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THE GREAT INDOORS Nº123 JUL — AUG 2018
WORK. WHEREVER
Now this is living Showroom Fast Via Arnoldo Bellini 9A 25077 Roè Volciano, Brescia - Italy
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FRAME 123
Kiyoshi Obara
Contents 21
46
17 OBJECTS
New joints, gimmick-free 3D printing, the basics of blockchain
30 PLANK
Konstantin Grcic’s suitcaseinspired seat
33 THE CHALLENGE
Five creatives reimagine retail
45 PORTRAITS 46 DANIEL LIBESKIND ‘Don’t believe everything you’re being fed’
54 MUR MUR LAB Starting small
Carmen Chan
52 SIGRID CALON Marrying art and commerce
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60 STUDIO DRIFT Attuned to nature 62 VINCENT VAN DUYSEN Atypical architect
76 MINI
Co-creating meets co-living
Courtesy of Mur Mur Lab
70 DAN GRAHAM Reflecting on reflections
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8
FRAME 123
SDL Studio
81 SPACES
Best in shows, retail reinventions
130 ANDREU WORLD
Furniture crosses over
133 FRAME LAB Work 134 When an office isn’t just an office 138 HofmanDujardin keeps things close to home 142 Inner-city snoozing at Nap York 146 Tenoha: Japanese-style hospitality in Italy 150 Everything under one roof at Tintagel House
154 INTERFACE
Oliver Heath talks biophilic design
157 REPORTS Lighting
The latest in LEDs and smart devices
Andrea Martiradonna, courtesy of Park Associati
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146
170 FREIFRAU
Focusing on femininity
172 MILAN DESIGN WEEK
Nature rules at the furniture fair
Bastien Chevrier’s Cocoon in facts and figures
161
Courtesy of Artemide
176 IN NUMBERS
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COLOPHON
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Contributors to this issue Elana Castle – EC Giovanna Dunmall – GD Will Georgi – WG Grant Gibson – GG Leo Gullbring – LG Kanae Hasegawa – KH Becky Lyon – BL Gili Merin – GM Shonquis Moreno – SM Maria Elena Oberti – MEO Alexandra Onderwater – AO Jill Pope – JP Bradley Quinn – BQ Jane Szita – JS Lauren Teague – LT Jelte Timmer – JT
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Cover Photos Irina Boersma Lithography Edward de Nijs Printing Grafisch Bedrijf Tuijtel Hardinxveld-Giessendam
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EDITORIAL
The Whole Wide Work OKAY, LET’S START by stating the obvious: thanks to smartphones and laptops we can work anywhere Wi-Fi is available. As a result, coffee bars, hotel lobbies, train stations and airport lounges are populated by people staring into screens and talking on their phones. And those who aren’t grinding away in public spaces are carrying out the same activities at home. In other words, the world is threatening to become one huge workplace. But as we’ve seen with previous trends, this one is also creating its own countermovement. The trailblazers are coming up with workplaces that encompass an entire world. I mean more than just an office with a restaurant and a meditation room. For example, a couple of years from now, one of Amsterdam’s largest and fastest-growing enterprises – hotel and holiday-rental specialist Booking.com – will move into a brand-new building with amenities that include a cinema, an art gallery, a makers lab, a choice of bars and restaurants, and a ‘playground’ suitable for boxing and yoga. Turn to page 138 to discover how an impressive team of star architects and interior designers are hard at work on this ‘office’, for want of a better word. Sections of the building will be accessible to everyone. I wouldn’t hesitate to call this project ‘a city in a city’. Or even ‘a world in a workplace’. The only thing missing in the design for Booking.com’s new HQ is a place to sleep. Other developers are jumping in to fill this gap, however. Station F in Paris – which claims to be the world’s biggest co-working space for start-ups – is launching 100 shared apartments for 600 people this year. The venue offers – what else? – a sports
complex, bar-café, and direct transport links to the Station F campus. The idea is that office staff no longer have to leave their ‘work world’. Returning from one of their many business trips, they’re back ‘home’ again, with all the latest amenities and opportunities for chance encounters with interesting people during breaks and after hours. Surrounding hard-working professionals with everything they need motivates them to stick around even when their presence isn’t strictly required. All under the motto of a future workspace that’s on the way to becoming ‘a dynamic and progressive destination where people will want to spend time, especially those who might be travelling regularly or working remotely’. So says Nicola Osborn, design director at MoreySmith and the person responsible for co-working hub Deskopolitan (see p. 136). The thought of tomorrow’s ‘work city’ may sound exciting, but it also makes it harder to simply switch off and smell the roses. The crème de la crème of the global workforce, young talent at work on our future, seems doomed to remain immersed in jobrelated activities, putting extra pressure on interior designers. They have to design places that not only stimulate staff but also invite them to slow down on occasion and take an undisturbed break. The more that offices with benefits influence the lives of (especially young) professionals, the more important it is for such spaces to offer workers a basis for a healthy and diversified existence. ROBERT THIEMANN Editor in chief
XT-A SINGLE
tobiasgrau.com
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CONTRIBUTORS
‘In two of the photos, Daniel is sitting on a bench from his Gemma collection. While it looks lightweight, the product is actually made of solid steel. It took six people to move it into place for the shots’ CARMEN CHAN, PHOTOGRAPHER
Dutchman JELTE TIMMER is passionate about the interplay between people and technologies. Building on a background in psychology and new-media studies, he cofounded a media lab in Utrecht, the Netherlands, to explore the cultural impact of the latest technological advancements. Timmer’s writings have been published in both academic publications and popular media. He looks at trends and human behaviour from a design perspective through his work at service-design agency Livework, where he helps organizations to develop human-centric technologies and solutions. Timmer explains the ins and outs of blockchain technology on page 26. Portrait and fashion-lifestyle photographer CARMEN CHAN likes to depict people in their personal environments and gravitates towards spaces in which she can create ‘clean, airy and intimate images’. Her clients include Adidas Originals, Burberry, Everlane, Cathay Pacific and Samsung, and her work has appeared in Monocle, WWD, Cereal and Architectural Digest. After living and working for seven years in New York City and Hong Kong, Chan is currently enjoying a different pace of life in Los Angeles. You can find her portraits of Daniel Libeskind on pages 46-50.
Based in Sweden but ‘usually more at ease abroad’, LEO GULLBRING started contributing to Frame in 1998. After decades spent touring the world and interviewing well- and lesser-known architects and designers, he’s ‘back on track’ for his ‘favourite magazine’. A one-time cofounder of bar and restaurant La Terrazza in Perugia, Italy, today he ‘offers a cocktail of different outlooks on a world in perpetual turmoil – from post-Anthropocene design and habitations on Mars to in-depth interviews with change-makers’. For this issue, Gullbring interviewed Daniel Libeskind (see page 46).
After graduating from Falmouth College of Arts with honours in 2002, photographer ANDREW MEREDITH headed to London and snapped up his first editorial: a ten-page feature on Selfridges for Frame that marked the start of a long-standing relationship between Meredith and the department store. Other commissions soon arrived from brands such as Chanel, Hermès, Burberry and Moooi – and from leading magazines, architects and interior designers. Meredith’s personal projects include Hydra, ‘an architectural documentation of underground Scandinavian hydropower plants’, and Introversion, which ‘re-enacts and constructs Mars and lunar landscapes’. For this issue, he captured spatial projects both in London and during Milan Design Week.
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Courtesy of Sony
3D PRINTING gets a lot closer to home. What does BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY mean for design? Designers rethink JOINTS. Discover new directions in the world of products.
Courtesy of Sony
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OBJECTS
Electronics brands are leading the charge in PHYGITAL INTERACTION
Responding to the presence of visitors, unadorned wall sconces came to life, producing an interplay of light and shadow.
TECHNOLOGY – It’s hard, in today’s digital age, to imagine a world without screens. But in the near future screens may no longer play an inherent role in our daily lives. Simple hand gestures, nods and shrugs will allow us to interact with the objects and spaces around us. Merely pointing to a wall might be enough to change its colour. During Milan Design Week, Japanese electronics giant Sony tapped into the digital reservoir with Hidden Senses, a multisensory exhibition outfitted with interactive designs specially created to enhance our lives. Spanning five rooms, the presentation envisioned what might happen if digital and design were to dovetail seamlessly. The outcome was an interactive, sensory-rich experience pulsating with fresh phygital possibilities. Staged as individual case studies, the displays featured digitally enhanced objects that engaged the senses in unexpected and thought-provoking ways. In a room entitled Under the Light, for example, wall sconces
with built-in motion detectors communicated with visitors by means of colour and light. Radiating with vibrant, wavy patterns, the ethereal lamps changed colour and composition, signalling a shift in space as people moved across the room. A tour of the Abstract Electronics room revealed what might happen if our furniture could interact with us on a more physical level. In one such case, an egg-shaped table lamp seemed to be half full of water. Pushing the lamp back and forth on its base caused the contents to splash around inside, surprising fairgoers. Was it really water? Although open for only a few short days in Milan, the Hidden Senses exhibition left a lasting impression. Using a few sophisticated tricks, Sony broke down the prevailing perception of digital space and reimagined reality. Sony’s is a world in which the physical and digital are no longer at odds but intuitively coexist as one. – MEO sony.com
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OBJECTS
The future of 3D PRINTING looks familiar TECHNOLOGY – As a production method, 3D printing is finally shedding its association with novelties and gimmicks. Objects once unavailable to consumers – for geographical or economic reasons – are now being democratized, thanks to both the medium
and the commercial adoption of opensource design. A public able to witness the transformation of digital files into familiar products – homes, cars, furniture and food – can better comprehend the technology’s potential. – KG
In an unlikely relationship between heritage and technology, architecture-engineering firm EDG came up with a software solution that 3D prints moulds for architectural decoration. The project, Modern Ornamental, was inspired by the multitude of buildings being demolished because of a lack of funds for restoration. EDG software can help to salvage centuries-old stonework and to create brand-new embellished façades. edgnyc.com
Kiyoshi Obara
3D PRINTING
Visitors to SXSW 2018 had the opportunity to watch online food database OPEN MEALS produce a kitschy piece of pixellated sushi. Concealed within nigiri-shaped gel cubes is technology that utilizes a vast digitized food database and a specialized 3D printer that can send food files from Tokyo to Texas and from Earth to outer space. With the popularization of this technology, Open Meals envisions a bright future for universally accessible food production. open-meals.com
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BetteLux Oval Couture Steel can wear anything
Design: Tesseraux+Partner www.bette.de
THE
Andreas Piedfort
THE FUTURE OF RETAIL In the lead-up to each issue, Frame challenges emerging designers to answer a topical question with a future-forward concept. As more and more purchases happen online, physical shops need to attract clients with extra experiences and services. The power of personal contact remains a drawing card, though: a PWC survey reported that 78 per cent of customers feel that sales associates with a deep knowledge of a product range are the most important reason for visiting a bricks-and-mortar store. How will we shop in the future? We asked five makers to share their ideas.
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Rodrigo Piña
In De la O’s retail concept, consumers can buy multisensory VR or AR product experiences, but only if they install a brand’s software upgrades on a regular basis.
THE CHALLENGE
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FUTURE OF RETAIL
Nº 1
Buy Now
JOSÉ DE LA O takes consumer obsession with exclusive products to the next level through digital brand spaces.
JOSÉ DE LA O – who founded his studio in Eindhoven before relocating to Mexico City – nabbed a spot in ‘The Challenge’ with his critical approach to design.
It sounds as if you’ve honed in on the contemporary phenomenon known as ‘fomo’. JOSÉ DE LA O: Young consumers are obsessed with the latest sneakers, caps and T-shirts. I foresee luxury brands exploiting a fear of missing out in virtual spaces defined by immediacy, impulse purchasing and multiplatform branding. Such venues would offer exclusive products – apparel, objects, souvenirs – that can be bought only by customers who install the brand’s software upgrades on a regular basis. What would the virtual retail experience be like? It would be a multisensory VR or AR experience that challenges the laws of the physical world. An office space might turn into a boat, or you might become a building and its inhabitants – people who live inside you. Storytelling will be key as brands use new ways of entertainment to communicate their values. What form would these take? Instead of a linear narrative, like you have in most contemporary movies, my concept provides a multilayered, create-your-own-adventure kind of experience. Celebrities and influencers would be responsible for the generative algorithms that produce the merchandise inside these brand environments. For example, you might run into Blue Ivy wearing the latest swag she designed and buy it on the spot – or play against a Ronaldo/Messi hybrid, score a winning World Cup goal and acquire your jersey, for a price.
You can take it back to the real world? I wouldn’t use the term ‘real’, because your brain won’t recognize the difference between the virtual and the physical, but the answer is yes. You purchase the product and use it in the physical world. How? Items will be delivered instantly through a 3D printer that functions as a platform for brands at home. Tangible products will be almost ephemeral, however, as new versions replace them in rapid succession. All articles will be recyclable, degradable or reusable. In the new virtual environment, purchases will be dangerously seamless. Are you worried about the consequences of your concept? I’m proposing affordable stuff that targets a younger audience – and I’m hoping that kids don’t go on consumptiondriven shopping sprees that leave them deep in debt. Are you painting a deliberately negative picture of the future? When we do critical design here at the studio, sometimes we start by amplifying the human aspect of technology. Corporations already run the world. They make technology with an eye to creating profit, and the desire for profit is the coldest, most brutally indifferent part of a human being. It’s human as well as anti-human, and I find that extremely interesting. – WG studiojosedelao.com
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THE CHALLENGE
Customers enter product information into data-analysing machines that declare a purchase justifiably ‘acceptable’ or ‘not acceptable’.
FUTURE OF RETAIL
Nº 2
Decision Maker
A commentary on overconsumption, IOANNIS OIKONOMOU’s prepurchase service helps customers make informed choices.
You’re worried about retail’s moral implications? IOANNIS OIKONOMOU: Despite the fact that we consume more and more, consumption is accompanied by the shame of waste and extravagance. Furthermore, excessive consumption often leads to harsh self-judgment, which prevents us from successfully continuing our endless shopping experiences. How will you help to solve the problem? We could have shops include a space on their premises where the consumer will be able to ask whether a potential purchase is justifiable or not. After selecting a product, you enter the product information into a machine that hangs from the ceiling. The machine then analyses financial, medical, psychographic and social data that you have voluntarily submitted, together with your shopping history and data collected from a biometric body reader. What happens then? The verdict is revealed: your purchase is either ‘acceptable’ or ‘not
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acceptable’. You are not obliged to follow the machine’s advice, but when your final decision coincides with its findings, you are absolved of the responsibility of the purchase, cleansing you from the toxic consequences of overconsumption and leaving you free to continue your journey through life’s endless shopping experience. For which industries do you think this is particularly valuable? Since the machine can access sensitive data concerning our financial and social status, it could aid every kind of purchasing decision, especially ones that need to take into account complex long-term investments, such as a house. In that case you simply feed the machine with the data of the house in question, and the machine will decide whether it is ‘acceptable’ or not. Do you think that people will consume more or less as a result of your concept? Much more. After all, the machine provides a relief from responsibility and, ultimately, from the shame of overconsumption.
With offices in New York City and Athens, Greece, architect and founder of Oiio Studio IOANNIS OIKONOMOU runs a researchdriven practice that makes him a fitting choice for ‘The Challenge’.
Shouldn’t we really be battling overconsumption? Artificial though it may be, consumption remains a need for the day-to-day endurance of our gradually intolerable lives, which have become too difficult for us to worry about the things that make us happy, especially if we have a way to deal with the negative psychological consequences of our desires. Is life really an endless shopping experience? Life is a process of endless decision-making, and shopping accounts for a disproportional part of those decisions. Fortunately, technology and social consent can rescue us from mounting disappointment with regard to our own decision-making qualities: our failures can become someone else’s failures. We all know that technology fails us sometimes. Isn’t it better to be disappointed by your phone rather than by yourself? – WG oiiostudio.com
Cindy Baar
DAN GRAHAM reveals his fashion aspirations. From accordions to architecture with DANIEL LIBESKIND. STUDIO DRIFT plays its first solo. Meet the people. Get their perspectives.
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PORTRAITS
Shanghai-based Li Zhi and Xia Murong founded Mur Mur Lab in 2016.
INTRODUCING
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Chinese Whispers Despite their architectural backgrounds, Li Zhi and Xia Murong of MUR MUR LAB choose to keep things small. Words
HARRY DEN HARTOG
Portraits
OLIVIER H. DRESSEN
AFTER STUDYING at Nanjing’s Southeast University, both Li Zhi and Xia Murong worked briefly for a large design agency in Shanghai. In 2016, they went out on their own and established Mur Mur Lab. The pair sees design and architecture as tools for improving the quality of urban life. Architecture becomes a medium for observing the relationships between spaces and people, and for offering a daily dose of surprise. Zhi and Murong’s main aim is to produce an elegantly interesting aesthetic by means of architectural geometry and experimentation. You both began at a big design firm, working on large-scale projects. Why did you decide to start Mur Mur Lab? LI ZHI: We were searching for independence and for a chance to do our own thing throughout every phase of the design process. The employees of a typical large-scale Chinese design company are usually responsible for only a minor part of an assignment. Setting up our own office gave us a complete overview of projects, from installations to interiors. Although our work is much smaller in scale than it was
prior to founding Mur Mur Lab, we’re now able to inject our personal inspiration into everything we do. Unlike large organizations that take a top-down approach to design, we swear by a more bottom-up approach. What’s behind the name of your company? LZ: It’s actually a link to the English word ‘murmur’. We want our projects to be small, subtle interventions, almost like whispers. In Chinese, mù mù means ‘two eyes’. This represents the relationship between my partner and me. A pair of eyes also clearly connects to ideas of observation – of looking for the interesting aspects of life. ‘Lab’ refers to our experimental character; we don’t want to be too commercial. We want to deal with spaces in a different way and to offer our clients ‘everyday’ surprises. Why do you prefer small changes? It seems a bit modest in the Chinese context . . . LZ: Firstly, our projects are very small. And secondly, we don’t have the energy to change the entire world. Transforming Shanghai or even our district alone isn’t possible. »
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PORTRAITS
We do believe, though, that true change comes from individuals. Together, all the tiny individual changes and voices can have a big impact on Shanghai – and even on China. Maybe one day we might be able to change government policies on urban planning – to convince authorities to reuse and renovate, for example, instead of removing existing structures to make way for another generic city. You both trained as architects. Why focus on installations and interiors? XIA MURONG: There aren’t many opportunities in China right now for small companies like ours.
LI & XIA
When transforming the modestly sized yet high-ceilinged Tang+ photography studio in Nanjing, Zhi and Murong sought to create an experience that would be ‘like walking in the mountains’.
To get architecture commissions, we have to start with interiors and smaller projects. Interior design is closely related to architecture, but it’s dangerous to do too many interiors. We don’t want to be classified as ‘decorators’, so we approach interior design from an architectural point of view. You’re also working on a book, Architecture and Communication . . . XM: We’re both very interested in architectural theory, whose tenets we try to incorporate into our designs. The publication – a study of our basic understanding of architectural vocabulary – explores such terms as ‘ruler’, ‘scale’ and ‘broadcasting’. We explain these words based on our research for the book and link them to contemporary China – and to our projects. ‘Broadcasting’? Can you elaborate? LZ: Architecture was once a means to protect people from nature and danger. But architecture that is broadcast as news in contemporary magazines and online becomes somewhat unreal. When you Photoshop buildings, architecture becomes more about images. On WeChat [China’s most popular social-media network], it’s normal to leave nice, polite comments and to ‘like’ one »
INTRODUCING
Lifestyle Academy – a location designed specifically for women – is treated as a performative, theatre-like space. It includes a hair salon and a fashion area.
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PORTRAITS
At Nic’s Planet, a boutique in Kunshan, Mur Mur Lab’s geometric arcs and hemispheres make rooms within rooms.
another’s posts. New media also influences our offline behaviour. So-called politeness is replacing real critical thinking and debate. That can be dangerous. Mur Mur is our way of taking a critical stance. In fact, we’re searching for self-criticism. We want to feed the architectural discourse and to approach architecture as more than an object. How are these aims reflected in your projects? XM: Making Architecture and Communication helps us to clear our minds when choosing projects. At the same time, practising our profession generates new ideas for the book. In our first year we did many
projects that produced beautiful images for social media and for our website. But it has to be about more than just nice images; we want to express our emotions and ideas. This year we will do some foundational work, which will include inviting a third partner to join us. We hope to create a basis for the future and, especially, to develop a kind of studio signature or identity. ● murmurlab.cn
‘So-called politeness is replacing real critical thinking and debate’
INTRODUCING
Zhi and Murong pose at M Space with Wanwan, their 16-monthold daughter. The gallery hosted Murong’s first exhibition as an illustrator, for which she uses the pseudonym Samoon.
Mur Mur Lab approached the Dream Garden workspace in Shangqiu as an urban landscape that incorporates both public and private areas.
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THE SPIRIT OF PROJECT
RIMADESIO.COM
SAIL SLIDING DOORS, SELF BOLD SIDEBOARDS, EOS SHELVES DESIGN G.BAVUSO
Andrew Meredith
The FRAME AWARDS head to Milan. KRAUSE formulates the first 3D-printed store. SELFRIDGES speculates on the future of luxury. Step inside the great indoors.
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SPACES
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INSTITUTION
Innocad dissolves the typical museum formula in Austria
Paul Ott
GRAZ – How should a museum look in today’s digital age? Not like a museum at any rate, according to Martin Lesjak of Innocad, the design firm behind a pair of new permanent exhibitions at the History Museum in Graz, Austria. Showcasing Styrian cultural heritage, the two very different exhibitions in the former 18th-century Herberstein Palace called for contrasting schemes. In Schaudepot, the problem was how to present a huge collection of physical objects, as well as a digital archive. In the other exhibition, called 100 x Steiermark, the setting – a beautiful baroque hall – provided the challenge. The low budget was an additional restricting factor. ‘Our strategy was to create a low-threshold, varied experience,’ says Lesjak. ‘With Schaudepot, we wanted to give people the feeling of being in a contemporary warehouse and with 100 x Steiermark of being in an 18thcentury palace.’ For Schaudepot, he continues, ‘all the materials used are existing industrial products that are flexible and adaptable’. The result looks more like a shop than a museum and »
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SPACES
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‘The museum of the future should be a transdisciplinary hybrid of art, design, entertainment and content’
As illustrated by the boundary between Innocad’s two contrasting exhibitions, the designers wanted Schaudepot to resemble an industrial environment, whereas 100 x Steiermark remains true to its 18th-century-palace setting.
Visitors can rotate the display panels of Schaudepot’s multimedia installation to reveal historical content.
is all the more approachable as a result. The lighting concept, with dappled patterns of light and shadow falling on floors and ceilings, was ‘inspired by the atmosphere you often find in attics’. The accompanying multimedia archive proves a complementary volume. The second project, 100 x Steiermark, is meant to evoke ‘the private chambers of an 18th-century aristocratic family’. With the authentic baroque backdrop in place, the use of mirror and glass ‘dematerializes the exhibition elements and reflects history’, says Lesjak. Display units melt into the background altogether, while objects and setting emerge in sharp relief. Both approaches shrink the distance between the visitor and the objects by dissolving the typical museum formula. Remarkably, 2,000 pieces are displayed without overwhelming the exhibition design. Seen behind metal mesh or on mirrored tables rather than in display cases, objects can be viewed with fresh eyes. ‘The best part of the project is helping people to participate and to perceive history in an unexpected and unpretentious
way,’ says Lesjak. ‘We like that most of the visitors explore the exhibition more than once, discovering something new each time. It’s a great testament to the transformative quality of the space. Kids love it, too.’ As museums need to offer ever more immersive experiences, Lesjak believes designers must provide ‘multilevel environments in which people can decide whether to simply enjoy a cool space or to absorb information, and on what level. One-size-fitsall solutions no longer help museums to stay relevant. When we talk about the museum of the future, we should be thinking of a transdisciplinary hybrid of art, design, entertainment and content, relating to all the senses.’ His top tip for would-be exhibition designers? ‘Don’t be awestruck by the content. Here in the Graz History Museum, the project doesn’t offer itself up too readily; it needs to be explored. It poses questions, but when you interact with the content out of curiosity and dig deeper, you can find hidden treasures.’ – JS innocad.at
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SPACES
STAND TALL Booths capturing the attention of FRAME AWARDS MILAN turned trade-fair presentations into immersive physical experiences Words
FLOOR KUITERT
MANAGING TO STAND OUT from the visual pollution that marks today’s trade fairs is a participating brand’s biggest challenge. And nowhere is eye-blinding chaos more irksome than what we find in Milan every April at the Salone del Mobile, the mother of all design fairs. It’s here, in an environment crammed with colour and commotion, that exhibition design can play a decisive role in visitor numbers. To draw attention to the value of strong spatial presentations at trade fairs, Frame honours Salone’s best stands with the Frame Awards Milan – a spin-off of the Frame Awards. Across four categories – Best Use of Colour, Best Use of Light, Best Use of Material and, of course, Trade-Fair Stand of the Year – an international jury of designers, along with Frame’s editors, selected this year’s most successful booths. The design strategies observed were diverse, but what the winning projects had in common was the use of grand architectural gestures. Their designers were unambiguous and selective in their choices, sending one clear message, making one bold statement. Far more than stages for the display of products, the stands that came in on top were part of the brand presentations and not just backdrops for new designs. Grabbing the attention of crowds rushing through the fair is one thing, but a branded space should never overshadow the products on display. ‘Stands must be consistent with, not compete with, what they contain,’ says jury member and Frame
research editor Anouk Haegens. One effective way to achieve the consistency she refers to was seen in stand designs that made a company’s products not only the starting point, but the actual building blocks of spatial constructions that pushed products to their limits – allowing them to demonstrate their full potential. Another noteworthy development was an increased awareness of sustainability among exhibitors, a consideration carried through to a brand’s physical context. The ephemeral character of trade fairs prompted companies to think about what might be done with a booth after the event’s closing date. The solution, in some cases, was a modular, often transformative, system that adapts to almost any space or floor plan. Such a booth can be reused in different locations. Although we saw progress in Milan, there’s still a lot to gain when it comes to the design of temporary structures. A few brave attempts aside, generally speaking the Salone suffered from a lack of real public engagement. The visitor experience should be centre stage, and audiences should be encouraged to interact with brand presentations. Jury member and cofounder of Space Encounters Remi Versteeg agrees, and is optimistic: ‘In the future I expect to see more immersive installations at trade fairs, which hopefully will feel more like museums.’ frameawards.com
Submissions for the Frame Awards 2019 are open until 1 October 2018
Daniel Stauch
FRAME AWARDS MILAN
FRAME AWARDS MILAN
Best Use of Material + Trade-Fair Stand of the Year USM BY UNSTUDIO FUTURES TEAM
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MILAN – Taking home an impressive two of a possible four prizes for its work on USM’s Salone del Mobile showcase, UNStudio Futures team was the big winner of this year’s edition of the Frame Awards Milan. ‘We wanted to see how far we could push the structural boundaries of the client’s modular systems,’ says senior architect and associate Ren Yee of his studio’s concept, which led to a stand constructed of USM products – an outstanding expression of the brand that grabbed the attention of the jury. ‘In addition to being a strong spatial statement, the design actually embodies the brand and its modularity,’ says Frame editor Floor Kuitert. Fellow jury member Remi Versteeg, cofounder of Space Encounters (Frame Awards 2018 Emerging Designer of the Year), agrees. He praises UNStudio’s successful negation of the distinction between furniture design and architecture, achieved by ‘creating architecture from furniture’ and thus ‘expanding what people think of when they think of architecture’. Other high points of the USM stand were its interactive character and the topical issues it addressed. Four ‘floating chambers’ playfully positioned within the gridded structure formed a hybrid of domestic and office environments. Visitors had an opportunity to participate in the dialogue on today’s shifting boundaries between ‘at work’ and ‘at home’ by completing a questionnaire. It will be interesting to see whether their responses have an influence on USM’s presentation next year in Milan. ● usm.com unstudio.com
To create a spatial expression of USM’s modular systems, UNStudio designed a stand for Salone del Mobile 2018 that comprised 1,015 panels, 5,008 balls, 13,318 tubes and 8.9 tonnes of material.
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FRAME AWARDS MILAN
Best Use of Colour MONTANA BY HELENA LAURSEN
Brian Buchard
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MILAN – ‘We were instantly drawn in by the giant colour statement: a megalith of red shelving scaling all the way up the walls,’ says Howard Sullivan, creative director at YourStudio. Sullivan – who joined the jury along with Tom Edington, YourStudio’s associate director of environments – is referring to the stand of Danish manufacturer Montana, which took the top spot in the Best Use of Colour category. ‘The design
was very committed,’ he says, ‘using only Montana’s modular furniture to create the entire scheme of reds, from neon ketchup to pink to oxblood.’ Responsible for the winning project was Helena Laursen, architect and head of spatial designs at Montana. She made good use of the height of the Rho Fiera halls to build what was one of the taller stands at the fair. ‘I chose a colour scheme that focuses
primarily on the reds and pinks from the Montana colour palette. Zen Red, China Red, Rio and Moulin Rouge are combined with a dash of Candy Floss, contrasted by blacks and anthracite, as well as a soft pinkish floor from Bolon,’ says Laursen. Colour and structure came together to form what Edington describes as ‘a cathedral of colour – impactful on an emotional level’. ● montana.dk
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Andrea Martiradonna, courtesy of Park Associati
Work
From co-working spaces to campuses and cafÊs – the workplace typology seems wider than ever. As the genre broadens, we see an exponential growth in the services on offer. Work, play and rest converge. Offices double as hotels, fitness clubs and restaurants. With hospitality at the forefront, the latest workplaces are where people not only need to be, but where they want to be. Functioning as microcosmic cities, they forge a sense of community.
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WORK
Tired workers can take a break from the hectic city in one of Nap York’s custom-built sleeping pods.
FRAME LAB
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Off the Grid
Lacking the campus-like offices of their Californian counterparts, New Yorkers are driving the development of facilities for remote rest. Words
JILL POPE
‘AS THE MOST DOMINANT contributors to the global economy, New Yorkers need to recharge once in a while.’ These are the words of James Wong, design director of Nap York. His company’s enterprise, which includes a wellness club and a quiet café, opened in March in Manhattan for the purpose of giving tired workers a break from the city’s frenetic pace. Extending over three floors, Nap York owes its name to the signature experience it provides. Nestled between a lower level with a yoga studio plus lounge and a café on the upper floor is a space filled with custom-built sleeping pods available for hire by the hour. According to Wong, Nap York is a product of the rapid changes in our increasingly globalized and connected world. Over the past ten years, he says, these developments have completely redefined how and where we work. Thanks to the internet and smartphone technologies, the world is getting smaller: the need to travel to an office or to be desk-bound is decreasing, and work hours often depend on synchronization among colleagues in various time zones. The paradigm of ‘work’ has evolved: where once an open-plan landscape of workstations replaced cloistered corner offices and cubicles, we now have Wi-Fi and data networks liberating employees. They can adapt to where and how they work best – the environment in which they’re most productive – rather than the other way around. Together with the ever-growing wellness phenomenon, workplace trends coincide with the way people are responding to Nap York. Not all guests use the napping facilities, says Wong. Some prefer the building’s silent sanctuary to ‘having to speak to office colleagues about the water cooler not working’. Despite being classified as a wellness club, Nap York wasn’t designed to be exclusive. Wong points out that the pricing model was developed to make the building’s services accessible to a wide cross section of the public. ‘We believe that both the aspiring doctor and the hotshot Wall Street executive should have equal access to a safe, clean and quiet environment to recharge. Rest isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity.’ To that end, organizations
can buy group memberships for staff, an offer that’s been welcomed by the likes of NYU and NYPD. Democratizing the perks that have come to be associated with big tech outfits – think Google and Facebook – could give smaller, publicly funded and non-profit organizations a chance to be competitive in the ruthless recruitment market. The interior design of Nap York is based on the creation of an antidote to the relentless pace of life in New York City. Time Square’s blinding lights are remedied by black walls and low lighting, white noise replaces the clamour of incessant horns and traffic, and green walls and dense planting combat both air pollution and the gritty grey tones of the surrounding concrete jungle. Injecting living greenery was vital to the healthfocused design, but technology, too, is strategically embraced to streamline business. In the café, for instance, orders placed via iPads arrive on a conveyor belt. What stands out, though, is the carefully considered selection of natural materials, sourced and manufactured both ethically and locally. Taking environmental responsibility was a no-brainer and well worth the extra time it took to hunt down the right suppliers, says Wong. ‘What you surround yourself with is as important as what you put into your body.’ The team used low-VOC paint and formaldehydefree wood adhesive, and the napping pods – 99 per cent nonplastic – were handcrafted locally and contain no synthetic materials. Although Nap York’s proud origins lie in the Big Apple, Wong sees no reason why this thoughtfully balanced work-life model wouldn’t catch on in other highly urbanized cities and transport hubs – places where people lead similarly high-octane lifestyles. With characteristic NYC swagger, he quips: ‘Once the city that never sleeps starts napping, the whole world’s going to follow.’ ● napyork.com
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REST
Sleeping pods at Nap York are fitted with a sound-absorbing curtain.
MEDITATE
Guests can participate in daily yoga and meditation classes.
FRAME LAB
DINE
The greenery-rich cafĂŠ includes hammocks.
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Not all guests use the napping facilities, preferring to work in the building’s silent sanctuary
DRINK
Beneath a 9-m-long green wall, fresh food and drinks are delivered via a conveyor belt.
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Courtesy of Lee Broom
Lighting
LUMINAIRES double as sound absorbers. SMART LIGHTING enters the home. LEDs advance to the next level. Discover what’s driving the business of design.
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REPORTS
LINE OF BEAUTY Alessio Bolzoni
Track lighting and linear lighting allow for a FLEXIBLE USE OF SPACE. The move towards multidisciplinary spaces is prompting interior designers to break with convention. Workspaces are merging with hospitality venues and educational buildings being used for performances. Following this trend are new lighting designs that separate spaces, act as directional tools and adapt to the requirements of dynamically conceived interiors. The application of well-chosen lighting in multi-use projects is essential to both the accentuation of different activities and the creation of a consistent aesthetic. Smart technology, which allows lighting to be monitored remotely, can alter the intensity and colour of light, even to the point of changing an entire atmosphere. Track lighting need no longer be subtle or discreet. Light today is being celebrated. – KG
Designed by Timon and Melchior Grau for Tobias Grau, Parrot is an LED floor lamp with a battery that can be recharged by means of a small docking station. The lightweight ‘bird’ has a height-adjustable body and a rotatable head. tobiasgrau.com
With eight possible installation options, Yori – Reggiani’s line of accent lighting – allows for flexibility when selecting a mode of lighting intended to complement surrounding architecture. reggiani.net
A continuous tube of steel traces the shape of the 3F Filoluce floor lamp, designed by Geza for 3F Filippi. Inspired by street lights, the slender object is a prime example of industrial design. 3f-filippi.com
LIGHTING
Courtesy of Delta Light
Lighting in multi-use projects is essential to accentuate different activities Superloop from Delta Light comes with a gold or bronze finish. It can be accessorized with accent lighting and customized with a tool-free plug-and-play system. deltalight.com
The lines of light that make up Alphabet by BIG and Artemide can be combined to form organic spatial installations. Placed next to one another, the letters – a series of linear and round elements – project a continuous, shadowless glow. artemide.com
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REPORTS
José Hevia
Light fixtures belonging to Guillermo Santomá’s Simon 100 project are sculptural objects integrated with the Simon I/O interface. The installation yields connections between users, their interiors and the objects that surround them. simonelectric.com
LIGHTING
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WELL-CONNECTED Smart lighting is a primary focus of designers who want to see TECHNOLOGY IN THE HOME.
A small tablet that uses any standardized power socket describes Smart Control 5 from Jung. The device allows its user to create a composition of lighting and smart technology that pinpoints a single object or operates throughout an entire building. jung.de
Robert Sprang
OECD’s 2016 Digital Economy Paper on the Internet of Things predicts a future of connectivity that will include over 25 billion internet-connected devices by 2020. The integration of such devices into our cultural infrastructure foresees a healthy future for smart homes and cities. The design of digital connectivity is, essentially, the design of invisibility, though. So how can we make beautifully invisible tech-driven designs? Science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law states that ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’. As our homes become buzzing hives of efficiency, the act of concealment will be interpreted throughout every area of the house. Interconnected access to light is a primary focus of designers interested in ‘domesticated’ technology. Dynamic lighting invites people to personalize their datafied spaces. An innovative example is Philips Lighting’s LiFi system, whose broadband internet connection harnesses the power of light waves rather than relying on increasingly congested radio waves. Able to transmit 30 Mb of data per second without disrupting the quality of light, LiFi offers an innovative, private internet connection. – KG
The wall-integrated Ellie Touch Panel from Basalte lends access to all interconnected devices in the home. Ellie features integrated Amazon Alexa Voice Technology, which makes commands for light control intuitive. basalte.be
In Occhio’s Mito line of luminaires, Occhio Air engages with users by identifying and responding to their gestures. A connected phone or tablet is another way to control the light emitted by Occhio Air. occhio.de
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