PREVIEW Frame #147 JUL/AUG

THE NEXT SPACE ISSUE 147 JUL — AUG 2022

NEO-NOMADISM KRISTA KIM

STREET ≠ CHEAP

METAVERSE OFFICES BX €22.95 DE €22.95 IT €24.90 CHF 33.00 UK £19.95 JP ¥3,800+ tax KR WON 40,000

BP

TRANSLUCENT LIVING

Studio CCRZ / Ph: Studio 9010 / Styling: Monti Studio

Flia

Just a simple line with a minimized light source.

A complete outdoor lighting family with a portable version for interiors as well.

Design: Alessandro Zambelli luceplan.com

reddot winner 2022 best of the best lighting design

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8 REPORTING

Kyiv and Oslo

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DSL Studio / Delfino Sisto Legnani, courtesy of Sara Ricciardi

Einar Aslak, courtesy of Vestre

CONTENTS

FROM

12 BUSINESS OF DESIGN

From inclusive hospitality

Joel Esposito

design to metaverse workspaces

30

IN PRACTICE

32 INTRODUCING

Milan-based creative Sara Ricciardi

44 WHAT I’VE LEARNED

WORKac founders Amale Andraos and Dan Wood

52

52

INFLUENCER

Digital artist Krista Kim

62 MONTANA FURNITURE Colouring outside the lines Frame 147

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workspaces take biophilia further, luxury learns from street culture, and more

116 HOSPITALITY 118 How digital nomads are

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Joaquín Mosquera, courtesy of Idearch Studio

64 SPACES

Living spaces turn translucent,

LAB

reshaping stay spaces

138 New typologies for wandering workers

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Kasia Gatkowska, courtesy of Random Studio

Edward Hendricks / CI&A Photography, courtesy of Ministry of Design

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148 MARKET

The latest releases from Muuto, B&B Italia, Maharam and more

160 IN NUMBERS

Jenkins&Uhnger’s Minus Chair in facts and figures

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Contents

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by Sara Ricciardi (see page 32) Photo Luca Argenton

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Lithography Edward de Nijs

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Colophon

Photographer: Henrik Schipper

Worldwide and exclusively, JUNG offers its classic LS 990 switch in the 63 original colours of the Les Couleurs® Le Corbusier palette.

Pure colour. Pure matt. In order to reflect the impressive colour depth, the switches are hand-lacquered.

SOHO Aesthetics | 12:43 Architekten Stuttgart, Germany

MADE TO TOUCH. DESIGNED TO CREATE. JUNG-GROUP.COM/ LC

gris clair 31 vert olive vif

l’ocre rouge moyen céruléen vif

NO FIXED ABODE Four years ago, an adventurous colleague in our design team let us know that she was planning to become a digital nomad. She was in her early thirties, single, and wanted to travel and work from a backpack and laptop.

Although that didn’t seem ideal for a graphic designer, she thought it was doable. She put her money where her mouth was and left for Barcelona, where she took up residence in a small flat for a few months, then travelled on to hotels and hostels in Mexico and South America.

While on the go, she and a friend in the Netherlands built up a nice clientele in Europe. Her dream came true. Finally, she and her new boyfriend returned to Barcelona, where she still lives – no longer a nomad.

Nomadism’s nothing new. Some peoples have been moving from one place to another for centuries.

The phenomenon became meaningful to individuals with the advent of the laptop and widespread access to fast internet. The coronavirus gave the decisive push to a development that had already been predicted in 1997 by Rachael Woldoff and Robert Lichfield in their book Digital Nomads. When the virus began to circulate in 2020, offices were declared a dangerous area and working from home became the norm for those who could. Two years later, many companies are using all the tricks in the bag to try to lure their staff back to their home base. But lots of employees don’t want to give up their newly acquired autonomy. More and more of them are even daring to resign, following the same path as our former colleague. And with the everincreasing urbanization of the world, this freedomand-flexibility-loving group only looks set to grow in the coming years.

In this issue’s Lab we’ve mapped out how the hospitality industry wants to win over the digital nomad. True freelancers always want to be on the move.

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They’re particularly attracted to vehicles in which they can move, stay and work – think cruise ships, but also new types of cars that can be transformed into meeting rooms on wheels in the blink of an eye.

Hotels are pulling out the stops to gain the favour of the nomads who are a little less demanding when it comes to mobility. The business hotel as we know it from the 1980s – with desks tucked away in dark corners, uninspiring conference rooms and rooms furnished mainly for sleeping – is losing the battle for the hip digital nomad. Unless they transform their lobbies into buzzy meeting/workplaces, add a restaurant where locals who matter also want to be seen, and make sure their rooms offer an office-worthy work setting in addition to a bed and bath.

Thanks to smart entrepreneurs, digital nomads who want to stick around in one place a little longer can now make use of collective living quarters that they can adapt to their personal preferences to a certain extent.

Mobility, flexibility, customization: three keywords that describe what digital nomads are looking for. Three words that also apply to work and retail in general. Add sustainability and inclusivity, and you probably have an accurate description of the future of spaces in the next decade.

Robert Thiemann Editor in chief

Editorial

Joana Luz, courtesy of Luma Atelier

business of design What’s behind the trend of flagship factories. How hospitality design can become more inclusive. Will 3D printing reshape the future of housing?

Workspaces head for the metaverse. The big potential of biomaterials in spatial design.

Adrian Deweerdt

Luma Atelier created an alternative wall cladding through the process of salt crystallization.

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Business of Design

How biofabricated materials can help address the energy crunch After experimenting with a mix of fast-growing microalgae and bioplastics, Luma Atelier produced a series of coloured translucent tiles.

Against the background of sanctions on Russia, one question being asked is ‘Will the war in Ukraine hasten the end of fossil fuels?’ Expert analysis goes both ways. The current energy crunch might speed up Europe’s transition to green technologies or, in the intermediate, favour a return to coal or even spur a renewed interest in fracking.

The fact is that the crisis is a magnifying glass for what is at stake in the energy sector and, by consequence, in design and construction.

The acknowledgment that we must lessen our dependence on fossil fuels has been there before, further promoted by the new European Green Deal aimed at making Europe climate-neutral by 2050 through building regulations and lifecycle assessment schemes. It’s one reason there’s a rising demand for circular building materials based on renewable natural resources. And there are a growing number of material inno-

vations commercially available that may satisfy the requirement for non-fossil-based solutions in spatial design.

A prominent provider is design-driven biotechnology company Mogu based in Northern Italy, founded by Maurizio Montalti. The designer started research into the potential of mycelium, the vegetative part of fungi, in 2009, and has since developed production technology further, bringing it to industrial scale. Mogu works with fungal biofabrication processes and grows mycelium on upcycled agro-industrial residues (including textile residues, corn crops, sawdust, rice straw, hemp and spent coffee grounds) into highend products for interior spaces.

Its acoustic panels offer a range of foam-like, soft textures and different 3D shapes, while its floor tiles feature compact, resilient surfaces. According to Montalti, the biomaterial transition is on its way and, while a fundamental

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DSL Studio / Delfino Sisto Legnani, courtesy of Sara Ricciardi

in practice Sara Ricciardi on why every interior should respond to its occupants’ needs.

WORKac on why you can’t replace real space. Krista Kim on how NFTs can shape creative economies.

INTRODUCING INTRODUCING

Sara Ricciardi set up her own practice in Milan after studying product design in Milan, Istanbul and New York.

S I R C A R R C

SARA RICCI ICCIARDI SA RA RICCIAR CIARDI SARA A RICCIARD RA RICCIAR RICCIARDI S CIARDI SARA

Benevento-born creative Sara Ricciardi, whose poetic and eclectic portfolio includes everything from products, performances and set designs to hospitality and retail interiors, believes homes should support the alternating screenplays of, and characters in, our lives.

Words Robert Thiemann Portraits Antonio Campanella

Two things stand out on entering the Milan studio of designer, art director and social design lecturer Sara Ricciardi: the presence of extensive collections of bizarre objects and the absence of permanent walls. Replacing the latter are a set of curtains and openings that turn her team’s workspace into an adaptable stage for dynamic creativity. ‘Every space should respond to its occupant’s needs,’ says Ricciardi.

‘In my studio that means considering the moods of the manifold personalities at work.’

What’s your definition of the home?

SARA RICCIARDI: The home is my stage, the place where I can showcase my personality all around. It’s the place where I collect parts of my life, the place where I feel most comfortable but also the place that occasionally confronts me with uncomfortable scenarios, which in turn help me to stay in constant dialogue with my surroundings. I used to be scared of being home alone, but once I started

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to communicate more with my domestic environment, I realized the home is a living entity as well. It makes suggestions while reflecting the occupants’ constantly changing moods.

How do you turn a house into a home?

Just like you build relationships with people: by giving it your time and energy, allowing it to be absorbed by you and vice versa. The home responds to the spirit and investment – both in the physical and more fleeting sense of the word – you put into it and soaks up the memories you attach to it. Many people avoid investing time and resources in their home spaces and steer clear of making choices because they’re afraid that they’ll get bored of certain aspects in the long run, or that they won’t fit in anymore as they evolve as a person. In response, some people focus on creating comfort zones in which they’ll have what I would describe as ‘medium’ feelings, to feel safe. That’s understandable, but don’t

In Practice

be too safe or wary of future changes. Create environments that embody you and provide moments of strength in the here and now. As a designer I’ve experienced that doing so for yourself can be more complex than deciding for others. However, it’s an incredible journey and I encourage everyone to go for it.

If instead you decide to buy your way into a place that’s defined by someone else, your narrative is prewritten. By choosing such a predefined environment, you also enter a certain community and adopt the lifestyle and status that comes with it, in a way. This can be a very powerful thing, but people already have so many (sometimes contradictory) needs, obsessions and personas inside of themselves that can be reflected through a home environment. It’s important your surroundings feed all those. Different aspects of your personality will need to be stimulated at different times. And, besides carrying what I call a ‘neighbourhood of personalities’ inside of yourself, you’re also

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DSL Studio / Delfino Sisto Legnani

To showcase the manufacturing process of material technology company Serge Ferrari during Milan Design Week 2019 while offering a moment of relaxation to fairgoers, Ricciardi conceived playful, multisensory installation L’île de Serge.

Luca Argenton

Ricciardi designed a stand for Italian supplier Regi Laboratories’ presentation at beauty trade fair Cosmoprof 2022 in Bologna. The exterior was a vibrant combination of Regi’s brand colours – blue and pink – while the interior (opposite) played with a pastel palette.

INFLUENCER

KRISTA KIM

Krista Kim, contemporary artist and self-described explorer of the digital consciousness, discusses how creatives can harness the power of the NFT, what virtual instruments can mean for human wellbeing and why the metaverse should be co-created, not conquered.

Words Robert Thiemann Portraits Joel Esposito

You’ve written a manifesto in which you advocate the reconciliation of technological innovation with the creation of art in order to arrive at a more humanized digital reality. Why do you believe that’s important?

KRISTA KIM: I started writing my manifesto in 2014 after completing my studies at the Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore. At the time, smartphones were still relatively new and I became hyperaware of the way I changed as a person by using such a device as my main source of communication. I felt that the social media platforms I was interacting with were affecting my psychology. The quick interactions lacked empathy in many ways and were becoming increasingly narcissistic and egocentric – all about showmanship. I thought that if I was feeling these incredible changes, billions of people around the world adopting these new technologies must be affected, too. And it turned out to be a pretty accurate observation.

During Covid-19 people became hypervigilant about their mental health and wellbeing and even before then they had started to observe how Facebook and the like abused their access to data. This debate is very pervasive now and

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In Practice

I think that data sovereignty is truly going to be one of the greatest human rights issues of the 21st century and beyond, because data is power and whoever controls our data controls us. I believe that as a collective, technology companies are creating culture. Their products and systems are informing culture through the micro behaviours they’re reinforcing. To create a more connected and humane culture, the contribution of art to digital technology is crucial. It will affect how our society chooses to use and innovate digital technology for the future. Artists can promote digital humanism in the formation of culture.

As an artist yourself, what’s your aim in working with digital technology?

I’m interested in creating sublime transcendent artistic experiences using the screen.

I studied the aesthetic philosophies of Immanuel Kant. He defines the sublime as an awe-driven experience that allows you to see the world outside of the self and to recognize the vastness of it, to see how fragile and insignificant the human experience could be in the greater sphere of things – from a cosmic view.

But my interests in the sublime also derive

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Michael Hull, courtesy of Times Square Arts

As part of the world tour of sound-andlight installation Continuum, Midnight Moment took over NYC’s Times Square in February 2022. Visitors were invited to reflect and decompress beneath 90 electronic billboards.

Rendered using Unreal Engine, software commonly employed to create video games, digital home Mars House sold in March 2020 on NFT marketplace SuperRare for an amount of cryptocurrency equivalent to €486,000.

Courtesy of Krista Kim Studio

Lee Hyun Jun, courtesy of Dior

spaces

Why living spaces are exposing it all. Street culture moves from back alley to high street. Chinese hotels offer new perspectives on their neighbourhoods.

Workplaces take biophilia beyond pot plants.

RETAIL

Avenue & Son’s store and skatepark are located in Shanghai’s Taikoo Li Qiantan commercial complex, home to many luxury brands.

luxury street culture Driven by the new generation of luxury consumers – Gen Z and millennials – and skateboarding’s rise in popularity and press, the sport and its associated street culture has moved from back alley to high street.

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Spaces

SFAP

It’s a striking image: ten Dior models lined up at the brand’s AW22 fashion show in Seoul against a simulated skatepark, their voluminous dresses highly unlikely half-pipe attire. This is by no means the first time a luxury fashion brand – or Dior, at that – has tapped into skate culture.

For the Dior Homme FW16 show, models wove their way around a black skatepark rimmed with red neon, and the brand shot a fashion film for the same season in LA’s Venice Skatepark, inspired by the new wave of skate culture.

A wave that in 2017 led to Hermès launching a series of skateboards and Louis Vuitton teaming up with Supreme. In 2019, Gucci launched a campaign inspired by 1970s skate culture for its Gucci Grip watch to connect to a ‘culture guided by no rules and free thinkers [that]

creates a portrait of inclusion’, as stated in the accompanying Instagram post.

The number of luxury collaborations was up 200 per cent from 2020-2021, StockX lead economist Jesse Einhorn told Vogue Business. ‘If you look at the brands that they’re collaborating with, they’re more often than not skate brands.’ The hype has been further fuelled by skateboarding’s inclusion in the 2020 Olympic Games (held 23 July-8 August 2021). ‘Whether you think this development is brilliant or abhorrent – and many skateboarders are ambivalent – it is a major step for an activity that has often prided itself on being a subculture,’ writes Tim Lewis for The Guardian. ‘So there’s a lot to process for skateboarders right now, not least the

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Street ≠ cheap

Located in Shanghai, the first flagship store of Avenue & Son – a brand known for putting skateboarding culture on the map in China – includes what the designers at Various Associates refer to as the ‘first marble skatepark in the world’ (see p. 103). Choosing this material was a bid to break the stereotype that street equals cheap. The outdoor marble kiosk serves up coffee and other beverages, encouraging spectatorship and community gatherings. Skaters can even roll right into the store, which continues the streetscape vibe. various-associates.com

Retail

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COMING

WHERE WE LEARN Reimagining Educational Spaces Where We Learn investigates how learning spaces are evolving to be made more engaging, flexible and all-around better suited to today’s challenges and opportunities. Geared towards readers interested in understanding the broader impact of design on the human experience, this book highlights imaginative projects while remaining grounded in practical contexts and real-world settings. €49

SOON

THE HEALTHY INDOORS New Challenges, New Designs The Healthy Indoors candidly addresses the increasing need for spaces designed to serve multiple and diverse uses while promoting a culture of wellbeing and innovation. Laying claim to significance beyond that of aesthetics, the case studies selected for this book are thoroughly presented in a way that will appeal to both professionals and enthusiasts alike. €49

store.frameweb.com

Nicholas Worley, courtesy of Grzywinski+Pons

hospi tality lab It may have taken a global pandemic, the necessity of office closures and a great resignation to break into mainstream consciousness, but digital nomads are (ironically) not going anywhere. As this rising demographic searches for a seamless blend of hospitality and work, how are hotels responding? And what new typologies are emerging to fill the gap?

Zoku’s expansion from the Netherlands to Copenhagen (pictured) is a sign of the demand for more flexible international hospitality-work spaces. The project is the first home-office hybrid hotel in the Danish capital.

Courtesy of Zoku

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Frame Lab

NOMADLAND In their 1997 book Digital Nomad, Tsugio Makimoto and David Manners predicted a future in which technology would facilitate a return to nomadic lifestyles. The rise of the internet and portable communication devices, coupled with the human race’s inherent urge to travel, they said, would free us from settled states to once again wander as our ancestors did. And they were right.

A 50 per cent rise in US-based digital nomads alone since 2020 has seen this demographic reach 32 million strong worldwide – a number expected to rise to 1 billion by 2035. As Gen Z turns to freelance roles at a higher rate than any previous generation, and the movement makes inroads even among the salaried workforce, this prediction may prove equally prescient.

During the course of this demographic’s growth, hotels have emerged as key spaces, with 53 per cent of digital nomads using them as an operations base. Indeed, few sectors have adapted as immediately or visibly, with designers accelerating efforts to serve this crowd through spaces that hybridize elements of work, life and play. But as a growing number of specialist venues seek to attract digital nomads away from hotels with particularized environments tailored to their needs alone, the margins are becoming increasingly thin, and this pole position is under threat.

Over the next few pages, we explore how the digital nomad movement is driving a new typology of hotel space that highlights fluid transmissions between form and function, and why hospitality design at large is being redefined in the image of wandering lifestyles.

Words Kristofer Thomas

Hospitality

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1 — FLUID FORMS

Business centres, co-working desks and hireable meeting rooms are no longer enough; digital nomads desire hotel spaces as flexible and free as their lives have become.

As one of the earliest spaces dedicated to travelling professionals and working beyond an office remit, the hotel business centre was ahead of its time. Much has been written of its demise, though to claim this facility is a thing of the past is to ignore both its lingering influence and the evolution of its form. Indeed, the reorientation of the business centre as a co-working space was a key factor in the rise of the digital nomad lifestyle, and its proliferation now drives change in hotel design at large – no longer a corner of tucked-away desks, but in some cases the core touchstone for entire brands.

With the defining characteristic of digital nomads being an ability to work from anywhere, their design influence in the hotel can largely be charted by the development of such facilities. As far back as 2013, Ace Shoreditch was predicting the shift with its 120

communal lobby and desk arrangements, while the launch of Locke and the maturation of the aparthotel concept saw the nomad spread beyond these desks to occupy lounges and bars. In 2015, the opening of the first Selina hotel marked the point at which digital nomads warranted a design-and-brand vocabulary of their own, before The Hoxton’s flagship Working_From venue raised the stakes with a complex of studios, clusters and casual office-lite spots – essentially an office in a hotel outfit. This trajectory continues today as Scandic rolls out the largest network of coworking spaces in Scandinavia in 270 of its hotels.

Where some of this proliferation could be attributed to the increasing number of freelance workers – up by 47 per cent between 2011 and 2018 – the nomad’s adoption of hotel »

Frame Lab

Nacasa & Partners

Hybrid hospitality spaces can learn from multifunctional designs like Snøhetta’s ‘superfurniture’ – a feature of co-working space Pangea in Tokyo – which shifts from reception to amphitheatre to phone booths to meeting spaces to individual workspaces.

Hospitality

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Hospitality

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Edward Hendricks / CI&A Photography

3 — MOBILE UNITS Beyond hybridized space and multifunctionality, hotels will need to shed any signs of stasis and embrace physical movement if they are to truly serve the nomad.

When the organizers of Nomad Cruise opted to host a skill-sharing conference on a boat and visit four different countries in a 12-day itinerary, it was not simply an aesthetic choice, but one based on a keen understanding of its core demographic. Aligning itself with the digital nomad’s main motivators of travel, transience and mobility, the event tapped into a rich vein of thematic resonance – namely in the values of movement its audience favours over the prospect of prolonged stasis. The pandemic may have scuppered plans for its next edition, but the suitability of this format persists, and hoteliers and designers alike should reassess whether a fixed mode of hospitality design is best placed to serve digital nomads, or if upping sticks to follow them in rootless pursuit is the logical endpoint.

On paper, the impermanent connection between hotels and digital nomads is well suited, but for hospitality brands with ambitions of retaining the loyalty of a guest that wants to mix things up, a fixed abode 134

is a precarious long-term strategy. Despite best efforts by 25Hours and nomad mainstay Selina to achieve a system of continuity with subscription models that allow travellers to access the brand across multiple continents, this operational strategy remains at odds with the nomadic way of life. It might prove cheaper, but the similarity between venues and service culture will soon grow stale and set eyes to wandering. The solution, then, is perhaps not to expect guests to follow brands around the globe, but to design for the reverse.

Billed as the world’s first nomadic hotel, Moliving is a prefabricated, moveable pod unit with the capacity to function alongside existing properties or stand alone in disconnected locales. Customized to best suit the needs of location and guest alike, the modular units can switch up elements from façade material to roof profile – the flexible sensibilities of this concept going beyond interiority to considerably extend both geographic and experiential reach. ‘The traditional hotel »

Frame Lab

David Mitchell

Billed as the world’s first nomadic hotel, Moliving is a prefabricated, moveable pod unit that can function alongside existing properties or stand alone in disconnected locales.

Hospitality

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The fluid interior layout of Hyundai’s Seven concept suggests that cars of the future will be closer to homes on wheels, allowing travellers to relax and work on the road.

Courtesy of Hyundai

The best concepts will be those that reconcile tangible transformation of physical form with the more experiential journeys sought by perpetually wandering, horizon-chasing nomads 136

Frame Lab

KIKI GOTI’s malleable, maximalist spaces are personalized by their temporary tenants

What was your biggest challenge in designing a space that caters to digital nomads?

KG: How to create a sense of exploration and a sense of belonging at the same time.

I believe digital nomads have a desire to feel both the comfort and familiarity of home and the excitement and curiosity that comes with travelling.

What about the current spaces on offer?

NYC-based architectural designer and educator Kiki Goti holds a master’s in Integrative Technologies and Architectural Design Research from the Institute for Computational Design at the University of Stuttgart and is the founder of SomePeople, a design studio exploring how emerging technologies – and their integration in architectural design and construction – change the spaces we live in.

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They will need to adapt. In the past, sleek and minimalist spaces with no distinct references or connotations whatsoever were considered suitable for business travellers. The idea was that they would feel comfortable in some kind of universal space. But as work-from-home policies standardize and loosen up, the notion of the digital nomad is expanding. The group of people classified under this term is now much more diverse. And that diversity should be reflected in the spaces they live and work in – whether digital or physical.

That’s where your concept comes in. Tell me about the alternative you’re suggesting.

I’ve envisioned physical and digital maximalist spaces that embrace colour, patterns

Frame Lab

and textures. These spaces are much more inclusive, safe and comfortable for the wide range of digital nomads that exist today. The spaces are not static, but rather ever evolving and in constant dialogue with their temporary residents. Communities of digital nomads can shape these spaces collectively through a participatory design process. It will also help them engage with and explore the places they inhabit, even if temporarily.

How do the physical and virtual aspects of your concept relate?

Digital nomads can form communities online and, with the help of intuitive tools like gaming environments and other user interfaces, modify the design of their collective virtual spaces.

The digital environments, in turn, will inform shared physical spaces, which thus become a reflection of the virtual community in a mashup of colours, symbols and textures. This way, the environment becomes a dynamic space of co-creation and interaction that adapts to the unique needs of its habitants and will feel both familiar and uncanny: a sensorial feast that evokes some kind of exuberant domesticity. somepeople.studio kikigoti.com

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Goti’s physical environments take their cues from the collective virtual spaces customized by online communities of digital nomads.

The Challenge

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Courtesy of FreelingWaters

market

Classic models are revamped and reinvented, designers take a stand against overconsumption, furniture that shapes itself, and flexible seating for changing postures.

PIETRO FRANCESCHINI OLYMPUS To present the playful yet classic pieces of interior designer Pietro Franceschini’s Olympus collection, Sarah Venturini’s Fattura Studio toed the line between art, design and fashion. Shot at the Stefan Milosavljevic exhibition by The Flat Gallery in Milan, the display used metaphysical and surrealist elements set to an original soundtrack by electronic music producer Matisa to eloquently unveil the expressive furniture collection. pietro-franceschini.com

Fattura Studio

FREELINGWATERS CABINET COLLECTION Artists Gijs Frieling and Job Wouters – together FreelingWaters – upcycled a set of 18th- and 19th-century cabinets by stripping, restoring and painting them with colourful, geometric patterns. Beyond each piece’s expressive casing, ornate images decorate the cabinets’ interiors.

The depictions are a commentary on mass consumption, rejecting their original intended purposes as vessels for merely storing hordes of material objects. @freelingwaters

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Frame 147

Omar Sartor

UNIFOR PRINCIPLES Office furniture manufacturer UniFor and architecture firm OMA have joined forces to ‘create a unique furniture line that responds to the needs of workplace culture in the 21st century’, says OMA partner Rem Koolhaas. With more than 100 modular elements intended to flexibly accommodate and facilitate office productivity, sociability and wellbeing, the Principles collection is a responsive and adaptive system of workplace furniture. unifor.it

CARPET EDITION THE FLOOR IS LAVA Inspired by volcanoes, Carpet Edition’s The Floor Is Lava rugs seemingly melt onto the floors beneath them. The series – designed by PLACéE – consists of six forms that capture the fluidity of lava, while its colour range spans more neutral tones to hues extracted from the digital world. New Zealand wool and Tencel yarns are tufted by hand to make the rugs. carpetedition.com

Amos Fricke

Market

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MAHARAM METHOD Woven with Seaqual yarn, a blended textile made of post-consumer waste and reclaimed ocean plastic, the Method series is the newest addition to Maharam’s M collection of fabrics. Available in 25 colourways, Method fabrics are finish free and bleach cleanable, making them ideal for applications from seating to upholstered walls. maharam.com

COSENTINO DEKTON KRAFTIZEN Cosentino’s ultracompact Dekton range of surfaces now includes Kraftizen. The five colours of the carbon-neutral series are reminiscent of Venetian stucco, paying homage to the handcrafted quality of antique architecture while meeting today’s needs, due to their high resistance to fire, heat, stains and scratches. cosentino.com

Signe Luksengard

HALLGEIR HOMSTVEDT SHIFT A built-in gasket joint inspired by the construction of skateboards allows Shift to move reflexively in tandem with the sitter’s changing posture. Hallgeir Homstvedt’s aniline-dyed beechwood and ash stools are an ergonomic nod to Norwegian designer Peter Opsvik’s notion of movement while stationary. hallgeirhomstvedt.com

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Frame 147

CASSINA TRAMONTO As the designer of the 1984 Tramonto à New York sofa, Gaetano Pesce revisited the New York skyline at sunset for the design of his vibrantly hued room divider, Tramonto. Part of Cassina’s 2022 collection, the screen is made of resin, which is poured in phases by hand into round sun- and buildingshaped moulds, making each piece unique. cassina.com

CESAR TANGRAM Tangram derives its name and function from the ancient Chinese puzzle, which cuts a square into seven modular pieces allowing for infinite re-creations. García Cumini’s kitchen island for Cesar applies the same logic. The system’s five curved modules can be freely combined with square modules to create compositions tailored to individual spaces. cesar.it

Market

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POSITIVELY NEGATIVE Minus is setting out

to manufacture in a way that’s beneficial for humans and nature. The new company combines super-compact value chains with the circular product-as-a-service model – it hopes to have its first perfect value chain up and running in 2024. Designed by Oslo-based Jenkins&Uhnger, the degradable and repairable Minus Chair is a prototype towards what could be the world’s first carbon-negative furniture series – potentially with an accompanying algae-and-cellulose cushion.

Words Tracey Ingram

100

years is the total lifespan of the parts used in the Minus Chair

1.5

is the estimated average carbon footprint (kgCO2e) of the Minus Chair today, based on calculations via EPD Norway. Comparatively, the Furniture Industry Research Association estimates the average dining chair’s kgCO2e value to be 27

90% 7.77

kg is the amount of biogenic carbon already stored in the wood of the chair, based on the Norwegian and European Standards

160

68%

represents the drop in biodiversity worldwide since 1970, according to WWF

-10

kg is the estimated net carbon balance from the Minus Chair value chain in the future jenkinsuhnger.com minusfurniture.no

In Numbers

Sara Angelica Spilling, styling by Kråkvik & D’Orazio

is the approximate amount of material from the Minus Chair that can be reused in a new product – the remaining 10% is lost during the likes of sanding or minor dimensional changes