Interior Design July/August 2023

JULY/AUG 2023

outside the box

Image by Imperfct*

Plaid Ceiling Scapes

Artful acoustics for welcoming spaces

turf.design

Aesthetics & Acoustics Overlap in ARO Shingle Inspired by exterior building cladding, Architecture Research Office takes a deep dive into three-dimensional patterning with four new ARO Shingle acoustic wall system designs. filzfelt.com/aro-shingle

CONTENTS JULY/AUGUST 2023

2023

VOLUME 94 NUMBER 7

ON THE COVER At the Museum of Applied Arts in Brno, newly renovated by a group of top Czech architects and designers, Atelier Štěpán clad Café Robot in a checkerboard of backlit glass panels and installed a robotic arm that serves coffee, an environment inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Photography: BoysPlayNice.

features 74 MINING FOR GOLD

by Edie Cohen

For Fondazione Luigi Rovati in Milan, Mario Cucinella Architects literally digs deep to uncover the roots of Italian civilization.

82 GOING WITH THE FLOW

by Jane Margolies

In the Belgian countryside, artist, designer, and Umu founder Sven Bullaert crafts his family home in a manner that’s both sustainable and groovy.

90 THE STILL POINT

by Peter Webster

Hayball pivots a dynamic sensory journey around a core of sculpted tranquility at the Alba Thermal Springs & Spa in Fingal, Australia.

98 STEPPING IT UP

by Wilson Barlow and Lisa Di Venuta

WILLEM-DIRK DU TOIT

Global brands turn to cosmopolitan influences, tactile traditions, and leading design firms to raise the bar in their shops and showrooms stateside and beyond.

110 THE NEW CURIOSITY SHOP

by C.E. Wallis

Tomo Design transforms a colonial-period house in Guangzhou, China, into an intriguingly quirky, IRL emporium for online streetwear brand MasonPrince.

118 ART! DESIGN! FASHION!

by Peter Webster

Three creative industries blend seamlessly in a series of installations by prominent architects and designers at the newly renovated Museum of Applied Arts in Brno, Czech Republic.

128 GLOBAL EFFORT

by Edie Cohen

For the 18th Biennale Architettura, in Venice, Italy, through November 26, designers, artists, and curators from 63 countries explore decarbonization and decolonization.

07//08 90

ch07 lounge chair, designed by hans wegner, 1963 - made in denmark by carl hansen & son

carl hansen herman miller karakter muuto vitra kartell bensen knoll flos artek artifort foscarini and more!

visit hivemodern.com or call 1 866 663 4483 please inquire about our a&d trade program

2023

CONTENTS JULY/AUGUST 2023

VOLUME 94 NUMBER 7

walk-through 39 FRENCH DRESSING

by Edie Cohen 45 TALL ORDER

by Annie Block and Jen Renzi

With such selling points as advanced robotic technologies and social responsibility, retail projects from Shanghai to Philadelphia meet— and surpass—the needs of today.

departments 17 HEADLINERS 21 DESIGNWIRE

by Annie Block 26 PINUPS

by Lisa Di Venuta 30 SHOPTALK 33 CREATIVE VOICES Hands On

by Stephen Treffinger

After working with some of the most influential designers of the late 20th century, ceramicist Olivia Barry lights up the world on her own.

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69 CENTERFOLD Protect and Serve

by Athena Waligore

Shelter and shipbuilding inspired Copper Blockhouse, a sleek fortress of a multiuse building in Shanghai by Wutopia Lab. 140 BOOKS

by Wilson Barlow 141 CONTACTS 143 INTERVENTION

by Wilson Barlow

JIMMY COHRSSEN

07//08

53 MARKET edited by Rebecca Thienes text by Wilson Barlow, Lisa Di Venuta, Georgina McWhirter, Jen Renzi, and Rebecca Thienes

F E AT U R E D : G R A F F I T I – T H E A R T O F T H E TAG C AT C H E S T H E F L U I D M O T I O N O F W R I T I N G S T Y L E S , C A P T U R I N G A M O M E N T I N T I M E A N D B U I L D S U P O N I T S E L F.

A portion of the collection’s sales will fund Mike Ford’s Hip Hop Architecture camps.

THE

INTERSECTION OF DESIGN + HIP HOP CULTURE

Introducing the Mike Ford + Shaw Contract Collection of rugs and broadloom that celebrates the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop. The designs are inspired by the visual expression of the five elements of Hip Hop: Graffiti, DJing, Emcee, Breakdancing & Knowledge. Ford’s mission is to position Hip Hop culture as a catalyst to introduce underrepresented youth to architecture and design.

PRESERVE

editor in chief chief content officer

Cindy Allen, hon. IIDA

Not defined by four walls, Preserve reclaims the outdoors providing a smart use of otherwise forgotten meeting space. Inspired

MANAGING DIRECTOR

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SENIOR EDITOR

SENIOR PREPRESS AND IMAGING SPECIALIST

Georgina McWhirter

by nature and wellness, Preserve will help

MARKET DIRECTOR

Rebecca Thienes

free your mind to think outside of the walls.

ASSISTANT EDITORS

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Vivian Cohen BOOKS EDITOR

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Elena Kornbluth CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

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SANDOW was founded by visionary entrepreneur Adam I. Sandow in 2003, with the goal of reinventing the traditional publishing model. Today, SANDOW powers the design, materials, and luxury industries through innovative content, tools, and integrated solutions. Its diverse portfolio of assets includes The SANDOW Design Group, a unique ecosystem of design media and services brands, including Luxe Interiors + Design, Interior Design, Metropolis, and DesignTV by SANDOW; ThinkLab, a research and strategy firm; and content services brands, including The Agency by SANDOW, a full-scale digital marketing agency; The Studio

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Jovalie by National ®

Jovalie effortlessly creates welcoming spaces with its simple, sculptural shape. Its softened lines, rounded silhouette, and organic form combine to provide a comfortable and casual vibe.

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e d i t o r ’s welcome

a summer getaway!

Looking at the exhilarating work in this here Interior Design issue—which should effortlessly carry you through the peak of the season—I can’t help wondering where our industry will take us in the next few years. And, first off, that’s A-OK. Reflection and pause marry well to the other pleasures of our summer of family life, country weekends, and beach downtime. Besides, giving up the steering wheel to your thoughts from time to time is very healthy and, more importantly, rewarding. The reward in question is, naturally, that essential chart to follow through the next few years. And trust Cindy Windy, you’ll need one. Tech and digital are now evolving at a vertiginous pace. AI in particular offers incredible professional opportunities, albeit excising a steep tax on your time. The good old physical realm, aka nature and our surroundings, is picking up “the change” pace, too. Emotions and stances aside, epochal lifestyle changes always call for growth in our craft. And trust me, you will be called into service.

Fear not, however: As always, we’re here to help! Just take in the following stories. Nothing works better than gazing at the future through a global window on design (and the sister arts!) as we endeavor to deliver it to you in this very issue.

On our worldly extravaganza tour, sustainability is front and center. In fact, all countries at the Venice Biennale were digging into the environmental crisis, exploring everything from micro-climates to water, even showcasing a low-carbon housing prototype for displaced people. At a former private home turned foundation, Mario Cucinella Architects sensitively dug deep (literally two floors below grade) to create new exhibition space for very old (think ancient) Etruscan artifacts. And in the Belgian countryside, an artist’s home—featuring timber walls lined with lime hemp—proves one can be both super-sustainable and supercool.

Plus, we never forget about product, product, product. See our Market section that explodes with not one, not even two, but three trade-show recaps—from Milan to Copenhagen to Chicago—for all your design inspiration and product-specification needs.

This globetrotting “all things design” issue brings you vast creativity and wild originality…and you don’t even have to step on a plane to get it! So, chill out and get inspired!

Surf’s up,

Follow me on Instagram

thecindygram

JULY/AUG.23

INTERIOR DESIGN

15

headliners

Umu “Going With the Flow,” page 82 owner, founder: Sven Bullaert. firm site: Eksaarde, Belgium. firm size: Two designers. current projects: Casa Umu Ghana in Akosombo; Synthese stereo speakers redesign. science: At age 19, after visiting the Dalí TheatreMuseum in Spain, Bullaert changed his studies from civil engineering to product design. art: After being Kipling creative director and founding clothing label I Am, he launched Umu in 2021 to work on projects that lead to “a more sustainable, spiritual, and simple life.” umu.life

“Our projects are born out of stillness and art”

LEWIS BULLAERT

JULY/AUG.23

INTERIOR DESIGN

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h e a d l i n e rs Mario Cucinella Architects “Mining for Gold,” page 74 founder: Mario Cucinella. firm sites: Bologna, Italy; Milan. firm size: 100 architects and designers. current projects: Campus KID San Lazzaro school in Bologna; Unipol Tower in Milan; Università della Valle d’Aosta campus in Italy. honors: Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award; Venice Innovation Design guest of honor. roots: Cucinella was born in Palermo, attended the Università di Genova, and worked for Renzo Piano before founding MCA in 1992. routes: He has a small collection of vintage Italian cars, primarily driving a 1974 Zagato Lancia. mcarchitects.it

Hayball “The Still Point,” page 90 principal: Eugene Chieng. principal: Bianca Hung. firm hq: Melbourne, Australia. firm size: 130 architects and designers. current projects: Nightingale affordable housing development, The Canopy mixed-use community, and 15 Thompson St residential building, all in Melbourne. honors: Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence; Urban Development Institute of Australia Victoria Award for Excellence; Australian Institute of Architects NSW Chapter Award. multi-view: Chieng enjoys provoking and speculating the alternative and capturing moments through photography. multi-mind: Hung is most energized by the collaborative process. hayball.com.au

look: Chan loves traveling to relax, broaden his horizons, learn about different cultures, and enjoy the beauty of nature. listen: Music also helps get his mind off work. tomodesign.cn 18

INTERIOR DESIGN

JULY/AUG.23

RIGHT: GIOVANNI DE SANDRE

Tomo Design “The New Curiosity Shop,” page 110 founder: Uno Chan. firm site: Shenzhen, China. firm size: 30 designers. current projects: MasonPrince office and China Resources Universiade Center in Shenzhen; Donna Alison store in Xi’an, China. honors: PropertyGuru Asia Property Award; Paris Design Award; iF Design Award.

design wire

edited by Annie Block

body of work “Trap of the Truth,” at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park this summer, is not the first time Erwin Wurm has inserted ironic, thought-provoking contemporary sculptures in a centuries-old setting. He did similar while co-representing Austria in Italy’s Biennale di Venezia 2017, when visitors were invited to climb his towering upturned freight truck to view the Mediterranean Sea—and contemplate its role as a passage for refugees.

At his U.K exhibition at the YSP, which encompasses more than 100 works including 19 large-scale bronzes dotting the 500 acres of the 1700’s Bretton Hall estate, Wurm is again playful and political, using art to address conformity to society’s demands, upending cultural beliefs, and anthropomorphizing objects. His sky-blue Big Step, for instance, making its debut at 16 feet tall, personifies the Hermès Birkin bag by giving it long humanlike legs, drawing attention to ideas of entitlement and wealth, while an equally oversize, orange hot water bottle has maternal characteristics. To Wurm, the human form is sculpture in itself. “Everything surrounding me can be material for work,” he says, “absolutely everything.”

JONTY WILDE/COURTESY OF STUDIO ERWIN WURM, THADDAEUS ROPAC GALLERY, AND YSP

Big Mutter, a 13-foot-tall painted bronze from 2015, is in “Erwin Wurm: Trap of the Truth,” through April 28, 2024, at the U.K.’s Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the first British museum exhibition by the Austrian artist.

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21

the art of design

Clockwise from top left: Among the 70 works in “Les mains à l’argile (Hands to Clay),” Ronan Bouroullec’s exhibition at Galerie du Canon, TPM in Toulon, France, through November 5, are his 2023 ceramic Bas-reliefs hung on either terra-cotta Bloc or ceramic Rombini, both tiles designed by Studio Bouroullec for Mutina in 2022; Sosei vases from 2022; and 60-inch-tall Sculptures, 2023, in ceramic, steel, and 3-D printed PLA.

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Studio Bouroullec has long partnered with ceramics manufacturer Mutina. In 2021, brothers Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec crafted the Rombini vase for the company, and last year, they enveloped a 250-square-foot pavilion in its Pico tile. Today, Ronan Bouroullec, the artistic complement to his sibling’s technical expertise, has joined with Mutina again for “Les mains à l’argile (Hands to Clay),” an exhibition at Galerie du Canon, TPM in Toulon, France, featuring dozens of new pieces—vases, bas-reliefs, abstract sculptures—that reveal his intersecting interests in drawing, painting, and ceramics. “My work is increasingly moving toward producing objects that are functional, certainly, but also looking for a kind of elegance, of pleasure,” says the designer, who also has a book, Day After Day, publishing by Phaidon in October. “And ceramics are about desire, sensuality.” The items are alongside collections he’s done with his brother, such as their terra-cotta Bloc tiles and Sosei vases. All of it highlights the breadth of the studio’s work, which is informed by industrial processes like 3-D printing as much as handcraft.

CAMILLE LEMONNIER

d e s i g n w ire

ENDURING DESIGN

Lounge

Hans J. Wegner

There is a masterful simplicity to Hans J. Wegner’s designs. At Carl Hansen & Søn, we translate these timeless ideas into furniture that lasts a lifetime. Since 1950, we have worked with the finest natural materials to produce a wide range of pieces from Wegner’s collection of lounge furniture. The goal is clear: to create furniture crafted to last through generations.

Find an authorized dealer near you at CARLHANSEN.COM

Flagship Store, New York 152 Wooster St New York

Flagship Store, San Francisco 111 Rhode Island St #3 San Francisco

Showroom, New York 251 Park Avenue South, 13th Floor, New York

1950

animal instincts

“Oltre Terra. Why Wool Matters,” an exhibition by Formafantasma at Nasjonalmuseet, aka the National Museum in Oslo, Norway, is on view through October 1.

S TA N F O R D B A S S B I O LO G Y C A F E

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INTERIOR DESIGN

JULY/AUG.23

Four-legged beings appear to be central to Formafantasma, the Amsterdam-based studio founded by Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi that investigates the forces shaping design today. Last year, during the duo’s artist residency at Manitoga in Garrison, New York, they created, among other pieces, a delicate, amorphous chandelier made from cow bladders. This summer, they’ve shifted focus to the ovine with “Oltre Terra. Why Wool Matters,” in Oslo, Norway, at the Nasjonalmuseet, which recently opened in a new, larger building by Kleihues + Schuwerk. Amid the exhibition’s 8,600 square feet are such agricultural objects as wool shears and shepherds’ staffs joined by six life-size reproductions of different sheep breeds and a 65-foot-long carpet made from discarded wool fiber. The idea is to make visitors aware of the history, ecology, and global dynamics of the extraction and production of wool—and the connection between animals, humans, and the environment.

ALLESSANDRO CELLI

d e s i g n w ire

INA WESENBERG/COURTESY OF NASJONALMUSEET

JULY/AUG.23

INTERIOR DESIGN

Solutions for buildings.

Designed for people.

For 75 years, we’ve been providing a wide range of architectural products that serve a distinct, functional purpose—like our cantilevered and suspended sunshades at Stanford Bass Biology Cafe. At the same time, we’ve never lost sight of the effect a building has on people.

Putting people first has always been our foundation for building better buildings. Learn more about us and the solutions we provide, inside and out, at c-sgroup.com.

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glass lands Using the same handblown techniques as 16th-century Carpathian artisans, Ukrainian industrial designer Kateryna Sokolova crafts fluid multiform vases Gutta, 9 or 11 inches high, in transparent glass, and Gutta Boon, 11 inches, in Amber glass with resin-coated oak base (glass also available in Neutral Grey colorway) by Kateryna Sokolova for Noom. noom-home.com; sokolova-design.com 26

INTERIOR DESIGN

JULY/AUG.23

VALERIE SAGURA AND ANDREY SHURPIN; FLORAL STYLING: KOKIO NATURAL

p i n ups text by Lisa Di Venuta

OWEN SEATING

www.ERGinternational.com/owen.php

p i n ups

out of the kitchen The humble dish towel inspired the lighting in Prairie’s Edge, jewelry designer Sarah Burns’s debut furnishings collection Napkin table lamp, 14 inches high, in Green, Red, or Gray (not shown) glass hand-pulled over an enameled pine armature with silk twist cord (also available in a 4-foot-high floor lamp)

by Sarah Burns, through Marta.

ERIK BENJAMINS/COURTESY OF MARTA

marta.la; sarah-burns.com

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INTERIOR DESIGN

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Natural Optimist Collection I Abstract Gemma Moonslice NAT301

Natural Optimist

Celebrate the textures of your world with Natural Optimist, in visuals spanning handworked textiles, peaceful woods and eclectic terrazzo. View this 4mm LVT and all of our new flooring collections at manningtoncommercial.com/neocon

Globally, what regions or sectors are growing— and where have things slowed?

“We’ve been extremely fortunate to have not seen much of a recession in our field. Nevertheless, our involvement in parts of Asia— especially China—has been reduced, although requests from Japan have picked up. There’s also great demand in the Middle East.”

—Hervé Descottes, L’Observatoire International

“Opportunities really depend on market sector.

For example, we’ve seen significant growth in legal, financial, and professional-services sectors and in the retail and hospitality verticals. As well, we’ve noticed an increase in high-tech global companies that manufacture semiconductors, and related industries such as life sciences. The building repositioning market, prioritizing hospitality-style spaces that foster culture and community, has also been a positive as we continue to navigate the postpandemic real-estate environment.”

—Manuel Navarro, IA Interior Architects

“We’re seeing growth in retail and hospitality across the globe.

‘Revenge travel’—the term coined for pent-up demand for vacations—is resulting in opportunities for us in airports, hotels, and restaurants.”

—Collin Burry, Gensler

“We’re quite busy globally, including in several new markets for us, such as Taiwan, Central America, and the Caribbean. We’ve received a lot of inquiries from the Middle East and remain very active in Hong Kong.

About half of our work is in the U.S., and the projects are quite diverse.”

—Alexandra Champalimaud, Champalimaud Design

“All eyes are focused on the Middle East, which is experiencing the kind of growth we saw in China 15 to 20 years ago. Saudi Arabia’s ambitious development strategy to build a tourism economy essentially from scratch is creating vast opportunities across our industry. There’s huge demand for hotel and residential inventory across the country, in cities like Jeddah and Mecca.”

—Meghann Day, Hirsch Bedner Associates 30

INTERIOR DESIGN

JULY/AUG.23

TOP LEFT: STUDIO DUBUISSON; MIDDLE: KOREY HOWELL

s h o p talk

UNEXPECTED COLLECTION

MODERN PLAID - 45 TEMPO

by Sina Pearson

I RVI N E

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C HI C AG O

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DA L LA S

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N EW YO R K

INFINITE POSSIBILITIES

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hands on After working with some of the most influential designers of the late 20th century, ceramicist Olivia Barry lights up the world on her own

As a designer and an artist, Olivia Barry merges the problem-solving aspects of industrial design with a deep connection to materials and the making of things with her own hands. The child of an architectural engineer father and a painter mother, she believes this is in her DNA. She also possesses a fierce determination. “The first thing I did after graduating college in Michigan was drive to New York and look for a job,” which, it being the preInternet era, entailed writing a letter to—and getting hired by—furniture designer Dakota Jackson. Seven years later, Barry took the same tack with the legendary ceramicist Eva Zeisel, with whom she worked for over a decade up until her death in 2011 at age 105. Along the way, Barry made pottery commissioned by Crate & Barrel, Elizabeth Roberts Architects, and Tsao & McKown, among others.

Today, Olivia Barry/By Hand, the name of her studio and first lighting collection, softlaunched at Field + Supply last fall, officially debuted during ICFF at Wanted Design in May, and won a NYCxDesign Award. From her Hudson Valley studio, she tells us about the journey.

c r e at i v e voices

From top: The namesake founder of Olivia Barry/By Hand. Her tinted porcelain Blue Moon Tondo, with a 13-inch diameter, 4-mm thickness, and wiring to be backlit.

FROM TOP: EMERALD LAYNE; JOHN MUGGENBORG

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But didn’t you originally study industrial design?

OB: Yes, at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.

Although it’s known for automotive design, it has an amazing and unsung industrial design program as well. Another influence was meeting Wendell Castle in high school, when he was giving a talk at the Toledo Museum of Art. I was really interested in his work and the sculptural nature of furniture, so I pursued those ideas in school.

What was that like working with Dakota Jackson?

OB: I was 22 and it was my first job, so I didn’t know what to expect. The studio was adjacent to the factory.

I was able to see everything being made right there. If you design something on a computer and you send the specs to a factory far away, it’s a different process. But working with Dakota was very hands on.

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Can you describe a typical day with the late Eva Zeisel?

OB: We would work in her living room in her country house. She was very pas­ sionate and had a lot of energy. She had clients like Nambé commissioning pieces she needed help with, so I would translate her sketches into working drawings. Another project was a stainless-steel flatware set for Crate & Barrel, which we first made of balsa wood using a Dremel, passing it back and forth. Because of her limited eyesight, I would start carving based on drawings, then she’d feel it and we’d talk about it. Then I’d continue carving.

What is the most interesting thing you learned from her?

OB: To be brave. When Eva lived in Russia in the 1930’s, she was imprisoned because

she was accused of plotting to kill Stalin. She survived the Gulag for, I believe, 18 months. And then went on to have an incredible life. Eva did things other people hadn’t done before and she did them seemingly fearlessly. She didn’t worry about what was going on in the design world. I don’t think she really noticed.

How did you end up going out on your own?

OB: I was working for Eva on the weekends or after hours while also making my own ceramics in a group studio in Brooklyn. I’d done prototypes for what is now my Scroll Luminaire, which ended up in the Design Trust for Public Space auction in 2017. People really responded to them— there was even a bidding war.

So, I decided to start working on more, moved out of the city, and built a studio in Tarrytown, where I now live.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF OLIVIA BARRY; COURTESY OF THE MOMA DESIGN STORE; TALISMAN BROLIN; JOHN MUGGENBORG (3)

How did you find your way to ceramics?

Olivia Barry: My grand­ mother was a potter, and the exposure I got from her lit a spark in me. I took pottery classes from age 10 in Toronto, where I grew up, and then in Ohio, where we moved when I was a teenager.

Wherever I’ve lived, I’ve always found studios in which to work.

Opposite, clockwise from top left: A colored-pencil sketch for and the resulting Blue Bell ornament in Murano glass for the MoMA Design Store, a 2009 collaboration with Eva Zeisel. The two in 2007 working on the 101 Collection for Zeisel’s 101st birthday. A rendering of Barry’s Tondos showing their modular potential. The Eva Zeisel II stainless-steel flatware for Crate & Barrel from 2007 (reproductions available at evazeiseloriginals.com). The ceramic Leaf sconce, 2023, part of Barry’s Scroll Luminaire series.

Clockwise from top: Centennial Goblet, a dual wine/martini glass by Zeisel and Barry for Bombay Sapphire, 2001. Barry’s pencil sketch of the Centennial.

Her ceramic installation, a collaboration with artist James Thomas and commissioned by Gensler, at the Swan, an Orlando, Florida, restaurant. Her handmade stoneware Scroll Luminaire table lamps, 2022.

Tell us about your round pieces.

OB: For my Tondos, which is a renaissance term for a circular work of art derived from the Italian rotondo, I wanted to take clay off the table and put it on the wall, a kind of clay painting. I use pigments to tint the clay and blend different colors together using a slab roller. I also do a metallic glaze, which reflects light and movement, but the image isn’t crisp, like a mirror. And they can be wired with lighting.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: BRENT BROLIN; COURTESY OF OLIVIA BARRY; JOHN MUGGENBORG (2)

What’s the idea behind your Scroll series?

OB: I don’t love lampshades.

So I gave myself a problemsolving question: Could I design a lamp out of clay that didn’t need a shade? For the Luminaire, which comes as a lamp or sconce, I came up

with a scroll shape, where the body is a sheet of clay and the bulb is hidden inside, and the clay can be tinted.

What’s next?

OB: I’m working on a special set of Luminaires for Rue IV in Washington. The pieces will be available in all white, as well as in a custom palette for the showroom.

—Stephen Treffinger

c r e at i v e voices JULY/AUG.23

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LARIS LOUNGE

walk through

firm: tristan auer site: paris

french dressing Clockwise from top left: Glass cases line the downstairs corridor at the Joseph Duclos boutique. In leather and goldplated hardware, Diane bags are named for a fountain at Lectoure, where the brand was established three centuries ago.

The existing stairway connecting the store’s main and lower floors is newly appointed in Italian marble. A copper-leafed niche draws customers through the main level.

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Clockwise from top: Three types of Italian marble have been arranged to resemble modern-day parquet flooring. The new storefront is framed in the Joseph Duclos signature color. Cerused-oak paneling envelops the VIP room, where a custom LED ceiling fixture illuminates the Thierry Lemaire Niko sofa and Icarus table, vintage rug, and custom chair by Tristan Auer.

Vitrines are chrome and glass.

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Paris seems hard-pressed to need another luxury label. Still, the city has welcomed Joseph Duclos, a high-end boutique carrying a 21st-century collection of handbags and accessories with roots dating to the 18th century, when the brand was first established as a leather tannery in Lectoure and received the imprimatur of Louis XV. Today, thanks to company CEO Franck Dahan and artistic director Ramesh Nair collaborating with French designer Tristan Auer, the premier Joseph Duclos has debuted in a 4,300square-foot environment that’s as chic as its location, steps from the Palais de l’Élysée.

“Since this is the first shop, I did it as a tailor does a suit,” begins Auer, who’s middle name could easily be luxury, having designed yachts and custom cars as well as recently revamped the Carlton Cannes hotel mere months before the annual film festival rolled out the red carpet. “My responsibility was to let people discover it.” Adds Nair, “It’s important that customers understand the technique,” referring to how each bag is handmade by a single artisan.

The site, occupying the ground and subgrade floors of a 19th-century building, was the antithesis of its current setting. A former Moschino shop, it was, Nair continues, “like a disco, all chrome and black marble.”

Except for the connecting stairway, everything was removed and redesigned.

“The atmosphere is recessive in favor of the merchandise,” Auer says of the main floor’s restrained

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palette. Marble in three creamy tones creates subtly skewed parquet flooring. A focal table’s oak top mimics the parquet, and fixtures, including glass and chrome vitrines, are minimal allowing “space and air around the bags,” Nair notes. The lightly brushed plaster coating the walls and ceiling references the old buildings of Paris, while decorative beams and arches take inspiration from a centuries-old château in the Loire Valley.

A copper-leafed niche draws clientele through the long expanse to a perfume and candle area centered on a Piero Lissoni sofa.

Downstairs offers two experiences. For VIPs, a private room pairs traditional cerused-oak

w a l k through From top: Decorative beams and arches nod to the 16thcentury Château de Chenonceau. Textured plaster defines the downstairs atelier, where an artisan works on-site. The candle/perfume area features Piero Lissoni’s Extrasoft sofa and custom tables by Auer.

boiserie with furniture of today by Auer and his contemporaries. Down a long corridor is the manufacturing atelier, where a live artisan works leather amid walls of textured ebony plaster. Its cue, Auer says, is a more modern, jet-setting French landmark: Terminal 1 at Aéroport de Paris-Charlesde-Gaulle. —Edie Cohen FROM FRONT THIERRY LEMAIRE: SOFA, TABLE (VIP). RED EDITION: CUSTOM CHAIR (VIP), CUSTOM TABLES (PERFUME/CANDLE). LIVING DIVANI: SOFA (PERFUME/CANDLE). THROUGHOUT LES MARBRERIES DE LA SEINE: MARBLE. TANDEM ARCHITECTURE: ARCHITECT OF

JIMMY COHRSSEN

RECORD. RDM: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

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TREELINE Modern natural grain visuals in a range of warm tones for a quintessential wood look, the Treeline collection is designed for flexibility and seamless coordination. Offered in multiple constructions — including an option with an acoustical backing for enhanced sound absorption – this high-performance resilient collection provides multiple product solutions to best meet the demands of a space.

© 2023 Shaw, a Berkshire Hathaway Company

PATC R A F T.C O M | @ PATC R A F T F LLO O O R S | 8 0 0 . 2 4 1.

1.4014

Fulton Market District Chicago, IL

A destination for inspiration, education, and collaboration featuring products by Allsteel, Gunlocke, HBF, HBF Textiles, Normann Copenhagen, Zilenzio, and Corral.

Schedule your visit at allsteeloffice.com/chicago

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tall order With such selling points as advanced robotic technologies and social responsibility, retail projects from Shanghai to Philadelphia meet—and surpass—the needs of today

nakkash design studio project Compartés. site Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

OCULIS PROJECT

standout The Los Angeles chocolatier’s first Middle East location—a department store shop-in-shop that took the local firm just 90 days from concept to completion—makes the most of 150 square feet and a soaring ceiling via painted-MDF mobile displays and a 20-foot-tall, ombré-acrylic zigzag that divvies space, supports brass shelving, and multitasks as signage. Sweet! nakkashdesignstudio.com JULY/AUG.23

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arch&type project Blue Table Chocolates. standout The untempered crystallized form of and silky filling inside the artisan treats made and sold at the 900-square-foot shop drove its parametric “river” ceiling, a passerby-luring feature fabricated by University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning students of CNC-milled EPS foam that’s been handcoated in plaster then painted metallic gold, a machine-meets-craft process similar to that used to produce such truffle flavors as sacre torte and blackberry mojito. arch-type.com 46

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KIM SMITH

site Buffalo, New York.

KIM SMITH

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CHUAN HE/HERE SPACE

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atmosphere architects project Le Sélect. site Chengdu, China. standout Pure and monumental, natural stone not only inspired but is also the star material in the ethereal 7,300-square-foot volume housing women’s luxury clothing and accessories, where a sculptural spiral staircase connects the two levels, and stainless steel and glass dress up the brawn of the travertine and granite appearing throughout.

CHUAN HE/HERE SPACE

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sergio mannino studio project Angel Care Pharmacy. standout This community-minded, missiondriven storefront, in a neighborhood ravaged by the opioid epidemic, was conceived as a beacon of safety, serenity, and service—concepts sensitively conveyed via the fashion-forward architectural branding agency’s collateral and interior. Note, for instance, the soothing mauve palette applied to walls, chrome-back seats, and even the compostable packaging, arrayed on Studio deForm shelving. sergiomannino.com

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COURTESY OF SERGIO MANNINO STUDIO

site Philadelphia.

muku design studio project Relay. site Shanghai. standout The bookseller’s latest outpost occupies 4,000 square feet in Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, its forestlike solid-pine beams and columns crisscrossed and stacked up to 16 feet high and incorporating integral seating that provides a welcome contrast to and place to read amid the hustle and bustle of terminal T2. mukudesign.jp.

—Annie Block and Jen Renzi

CUI MING

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Uline Uline’s cushioning gives you the best seat in the house. And with over 41,000 products, you’ll love our variety. Order by 6 PM for same day shipping. Best service, products and selection – experience the difference! Please call 800.295.5510 or visit uline.com

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HIP HIP HOORAY! thank you to our sponsors

thank you to our select sponsors

and a special thank you to our award sponsor

HAZE

market A busy global trade-show season offers up a bumper crop of inspired product launches by established and rising designers

nanimarquina salone del mobile

The Spanish maker’s second collaboration with Istanbul-based textile designer Begüm Cânâ Özgür is a study in color and line. In the Haze collection of rugs, neutral and piquant hues blend with and slowly give way to one another in a pattern developed directly on the loom. Özgür chose a half-and-half blend of New Zealand and Italian wool, a low-maintenance mix that helps accentuate the colors’ naturalistic qualities. “These fibers restore that connection with earth that’s often missing from modern interiors,” she says. Haze’s four sizes come in red, green, brown, beige, and yellow colorways that are stripy up close but hazy from afar. nanimarquina.com edited by Rebecca Thienes text by Wilson Barlow, Lisa Di Venuta, Georgina McWhirter, and Jen Renzi

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m a r k e t s c a p e salone del mobile Design giants dominated at the Milan furniture fair’s April edition

India Mahdavi for Wiener GTV Design

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product Sumo. standout Building on his samenamed collection of sofas, armchairs, and coffee tables, the brand’s art director introduces a bed with articulating headboard components that adjust to sleepers’ individual needs. livingdivani.it 54

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product Loop. standout The Iranian-French architect’s collection expands to include a playful dining chair, its steam-bent arms seamlessly tran­ sitioning from leg to backrest in one elegant, uninterrupted line. gebruederthonetvienna.com

Armand Louis, Aurel Aebi, and Patrick Reymond for de Sede

Patricia Urquiola for cc-tapis

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product Domino. standout From the Spanish architect’s Panoplie contract flooring collection comes a syncopated pattern in four color combos crafted of wool blended with Econyl, a yarn made from nylon waste. cc-tapis.com

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product DS-808 Onda. standout Employing the furniture manufacturer’s signature leather, fellow Swiss outfit Atelier Oï devised a sofa system in which its billowy base detail mimics the look of loose fabric thrown over its form. desede.ch

PORTRAIT 3: ÓSIMON171

Piero Lissoni of Living Divani

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Vincent Van Duysen of Molteni&C

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Cristina Celestino for Billiani

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Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto, and Ola Rune for Arflex

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PORTRAIT 8: JIAXI YANG + ZHU ZHE

product Mateo. standout Available in various con­ figurations and finishes (including gloss lacquer), the brand creative director’s table balances a round or oval top on a faintly conical plywood base with a peekaboo reveal.

product Raquette. standout Wood lattices fill in the frames of the Italian interior architect’s tennis racket–inspired armchair, sofa, and table, their strict lines pleasingly balanced by the seating’s soft upholstery.

molteni.it

billiani.it

Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu for Wittmann

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product Tokio. standout Claesson Koivisto Rune’s new design for the Italian brand, currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, is a curved sofa system capable of combining into serpentine silhouettes ideal for floating mid-room. arflex.com

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product Baton. standout Neri & Hu pays homage to Viennese Secessionist design with tripartite stands and tables consisting of a marble pedestal base, a shaft of leather-wrapped supports, and a capital—just like a classical column. wittmann.at JULY/AUG.23

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“The collection perfectly expresses a coastal state of mind, bridging indoor and outdoor—and referencing life at sea and on shore”

market ESTELLE BAILEY-BABENZIEN, BRENDON BABENZIEN

MR01

gubi New York fashion brand Noah, from Brendon Babenzien and Estelle BaileyBabenzien, makes men’s clothing that channels East Coast nautical style… think Martha’s Vineyard in the summer. It’s a timeless aesthetic that suggests a breezy life of outdoor leisure. That influence is apparent in the label’s fivepart capsule collection, including the Danish furniture maker’s MR01 outdoor lounge in four new Noah-curated colors: bold yellow and royal blue plus a more understated navy and gray. All pop on their own, but also play nice when deployed together—say, in a row poolside. The oiled solid-iroko base is strung with rope made from a high-performance waterproof polyester used in speed sailing, a material combo that’s perfect for alfresco applications. Chairs purchased from Gubi’s website come with two beach-ready pieces from the collab: an oversize towel and a tote bag bearing the brand logo which, fortuitously, is a fish. gubi.com

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Manufacturers leveraged modularity, circularity, and sustainability in this year’s roster of launches in Chicago

Sina Pearson of Momentum Textiles & Wallcovering

Patricia Urquiola for Andreu World

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product Modern Plaid. standout From the Greenguardcertified Unexpected collection is a vibrant upholstery motif overlaying multicolor horizontal stripes with a grid combining nine yarn colors— from primaries to pastels.

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Ichiro Iwasaki for Arper

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product Bolete Lounge BIO. standout Detailed with textured grooves, the fully upholstered modules that ergonomically adapt to the sitter can be combined as desired to form seating units of any length and configuration.

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product Ralik. standout Block out a furniturescape of any footprint or function courtesy of the elemental system that’s the apex of modularity, encompassing pouf, bench, and backed iterations that link sans tools. arper.com

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product Karman. standout The company design director’s task chair, in a proprietary mesh with a pretty red-blue shift, boasts arms that adjust every which way, rising up and down and pivoting in and out so that shoulders fall naturally into place. steelcase.com

VALE

“Vale is the Middle English word for valley, which is what the rolled edge creates on the chair shell” m a r k e t neocon

kfi studios Layer founder Benjamin Hubert embraces sustainability and the circular mindset with Vale, its seat made entirely of pressed felt derived from recycled PET bottles. The drapey, minimalist shell, in six colors, can be easily unbolted from the matching weldedsteel frame for recycling of individual components at the end of the chair’s usable life. “The collection is a study in restraint—of materials, form, and design language—that echoes the restraint required to live responsibly in today’s world,” the British designer explains. The material is durable, impact resistant, and easy to maintain, thus well-suited to high-traffic spaces. Available as a chair or a high or low stool, with and without arms, and an ottoman, all with optional matching cushions. kfistudios.com JULY/AUG.23

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Mike Holland for Poltrona Frau

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Kenny Nguyen for Nienkämper

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product Bay System. standout The brand’s latest collaboration with the Foster + Partners head of industrial design is an efficient kit-of-parts with a central beam supporting single or back-to-back runs of straight or curved seating. poltronafrau.com 60

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Luke Pearson and Tom Lloyd for Senator

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product Beam. standout Designed to host one to three sitters, the joyously bulbous perch with low, compact footprint slouches over an interconnecting wood beam; anchor or intersperse a row with the corresponding petite tables. nienkamper.com

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product CoLab. standout Research into highereducation space trends drove the design of Pearson Lloyd’s informal, multipurpose units suitable for standing, sitting, or perching, and thus converting classrooms into active zones. senator.online

Hanne Willmann for Davis Furniture

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product Vida. standout The German talent launches a comprehensive set of tables with sleek powder-coated steel bases (in 30+ colors) and thinprofile tops (in myriad materials) plus details like unique profiles and cantilevered forms. davisfurniture.com

bnf studio Founded just this year, the upstart Chicago-based design-build studio is an offshoot of the established bespoke furniture business Ben Newman Furniture. The woodworker teamed up with his girlfriend, creative director Mary Numair, to create production pieces—all fabricated in-house—based on hardwoods and intended to be “highly expressive” and “uninhibited,” the designer explains. Both those descriptors apply to Mt. Curve, the brand’s debut series, encompassing a chair, stool, table, and “big chair” (i.e., oversize lounge), all with chunky turned-wood legs, sculpted curves, and a monochrome palette. “A unique finishing process allows for control of color without losing the grain’s natural tactile quality,” Newman notes. The pieces are shown here with colored-ash bases and mohair velvet, but everything is customizable, from hue to fabric to the wood itself. bnf.studio

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MARY NUMAIR, BEN NEWMAN MT. CURVE

GRAHAM TOLBERT

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product Formakami Limited Edition JH5. standout The artist/designer’s existing rice-paper pendant light gets a glow-up with the application of colored organic shapes inspired by hand-painted lanterns found in Kyoto, Japan. andtradition.com 62

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Hallgeir Homstvedt for Heymat

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product Lily. standout Copenhagen’s OEO Studio conjured a chair collection (in lounge and dining versions) whose backrest and seat support utilize Matek, the manufacturer’s patented material that turns waste into furniture. materdesign.com

Stine Gam and Enrico Fratesi for Koyori

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product Grid. standout With his machinewashable recycled-PET doormats, the Norwegian offers a fresh take on the familiar pattern of intersecting parallel lines by combining a trio of hues in each of three colorways. heymat.com

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product Edaha. standout It took 20 prototypes to perfect the specs and size of GamFratesi’s sinuous chair for the upstart Japanese maker, with a seat-meets-leg configuration that evokes a leaf’s gentle connection to its supporting branch. koyori-jp.com

PORTRAIT 2: MATTEO PASTORIO; PRODUCT 4: HIROSHI IWASAKI

Thomas Lykke and Anne-Marie Buemann for Mater

Jaime Hayon for &Tradition

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m a r k e t 3daysofdesign Star-studded product launches distinguished the Copenhagen fair’s 10th anniversary

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Hugo Passos for Fredericia

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John Tree for Hay

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product Gomo. standout A joint effort between the Portuguese-born, London-based designer and the family-owned Danish manufacturer, this upholstered lounge with optional swivel base boasts utterly curvaceous contours. fredericia.com

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David Thulstrup for Georg Jensen

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product Apex. standout The British designer’s enlightening grouping of tabletop and clampable lamps modernizes old-timey banker’s lights by way of mirror-polished bases and tented steel diffusers, in six colors including Luis pink. hay.com

George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg for Man of Parts

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product Penumbra. standout Elliptical designs from the renowned silver specialist’s voluminous archive sparked the Danish architect’s enigmatically geometric centerpiece with rectangular outline and oval interior. georgjensen.com

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product El Raval. standout The Canadian brand introduces Yabu Pushelberg’s oak and blackened-brass bench, with handwoven caning and cushions in nubuck leather, named for the Barcelona neighborhood where cultures intertwine. manofparts.com JULY/AUG.23

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“The collection brings a soft, unifying perspective to the multifaceted relationship between yarn, craft, and perception” FIL

MASH INGA SEMPÉ

Multidisciplinary designer Inga Sempé finds inspiration by walking through her Parisian neighborhood, homing in on seemingly humdrum moments that, upon closer inspection, reveal possibilities for intrigue. “I look for variations in walls or windows—tiny changes that turn what looks normal into something lively,” she explains. “I try to insert these subtle shifts into the most classical patterns and weavings.” Sempé partnered with the Danish textile giant’s in-house creative director, Isa Glink, to bring that mindset to bear on Multiply, a 16-piece residential window-treatment line. The gauzy, geometric designs are both ethereal and punchy. Take Fil-à-Fil, a blend of linen, lyocell, and recycled silk integrating classic herringbone construction and artisanal forms, in four organic colorways, including emerald. Following suit is Fil, a subdued broken twill with a smattering of microscopic recycled-silk dots in eight classic colors, and multidimensional Mash, a jacquard with wispy, space-dyed yarns woven into a watery moiré that dances when draped. kvadrat.dk

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CLAIRE LAVABRE/COURTESY OF KVADRAT

kvadrat

ADVERTORIAL

Carnegie’s Eco-Friendly Materials Help Achieve Healthy Interiors

BY DANINE ALATI

“Hospitals are often stereotyped as cold, sterile, and uninviting, but by intentionally focusing on sustainable design choices that evoke more positive emotions, we can make an impact on wellness and recovery,” says Mary Holt, chief design strategist at Carnegie. “Responsibly taking a leap in design will better the healthcare industry as we know it.”

At the forefront of environmentally sustainability for the past 70 years, Carnegie has become a leader in the healthcare industry by designing a range of high-performance healthcare textiles and acoustic solutions, including silicone hybrids and tough-wearing woven upholstery; supremely durable, easy-toclean wallcoverings; and innovative solutions for space dividers and acoustic products. With environmental sustainability as a motivating factor, Carnegie creates materials that are all 100% PVC free and made via clean manufacturing processes and considering life cycle impact.

What’s more, Carnegie demonstrates its commitment to material transparency by its Health Product Declarations, which disclose any potentially harmful chemicals in its products; the brand’s eco-friendly products are also eligible to earn LEED points.

“We must steer towards sustainable design to guarantee the safest and healthiest future possible, which begins with responsible material selection,” Holt urges. “Responsible material selection for healthcare facilities should include products made from clean manufacturing, a low carbon footprint, and that have reduced energy demands.”

It just makes sense that healthcare interiors be healthy interiors. “Mindful material selection can make an impact,” Holt stresses, “not only on patients, but also employees and visitors—basically everyone in the healthcare space.”

Breanna Box and Peter Dupont, the Brooklyn-based cofounders of zany glassware brand Home in Heven, revivify the lighting manufacturer’s classic midcentury designs, rendering the silhouettes in handblown glass garnished with devilish details: opaque blushing horns, bulbous tendrils, maudlin swirls. The one-off objects of Louis Poulsen x Home in Heven, which will be auctioned for charity later this year, share the latter’s irreverent aesthetic: a mashup of Barbie dolls, Y2K vibes, and a hint of danger. Yet the quintessential forms of the Danish masters remain strikingly prominent, emblematic of their enduring spirit. Pieces include Poul Henningsen’s tiered PH5 in filleted sashimi-colored striations and a reinterpretation of Vilhelm Lauritzen’s VL45 Radiohus as a mythical sea creature, complete with babyblue tentacles. “Henningsen’s approach is a big inspiration to us,” the duo explains, “taking what was old and making it his own.” louispoulsen.com

louis poulsen

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“Iconic heritage designs continue to inspire and evolve over time” m a r k e t 3dayofdesign market 3daysofdesign

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Int ducing Iv y

Material | Varia Pattern | Anahaw Palm Hardware | Suspend

3-form.com/ivory-flora

T H E L I LY P E N D A N T

boydlighting.com

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protect and serve Shelter and shipbuilding inspired Copper Blockhouse, a sleek fortress of a multiuse building in Shanghai

by Wutopia Lab

“It was designed to protect our frightened souls, the way the wartime shelter protected human beings”

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24 COURTESY OF WUTOPIA LAB

designers, construction workers, site managers, and specialists led by Wutopia Lab chief architect Ting Yu

2,900

LINEAR FEET OF STAINLESS STEEL

EIGHT months of design

17,760 18

6 1. Wutopia Lab chief architect Ting Yu’s painting shows the concept for the Copper Blockhouse commercial building, its shape borrowed from the air-raid shelter that previously occupied the Shanghai site. 2. and 3. Sketchup software models show the copper-and-glass exterior and steel-framed windows of the 4,360-square-foot project, the heart of the 1½-acre creativeindustry campus for Wutopia client Shanghai Jiayun Investment Management Development Co. 4. An Autocad rendering shows the small hut inside the building, which would be made from stainless steel and house a café. 5. Over the course of nearly two years, workers built the struc­ture, placing insulation sheets between copper plates. 6. Those plates sheathed both the inside and outside of the welded structural steel frame, a process similar to shipbuilding.

MONTHS OF INSTALLATION

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1. The open main hall of the Copper Blockhouse is used for product launches, presentations, and exhibitions for Shanghai Jiayun Investment Management Development Co. 2. The stainlesssteel hut contains a small café, kitchen, and restroom. 3. There are 1,670 square feet of floorto-ceiling shelves, lit by integrated LEDs. 4. The floor is coated in microcement. 5. Yu refers to the exterior as the “full metal jacket,” also the name of Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam War film from 1987. —Athena Waligore

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honoring significant contribution to the field of interior design and architecture

december 6, 2023 | the glasshouse, nyc

learn more

july august23 See things

in a new light

BOYSPLAYNICE

text: edie cohen photography: duccio malagamba

mining for gold For Fondazione Luigi Rovati in Milan, Mario Cucinella Architects literally digs deep to uncover the roots of Italian civilization 74

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Opposite top: Sergey Gravchikov chairs face another custom mural in the coffee shop. Opposite bottom: A custom con­crete sink serves the men’s bathroom.

Above: Custom velvet-upholstered chairs face a concrete-plastered structural column, on which little stainless-steel airplane silhouettes are mounted and backlit.

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As does much in Italy, it happened over dinner. So recalls architect Mario Cucinella of the genesis for Fondazione Luigi Rovati, a multifaceted institution focusing on the Etruscans, the ancient civilization dating to 900 BC that flourished for centuries in western Italy and is known for its mastery of metalwork. The project, which would be housed in the BocconiRizzoli-Carraro palazzo, a 19th-century, former private home on Corso Venezia, one of the main thoroughfares in Milan, would entail a massive renovation. The Mario Cucinella Architects founder admits, however, to no previous expertise in the museum genre, although he is particularly renowned for environmentally sensitive restorations of historic buildings.

“Sometimes,” he says, “it’s better not to be a specialist.” The firm was commissioned for the project in 2015.

But first a history lesson. The late Luigi Rovati was a physician, researcher, and entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical field. Knighted by the Italian republic, he also embraced art, culture, and history. Ultimately, he became a collector, amassing thousands of ancient artifacts, including many ceramics, bronzes, and gold works from the Etruscans. “They really formed the first Roman Empire,” Cucinella informs us. Meanwhile, the Rovati heirs wanted to share more than their collections, which also encompass contemporary pieces by Alberto Giacometti, Lucio Fontana, William Kentridge, and Pablo Picasso. “They were looking to promote the idea that art and culture could make people feel better, contribute to a cure,” Cucinella continues. It’s not entirely science but it did mean the museum would be a venue for scholarship, conferences, and lectures, too. Seven years ago, the family purchased the palazzo at 52 Corso Venezia.

Previous spread: At Fondazione Luigi Rovati, a sevenstory Milanese museum and cultural center housed in a 19th-century former palazzo that’s been restored, renovated, and expanded by Mario Cucinella Architects, the cavelike subterranean level, one of two, displays Etruscan objects, part of the Rovati family collections, and walls and ceiling of Pietra Serena limestone.

Opposite top: Off the entry, a newly added elevator accesses the two subgrade levels. Opposite bottom: Illumination from pinpoint LEDs comes through small openings between the limestone panels, which are supported by a steel frame.

Top, from left: A closeup of the stone’s hand-cut curves. The front facade of the 1871 Bocconi-Rizzoli-Carraro palazzo. A stairway leading to exhibition spaces below. Bottom: A coffered ceiling edged in LEDs and a brass chandelier, both restored, cap the entrance hall, repainted to match its original cream and white tones.

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Below: The limestone’s diamondlike sparkle drove the shape of the custom displays.

Top, from left: Etruscan tombs in Cerveteri inspired the gallery design. Columns conceal the building’s HVAC systems, the ½ cm space between the ashlars permitting air passage. Opposite: Like the floor displays, the wallmounted vitrines are blackened bronze and glass.

Today, after nearly a decade of restoration and expansion of the palazzo, Fondazione Luigi Rovati encompasses 43,000 square feet across five floors, plus two below-grade. The upper-level, formerly residential rooms have been reprogrammed for exhibition, event, and office functions. The subgrade areas are the project’s cornerstone and demanded Cucinella’s most extensive efforts. Call them excavation. We’ll get to those in un momento.

“We sought to make it look exactly as it was,” Cucinella says of his team’s approach to the renovation of the upper floors, where elements were removed, restored, then re-installed. The story begins at the entry and “the idea of welcome,” Cucinella notes. New glass was installed in the existing fenestration and fresh coats of beige and white paint were applied, while the coffered ceiling and the brass chandelier were restored, the former now outlined in 21st-century LEDs. Farther in, an existing mezzanine has become the foundation’s offices. Above, spaces on the piano nobile have been fitted as contemporary art galleries. “Each tells a different story,” Cucinella says. One of the more striking is a room dating to the 1960’s by architect Filippo Perego, who gave it gilt doors, a marble fireplace, and boiserie, all seamlessly restored by Cucinella and paired today with vivid magenta walls by Luigi Ontani, whose artwork is on display. Nearby, the erstwhile living room has been repainted its original turquoise and given new built-in shelving for showcasing Etruscan ceramics. Cucinella even made a spectacle of the corridor. The spine uniting these galleries now has a sinuous tentlike ceiling of painted steel panels. Temporary exhibits are shown on the fourth level, also used for events. (Ristorante Andrea Aprea, with interiors by Flaviano Capriotti Architetti, occupies the top floor.)

But for visitors to really get a newfound understanding of Italy’s cultural roots, they must go down, way down. The building’s first basement level, dedicated entirely to the Etruscans, was partially existing, stretching across the confines of the palazzo. Cucinella expanded it, reaching below the adjacent garden, to result JULY/AUG.23

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Opposite top: Sergey Gravchikov chairs face another custom mural in the coffee shop. Opposite bottom: A custom con­crete sink serves the men’s bathroom.

Above: Custom velvet-upholstered chairs face a concrete-plastered structural column, on which little stainless-steel airplane silhouettes are mounted and backlit.

Top: A gallery on the piano nobile is dedicated to an exhibition of paintings and sculptures by 79-year-old Italian artist Luigi Ontani, who selected the wall color. Bottom: Occupying the palazzo’s former living room is another gallery showcasing Etruscan ceramics in new built-ins.

Opposite top, from left: The piano nobile’s main corridor. Painted steel fixtures storing archival material in the subbasement level. Doors leading to the rear courtyard garden.

Opposite bottom: The museum’s café and shop are visible from the back facade.

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in nearly 5,000 square feet of exhibition space. Descent upon a newly built stairway (there’s also a new elevator) marks the beginning of an almost otherworldly journey. “There’s little natural light and no reference to time,” Cucinella remarks. It’s as if embarking on a hollowedout archaeological dig.

The galleries, three round and one oval, are windowless, in semidarkness, and completely clad in Pietra Serena, a smooth, blue-gray limestone quarried from the Tuscan region of Fiorenzuola. A passeggiata along any street in Florence reveals the stone’s prevalence. Here, Cucinella opted for the single pervasive material, “So visitors could see the plan and the strong shapes,” he notes. “I avoided utilizing too many materials.”

He had 24,000 segments cut, each 2 inches thick and 38 long and supported on a steel framework, with pinpoints of light emanating from the miniscule spaces between them. That the stones can be arranged in swirling curves to create domes adds to the mystery. So does the sparkle from its mica flecks. Speaking of sparkle, Cucinella drew upon the most shimmery of the pieces as the inspiration for his display fixtures. Many are diamond shaped, and the glass, seemingly suspended within blackened-bronze frames, “glitters like crystal.”

Keeping company with some 250 vases, jewels, and cremation urns, is a video component as well as a rotation of contemporary pieces.

Art, after all, is a continuum.

For the floor below, 2,000 gallons of soil were excavated to make way for archives and the building’s HVAC systems, a process that entailed temporarily supporting the edifice on steel piles. Cucinella did all of it with sustainability in mind, which has earned Fondazione Luigi Rovati LEED Gold certification.

PROJECT TEAM GIOVANNI SANNA; DAMIANO COMINI; MARIA DOLORES DEL SOL ONTALBA; LUCA SANDRI; DARIO CASTELLARI; ENRICO PINTABONA; IRENE SAPIENZA; MARTINA BUCCITTI; WALLISON CAETANO; EURIND CAKA; FLAVIO GIACONE; ERNESTO TAMBRONI; CHIARA TOMASSI; DAVIDE CAZZANIGA; SILVIA CONVERSANO; YURI COSTANTINI; ANDREA GENOVESI: MARIO CUCINELLA ARCHITECTS. ENRICO COLOMBO: LIGHTING CONSULTANT. GREENCURE: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. MILAN INGEGNERIA: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. EDILTECNO RESTAURI: GENERAL CONTRACTOR. PRODUCT SOURCES FROM FRONT MASPERO ELEVATORI: CUSTOM ELEVATOR (ENTRY). CAPOFERRI SERRAMENTI: CUSTOM WINDOWS, CUSTOM DOORS (EXTERIOR). THROUGHOUT IGUZZINI ILLUMINAZIONE: LIGHTING. BRASS STYLE; GOPPION; NEXHIBIT DESIGN; REALIZE: CUSTOM DISPLAY CASES.

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going with the flow In the Belgian countryside, artist, designer, and Umu founder Sven Bullaert crafts his family home in a manner that’s both sustainable and groovy

text: jane margolies photography: luc roymans/living inside 82

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Previous spread: In the living room of an Eksaarde, Belgium, house, an early 20th– century former barn that has been renovated entirely with natural materials by Umu owner and founder Sven Bullaert for him and his family, leather Togo seating by Michel Ducaroy joins a hanging Bathyscafocus fireplace and a Charles and Ray Eames Lounge chair and ottoman, all vintage, in the conversation pit.

Left, from top: In high-traffic areas like the corridor off the entrance, flooring is flattened pebbles made by artisans in Java, Indonesia.

Tubes run from a pond to and through the 5,400-square-foot house to provide heating and cooling via a heat pump. Right: A port­ hole in the loam wall looks from the gallery through the music room to the living room.

Opposite: Windows with rounded corners are fixed, but squared ones are operable and framed in Afzelia, a durable tropical wood imported from Ghana, where Umu is designing an eco-village.

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There may be no such thing as a living, breathing house. But the Belgian residence that Sven Bullaert has conceived for him and his family comes close. Its timber walls are filled with lime hemp, their sides shaped by willow branches that have been smoothed over with loam. The flooring starts with a layer of crushed seashells. The roof is covered with straw. Bullaert approached the creation of the 5,400-square-foot home the same way “a bird makes his nest,” he begins, piecing together natural materials with an eye for comfort and functionality. An artist and a designer, Bullaert has also infused the setting with a quiet beauty.

He didn’t start from scratch. After decades of living in rented homes—over the course of a career in the fashion industry that included eight years as the creative director of accessories company Kipling—Bullaert had been looking for a place of his own where he could settle down and focus on projects he had long dreamed about. He found a property in Eksaarde, about an hour north of Brussels, that was next to a river and a bike trail. On it was a 120-year-old Flemish long-gable farm, a type of hardworking building that had combined living quarters for the farmers with a barn for their animals. Bullaert admired the structure’s sturdy timber construction and the way it had been oriented to take advantage of the sun. He decided to transform it into a home for his family, drawing inspiration from the architecture of Antoni Gaudí and César Manrique as well as nature-based construction methods he’d learned on travels to countries along the equator.

The two-story building had been divided up to segregate livestock—sections each for horses, cows, and smaller animals like pigs and chickens. As Bullaert rebuilt walls, he left some where they had been and eliminated others to create spaces that flowed into each other. Furthering the flow—and fostering family interaction—he opened portholes on walls so that, say, the smell of soup bubbling in the kitchen would waft about. Skylights and generous windows were added to open the house to the outdoors. Bullaert hired sculptors who took a break from their own

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artistic endeavors to hand-trowel the loam mixture onto the curving willow branches so walls have an adobe effect, yielding the interior’s many arches and rounded corners—organic shapes that Bullaert believes make the home “warm and embracing.”

Work on the house was very much still in progress when Bullaert and his wife and collaborator, author Angel Patricks Amegbe, moved in with their toddler and Bullaert’s two older sons from his previous marriage. Living in the house and using its rooms, which encompass three bedrooms and two bathrooms but will ultimately have five and three, respectively, they began fine-tuning the spaces, a process that continues to this day. “It has a bit of the wabi sabi, the joy of the unfinished,” Bullaert notes. The hanging iron fireplace in the living room, for instance, was carefully positioned so that the sight of its crackling flames could be enjoyed while seated in the conversation pit. An amoeba shape was cut out of the carpet under it, the flooring there topped with surfacing made from flattened pebbles. “We never have a dirty carpet.”

Niches for displaying artifacts are carved out of walls, and the furniture, none of which was purchased new, is either designed

by Bullaert or from the 1970’s, ’80’s, and ’90’s—decades he feels had good design “vibes.” Vintage pieces in the living room include Michel Ducaroy’s Togo seating, an Eames Lounge chair, and sculptural standing speakers by Ivan Schellekens,

“The furniture, none of which was purchased new, is either designed by Bullaert or vintage”

Opposite: In the shag-carpeted music room, a vintage Elco sconce and a skylight illuminate a painting by one of Bullaert’s sons.

Top, from left: Just inside the entrance, a staircase leading to the library. The music room’s Corian-covered standing Synthese speakers, a project by Bullaert and Ivan Schellekens. A cutout peeking into the kitchen. Bottom: Forming a dining area at the other end of the living room are vintage Eames Executive chairs with cushions that have been reupholstered in recycled denim.

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a Belgian audio engineer. When Bullaert was fresh from earning his master’s in product design from the University of Antwerp, he had advised Schellekens on the shape of the speakers. Although they gained great renown and were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the speakers later went out of production. But recently Schellekens and Bullaert have been collaborating again to reissue them with improvements, such as using sheep’s wool as a damping material inside and Corian for the outside. The Bullaert clan has been trying them out in the house’s music room.

The speakers are one of several projects the designer is pursuing with his firm, Umu. Bullaert, who, after Kipling, founded an ecoconscious fashion company, has dedicated Umu to advancing ventures that encourage a simpler, more sustainable and spiritual life—he chose the name umu because he feels the word connotes a wave; he later learned it means sharing common beliefs in Arabic. Another Umu endeavor is an eco-village under development in Akosombo, Ghana, a partnership with a local chief who cofounded the Royal Senchi resort there, that will be devoted to art, meditation, and making products like Belgian chocolate infused with African and Asian medicinal herbs. The village residences will be far more modest in size than Bullaert’s, but the plan is to build them using the same carefully considered—and, now, time-tested—construction methods.

Left, from top: Bullaert’s own paintings hang in the gallery, where tree sections serve as stools. More Afzelia defines the main bathroom, where flooring is polished lime.

Right: Bullaert admired how the old barn had been oriented to take advantage of the sun, which is apparent in a duplex bedroom.

Opposite: On the opposite side of the bathroom, a swirl of waterproof lime plaster called tadelakt encloses the shower; the basin was handcrafted from a rock found in Bali.

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PROJECT TEAM ANGEL PATRICKS AMEGBE: UMU. PRODUCT SOURCES FROM FRONT LIGNE ROSET: SOFAS (LIVING ROOM). FOCUS: FIREPLACE. HERMAN MILLER: CHAIR, OTTOMAN (LIVING ROOM), CHAIRS (DINING ROOM, BEDROOM). BALTA INDUSTRIES: CARPET (MUSIC ROOM). ELCO: SCONCE. UMU: SPEAKERS. HANSGROHE: SINK FITTINGS (BATHROOM).

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the still point Hayball pivots a dynamic sensory journey around a core of sculpted tranquility at the Alba Thermal Springs & Spa in Fingal, Australia text: peter webster photography: willem-dirk du toit

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The Mornington Peninsula, a 280-square-mile enclave about one hour’s drive southeast of Melbourne, Australia, has long been the city’s coastal getaway. Fringed with sandy beaches, rocky shorelines, and rugged cliffs, the semirural landscape blends rolling hills with natural bushland— an ideal setting for the wineries, restaurants, hotels, resorts, and health and wellness properties that dot the area. Among the most recent additions to the latter, the Alba Thermal Springs & Spa

by Australian firm Hayball is distinguished by both its sensitive design and its use of 100 percent geothermal water—only the second such facility on the peninsula to do so.

Located on 37 acres of undulating terrain covered with tea trees and other indigenous vegetation, the Alba comprises two structures—the three-level main building and the Hemisphere, a separate pavilion with a steam room, sauna, and plunge pool, more than 41,000 square feet in all—surrounded by 32 outdoor geothermal pools connected by a network of winding foot paths. When Hayball got the assignment, the firm already knew the area—it had previously worked on a multibuilding lodge at nearby Moonah Links golf resort—but had not designed a wellness destination before. It was, in fact, the neighboring project that captured the interest of the client, who was “very intrigued by how we tucked the cluster of lodge buildings into the landscape,” says Hayball principal Eugene Chieng, who headed the project’s architecture team.

Hayball went further than tuck the main Alba building into the landscape, however, burying the rear portion in the hillside and rendering the exposed parts in raw concrete of a color and texture that harmonize with the surrounding natural palette. “We toyed with the idea of using rammed

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Previous spread: A self-supporting steel-frame spiral stair rises from a reflecting pool in the skylit rotunda at the center of the Alba Thermal Springs & Spa, a two-building complex on 37 acres in Fingal, Australia, by Hayball; photography: Henry Lam. Opposite top: Steel plates with a bronze finish frame the entry to the three-level main building; photography: Henry Lam. Opposite bottom: Conversation pods and window-facing daybeds populate the relaxation lounge serving secondfloor treatment rooms.

Top, from left: The stair gives clients access to the private spa facilities on the second and third levels.

A massive cast-concrete check-in counter domi­ nates the reception hall, where flooring is bluestone tile, as it is throughout. Bottom: Handmade in Spain, custom terra-cotta tiles with decorative protrusions clad the rotunda walls; photography: Henry Lam.

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earth,” Chieng reports. “But that would have been too challenging during COVID.” His team worked closely with Mala, the project’s landscape architect, on positioning the building and further anchoring it to the site with curved concrete walls that cut through the terrain to form sunken courtyards, sheltered nooks, and other sequestered spaces. While he resists labeling the structure “brutalist,” Chieng acknowledges the influence of the movement’s precept that “a built form can be quite bold but at the same time mindful of its context.”

“It was important to choose a material that could be used expressively both inside and out,” says principal Bianca Hung, who led the interiors team. The concept centers on the idea of rejuvenation as a sensory journey, a transformative experience that’s offered—and intensified—by the Alba’s confidently choreographed sequence of larger and smaller spaces. The building needs to satisfy two programs: a public one, for visitors using the locker rooms before heading outside to the thermal pools; and a private one, for patrons of the day spa facilities. (Housed on the second and third levels, these include a relaxation lounge, manicure/pedicure area, Vichy showers, various massage and treatment rooms, and a penthouse suite of private salt baths and geothermal pools.) “There was an effort to create a contrast between inclusivity and

“In terms of the plan, the stair and the reflecting pool form the pivot point of the entire building”

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exclusivity,” Chieng continues, describing how Hayball utilized such classic architectural binaries as light and shade, compression and expansion, smoothness and roughness, and solitude and togetherness to conjure an enveloping environment that’s “constantly provoking the senses, but in a very controlled manner.”

The journey begins at the entry, an intimate portal framed by a bronze-finished steel-slab canopy and side panel, which opens to the long, spacious reception hall. The Alba’s limited materials palette is set here: a massive cast-concrete sign-in desk backed by a ribbed-concrete wall on the left; a curved expanse of floor-to-ceiling windows, their aluminum frames and glass panes also bronzed, on the right; and bluestone tiles underfoot. Only wood is missing from the restrained Opposite top: In a locker room, the custom concrete bench and ceramic-tile floor are warmed by geothermal water; photography: Henry Lam. Opposite bottom: The reflecting pool acts as a moat, separating the public area from the private spa zone.

Top: Along with built-in banquettes, Thyme restaurant is outfitted with custom chairs and tables, some with scallop edges. Bottom: Dominated by a skylit cast-concrete bench, the ground-floor contemplative zone and adjacent reception hall are veiled by a curving tension-screen of woven steel wire; photography: Henry Lam.

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Top, from left: The cast-concrete tub, ceramic floor tile, and marble-effect paint finish lend a moody vibe to a bathroom.

Curtained with linen, a narrow window creates a column of soft light in a treatment room. Bottom: The Hemisphere, a separate building farther up the hill, incorporates a steam room, sauna, and this grottolike plunge pool; photography: Henry Lam. Opposite top: A clerestory window naturally illuminates the manicure/pedicure room, where chairs, stools, and desks are all custom.

Opposite bottom: A curving concrete wall with a ribbed surface—a finish mostly reserved for interior applications—enfolds a thermal pool.

mix. An exterior steel-mesh tension screen veils the windows, softening the light and allowing shadows and reflections off an adjacent water feature to animate the space.

A discreet doorway behind reception leads to the private spa locker rooms, while visitors en route to the public changing rooms and outdoor pools enter a transitional zone centered on a monumental circular slab of cast concrete, the top embossed with concentric rings of bronze evoking ripples on water. “It’s a piece of sculpture, a seat, and a moment to help direct the path through the space,” Hung notes. The bench’s totemic aura is heightened by a skylight directly overhead and concealed LEDs illuminating the base. But the building’s biggest coup de théâtre is reserved for the adjoining space: a double-height rotunda, topped with an oakpaneled oculus and floored with a dark reflecting pool, from which a perfectly lit spiral stair rises in a graceful curve to the spa floors above. No work of art could ask for a more flattering showcase.

“In terms of the plan,” Hung adds, “the stair and the reflecting pool are the pivot point of the entire building,” a motionless fulcrum around which the other spaces form a dynamic solar system. For the public zones, including the restaurant which occupies its own secondfloor pavilion, the palette is light and airy, prefiguring the natural environment that awaits outside. In the private zones, colors tend to be darker and moodier, wood surfaces are more plentiful, and rooms are individuated with changing ceiling heights and different size windows. “Everything,” Hung says in conclusion, “plays into the idea of journey and rejuvenation and calmness.”

PROJECT TEAM ROBERT MOSCA; JEAN-FRANCOIS LAGACE; LAURA MASON; TIM CALDERA; GIANNI IACOBACCIO: HAYBALL. MALA: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. AQUARIUS SWIMMING POOLS: POOL CONSULTANT. ARUP: ACOUSTIC CONSULTANT; LIGHTING CONSULTANT. STUDIO MASS: CUSTOM SIGNAGE. STANTEC: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER; MEP. ZUSTER FURNITURE: CUSTOM FURNITURE WORKSHOP. GDP GROUP; MINICON: GENERAL CONTRACTORS. PROJECT SOURCES FROM FRONT LAS LOSAS: CUSTOM WALL TILE (ROTUNDA). LOCKER GROUP: MESH TENSION SCREEN (EXTERIOR). KVADRAT MAHARAM: SEATING FABRIC (LOUNGE). MORTLOCK TIMBER: CEILING SLATS. CAESARSTONE: BENCH (LOCKER ROOM). INTRASPACE: LOCKERS. METZ TILES: FLOOR TILE (LOCKER ROOM, BATHROOM). ATKAR ARCHITECTURAL: BANQUETTE (RESTAURANT). INSTYLE: BANQUETTE FABRIC. CONCRETE COLLECTIVE: TUB (BATHROOM). NOVAS: TUB FITTINGS (BATH­ROOM), DOOR HANDLE (TREATMENT ROOM). BOLON: FLOORING (TREATMENT ROOM). THROUGHOUT SAI STONE: FLOOR TILE. RECKLI: RIBBED CONCRETE PANELS. NEW AGE VENEERS: WOOD VENEER. TARANTO WINDOWS & GLASS: WINDOWS, SKYLIGHTS. DULUX: METALWORK FINISH. PORTER’S PAINTS: PAINT.

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stepping it up

See page 104 for Jaipur Rugs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, by Roar. Photography: Yasser Ibrahim.

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text: wilson barlow and lisa di venuta

Global brands turn to cosmopolitan influences, tactile traditions, and leading design firms to raise the bar in their shops and showrooms stateside and beyond

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“Instead of a traditional reception, the hospitality area is where guests can grab coffee or infused water and the sales team can hold quick meetings”

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roar project Jaipur Rugs, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. standout For an entirely immersive experience, the Indian company’s own hand-knotted carpets enliven not only the floors of the 8,400-square-foot showroom but also its walls and myriad staircases. The latter are steel covered in a gradient of color and lead down to a central hospitality area inspired by ancestral Rajasthani architecture, featuring archways and a custom table of rose-gold legs and a Tundra gray marble top etched with an intricate Jaipuri pattern. photography Yasser Ibrahim.

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“The introverted architecture makes it an intimate setting for exceptional jewels and unforgettable moments”

laura gonzalez, moinard bétaille, and studioparisien project 13 Paix, Paris. standout Joining New York and London locations, the 32,000-square-foot maison is the main “temple” to the luxury French jeweler, its six levels a place of origin and collective memory, renovated to obtain the highest grade of BREEAM certification. Three floors encompass 10 salons, which are followed by workshops, archives, and a penthouse residence, all capped by glass ceiling over an atrium conceived in the spirit of a traditional Parisian inner courtyard. photography Fabrice Fouillet/courtesy of Cartier.

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“The project provides students with a whole new experience, its spaces bringing architecture and design for the benefit of learning”

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“The visual effect is meant to be of a city cut into pieces and reconfigured back together”

f.o.g. architecture project Skypeople, Beijing. standout The 2,300-square-foot shop selling ready-to-wear clothing for young professionals combines outer-space and polar-region modes, fashion and architecture into one minimalist whole through fitting rooms lit by color-changing LEDs and surfaces reminiscent of quilted coats. Randomly placed, angled mirrors are intended to change perspectives, spur inspiration, and echo the bustling energy of urban life. photography InSpace Architecture Photography.

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“It’s a multidimensional space that’s both emotional and geographical”

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forte forte project Forte Forte, Los Angeles. standout For their first U.S. outpost, cofounder Giada Forte and art director Robert Vattilana of the Italian women’s clothing, shoes, and accessories label composed a desert vista with a skylit palette reflective of locale via resin-coated flooring, limewashed brick walls, and native greenery. Brass details add Hollywood glamour, while two stacked stones, a nod to a Fischli/Weiss sculpture, were sourced in Palm Springs. photography Courtesy of Forte Forte.

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“Every detail is meant to enhance the tiles as if they were pieces of art”

benedetta tagliabue-embt project Ceramiche Ragno, Milan. standout Since the heritage ceramics supplier’s name means spider in Italian, the 4,300-square-foot flagship showroom is a web of marble, cement, and stone inspiration and a kaleidoscopic sequence of rooms, with spinneret-esque wooden displays; jewel-toned tiles arranged into murals of Persian domes, Egyptian minarets, and Roman columns; and a continuous mosaic slab serving as flooring. photography Tiziano Sartorio/courtesy of Ceramiche Ragno.

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text: c.e. wallis photography: free will photography

the new curiosity shop Tomo Design transforms a colonial-period house in Guangzhou, China, into an intriguingly quirky, IRL emporium for online streetwear brand MasonPrince

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The Gen Z founders of Chinese online streetwear label MasonPrince, siblings Qiusen, Qiumu, and Qiulin Zhou have always tapped into a vintage sportswear aesthetic for their men’s and women’s apparel, accessories, and shoes. But when the youthful entrepreneurs came to open the brand’s first brick-and-mortar retail store, the concept of old becoming new again took on an entirely different meaning.

Located in the hip Dongshankou district of Guangzhou, China’s third largest city, the shop is surrounded by chic boutiques and a rising artisanal coffee culture. Part of what has made the neighborhood an appealing destination for young people is its da ka quotient—a Mandarin term that literally means to card swipe or check in but is used to refer to places that are popular backdrops for selfies and social media posting—thanks to the preservation of many old Western-style redbrick houses dating from before the 1949 Communist revolution.

MasonPrince chose one of those colonial-era houses—the year of construction, 1931, displayed prominently on the roof parapet above the white columns framing the entrance— as a da ka–ready storefront. The Zhous tapped Tomo Design, a studio based in Shenzhen, the nearby boomtown from which the siblings originally hail, to transform the two-story, 5,400-square-foot property, which was being used as a law office, into a retail environment that would take customers on a figurative journey through time and space.

“We created a narrative with an interrupted timeline,” Tomo founder Uno Chan explains, “incorporating a design language that sets up a dialogue between the past and the future.”

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Previous spread: At MasonPrince in Guangzhou, China, by Tomo Design, a custom 23-foot-long counter fronted in stainless steel stands on wooden-plank flooring as it intersects a monumental column of travertine, reflecting the online streetwear brand’s mission to take customers on a figurative journey through time and space in its first physical location.

Top: The 5,400-square-foot store occupies a Western-style colonial-era house in the city’s hip Dongshankou district. Bottom left: A glossy, space-age mannequin sits at a custom mid century–inspired desk at the entrance, where walls are fronted with corrugated galvanized-steel paneling. Bottom right: An expanse of mirror interrupts the ceiling’s LED grid, introducing a topsy-turvy moment.

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That dialogue is immediately apparent from the sidewalk, where the traditional Chinese entry gate has been widened and its solid wood doors replaced by a wall of 11 greengradient glass panels—each bearing a letter spelling out the brand name—which pivot and slide back to open the front courtyard to the street. It sets the stage for the time-shifting experience awaiting inside, one that incorporates the past, present, and future as represented by the years 1931, 2023, and 2231, respectively. These three periods don’t necessarily flow together so much as crash into one another in seemingly random meetings of exposed concrete, reclaimed wood, and polished steel. No single room privileges one era over the others; rather, each is more of a mishmash in which the epochs run concurrently.

Take the reception area just beyond the front double doors, for example, where a glossy white polyethylene mannequin— Chan describes it as “a weird humanoid figure from the future”—sits behind a mid century–style desk equipped with a vintage lamp and typewriter. The surrounding raw concrete walls are partially clad with a tall, corrugated galvanized-steel dado, while the ceiling comprises a checkerboard grid of LED panels along with a large, mirrored section that reflects the wooden plank flooring below.

The effect of this eclectic mix—the multiple stylistic vibes include retro, utilitarian, fantasy, sci-fi, industrial, vintage, and art deco—is intended to arouse curiosity in young customers who may be interacting with the brand for the first time, to give them an impression of “breaking the limits,” Chan says. “When the present and the past intertwine with each other, it can be a mysterious labyrinth or a boundless universe that invites the wildest imagination.” Though the multidimensional, time-space narrative might seem like something lifted directly out of the Star Wars saga, Chan is adamant that no particular creative work or genre inspired the store’s interiors: “We believe that the elements of the universe can bring a lot of inspiration and we don’t want realistic fragments to limit the possibilities.”

If the overall impression is less of a store and more of a workplace that could exist simultaneously in the 20th, 21st, and 23rd centuries, each space is given its own unique story—fitting rooms that mimic elevator cabs, for instance, or a restroom featuring parts from steel filing cabinets Top, from left: Gradient-glass panels pivot and slide back, opening the front courtyard to the street.

Heinz Julen’s Pirmin chair from the 1990’s occupies the accessories area. Bottom, from left: Scraped clean, the gutted residence’s concrete is juxtaposed with materials that evoke other eras and aesthetics.

Carpet resembling mosaic tile lines the original stair, which has a new custom handrail.

Opposite top: Also custom, display counters incorporate rough-edge travertine slabs while a desk hosts a word processor, both vintage. Opposite bottom: The overall vibe is of a workplace that could exist in 1931, 2023, or 2231—only hanging racks on the wall indicate the project’s actual function.

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“The overall impression is of a workplace that could exist simultaneously in the 20th, 21st, and 23rd centuries”

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Top: Casement windows and woven carpet add a residential note to the second-floor sales area, which has a balcony overlooking the street. Bottom left: A pin board of MasonPrince looks and Alberto Rosselli’s 1972 Confidential armchair stand outside a fitting room modeled on an elevator cab. Bottom right: Stained-birch flooring and paneling, varnished with piano lacquer, lines another “office” space, this one featuring an incongruous freestanding plunge pool intended to encourage selfies.

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that Chan describes as the “time-archive room.” The hard-edge feel of metal and concrete is softened with vintage furniture sourced from dealers all around China. Pieces, which tend to be as idiosyncratic as the surroundings, include Swiss architect Heinz Julen’s Pirmin chair from the 1990’s, which is an eye-catching assemblage of stainless steel, leather, and teak, and Italian designer Alberto Rosselli’s 1972 Confidential armchairs, their puffy, modular forms upholstered in well-worn leather.

Perhaps the most offbeat gesture is reserved for a second-floor “office.” The corners of the room are furnished with vintage L-shape desks hosting ’70’s word processors, but its center is occupied by a freestanding plunge pool complete with a stainless-steel ladder that seems unnecessary given the shallow tub’s 1-foot depth. Chan imagines that the tiled fixture could be used for interesting displays in the future—perhaps filled with fresh flowers—in front of which customers would da ka and snap their selfies. “MasonPrince wanted to showcase a ‘classless’ fashion brand and subvert conventional perception,” the designer sums up. “The comparison between past, present, and future, the collision between functions and scenarios, and the connection of different spaces all stimulates a desire for exploration.”

PROJECT TEAM FEI XIAO; PSYUN; TIE; JASON; POOM; TIN; CHING HO: TOMO DESIGN.

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art! design! fashion!

Three creative industries blend seamlessly in a series of installations by prominent architects and designers at the newly renovated Museum of Applied Arts in Brno, Czech Republic

text: peter webster photography: boysplaynice

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Founded in 1873, the Museum of Applied Arts in Brno, Czech Republic, is among the world’s 10 oldest such institutions, although, as its director Jan Press acknowledges, “It took another decade before the building itself was constructed.” A handsome, three-story Renaissance Revival–style palazzo by architect Johann Georg von Schön, who was also the museum’s first director, the building’s interiors were lavishly decorated with frescoes, stucco, stained glass, and other quattrocento-inspired embellishments.

“From the start, it was clear the museum would expand,” Press continues, which it did almost immediately. “During a 14-month remodel in 1888, its total space doubled.” The building was largely reconstructed in 1945, repairing severe wartime bomb damage and making multiple additions and reconfigurations. In 1961, the museum merged with the Picture Gallery of the Moravian Museum to create the Moravian Gallery, a multisite art museum—the country’s second largest—that now comprises six separate structures including Von Schön’s palazzo and the bright-yellow house where Josef Hoffmann was born.

Between 2019 and 2021, Czech architect Ivan Kolecě k—principal of an eponymous practice based in Lausanne, Switzerland, specializing in the restoration and conservation of historical buildings—completed another major renovation of the museum. “The aim was to come as close to the original shape as possible,” Press says, “preserving historical motifs and restoring damaged decorative elements without resorting to the use of replicas. Kolecě k also utilized his own contemporary style, characterized by simple, minimalist forms, which creates an interesting contrast between the old and the new.”

A good example of these juxtapositions is found in the atrium flanking the main lobby. The architect created the three-story volume by removing the ground-floor ceiling, opening the space to the huge skylight above, and flooding the adjacent lobby with daylight via a colonnade of soaring archways—a classical architectural form rendered in Kolecě k’s signature pared-down aesthetic. Equally minimal, but completely contemporary, are several glossy-white catwalks 120

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Previous spread: At the Museum of the Applied Arts in Brno, Czech Republic, furniture

by Lucie Koldová floats midair in a new atrium gallery, part of a three-year renovation of the 1882 Renaissance Revival–style building by Ivan Koleček Architecture, with a number of significant interventions by other leading Czech architects and designers.

Top, from left: Clad in glossy aluminum panels, Studio Olgoj Chorchoj’s catwalks zigzag across the airy three-story space.

Mannequins are displayed on a revolving steel runway in “2000+ Fashion,” an instal­ lation by graphic designer Tomáš Svoboda focused on the country’s con­tem­porary apparel and accessories industries. Bottom, from left: The splendor of the restored lobby’s original architecture and decoration by Johann Georg von Schön, the museum’s first director, is joined by Krištof Kintera’s Demon of Growth, a playful assemblage of balls, flasks, and other round shapes. The illustrations and graphics festooning the double-height coat check are by Czech artist Jiří Franta.

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that zigzag overhead, not only linking various galleries but also providing platforms for up-close viewing of site-specific installations suspended in the atrium. Clad in aluminum panels and supported on rolled-steel girders, the sleek footbridges evoke the dynamic power of bullet trains speeding toward the future.

Designed by Prague’s Studio Olgoj Chorchoj, the catwalks are one of many attentiongrabbing interventions—others include a robotic café, a cloud-shape terrace canopy, and a pair of massive floor-to-ceiling cases for displaying ceramics and glassware—commissioned from leading Czech firms. These individuated spaces, permanent installations, and bespoke structures reflect a reconceptualization of the renovated museum, now marketed under the rubric ART DESIGN FASHION. “We don’t focus exclusively on any one of them,” Press explains.

“Our goal is that each is perceived not separately, restricted to itself, but rather as part of a triunity. Art can be found in design and be fashionable; design and fashion can be artistic.” It’s a multilayered, boundary-erasing approach in which the three disciplines are show­cased not only through exhibitions but also in the very look of the museum itself.

Arriving in the lobby, visitors are naturally drawn to the light and dynamism of the atrium glimpsed through its frame of monumental arches. There’s equivalent energy in another Studio Olgoj Chorchoj installation in which an icon of Czech aeronautical design—Karel Dlouhý’s L-13 Blaník glider from 1956—is suspended vertically next to the glass elevator. The sailplane remained in production for two decades and is still the most widely used glider in the world. Of course, Moravia and Bohemia are even better known for the fine glassware produced there since the 13th century. The museum, which has more than 11,000 pieces of glass and porcelain, commissioned designers Maxim Velčovský and Radek Wohlmuth along with edit! architects to create an open repository for the massive collection. The collaborators devised a system of stackable glass-and-steel display cases that spans two rooms—the glittering Light Depot, where walls, ceiling, and cabinet frames are stark white; and the moody Black Depot, with inky walls and obsidian metalwork—that offer dramatically contrasting experiences.

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Top, from left: Svoboda also devised the Cave, where a steel viewing platform provides a panoramic view of wall shelves displaying 234 products representing the history of Czech industrial design.

His fashion installation includes a bank of screens showing magazine-ready shots of the latest clothing styles. Bottom, from left: The Respirium, a multifunctional space by street-furniture designers David Karásek and Michael Tomalik, offers a moment of quiet repose next to the busy terrace. Inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey, Atelier Štěpán clad Café Robot in a checkerboard of backlit glass panels and installed a robotic arm that serves coffee.

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“Art can be found in design and be fashionable; design and fashion can be artistic.”

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In the windowed void next to the glass elevator, Studio Olgoj Chorchoj suspends an L-13 Blaník glider by Karel Dlouhý, a 1956 classic of Czech design that’s still the most widely used sailplane in the world.

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“They devised a system of glass-and-steel display cases that spans two rooms”

Graphic designer Tomáš Svoboda provides more theatricality in the exhibition spaces he installed. The Cave, which offers a panorama of Czech product-design history, has walls lined with floor-to-ceiling grids of deep shelving on which 234 significant items from the 19th and 20th centuries are displayed. A steel viewing platform runs down the center of the room allowing visitors to peruse the collection from on high or to examine the elaborate coffers of the restored ceiling close above. Svoboda gets to address the 21st century in “2000+ Fashion,” a permanent exhibition of apparel and accessories created since the millennium

by Czechia’s leading designers, including Liběna Rochová, who gets a large section to herself.

Mannequins are arrayed on a revolving catwalk, its steampunk aesthetic referencing the nation’s well-developed DIY culture, while fresh-as-paint fashion photography flashes across a bank of video screens, pointing toward tomorrow.

Like Janus, architect Marek Jan Štěpán also looks to the past and the future in Café Robot, a small cube of a coffee bar, its walls, ceiling, and floor a checkerboard of backlit glass panels.

Visitors to the café, which was inspired by the famous bedroom interior at the end of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, order coffee from a talking androgenic hologram that serves it via a robotic arm. “By far the most popular brew is the so-called Selfiecinno,” Press reports. “A camera takes a photo of the customer, which is then printed in edible ink on the foam in the cup.”

The principal of Atelier Štěpán practices interactivity on a grander scale with The Cloud, a diaphanous multimedia canopy floating above the ground-floor terrace. Made of aluminum, steel, glass, and a galaxy of LEDs, the nebulalike installation glows, changes color, and emits sounds in reaction to stimuli from the immediate environment. “It also alludes to the surrealist works of painter Josef Šíma,” Press observes, referencing the artist’s use of clouds as a symbol of creativity, imagination, and communication—all qualities on prominent display throughout the dazzling museum.

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PROJECT TEAM MICHAL FRONĚK; JAN NĚMEČEK: STUDIO OLGOJ CHORCHOJ (CATWALKS). DAVID KARÁSEK; MICHAEL TOMALIK: MMCITÉ (RESPIRIUM).

MAXIM VELČOVSKÝ: QUBUS DESIGN STUDIO; RADEK WOHLMUTH; EDIT! ARCHITECTS (DEPOTS).

MAREK JAN ŠTĚPÁN: ATELIER ŠTĚPÁN (CAFÉ ROBOT, CLOUD). TOMÁŠ SVOBODA (CAVE, 2000+ FASHION).

Top, from left: For the museum’s extensive glassware and porcelain collection, designers Maxim Velčovský, Radek Wohlmuth, and edit! architects conceived an open repository of steel-and-glass display cases, some painted obsidian to create the Black Depot. Others were painted white and installed in the equally snowy Light Depot. Bottom, from left: Frank Tjepkema’s Pearl Drop, a pendant fixture for the Bohemian glassmaker Preciosa, hangs in the Votive Hall, a staircase space with restored 19th-century murals and stained glass. Floating above the terrace, Atelier Štěpán’s Cloud installation comprises an interactive canopy of aluminum, steel, glass, and LEDs that glows, changes color, and emits sounds in reaction to nearby stimuli.

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ROWLAND + BROUGHTON Redefining Beauty is an image of the dry Colorado River Delta

by National Geographic photographer Peter McBride on reflective steel panels inside the site’s European Cultural Centre. Photography: Federico Vespignani.

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global effort For the 18th Biennale Architettura, in Venice, Italy, through November 26, designers, artists, and curators from 63 countries explore decarbonization and decolonization text: edie cohen photography: roland halbe JULY/AUG.23

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OLALEKAN JEYIFOUS For the Nigeria pavilion, ACE/AAP imagines a multimedia departure lounge for a fictional transportation company, a prototypical transport hub for low-impact, zero-emission land, sea, and air travel.

BELGIUM In Vivo, curated by Bento Architecture and University of Liège professor Vinciane Despret, presents alternative construction methods using living substances like raw earth and fungi in a contemplative setting.

KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN Sweating Assets is an installation of micro-climates curated by architects Maryam Aljomairi and Latifa Alkhayat that suggests ecological reuse for condensation and examines past, present, and hypothetical future water use in the Kingdom.

HOOD DESIGN STUDIO Examining the history of basket-making as it relates to a former plantation site in South Carolina, Sweet Grass Walk in the Carlo Scarpa Sculpture Garden features palmetto columns crafted from the same wood used for the mooring poles throughout Venice.

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SERGE ATTUKWEI CLOTTEY Time and Chance is the Ghanaian artist’s patchwork tapestry of thousands of squares cut from plastic gallon containers, strung to­gether with wire, and suspended from the Gaggiandre shipyard.

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KOREA At the heart of 2086: Together How?, curators Soik Jung and Kyong Park created a game show where audience participants make choices on questions of environmental crises as researched by architects and civic leaders from three small communities in South Korea.

MMA DESIGN STUDIO Origins, a video installation by the Johannesburg firm, depicts the hidden ruins of Kweneng, the precolonial capital of the Tswana people occupied from the 15th to 19th centuries.

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NORMAN FOSTER FOUNDATION and HOLCIM Essential Homes Research Project, a prototype for displaced people, is a low-carbon, energy-efficient, semipermanent dwelling made of concrete sheets with a comfortable, light-filled interior.

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IRELAND In Search of Hy-Brasil, curated by architects Peter Carroll, Peter Cody, Elizabeth Hatz, Mary Laheen, and Joseph Mackey, represents ecological fieldwork from the country’s remote islands, with local materials in innovative forms, like an abstraction made of sheep’s wool from Sceilg Mhichíl.

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LESLEY LOKKO The Ghanaian-Scottish architect, novelist, and curator of the Biennale Architettura 2023 created Loom for the entrance of the Central Pavilion.

Although not a textile, the construction summarizes the whole show—themed the laboratory of the future—its dozens of crimson components alluding to the ensuing projects and the wire supports metaphorically weaving them altogether.

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CHINA In Renewal: A Symbiotic Narrative, curated by architect Xing Ruan, 50 massive scrolls invite visitors to stroll through and contemplate cities of the future, be they modernist towers, traditional courtyards, a symbiosis of the two, or other possibilities—all with clean energy.

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edited by Wilson Barlow

Aino + Alvar Aalto: A Life Together

By Heikka Aalto-Alanen New York and London: Phaidon Press, $150 352 pages, 400 illustrations, 56 in color

books

This is not the first book about Aino and Alvar Aalto, the Finnish husband and wife who founded Artek in 1935. But it is unique in that it focuses not only on their work, which spans from architecture to textiles and furnishings, but also on their personal lives and the story of their romantic rela­ tionship. As to the former, there are process sketches and finished photography of such iconic projects as the Tuber­ culosis Sanatorium at Paimio from 1933 and the 1936 glass Savoy vase. The book’s clothbound cover is a nod to the couple’s output as well: Its swirling patterns are an inter­ pre­tation of a motif often found on Artek glassware.

For the book’s latter category, there are letters to friends, family, and each other, photos from family albums docu­ men­ting vacations and quiet moments at home, even drawings and paintings made for each other, many of which have never been previously published. Such an intimate level of access is possible thanks to the fact that the author, Heikki Aalto-Alanen, is a grandson and has done much to preserve the designers’ legacy, including serving as vice chairman of the Alvaar Alto Foundation and a member of Artek’s board of directors.

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c o n ta c t s

Over 20 years of innovative, modular surfaces in natural gypsum.

DESIGNERS IN SPECIAL FEATURE

206.321.8719 info@modulararts.com

F.O.G. Architecture (“Stepping It Up,” page 98), fogarchitecture.com.

Made in the USA.

Laura Gonzalez (“Stepping It Up,” page 98), lauragonzalez.fr.

Moinard Bétaille (“Stepping It Up,” page 98), moinard-betaille.com.

Roar (“Stepping It Up,” page 98), designbyroar.com.

Studioparisien (“Stepping It Up,” page 98), studio-parisien.fr.

Benedetta Tagliabue-EMBT (“Stepping It Up,” page 98), mirallestagliabue.com.

PHOTOGRAPHERS IN FEATURES BoysPlayNice (“Art! Design! Fashion!” page 118), boysplaynice.com.

Willem-Dirk du Toit (“The Still Point,” page 90), willem-dirk.com.

Free Will Photography (“The New Curiosity Shop,” page 110), ditu.so.com.

Roland Halbe (“Global Effort,” page 128), rolandhalbe.eu.

Duccio Malagamba (“Mining for Gold,” page 74), ducciomalagamba.com.

Luc Roymans (“Going With the Flow,” page 82), Living Inside, livinginside.it. breeze™ wall panels

DESIGNER IN CREATIVE VOICES Olivia Barry/By Hand (“Hands On,” page 33), oliviabarrybyhand.com.

DESIGNER IN WALKTHROUGH Tristan Auer (“French Dressing,” page 39), tristanauer.com.

PHOTOGRAPHER IN WALKTHROUGH Jimmy Cohrssen Photography (“French Dressing,” page 39), jimmycohrssen.com.

DESIGNER IN CENTERFOLD Wutopia Lab (“Protect and Serve,” page 69), wutopialab.com.

Interior Design (ISSN 0020-5508), July/August 2023, Vol. 94, No. 7. Interior Design is published 12 times per year, monthly except combined issues in July/August and December/January with seasonal issues for Spring and Fall by the SANDOW Design Group, LLC, 3651 FAU Boulevard, Boca Raton, FL 33431. Periodicals postage paid at Boca Raton, FL, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS; NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: Send address corrections to Interior Design, PO Box 808, Lincolnshire, IL 60069-0808. Subscription department: (800) 900-0804 or email: interiordesign@omeda.com. Subscriptions: 1 year: $69.95 USA, $99.99 in Canada and Mexico, $199.99 in all other countries. Copyright © 2023 by SANDOW Design Group, LLC. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. Interior Design is not responsible for the return of any unsolicited manuscripts or photographs.

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shayle™ wall panels

headline here

a place to go Tokyo appears to be cornering the market on high-concept public toilets.

Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, and Kengo Kuma have recently designed a series of them across the Shibuya ward. Now, Chiyoda follows suit with a pair of glowing, inclusive-oriented water closets by I In inside the city’s ShinMarunouchi Building.

I In founding partner Yohei Terui’s aim for the two-restroom commission was to use “color to blur the boundaries between genders.” He and cofounding partner Hiromu Yuyama did away with the typical “boys are blue, girls are pink” binary, instead selecting hues that sit

TOMOOKI KENGAKU

i n t er vention

next to each other on the rainbow— yellow for women, green for men—a subtle acknowledgement that many people, too, sit closer to the middle of the spectrum. They were then applied to LEDs that, since each 690-squarefoot restroom is enveloped in pristine white mosaic tiles made in the Tajimi region, rebound and saturate the spaces in the shades. “It softens the division,” Terui says of the palette.

Also gentle is I In’s use of rounded corners rather than right angles. “They create a continuous floor, wall, and ceiling,” Terui continues, “for a sort of unrealistic experience.” So that it’s also a hygienic one, each custom stainlesssteel sink sleekly incorporates faucet, soap dispenser, and dryer for a superclean look. —Wilson Barlow

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Send us your best...submissions now open! boyawards.com

Submit your products and projects by September 6 Winners announced December 7 | NYC

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Work from Anywhere with Pergola

INTERIOR DESIGN JULY/AUGUST 2023

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