Nº129 JUL — AUG 2019
From retail to room service
BX €19.95 DE €19.95 IT €24.90 CHF 30 UK £14.95 JP ¥3,570 KR WON 40,000
BP
THE GREAT INDOORS
Why consumer brands are playing host
Studio O+A on the modernization of McDONALD�S
Building behind barriers: a concept store in IRAN
DAVID ROCKWELL puts audience before architecture
Ronald Smits
Contents 70
25 Anna Huix
10 OBJECTS
Old materials with new attitudes, furniture fit for a family
32 THE CHALLENGE Five extreme hospitality experiences
44 PORTRAITS 46 DAVID ROCKWELL ‘Making is a uniquely optimistic gesture' 52 MARIA CRISTINA DIDERO ‘Design is about people, not about chairs’ 54 DAYLAB Offering an alternative perspective
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62 SOPHIE HICKS On a round-trip from residences to retail 70 GUILLERMO SANTOMÀ Material dialogues
In conversation with Kranen/Gille
XiaoYun
78 MOOOI
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FRAME 129
80 SPACES
From redefining fashion retail to our lessons from Milan
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134 HOSPITALITY LAB 136 142 146 150
Why brands are betting on beds Guiding Equinox’s evolution Lexus invites you to dinner Shinola creates a meeting place for the city 156 Food and drink producers play host
160 REPORTS Hospitality
Responsive restaurants and customizable guest rooms
Courtesy of Vipp
100
Courtesy of Matter Design
Paola Pansini
168 VOLA
On tone and texture
176 IN NUMBERS 176
Matter Design’s Walking Assembly in facts and figures
the light of creation through the beauty of materials. discover more at www.irisfmg.com
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COLOPHON
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EDITORIAL For editorial inquiries, please e-mail frame@frameweb.com or call +31 20 4233 717 (ext 921). Editor in chief Robert Thiemann – RT Managing editor Floor Kuitert – FK Head of content Peter Maxwell – PM Editor Anouk Haegens – AH Web editor Rab Messina – RM Editor at large Tracey Ingram – TI Junior editor Lauren Grace Morris – LGM Copy editors InOtherWords (D’Laine Camp, Maria van Tol) Design director Barbara Iwanicka Graphic designers Zoe Bar-Pereg Shadi Ekman Translation InOtherWords (Maria van Tol) Contributors to this issue Tag Christof – TC John Jervis – JJ Eric Kelsey – EK Shonquis Moreno – SM Alexandra Onderwater – AO Jane Szita – JS Suzanne Wales – SW Daniela Walker – DW Michael Webb – MW Cover One-Off Woman by Dimore Studio (see p. 100) Photo Paola Pansini Lithography Edward de Nijs
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For the first time in 20 years, we’ve had to make an issue of Frame without our beloved translator and copy editor Donna de Vries-Hermansader. She was diagnosed with cancer four years ago. After a short period of uncertainty she made up her mind to fight for her life. In the time she had left, she continued to do what she’d been doing for us since the late 1990s: translating texts from Dutch into English and polishing the original English contributions of Japanese, German and French authors until they, too, could pass for those of native English speakers. At the beginning of our collaboration we gave her only one assignment: feel free to represent the intentions of authors as best you can. This is not the same thing as translating texts as literally as possible. As a result of this brief she sometimes met with resistance from writers, but Frame readers enjoyed the same pleasant tone of voice year in, year out. We also got to know Donna as an unparalleled language purist who taught us, for example, what a dangling construction is and what the differences are between American and British English (Donna was born in the US, but for Frame she wrote in British). Once a text was done, her husband Danny would read it to her out loud so she could make sure it sounded good. More than just our translator, Donna was our friend. Although she and Danny lived at a three-hour drive from Amsterdam — just outside of Brussels — we knew exactly when she walked her dogs, watched sports matches on TV and had children and grandchildren about the house. Conversely, Donna knew our birthdays, where we went on holiday and how our partners were doing. After working on the previous issue of Frame with her usual vigour, she shortly afterwards lost the desire to work and thus to live. She was briefly bedridden before she passed on, surrounded by her loved ones. We have lost an incredibly sweet, intelligent and humorous person. Donna lived to be 77 years old.
Bookstore distributors Frame is available at sales points worldwide. Please see frameweb.com/magazines/ where-to-buy. Frame (USPS No: 019-372) is published bimonthly by Frame Publishers NL. ISSN FRAME: 1388-4239 © 2019 Frame Publishers and authors Back issues Buy online at store.frameweb.com
Printing Grafisch Bedrijf Tuijtel Hardinxveld-Giessendam
Sofie Knijff
Frame copy editor Donna de Vries-Hermansader travelled from her home in Belgium to our former office in Amsterdam in 2014.
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EDITORIAL
From checkout to check-in Catching the attention of consumers is one of the biggest challenges retailers face. After all, the shop is now only one among many places where transactions take place. But it does offer people the opportunity to see, feel and to some extent try out products. Shops are increasingly becoming providers of experiences. Displays are getting quirkier, scents and sound abound, in-store events reach out to communities. Retailers spare no trouble or expense to create a memorable experience. But how can you hold people’s attention longer than the time it takes them to walk around the shop? Better still, how can you turn attention into brand loyalty? Or even more important, how can you transform paying attention into paying for purchases? An increasing number of consumer brands is finding the answers to these questions by entering the hospitality market. Branded hotels are not a new concept. About 20 years ago, Diesel and Versace were the first major fashion brands to open hotels. Brands such as Baccarat, Bulgari and Camper followed. The underlying idea is that instead of for 15 minutes, these hotels immerse consumers in a branded lifestyle ecosystem for at least 24 hours. They live with a brand for an entire day. How impactful an experience is that? Although the brand hotel didn’t become the go-to solution, brands are rediscovering the power of hospitality now that retail is in danger of being marginalized. They aren’t only opening hotels, but also restaurants (Gucci’s Osteria in Florence) and even patisseries (Pasticceria Marchesi in Milan belongs to the Prada Group).
And fashion brands aren’t the only ones to make their way into hospitality: Muji is now topping its flagships with hotel floors and Lexus offers fine dining. Also entering the market are F&B distributors like the Parisian deli Fauchon and Scottish beer craft company Brewdog (‘Who needs an alarm call when you can awake to the aromas of brewing?’). This issue is not just about the origin of branded hospitality, but also presents its latest manifestations. We provide an overview of the dos and don’ts and pass on lessons from pioneers. If done well a bar, restaurant or hotel can be a valuable addition to the retail empire of any brand that represents a lifestyle. Who knows, retail might even transform into hospitality someday . . . ROBERT THIEMANN Editor in chief
Design + Performance™ and Legendary Performance Fabrics™ are trademarks and Sunbrella® is a registered trademark of Glen Raven, Inc.
L E G E N DA R Y P E R F O R M A N C E FA B R I C S ™ S U N B R E L L A .C O M
FA D E P R O O F / E A S Y C A R E / B L E AC H C L E A N A B L E
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CONTRIBUTORS
‘American by accent, Chilean by birth and British by persuasion’, journalist and content strategist DANIELA WALKER splits her time between London and Westcliff-on-Sea. Although she reports on innovation and trends across a wide range of sectors, her area of expertise is in all things food and drink. Walker spent five years at the Future Laboratory, where she was the editor of trend-forecasting platform LS:N Global. Her work has appeared in publications including Wired UK, Monocle, Vice and Riposte. On page 136, she investigates why out-of-category brands are now entering the hospitality market.
Australian-Spanish freelance writer, editor and consultant SUZANNE WALES specializes in design, architecture and creativity. Based in Barcelona for over 20 years – a city she says ‘never ceases to astound her’ – Wales has written and consulted for many architecture and design firms, such as Dwell, Metropolis, Wallpaper* and the e-zine The Spaces. Additionally, she has acted as the editor of the website for the Catalan cultural institution Roca Gallery. You can read about her visit to Barcelona’s Sir Victor hotel on page 108.
ERIC KELSEY is a Los Angeles-based writer, journalist and editor. As a former reporter for Reuters in Berlin and LA, he has covered Hollywood, politics, sports, business and celebrities behaving badly. Past assignments have included an international cyberattack, the #MeToo movement, a Nazi war crimes trial, and countless obituaries. On page 122, he explores the world of luxury cannabis, writing a story about Barneys New York’s leafiest retail venture yet.
Originally from Yanbian, Chinese photographer XIAOYUN now calls Shanghai home. After graduating in environmental art design and working as a column photojournalist in real estate media, he realized that he liked Japanese commercial advertising photography. Then, in 2017 he started working with Daylab, which began his relationship with capturing architectural spaces and the characters in them. Since then, he has cooperated with many other design companies and his work has been published in Gooood, ArchDaily and Frame. You can find his portraits of Daylab’s partners on page 54.
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Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of Dzek
Écal makes VR MORE APPROACHABLE. Designers CONSULT ALGORITHMS. Materials experience a RETRO REVIVAL. Google LEARNS FROM BIOMETRICS. Discover new directions in the world of products.
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Andrea Trimarchi, a native Sicilian, grew up with Mount Etna as a backdrop. For years, he saw the volcano as a representation of the untameable force of nature – that is, until he and partner Simone Farresin decided to harvest the ash and basalt rocks it abundantly leaves behind and turn them into a useful architectural material. ‘Mount Etna is a mine without miners,’ explains Trimarchi. ‘It is excavating itself to expose its raw materials.’ After three years of experimentation alongside UK-based manufacturer Dzek, Formafantasma has come up with ExCinere, a collection of volcanic ash-glazed porcelain tiles suitable for indoor and outdoor use. For once, in the battle between man and volcano, it seems the former has won. formafantasma.com dzekdzekdzek.com
Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of Dzek
Ronald Smits
RETRO REVIVAL
‘Can the same wood, from the same tree garner different kind of patterns and structures?’ asked Ward Wijnant. In the course of his practice, the Dutch designer has tried to extract stories from the raw material for his furniture pieces. With his newest project, christened Blend, he has become a master storyteller: with a quarter sawing technique, woodgrains appear as stripes; with a plain one, they look like flames. ‘By playing with the inlay work and grain directions, the wood shows a surprising new perspective,’ he explains. wardwijnant.nl
OBJECTS
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Courtesy of Apastoreality
THE
EXTREME EXPERIENCES In the lead-up to each issue, Frame challenges emerging designers to answer a topical question with a future-forward concept. Luxury hospitality experiences are the new collectors’ items. And the less accessible they are, the more aspirational they become. AccorHotels has launched Flying Nest: self-sufficient containers ready to be shipped to any place imaginable. Diners are submerged beneath the sea at Under, Snøhetta’s much-publicized restaurant on the southernmost tip of Norway’s rugged coastline. Where to from here? How extreme can we go? We asked five designers to get creative.
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THE CHALLENGE
EXTREME EXPERIENCES
Nº 2
Road Show
Alexandre Picciotto’s nomadic and ECO-CONSCIOUS MUSEUM makes you suffer from FOMO.
Your concept combines two motivations for travel: culture and nature . . . ALEXANDRE PICCIOTTO: I propose erecting a nomadic, ephemeral museum that can be set in the middle of improbable landscapes. Art pieces and installations would be 3D-printed on site, using natural materials that return to the earth at the event’s conclusion, like the biomaterials developed by researchers at Brown University that can decompose on demand. In the infinitely adaptable glass pavilion, an exhibition of sculptures sits alongside a café, where printed furniture is the ‘art’.
What inspired your idea? I’ve always been fascinated by the work of Henri Rousseau, particularly his depictions of jungles. I can imagine the artist sitting in the middle of the vegetation, painting a fantastic landscape. I’m interested in the link between art and nature because it addresses beauty and contemplation: essential elements for a paradigm shift. My Ephemeral Arts Pavilion is a transient cultural space that’s open to nature and invites contemplation. It’s accompanied by a café that extends the experience. Visitors stroll among the works, take a seat,
have a cup of coffee and contemplate the scenery beyond the pavilion’s transparent architecture. The view of the landscape is uninterrupted, thanks to the use of translucent solar panels developed by Michigan State University. The architecture therefore becomes an envelope and an energy source, powering lighting, 3D printers and kitchen appliances. I thought it important to offer an experience with works and furniture, created specifically for the occasion, that leave no physical presence once the event is over.
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Thanks to its transparent outer walls and translucent solar panels, the architecture of Alexandre Picciotto’s conceptual travelling pavilion becomes an envelope and an energy source.
Through the footprint-less aspect of my concept, visitors can appreciate the fragility of a moment that is destined to be erased before reappearing in new forms and in new landscapes. Where do you think the hospitality industry is headed? Time is the genesis of my project. Unlike traditional palaces and renowned hotels, reception areas that are as fragile and fleeting as sandcastles may be easier to appreciate. I’m defining luxurious hospitality not as profusion and excess, but by the
vulnerability of what’s being offered. Think of Woodstock in 1969, whose programming and uniqueness made a mark on the history of music and popular culture since it happened only once. I believe the hospitality industry will turn to more innovative and creative sectors to move beyond the standard – to renew the experience of travel. – TI alexandrepicciotto.com
Swiss-based French Écal alumnus ALEXANDRE PICCIOTTO earned a spot in ‘The Challenge’ with his passion for emerging technologies.
XiaoYun
SOPHIE HICKS returns home. DAVID ROCKWELL makes performance artchitecture. DAYLAB designs for digital natives. GUILLERMO SANTOMÀ lets materials do the talking. Meet the people. Get their perspectives.
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PORTRAITS
A DAY WITH
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MARIA CRISTINA DIDERO, one of the most soughtafter design curators in the world, has a heartfelt and generous take on e-mail etiquette – after all, design to her is about people, not chairs. As told to
RAB MESSINA
Portrait
ANTONIO CAMPANELLA
Curating People 7.30 a.m. MARIA CRISTINA DIDERO: I know I’m lucky to be able to wake up at this hour, but I’m a total mess in the morning – I’m like Garfield. I prefer writing in the evening in my studio. If I have to ask my brain to do something new – a creative challenge or a curatorial project – then that’s the best time for me. The first thing I do is shout ‘Flavio!’ My husband is usually up before me, and we have a little moment together over coffee in the living room, discussing what we’re going to be doing that day. My studio is at home here in Milan, but he has to go to work at a gallery – so I kick him out the door at around 9. 9.15 a.m. Before making a single phone or Skype call, I take the time to answer my e-mails – every single one. I have this philosophy: I will reply to anybody who writes to me, whether I know them or not, whether I’m interested or not. I hate this Italian habit of not answering e-mails – that’s just rude. Many designers ask me to go over their portfolio or they want me to suggest a material for a particular object. If I can help, I’m always happy to – design is about people, not about chairs. 12.30 p.m. I tend to have business lunches with people I’m working with, but if I’m at home, it’s a simple meal – without setting the table. Flavio’s the one who always wants to have proper, decent meals – he’s obsessed with food because he’s lucky enough to be from Rome.
2.30 p.m. Right now I’m working on my second show at the Design Museum Holon. The first time I collaborated with them was in 2016, for the first-ever museum retrospective on Nendo. Oki Sato had never worked with a curator before, because he’s used to doing everything by himself – but we managed to work with a sense of amusement. And then, the Israeli are very straightforward with their requests. Just imagine the culture clash between the Israeli and the Japanese without an Italian moderator with a sense of humour! [Laughs] But we had good fun. It was a beautiful show. And in this new exhibition, The Conversation Show, I actually have another Israeli-Japanese team – that’s Boaz Cohen and Sayaka Yamamoto, the designers behind BCXSY, who are one of the five groups we commissioned. I didn’t want to do a solo show this time, but a thematic one – ‘conversation’ sums up my approach to design, because it’s about correspondence and reciprocity, and about how an environment is conceived by more than one brain. As a challenge, we asked them to represent this specific union with a piece. It was interesting to see how they all responded differently. For example, Boaz and Sayaka came up with a seesaw with movement sensors that can only be experienced by two people at once. Snarkitecture created a hall of mirrors that’s all about how you can or can’t replicate yourself. Mischer’Traxler fashioned a poetically built machine, a pendulum that starts moving when two or more people approach it. As part of the conversation, we wanted this show to be inclusive for the audience.
5.00 p.m. I’m very bad with Instagram. I only have one photo of our donkeys – and I’m surprised it has so many likes! They’re called Rihanna, Shakira and Ali because we like listening to pop music in the countryside. So while I’m in the studio, researching things online, I am far more active on Facebook, because I repost other people’s things. So I don’t really stalk designers on Instagram; instead, I usually find out about their work by reading the news online. That has led me to work with some fantastic people. This was my first time working with BCXSY and Studio Reddish, because I had been following their work for a while. I collaborated years ago with Mischer’Traxler for a little show in Turin and I did a show in Toronto with Zaven. And with Snarkitecture I did a show at the National Building Museum in Washington, called Fun House. Building a replica of the White House two kilometres away from the real one, and opening on the fourth of July made me very proud. I think it’s powerful. That show was nominated for the Design Prize here in Milan – I didn’t win, I came in second. [Laughs] But it’s funny, because I was also nominated for a second show: Erez Nevi Pana’s Vegan Design or The Art of Reduction, which had no budget, especially when compared to the Snarkitecture one. They were so different, but I feel like they both belong to me. One is a bold statement about how art and architecture can be conceived in another way and become another language, the other was about a different way of living. They are distinct ways of telling something relevant and important. 8.30 p.m. Flavio sets the table for dinner. Of course he does. He travels a lot, so we don’t get to spend time together that often. That’s why we talk a lot when we are together at home. After the meal, we’ll often go out to a bar close by to have some negronis – he might be Roman and I am from Rimini, but this is Milan, after all. ● The Conversation Show is open until 26 October at the Design Museum Holon
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PORTRAITS
The fitting rooms play a central role at Heyshop. Two are large enough for a group of friends to book or for brands to host a product launch.
‘We want retail customers to forge a strong mental link between online and offline’
How would you describe that philosophy? YONGPENG LIU: We try to understand the logic of commercial spaces and the activities occurring within them. Based on what we believe is missing, we propose a solution – hopefully a creative one. It’s our opinion that the value of creativity in commercial projects is often overlooked because economic factors trump the consideration of how such environments actually affect people: the users. Where do you start when trying to understand a space’s users? DD: Since we focus on commercial projects, we research the largest consumer demographics in China: millennials and Gen Z. How do they behave and think? What do they like and dislike? Our designs follow our findings. How do you conduct your research, practically speaking? YL: We have a number of methods. Firstly, we’re millennials ourselves – we know how our demographic behaves. We visit existing shops, assessing what could be improved. We also receive information
from clients, some of whom ask us to join their project meetings from an early stage. Knowing the main aims in advance and contributing our ideas from the outset often leads to a better project. Once we’ve pooled our research, we decide how to proceed. What have you discovered so far? DD: China has developed so quickly in the past two or three decades. The younger generation is completely different from its predecessors. Millennials are always online and appreciate a modern kind of beauty: on-trend aesthetics. They go out for coffee and want to share their experience on Instagram. In the past, Chinese designers rarely examined a space’s users. Architecture and interiors were about ornate decoration – about expert execution of details and use of materials. While those factors are important, they don’t complete the picture. That’s what we’re trying to do. It’s not easy in China’s commercial world, with its rigid rules. Plus we need to ensure that our designs help our clients to make a profit. Thankfully that’s been the case to date. How did studying people’s behaviour influence the design of Elefoto Studio? YL: This type of photo studio has a complicated format, and we examined how people behave from start to finish. Before they »
XiaoYun
What was your main aim when starting Daylab? DOCEE DONG: I wouldn’t say we had a specific aim. We simply wanted to share our design philosophy with the world – or at least with China, for a start.
INTRODUCING
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A row of seven cylinder-shaped booths separates the home accessories section in the front from the clothing section in the back.
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PORTRAITS
Sophie Hicks was photographed in her London home (see p. 68), one of the architect’s five milestone projects.
MILESTONES
Home Again
From residences to retail to residences: SOPHIE HICKS has come full circle. Words
TRACEY INGRAM Portraits
ANDREW MEREDITH
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PORTRAITS
SOPHIE
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MILESTONES
SOPHIE HICKS had an ace up her sleeve when developing fashion-forward retail concepts for the likes of Acne Studios, Chloé, Yohji Yamamoto and Paul Smith. Before becoming an architect, the Londoner worked for visionary fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa and as a fashion stylist for British Vogue. ‘Fashion people speak a different language,’ says Hicks, ‘but I understand that language.’ Interested in architecture from a very young age, she made the switch ‘before becoming tired of fashion. I left on an up.’ Hicks formed SH Ltd Architects in 1990 while studying at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. With a few staff members on board, she juggled refurbishing residences
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with the responsibilities of motherhood. ‘It’s quite unusual to start a practice while studying, but as a mature student I could cope.’ Tom Hopes joined Sophie Hicks Architects in 2011. Maintaining the ‘unusual’ way of working she established during the days of rapid roll-outs for Chloé, Hicks and Hopes are a two-person show with multiple extras. ‘My main forte is design detailing whereas Tom’s is design for construction, but we work incredibly closely. Any support we need is farmed out to other people.’ And they’ll continue to work in this way as the studio shifts away from the retail realm and dives deeper into residences – back to where it all began.
1998 Edina Van der Wyck
PAUL SMITH WESTBOURNE HOUSE
The homelike interior of the Paul Smith Westbourne House gained Hicks international press while steering fashion retail worldwide into a new direction.
Prior to Paul Smith Westbourne House, Sophie Hicks’s main focus was residences. So perhaps it’s no coincidence that her first assignment for a commercial client – ‘the first project where I had to try to get into the head of the person commissioning it’ – is modelled on a home. ‘At that time, the archetypal fashion store was minimalist: chrome and glass,’ says Hicks. ‘People were bored with that, but they didn’t know what to do next.’ Enter Paul Smith. Hicks speaks of an ‘eccentric who came up with the bonkers idea of making each retail space in the Notting Hill building the epitome of a residential room’. Womenswear was displayed in an ‘exotic boudoir’, accessories were in the ‘dining room’ and so on. ‘But it wasn’t literal,’ says Hicks, ‘not like the ghastly plethora of homely shops that followed.’ In the pervading world of minimalism, something so seemingly unfashionable dramatically stirred up the scene. ‘It was an incredible breath of fresh air, a punch of newness,’ she says of the still-standing store. ‘Suddenly we had hundreds of pages of international press. The project changed the direction of fashion retail worldwide at that moment.’ From then on, Hicks maintained the strategy of ‘getting into a client’s head’. What would they do if they were an architect? ‘But then I go further. I want to really surprise them.’ »
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PORTRAITS
‘Materiality is merely the structure that allows you to establish new dialogues’
Photo vredit
ONE ARTIST, ONE MATERIAL
Miami Couch (2018) connects a sofa and circular pouf with a puddle-like ‘carpet’ of purple resin.
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PORTRAITS
José Hevia
ONE ARTIST, ONE MATERIAL
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Wu Rui
When invited to apply his progressive outlook on materials to an installation for Rimowa, Santomà wrapped a car in the luggage brand’s signature aluminium and doused the interior in resin.
‘You must love pink,’ I say. He can’t answer that, simply because he’s not sure. The colour doesn’t matter much, he says. ‘In that moment I felt I needed to paint it pink. The space had to look like a palazzo, very kitsch, like novecentismo is kitsch. In the end, the green, white and pink are all equally important.’ He says the bright pink colour, which is on everything from the walls to the light switches and sockets, was ‘a logical continuation of the mosaic tiles’ that he bought for the cylinder-shaped bathroom (without a ceiling, which means unobstructed views from the floor above). He has just returned from Milan where he created a fiery installation involving a car covered in aluminium panels for Rimowa, the brand of the famous ribbed trolleys. When Rimowa approached him, the idea of ‘something with a car’ had been waiting for years in one of the proverbial drawers of his mental closet . The material of which the cases are made is a metal alloy with magnesium that behaves slightly different from ‘regular’ aluminium, says Santomà. ‘That’s the beauty of this installation.’ In addition to the exterior, the interior was also given a radical makeover, one that
involved hard-blue resin seats. For Gas, a collaboration with Milan-based Kaleidoscope magazine, Santomà drew inspiration from pop artist Ed Ruscha’s Twentysix Gasoline Stations. When he found out that the Spazio Maiocchi location was a former garage, that settled it. One of the challenges he faced was to make the design strong enough. This was possible because the material could easily be bent, something he discovered by working it by hand. Just like suitcases with rounded corners. In this sense Gas translates the essence of Rimowa, a travel brand that can boast years of research resulting in a uniquely behaving material which is given a new function here in Milan. ‘It needed to look very symmetric. We didn’t weld a thing, we only used screws. The inside is super rough: we deconstructed the entire interior and build it up with new resin seats. The car is actually very well-made, in a bad way.’ It was essential that the car could still be driven. The film that proves this is an important part of the installation. Did the client understand why the film had to be made, and money made available, right away? (The ‘new’ car was put on the trailer to the desert of Monegros in the northeast of
Spain, where a team of image-makers with drones and other high-quality equipment captured the driving Santomà – ’an amazing experience’ – on screen). ‘In advance, they said: “We’ll see.” But when we showed them the film, with glistening moonlight reflecting on the new skin of the car, they saw that it’s an inseparable part of the installation.’ What material is next? Santomà is pondering a book; he’s been writing science fiction and also poetry for a long time. Then there’s the exhibition at a Chicago museum next year. He’s not sure what he’s going to show yet. Something architectural. The plan is to spend this summer in Mexico with his family and to build pavilions there. Trying and testing. Maybe in the countryside, maybe in the middle of the city. Barcelona won’t be keeping him down. The city’s stuck. Too many rules. Too little space. Too expensive to think freely. Wouldn’t selling his house be a ticket to freedom? I think out loud. His green eyes dilate, he’s suddenly right back in the here and now. That question was too Dutch, too pragmatic. Did I forget that he designed every inch of it himself? ‘But, this is our home!’ ● guillermosantoma.com
Paola Pansini, courtesy of Dimore Studio
Five strategies for a successful MILAN DESIGN WEEK show. MCDONALD’S quits clowning around. MULTIBRAND STORES take a multifaceted approach. Step inside the great indoors.
Danica O. Kus
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SPACES
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INSTITUTION
Are the commercial spaces the real highlight of Jean Nouvel’s Qatar museum?
DOHA – Jean Nouvel’s National Museum of Qatar in Doha has justly won headlines for its sculptural bravura: a composition of interlocking discs inspired by the desert rose mineral. The museum has the plan of a necklace enclosing a large open events space and is joined at the top by the historical fort that formerly housed the royal family. The discs play off the orthogonal walls of the old structure and dip to preserve a view of this beloved landmark from the coast road. Almost as exciting are the interior spaces created by Koichi Takada, a Japanese architect who works out of Sydney. The museum is a powerful expression of Qatari identity at a time when this arid peninsula has been blockaded by its neighbours. A stylized portrait of the Emir – oddly reminiscent of Che Guevara in its macho pose – appears on buses and buildings as a rallying call to the native population of 350,000 and the more than 2 million expatriates and guest workers. The museum reinforces the state’s claim to uniqueness and the galleries tell the story of its rise, from an impoverished outpost of pearl fishers and traders to the richest country in the world per capita, buoyed by its huge oil and natural gas reserves. In contrast to many museums that are designed as instant landmarks with conventional white-box galleries, Nouvel worked closely with a planning committee headed by H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, sister of the Emir, and impresario for many cultural initiatives in Qatar. As a result, the museum was planned holistically, as a fusion of architecture and display, and there is a direct link between the tilted planes of the exterior and the subtle shifts of the interior walls and floors. Appropriately for a city that was once oriented towards the sea, one feels as if one were on a gently rocking boat as one progresses through the galleries. This would pose a challenge to curators in most museums. The tilted walls of Fernando Romero’s Soumaya Museum in »
Salem Mostefaoui
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Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti
RETAIL
Venerable French department store Galeries Lafayette thinks big within a smaller footprint
PARIS – Family-owned department store Galeries Lafayette traces its history back 125 years, and has dreamed of opening a store on the Champs-Élysées for almost as long. In 1927, founder Théophile Bader bought the Hôtel de Massa on the leafy avenue, but the 1929 crisis forced him to rethink his retail plans. Now, 90 years on, the fourth and fifth generations of the family have finally followed through. Fulfilling a family ambition was not the only thing to bring Galeries Lafayette to the Champs-Élysées, however. A huge consideration is the famous avenue’s enormous volume of passing trade: some 300,000 pedestrians traverse it every day, half of
them international tourists. The new store hopes to attract 10,000 to 15,000 visitors a day – an ambitious total, since the flagship store on Boulevard Haussman, ten times the size of its Champs-Élysées cousin, draws 60,000 to 80,000. As you’d expect from the scale of its ambition, the new store has quite some tricks up its sleeve. Small on square metres, it’s big on style – literally, as Bjarke Ingels’ BIG was called in to transform the Art Deco gem into an embodiment of physical retail resurgence. ‘The idea behind the new store is that it is a laboratoire de commerce, changing the relationship between our label and its clients, partners and collaborators,’ says »
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The ‘galactic rock display’ at Forty Five Ten is loosely inspired by Michael Heizer’s Levitating Mass at LACMA.
SPACES
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Peter Garritano, courtesy of Intersect by Lexus
Hospitality
LAB
While branded hospitality is not quite a new concept, it certainly is attracting renewed attention. This cross-sector play has an unparalleled ability to immerse consumers in a brand world and keep them there for an extended period of time. In an era that sees retailers competing, above all else, to hold their customers’ attention, hospitality is proving a very powerful tool. But how do you successfully translate your offer, and your visual language, to this unexpected context? Here we chart the trajectory of this phenomenon, from its beginnings in the luxury and homeware sectors to the growing list of out-ofcategory brands adopting the model.
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‘It’s highperformance living; it’s not monastic living’ For AARON RICHTER, translating fitness brand Equinox into a hospitality context is about knowing when to flex and when to hold. Words
PETER MAXWELL
Portrait
ANDREW BOYLE
FRAME LAB
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Callum Sheeran-Purcell, courtesy of Spacon & X
Hospitality
Hotel lobbies become HAVENS OR HUBS. Suites get HYPER-PERSONAL. Bathrooms boost WELLNESS. Discover what’s driving the business of design.
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REPORTS
Courtesy of Gan
Nuances, a collection from Gan by Patricia Urquiola, is a set of three rugs with different patterns and a pouf. Urquiola used different densities of felt wool and colours to achieve a stone-like effect, for a lively touch in any space. gan-rugs.com
Courtesy of Vitra
The Spanish hotel group Room Mate recently opened Room Mate Bruno, a destination in Rotterdam that adapts to the lifestyle of guests. Designed by Teresa Sapey Studio, the hotel lobby is boldly colourful and features playful, geometric seating elements. teresasapey.com
Domagoj Kunic, courtesy of Prostoria
Courtesy of Room Mate
A team of textile engineers and hand weavers joined forces to make Vlinder, a new sofa design for Vitra by Hella Jongerius, possible. The innovative, colourful upholstery textile – with seven different jacquard weaves – was developed especially to fit the sofa’s shape. vitra.com
Francesca Moscheni, courtesy of Sunbrella
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During Milan Design Week 2019, performance fabric company Sunbrella presented an installation in collaboration with American artist Liz Collins and Ligne Roset. With a focus on sustainability, the tactile presentation displayed a spatial representation of a summit of mountain peaks, a cave enveloped with fur and an emergence of light. sunbrella.com
Courtesy of Lagranja Design
Built for utmost relaxation and leisure, Numen/For Use’s Loop seating system for Prostoria includes seamlessly interconnected seats and poufs. The textiles used for the modular collection make for a soft interior landscape. prostoria.eu
Lagranja Design created the Bold furniture line to respond to hospitality’s need for pieces that look in place both outdoors and in. Composed of a chair, armchair, sofa, stool and table, the collection is built to be light without coming at the cost of comfort. lagranjacollection.com
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ROOM FOR ME Molteni&C’s Twelve AM collection bed by Neri&Hu is built with rich materials and can accommodate any kind of mattress. An accompanying bench (pictured) has two functions: it can be used at the foot of the bed, or turned into a small alcove for hanging clothes and changing with an add-on unit. molteni.it
Vittorio Dozio, courtesy of Molteni&C
As restorative as a holiday can be, one downfall of homes – or hotels – away from home is that they lack the personalization that makes intimate space intimate. In the age of customized everything, it seems second nature that vacationers should be able to feel more comfortable than ever in hospitality spaces. But how? By making guests cocreators of the rooms they inhabit: the incorporation of adjustable elements and furniture can get designers much closer to accommodating everyone’s tastes. – LGM
Constantin Meyer, courtesy of Jung
Plug & Light, a decorative light by Tobias Link for Jung, has an LED unit that docks onto a wall- or ceiling-mounted device with a magnet. Each light can be swivelled 360 degrees, and is completely dimmable to one’s own preference. jung-design.de
Created by Poliform and Jean-Marie Massaud, the modular Westside sofa is like an island unto itself – the system can be configured in a classic angular style or deconstructed widely for maximum relaxation. poliform.it
Courtesy of Poliform
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Callum Sheeran-Purcell, courtesy of Spacon & X
HOSPITALITY
Courtesy of Ikea
Spacon & X created the spatial identity for Hotel DGI in Copenhagen in the name of democratic, multipurpose space. In the rooms, guests can arrange elements as they please, using a continuous rail system. spaconandx.com
A collaboration between Sonos and Ikea, the Symfonisk collection features a WiFi bookshelf speaker and lamp-cum-speaker that can be programmed to emanate light and sound as one wakes up. sonos.com ikea.com
IT’S YOUR TIME TO TAKE THE STAGE Show us what you’re made of. Submit your interior projects now. frameawards.com