PREVIEW Frame #146 MAY/JUN by Frame

THE NEXT SPACE ISSUE 146 MAY — JUN 2022

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THE RESPONSIVE HOME MICHELE DE LUCCHI B N O I W A R RETAIL ACTIVE OFFICES PHYGITAL RUNWAYS

Create, innovate. Design.

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»The history of bentwood furniture is an evolution, not a revolution. We designed the 822 collection to continue this story and last for generations.« Claesson Koivisto Rune

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822

33 Xia Zhi, courtesy of MVRDV

Antoine Doyen / Mirage Collectif

CONTENTS

38 37

REPORTING FROM

BUSINESS OF DESIGN

Beijing and Madrid

From next-gen hotel robots to rewilding in workplaces

IN PRACTICE

38 INTRODUCING

Paris production studio Back of the House

48 WHAT I’VE LEARNED Michele De Lucchi

Courtesy of Layer

54 INFLUENCER

Layer founder Benjamin Hubert Frame 146

65 SPACES Retail heads over the rainbow,

workplaces lead the movement movement, runway shows mingle with the metaverse, and more

115 LIVING LAB 116 The ins and outs of the responsive home

Courtesy of Balenciaga

137 Looking ahead in adaptive living

Michael Vahrenwald, courtesy of Cartonlab and Studio Animal

128

66 José Hevia, courtesy of Takk

150

149 MARKET New releases from Laufen, Courtesy of NK Together

De Vorm, Axor and more

160 IN NUMBERS Blast Studio’s Blue Tree in facts and figures

Contents

Ona Collection

Simple as Nature Inspired by the Mediterranean. Natural colours, pure lines and soft shapes. This is Ona: a timeless, versatile and sustainable bathroom collection. roca.com/ona

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Design director Barbara Iwanicka Graphic designer Zoe Bar-Pereg Translation InOtherWords (D’Laine Camp, Maria van Tol) Contributors to this issue Antoine Doyen Simon Flöter Eva Gardiner – EG Martijn de Geus Adrian Madlener Andrew Meredith Kourosh Newman-Zand Riya Patel – RP Rosamund Picton Martina Scorcucchi Kristofer Thomas – KT Cover Web-3 Café by Crosby Studios (see page 108) Photo Benoit Florençon

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Lithography Edward de Nijs

Colophon

MOVING HOUSE?

In the past two years there’s been a revolution that, more than ever before, has made our home the centre of our existence. For many, the physical separation between work and home has simply disappeared. In addition, even post-pandemic, people are still doing a lot of sports, learning and meditating at home – activities that generally took place outside of the house pre-pandemic. So, we’re using our housing stock much more intensively and completely differently than we did a few years ago, even though it wasn’t designed for that. Sure, the happy few have a ‘study’ that can double as a yoga room. But the truth is that John Doe’s home is too small rather than too generous and that he will therefore have to adjust either his behaviour or his home. For some, the solution is to move to a larger and cheaper house in a rural area. Others quit their jobs and embrace an existence as a digital nomad. But for the time being, neither the Great Move nor Great Resignation seem to be taking off in earnest. Adventure and big life changes are simply not for everyone. In this issue’s Lab, we examine how homes can be designed so that they’re better prepared for changes in living conditions and environmental factors. What if we have children? Want to take our parents into our home? Our health deteriorates? Wouldn’t it be great to live in a house that responds to our moods? To the

seasons? Is it possible to design a home that understands who we are and what we need? We distinguish three ways in which a home can respond to change. Transformable spaces make it possible to better utilize a house of modest dimensions. Think of a fold-up or -down bed that makes way for a sitting area. A second scenario involves designing spaces that don’t change, but can be used diversely. We’re accustomed to rooms with defined uses: the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom. What if architects designed homes with ‘fuzzy’ spaces that successive generations can use differently over the years? This could be done by over-dimensioning ceiling heights, by making structures flexible or by creating column-free floor plans. The third option for making homes responsive lies in the integration of technology. Smart homes, thanks to artificial intelligence, could learn to understand who their occupants are and how they behave in certain circumstances, and to then anticipate their needs. Full disclosure: my home is far from that point. I write at the table that my wife also works at and where our family eats. For us, the home revolution can’t start soon enough.

Robert Thiemann Editor in chief

Editorial

SUSTAINABILITY IS AN INVITATION TO THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE

Photo Andrea Ferrari | Styling Studiopepe | Ad García Cumini

Portraits of me. Kitchen: Maxima 2.2 | Design: R&D Cesar Home Elements: Dressup | Design: García Cumini

Milano • New York • Paris cesar.it

BUSINESS OF DESIGN

‘The human touch will always be core to hospitality’

Hotel robots shift from novel to necessity. Office design learns from the UX approach. How Amazon’s ‘tech-motional’ shopping is reshaping store design. Workplaces go green in the name of rewilding.

ONSEN Outdoor furniture collection by Francesco Meda & David Quincoces

www.gandiablasco.com

Courtesy of Ori

Ori’s partnership with Marriott’s design lab will see the studio’s technology integrated in guestrooms to create fluid spaces containing interchangeable interior elements.

Why a new generation of hotel robots focuses on space over service Will a sector built on human-tohuman interaction ever be ready to wholly engage with robotics? Where robots in the hotel space are nothing new, they have continually operated under a cycle of hype, deployment and ultimate dismissal. Japan’s robotstaffed Henn-Na Hotel opened back in 2015, but has since laid off the majority of its androids, while interest quickly waned in Softbank’s Pepper after it was repeatedly fired from service roles. For staff, malfunctions only served to produce more work, and the prevalence of contactless technologies indicates guests would rather just do tasks themselves. Post-pandemic shifts could prove an inflection point. Turning this technology from novel to necessity is already in progress.

The latest iteration of service android – Engineered Arts’ Ameca – certainly looks and acts more human than its predecessors. Yet it’s perhaps beyond the service element of hotels that robotics manufacturers will have the greatest impact – a slate of new technologies seek to enhance the design and experience of space. ‘Transformable hotel rooms enabled by technology create flexibility that truly creates two rooms out of one and opens up a world of possibilities to a more integrated and expanded experience that includes working, hosting meetings, exercising and more,’ says Hasier Larrea, founder and CEO of Ori, a Boston-based start-up working at the intersection of architecture and robotics.

Business of Design

Ori’s partnership with Marriott’s design lab will see the studio’s technology integrated in guestrooms to create fluid spaces containing interchangeable interior elements that adapt with the push of a button. Adjusting to smaller footprints in city hotels, the system offers the prospect of both experiential and operational value. But not only the disruptive start-ups have started to take notice of spatial robotics, as Hyundai has announced intentions to revolutionize the so-called ‘mobility of things ecosystem’. This news follows the company’s acquisition of Boston Dynamics and wider transformation into a ‘smart mobility solution provider’. Merging its transport focus with robotics and AI development, Hyundai has outlined

New Architectural Collection

Apex

IN PRACTICE

‘We have to face a new world, and we have to abandon a lot of very stupid habits’ Back of the House on designing fashion shows for a changing climate. Michele De Lucchi on balancing provocation and practicality. Benjamin Hubert on the importance of being an informed generalist.

INTRODUCING

KCAB OF FO THE EHT ESUOH OPPOSITE Thomas Warren and Anne Sophie Prevot established Back of the House in Paris in 2017, with five years of experience working together for another production agency.

In Practice

Producers, scenographers and fashion-show designers extraordinaire, Anne Sophie Prevot and Thomas Warren count Thom Browne, Jil Sander and Acne Studios among their clients. Founders of the Paris production studio Back of the House, Prevot and Warren credit intuition for the integrity of their work – a quality that, they say, is inextricably entwined with creativity and innovation. Words Lauren Grace Morris Portrait Antoine Doyen / Mirage Collectif

How did you two meet? What led you to start Back of the House together?

THOMAS WARREN: I studied architecture and spatial design in Brussels, and then started working in production for many festivals and exhibitions in the architecture and design fields. That’s how I began collaborating with Anne Sophie. ANNE SOPHIE PREVOT: I got my start as a rock-concert photographer, travelling with bands like Aerosmith and Nirvana and taking pictures of the shows. I’m a workaholic – I started to get a little bored and do production with the tour managers. At that time, I was based in London, but eventually came back to France and began working on productions for television agencies. In time I moved to Brussels and entered the fashion world, where I met Thomas. For ten years we’ve worked together – five of those as Back of the House. We wanted to do what we wanted to do – to not be at the ‘front of the house’ too much. That’s where our name comes from.

Tell me more about this ‘behind-thescenes’ ethos.

ASP: We’re here to really help clients enhance their collections. The idea is to be as productive as possible because we love everything. Our inspiration comes from everywhere: books we read, walks we take, shows we see, and so forth. We don’t want to intellectualize the work too much or be on our phones all the time – we’re moving, instinctive people.

TW: And that’s how we work with brands. ASP: Sometimes a project is born from one word. We’re given just one detail. First, we find the location based on this word. Then we go with the mood of the collection or the feeling that a client has. Whether they have one voice or ten, we listen to them, we try to understand them and we help them make the best of a concept. Everything is for the concept, and nothing more.

That’s a very pure way of looking at the design process. How do you ensure your approach aligns with your clients’ needs?

ASP: Thomas and I try to keep a coherence with our clients. We always say that we deserve the clients that we have. We can’t accept one if we don’t have a connection – it won’t be good for them, and it won’t be good for us. You have to match, in a way, to have the same goals and think in a similar way. What’s most important for us – the thing we fight for all the time, at every step of the process – is to do things perfectly, to work on things and make them sharp. We are very into the details. TW: We want to be really close with our clients – to have real relationships and grow together. We try to give the same energy, and the same consideration, to every brand.

Thom Browne was your first-ever patron as a team. The fruits of that partnership have been plentiful, and now you create sets for the likes of Jil Sander, Y/Project

In Practice

OPPOSITE A series of rooms at Paris’s Grand Palais hosted Acne Studio’s SS21 womenswear presentation. The designers utilized colourful, immersive lighting to evoke the progression of a day as models made their journey.

Jules Toulet

Studio TM

In Practice

Acne Studio’s minimalistic white set design for its AW22 runway took cues from the work of electronic music DJ Suzanne Ciani who played at the show. The audience was seated in fur-clad boxes sunken beneath the ‘dance floor’.

Introducing

In Practice

WHAT I’VE LEARNED

MICHELE DE LUCCHI

De Lucchi’s Milan atelier is a treasure trove of drawings, collected artefacts and the designer’s own wooden furniture. Pictured is a model of one of the Earth Stations, a concept De Lucchi has been developing for years.

From designing useful tools like furniture and lamps to joining the experimental Memphis movement to thinking about entirely new ways of living: Michele De Lucchi has balanced provocation and practicality throughout his career. The Milan-based designer shares what he learned under the tutelage of Ettore Sottsass, why we should unlearn many past teachings, and why humanity’s survival relies on us collaborating as closely as a body’s cells. As told to Robert Thiemann Photos Martina Scorcucchi

MICHELE DE LUCCHI: I was not yet 30 years old when I met Ettore Sottsass, who gave me the opportunity to become a designer for Olivetti. At the time, Olivetti was the most important and well-known office machinery brand in Italy, perhaps even in Europe. In the same year, sometime in the late 1970s or early ’80s, I started the adventure of Memphis together with Ettore. You can imagine how fantastic it was to have these two kinds of experiences: the very professional one and the very avant-garde one. To see the world of industry from the inside while discovering a cultural alternative. Thanks to Ettore, I understood the role of a mentor in the world of design and architecture. He taught me how to see reality. He was half Italian, half Austrian, and he often spoke of the zeitgeist, asking me: ‘How can you design for the world if you don’t know the world? If you don’t see what’s happening now?’ He tried to help me understand the spirit of the time. What is moving the world in the heads of the people? Neurological scientists say that we perceive only 20 per cent of our reality – the rest is a result of our way of thinking, our habits, our conventional behaviour, what our parents told us, what we learned in school, what we expect and dream of for ourselves and so on. That’s 80 per cent. For me, this was a very comforting idea, because it means 80 per cent of our way of living can be changed and optimized to be much better than it is today. Something very important that I learned is that we – myself included – have to unlearn a lot of stuff. When I think back to my years at university, to what I learned as an architect, it’s quite frightening because around 80 per cent of it is wrong. Not because they wanted to teach me something wrong, but because the times are changing and we have to change, too. Especially today, when we’re facing a really dramatic situation – one without a happy ending. We have to unlearn a lot of traditional, conventional behaviours that are no longer suitable for this world, for our planet. Already some years ago I understood that, first of all, I have to unlearn that the profession of an architect means to set up walls. Walls are horrible. They’re the most negative objects we

What I’ve Learned

can place on this planet. Walls are a way to separate ourselves, to separate my property from your property, public from private, the kitchen from the bathroom from the living room. I think that architecture will potentially change drastically if we start to think that walls should be built to bring people together – to make it easier for people to collaborate with one other and to create a more effective, happier society. Obviously, I learned to draw with a pencil, with colours on paper. Now, the way we deliver material as architects is a very simple sign that we have to jump into a more sophisticated and technological world full of potential solutions. I’m very positive about the contribution of digitization to the world. Very, very positive. Sure, I can be worried about what will happen with all the data running around the world – how people can own this data and use it to produce horrible things. But I’m sure that digitization is also helping humanity a lot, because it’s creating connections – opportunities to meet and talk and stay in touch. The profession of an architect is double-sided. It’s a technical discipline where you learn how to build skyscrapers, solid buildings, bridges and so on. But on the other hand, I know very well that when you design an environment or a building or a street, you’re not only designing the specific structure that you have in mind. You’re also designing the behaviour of people in that building, that environment, that city, that urban district. An architect has to be responsible, not only for what he does as a technician, but especially for what behaviours he produces in people. It’s unbelievable: if you pay attention to how people move inside different environments, you immediately perceive how certain environments modify the conventional ways of using space. Whatever you call it – atmosphere, spiritual environment, feelings or sensations – it’s very, very important. When you enter the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, for example, you immediately perceive something that is bigger than you, and this fundamentally affects every aspect of your behaviour.

OPPOSITE Veering into the realm of fashion accessory rather than tech accessory thanks to its textile-wrapped casing and metallic detailing, Resonate LightVision is an LED-powered headset for immersive meditation.

‘We’re more digitized because of the pandemic, but need to learn how to use these tools responsibly’

To tackle a particularly challenging design project, you need a significant breadth of expertise. If you’re working on a big transport project or a complex electronic device, you need to build a diverse team to bring a concept to life. It’s essential to have an exchange platform in which you can at once discuss big issues like sustainability, engineer complex components, engage a wider audience, and strategize on driving better revenue. It felt cynical to say I could address all these questions as an individual. My role is to both empower the internal team and build trust with our clients by offering different facilities.

What innovations have you introduced in the past seven years?

Our work breaks down into different buckets. On the one hand, we always try to work on some furniture projects, like I did in my early days – the Al Fresco Appetite chair for Allermuir is a recent example. This allows us to be sensitive to craftmanship, connect with people that make things, and support small industries. On the other hand, we do a reasonable amount of speculative work for brands like Airbus. Our goal on this end is to make life a bit easier and effortless for the public. How can we not only improve the economy class flying experience but, perhaps more fundamentally, how can you fly from A to B more efficiently? Between these two mindsets, we’re interested

in developing good or great designs that are available to everyone, whether they be a small, powered object or hard transportation product. Even if we’re operating in the luxury sector, the aim is to bring down the cost. The projects that are most rewarding and valuable are those that require a holistic vision: a comprehensive branding scheme, communications strategy, an installation, activation and, most importantly, a suite of products and services. With such endeavours, we might be working with a heritage glassblower in Murano one day and exploring the question of how people in Africa access power the next. Big agencies can rarely take on, let alone combine, both sides of the design discipline. Ultimately, we’re concerned with creating lighter products for the planet that deliver more benefits to people who really need them.

How do you convince a major manufacturer like Airbus to consider all these questions?

It’s a challenge for sure, but it often comes down to a conversation about why they shouldn’t keep doing things the way they are. They’ve got their supply chains, infrastructures and cost structures all set up. Asking them to change all of that is a big task. Bringing in different partners helps solidify our argument. For Airbus, we worked with MIT’s Material Lab and tested out various smart materials:

In Practice

heat-managing and sensor-embedded textiles. Proving the feasibility of implementing such elements goes a long way. We’re always interested in bringing lots of people into the equation at Layer. Adding to our robust team, these collaborators aid us in presenting the complete picture of how these brands are impacting their customers and the planet. Talking to a big tech company, we might mention something about a Southern European artisan that is beneficial to their goals and vice versa. Presenting a heritage furniture brand with the reality that their proprietary techniques are being copied in China forces them to adapt. Layer serves as a key resource and engaged material library in many respects. We’re a gateway, in that if we don’t have the knowledge internally, we’re more than happy to reach out to someone who does: great communicators and copywriters, for example. It’s all about connecting the dots and pulling things together.

Where do you see the industry headed?

The future of design is under a greater spotlight than ever. By the day, we’re increasingly aware of what’s happening everywhere and that there are significant inclusion disparities in almost every aspect of our shared experience. Today’s practitioners need to earn a place in people’s lives and reduce our collective impact on the world while tackling the right issues in that overall equation.

Influencer

Kengo Kuma’s architectural intervention on Gaudí’s Casa Batlló

info@kriskadecor.com kriskadecor.com

The Japanese architect has covered the new 8-storey staircase of the modernist building with a second skin of aluminium chain links.

SPACES

‘We will see more hybrid hospitality-show spaces in the future’ Why stores are celebrating the colour spectrum. Workplaces get people up and moving. Retail rehabilitates touch and texture. Is the future of runways phygital? Exhibitions double as bars and restaurants.

LOOK BOOK

Over the rainbow In each issue, we identify a key aesthetic trend evident in our archive of recent projects and challenge semiotics agency Axis Mundi to unpack its design codes. Here, we look at how kaleidoscopic colour is injecting energy into retail environments. Words Rosamund Picton and Kourosh Newman-Zand

Spaces

José Hevia

Michael Vahrenwald

As if awakening from a prolonged state of hibernation, the emergence of vibrant interiors full of energy and life signifies the eager anticipation of warmer weather. Metaphors of organic growth and elemental transformation proliferate, inviting inspiration from the outdoors in verdant bursts of lime green and ultramarine. Uncanny aspects of nature are distilled and reimagined to imply Edenic abundance in unlikely places. In one instance, the abstract expression of a bamboo grove rendered in saturated hues offers an opportunity for forest bathing while browsing merchandise. The curation of an optimistic ambience is further fostered by insistence on full-spectrum, fullbleed finishes that flood rooms with the aesthetics of joy. Mood-boosting rainbow stripes enrich and uplift otherwise sleepy store interiors, harnessing maximalism and providing an invigorating source of irrepressible positivity. Striking signature shades of magenta, cerulean and canary yellow emanate a fauvist, feel-good aura, serving to somehow stimulate and soothe at the same time. Adjacent scenarios offset areas of chromatic intensity with neutral finishes to alleviate sensory overwhelm and focus attention on the displayed items. Muted grey brushed metal, polished concrete and shimmering PVC are cleverly employed to provide moments of visual rest amid noisy neon explosions. Vivid halcyon visions airbrushed, splashed and daubed onto expansive retail spaces envelop visitors within bold technicolour imaginaries. The crude innocence of saturated crayon colours provides a kindergarten canvas for more subtle and sporadic references to childhood toys and games. From floating paper planes to plastic multicolour signage in ‘fridgemagnet’ fonts, these environments are encoded with

a spirit of instinctive playfulness and modularity. Chunky display units take on cubed, cylindrical and prismatic forms that echo naive sentiments, reminiscent of rudimentary building blocks, waiting to be made and unmade at will. Elsewhere, the integration of sophisticated optical art obliges viewers to adopt more radical ways of seeing. Simple shapes and potent pigments are translated into hypnotic moiré motifs, trompe l’oeil checkerboards, and Escher-esque illusions that transform ephemeral stores into kaleidoscopic portals. Total immersion is ensured by the elimination of outside influence. Windows wrapped in pulsating patterns balloon and recede. Floors liquefied using undulating lines induce the feeling of unsteadiness underfoot. The general sense of rippling reality recalls the entrancing thrill of the carousel, where centrifugal movement manipulates and subverts the rules of perspective to afford a mesmeric effect. Mind-bending psychedelic iconography interspersed with infinity mirrors affords instant access to multidimensional and increasingly metaversal modes of being. Getting lost in the game is the ultimate goal. In its various expressions, the triumphant resurgence of uncontested colour signals the hope of happy times to come. Spatial strategies for dynamic disorientation offer a powerful antidote to pandemic stasis and screen-centric entertainments. Rather than adjusting for digital vision, the outburst of eye-catching environments intends to engage and experiment with the mysteries of human perception and embodied experience. Unbounded creativity is celebrated with lavish and life-affirming passion.• axis-mundi.co

OPPOSITE Nuhü Division pop-up store by Cartonlab and Studio Animal in New York City, US. PREVIOUS SPREAD Spectrum store for Munich Sports by Studio Animal in Barcelona, Spain.

Look Book

Each room at fashion boutique Camilla and Marc in Armadale, Melbourne, conveys subtle shifts in materiality.

RETAIL

Sean Fennessy

Sensory retail

As people crave tactility once again, retailers are well-placed to turn their stores into high-touch sanctuaries for sensory pleasures. Spaces

Shopping was once a highly sensory experience, with physical stores attracting consumers based on touching and trying on future possessions. This tactility was first upended by e-commerce and disrupted further by the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, when concerns about the spreading of the virus suddenly transformed touch into a much-maligned term. After a prolonged period of touch deprivation, the impulse to experience the physicality of goods is reinvigorating offline retail. According to ICSC, as half of US consumers planned to make more visits to stores during the last holiday season, they cited being able to touch and feel products as one of the top reasons to make the trip. Retail designers are thus presented with an opportunity to experiment with how they engage customers’ senses. Typically, sensory retail would hinge on sight and touch, but more recently stores have been catering to our senses of sound, smell and taste, with curated soundtracks, signature brand fragrances and in-store cafés fast becoming part of the offering. As Mark Purdy, managing director at advisory Purdy & Associates, writes for Harvard Business Review: ‘The retail experience at its best should

be a richly varied sensory experience: the opportunity to taste, smell, and touch products – whether that’s freshly-baked bread, vintage wines, or newly roasted coffee beans. This would seem to present a major hurdle to the digital world of contactless commerce.’ For quality produce grocers, like Alimentari Flâneur in New York City and Spring-to-Go in London, tapping into the lively self-serve format of Mediterranean food markets can be a creative way of reintroducing – and rehabilitating – touch when food shopping. During the pandemic, supermarkets became places for function as opposed to enjoyment, pausing tastings, stigmatizing ripeness-testing and replacing loose produce with individual packaging. Now is the time for grocery stores to embrace the textures they offer, positioning these, as Purdy says, as an antidote to techdriven touchless store formats. Food and drink are inherently sensorial, but retailers offering less tactile products can use their store interiors to inspire touch. While fashion garments themselves offer plenty of materiality, spatial designers like Akin Atelier are now embedding texture into the store design itself. For the Camilla and Marc

boutique in Melbourne, the studio used materials such as plaster, travertine and pearly onyx to make the branch of the womenswear brand a ‘homage to the sense of touch’. Retail designers can also take note from private members’ clubs, which are renowned for their premium brand of cosiness that keeps members happy, fulfilled and physically snug by simultaneously targeting all five senses. Soho House is known for its grasp of this, and as a result has launched its standalone Home Studio in New York City. Reflecting the interiors of its global clubs, the store not only encourages people to feel their way around its range of home products, but to chat to an inhouse interior design consultant and smell and taste the seasonal produce from its ‘member market’ – a rotating showcase of the businesses of local club members. For Rebecca Robins, Interbrand’s chief learning and culture officer, these spaces not only offer exclusivity but also an element of theatrics. ‘Certainly, experiential spaces are central to creating a reason for stores to exist,’ she tells Raconteur. ‘They are a stage for products and services.’ EG

Surface and texture

For Camilla and Marc in Melbourne, Akin Atelier went beyond the materiality of the fashions to embed texture into the store design itself. The studio used the likes of plaster, travertine and pearly onyx to make the branch of the womenswear brand a ‘homage to the sense of touch’. The designers say that by championing handcraft and specialist trades, Camilla and Marc creates an opportunity to experience the interiors as a series of surfaces and textures. ‘It is not until the visitor is immersed in the store that the diversity of material application, and the relationship between space and texture, becomes apparent.’ akinatelier.com

Retail

HOSPITALITY

Since restaurants and cafés could be called the living and dining rooms of a city – places to entertain and fraternize outside of homes perhaps too small to host groups – their absence from the urbanscape during lockdowns created a significant social deficit. Heading back to hospitality hotspots was unsurprisingly high on the agenda when establishments reopened: when respondents to a 2020 Allegra Strategies survey of UK consumers were asked which three social outings they missed most during the lockdown from 17 suggested choices, an overwhelming number picked visiting cafés and coffee shops (second choice at 42 per cent), restaurants (fourth at 29 per cent) and pubs and bars (fifth at 19 per cent). Visiting friends and family topped the list (60 per cent), while travelling/ day trips came in third (31 per cent).

Those in the hospitality industry were obviously more than keen to reopen their doors, but they weren’t the only ones taking note of customers’ cravings. Creatives and creative institutions saw an opportunity to satiate cultural, social and physical appetites by hosting eat-in exhibitions – design shows where the ‘presentation’ pieces become the furnishings for dining experiences. At Maniera gallery in Brussels, for instance, it was Belgian artist Koenraad Dedobbeleer who suggested transforming the space into a bar for his solo show of furniture and objects – and to do so straight after lockdowns lifted since people hadn’t been able to meet in person for so long. The gallery agreed, and the show’s opening aligned with many people’s first opportunity to dance in a hospitality venue again. As coronavirus surges waxed and

waned and waxed again, the concept adapted, replacing the dance floor with smaller settings for intimate artist-hosted cocktail evenings and, eventually, a restaurant. Serendipitously, running through the hospitality spectrum attracted a wide audience: the bigger parties early on brought in a younger, more fearless crowd, while the dinners towards the end of the exhibition’s lifespan drew an older clientele. The crossover has echoes of the retail x hospitality movement we explored in issue 142’s Frame Lab, whereby stores include the likes of coffee spots and restaurants to increase dwell time and connect with their clients on a new and deeper level. Eat-in exhibitions not only increase dwell time in the space; they increase interaction time with the purchasable works themselves. ‘Bringing

Eat - in exhibitions The pull of hospitality – particularly postlockdown – continues to infiltrate numerous spatial typologies, prompting creative institutions to serve up new ways for visitors to engage with exhibitions.

104

Spaces

Jeroen Verrecht

Motivated to bring people together after a period of Covid-induced isolation, Koenraad Dedobbeleer turned Maniera gallery in Brussels into a once-weekly bar for the duration of his solo show.

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LAB

‘The smartest homes are the most adaptable’ The way we use our homes may be changing, but most housing remains fixed. How can movable and modular designs offer more adaptability? What if future expansion was built in from the outset? And what role do new technologies play in shaping residences that predict our needs? Over the following pages, we explore the ins and outs of the responsive home.

The responsive home 116

Frame Lab

Particularly in the last few years, our homes have taken on a much greater and more diverse role in our lives, becoming not just our residences but our offices, social spaces, exercise rooms and more. In addition, the nuclear family has been replaced by a smorgasbord of domestic configurations and situations, and residential space in urban environments is becoming more sought after and expensive. All this begs the question: Why are typical homes so static? Carlo Ratti, founding partner of Carlo Ratti Associati and director of the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), believes the post-pandemic landscape is the perfect breeding ground for a home revolution. ‘Following the Spanish flu pandemic a hundred years ago,’ he says, ‘many countries thought about how homes could be built differently. In Germany, for instance, there was this idea of minimum existence – what, at the bare minimum, do we need in an apartment for healthy living?’ He believes we need a similar shakeup today – to rethink the function of the home and how its spaces are organized. In reconsidering the home space there’s the opportunity to make it more responsive to modern demands. What if residences could be more flexible and adaptable, responding to shifts in short-term needs – from workspace by day to social dining space by night, for example – and long-term needs, accommodating the likes of new children or an elderly relative in need of care? Here we look at three approaches to the responsive home, from spaces that change to fulfil new functions to fixed spaces with adaptable uses to technology-driven adaptability. Words Tracey Ingram This feature is based on research for the documentary video series Tomorrow Living, realized in collaboration with Huawei’s Milan Aesthetic Research Centre, which will premiere at the MEET centre for digital culture during Milan Design Week (4-12 June). Living

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OPPOSITE Not Architects Studio designed a Tokyo residence more like a meandering park than a home.

What if it wasn’t the space itself that drastically changed, but its use?

We’ve long been accustomed to pre-defined spatial boundaries in the home – the living room, the bedroom, the bathroom – but what if our interiors were more open to interpretation? ‘I think we almost need to go back to the drawing board and re-think and re-evaluate what the home actually is,’ says Jenny Lee, creative director of Studio Aikieu and Ikea’s Life at Home Leader. ‘It’s not just about being pragmatic – this is where we sit and watch TV, this is where we sleep, this is where we eat. We need to start to think about a seamless fluid space that actually adapts to the different frameworks and needs of each individual.’ Lee’s description can be applied to a Madrid home by the designers at Takk, who also added ‘responding to the climate’ 124

to the checklist. Since the Spanish city experiences intense heat waves during summer and severe cold periods in winter, Takk eschewed the more traditional residential layout of rooms and hallways in favour of spaces nestled inside one another – like the layers of an onion, the designers say. By doing so, they saved precious square metres as well as energy. The closer to the core the spaces are, the more insulated they are and the less extra energy they require. In essence, they designed ‘two houses for the price of one’ – the insulated ‘winter house’ covers 60 m2 of the 110-m2 shell, leaving the rest as a ‘summer house’. Spatial fluidity is further adopted indoors by embracing ambiguity. The same material for the kitchen is found in other »

Frame Lab

Yasuhiro Takagi

The responsive home toolkit Illustrations Simon Flöter

CONSIDER CHANGEABLE SPACES Designing a space so that functions retract when not needed can be a better use of resources, particularly when square metres are limited.

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OPT FOR AMBIGUITY Elements with multiple potential functions provide a blank(er) canvas for residents to fill in with their own behaviours and habits, as well as allowing space for them to evolve in the future.

THINK ABOUT FUTURE FLEXIBILITY Building adaptability for later use into a design from the outset and ensuring that minimal intervention is needed to alter its function is far more sustainable than the demolition-andreconstruction alternative.

THINK OF TECH AS AN ENABLER, NOT AN ADD-ON Eventually, in-home technology will not only make it possible for us to switch modes – and aesthetics – but to cultivate shared virtual hybrid ‘residences’. Human-centricity should be a priority, though, so technology must also help us disconnect when we need to. Toolkit

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‘Engineered craft is the tension between industrial and artisanal elements’

New material geometries that break the (brick) mould, smart doors for the hotel industry, self-righting furniture that can take a topple, and hollow shapes that resemble solid timber.

NK TOGETHER LUMI POUF The Lumi Pouf draws inspiration from natural ice and snow formations – lumi is Finnish for snow or light. Designed by Lisa Hilland, the pouf gets its unique shape from innovative sewing techniques to create pockets – one of the ways, in addition to its wooden core, that it reduces the amount of filling, which is made of recycled PET bottles. Hilland’s version makes use of soft leather, but designers Magniberg, Pia Wallén, Maxjenny (pictured) and Remake/Stockholm City Mission were given carte blanche to create one-off renditions, of which all sales profits will be donated to the newly established NK Design Scholarship for young Swedish designers. nk.se

MUTINA HIVES Heavily inspired by nature, Mutina has transformed the simple shape of the brick into a hexagon: ‘Beehives are modelled from hexagons – it is the most efficient geometry to achieve an almost infinitely expandable structure,’ says Hives’ designer Konstantin Grcic. Because of this, a variety of elements in graphic patterns can be achieved, including walls, architectural structures and furniture. The Hives modules have thermal and acoustic properties and can be used both indoors and out. mutina.it

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LUALDI WELCOME Lualdi and Philippe Starck teamed up to design the Welcome collection of doors, created specifically with the hotel industry in mind. The flush door is available in a variety of finishes such as wood, matte lacquer and two different types of aluminium. Welcome can be equipped with any number of smart accessories that can be adapted to practical and aesthetic needs and were designed specifically for the collection, which can support services such as personal recognition, heating and cooling, communication and more. lualdi.com

GANDIA BLASCO ONSEN When designing the Onsen outdoor furniture series, designers Francesco Meda and David Quincoces wanted to create contemporary yet classic Gandia Blasco pieces that combine the comfort of indoor living spaces with the pleasantries of those outdoors. The resulting collection plays with contrasts between light and shadow as well as empty and full space and includes a chair, a modular couch and a table crafted of leather, stainless steel and waterproof outdoor fabrics. gandiablasco.com

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2,540

PILLAR OF REPURPOSE

discarded cups were transformed into indigodyed, sterilized paper pulp to feed a 3D printer and create Blue Tree.

From urban waste to living architecture: Blast Studio – in full the Biological Laboratory of Architecture and Sensitive Technologies – collected discarded coffee cups to 3D-print an algorithmically designed, trunk-shaped column that can provide shelter to a range of organisms. Integrated nooks, for example, host insects, while crevasses allow the growth of plants and fungi. By bringing disposable products back into the design cycle, Blue Tree comments on – and aims to counter – the throwaway culture.

°C is the temperature at which the column is dried post-printing, helping to solidify the structure and ensure its potential as a loadbearing building element.

km is the maximum distance Blast Studio is willing to travel by bicycle to collect waste cups from London providers, thus eliminating transport emissions from its production process.

Words Floor Kuitert

2,749,945

is the number of 3D-printed modules that are stacked to form Blue Tree, which is 199 cm tall when compiled.

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In Numbers

Courtesy of Blast Studio

points – or in other words coordinates – were generated to guide the printer in shaping Blue Tree, whose form was designed using an algorithm that takes inspiration from natural tree trunks.