
Best Alliance
S/S16 womenswear collection, by Akris, inspired by the work of Sou Fujimoto
We’re accustomed to being wowed by high-production catwalk shows and sets. Chanel recreates full-scale airports and supermarkets; Marc Jacobs colonises famous Broadway theatres; and Louis Vuitton has parked real trains in the middle of the catwalk. But not many designers go to the lengths of Akris’ creative director Albert Kriemler, who recreated a life-sized section of Sou Fujimoto’s House N at his show last season in Paris. He then designed an entire collection of clothes inspired by Fujimoto’s architectural principles. Kriemler is a hardcore art and architecture buff, a passion he indulges with academic rigour rather than champagne-soaked socialising. He spent many hours studying Fujimoto’s output and visiting his geometric Naoshima Pavilion, on Naoshima Island in Kagawa Prefecture, before engineering a meeting with the Japanese architect through architectural photographer Iwan Baan. Fujimoto readily accepted the invite to collaborate and was on hand at the fashion show (his first) as many of his most intriguing works, including the Serpentine Pavilion in London and the House of Hungarian Music in Budapest, as well as his House N and Naoshima Pavilion, all showed up on Kriemler’s painstakingly created, custom-developed fabrics. Dresses made of thin strips of cork resembled wood panels, pebble-shaped holes pierced shirts like windows, and metallic dresses imicked silver houses. As for the set, a group of Swiss artisans were imported from the green hills of St Gallen, where Akris is based, to faithfully reconstruct a portion of House N (which is actually in Ōita, southern Japan), in just six hours inside Paris’ Grand Palais. Now that’s what we call Swiss efficiency.
Pictured: on location at Sou Fujimoto’s Polyhedral Naoshima Pavilion, on Naoshima Island. Dress, £3,180; shoes, price on request, both by Akris
Photography: Takahito Sasaki; Writer: JJ Martin
As originally featured in the February 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (*203)

Best Apartment
By Dinesen, Copenhagen
You won’t find this apartment on Airbnb – although you can stay here if you happen to be a lucky client of the Danish flooring company Dinesen. The apartment is a shrine to Scandi modernism and the silken beauty of the Douglas fir. Originally designed by Anouska Hempel for a private client in 2003, it has always featured Dinesen’s trademark, extraordinarily wide planks of lye- and white soap-finished wood.
Now the company has added bespoke bookshelves and furniture crafted from the same Black Forest trees as the floorboards – including a table treated with Paris Blue linseed oil. On the walls are paintings by contemporary Danish artists, including the abstracts of Peter Bonde and the hyper-real ‘found’ photography of Ebbe Stub Wittrup over the Dinesen-plank dining table. The art looks down on several other collector’s pieces, including an Arne Jacobsen ‘Egg’ chair in Raf Simons’ fabric for Kvadrat, and a ‘PK9 Tulip’ chair by Poul Kjærholm. No need to bring your own towels – they’re by Georg Jensen Damask.
Pictured: Danish art on show includes works by Peter Bonde (left) and Ebbe Stub Wittrup (centre)
Photography: Alastair Philip Wiper; Writer: Paul McCann

Best Basics
Sinnerlig collection, by Ilse Crawford, for Ikea
British designer Ilse Crawford is known as a master of understatement. Leave it to her, then, to bring elegant restraint to the display sets of Swedish furniture giant Ikea. Crawford’s Sinnerlig collection for Ikea comprises more than 30 pieces of furniture, accessories and lighting in natural materials – such as cork, jute, bamboo and seagrass – combined with glass, ceramic and powder-coated steel. With an emphasis on sustainable production, the pieces are practical, tactile and beautifully simple everyday staples.
From top, trestle, £135 for two trestles and a table top; Pot Stand in dark brown cork, £9; Stool in natural cork, £50; Coffee table in dark brown cork, £50; Plant Pot, £7; Stool in dark brown cork, £50; Bench in natural cork, £50; Jug, £5.50; Serving plate, £9; Dining table in natural cork, £250; Plant Pot, £7; Bench in natural cork, £50; Flatwoven Seagrass rug, £50, all part of the Sinnerlig collection, by Ilse Crawford, for IKEA. Calathea plant, £8; Succulent Plant, £3, both from IKEA. Natural cork wall covering, from £21.20 a roll, from SPD UK, Spduk.co.uk
Photography: Michael Bodiam; Writer: Rosa Bertoli

Best Bedroom
This chic platform bed and delicate fan screen are full of Eastern promise
Flexform Mood and Roberto Lazzeroni are the dream team behind the ‘Icaro’ bed, which boasts an oriental-inspired design almost guaranteed to induce a state of Zen-like calm. The bed, with its H-frame headboard (which can be upholstered in fabric or leather), forms the perfect complement to Jaime Hayon’s triple-decker side table for &Tradition and Porro’s ‘Traveller’ daybed. Taiwanese studio Kimu Lab’s ‘New Old Divider’, meanwhile, nods overtly to the East, with fold-away fans positioned on a powder-coated aluminium frame. Sweet dreams are made of these.
From left, ‘New Old Divider’ screen, $3,000, by KIMU Lab. ‘Traveller‘ daybed, £6,137, by GamFratesi, for Porro. ‘Palette JH8’ table, €1,195, by Jaime Hayon, for &Tradition. ‘Dans Mon Lit’ rose-scented linen spray, £70 for 100ml, by Bruno Jovanovic, for Éditions de Parfums Frédéric Malle. ‘Icaro’ bed, from €10,444, by Roberto Lazzeroni, for Flexform Mood. ‘Tokaïdo’ bedspread, £339; ‘Tokaïdo’ pillow covers, £75; ‘Athena’ bed sheets in Caramel, £189, all by Yves Delorme. ‘Drop Cloth’ Estate Emulsion, £39.50 for 2.5 litres, by Farrow & Ball. ‘Devonia Plain’ carpet in Sunkissed, £41 per sq m, by Axminster Carpets
Photography: John Short; Writer: Christopher Stocks

Best Building Site
Museum of Image and Sound, Rio de Janeiro, by Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Designed by New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), the 9,800 sq m, eight-storey building (two underground), in concrete, steel and glass, is partly funded by the government and the Roberto Marinho Foundation, and it takes its cue from Brazilian artist and landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx’s famous undulating wave mosaics, designed in 1971, that run along the boardwalk of Avenída Atlântica at Copacabana Beach.
‘The building is conceived as an extension of the Avenída,’ says Elizabeth Diller of DS+R. ‘The beach is Rio’s great democratic site. It unifies the city. It’s a place of socialising around natural resources, a place of spectacle. We have taken the mosaic pavement and stretched the boulevard up through the building.’ The building’s front façade features a zigzagging set of stairs, which, as visitors ascend, plays with the view, teasing with glimpses of the city. Read more here.
Pictured: The museum’s colours (grey, white and black) echo roberto Burle Marx’s wave mosaics on the Copacabana beach promenade
Photography: Peixe Voador Produções; Writer: David Baker

Best Cocktail Lounge
Mix and match marble, leather and lacquer for the ultimate gentleman’s den
Transform tipple time with Rodolfo Dordoni’s ‘Aylon’ cocktail cabinet, featuring elegantly reeded lacquer doors and a luxuriously crafted interior. Then recline on Fendi Casa’s ‘Kathy’ chair, upholstered in cognac leather, with a rolled-leather back support that makes it that rare thing: an armchair that, much like Pierre Gonalons’ perforated plinth and Patric Draenert’s ‘QBIC’ marble coffee table, looks as good from behind as it does from the front. We’ll raise a glass – specifically, a Turf Club cocktail from the Zetter Townhouse Marylebone – to that.
Pictured: ‘Aylon’ Drinks Cabinet, £14,235, by Rodolfo Dordoni, for Minotti. ‘Kathy’ armchair, €4,440, by Fendi Casa. ‘PALAIS’ Pedestal, £20,000, by Pierre Gonalons, for Galerie Armel Soyer. ‘QBIC’ coffee table, €1,230, by Patric Draenert, for Draenert
Photography: Matthew Donaldson; Writer: Christopher Stocks