Design Anthology UK Issue 15 by designanthologyuk

ISSUE 15

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PK1 Chair

Poul Kjærholm

NATURAL SIMPLICITY

With a modern idiom and refined combination of materials, the PK1 Chair was designed by Danish architect Poul Kjærholm in 1955 as his first ever chair design. Carl Hansen & Søn has now revitalized the lightweight and stackable chair with a durable, FSCTM-certified paper cord weave, adding softness to the stringent steel frame.

FSC-C135991

1955

photo Giovanni Gastel

Standard sofa and Chiara armchair by Francesco Binfaré. “Smart” backrests and armrests, which can be modeled as desired, offer maximum comfort. The seating system is modular to meet every need. Scrigno container and Brasilia table by Fernando and Humberto Campana. A mosaic of mirror splinters. Each piece is unique and handmade.

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Swivel chair

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FROM THE EDITOR

I’ve been thinking a lot about homemaking – or rather, what makes home, home. What gives the places we live their spirit and what brings true joy? These are such simple, important questions but so often the answers aren’t clear. As an expat, I’ve moved around almost constantly since the age of 18. Making a home is central to my peace of mind – I’ve done it instinctively. Certain objects and pieces of furniture, gifted and found, or passed down by family, travelled with me through the years. Recurring colour combinations and silhouettes pop up again and again in my abodes, layered with new textures and tones, new treasures and new life. That’s how I’ve done it. Yet everyone else has their own story of homemaking, and that’s what this issue is all about: the wild variation in what people want out of their home life, and the designers who help make it happen. More to the point: it’s no secret that the pages of Design Anthology UK are often full of muted, understated homes and issue 15 is no exception (see Covet Noir’s London townhouse on p76 or a Roman apartment bedecked with raw concrete on p96), but we do have a little surprise for you. The Clapton cover story (p64) is a fiesta of rust-coloured walls, stainless steel and super sexy embellishment, and it might be my favourite home to grace our pages. “It was never going to be a cream space,” says its designer, Tatjana von Stein of Sella Concept. I love everything about this OTT apartment including the carpeted bed and the pair of throne-like Punjabi chairs – admittedly, a sentence I never expected to write in this editor’s letter. Amid all of the Pinterest boards and visual stimuli we’re bombarded with, it’s good to be reminded that the best place to live is full of things I want to keep. As Katie Treggiden suggests in her feature on repair culture (p32), we are more likely to become emotionally attached to quality pieces that we look after and take with us as we move and grow. All the best, Elizabeth Choppin Editor-in-Chief

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September 2023

Co-publisher & Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Choppin elizabeth@designanthologyuk.com Co-publisher & Creative Partnerships Director Kerstin Zumstein kerstin@designanthologyuk.com Art Director Shazia Chaudhry shazia@designanthologyuk.com Sub Editor Emily Brooks Commercial Director Rebecca Harkness rebecca@designanthologyuk.com Editorial Concept Design Frankie Yuen, Blackhill Studio Words Charlotte Abrahams, Emily Brooks, Nell Card, Giovanna Dunmall, Philomena Epps, Amy Frearson, John Jervis, Nicola Leigh Stewart, Joe Lloyd, Karine Monié, Alice Morby, Becky Sunshine, Katie Treggiden, Kate Worthington, Kerstin Zumstein Images Ludovic Balay, Sue Barr, Irina Boersma, Helen Cathcart, Serena Eller Vainicher, Rasmus Hjortshøj, Alice Mesguich, Antosh Sergiew, Billal Taright, Clemente Vergara, Geordie Wood Set Design Maya Linhares-Marx

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CONTENTS

Front cover An apartment in Clapton, London, designed by Sella Concept. Image by Clemente Vergara. See p64

Radar

Journey

Products Collections and collaborations of note

Read Delve into a selection of books on design, architecture and interiors

Hotel openings New design-centric destinations to explore across the globe

Restaurant, Nantes Designer and restaurateur Rudy Guénaire’s latest PNY burger joint – a mix of diner and Italian speedboat

Guesthouses Danish design brand Vipp’s surprising side-hustle in the hospitality industry

Sustainability The design world change-makers who are challenging throwaway culture

Profile Lifestyle and interiors brand Ransom & Dunn’s tactile debut collection

Stationery Find your creative flow with objects that bring both beauty and functionality to your desktop

Order restored

DA/UK curates a selection of stationery and other desktop accessories to keep everything in its place. See p40

Home 64

London Sella Concept’s sexy and dramatic remodel of a Clapton duplex

London Grown-up glamour in a Notting Hill townhouse designed by Covet Noir

Paris A poetic, art-filled pied-à-terre in a classic Haussmannian building

Rome Raw concrete meets bespoke furniture, with an experimental approach

CONTENTS

Art + Collecting

Style

108

Diary The most compelling art and design events for the coming months

130

118

Exhibition, Paris American artist Henry Taylor comes to Hauser & Wirth’s new Paris outpost

Architecture 122

Exhibition, London Charles Jencks’ postmodern Cosmic House plays host to the art of friend and collaborator Madelon Vriesendorp

Most wanted A compilation of clothing, tech and accessories that are beautiful, thoughtful and good

Pioneer 136

Liz Diller The American architect whose landmark cultural projects are stages on which people can perform their lives

Signs and symbols The postmodern jacuzzi at London’s Cosmic House, which will show the work of Madelon Vriesendorp this autumn. See p122

Design by Starling Architecture + Emily Lindberg Design Photography by Eric Petschek

Ransom & Dunn’s Foundations collection. Read the full story on p36 Image by Billal Taright

R ADAR Global design news

R ADAR / Products

Audo The result of a merger between two established brands – Menu and by Lassen – Audo is a new Danish design company. Their existing back catalogues will still be on sale – including reissued furniture by mid-20th-century architects Mogens and Flemming Lassen – alongside new pieces, including these ceramic bottle grinders designed by Norm Architects. Heading to Copenhagen? Book a stay at Audo Residence, the brand’s home stay, which is furnished with the pick of its products. audocph.com

Tatjana von Stein velvet and walnut burr, Mise en Scène is inspired by dance, and “blurs the boundaries between precision and expression, movement and stillness, the body and the space it inhabits.” tatjanavonstein.com

Clemente Vergara

Sella Concept’s Tatjana von Stein has founded a new eponymous company for her furniture design. The inaugural Mise en Scène collection features a bar cabinet, sofa, armchair, dining table, coffee table, side tables and a screen (pictured). With its dynamic shapes and luxurious materials such as lacquer, silk

R ADAR / Products

Edits Cleo is a stacking family of chairs by Norwegian designer Stine Aas, available via the Vancouverbased brand Edits, which describes its style as “new-century modern”. The chair (pictured), bar stool and counter-height stool all feature a singlepiece bent-plywood seat and backrest that creates a pleasingly seamless look, with a concealed handle along the back rail to make it easy to lift; finishes include natural ash as well as a range of inviting colour stains such as pine green and tangerine. editsdesign.com

R ADAR / Products

Bodo Sperlein The classic club chair has been reinterpreted in a contemporary style by London-based designer Bodo Sperlein. Mayu is Sperlein’s first upholstered piece – he is better known for furniture in sinuous timber and metal – but the chair shares the same attention to detail and sculptural sensibility, with its wedge-shaped base and curving back (the name Mayu comes from the Japanese work for cocoon). It is upholstered in a tactile Nya Nordiska wool bouclé, which comes in a broad range of colours. bodosperlein.com

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R ADAR / Products

Ebur Le Bruit de La Mer (“the sound of the sea”) is the first homeware collection by Paris-based creative studio Ebur, founded in 2020 by childhood friends Dahlia Hojeij Deleuze and Racha Gutierrez. The collection has its roots in the pair’s elegant interior design projects, with many products starting life as custom-made pieces for their schemes, but it also channels their memories of trips to the seaside in Côte d’Ivoire, where they both grew up. Pictured are the Otto bedside table and Coco lamp. studioebur.com

R ADAR / Products

Gan Giro is a rug that’s three-dimensional in more than one sense: its design looks like a tubular shape that’s been folded and twisted on itself, while the intricate sculpting of its pile only adds to the illusion. The creation of design studio MUT, it was inspired by that classic analogue design toy, the spirograph, and is made by Gan, the wing of Spanish design company Gandia Blasco dedicated to handmade rugs, with each piece hand-tufted in India. It’s available in peach, lilac, or black and white. gan-rugs.com

R ADAR / Products

Layered Celebrated for its unique and intricate grain, and synonymous with the polished luxury of the art deco style, burl poplar has been translated into contemporary design by Layered. The Swedish brand, which sees itself at the intersection of art, fashion and interiors, has released two burl tables, both of which let this beautiful material speak for itself; made in Latvia in a small-scale factory, the tables come in either a sinuous kidney shape with curving legs, or an angular, squatter, square form. layeredinterior.com

Emmanuelle Simon Interior architect and designer Emmanuelle Simon sits at the heart of the contemporary French design scene, and since launching her studio in 2017 she has been building a fine collection of furniture and lighting that has evolved alongside her interiors projects. Her Split and Nativ sofas are now available

in extra-large versions, for a lounging experience par excellence; Nativ (pictured) is encased in a frame of solid brushed oak, while Split sits on an oak pedestal and features embracing curves. emmanuellesimon.com

R ADAR / Products

Larusi Souad Larusi is an expert in Berber tribal textiles, and has put all her knowledge into assembling a 20-piece collection of vintage Tuareg rugs that goes under the name Shifting Sands. Very hardwearing and all one-off designs, they are handmade from woven palm reeds, palm tree fibres and camel or goat leather, in earthy tones that echo their original Saharan setting. The rugs will be on show and on sale in Larusi’s Kentish Town showroom during September’s London Design Festival. larusi.com

R ADAR / Products

Hay Inga Sempé’s 1980s-influenced Matin table lamp has been a favourite in the portfolio of Danish brand Hay since it was first launched in 2019. To celebrate the London Design Festival in September, it’s had a makeover thanks to a design collaboration with Liberty, with its pleated shades available in the storied department store’s floral fabrics, including Cherry Drop (pictured). The lamps will be on display at Liberty during the design festival, before becoming part of Hay’s permanent collection. hay.dk

PARTNER CONTENT / Lusso

Lasting luxury

Lusso uses its design expertise in marble and stone to create a series of momumental tables that make compelling statement pieces

remium British design brand Lusso has expanded its homeware range to include marble coffee tables and side tables. Finely handcrafted from honed or polished marble, the tables are designed to pair with Lusso’s wider collection of homeware including vases, candle holders and even dog bowls. Designer and CEO of Lusso, Wayne Spriggs, says: “I’m pleased to finally launch this highly anticipated range. It uses only the highest grade marble and is meticulously hand finished

to give it complete exclusivity. It includes the Nazzano coffee table, which is larger than the average coffee table, making it a true statement piece for the home – something that I aim for with all of our designs.” Lusso was founded in 2014 and has risen to become one of the market leaders for beautiful bathrooms, furnishings and homeware. Lusso’s collections can be spotted in leading global design destinations, including Claridge’s in London and the Equinox Hotel New York.

Above Lusso’s Azzurra coffee table and side table, made from a solid block of Carrara marble

RADAR / Read

Antonio Citterio Design by Francesco Bonami, Stefano Casciani, Francesca Picchi and Deyan Sudjic (Silvana Editoriale)

The Globemakers: The Curious Story of an Ancient Craft

From seating for B&B Italia to cutlery for Guzzini, the architect and industrial designer Antonio Citterio has shaped our world for the past five decades via the creation of more than 600 products. The exploded components of an office chair on the cover of this monograph could be a visual metaphor for the forensic examination of his output, with Deyan Sudjic, former director of London’s Design Museum, steering the ship as the book’s editor. Looking back on his 50 years as a designer, Citterio says: “It’s been a journey through time and memory, where the heroes are not so much the products or the challenges I encountered, but rather the people with whom I faced those challenges.”

We may no longer need to look at a spherical facsimile of the world to understand our place within it, but they are still coveted objects. Peter Bellerby set up his globe-making business after he couldn’t find a suitably beautiful handmade design for his father’s 80th birthday, stumbling upon a niche market for these bespoke artisan products. A Bellerby & Co globe may be out of your reach, but this book written by Bellerby himself is the next best thing, full of nuggets of information from the worlds of history, art history, astronomy and physics (“globes are a wonderful convergence of the arts and the sciences,” the author writes), alongside lots on the craftsmanship that goes into each piece.

by Peter Bellerby (Bloomsbury)

RADAR / Read

Ronan Bouroullec: Day After Day

Quiet Spaces

Phaidon’s book is “a self-portrait, a journal and a manifesto” documenting the creative life of French designer Ronan Bouroullec, best known for his collaborative work with his brother Erwan but also recognised for his fluid, intuitive drawings. Arranged in chronological order beginning in 2014, rhythmic grids of the designer’s photographs give a sense of how products and artworks develop over time, interspersed with scenes of daily life, from sunlight streaming in a window to a cat lounging on top of a Bouroullecs-designed Samsung TV. With pithy captions only at the back of the book, there’s nothing to get in the way of the reader simply enjoying the ride.

Architect William Smalley has mastered the art of understated luxury, and this book is as visually soothing as the projects themselves. Alongside his own work (including a revived modernist house in south-west London that featured in DA/UK issue 12), Smalley has picked out other interiors with which he feels an affinity, from Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge to Luis Barragan’s home in Mexico City. There’s no single era or style here: the unifying factor is a building or interior’s ability to instil calm, whether through light and shade, craftsmanship or the spaces in-between. Another proponent of atmospheric understatement, potter and writer Edmund de Waal, writes the foreword.

by William Smalley (Thames & Hudson)

by Ronan Bouroullec (Phaidon)

RADAR / Restaurant

Ship to shore

Restaurateur and designer Rudy Guénaire’s latest PNY burger joint may be on dry land, but its interiors are a mix of American diner and Italian speedboat

hen Rudy Guénaire founded the PNY burger chain back in 2012, alongside partner Graffi Rathamohan, he sought to elevate the humble meal from grab-and-go to gourmet, and understood that a key part of doing so would be the spaces he created for diners. It’s not exactly an untrodden path or a unique mission – many have sought to craft the perfect formula that slows down the fastfood experience – but his execution has certainly taken a distinctive approach. “I always try to tell a story,” he says, in reference to the process behind his spaces, which he designs himself (as well as being a restaurateur,

Guénaire is a designer). When speaking about PNY Nantes, he begins to reel off many an oceanic reference: “Nantes has always been connected to the seas and the oceans, and in the past this is where exotic fruits came in to France from South America.” Guénaire appears to really lose himself in another world in order to create a truly immersive space, combining theatrics and craftsmanship but keeping the look within chic dining culture. For this world in particular, his fantasies were based somewhere offshore of the Polynesian islands. How he arrived there, he says, was by an Italian speedboat, which had lost direction

Words Alice Morby Images Ludovic Balay

RADAR / Restaurant

Facing page Leather upholstery and varnished timber were influenced by the aesthetics of a Riva speedboat Right Top to bottom: tiled walls echo the palette of the banquettes’ leather and wood; the staircase recalls the art deco heyday of the ocean liner

and ended up in the turquoise waters. “Nantes has also always been kind of a bourgeois city – a bit conservative,” he adds. “I thought that the story should be about a classy Riva boat that somehow got lost.” This wider narrative floods out across the space – from obvious details to hidden elements. In terms of its layout, the restaurant is bright and open, with space for some diners to sit inside encased modules that have been painted in marine varnish. Blue tiles are paired with wooden panelling inspired by that of a boat deck, while banquette seating follows a waving form that undulates from table to table. Every detail – from coat hangers to chairs – has been designed by Guénaire himself, thus ensuring that the vision remains consistent all the way through. To bring them to life, he has kept it local and collaborated with craftspeople based close to the city. His process is slightly reversed in the sense that it begins by identifying the bigger features, before developing them into a wider idea for the specific interior. “I always start by drawing the big elements before designing the space,” he says. “It started with the booth seat, then the chair, the mirror, then the stairs and the bar. It all then melts into one big element.” Boats and planes remain a regular source of inspiration for the restaurateur – not just aesthetically, but also from the feeling they evoke. “The little cabins are my favourite places on earth; it’s a temporary home that brings you somewhere,” he says. “In the case of PNY, you might be eating inside a temporary home in Nantes, but Guénaire hopes that you’re transported to a wildly different place.

RADAR / Sustainability

If you care, then repair The design world change-makers who are challenging throwaway culture and keeping objects in use

here are a few moments in history to where you can trace the explosion of our single-use society. A New York industry event in 1950, when American clothing retailer B. Earl Puckett announced that “utility cannot be the foundation of a prosperous apparel industry. We must accelerate obsolescence.” Five years later, the cover of Life magazine depicted a family throwing plastic into the air with glee, under the headline “Throwaway Living”. And a comment that was made in 1956 that plastic’s future was “in the garbage can” (requoted in the 1997 book American Plastic: A Cultural History) – referring to the fact its profit lay not in the durability for which it was engineered, but in its disposability. Today, fashion is fast, disposability is the norm and it is often easier to replace than repair. But we are starting to understand that this “takemake-waste” approach is not sustainable on a finite planet. We are running out of raw materials to take from the earth, generating too much carbon, making more and more stuff, and running out of space to safely dispose of our waste. We need to move towards a circular

economy; one in which (as defined by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation) we design out waste and pollution, keep materials and objects in use, and regenerate natural systems. It is just possible that we are witnessing the moments in history at which that is starting to happen. Venice’s Architecture Biennale in May was criticised by Zaha Hadid Architects principal Patrik Schumacher for not showing enough architecture. He drew particular attention to the German Pavilion, which he described as full of “piles of construction material”. But perhaps he missed the point. The event, curated by Lesley Lokko, was lauded by other visitors for being the first major design and architecture event to take on some of the world’s biggest problems. And the German Pavilion? A material bank for Venice repair projects to “keep materials and objects in use”. It’s not only architects who are putting repair at the heart of their thinking. British lighting company Anglepoise now offers a lifetime guarantee on new lamps and a repair service for vintage models. “We have for many years

Words Katie Treggiden

Facing page Clockwise from top left: designer Fernando Laposse (featured in Katie Treggiden’s book, Broken) works with agave fibres left over from the tequila industry; Takt’s Spoke sofa, designed for home repair; at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, the German Pavilion showed the waste generated by the biennale itself

Arch+/Summacumfemmer/Büro Juliane Greb

RADAR / Sustainability

Left Author Katie Treggiden with her 2023 book Broken: Mending and Repair in a Throwaway World

Adam Hillier

Below Anglepoise offers a lifetime guarantee on new lamps and a repair service for vintage models

been sold products that are designed to fail at some point, while also being sold the ridiculous notion that something is better replaced in its entirety than repaired,” says chairman Simon Terry. “The design industry is distracting itself by moving the conversation towards recyclable or recycled materials but, of course, that isn’t enough. It needs to broaden its scope and stop churning out new things for the sake of it.” Danish furniture company Takt is doing just that. Its first sofa, Spoke – launched in June – is designed to be repaired at home. “I hope we are part of a repair movement,” says Takt’s founder and CEO Henrik Taudorf Lorensen. “Besides the environmental benefits of extending the lifespan of products, our customers have become emotionally attached to the furniture that they have repaired.” When people repair their own objects, whether it’s a sofa, a lamp or the knee of a child’s trouser leg, they don’t only increase the functional and emotional durability of that object, they also reclaim their own power. They start to ask questions about a system that has such little respect for the finite materials we have taken out of the earth and the labour that has shaped them into the objects we use every day. Lebanese-British artist Aya Haidar creates installations that highlight the hidden labour of care and repair. “The personal agency that comes with repair goes against consumerism and represents a challenge to a broken system,” she says. “If there’s going to be any sustainable long-term change, everyone needs to take into account this responsibility and negotiate a bit of personal agency for themselves.” Perhaps that’s why repair is really important. It represents not only one practical solution to the environmental crisis, but a shift in mindset, a growing desire to challenge the systems that make fashion fast, disposability the norm and a broken object easier to replace than repair. I really hope we will look back on moments like the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale as more than “piles of construction material” but as a physical marker of the moment when the circular economy really started to gather pace.

RADAR / Profile

New classics

Lifestyle and interiors brand Ransom & Dunn’s debut collection captures a mood of simplicity and sensuality

Words Kate Worthington Images Billal Taright

Facing page Ransom & Dunn’s tactile Foundations collection includes vases and planters inspired by the drapery of Ancient Roman statuary

or Julia Ransom and Johanna Dunn, the powerhouses behind the newly launched interiors brand Ransom & Dunn, working together has been a long time coming. “We met over a decade ago, then about five years ago we had an initial conversation about doing something together,” says Ransom. “We hadn’t figured out what that was, but we knew it was primarily design.” Both Americans now based in the UK, they’d orbited in the same circles in New York and London before their apparent like-mindedness and shared sense of style drew them together. A mission to build an interiors brand with a distinctive point of view was soon formed. “There’s a lot already out there. But part of what brought us together was the fact that we didn’t feel like anyone was speaking to us,” says Dunn. Fast-forward to spring 2023 and the release of Foundations, their debut collection, and it’s clear their partnership is a fruitful one – and most definitely worth the wait. Conceived while the pair were in the Cyclades and Dodecanese during the summer of 2019, the 28-piece collection is instilled with the rough and smooth textures of rock formations

and sandy tones of the islands, alongside references to Ancient Greek and Roman architecture and sculpture. There are the curvaceous and colossal Venus floor lamps, inspired by the female form and made from tactile eco resin; the Cloak series of ceramic vessels, which call to mind draped fabric; the pebble-like Petra marble coffee tables, with their organic, sea-polished shape, and the lacquered Roman Column bar, perhaps the piece most directly influenced by neoclassicism, with its fluted detailing (and the biggest hit of the launch, according to the founders). Far from falling into pastiche territory however, it’s a capsule of timeless pieces that would sit as happily among already-owned objects as it does as an ensemble. “We want to create iconic pieces that can transcend architectural styles,” says Dunn, with Ransom adding that “a lot of the pieces we’ve been looking at and living with for years now, because we designed them a while ago – and we still love them.” “Sensual”, “tactile”, “memorable” and “luxury” are among the watchwords of Ransom and Dunn’s design philosophy, which they liken to both the way they dress and furnish their homes. “We felt like there wasn’t a go-to brand

RADAR / Profile

Facing page Ransom & Dunn’s Livon chair, Arc mirror and Femme candlestick

for simple, bold pieces where you trust everything it’s doing. Like those fashion brands where you know that you’re going to like 95 per cent of the collection,” says Ransom. With backgrounds in finance, retail and fashion, the pair have drawn on their decades of experience in those sectors. Even so, finding that sweet spot between the mass market at one end of the spectrum and the gallery market at the other has been a learning curve, says Dunn. “Originally, the things I was really pushing for were commercial, because that’s my background, right? But the things that have had really great responses are way more editorial, sculptural, or that have stood out. It’s

been amazing to see – people actually do respond to things that are unique.” With Foundations under their belts, Ransom and Dunn are already turning their attention to other areas of the home, such as the bedroom, dining space and beyond. Ransom says, “I can see us doing loungewear, or scented candles in a beautiful ceramic pot,” while Dunn adds, “…or experiential spaces, we would love that. How do you continue to experience a brand in a really considered way that makes sense? That’s what we’re super excited about. Everything will come when it’s meant to, but if we could do it all now, we probably would.”

Portrait: Marie Peinert

Above Julia Ransom (left) and Johanna Dunn (right) in a supersized Sparta armchair

Clockwise from left: letter knife, Present & Correct (presentandcorrect. com); glass tray, Not Another Bill (notanotherbill.com); pencil sharpener, Present & Correct (as before); erasers, Present & Correct (as before)

Order restored

Find your creative flow with objects that bring both beauty and functionality to your desktop Images / Antosh Sergiew Set design / Maya Linhares-Marx

Facing page Clockwise from left: pencil pot, Labour and Wait (labourandwait.co.uk); wooden ruler, Hay at Bird on the Wire (botw.fr); Circle scissors and pencils, Present & Correct (as before); Hand paperweight, Carl Auböck at Abask (abask.com); storage box, Case (casefurniture. com); Corner Clips, Present & Correct (as before)

Above Clockwise from top: brass tray, Futagami at Abask (as before); pencils, Present & Correct (as before); month notebook, Present & Correct (as before); pocket fountain pen, Labour and Wait (as before)

Above Clockwise from top left: Kepler pen, Craighill at Not Another Bill (as before); aluminium pencil sharpener, Labour and Wait (as before); Flatlay Steps notebook, Present & Correct (as before); pen tray, Present & Correct (as before); mechanical pencil, Labour and Wait (as before); ruler, Not Another Bill (as before)

Facing page Clockwise from top left: set square, Not Another Bill (as before); caliper, Not Another Bill (as before); mechanical pencil, Labour and Wait (as before); protractor, Not Another Bill (as before); eraser, Present & Correct (as before); Koryu ikebana flower scissors, Banshu Hamono at Abask (as before)

Vipp Shelter, Sweden. Read the full story on p58 Image by Rasmus Hjortshøj

JOURNEY Distinctive destinations

JOURNEY / Openings

New hotels

Unique places to stay, in destinations of note

JOURNEY / Openings

Bellustar Tokyo, Japan Sitting at a dizzying height in Shinjuku’s Tokyu Kabukicho Tower, this new collection of five penthouses at Bellustar Tokyo offer a tranquil space far from the buzz of the city below. Japanese studio Keiji Ashizawa Design worked with Copenhagenbased Norm Architects, bringing their individual philosophies together to blend traditional Japanese culture with an ultra-minimalist yet warm aesthetic. A restrained colour and materials palette of dark grey, timber and brick offers a retreat from the bright lights of the city and provides a shadowy contrast to light and airy spaces dressed in neutrals and natural wood, designed to boost calm and wellbeing in the metropolis. panpacific.com

JOURNEY / Openings

Palazzi Maritati e Muci, Italy pieces curated by Martin’s wife Katherina Marx and Jérôme Faillant-Dumas, former art director for Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. The finishing touch is an eclectic mix of artworks from Martin and Marx’s personal collection, ranging in style from Charles Garnier to Man Ray. maritatiemuci.com

Michel Figuet; Edouard Sanville

After being charmed by the palaces of Palazzi Maritati e Muci during a trip to the Puglian town of Nardò, French Michelin-star chef Guy Martin has reopened the historic properties as one singular intimate guest house. Italian artisans were tasked with preserving original features such as vaulted ceilings and pastel-coloured frescoes, creating a dramatic backdrop for the contemporary design

JOURNEY / Openings

Tuba Club, France Designer Marion Mailaender has returned to hip Marseille hotel Tuba Club, which first opened its doors in 2020, to transform the private apartment sitting above into three brand new suites. A simple creamy colour palette and layers of natural wood take on the golden hue of the city’s sun-drenched light and frame enormous windows that look across the endless blue of the Mediterranean. Inspired by

the water beyond, Mailaender has played around with nautical references, from strings of colourful buoys to the living room’s clear coffee table containing ancient clay octopus traps. Up on the new rooftop terrace, the gingham-clad armchairs are a nod to beach queen Brigitte Bardot. tuba-club.com

JOURNEY / Openings

Le Grand Mazarin, France mish-mash of colours and furnishings – think salmon pink and sage green paired with sky blue curtains and patchwork throws – while the traditional tapestries that crown the head of each bed are juxtaposed with leopard-print-clad chairs at the foot, finished with vintage-style peplums. legrandmazarin.com

Vincent Laroux

Hotel group Maisons Pariente gave London-based designer Martin Brudnizki free reign to let his imagination run wild when creating its first ever city address in Paris. Inspired by Parisian literary salons, Brudnizki has created some sumptuous and flamboyant interiors that put a contemporary riff on the aristocratic style of the Grand Siècle. The rooms and suites are uniquely decorated with a winning

To those who strive for new horizons occhio.com

Mr Tripper

JOURNEY / Openings

All low res

Cowley Manor Experimental, UK French hospitality group Experimental and interior designer Dorothée Meilichzon have joined creative forces once again to transform this 17th-century manor house in the Cotswolds. The property was reportedly a source of inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and so Meilichzon naturally looked to the classic novel when reimagining the 31 guest rooms. Maple-clad walls and a bold colour palette set the scene for grand four-poster beds, a playful mix of coloured textiles and rattan furniture and checkerboard accents. A spa, restaurant and cocktail bar provide the entertainment, or guests can lose themselves in the Wonderland of the hotel’s 19th-century gardens. cowleymanorexperimental.com

JOURNEY / Openings

Hotel Julie, Canada An eclectic mish-mash of colour and print puts a playful spin on this former 18th-century inn turned boutique bolthole in Stratford, Ontario, two hours west of Toronto. Floral wallpapers, checkerboard tiling and jewel-coloured fabrics create a rich yet playful backdrop for the nine individually designed apartments, all of which come fully equipped with kitchens, lounge areas and luxe marble bathrooms.

Furnishings come in the form of contemporary design pieces and vintage finds – note the bespoke burl tables, creamy bouclé armchairs and 1960s velvet-clad sofa – while the king-sized beds with oversized rounded headboards and a heart-shaped bath are some of the fun final touches. hoteljulie.com

PARTNER CONTENT / 20 Berkeley

Homegrown hospitality

At 20 Berkeley, British cuisine and design merge to create a homely Mayfair dining venue that draws on its location’s once-rural roots

In reality, this space was previously an office and the staircase is the only remaining original feature. The rest is down to some bespoke placemaking by interior design studio Pirajean Lees. Co-founder Clémence Pirajean says she wanted to draw from the area’s history to create an authentically British space, rather than be novelty-focused (like some of its neighbours): “Our vision was to create a sense of understated luxury, taking cues from a typical Georgian home in Mayfair,” she explains. The design narrative is based around the materials – from timber to hand-pressed tiles – all sourced and crafted in Britain, thus connecting the interiors to the philosophy of executive chef Ben Orpwood (ex Gordon Ramsay Group and Maison Estelle), which is to provide a holistic experience of homegrown hospitality. The hand-crafted finishes weave a rich tapestry of British design, from the wood panelling and polished dining tables to the stained-glass windows, which were made in north London. “We took inspiration from the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century, choosing materials that age beautifully and, much like a good wine, get better over time” says Pirajean. Fireplaces add to the warming ambience of the rooms. Slanted mirror columns and decorative details offer new vistas and stories to discover, depending on where you sit. “As if you were in

Polly Tootal

hen you stand at the corner of London’s Hay Hill and Berkeley Street, just off the famed Berkeley Square, it’s hard to imagine that this was once the border of the city and the countryside. A rural setting with livestock markets has, over time, transformed into the heart of the capital’s luxury dining scene. And yet, when you enter 20 Berkeley, Creative Restaurant Group’s latest opening, it feels like an elegant home that has always been here.

someone’s private house, we wanted the space to feel lived-in and intimate,” Pirajean adds. The pantry at the back of the first floor, for instance, is an open space with handmade pickle jars on display, to evoke the sense that guests have happened upon someone’s kitchen. Downstairs, in the Nipperkin bar, bottles are labelled with handwritten notes and the dropheight cocktail counter welcomes guests to casually mingle; while the private dining room is an exclusive retreat for 14 guests to indulge in the hyper-seasonal menu. 20 Berkeley invites London to reconnect with what once defined this corner of the world: locally farmed produce and architectural elegance.

Above Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, design studio Pirajean Lees specified materials that feel homely and will age well over time

JOURNEY / Guesthouse

Side hustle

How Danish design firm Vipp accidentally evolved into a niche hospitality brand

nce upon a time, Kasper Egelund’s grandmother needed a practical bin for her hair salon. Dissatisfied with the ones available, her husband designed and created the pedal bin and so Vipp was born. This family-run Danish business, now in its third generation, operates on the premise of only designing – whether homeware, furniture or kitchens – what you yourself would want. And so, in 2014, Vipp CEO Egelund found himself wanting a place to escape from the hectic pace of city living and the daily grind. “A bit like Apollo landing on the moon, I wanted to create a tiny house you could buy, assemble and drop in a remote setting of choice. So, we designed the Vipp Shelter, but it failed.” It failed in as much as it didn’t sell. It succeeded, however, in generating interest from design lovers worldwide – from Japan to South Korea, the US and UK – who were keen to rent the space for a short stay, effectively evolving the company into a hospitality venture. Now, Vipp has six guesthouses, the latest launching this spring in Andorra as the first outside of Scandinavia, with a seventh to follow later in the year. Each property is unique, fitted out with Vipp products while united by a homely aesthetic. These tiny houses range from five-star camping in a Swedish forest to the upcoming Vipp Beach House in Denmark’s largest national park, Thy (dubbed “cold Hawaii” for its similar, if chillier, wind conditions, making it popular with surfers). Casa Vipp in Andorra is special because the impetus came from Vipp’s local partner, Bau Studio. Owners D. Gaspar Saludes and Sandra Riera approached the team with the idea of turning an old stone house that once stored grains into a Vipp house. Together with designer Julie Cloos Mølsgaard, they created a home with a calm, neutral interior to allow the

architecture of the building to breathe. With round porthole windows, high ceilings and original wooden beams, the space is surrounded by mountains, ideal for skiing and hiking. Yet, it’s the little details that bring the charm, from regional clay pots and pans to a tagine from Saludes’ parents; each item lends a lived-in feeling while connecting to the local life.

Words Kerstin Zumstein Images Irina Boersma/ Rasmus Hjortshøj

For Mølsgaard, it’s about creating memorable experiences, like standing under the beautiful ceiling brushing your teeth after a day of skiing, with the Vipp bath module contrasting and complementing the original wooden features with high-end industrial design. With Iceland, Tasmania and upstate New York on the horizon, this venture has turned Egelund’s pipe dream into a new rendition of the brand. So, is Vipp now a hospitality brand? “We don’t want to be put in a box,” says Egelund. “Yes, we’ve moved into hospitality, and design remains at the core of our products, but the key is that we do things differently. These aren’t hotels, they’re highly curated guesthouses. Personally, I see them as a supplement to other travel accommodation.” Living alongside Vipp products in these mini-hotels has also afforded a level of feedback that in turn is influencing product development, inspiring new colour schemes and design progression. For Egelund, it’s about having fun, being bold and proud of what you produce. And what would his late grandfather make of it? “It would be such fun to have a day with him, to show him what Vipp has become. He would love it, I’m sure. But in all honesty, we may not have achieved this move with him here…he may have questioned the viability of this venture. My mother is the visionary – she’s the one who is always keen to try things out.” With such an open-minded approach, there’s no telling what Vipp might do next.

Facing page Casa Vipp, Andorra, based in a traditional stone building in the Pyrenees

“We don’t want to be put in a box. Yes, we’ve moved into hospitality, and design remains at the core of our products, but the key is that we do things differently”

Above On the shores of Sweden’s Lake Immeln, Vipp Shelter started off as a product idea: a small, easy-toassemble building that could be dropped into a remote location

Facing page Vipp Shelter failed as a business idea – but spawned a series of guesthouses, where visitors can live amid Vipp’s products, from kitchens to lighting and furniture

Sophie Kitching Nocturne XII, 2023 Oil & Pastel on Canvas 100 x 81cm

www.thefinchproject.com

An apartment in Rome by Studiotamat. Read the full story on p96 Image by Serena Eller Vainicher

HOME Timeless spaces

Drama class

Sella Concept borrows from some of the theatrics of hospitality design to remodel an east London duplex Words / Becky Sunshine Images / Clemente Vergara

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“I

like walking into a space and not getting it straight away,” says Tatjana von Stein, creative director and co-founder of the London-based design studio Sella Concept. “When you layer a space, you create a sense of discovery and that’s interesting to me. This project is 100 per cent aesthetically where I want to be.” French-born von Stein is referring to the 145 sqm duplex penthouse in east London she completed in April for a Spanish graphic designer and her boyfriend, who live between London and Ibiza. “The client is a friend,” she explains. “She’s wonderfully creative and because we’ve been friends for a while there’s a synergy with our aesthetic. She was very keen for me to tap into the theatrical flair I would normally apply to a hospitality project.” The duplex is certainly full of flair. What was a plain white box inside a timber-clad new build in London’s Clapton is now a rich, textural and fantastically sexy home. Previously containing three bedrooms, the apartment has been reconfigured by von Stein to incorporate a sumptuous principal bedroom with ensuite on the lower level along with a study that doubles up as a guest room and a compact utility room. Up the internal stairs is an expansive lightfilled open-plan living room and kitchen, and having extended over a small balcony to the back of the building there is now a dining

room, too. A full aspect of glazing and a balcony with views over east London floods the upper space with natural light. Von Stein’s client didn’t burden her with much of a brief, but instead they established a vibe, and the rest was left to the designer. “It was a quick understanding it would be playful, indulgent, and hopefully also elegant,” she says. “It was never going to be a cream space. I knew she was happy to take risks, so I was happy to have fun with that. I decided to take some of her Mediterranean culture – details such as the plaster walls and rusty colours – and then mix that with something more dramatic by introducing colour, textures and pattern.” With a collection of hospitality projects in Sella Concept’s portfolio, including a new members’ club in Majorca, a hotel in Zurich and numerous retail spaces and restaurants in London, von Stein is adept at exploring tempo and creating a feeling of being transported by an interior: “I’m always focused on the way we move through spaces,” she says. The entrance to the penthouse was compact and without much natural light, so the choice was either to brighten it up or embrace the moodiness. “We decided to play with that and create something really indulgent,” explains von Stein. “There was an awful little staircase, so I created these beautiful cherry timber walls and banister, and added a leopard print carpet with reddish

Previous page In the terracotta kitchen, skirted cabinets soften the stone worktops and island Facing page A small balcony has been extended over to create the dining room, which is papered in Thibaut’s Ming Trail wallpaper

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“It was never going to be a cream space. I knew my client was happy to take risks, so I was happy to have fun with that”

walls.” Unexpected colour combinations are also von Stein’s forte so here she added lime green curtains and a vintage Murano light to disguise access to the utility space. “As you head into the main bedroom you want it to be light and Zen and peaceful, so we worked with yellows and a lot of soft textures,” she continues. That included extending the pile carpeting from the floor to create a bespoke carpeted bed that dominates the space. Golden curtains envelop the room, and the glamorous integrated wardrobes are finished with Elitis silk panelling. Everything has a tactile quality. “Integrated furniture is so useful when you don’t have large rooms,” says von Stein. “The space needed fabulous floor lamps and beautiful vintage bamboo pieces too.” The ensuite, by contrast, features maximalist chinoiserie wallpaper by MindTheGap and a vintage marble washstand. The guest room offers rustier tones with a peachy finish; to tie it to the rest of the apartment, it has the same leopard print carpet running through. “I also designed a high gloss lacquered desk/library space. There’s a beautiful sofa in there that becomes a bed. The whole thing really is the couple’s haven,” says von Stein. Upstairs feels more like the party zone, with a 1970s louche feel to the mix of materials here:

cherry wood parquet flooring, an oversized B&B Italia sofa, an art deco fireplace and vintage Punjabi armchairs. A bar is a key component in most Sella Concept interiors and the marble-topped one here is disguised in an integrated cupboard. “I really love juxtapositions between materials,” says von Stein. “I’ve mixed stainless steel in the kitchen with the richness of marble and the traditional feeling of striped fabric curtains over the cabinets. The colour palette is deeper up here, which I think works because there’s so much natural light.” Creating apertures is also a device von Stein loves to work with and here she’s cut out a circle to connect the kitchen with the new dining room – formerly a narrow outdoor terrace. Through the aperture, there are glimpses of the green fretwork wallpaper by Thibaut (“I love the green wallpaper – it feels like the connection to the outdoors,” says von Stein) and a vintage Hermès floor lamp. What ties together these materials and palette, and therefore the whole space, is a feeling of relaxed glamour, a sense of it being slightly outrageous but still with an easy-to-understand flow. “I like to think my work is somewhere between indulgent and modernist, which are such opposites, but it’s simple geography juxtaposed with the choice of materials and then hero pieces that make a space a bit sexy, a bit theatrical,” says von Stein. It works perfectly.

Previous page The upstairs living room, with a pair of Punjabi armchairs, and storage to either side of the art deco fireplace Facing page Cherry wood parquet flooring and B&B Italia’s Camaleonda sofa help create a louche, 1970s feel

“The client is wonderfully creative and she was very keen for me to tap into the theatrical flair I would normally apply to a hospitality project”

Above Left to right: leopard-print carpet and cherry wood panelling create a glamorous staircase; the living room’s hidden illuminated bar

Facing page Lacquered shelving in the guest bedroom, also used as a study

Above The sumptuous principal bedroom on the lower level, featuring a carpeted bespoke bed and curtained walls

Facing page Maximalist wallpaper by MindTheGap and a vintage marble washstand in the contrasting ensuite bathroom

Different character

A dated London townhouse gets its groove back, thanks to an elegant remodel by Covet Noir Words / Charlotte Abrahams Images / Helen Cathcart

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ometimes setbacks can lead to something beautiful. When London-based interior design practice Covet Noir began work on this five-storey Victorian townhouse in Notting Hill, the clients were keen to have black floors throughout, in keeping with the membersclub-meets-family-home vibe that they were seeking. However, Covet Noir’s founders, Maria Lindgren and Adele Lonergan, were not convinced. “We felt that black floors, while elegant, would have been a bit overwhelming in this narrow house,” says Lonergan. The clients wouldn’t consider anything pale, so an impasse loomed; then the pandemic struck and work stopped. By the time the world reopened, the perfect solution had been found. “We came up with smoky chocolate,” says Lonergan. “It’s dark enough for the client but not too dark for the house because it allows the grain in the timber to come through, and it’s laid in a herringbone pattern so it catches the light.” Running through every room, this beautiful, brown-toned floor sets the base palette for the house. Some designers might have gone for contrast with statement colours and blocks of vibrant pattern, but Covet Noir’s approach to colour is subtle and rooted in shades found in the earth. Interest and atmosphere are created instead with materials and layers of texture. In this project, the kitchen countertops are formed from calacatta borghini marble, which

has almost-gold veining; the large Moon dining table by Gubi is made from solid oak; bespoke sofas are upholstered in dappled velvets – Desert Palm from Mark Alexander in the reception room, Kirkby Design’s Faze in the family living room – and everywhere from the ironmongery to the bathroom brassware and lighting, there are aged bronze details. The result is warm, inviting and quietly glamorous – an aesthetic Covet Noir sums up as “liveable luxury”. This sense of luxe glamour was important: the homeowners like to entertain and wanted to recreate the sense of a chic, urban club, so Lindgren and Lonergan completely remodelled the ground floor, creating a grand entrance hall and elegant double reception. “The original features had been completely stripped out in the hall,” Lonergan says, “so we put them all back – the moulded arch, the plaster corbels, the cornicing. We added a balustrade to the staircase too. These features add a lovely level of decorative detail and we believe that it’s important to honour the original architecture of a building – if you’re living in a period home, then it should have period detail.” In the reception room, they turned what had been a featureless kitchen-diner into a flexible and sophisticated social space. “The clients wanted two separate areas that would also be

Previous page In the basement, Covet Noir has turned a warren of rooms into a kitchen-dining area and adjacent family-friendly living space Facing page A palette of rich, earthy tones has been used to unify spaces across five floors of the house

“We believe that it’s important to honour the original architecture of a building – if you’re living in a period home, then it should have period detail”

Facing page The main reception room – which previously housed the kitchen – is now a calm space for entertaining

Above Left to right: A shallow-profiled black marble fireplace in the main reception room; once-lost period architectural details in the hallway have now been reinstated

HOME / London

able to work together when they had more guests,” Lonergan explains. At one end, a nero marquina marble fireplace – chosen for its space-saving shallow profile – and a pair of black leather vintage armchairs have been paired with parchment-toned curtains and Gubi’s travertine Epic coffee table, while at the other a bespoke bar and cocktail unit marks out a more intimate conversation zone. The sense of grown-up glamour continues upstairs on the first floor. Home to the master suite, the mood here is subtly softer and more tactile; Stereo Interiors’ slubby woven silk Lafayette wallcovering in off-white wraps the walls, Andrew Martin’s shagreen side tables frame the bed and the vintage velvet curtains are mottled and textured with age. Pocket doors lead to a bathroom made to be enjoyed, where every detail has been considered for both its functional and aesthetic pleasure. There is a double shower and a large double vanity unit, an essential for life and a happy marriage, according to Lonergan. There’s a proper window treatment too. “Bathrooms can feel very stale if you don’t dress the window,” continues Lonergan, “so we have used the same sheer fabric as in the bedroom to create softness, privacy and continuity.” The lower-ground floor is where family life happens (the couple have a young son, Leo).

Covet Noir has transformed what was a rabbit warren of awkward rooms into a light-filled, kitchen-dining space that leads out to a sunny courtyard garden at one end, and, at the opposite end, on to a family room with a bespoke L-shaped sofa large enough for them all to curl up on. This room contains the only pattern in the house – an abstract, textural design reminiscent of cork by Zinc Textile called Grimaldi, which covers the ottoman. “This room takes the brunt of family life,” Lonergan says, “so the pattern was a nod to that. All the other fabrics in here are removable so they can be washed. We want to create spaces which have longevity, and that means understanding both how the client lives now and how they will live in the future. We need to think about how things will last. Design is a very practical job when you get down to it.” Function might have led the way in these hardworking rooms, but they are every bit as elegant and beautiful as the sociable reception room and the private master suite above. They also share the same subtle colour palette and material details. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t surprises to be found. “It’s all in the detail in this house, in the common threads that pull through,” says Lonergan, “and the longer you spend in each room, the more you notice those threads.” With this kind of attention to every element, it’s no wonder that the homeowners plan to stay here for the long term.

Facing page Dark, chocolatecoloured timber floors tie the whole house together, laid in a herringbone pattern that catches the light

Above The master bathroom, with its double vanity unit – a marriagesaver, according to the designers – and a compact, curtained bath

Facing page Vintage velvet curtains sum up the serene sophistication that the homeowners wanted; the walls are covered in an off-white silk

Intimate detail

Batiik Studio transforms a Parisian apartment into a poetic, art-filled pied-à-terre for a young expatriate family Words / Karine Monié Images / Alice Mesguich

HOME / Paris

Previous page Agnès Debizet’s pock-marked ceramic chair stands out in a living room full of objects that blur the lines between art and design Facing page The dining area plays with curvy forms, from the bespoke table to the pendants

rchitect Rebecca Benichou launched her practice, Batiik Studio, in Paris in 2014. After a few years of working on her own, Florence Jallet came on board in 2018 as a partner. Perfectly complementing one another, the two women are both influenced by their Mediterranean origins, which are subtly woven into their work. The studio’s projects are characterised by a balance of forms, bold colours and the strong desire to tell a story – and their new project honours this approach.

now a row of structural columns that have been elegantly in-filled with timber shelving.

Located in Paris’ 3rd arrondissement, in a lively neighbourhood that has a plethora of boutiques and restaurants, the apartment sits within one of the capital’s typical Haussmann cut-stone buildings, which dates back to 1860. Owned by a couple of expatriates who mainly live in Amsterdam with their daughter, the pied-àterre features many elements that have been made to measure by Batiik Studio; artistic curation came courtesy of a collaboration with the nearby Maestria gallery.

“The homeowners wanted a lot of natural materials, so we used wood, stone and marble,” says Benichou. “We chose soft, warm and enveloping tones such as beige and terracotta, with a few green accents.”

Even though this 85 sqm, two-bedroom home had plenty of potential, highlighting the soul of the place and revealing all its beauty was a challenge. “It had a beautiful aura and was bathed in light so we instantly knew that we could design a home with character. But it was very compartmentalised, with a load-bearing wall that separated two areas of the main living space,” says Benichou. The pair worked on reorganising everything to create an entrance with a laundry room and to integrate the structural changes: instead of the wall, there is

At the entrance, a round black painting sourced from Parisian gallery Amélie Maison d’Art adorns the wall, sitting above a stool by Léa Zeroil, complemented by a stoneware wall light by Lisa Allegra from Chiara Colombini on the other side. Beyond, an Arsène Welkin painting introduces some colour and leads the eye into the rest of the apartment.

The team at Batiik Studio decided to sand the front walls to recover the existing cut stone. In the open kitchen, the marble island has become a standout, one-of-kind piece in the centre of the room. The charming dining area plays with amorphous shapes, and is furnished with Cloud chairs by Emma Donnersberg (sourced from Galerie Gosserez), in harmony with the Cloud lighting fixtures by JMW Studio. The green hues from the Atelier Wanc artwork on the wall (from Maestria) are picked up in the colour of the top of the bespoke table, which hosts a vase by Camille Romagnani. “We used the wood and stone as sculptural shapes to create rhythm, like the rounded wood form in the kitchen and the geometric motif of the Paloma stone inlay in the dining

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“We chose soft, warm and enveloping tones such as beige and terracotta, with a few green accents”

room,” says Jallet. The travertine bathroom has been designed in the same spirit, where the zig-zagging stone surround of the ceramic bath turns it a sculptural piece. A ceramic vase by Héloïse Piraud sits on the corner of the bath, while a painting of a nude by Rosanna Lefeuvre (from Maestria) hangs above; an unglazed stoneware piece (Crescent, by Dutch ceramicist Luna Mara, from Volume Ceramics) rests next to the basin, contributing to the peaceful, almost meditative ambience. “We drew a lot of inspiration from Jean Touret’s wood craftsmanship and Brancusi’s poetic forms,” says Benichou. Batiik Studio also carefully chose all the fabrics, ensuring a cohesion with the rest of the materials that have been used, and pursuing the idea of a “simple yet inviting atmosphere that gives the feeling of being in a special place”. The palette evolves toward red in the living room, where Batiik Studio’s large sofa dialogues with a textile artwork by Rosanna Lefeuvre, La Fenêtre (another work from Maestria), placed above. On top of the highly textured Agnès Studio rug sits a Boon Room coffee table by Middernacht & Alexander, constructed from recycled diesel tanks. A ceramic chair by Agnès Debizet, the Composition Linéaire totem by Jessica Boubetra (from Galerie Yves Gastou), the Soleil artwork by Marguerite Piard (from Maestria) and the Allegra wall lamps from Danke Galerie give even more life to this very personal and artistic atmosphere here.

In the main bedroom – where Batiik Studio remade the curtain three times to fulfil the homeowners’ wish to sleep in total darkness – an office area with a bespoke desk and a Gropius CS1 chair by Noom, makes practical use of one corner. Idiosyncratic lighting draws the eye into this area of the room: above the desk, the Wrap Pin pendant by SkLO features a tangled length of glass tubing, while on it is a Jewel table lamp by Kalou Dubus, made from semi-precious stone embedded in concrete. A large painting by Manoela Medeiros (from Double V Gallery) faces the bed. Above the Elitis fabric of the custom-made headboard in the main bedroom, two Ostro wall lights – comprising a ceramic shell in marble with a glass globe – by Simone & Marcel on the left visually respond to the small Arsène Welkin painting on the right. On the New Wave bedside table by Lukas Cober (from Galerie Gosserez), a Volcan Couleurs Du Ciel 1 vase by Camille Romagnani adds an unexpected touch. “We wanted to create a dialogue between different eras and evoke a 1970s spirit in an apartment with Haussmann references and a mixed decoration,” says Jallet; both she and Benichou strove to reflect a poetic landscape with “a minimalist spirit and in search of softness”. With all details considered, this inviting Parisian apartment discreetly reveals its grandeur in a quiet visual symphony where everything magically falls into place.

Facing page Batiik Studio reconfigured the layout to create the new hallway; the green stool is by Léa Zeroil

Above In the master bedroom, the vanity/desk area features a Gropius CS1 chair by young Ukrainian brand Noom

Facing page Fluted panelling and a pair of Ostro wall lights by Simone & Marcel offset the symmetry of the master bedroom

Facing page The zig-zag travertine bath surround brings a monumental, sculptural quality to the bathroom. The ceramic vase in the corner is by Héloïse Piraud

Above A travertine basin complements the bath. Batiik Studio’s palette of creamy neutrals and green accents runs all the way through the apartment

Experiments in living

Raw concrete meets unique bespoke furniture in a Rome apartment Words / Giovanna Dunmall Images / Serena Eller Vainicher

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lawyer couple living in Rome came to interior architecture practice Studiotamat with a question: could they turn a 1980s brutalist inspired apartment they had acquired in a southern suburb of the city into an insidemeets-outside haven filled with natural materials? After years of living in cramped spaces in the city centre, the homeowners, who are originally from Sicily, were looking for space, light and solid, real materials that didn’t have to look perfect. They were also looking for easy access to both the city and nature. It helped that the apartment had large windows, overlooked an expansive nature reserve and benefitted from “a very special kind of light,” says Tommaso Amato, the co-founder of Studiotamat, alongside Matteo Soddu and Valentina Paiola. As a studio they often use a lot of colour and a variety of different materials to design spaces that reflect their clients’ tastes and predilections. However, as Amato explains, in this minimalist maritime-inspired home, colour was less important than texture, tactility, craftsmanship and experimentation. The craftsmanship is undoubtedly the most striking thing about Casa Rude, named after the word for rough or raw – the Italian equivalent of the French “brut” that gave us brutalism. And this craftsmanship comes in many forms, not all of them immediately obvious. It’s in the way the smooth resincoated concrete flooring and skim-coated walls and ceilings (lightened with recycled glass microspheres) contrast with the rough texture of the exposed concrete pillars, from which all traces of paint and plaster have been carefully removed. It’s in the bespoke rust-red sofas that have been carefully fitted into purpose-built masonry work so that they are unique and unrepeatable. And it’s also in the beautifully expressive marble splashback (which has a certain resemblance to an explorer’s map) and worktop, and the long oval-shaped kitchen

island, clad in handmade terracotta tiles in three subtly different hues. “The island looks like it was simple to do but it really wasn’t,” laughs Amato. This could be the refrain of the whole project, which has a calming simplicity to it but also contains some genuine experimentation and innovation. “For us, experimenting means making entirely new and unique pieces of furniture that are basically prototypes,” explains Amato. One such piece is the slightly surreal and sculptural dining table with its hefty cylindrical ceramic leg in vibrant red, sister leg composed of raw criss-crossed metal sheets and a tabletop made of burnt wood. Another is the birch bookshelf-cum-desk, which stands on a wheel

Above A steel-mesh door leads into the kitchen area Facing page Concrete features have been stripped back to their rough, raw state Previous page The terracotta-tiled kitchen island and sculptural table are two of the apartment’s many bespoke pieces

HOME / Rome

at one end that allows it to be moved along to one side of the room. “The wheel is made in lacquered wood and the desk runs along a hidden track inside the bookshelf,” explains Amato. “We used a system used in industrial machinery that helps it turn more fluidly.” The thing about experimenting, says Amato, is that it takes time. “Our carpenter had never used the Japanese shou sugi ban burning technique for timber, for example, so we got through a lot of wood before we got the right effect.” Perhaps the most eye-catching object or prototype in this 120 sqm home is a handmade birch cube that stands in the living and kitchen area. Initially conceived as a larder and somewhere for kitchen and cleaning appliances, it became more and more multifunctional as the project progressed. “One side of it is for books and a TV that can be hidden away when visitors come, as you can see it as soon as you come in,” says Amato. “At the back it is a space for coats, jackets and shoes and adjacent to the kitchen it is a pantry and utility room.” Less obviously striking but even more complex to make was the walnut structure in the main bedroom that houses a freestanding marble basin at its heart and contains two sliding fluted glass doors (one that goes behind and one in front of the basin) that can close off the main bathroom and hallway. The apartment is unusual in that it is located in a stepped 1980s block, built against a hill: “When you come into the main entrance you take the lift down, not up,” says Amato. More importantly, it’s a 20-minute drive from the sea and a similar journey to the city centre, and overlooks a vast nature reserve, Castelporziano, that links the city with the coast. “The idea of connecting the interior of the apartment with the nature in the park was fundamental,” says Amato – as was making the most of the 40 sqm terrace so that the clients could almost interchangeably spend time outside and inside.

“Everything they need is replicated on the terrace,” says Amato, “a kitchen, a sofa, a table, even a shower; it’s almost like they have a second home outdoors.” The external shower is screened by plants, which are also plentiful around the home and terrace and one of the main points of colour in what is a chromatically understated project. “We chose two main colours,” says Amato. “An earthy red for the desk wheel, the desk leg and the built-in sofa, and a soft water green for the doors in the bedroom area, the light above the dining table and the green varnished metal bedstead of the bed, which we designed ourselves.” Two colours that, like the rest of this home, speak of nature and the elements, contributing to a space where analogue handmade beauty belies complex craftsmanship and engineering.

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Above Glass sliding doors can close off the ensuite bathroom from the bedroom and hallway Facing page The bespoke green headboard is made from varnished metal Previous page A perforated brick wall divides the living area, with its built-in sofa, from the study

“For us, experimenting means making entirely new and unique pieces of furniture that are basically prototypes”

Above Studiotamat’s ingenious desk can move up and down the room via its lacquered-timber wheel and a hidden track inside the shelving

Facing page The 40sqm terrace takes up about a quarter of the apartment’s floorspace, and has its own sofa, dining area, kitchen and shower

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Marta Minujín, ¡Revuélquese y viva! (Roll Over and Live!) (1985), part of Inside Other Spaces at Haus der Kunst. Read the full story on p117 Image courtesy of the artist © Marta Minujín Archive

ART & COLLECTING A cultural review

ART & COLLECTING / Diary

Agenda

Sights to behold: a calendar of shows and fairs for the coming months Words / Philomena Epps

Eve Arnold: To Know About Women, Newlands House Gallery, Petworth Until 7 January 2024

Over 90 photographs taken by the pioneering American photojournalist Eve Arnold are exhibited together at Newlands House Gallery, exploring themes of social injustice, civil rights, religion, power, celebrity and sexuality. Having studied photography in 1948 with Alexey Brodovitch (art director of Harper’s Bazaar) at the New School for Social Research in New York, in 1957 she became the first female member of Magnum Photos. Perhaps best known as Marilyn Monroe’s photographer

of choice, Arnold also captured Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich (pictured opposite), Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy and Malcolm X. Alongside documenting celebrity, after moving to London in the 1960s Arnold also travelled across the world, interested in social reportage and documenting communities in Cuba, China, Russia, South Africa and Afghanistan. Her groundbreaking documentary of the fashion shows held in Harlem in the 1950s will also form part of the show.

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Monica Sjöö, Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Yoshitomo Nara: All My Little Worlds, Albertina Modern, Vienna

This exhibition is the first retrospective of the selfdescribed “radical anarcho/eco-feminist and Goddess artist, writer and thinker” Monica Sjöö’s extensive body of work. Born in Sweden in 1938, Sjöö spent most of her adult life in Bristol, where she became an early advocate of women’s liberation, free abortion and the right to sexual empowerment. The show presents a series of monumental paintings, drawings and political posters; her raw and bold paintings centre on ancient matriarchal cultures, exploring her intertwined philosophy of peace, feminism and spirituality. After Stockholm, the exhibition will travel to Modern Art Oxford, opening on 18 November.

Albertina Modern, the contemporary space attached to the Albertina Museum in Vienna, is staging Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara’s first European institutional exhibition for a decade. Since the 1990s, Nara has attracted international attention with his wide-eyed, stylised and rebellious “angry girls” (such as Miss Margaret from 2016, pictured). The presentation will feature more than 400 works, with a staggering 390 drawings, alongside paintings, sculptures and objects. The drawings, some executed on slips of paper, envelopes, flyers and corrugated cardboard, demonstrate Nara’s wide-ranging influences, from music and literature to pop culture.

Until 15 October 2023

Until 1 November 2023

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ART & COLLECTING / Diary

Hurvin Anderson: Salon Paintings, Hepworth Wakefield Until 5 November 2023

Since 2006, Hurvin Anderson has repeatedly reworked images of the barbershop as a way to explore the legacy of Western art history, experimenting with the classic genres of still life, landscape and portraiture, and paying homage to Caribbean cultural history, with the barbershops held

up as unique social environments of affirmation and community. Alongside works from the Barbershop series, Anderson has curated a display of works that exemplify his influences and approach to painting, including work by Francis Bacon, Patrick Caulfield and Stanley Spencer.

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ART & COLLECTING / Diary

Marina Abramović, Royal Academy, London 23 September–10 December 2023

Marina Abramović’s performance art has centred on, and tested, the physical, psychic and durational endurance of her own body, pushing it beyond its limits, and subjecting herself to violence, fatigue and even the risk of death. This long-awaited exhibition will present a survey of the

artist’s career through sculpture, video, archival footage and installation. A series of live performances, including Imponderabilia, Nude with Skeleton and Luminosity, will be re-performed by artists trained in the Marina Abramović method, taking place within the gallery.

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ART & COLLECTING / Diary

Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and Fashion, Charleston, Lewes

Hélio Oiticica, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea

Curated by the fashion writer and critic Charlie Porter, this exhibition at Charleston’s new cultural space explores the relationship between the Bloomsbury Group and fashion: both the style adopted by its key figures and their enduring impact on contemporary fashion. Bringing together catwalk looks from designers Dior (pictured), Fendi, Burberry, Comme des Garçons, Erdem and SS Daley, Porter mixes these with personal objects, artworks and ephemera belonging to Duncan Grant, EM Forster, Virginia Woolf and Ottoline Morrell, among others. Two new commissions from contemporary fashion designers Jawara Alleyne and Ella Boucht are also included.

Hélio Oiticica is regarded as one of the most important Brazilian artists of the 20th century, producing a large body of work from abstract compositions to participatory artworks, cinematic installations and performances, all of which transformed space in unexpected ways. This exhibition will focus on Oiticica’s life and work in the late 1960s and 1970s, when his work centred around the selfcoined term “creliesure”, representing his desire to fuse art and life by reclaiming leisure time from its exploitation under capitalism. De La Warr will be showing examples of his Cosmococa installations, with projection, sound and suspended Brazilian hammocks for visitors to relax in.

Courtesy of César and Claudio Oiticica

13 September 2023–7 January 2024

23 September 2023–14 January 2024

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Nicole Eisenman, Whitechapel Gallery, London

Matisse, Derain and Friends, Kunstmuseum Basel

What Happened is the subtitle of the first UK survey exhibition of American artist Nicole Eisenman, whose self-referential, expressive and humorous practice spans themes of gender, identity and sexual politics, political turmoil in the US, protest and activism, and the impact of technology on personal relationships. Over 100 works from the last three decades will be presented, from largescale monumental paintings to sculptures, monoprints, animation and drawings. The exhibition is divided into various chronological and thematic chapters, including sections on lesbian communities in the 1990s, the life of the artist and American politics during the Trump years.

This large-scale survey looks at the relationship between Fauvism and colour, demonstrating how avant-garde artists at the turn of the 20th century experimented with expressive and radical applications and combinations of colour. The term fauves (which translates as “big cats” or “wild beasts”) was coined by art critic Louis Vauxcelles to refer to a group of artists who included Henri Matisse and André Derain (whose 1905 Le Port de Collioure is pictured). The 120 works on show demonstrate a brief, prolific period in Paris between 1904 and 1908, when Fauvism coincided with the Belle Epoque, the rise of urbanism and the establishment of a modern mass society.

10 October 2023–14 January 2024

2 September 2023–21 January 2024

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ART & COLLECTING / Diary

Mike Kelley, Bourse de Commerce, Paris 13 October 2023–19 February 2024

This career-spanning retrospective of American artist Mike Kelley will bring together his experimental and performative work, formulated as a critique of American society, adolescence and consumerism, and oscillating between high art, popular culture and counter-culture.

The show will include his sculptures made with soft toys; Kandors sculptures inspired by the Superman comic strip; and other large-scale multi-media installations such as Day Is Done (2005), a collection of works that reconstruct the repressed memories of generic high-school activities.

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ART & COLLECTING / Diary

Philip Guston, Tate Modern, London 5 October 2023–25 February 2024

Tate Modern hosts this extensive touring exhibition of Philip Guston’s work, spanning the Canadian-American painter’s 50-year career with more than 100 paintings and drawings. The largely self-taught Guston was an influential figure in the New York School, alongside

Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko, before developing his unique representational style in the final decades of his life. The show offers a particular insight into the artist’s formative years and political activism (pictured is 1937’s Bombardment).

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ART & COLLECTING / Diary

Inside Other Spaces, Haus der Kunst, Munich 8 September 2023–24 March 2024

After three years of research and development, Haus der Kunst opens its landmark exhibition, Inside Other Spaces: Environments by Women Artists 1956-1976 this autumn, demonstrating how women artists held a fundamental role in the development of immersive artistic practice, and

how these installations have influenced artists working since. The presentation features reconstructions of major key works, from Judy Chicago’s 1965 Feather Room (pictured) to Faith Wilding’s Crocheted Environment (1972) and Aleksandra Kasuba’s Spectral Passage (1975).

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ART & COLLECTING / Exhibition

People person

Hauser & Wirth opens its Paris outpost with a survey of the work of “hunter-gatherer” American artist Henry Taylor

“F

irst of all, I love other people,” the American artist Henry Taylor once said. “I love to meet them, and the fact I can just paint them.” Taylor, now 65, has been putting “threedimensional beings on to a two-dimensional surface” for over four decades, chronicling modern Black life in America. As Zadie Smith wrote in a 2018 profile of the artist for The New Yorker: “The famous and the down-and-out, the sane and the mad, the rich and the poor… everyone is of interest to Taylor.” By all accounts, Taylor’s studio in LA is a permeable space where works are created at a prodigal rate. (“You can well imagine a gallerist pleading with him to slow down,” wrote Smith.) It’s rumoured that – unable to part with his brush for any length of time – he often takes paint supplies with him to gallery openings. This October, that rumour can be confirmed or otherwise when Taylor’s work takes over two floors of the new Hauser & Wirth gallery in Paris’ 8th arrondissement. “Henry Taylor has long been an inspiration to other artists, including many in the Hauser & Wirth program,” explains Séverine Waelchli, the gallery’s newly appointed senior director. “This is a key moment to share his art and ideas with a public beyond the United States.” A Parisian outpost for Hauser & Wirth has been a long-held ambition for its founders. “For centuries Paris has fostered cultural ferment and breakthroughs, placing down a welcome mat for creators of every stripe from around the world,” says the gallery’s copresident, Marc Payot. “The city has supplied so much inspiration to our artists – from those like Louise Bourgeois and Pierre Huyghe who were born there, to those who arrived from

elsewhere like Takesada Matsutani, Alina Szapocznikow and Ed Clark…their careers would be unimaginable without it.”

Words Nell Card

The gallery will open on 14 October, in the run-up to Paris+ par Art Basel. Occupying a neoclassical hôtel particulier on the Seine’s right bank, the space has been designed by Hauser & Wirth’s longstanding collaborator, Laplace; the architecture studio has reinstated a doubleheight ground-floor gallery and restored the original spiral staircase, which will feature an installation by British artist Martin Creed. The inaugural exhibition covers the breadth of Taylor’s practice, from painting to sculpture to installation, all “rooted in his encounters with the people and communities closest to him, and often framed with poignant historical and contemporary cultural references,” says Waelchli. Taylor is a self-described “huntergatherer,” with a studio full of newspaper clippings and historical photographs. “These sit alongside his own snapshots of people both strange and familiar to him,” says Waelchli. “This library of images is surrounded by a collection of disparate objects that Taylor amasses, including discarded domestic objects like furniture, cereal boxes, empty cleaning bottles… all these objects and visual documents eventually feature both in his paintings and as building blocks for totemic sculpture.” Before the show, Taylor will take up a residency in Paris, doing what he does best: hunting, gathering and watching. What emerges – rapid, loose and saturated with emotion, colour and metaphor – will not necessarily be a direct depiction of what’s in front of him. “I don’t believe in being rational,” Taylor has said. “That might have to come later.”

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Facing page An untitled 2023 portrait by Henry Taylor – chronicler of Black life in America for the past four decades

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The Spring Room at The Cosmic House. Read the full story on p122 Image by Sue Barr

ARCHITECTURE Surveying the built environment

Signs and symbols

Charles Jencks’ postmodern Cosmic House plays host to the art of Madelon Vriesendorp Words / John Jervis Images / Sue Barr

ARCHITECTURE / London

trolling through the generous Victorian terraces of Notting Hill’s Ladbroke Estate, one’s eye might be drawn to a stuccoed townhouse a little different from the rest. Then again, it might not. Oversized mansard windows and geometric chimney stacks give little hint of the immoderate invention within The Cosmic House – the home, and obsession, of Charles Jencks until his death in 2019.

Previous page The library, whose shelves stylistically reflect the subject matter of the books within them, from Ancient Egypt to the Middle Ages Facing page Architect Piers Gough’s jacuzzi, an upside-down baroque dome Below Celia Scott’s bust of Hephaestus, god of fire, overlooks The Winter Room

Baltimore-born Jencks was a polymath, even turning his hand to the design of sculptural “landform” gardens. However, his name is inextricably linked to one intellectual and architectural phenomenon: postmodernism. Having studied under the iconoclastic Reyner Banham at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, Jencks made his name in the 1970s with books on Modernism and Le Corbusier, employing linguistics and semiotics to tackle these monolithic subjects. In 1977, Jencks’ pivotal book The Language of Post-Modern Architecture took this pluralistic approach further, proclaiming the death of “Modern Architecture”, criticising its lack of humanity and failure of cultural imagination. In its place, Jencks heralded a postmodern alternative, one that engaged with “deeper questions about morality, spirituality and politics”. From 1978, Jencks invited many of its pioneers – and in particular Terry Farrell, architect of London’s MI6 Building – to join him and his wife, Maggie Keswick, in reimagining their new home in Holland Park.

The Cosmic House became a place of gathering and sparring for a wide intellectual circle, including two co-founders of Dutch megapractice OMA, Madelon Vriesendorp and her then-husband Rem Koolhaas, as well as American architect Michael Graves, who designed the ornate rooms dedicated to the seasons at its centre. To walk through these flowing spaces, unhampered by doors, is to journey through an eclectic jumble of styles and moods. There is an excess of ornament, colour, imagery and text, referencing myth and symbolism, low and high culture, kitsch and in-jokes, but all bound together by Jencks’ sweeping ideas about cosmology. The result is confusing if not unwelcoming. The Graves-designed fireplace in The Winter Room, painted to resemble streaked marble, is topped by artist-architect Celia Scott’s bust of Hephaestus, god of fire (sporting the robust features of pop artist Eduardo Paolozzi), alongside a series of flame-like scholar’s rocks (Keswick was an expert on Chinese landscape). Koolhaas’ geometric proposal for The Spring Room was rejected for its severity; Graves’ replacement features Colosseum-inspired seating with outsized springs winding up its lamps – wordplay is a Cosmic House constant. Egypt and art deco make an appearance in The Summer Room (the light-filled dining area), accompanied by a garish riff on Nicolas Poussin’s Dance to the Music of Time by pop artist Allen Jones. Adjacent, an off-the-shelf kitchen is embellished with outsized columns to indicate its status as “Indian Summer”, complete with a frieze of salad spoons. The russet Autumn Room alludes to Artemis, goddess of hunting. All the rooms are arranged around a spiral staircase, or Solar Stair – “the psychological centre of the house” – with stainless-steel handrails punctuated by orbiting spheres, 52 steps inlaid with zodiac signs and, at its base, a Paolozzi mural of a black hole. There are quieter moments, Keswick’s study in particular (she stipulated that “symbolism stops at my door”), but also the all-white master bedroom dedicated to the subdivided square (for Jencks, the fundamental element of

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ARCHITECTURE / London

architecture). The library, with its tent-like curved ceiling, was described by Jencks as a “city of books”, its shelves designed to reflect their contents (conical pyramids for Egypt, stepped gables for the Middle Ages). And, as a last joke, right at the top of the house is “Jacob’s Ladder”– a small dog-leg staircase to nowhere. Since opening to the public in 2021, The Cosmic House has hosted a fluid programe of exhibitions, some themed (kicking off with architecture and linguistics), others exploring ideas embedded in the house itself. By chance or design, many events have foregrounded a female perspective, and this autumn Madelon Vriesendorp will have carte blanche to scatter her work – as painter, sculptor and collector – across the house, creating a dialogue between its interiors and her practice, with their shared ambiguity, ad-hocism and humour. Some exhibits will reflect her friendship and collaboration with Jencks. From the early 2000s, they worked together on garden designs, with Vriesendorp transforming his cosmic ideas into realities, such as Our Lady of the North, a curvaceous figure acting as a giant centrepiece for public park Northumberlandia, created from 1.5m tonnes of rock, clay and soil from an open-cast coalmine. Watercolours and models from these landscape projects, built and unbuilt, will be on display, as will graphics created for Jencks’ books, including nine “enigmatic signifiers” reconceiving London’s Gherkin as a rocket, pine cone, cigar and more (but not a gherkin), suggestive of the diverse meanings that buildings can hold. Elements of Vriesendorp’s hands-on Mind Game installation, first shown at the 2009 Venice Art Biennale, will make a welcome reappearance. In this piece of “playground surrealism”, viewers’ interactions with large cardboard creations – a man, a dog, a torso (based on an underwear mannequin gifted by Jencks) and more – provide insights into their state of mind. Other interventions will be sitespecific. Vivacious sculptures fabricated from household rubbish and gummed tape play a large role in Vriesendorp’s practice, and an eye-catching translucent dragon made from

discarded milk containers will hang in the Moonwell, the mirrored lightshaft rising up one side of the house. Counterfeit water will be layered on the basement’s magnificent but malfunctioning jacuzzi, designed by architect Piers Gough on the model of a baroque dome turned upside down, so feet can dangle in its lantern. And rubbish-related workshops will be held in the uncluttered space of Keswick’s study, again featuring milk bottles and tape. Finally, a portion of Vriesendorp’s extraordinary collection of “stuff ” – tourist tat and novelty trinkets accumulated across the world over half a century – will be inserted into the many nooks and crannies of The Cosmic House, with the intention of “making a mess”. In doing so, the fine line between ugliness and beauty will be explored – one that the house itself interrogates at a larger scale.

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Above The exterior of The Cosmic House, a postmodern remodel of one of Notting Hill’s Victorian villas Facing page Top to bottom: Charles Jencks’ and Maggie Keswick’s bedroom; a sketch of the “Cosmic Suit” that Madelon Vriesendorp designed for Jencks, appearing in the forthcoming show dedicated to her work

ARCHITECTURE / London

“Vriesendorp’s extraordinary collection of ‘stuf’ – tourist tat and novelty trinkets – will be inserted into the many nooks and crannies of The Cosmic House”

Giulio Sheaves

The Cosmic House was initially conceived as a manifesto, a place for debate and argument, but it also served as a domestic space, one of collaboration, delight and friendship, shared by Vriesendorp, Paolozzi, Koolhaas and many others. Through this achievement, relationships were forged that led to the opening of the first Maggie’s Centre a year after Keswick’s death from breast cancer in 1995. Twenty-six have now opened across the UK, and three further afield, offering humane, uplifting spaces to complement the often-spartan environments of cancer care. Many have been designed by the couple’s friends, including Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Piers Gough and Richard Rogers. However varied the critical and personal responses to its excess, The Cosmic House has proved a highly effective conduit to invention, imagination and change, whether perceived as symbol or dwelling.

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BORN FROM NATURE, ELEVATED OVER TIME

DOM RUINART, THE QUINTESSENTIAL BLANC DE BLANCS

Drink responsibly

Bang & Olufsen’s Beosystem 72-23 Nordic Dawn. Read the full story on p134

STYLE Fashionable pursuits

Most wanted

Clothing, accessories and tech that are thoughtful, expressive, beautiful and good

STYLE / Products

Farewell, Foolish Objects Once upon a time, telling someone they looked like they were wearing a tablecloth would not have been a compliment, but Farewell, Foolish Objects has turned that on its head. The London-based brand reworks interesting and unusual textiles into oneof-a-kind pieces, such as the lace shirts shown here, made from a bedspread (opposite) and a tablecloth

(above), drawing attention to the craftsmanship of the original objects. Select from off-the-shelf pieces like these, or choose your textile on the website and have something custom made to your size. Lace shirts, £200, deadstock pantomime trousers, £129; farewellfoolishobjects.com

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STYLE / Products

Bowhill & Elliott Norwich shoemaker and slipper specialist Bowhill & Elliott has been making feet more comfy for nearly 150 years. However, the style of these turn slippers (so-called because the two pieces of material are stitched together before being turned inside-out, concealing the seam between the two) goes back further; the design is thought to have

been brought to Norwich by Protestant refugees from the Netherlands in the 14th century. Having barely aged a day, the Monk style pictured is made from dark brown deerskin leather with a contrasting sand-coloured lining and a soft suede sole. £195; bowhillandelliott.co.uk

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STYLE / Products

Completedworks Its raw yet refined Marylebone studio/retail space featured on the cover of DA/UK issue 14, and Completedworks continues to beguile with its latest collection of jewellery. Founder and creative director Anna Jewsbury has added to the artfully crumpled metal that she is known for, with forms that “disorientate and then reorientate – and at times

seem to threaten to lose control.” New pieces are made from cast bubble-wrap, an ephemeral product made precious and enduring, or pearls that are paired with materials such as rose quartz, as shown in the (Some Lost) Time necklace pictured. £445; completedworks.com

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STYLE / Products

Bang & Olufsen No 1970s design fetishist would be without a shiny aluminium turntable in their home, and Bang & Olufsen’s Beogram 4000, first released in 1972, is usually their first choice. Recognising how beloved the original design was, B&O re-released it as a refurbished limited edition in 2020 to celebrate the Danish firm’s 95th anniversary: now, there’s a new

version, the Beosystem 72-23 Nordic Dawn, with birch casing and a sunrise-inspired palette of warmtoned aluminium. The 100-unit limited edition includes a matching pair of Beolab 28 speakers and a birch cabinet to store that all-important vinyl. £55,000; bang-olufsen.com

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STYLE / Products

Nomos Glashütte While the Swiss might get all the glory when it comes to watchmaking, German brand Nomos Glashütte can certainly stake a claim. Founded in 1990, its watches are known for their quality, style and uncomplicated design, drawing on the values of the Bauhaus and its predecessor, the Deutscher Werkbund. This hand-wound Club Campus 38

watch features a steel case, and hand and hour markers that glow blue in the dark. As well as the electric green face pictured, the Club Campus 38 is available in coral, deep pink and orange as well as sensible shades of grey, black, white and navy. £1,600; nomos-glashuette.com

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PIONEER

Place maker

Liz Diller’s landmark cultural projects are stages on which people can perform their lives Words / Joe Lloyd Image / Geordie Wood

rchitects with grand principles and bold ambitions face a quandary. How do you square the desire to create better places and spaces with the economic system in which buildings are built? Few have navigated these choppy waters as well as Polish-born American architect Liz Diller. As co-founder of the New York-based practice Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), she has crafted some of the most significant cultural projects of our time – in an industry that remains deplorably male-dominated.

output says it all, including the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston (2007), Alice Tully Hall at New York’s Lincoln Centre (2009) and The Broad in Los Angeles (2015). Her signal achievement is the High Line (20092014), the elevated linear park that floats above western Manhattan on a disused train track, a combination of creative reuse, public space and ecological experiment. “The word that unifies DS+R’s output,” wrote architecture critic Rowan Moore, “is performance.” Diller crafts stages on which people can perform their lives. But her work is just as much concerned with the defence of public space in rapidly privatising cities. In 2017, the studio completed Moscow’s Zaryadye Park adjacent to the Kremlin and Red Square, which featured bumpy topography and a warren of hidden meadows. The authorities caught young couples copulating, performing their own small acts of rebellion. “This,” said Diller, “was a great sign of success.”

Diller studied at Cooper Union School of Architecture then entered practice in 1981, working with her tutorturned-partner Ricardo Scofidio. During their first two decades together they expanded the notion of what an architect can do, creating films and projections, sculptural artworks and collaborations with dance troupes. Some may have doubted whether Diller could make the leap from theory to bricks and mortar, but her subsequent

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