Newson’s smooth, geometric aesthetic, evoking classic Montblanc fluidity and seamlessness. ‘For over 110 years, Montblanc has built a heritage of creating fine writing instruments that have a special meanings to its owners,’ explains Montblanc CEO Nicolas Baretzki. ‘Through our partnership with (RED) we continue this long tradition, creating a special lifetime companion that makes a real impact by supporting the goal towards an HIV-free society.’ (Montblanc M) RED is also accompanied by a selection of new accessories, including a red Italian calfskin sketch book; a bracelet in woven red leather, with a decorated stainless steel closing; and a pair of stainless steel cufflinks. For every piece from the collection purchased, €5 goes to the Global Fund to support HIV/AIDS programmes. Writer: Luke Halls

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden museum shop, by Studio Chmara.Rosinke

Dresden’s cultural institution Staatliche Kunstsammlungen has recently had its museum shop overhauled by Studio Chmara.Rosinke. Going against the grain of the typical museum shop layout, the listed 16th-century corner tower has been updated to reduce visitor congestion. Monochrome fixtures and furnishings match the circular floorplan, and are suitably shaped to streamline visitor flow, orbiting around a central hanging black chandelier. In addition, the Vienna-based studio looked to present the shop as ‘an alternative to the normal cash desk’, formatting the room more as an information hub. Visitors can now discover more about each featured exhibition prior to entry, and learn more about the institution’s various historic museums and buildings. Photography: courtesy Studio Chmara.Rosinke. Writer: Luke Halls

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Residenzschloss, Taschenberg 2, 01067 Dresden, Germany

Edelman's Dubai office, by Pallavi Dean Interiors

Emirates-based design firm Pallavi Dean Interiors has delivered the glossy new Dubai office for global communications firm Edelman. Building on the success of its Abu Dhabi outpost, the design was elevated to sky-high premiums with its 1000 sq m kaleidoscopic interior, comprising a network of ‘cultural villages’. From Civic Square, the main reception area, to a lunch hub called Urban Park to a Go Bananas creative lounge, the vibrant interiors strike the balance between playful and sophisticated, appealing to seasoned experts and modern millennials alike. While each ‘village’ features a variety of bold colour palettes and workstations complete with pieces by Lignet Roset and La Palma (among others), national talents are also celebrated. Emirati designer Khalid Shafar produced a custom-made wall installation for the reception, using the Iqal worn by local men, while artist Zeinab Al Hashemi displays satellite images of Dubai’s dazzling desert playground. By creating a connection to the firm’s Abu Dhabi space, but still retaining its own identity, Edelman’s Dubai den takes office design to daring new heights. 

Photography: Pankaj Anand. Writer: Jessica-Christin Hametner

Tomorrow’s Tigers at Sotheby’s

Auction house Sotheby’s is set to open an exhibition of bespoke rug designs by 11 renowned artists including Anish Kapoor, Maya Lin and Reena Saini Kallat who have been appointed by WWF for its Tomorrow’s Tigers fundraising project. Taking cues from the Tibetan tiger rug, each artist has been commissioned to realise a design that rug specialists Christopher Farr will bring to life via unique weaving and hand dying techniques. The initiative has been curated by Artwise and the artist rugs will go on view alongside rare 19th century woven antique tiger versions in January 2019. The limited edition rugs will start at £10,000 and funds raised go towards WWF’s aim to double the number of endangered tigers in the wild by 2022, the next Chinese year of the tiger. Pictured, detail of Rose Wylie’s design. © Christopher Farr 

11-17 January 2019, Sotheby’s London, 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1S 2RT UK

Carl Hansen & Son, Osaka

Danish design stalwarts Carl Hansen & Son open up its second Japan flagship, this time in Osaka’s hip Minami-Horie district. Classics by the likes of Arne Jacobsen, Poul Kjærholm and Hans J. Wegner stand alongside contemporary designs by Tadao Ando and Naja Utzon in an industrial-style space that is doused in concrete and subtle tones of wood. The aesthetic provides a different experience to its Tokyo sister, but still offers the Danish design package is sought after by the Japanese market. ‘Japan and Denmark share a design tradition that values minimalism, functionalism, and outstanding craftsmanship,’ says Knud Erik Hansen, CEO of Carl Hansen & Son. ‘We look forward to showcasing our exceptional furniture and welcoming all design enthusiasts.’

1-15-22, Minami-Horie, Nishi-Ku, Osaka City, 550-0015 Osaka-fu, Japan

Mater Earth Gallery

Set on the outskirts of Clerkenwell and its flurry of design showrooms is Danish brand Mater‘s Earth Gallery. Opened inside a residential building, the naturally lit space houses the Copenhagen-based design brand’s collection that takes a step in a sustainable and ethical direction. At the front of the showroom, a materials lab-style set up demonstrates the brand’s use of recycling, presenting the raw material of aluminium and natural cane against the end product. The showroom also includes the newest collection from international talents including Mexican designer José de la O’s LED pendant, in addition to staples in the collection like the Double Bottle vase by Eva Harlou, designer of the concept store itself, and its Copenhagen version too.

Mater‘s Earth Gallery 36A Myddelton St, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 1UA

Alysi boutique by Studiopepe

oused within a building from the 1600s in Brera, Milan is a new boutique for Italian fashion brand Alysi, designed by Studiopepe. The contemporary interior uses a muted palette and an architectural arch motif to shape a feminine salon space, something that the design duo are experts in following their private members’ club installation at Salone del Mobile this year. Almost an installation itself, the boutique is divided into three sections, connected by an archway tunnel joining the shopping areas, together with a mixture of copper, plaster and marble. At the end of the boutique, a dressing room appears as a futuristic silver lounge with linear textures in the curtain, ceiling and mirrors, providing a holistic shopping environment.

Alysi, Via Ponte Vetero 6, Milano

Danish Design Centre at BLOX

Multi-disciplinary practice Spacon & X have realised a dynamic interior space for the Danish Design Centre’s new home at BLOX, Copenhagen’s latest design and architecture hub. The bright space, designed with sustainability and flexibility in mind, focuses on open source design as a key part of its architectural blueprint. Design classics like PH lamps and Fredericia Furniture pieces are paired with custom-made items crafted from materials including plexiglass and recycled plastic, which fulfil the changing needs, behaviour and circumstances of the creative office. The bold interior creates an ideal environment for the fast-paced digital working world. Writer: Jessica-Christin Hametner. Photography:  Julie Due

BLOX, Bryghuspladsen 8, 1473 København K

Voting inventions

With his Objects for Voters project, Frieder Bohaumilitzky has created a still life of the democratic process. Inspired by last September’s ultimately indecisive federal election, Bohaumilitzky decided to redesign the required voting items for the elections of the German parliament. ‘Political communication has changed, but the procedure of voting itself is still remarkably undesigned,’ he says. The ballot box, polling booth and supervisor’s table are all reinvented with style and seriousness, as sober, neutral objects with a friendly curve and a colour scheme that’s studiously neutral. ‘I used only black, white and the natural colour of wood,’ the designer notes. The bent wood is also meant to evoke the interiors and facilities in German public buildings. Bohaumilitzky combined his design studies with a course in political science, and the objects for Voters take a welcome cross-disciplinary approach.  Available from Objects for Voters. Photography: Niklas Taleb. Writer: Jonathan Bell

Utah and Taro by East Fork

Timeless, usable dinnerware is the calling card of East Fork, a ceramics company based in Asheville, North Carolina. Founded by Alex and Connie Matisse (Henri Matisse is Alex’s great-grandfather), East Fork has been using artisanal pottery methods to make functional objects for daily use since 2009. Coinciding with the move from using a wood kiln to gas firing, the studio has added two new glazes to its existing palette of neutral tones – a peach-toned terracotta called Utah, and an earthy lilac called Taro. Conceived by creative director Connie and then brought to life by the team’s glaze chemist, these new matte glazes have been specifically developed and tested rigorously as they are rarely seen in traditional stoneware. Available in all of East Fork’s weighty, sculptural designs, the new hues are perfect for mixing and matching.

Writer: Pei-Ru Keh

Designer Stefano Giovannoni launched his online furniture brand Qeeboo back in 2015 with a collection of colourful plastic furniture. He is now reissuing the designs with a chrome finish created using nanotechnology. In a first for furniture and design objects, atomised particles are removed from a piece of brass, aluminium or copper in a high-vacuum atmosphere, and coated on the plastic product. One of the designs being treated with this technique is Studio Job’s ‘Flash’ lamp, which gives corporeal form to the rays of a torch. For the studio’s Job Smeets, the torch has a personal significance, as well as a practical one. ‘I once had my power turned off because I forgot to pay the bill, so here I am lighting the whole place with “Flash”. It’s the saviour of the universe.’

The Qeeboo shop is open 17 – 22 April, at Fiera Porta Sud, Palazzo Visconti and Hotel NHow, Milan, at Salone del Mobile. Photography: Rebecca Scheinberg. Interiors: Maria Sobrino. Writer: Rosa Bertoli

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

The secrets of St James’s

Architectural practice Squire & Partners are offering up a bird’s eye view of St James’s with an interactive map display as part of the market’s new exhibition. Traveling around the key locations, the map produces a narrative of the historic area revealing cultural secrets like where did John meet Yoko? Or where did Jimi Hendrix play his first UK gig? The experience has been elevated with a theme tune too, a curated soundtrack of Frederic Chopin’s Nocturne In E Flat Major, Op.9 No.2.

St James’s Market, SW1Y 4AH, Regent St, London

Gum flagship Milan

Italian architect Antonio Barbieri was commissioned to create a new look for Milan’s Gum flagship store. Barbieri created a multicoloured space designed to bring to life the bright leathers of the Florentine accessories brand; painting walls and ceilings an unassuming neutral tone, he added layers of glass and mirror in jewel hues, creating an impactful effect of lights, shadows and reflections. Since 1999, the architect has worked with fashion brands such as Gucci, Emilio Pucci and Max Mara, and designed independent boutiques all over Italy and abroad. This latest project lets the architect’s more playful side, mixing colour and material to create ‘a space where light goes through and bounces’.

Gum Milan, Corso Garibaldi, 34, Milan. Writer: Rosa Bertoli

A/D/O Water Futures Research Program

With the world’s water crisis feeling increasingly real these days, curator and water conservationist Jane Withers has launched a new multi-pronged research program together with A/D/O, the Brooklyn-based research centre dedicated to pushing the boundaries and future of design. During the kick off event last week, which featured a water tasting designed by Arabeschi di Latte, Withers and A/D/O unveiled the year-long program that will focus on three themes: harvesting the sky, pollution and purification and drinking local. Each theme will also be accompanied by a dedicated installation, exhibition and series of events and workshops. What’s more, the program has also issued a call for entries for new design ideas to tackle the harmful drinking water culture today. With competition categories ranging from future objects and materials to future information design, the open call will culminate in a final exhibition in early 2019. Pictured: unglazed clay cups from India are used for drinking water and tea and, once discarded, dissolve back into the earth. Writer: Pei-Ru Keh

849 Alexander Girard pen

Three iconic creative forces come together for a playful collaboration. The Swiss mastery of Maison Caran d’Ache meets Alexander Girard’s graphic prints and Vitra’s creative ingenuity for a charming new pen design. The 849 Alexander Girard is a decorative piece with the Double Triangle and Check Stripes patterns taking up the body of the sleek 849 hexagonal model, that is a part of Vitra’s spring accessories collection.

Writer: Sujata Burman

New brand Bassines

Following the success of his luxury kitchen brand, La Cornue, French visionary Xavier Dupuy launches a venture that takes him into new territory: bathrooms design. In an attempt to revive the art of metalwork, and in particular French copperware, he has released a range of contemporary sinks. Titled Bassines, Dupuy creates the brand with long-time partner, designer Laurent Besseas with sleek modern basins in stainless steel, gold, copper and black.

Available from Bassines. Writer: Sujata Burman

Globe-Trotter x Paul Smith

Globe-Trotter’s 20” classic navy trolley case is getting a Paul Smith makeover. The luxury travel brand has tapped the British fashion designer for a limited edition collection which sees Smith add a splash of colour to the carry-on with his ‘Artist Stripe’ pattern on the handle and corners of the trolley. Available in a range of hues, the playful pieces merge art and fashion to make a unique travel companion. The range will be presented at the Paul Smith boutique in Milan during Salone del Mobile (18 – 22 April 2018).

20” Trolley Case (Paul Smith) [Signed by Paul Smith], £1,700, available from Globe-Trotter. Writer: Sujata Burman

Cannes Précieux

Back in 1928, Jean Puiforcat set the bar for dinner opulence with the Cannes pattern in flatware. The iconic design was inspired by the architectural façade of Hôtel Martinez in Cannes, and served many of the elite at sophisticated dinner soirées. The French brand is now giving the range an elegant resurgence by adding a hint of onyx, lapis-lazuli, jade and jasper to the handle of the sterling silver pieces. Cannes’s semi precious addition takes the designs up a notch from cutlery to haute couture table jewels.

Cannes Précieux is available by special order from Puiforcat. Writer: Sujata Burman

‘Poli-Piel’ by Jorge Penadés

Jorge Penadés has been giving leather scraps the luxury treatment since his acclaimed graduation project ‘Structural Skin’ (2014). The Spanish designer compresses and glues dyed leather offcuts into long profiles with a grain like marble or wood. ‘Poli-Piel’, a solo show at Madrid gallery Machado-Muñoz, shows him taking his invention in a bold direction. Leather is the common element across eight distinctive pieces of furniture and lighting; buckles and leather straps combine his own material with planes of glass, aluminium and mirror in daring compositions. Marking Penadés' first solo exhibition, ‘Poli-Piel’ also showcases a new technique he has found for coaxing the natural material into structural form. Two conical table lamps have bases of stacked coils, each layer made of rolled and glued leather. The show’s title plays on the Spanish word for ‘Leatherette’ as well as describing many ways to use leather. Until 10 March

Machado-Muñoz, Calle José Marañón, 4, 28010 Madrid, Spain. Writer: Riya Patel

This X That pop-up

Design consultancy This X That fuses architecture and design at its new pop-up store at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary. The LA-based company invited a selection of emerging architecture practices to contribute limited-edition pieces for the home and garden, including Architecture Office, Besler & Sons, New Affiliates and Welcomecompanions. Our favourite piece has been designed by Jimenez Lai, founder of Bureau Spectacular, who contributed the neon Scribble lamp. Lai translated his passion for architecture into a cartoon-ish design. The lamp supports itself by its own flowing curvature, and can be installed on the floor, tabletop, or on the ceiling. Until 19 March.

Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Writer Luke Halls. Photography:  Injinash Unshin

Kartell pop-up

In a fitting union of Italian prowess, the eye-catching collaboration between Kartell and entrepreneur Lapo Elkann has arrived on American shores via a pop-up space at Barneys New York. Using the innovative wrap technology that fuels his automotive customisation brand, Garage Italia, Elkann has covered a selection of Kartell icons in a series of vibrant patterns and graphics, inspired by both fashion and classic cars. Forty of Kartell’s timeless pieces, including Philippe Starck’s 'Ghost' chair and Antonio Citterio’s 'Glossy' table have been enveloped in energetic racing stripes, shiny chrome and sartorially-inspired plaids. Originally unveiled during Milan Design Week in 2016, the collection is on view and available for purchase at Barneys’ Madison Avenue location until the end of March.

Barneys New York, Madison, 660 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10065. Writer: Pei-ru Keh. Photography: Rick Barroso

Sister City hotel concept

Ace Hotel broke the hospitality mould when it unleashed its irreverent, carefully curated ethos on the world almost two decades ago. This week, its creative arm Atelier Ace announced a new arrival, Sister City, which will be revealed in New York City this autumn. Located off Bowery, one of Manhattan’s most historic thoroughfares, and accessed through a garden on Freeman’s Alley, the new hotel concept promises to use empathy and an aesthetic union of both function and beauty to cater to the modern traveller’s needs. Armed with a rooftop bar, a ground floor restaurant and 200 rooms, this highly anticipated launch is sure to overturn the applecart.

Writer: Pei-Ru Keh

'Apollo' by Achille Salvagni

Achille Salvagni is inspired by 1960s science fiction set designs for the Spring transformation of his showroom. He turned to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey when building his own space capsule right inside the Mayfair atelier. The Roman designer uses some of his classics alongside new product to realise the retro-futuristic set; white washed panelled walls and ceilings are accompanied by portholes to metaphorically look out into the galaxy. The product lends itself to the fantasy too; new circular wall sconces sit in twos and threes to look particularly celestial while chairs and stools appear as extraterrestrial friends. ‘As commercial space tourism takes shape, I created my own interpretation of a space capsule.’ says Salvagni, ‘I wanted to imagine a futuristic yet opulent interior with highly crafted pieces, design a personal response to the imminent exploration of this unchartered territory, another marvel soon to be revealed.’

15 March - 7 September; 12 Grafton St, Mayfair, London W1S 4ER. Photography: Paolo Petrignani. Courtesy of Achille Salvagni Atelier. Writer: Sujata Burman

Wonmin Park at Carpenter’s Workshop Gallery

Wonmin Park’s restrained, yet elegant aesthetic is a long-time favourite of ours, and we were particularly excited when he unveiled his latest venture ‘Plain Cuts’ – an experimental collection of aluminium tables at PAD in London last year. The Paris-based designer is now making his US debut this week at Carpenter’s Workshop Gallery in New York. In addition to showcasing ‘Plain Cuts’, Park’s contemplative pieces are joined by new, unseen additions to his signature ‘Haze’ series of resin works (pictured). Until 14 April.

Carpenter’s Workshop Gallery, 693 5th Avenue, New York, NY 1002. Writer: Pei-Ru Keh

Epic React Flyknit

High design meets lightweight technology in the newest Nike running shoe – Nike Epic React Flyknit. Its minimalist focus reflects its functions, using a lightweight cushioning foam with maximum energy return. ‘That unique React Foam pattern was created after thousands of iterations, which were made possible because we’ve used computational design,’ says Nike’s senior director for global running footwear, Bret Schoolmeester. ‘The final design makes the midsole softer in areas where runners exert higher pressure and more stable near the edges and sidewall where runners need increased stability’. And it’s a treat for the eyes too – the rippling pattern together with the stokes of blue and neon pink at the rear of the model (available in a white version too) adds a certain playful energy, while maintaining its three goals – flexibility, breathability and support.

The Nike Epic React Flyknit will be available 22 February from Nike. Writer: Sujata Burman

Norm Architects

Design brand Ariake launched last year with a unique concept of connecting two Japanese furniture manufacturers – Legnatec and Hirata Chair – with an international roster of design talent (Anderssen & Voll and Gabriel Tan to name a few). Next up is Norm Architects, who have launched a chair and sofa that are set to show at Stockholm Furniture Fair next month. For Ariake, the Danish firm joined forces with Brazil-based architect Marcio Kogan (StudioMK27) to realise the ‘Braid’ armchair (pictured). The cultural merging is evident from its design – the modernist structure is inspired by Danish cabinetmakers’ furniture, while the intricate details, like the bamboo construction and tatami mats, echo Eastern influences.

Writer: Sujata Burman

Studio Furthermore at Aram Gallery

East London-based Studio Furthermore was inspired by the rocks, earth and mineral ores of Iceland for its ‘Replica’ series. The ceramics and aluminium alloy collection – currently on show at London’s Aram Gallery – is reminiscent of foamy lava rocks, created through scientific experimentation whereby a copy of the original product is the end-product we see. The range of standing lights, mirrors, pots and tables is coupled with examples of the studio’s tests and a film that takes individuals through the process at the Drury Lane space.

‘Replica’ is on view until 20 January. The Aram Gallery, 110 Drury Lane, WC2B 5SG. Photography: Amandine Alessandra. Writer: Sujata Burman

Primitives

These striking podiums form part of a set of nine. The collection, entitled ‘Primitives’, was designed by Sicilian studio Moncada Rangel and draws inspiration from the abstract shapes of Brancusi. Their simple geometric forms and bold colours create a unique stage upon which even the simplest objects become showstoppers. Each was handmade by graduates of the Made programme at the Academy of Fine Arts in Syracuse. Using plywood and papier-mâché, the students, led by Moncada Rangel, crafted sculptural pieces in keeping with the studio’s aesthetic. This collection certainly turns the tables by upgrading the pedestal from supporting role to star of the show.

Pictured: four pieces from the ‘Primitives’ collection, which was recently acquired by a Sicilian cosmetics brand and is currently being shown in a small gallery and retail space on the island of Ortygia. Illustrator: Julien Savioz. Writer: Mary Cleary

Woody-Zoody

Design duo Formafantasma have created the newest member of the Woody-Zoody family of wooden animals. ‘Toro’ (the Italian word for bull) is a playful wenge wood and brass figurine of a bull, a minimalist interpretation of the animal which features the signature elegance of the pair’s work. ‘We both share a passion for toys, we collect vernacular wooden toys from all over the world,’ say Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi. ‘Children can imagine animals from any shape, and our object for Woody-Zoody starts with an abstract form which becomes a bull with two small brass tubes.’ ‘Toro’ is part of a growing collection of wooden animals, joining the likes of Giacomo Moor’s ‘Toucan’ and Giulio Iacchetti’s ‘Whale’.

Writer: Rosa Bertoli

Rising Talents Awards at Maison et Objet

Each year, Maison & Objet invites six legendary creatives to nominate an upcoming designer for the Paris design fair’s Rising Talents series. This January’s selection includes Federica Biasi, chosen by Andrea Branzi; Guglielmo Poletti, chosen by Rossana Orlandi; and Antonio Facco, chosen by Giulio Cappellini. Says Cappellini, ‘Facco’s projects are largely inspired by his observations of the younger generations.’ With a keen interest in industrial and artisanal techniques, Facco’s portfolio includes works for Cappellini, Antolini and Bolon. In Paris, Facco is presenting a new light for Swedish brand Oblure. ‘Mondo’ (pictured with Facco) features a sphere partially obscured by two shades that can be rotated to create different pattern compositions, transforming its aesthetic while controlling the intensity of the light.

Maison & Objet runs from 19-23 January. Photography: Felicity McCabe. Writer: Rosa Bertoli

Unbeknownst to much of the design world packing their bags for Milan next week, the city celebrates contemporary art the week before. At its heart is Miart, a much-loved art fair at the Fieramilano City, the charming former home of Salone. Design has an important place here too with a section devoted to collectable design galleries titled Object.

I have had the pleasure of curating Object this year. My mission has been to introduce some bold and brave young international galleries to contrast with and complement the Italian stalwarts. The result is a diverse and compelling showcase of contemporary collectable design that brings new life to the historic works on show. Here are five highlights.

Atelier Jespers, Brussels

Jean-Francois Declercq is part-patron, part-conductor rather than a gallerist in the traditional sense; he describes Atelier Jespers as a cultural experiment more than a gallery. For its first outing at Miart, Declercq has explored contemporary reinterpretations of archetypal forms and techniques.

On show is a fascinating selection of eight contemporary designers with notable highlights including a tapestry woven from wool, rubber, acrylic and linen by Belgian KRJST studio and an architectural construction in sandstone building blocks by rising Belgian star Conrad Willems. A standout of the entire fair is a mesmerising carbon painting by French artist Pierre Bonnefille – a serene masterpiece that seems to vibrate.

Nero, Arezzo

Michele Seppia’s gallery has a cult following in the collectable design world, thanks to his ability to create – in his own words – ‘narrative spaces’ more than disparate displays of furniture and lighting. His curation combines historical design with contemporary commissioned pieces to create immersive environments, rather than exhibitions.

Stepping into Nero’s stand this year is like stepping back in time to the Superstudio heyday. The plush Bazaar sofa by Superstudio for Giovannetti (1968) (pictured) is framed by work from two of Italy’s most exciting younger designers: elements in concrete from Duccio Maria Gambi, and a stackable system in Purenit (a new composite material) by Marcello Pirovano. A luxe screen in marble, mirror and velvet by Seppia himself completes the scene.

Galleri Feldt, Copenhagen

Feldt thrives on tension, which might seem like an odd statement considering the calm beauty of their debut stand here, in a soothing blue with a collection of plants. The gallery reframes important historical Danish design by juxtaposing it with contemporary international work.

Alongside standout pieces by Danish maestri Nanna Ditzel, Finn Juhl, and Tove and Edvard Kindt-Larsen, Feldt has introduced two powder-coated, perforated steel lights by Portuguese artist Leonor Antunes and a joyous collection of camp ceramics by German artist Nico Ihlein.

The result is an exercise in balance: exploring the tension between art and design, tradition and modernity, beauty and function, familiarity and surprise.

Matter of Stuff, London

Simona Auteri and Sofia Steffenoni tie together designers, craftsmen, manufacturers and architects with their design research gallery Matter of Stuff. The duo’s objective is to explore and experiment with materials properties and applications. They combine traditional skills with contemporary techniques, fostering a group of diverse young designers to challenge and push what’s possible today.

Their collective at Object comprises several intriguing pieces. The ethereal architectural lighting by Sabina Belfiore Lucovich and an elegant, graphic collection of seating by Lara Bohinc are striking highlights. Umut Yamac’s kinetic bronze wall clock is quietly hypnotising and has drawn crowds, together with the seemingly impossible merging of aluminium and wood in Uufie’s Echo Table.

Ammann Gallery, Cologne

Gabrielle Ammann has nurtured many of the bigger names of collectable contemporary design so people look to her to discover the next generation. For her inaugural participation at Object she has brought with her a poetic combination of photography by Swiss architectural photographer Hélène Binet and Swiss artist Rolf Sachs, together with furniture by German artist Florian Borkenhagen and Italian collective Studio Nucleo.

Time is a common theme across the collection: whether in the monumental beauty of Binet’s architectural images or the fleeting movement in Sachs’ motion photography from the train window. Nucleo’s monolithic Bronze Age Table references the dawn of civilisation, while the Wood Fossil pieces capture time, suspending wooden blocks and antique furniture in resin for eternity.

INFORMATION

Miart is on view until 15 April. For more information, visit the website

ADDRESS

Viale Lodovico Scarampo, 2
20149
Milano MI

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As with any artist or designer, producing a monograph can be quite gruelling,’ admits Sam Hecht, one half of quietly ubiquitous London studio Industrial Facility. ‘It’s because you endeavour to remove any gloss and layer of misinformation that creeps in over the years of working and present the work clearly.’

Hecht, who set up the studio in 2002 with architect Kim Colin, has just finished the mammoth task of compiling the studio’s first monograph – a 292-page tome published by Phaidon that documents the complete works of the world-renowned office. Together, over 16 years, Hecht and Colin have tackled almost every object under the broad umbrella of industrial design from chairs to hard drives to toilet brushes, for clients such as muni, Hitachi and Herman Miller.

Approaching the creation of the book as they would a project, Hecht and Colin assembled a dynamic team made up of graphic designers Graphic Thought Facility (GTF), photographer Angela Moore and critical writer Peter Kapos.

They could sometimes see what we could not see, which was very key to the structure of the book,’ says Colin of the trio.

Over a three-year period Moore held around eight photoshoots to create a new photographic narrative for the book that Hecht and Colin say acts ‘like a film’, where each page is connected and sequenced. ‘So you may see a door-handle design from 20 years ago, and then the next page a sofa design with the door in the background because you’ve now entered the space of the room,’ explains Colin.

In his foreword, Alain de Botton praises the designers’ ‘vision of a dignified, ordinary life’ while various interviews with the studio’s friends and peers – Bruce Mau, Naoto Fukasawa and Deyan Sudjic are all included – provide a broader perspective.

‘A monograph is an opportunity to look back and make sense of it all,’ reflects Hecht. ‘There were many insights – often highlighted by Peter Kapos after extensive interviews with us. He noticed that our work is almost like one continuous project, even though each design is a different type, and for a different client. He also said we are less strategic and more constructive, whereby we often seem to involve or reference what is already there. He placed our thinking in a more cultural context.’

Having completed this mammoth task, the studio look forward to beginning a new chapter in their work where they want to think about not just the digital functions of connected products but also their presence in a way that no one else is considering. ‘As with all things, we’d like to balance our desire to live comfortably with our ambition to live with things more simply,’ concluded Colin. ‘It’s an exciting time for design.’

INFORMATION

Industrial Facility, £59.95, published by Phaidon. For more information, visit the Industrial Facility website

Since founding his studio in 2007, Lee Broom’s Salone del Mobile showcase has become a highlight of the annual furniture fair. Always inventive and ever the showman, his previous installations have involved a fairground carousel of his products, a travelling exhibition in the back of a delivery van and a street of disused shops transformed into a department store.

For 2018, Broom has decided to let his new collection do the talking for him with the launch of seven new stellar-inspired lights. ‘Observatory’ is described by Broom as his ‘most progressive body of work to date’ and is the first of a three-phase launch of new lighting collections for 2018.

The seven designs, which will be presented in a 250 sq m gallery space inside a Grade-II listed building in Milan’s Brera Design District, include four new lighting collections – Eclipse, Orion, Aurora and Tidal.

The pieces, sculptural and spherical in form, experiment with the refraction and reflection of light, each featuring LED lighting systems and bulbs custom-designed and developed over the space of two years by Broom’s London-based team.

The Eclipse lights, which include a single pendant light, chandelier, table lamp, and surface light, are made up of discs of mirror-polished stainless steel and acrylic, while Orion features simple modular tube lights with opposing opaque and solid polished gold spheres that connect to form bespoke constellations of light.

Aurora is a scalable chandelier which projects layers of ethereal rings of light created from linear LED light, and Tidal is a polished chrome and opaque acrylic table lamp formed from two balancing hemispheres.

‘This new collection has been a fascinating journey for me,’ enthuses Broom. ‘I wanted to create a celestial collection of sculptural lighting which is progressive and experimental using the latest LED technology. Lighting is a fundamental part of my ethos as a designer and will always play a leading role in my work.’

In another tradition-busting move that follows the fashion industry, one of Broom’s major inspirations, the designer has made the products in his ‘Observatory’ collection available to purchase immediately in-store and online, ensuring a flying start to the London studio’s second decade.

INFORMATION

'Observatory' will be on view at Salone del Mobile from 17-22 April. For more information visit Lee Broom’s website

ADDRESS

Via Lovanio 6
Milano
20121

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When Marcel Wanders started describing the serene southern Italian landscape of Puglia to Wallpaper*, he was also painting a clear picture of what he is about to debut: a new furniture collection for Natuzzi at Salone del Mobile. With vivid descriptions of its rural and coastal charms; oak forests, olive groves and the Adriatic Sea, it was like he was taking us on a scenic journey, one that ends with two contrasting collections.

Pasquale Junior Natuzzi, chief marketing and communication officer at Natuzzi, describes the launch as ‘the third Natuzzian revolution.’ One where designers get immersed in the Italian brand’s vision, heritage and for this particular collection, the landscape of its home. Wanders interprets Puglia’s inherent and unique quality, one that divides it from the rest of Italy: ‘this area is where the land marries the sea,’ he says. 

This is the synergy that unites the two quite different collections, named ‘Oceanographer’ and ‘Agronomist’. ‘The first noticeable difference between the collections is their colour palettes,’ says Gabriele Chiave, creative director of Marcel Wanders studio. ‘The “Agronomist” works with a richer palette exuding ‘the feel and emotion of organic, outdoor elements,’ he continues. ‘Oceanographer’, as the title suggests, takes an aquatic turn. ‘[It is] nautical and refreshing, these pieces reflect the tranquil blue shades of water and the sea’s eternal undulation’.

On our journey through the collections, Wanders specifies where some of these palettes derive from, ‘much of the pieces are reminiscent of the white houses of Ostuni, the blonde terracotta amphorae and the grey stone of the trulli houses.’ These are seen in earthy tones in the ‘Silo’ vase, minimalist ‘Barrow’ table, and hero piece, the curvaceous leather Furrow sofa.

It is not just the colours of the collection that nod to the region, but the shapes too. ‘Both of the collections are designed with the curved and contoured angles of the Puglian environment’s elements,’ adds Chiave. Studying Wanders’ mood board of sketches for the range, this geometrical stance is another element that brings together the land and sea collections.

Wanders not only embraces the environment with the collections, but the brand’s entire universe. ‘When I saw him at work with our creatives and craftsmen, I immediately realised that we would achieve something unique, sensational and sensual,’ says Natuzzi.

‘Everything outside made its way into these collections’ Wanders muses, ‘design, on average, is an urban culture. These collections are inspired by water and an expansive countryside, and therefore, the materials are warmer.’

INFORMATION

Salone del Mobile runs from 17-22 April. For more information visit the Natuzzi website

When design studio Nendo teamed up with manufacturer Fritz Hansen, they found they were speaking the same design language.

Set to launch at the Salone del Mobile (17-22 April), the N01 dining chair is a perfect meeting of Japanese and Danish design sensibilities. Its designer, Tokyo-based studio Nendo, worked closely with Copenhagen-based Fritz Hansen to create a strong chair with a lightweight appearance.

A gently curved seat and back panel are crafted from nine layers of veneer while the frame, with its subtle incline that embraces the body, is made from solid wood.

Remarkably, although the Danish brand is renowned for its expertise in plywood moulding (some of its most famous chairs such as the Ant and Series7 use the technique) N01 is the Danish brand’s first solid wood chair since the Grand Prix chair by Arne Jacobsen in 1957.

‘It was exciting to learn that,’ enthuses Oki Sato, founder of Nendo. ‘A wooden chair is not an easy product for a designer to make. It is one of the most difficult and one’s personal mentality or philosophy can be expressed through it. Our goal was to finalise a chair which is contemporary, yet maintains the traditional and historical feel of the brand.’

Every time the Nendo team visited Fritz Hansen’s workshop in Belgium – which was every month in the final stages – a new prototype was produced. Uncompromising, Nendo reviewed and refined the design at every stage before arriving at the perfect balance of strength and comfort.

‘This productive process of product development was one of the highlights of my 15-year long career as a designer,’ reflects Sato. ‘It truly was a collaborative process between Fritz Hansen and us. As a result, I do not remember much about the first brief, and I am not even sure if I have actually designed the chair; I feel that we (Nendo and Fritz Hansen) made this chair together as a team.’

To create its appearance of lightness, the brand’s standard production processes had to be challenged. Ordinarily, the joint where the frame and shell meet is thickened to increase strength, which often results in an impression of heaviness. To prevent this, the teams worked together to create a  joint that made the frame and shell appear as if they were touching as little as possible.

‘The difficulty with a wooden chair is that even a small change of size – for example even less than 1mm – can greatly change its appearance and level of seating comfort,’ explains Sato. ‘By changing the shape of the legs or the arms from that of a column to an ellipse, or by narrowing down the edge, or by giving a slight roundness or curve to it, the chair can be given a totally different character.’

The final design is comprised of 23 parts made from a mix of solid wood and veneer. Each piece crafted industrially at a family-owned wood manufacturer in Belgium founded 1924, before being assembled by hand at Fritz Hansen’s Belgium workshop. Its puzzle-like assembly ensures a seamless construction with even the smallest inaccuracies causing the production to start over.

‘If you sit on it, you will notice that this is a Fritz Hansen chair,’ concludes Sato. If you live with it, you will realise that this is pure Japanese design.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Nendo website and Fritz Hansen website

Hector Esrawe is a Mexican designer with an international reputation who looks to his own backyard for inspiration. ‘A constant reference is the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City,’ he says. ‘I’m seduced by the stone carvings that appear on everything from ceremonial utensils to monumental sculptures.’ This pre-Columbian treasure trove, filled with Aztec goddesses and Mayan murals, is one of the capital’s unmissable sights and has informed all the limited-edition, handmade pieces Esrawe has made under his Ewe label.

Ewe was founded last year by Spaniard Manuel Bañó, Estonian-born Age Salajõe and Esrawe (pictured above, left to right), and draws on the skills and techniques of Mexican craftsmen. ‘We travel all over the country researching everything from clay and wood carving to copper,’ says Esrawe. ‘We then collaborate with artisans, translating their skills into new languages.’ Ewe’s new Alquimia collection, which launched at this year’s Zona Maco art fair, includes the Magma lamp, hand-blown in volcanic stone moulds by Mexico’s Nouvel Studio; the burnt steel and oak Humo table featuring black marble from Orizaba; and the three-legged Ceniza chair, assembled using an ancient technique called espiga vista.

A few years ago, launching limited-edition Mexican objects with price tags in the thousands, in Mexico, would have been unthinkable. But the country is becoming a major player on the world design stage. ‘We still can’t talk about a consolidated design scene in Mexico,’ says Esrawe. ‘But we do have a rich tradition of craft, more consumers wanting Mexican design, and a young generation of designers looking back to their heritage with pride.’

As originally featured in the April 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*229)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Ewe website

Circular lifestyle brand Pentatonic launched last year with duo Jamie Hall (ex-NikeLab) and Johann Boedecker (formerly of Miniwiz) championing furniture, tableware and accessories made from post-consumer waste. The brand is now launching its inaugural designer collaboration, inviting New York firm Snarkitecture to create a new furniture range, Fractured – a collection of benches and tables that merge of art, design and sustainability.

‘The material approach and technological approach of Pentatonic really opens possibilities, especially for a practice like ours,’ says Alex Munstonen, co-founder of Snarkitecture, on the series that is directly made up of material waste. For example, the bench is made up of 240 plastic bottles, 45 aluminium drinks cans, 120 items of food packaging, and four car bumpers. These are then built using nitrogen-assisted injection moulding, extruding the aluminium into long bars, this then takes shape via CNC machining and is then anodised.

The Brooklyn-based duo are an ideal match for project, bringing their conceptual and slightly playful aesthetic the collection. The architecture of the pieces, the concept of lots of waste turning into a one piece, and then snapping this right down the middle ‘almost like a child’s puzzle’ say Daniel Arsham, co-founder of Snarkitecture, adds humour to the highly engineered collection.

‘This collaboration was a real demonstration of the power and potential of working with post consumer waste,’ says Hall. ‘There is too much trash on our beaches, in our oceans, there is so much that could be used again and again with the right technology.’ A step in the right direction for furniture design, we would say.

Go behind the scenes of the Fractured furniture collaboration

INFORMATION

Fractured is available exclusively at Pentatonic’s website

When Gufram owner Charley Vezza first saw the deflated, Dalíesque disco balls created by Dutch artist duo Rotganzen, he knew they would be a perfect addition to the nightclub-inspired collection he was plotting.

Dancing had been on his mind since he found an old catalogue of contract furniture for discotheques in the Gufram archives. Dating from the 1980s, it featured a series of striking modular upholstered pieces. When Vezza showed it to the designers at Milan-based studio Atelier Biagetti, he kickstarted one of his company’s most exciting collaborations to date and a celebration of a particularly innovative space and time for Italian design.

‘There has been a growing interest in the Radical design movement in the past five years, and what it means for us today,’ says Catharine Rossi. A design researcher with a strong focus on the nightclub phenomenon, she is co-curator of a new show at Vitra’s Design Museum. ‘There has also been a growing interest in club culture, an area in which these Radical designers were active: the only spaces they actually built were discos,’ she adds. Nightclubs gave them space ‘to experiment and imagine... outside of commercial and corporate constraints’.

Disco design is an important part of Gufram’s history: the first such clubs appeared in Italy in the mid-1960s, around the time the company was founded, and some of the most iconic venues were designed by the same creatives that gravitated around its HQ – then something of an ideas factory – in Barolo, northern Italy. These architects were part of the Radical design movement, developed between Florence, Turin and Milan in the 1960s and dedicated to aesthetic innovation and experimentation. Radical architects Giorgio Ceretti, Pietro Derossi and Riccardo Rosso, designed some of Italy’s swankiest disco spaces, including Piper in Turin and L’Altromondo Studios in Rimini, a legendary club still operating today. Both were furnished with colourful seats produced by Gufram. The brand’s avant-garde approach later led to collaborations with the likes of architects Studio 65 to produce iconic pieces such as the ‘Bocca’ lips-shaped sofa.

Since 2011, Vezza and his team have been working to preserve Gufram’s heritage, while introducing new designers to build on the brand’s cult status. Delving into the company’s past is not an easy task: ‘It’s like having an immense puzzle to build, piece by piece, as we don’t have a traditional archive that we can work with,’ explains Vezza. ‘I always say that Gufram wrote the history of design without knowing it, so there was never a strong attention to documentation.’

The new collection is a playful take on an illustrious history, pulled off with typical Gufram exuberance. Each collaboration developed organically: first came Rotganzen, whose signature disco balls (originally created for site-specific installations) feature on a series of lacquered cabinets. Then Vezza turned to Alberto Biagetti and Laura Baldessari of Atelier Biagetti to reinterpret 1980s seating. ‘I immediately thought of them for two reasons: their innovative work on upholstered furniture, and the fact that they come from Romagna, an Italian region famous for its iconic nightlife,’ says Vezza.

The pair drew inspiration from the area’s clubs, such as Baia Imperiale and Coccoricò, but also reinterpreted elements of Gufram’s back catalogue into five new modular sofa designs, including a tartan and pink neon number, a large velvet offering, a soft blob of shimmering lilac, as well as a cluster of iridescent pouffes, and a golden leather sofa that can repeat and extend to create either a twisting or semi-circular composition. It is the first time that Gufram, a specialist in polyurethane foam, has produced upholstered furniture. The collaboration was ‘a meeting of minds’, say Biagetti and Baldessari. ‘We feel very close to Gufram’s cultural codes and references; it’s a company which moves very fast when it comes to innovation and research.’

The last piece in Vezza’s discotheque had to be a suitably groovy floor to showcase the furniture. Gufram head of product Axel Iberti commissioned Gaëlle Gabillet and Stéphane Villard’s Paris design studio GGSV to create a series of graphic rugs after coming across one of their dazzling installations at the Centre Pompidou. The ‘Dance Floor’ rugs were developed to invite dancers to stand in the middle and ‘do the freak’, the designers explain. ‘There is something excessive and very joyful in disco: it’s very Gufram.’

‘A furniture company speaks through its products, and our collections express a maximalist radical spirit,’ concludes Vezza. ‘This same spirit drives us to still be radical in all the choices we make every day.’

As originally featured in the April 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*229)

INFORMATION

Disco Gufram will be at Wallpaper* Handmade from 17 – 21 April. For more information, visit the Gufram website

ADDRESS

Mediateca Santa Teresa 

28 Via della 

Moscova 20121

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Speaker systems must balance visual aesthetic, connectivity and sound quality in more intricate ways. Factors of sustainability, materiality and privacy are priorities in the technology of these gadgets too, and brands have to be smarter than ever to seamlessly integrate them into our homes. From textile models and pocket-sized powerhouses to the retro reborn, here, we present the speakers pumping out audio innovation.

Pantheone I Speaker

Australian audio brand Pantheone has revealed its Pantheone I speaker, a curvaceous freestanding egg-like object that’s unlike any other smart speaker on the market. The intriguingly sculptural design has been overseen by the company’s Creative Director, Anne-Claire Bottos, who cites the Roman Pantheon as the inspiration for the speaker, especially the way its curved geometric form is inspired by illuminated architecture. Intended to be appreciated as a standalone object when it’s not providing 360-degree stereo sound, the 65cm tall Pantheone I contains 8 speakers and has a clutch of connections, wired and wireless, including Amazon Alexa integration and a dedicated app to help your shape your sound. Founded by Oren Adani, Pantheone Audio sets itself apart from other hi-tech brands with this art-driven approach. Sonic statement don’t come much louder.

Pantheone I, from £2,199, pantheoneaudio.com

Transparent

Transparent is a Swedish audio brand founded by designers Martin Willers and Per Bricksted. With a suite of simple products, it aims to create hi-fi that with a solid, lasting feel, allowing enthusiasts to assemble a timeless system that also fits perfectly into their environment. The company’s latest product is a new version of its speaker system, previously available in wood, stone, steel and glass.

The Transparent Speaker is exactly that, a see-through system that lays its innards bare. It’s now offered with a Matte Black finish to give even strong definition to the rectangular aluminium frame that surrounds the unique tempered glass speaker enclosure.

The Small Transparent Speaker has two 3” drivers while the larger model comes with an additional 6.5” woofer. Both have been given an uprated sound processing chip and better wireless connectivity, although you can of course use conventional cables if you so desire.

Small Transparent Speaker, £450, Transparent Speaker, £900, transpa.rent

Google Nest Audio

Google’s crop of smart home products continues to gear towards a seamless future with its design-led approach. The latest smart speaker, Google Nest Audio blends into the environment with its two muted tones, charcoal and chalk. It is made minimally too with 70 per cent of its materials gained from a recycled source. Sound is not compromised though as Google boasts that this devise is 75 percent louder and has 50 percent stronger bass than the original Google Home.

The soft structure has a smooth finish that sits neatly on the surface – turn up the volume, start and stop with the invisible buttons, or click the microphone off at the rear for much-needed privacy. ‘In a time when we’re all stuck at home listening to more music than ever, we’re especially excited to introduce Nest Audio, our latest smart speaker that is made for music lovers,’ says Mark Spates, product manager at Google Nest, who describes the speaker as a ‘music machine.’ ‘Our goal was to ensure that Nest Audio stayed faithful to what the artist intended when they were in the recording studio.’

Google Nest Audio, £89, store.google.com

Model One Digital, Tivoli Audio

The revamped Model One Digital, Tivoli’s throwback DAB radio, sports a retro casing and has a comfortably familiar aesthetic. Inside, we find all the contemporary mod-cons (WiFi, Bluetooth, integrated Spotify), while matching wireless ‘Art’ speakers offer additional audio heft, for those with distant neighbours.

Topically, Tivoli Audio’s mantra reads, ‘Classic design, quality sound’, and Paul DePasquale, vice president of Tivoli Audio’s design department takes a measured approach to the ‘acoustics before aesthetics’ argument. ‘Design should never be a casualty in the pursuit of high quality audio,’ he explains. ‘Initially, design often takes precedence over sound. Yet once we start working on a product, it’s inevitable that certain design particulars are altered to address any sound issues that may arise.’

For DePasquale, the new Model One offers the best of both worlds, attracting both ‘audiophiles’ and ‘design enthusiasts’. ‘Both groups will always exist,’ he says. ‘Luckily for them the quality of audio is getting better in smaller form factors.’

Model One Digital, £119, store.wallpaper.com

P2, Beoplay

If it’s smaller-form factors you're after, the P2 is a pocket-sized powerhouse. The little brother of tech titan B&O, Beoplay knows its millennial marketplace inside out. As design and concept manager Jakob Kristoffersen puts it, ‘our products appeal to people who are characterised by a youthful and energetic approach to life’.

It’s an audience that isn’t quick to compromise, and Kristoffersen rebuffs the idea that a speaker’s shelf-appeal must concede to its audio quality. ‘We design with authentic materials and best-in-category sound. There is no prioritisation – both sound and design must deliver in unity.’

Innovatively, the P2 has absolutely button-free, and is controlled remotely by an app. To change, skip or pause a track, simply give the hand-held speaker a shake. On first impression this might seem a little gimmicky – just another digital language to learn, struggle with and swiftly forget – but the unique control design is surprisingly intuitive. It allows the largest possible surface area to be covered by the high quality pearl blasted anodised aluminium speaker-grill, and durable polymer underbelly – something which aids both ‘sound quality and aesthetic feel’, Kristoffersen adds.

P2, £150, Beoplay, bang-olufsen.com

Bunaco by Nendo

High-quality speaker design doesn't have to be high-tech. So says design titan Nendo through its Bunaco speaker, developed to make effective use of the abundance of beech trees that grow in Aomori prefecture in Japan. By rolling thin and narrow strips of beech wood to create coil-based shapes, a paper-like, easily mouldable material can be made. Usually used for objects that need to be both delicate and water-resistant, like bowls or vases, Nendo has applied the same technique to its wireless speaker. As a result of the shape of the internal cavity, the sound absorbing qualities of the beech wood, it has been proven to produce a uniquely clear and soft tone – as well as possessing an unparalleled visual fragility. 

The Bunaco has an omni-directional speaker with a vertically standing diaphragm, aiming to maximise the acoustic quality and the sound’s spatial distribution. To accentuate the beauty of Bunaco’s woodwork, the speaker is supported with a transparent acrylic cylinder. The clear base makes it possible to see the unfinished edge that is left curling from the bottom, enabling users to intuitively understand the speaker’s structure as well as the craftsmanship invested in its production.

Bunaco Speaker, bunaco.co.jp

Podspeakers

With a tag line like ‘Shaping sound’, Podspeakers bases its design ethos on the interaction between audio and visual design. ‘The curved shape for which Podspeakers is known is both a visual and an audio asset,’ explains the brand’s Alan Gornall of these bubble-shaped ‘90s throwback speakers.

When they were first introduced in 1992, Podspeakers presented ‘a new way of listening’, says Gornall. They helped you ‘hear with your eyes as well as your ears’. Now, the cult classic has been re-released and re-configured to cope with the modern listener’s demands, with luxury materials and up-to-date connected technologies, like bluetooth and wireless connectivity.

Podspeakers, from €349, podspeakers.com

Joep van Lieshout has been treading the blurry line between art and design since the early 80s. His studio, Atelier Van Lieshout, which he founded in 1995, has created everything from sexually suggestive sculptures to utilitarian office chairs.

Unsurprisingly, his work, sometimes shocking in its frankness, often attracts attention. Most recently he found himself at the centre of a media storm when plans to display his fibreglass sculpture resembling a man penetrating an animal were scrapped by the Louvre at the last minute.

‘It was totally innocent,’ says a baffled Van Lieshout, as he surveys a lamp version of the controversial ‘Domestikator sculpture’. ‘I couldn’t understand the fuss at all, but,’ he adds, ‘I’ve never had so much publicity in my whole life.’

‘Flatpack’ concrete chair, 2016

While the much larger fibreglass sculpture ended up on show at Paris’ Centre Pompidou, the lamp version currently sits in the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London at his ‘Lust for Life’ show, which opened today.

Here, the Rotterdam-based sculptor’s ponderings on the human condition manifest themselves in lamps and furniture made from cast bronze, concrete and contorted steel.

While the ‘Domestikator’ lamp, he says, is a questioning of what ethical taboos will remain when science and technology can surpass the limits of biology, a series of anthropomorphic cast bronze lamp sculptures explore the inevitable process of aging – an old man with a cane is bent double under one cast bronze diffuser, while a youthful couple in an elegant embrace dance beneath another.

In among the lamps is a brutalist flat pack chair made from blocks of heavy concrete bolted to a steel structure. Nearby a similarly monolithic chair with plywood sides is decorated with tribal carvings.

Most recently, Van Lieshout has been enjoying a more ‘conceptual phase’ in his studio, where he has been exploding gas canisters, contorting steel with hydraulics and dropping anvils into white goods. The result is a series of heavy, butchered metal sculptures and lamps.

The series, he says, is particularly inspired by the early 20th-century Italian Futurists, who were passionate nationalists, anarchists and great admirers of new technologies and violence.

‘In a way our society is in a similar situation now with a lot of technological changes, but also with the incredible popularity of fascism and populism’ explains Van Lieshout. ‘This piece is a statement about design in that you can use not shape or aesthetics or function as a departure point for making, but instead you use the process itself or destruction.’

Next up on his agenda is a ‘24 hours of destruction’ clock – ‘Every minute there will be a new form of destruction,’ he says, ‘hammering, pulling, pushing.’

Despite this fascination for friction, Van Lieshout has a surprisingly positive outlook, concluding, ‘Myself? I am a brutalist optimist.’

INFORMATION

’Lust For Life’ is on view until 11 May. For more information, visit the Carpenters Workshop Gallery website

ADDRESS

Carpenters Workshop Gallery
4 Albemarle Street
London
W1S 4GA

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The revival of a storied brand is often fuelled by nostalgia – but Danish entrepreneurs Sara and Thomas Agersborg, who recently acquired and relaunched Møbel Copenhagen, do not cling to the past. Adding to an historic catalogue, they have teamed up with Studio David Thulstrup to create a furniture collection that looks to Denmark’s design heritage – and honours its minimalist traditions – but does so with a bold, unexpected twist.

Launching spring 2018, the new collection comprises the ‘Beam’ dining table (available in high gloss, oak or linoleum) and ‘The Pair’ side tables, each factoring a tapered cylindrical form tucked under a low-slung circular surface. Adding to this is a range of graphic seating titled ‘Fonts’, which draws inspiration from circular geometry and typography. It includes a ‘Regular’ dining chair, a ‘Bold’ lounge chair and a ‘Light’ barstool, as well as two sofas.

The goods will be available in a range of styles to suit the consumer’s needs and wants – think varying sizes, finishes and colour choices, from subtle pastel blues to brighter primary hues, complementing the selection of playful textiles from companies like Pierre Frey and Kvadrat. As Thulstrup explains in more detail: ‘Besides being a technical finish, one of the key design features is the piping, serving as a playful element for the customer, who can choose between different colours and fabrics to match, contrast or complement the chair, according to personal taste and style.’

While looking to the design luminaries of Denmark’s past – individuals such as Poul Kjærholm — Møbel Copenhagen wanted to create something confident and fresh. Steel was the material Kjærholm primarily worked with, yet his curious mind led him to experiment with other materials like wood, leather and marble. It is this focus on tactility, and especially the use of ‘honest’ materials, which Studio David Thulstrup and Møbel Copenhagen have revived, displaying a versatility that, intriguingly, also mirrors Thulstrup’s multifaceted talents as both architect and designer.

While the shapes are inherently simple and echo the timeless quality of their predecessors, the emphasis on customisation lends the collection a refreshingly modern appeal. With a bold colour palette and daring attitude, Møbel Copenhagen and Studio David Thulstrup reveal Danish design’s increasingly extroverted character.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Møbel Copenhagen website

The French capital geared up for its bi-annual fiesta of design last week. Textiles were celebrated at Deco Off, new product at the halls of the Maison et Objet fair; while galleries and showrooms across the city were getting in on the action, too. Here’s our hit list of the launches, installations and shows that were unmissable this year.

Pool for CVL Luminaires

Last year, Léa Padovani and Sébastien Kieffer’s studio Pool took over art direction at CVL Luminaires. This year, the emerging talents have created two new designs – a reading light and spotlight – in addition to a new brass version of their ‘Cercle & Trait’ suspension light (pictured). The duo will also created the stand design for the fair, which hosted an exciting new collection by Pauline Deltour.

Mathieu Lehanneur at Christie's Paris

The French designer continues his aquatic agenda with a solo exhibition at the Parisian auction house. ‘50 Seas’ is inspired by the eclectic hues of the oceans – ‘the infinite colour variations of the water reveal our planet’s true complexity’, he muses. The show features 50 enamelled ceramic works (a version of which was created for Wallpaper* Handmade last year) mounted onto the wall, each suggesting a geographic locale, from the Gulf of Guinea to the Bay of Bengal.

Rising Talents awards

Maison et Objet has teamed up with the Italian Trade Agency for the January edition of the Rising Talents awards. Here, a star-studded list of six judges – Andrea Branzi, Rossana Orlandi, Giulio Cappellini, Luca Nichetto, Piero Lissoni and Rosita Missoni – have chosen six exciting emerging Italian designers. For example, Branzi was enthused by the work of 2011 graduate Federica Biasi because of her ‘quintessential design and poetic ideas’. The designer, who is also art director at Mingardo, bought her creative story to an installation at the fair, together with new launches.

Designer of the year

Cecilie Manz has been chosen as the Maison et Objet designer of the year for 2018, for her experimental flair. The Danish designer is displaying her outstanding talents at the fair by creating an installation of new designs, showing how they often intertwine. ‘Gâteau’ (pictured) is inspired by her work with B&O Play and knack for designing in aluminium. A wooden tray is placed on an anodised aluminium ring, acting as a display area for cake (or other equally precious objects).

Pulpo

The German design brand has tapped three different designers – Sebastian Herkner, Hermann August Weizenegger and Michael Schmidt – for its Maison et Objet launches. Herkner’s addition to the collection includes a range of translucent hand-blown glass sidetables in different frosted finishes; while whimsical floor lights by August Weizenegger take cues from the shape of a heron.

INFORMATION

Paris Design Week runs from 19–23 January. For more information, visit the Maison et Objet website

Matt Davis

A graduate from the University of Brighton, Davis creates his ‘hyperreal vessels’ by combining traditional porcelain craft with a futuristic aesthetic. His goal is to push the boundaries of what’s possible with ceramics, using software to generate his designs, which are then 3D-printed, moulded and slip-cast in bone china.

Maddalena Selvini

For her S.Pot project, Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Selvini experimented with north Italian soapstone. She designed a traditional stove-style cooking pot, which was cut by local experts, then used the residue from the lathing process to create a new stoneware and glaze, producing delicate vessels.

Dimitri Bähler

Bähler’s Iridescences project explores a technique used in central Italy since the 15th century. Working with craftsman Maurizio Tittarellli Rubboli, the Swiss designer used a blend of metallic salts and clay to produce special chromatic effects, their luminescence brought to life by a variety of shapes and ribbed surfaces.

Christopher Riggio

One of the more recent graduates among our pick of ceramicists to watch, with an MA from London’s RCA, Riggio also made our Graduate Directory. His Paste series nods to 1920s Cartier designs as well as the art of Lucio Fontana, and is intended to ‘evoke a sense of nostalgia through new material sophistication’.

Ben Medansky

A self-described ‘orchestrator of controlled chaos’ and ‘refiner of industrial aesthetics’, Medansky is a ceramicist whose sculptural work features intersecting shapes, sudden flashes of colour and unexpected volumes. Influences range from industrial design and brutalism to the architecture of Los Angeles, where he founded his studio in 2012.

Irina Razumovskaya 

Leningrad-born Razumovskaya studied in St Petersburg, Jerusalem and London. She is most inspired by the past, and ‘the ageing of architecture, where rigid things are softened with the touch of time’. This is apparent in her 2017 Post-Surface series, which explores the slow decay of the constructivist structures of Soviet Russia.

Yao Wang

A graduate of London’s RCA, Wang has produced a series of abstract shapes symbolising the tension and balance of dance. Titled The Mind is a Muscle, the Chinese artist’s collection features decorative objects that were either planned carefully or made intuitively and responsively on the wheel.

Ekaterina Semenova

With her Care for Milk project, Semenova explored the potential of using dairy waste in glazing techniques. The Dutch Design Academy graduate’s collection features simple vessels in earthy tones, achieved with different types of milk (raw, high fat or low fat). Once baked, its sugars caramelise, taking on a variety of shades of brown.

Agustina Bottoni

An Argentinian based in Milan, Bottoni set up her studio in 2015. Her tableware collection references South America’s mate, a bitter infusion usually drunk from a leather-clad gourd container. The ceramic pieces, which include a vase and a teapot, are encased in a leather sleeve that will develop a unique patina over time. 

Maddalena Selvini

As well as her S.Pot collection, Selvini has produced Morning Spikes, a series of organic-looking coffee cups. Playing on ideas of warmth and tactility, they are covered in multiple barbs, designed to hold layers of wool (not shown) in place. As the wool-clad cups are washed, they gain an increasingly felted feel.

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

Kinnasand LAB Project

The Danish textile company is releasing ‘Runner’, a series of benches, ottomans and daybeds that see carpets and rugs elevated to new a height. Launching as part of the brand’s LAB project initiative, it appointed designer Katrin Greiling who aims to bring the connection between rugs and humans closer by creating architectural structures for the textile to wrap around.

Rakumba

As part of its 50th anniversary celebration this year, Australian lighting brand Rakumba has tapped Studio Truly Truly for a unique Cologne showing. Their new lighting system ‘Typography’ hang like mobiles creating endless possibilities in its configuration. For the stand at the fair, the Netherlands-based design duo will present a dynamic arrangement for the stand, displaying the lighting’s poetic energy at its finest.

Brdr. Krüger 

OEO Studio’s ‘Ferdinand’ chair is getting an update for 2018. The wood-turned chair retains its 20th century aesthetic, but this time the Danish brand is giving the seat an enriching and textured smoked oak finish, plus a brown leather seat for a sophisticated match.

Valerie Objects 

The Antwerp-based brand continues its collaboration with Belgian duo Muller Van Severen with a set of subtle additions this year. A new decadent brass edition of ‘Shelf n°1’ joins a rocking chair version of their signature frame seating, while their minimalist drawing-style hanging lights elegantly rise to ceiling heights.

Petite Friture 

As part of Villégiature P.F, the French brand is partnering with emerging designer Max Enrich for the first time on ‘Thin’, a range of geometric coffee tables that play with scale. Sleek steel tops (available in an array of enticing hues) are placed on bulkier tube legs to almost appear as balancing anxiously on top.

IMM Cologne; Koelnmesse, Messepl. 1, 50679 Köln, Germany