Design Middle East

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JEWEL OF THE DESERT Inside King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Dhahran

MAKING A SPLASH Toilet talk with sanitary ware supremo Robin Levien

GOLD STANDARD

January 2017

I N T E R I O R S

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P R OD U C T

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INDUST R IAL

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Baldi adds glitz to Forum Group’s XXII Carat villas

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A RCHITECTURE

Design Middle East

CONTENTS JA N UA RY 2017

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IN THIS ISSUE…

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Jewel of the desert

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Making a splash

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Hide and seek

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Taking the heat

Based in Saudi Arabia’s eastern city of Dhahran, King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture will be stunning both inside and out

We meet ceramicist Robin Levien, one of Europe’s most successful product designers

Classical elegance and avant-garde adventurism abound in Poltrona Frau’s fine leather furniture

LXA’s creative director, David Rooney, lets rip on regional challenges in restaurant design

CONTENTS JA N UA RY 2017

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22

44

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A sense of place

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Sleep tight

Arabian traditions meet futurism in the work of multidisciplinary designer Aisha Al Sowaidi

Sebra Interiør has relaunched a 1940s furniture classic – a game-changing work of childproof design

REGULARS

50 57 Design Middle East

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Editor’s note Briefing

Statement €1m bathtubs, new CAD software and interior design trends for 2017

50 Suppliers

Developments in the soft furnishings sphere

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Wish list

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Hot ticket

The products we’re coveting this month Trade shows you need to know about

CEO Wissam Younane wissam@bncpublishing.net Managing director Walid Zok walid@bncpublishing.net Director Rabih Najm rabih@bncpublishing.net Group publishing director Diarmuid O’Malley dom@bncpublishing.net Group sales director Joaquim D’Costa jo@bncpublishing.net +971 50 440 2706

Business development director Rabih Naderi rabih.naderi@bncpublishing.net +966 50 328 9818

Editor Lauren Steadman lauren@bncpublishing.net Art director Ifteqar Ahmed Syed syed@bncpublishing.net Sales manager Michelle Rebelo michelle@bncpublishing.net Marketing executive Mark Anthony Monzon mark@bncpublishing.net Contributor Rima Alsammarae Cover image: ‘And’ seating system by Cappellini

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Editor’s note The year 2017 promises to be an exciting one in the world of architecture, with a number of spectacular structures set to open their doors. Jean Nouvel’s long-awaited Louvre Abu Dhabi is nearing completion, as is another of his creations, the National Museum of Qatar. In Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, one more highbrow visitor attraction is slowly but surely taking form.

Rising out of the desert surrounding the city of Dhahran, King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture bears the smooth, organic form of a pile of pebbles. Outside, the steel-clad shell has a uniform feel, but its interior is a different story. As Rima Alsammarae writes on page 12, each stone-shaped zone has its own distinct identity that nevertheless complements those of its neighbours. The building, by Norwegian architects Snøhetta, is sure to be an outstanding addition to the country’s growing canon of adventurous architecture, and I can’t wait to take a peek inside.

Toilets aren’t generally a topic for polite conversation, but Robin Levien’s streamlined, scaleddown cisterns would make anyone flush with pride. So influential is the British ceramicist’s sanitary ware that it’s on permanent display in London’s V&A museum. We profile the veteran product designer on page 22. We’ve also got the inside tack on interior design for F&B. On page 34, David Rooney, cofounder and creative director of Dubai-based practice LXA, shares the trials and tribulations of creating great restaurants in a rapidly changing region.

Editor

Design Middle East

BRIEFING

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GOLD STANDARD Villas on an exclusive Palm Jumeirah development are to get an extra-special centrepiece – €1m bathtubs hewn from solid crystal. Forum Group, the developer of residential compound XXII Carat, has formed a partnership with Baldi Home Jewels, known for its semiprecious stone panelling, pianos and clocks. Established in Florence in 1867, the family-run firm crafts its wares using age-old Tuscan techniques bolstered by 3D technology.

Each bathtub is carved from a single block of rock crystal, sourced from the Amazonian rainforest and weighing approximately 10 metric tonnes. The outer part is kept rough so as to highlight the gem’s natural beauty, and as the substance is semitransparent, imaginative lighting can emphasise this further – they really are one of a kind.

XXII Carat is a luxury gated development on Crescent West, The Palm Jumeirah. Set for completion in late 2017, it will comprise 22 villas, each with seven en-suite bedrooms. The bathroom design is by Devon&Devon, with Cristal et Bronze fittings. Each home’s floors and walls will be made of Antolini marble, while Fede will provide decorative lights.

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BRIEFING

THE LOOK OF LUXE 8

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Maurizio Pellizzoni creates high-end interiors and furniture for hoteliers, retailers, property developers and private homeowners. Here, the London-based designer shares his trend forecast for 2017‌

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Style

We will see a more sophisticated and elegant style brought into our interior schemes while simultaneously injecting something more personal into the space. The shift towards luxury will move from the generic use of highend pieces to personalised spaces with a bespoke touch. Increasingly, clients are requesting a unique look for their homes and interiors that reflects their lifestyles and personalities; the home is also increasingly seen as a sanctuary, a place of wellbeing in which to retreat.

Colour

As we can see some of the fashion trends for Spring/Summer 2017, Pantone’s colour of the year, Greenery, will seep into our interiors.

Organic, natural hues and patterns relating to nature will be prominent. We will move away from the subdued tones of recent times that reflected the economic austerity measures

Organic hues and patterns relating to nature will be prominent

imposed in Europe and elsewhere. Instead, we will see a beautiful palette that combines earthy, muted colour schemes with jewel tones and luxurious materials such as leather and bronze.

Technology

Escapism will be a popular theme as a remedy to lifestyles dictated by technology. Living spaces will become calmer and more detached from the digital sphere. A more flexible living approach towards defining areas in the home will grow, with technology crossing into a creative realm of art and design.

Pattern

Products in 2017 naturally interlink with Pantone’s colour trend forecast. Nature will dominate, from earthy foliage and animal prints to the gentle contours of natural materials such as stone. Descending from the catwalk to our homes, these patterns and textures will take form as accessories – cushions and rugs, for example – and may also give upholstery and window dressings the wow factor.

Materials

The use of warm materials such as terracotta and burnished metals will become more prevalent.

Metallic finishing will be used in finer detail to create uniquely crafted pieces, particularly from artisans and new designers. Cork will also see its day in 2017 and can be used in many ways throughout interior schemes, complementing other key trends for the year. The current vogue for velvet will bring warmth into interior schemes and ties in well with the demand for the ‘new elegance’ style.

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BRIEFING

BRICSYS UPGRADES ITS CAD OFFERING Software developer Bricsys has released a new version of its computer-aided design package.

The update, BricsCAD V17, supports sheet metal design, 2D drafting, 3D modelling and building information modelling, and the firm says it’s the only CAD system on the market to base all these functions on the industrystandard .dwg file format.

“BricsCAD BIM combines in one product the most advanced 3D sketch modeller with full IFC-certified BIM functionality,” a representative said in a statement.

“It allows you to work through all the typical design stages without leaving the .dwg platform.”

The compare function flags up differences between 3D solids and surfaces using an intuitive colour-coding system, making it easy to compare models with those of a client, colleague or vendor.

The 4k-friendly program is now compatible with ultra-high-resolution monitors, and its new dockable, modeless Layer Explorer keeps layer names and settings at the user’s fingertips for easy access while drawing and editing.

Models can be documented more quickly thanks to expanded section views – full, half, offset and aligned – which are automatically generated and stay associated with models as designs are refined.

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ARCHITECTURE

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JEWEL OF THE DESERT A new arts hub by Snøhetta is emerging from Saudia Arabia’s Eastern Province. Dramatic and majestic, King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture is a monumental statement of the country’s past, present and future, writes Rima Alsammarae

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t’s admirable to see the dedication and the conditions given to the youth in Saudi Arabia,” says Design Days Dubai fair director Cyril Zammit. “Not only are the beauty and scale of the building noteworthy, but so is its ambition to be a new point of convergence for culture at large. I have met the management and was impressed by their vision and their goals.”

Emerging out of the rubble and dust of Dhahran, just north of the King Fahd Causeway that links the kingdom to Bahrain, is a 100-kilometre-square cultural centre – a bold Saudi Aramco initiative. Designed by Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta, the facility, which stands starkly apart from the region’s usual glass architecture, will promote cultural development within the country through its many facilities, set to include a library, auditorium, cinema, museum, archive and exhibition spaces.

Due for completion later this year, the facility was the subject of a design competition back in 2007 that ultimately saw Snøhetta win the contract with a conceptual design that proposed the convergence of five pebble-shaped structures, leaning on one another yet resting in various directions.

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The past is the part that’s under the ground, while the present is the very generous lobby where everything comes together The design team wanted to create something that would represent the country’s heritage and development, that stood as a statement of history and hope.

“It’s a pretty free-flowing environment here at Snøhetta, so there were a lot of individual concepts, but the biggest one that was intuitively understood was this division between past, present and future,” says Tae Young Yoon, a senior architect at Snøhetta who oversaw the project. “That was very evident in how the project was organised in sections.

“The past is the part that’s under the ground, while the present is the very generous lobby where everything comes together. And as you move up, it’s more about the future,” he adds, referring to the 98m Knowledge Tower, which aptly houses the library.

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Literary inspiration

Another concept that indirectly fuelled the team’s creativity was, Yoon says, that of an arch, inspired by the writing of Italian author and journalist Italo Calvino in which he referenced the Roman arch’s keystone – the piece that holds it all together. “It’s where all the force is transferred,” Yoon says. “It’s the one piece that allows the integrity of the whole. So even though the building looks like a stack of stones, it is, conceptually, an arch for us.”

Guided by these two principles, Snøhetta further approached the architecture and interior using a number of design philosophies, such as energy, teamwork and the distinction between the extrovert and introvert, which heavily influenced the make-up of the exterior and interior respectively.

The project’s façade is made of 360 kilometres of thin stainless steel pipe wrapped around the centre’s five ‘pebbles’ and is set above a Kalzip metal skin. The centre’s exterior has a uniform design that communicates connectedness. Even though we see five independent structures, they lean on one another and their singular appearance

illustrates a familial link, while the size and direction of each offers variance. “The exterior, or the extrovert, is heroic, I guess, without intending to be,” says Yoon. “It conveys iconic unity that’s interesting to look at.”

The interior is different. Each space has its own identity, to be interpreted via the varying material choices throughout the centre. And because multiple spaces can be housed within the same pebble, the message is that while they are wholly separate from each other, they belong to the same group.

Though each space is unique, the use of perforated metal and rich palettes throughout is frequent. Patterns too, inspired by Middle Eastern geometry, can be found in subtle amounts. The library, for example, has an inner skin of identical steel panels with double curvature that are designed to overlap. “Some of the richest patterns are in the library,” Yoon says. “We were inspired by the richness of Arabian mosaics, without being too literal about it. There are many examples of this throughout.

The complexity of geometric articulation is something we all took inspiration from, again not literally, but the expressiveness of it.”

The keystone is where all the force is transferred – it’s the one piece that allows the integrity of the whole.

Even though the building looks like a stack of stones, it is, conceptually, an arch for us 19

ARCHITECTURE

Geometric patterns can also be found in the interior’s architectural lighting, most evident in the lobby, in which piercing slivers of light zigzag across the ceiling, as well as in the exterior interface that separates the building from the landscaped gardens outside – inspired by Saudi’s geology, and arid lands across the world.

Other materials used for the interior of the project include bamboo and the Kvadratcovered acoustic fabric panels by Norwegian artist Heidi Winge Strøm in the auditorium, and the Zumtobel-made chandeliers that hang in the great exhibition hall.

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A hub for the arts

When complete, the project will host a number of cultural events, from opera and symphony concerts in the 930-seat auditorium to musicals and lectures, while the smaller cinema will offer

Design Middle East

a new venue for performing arts in the kingdom.

Up in Knowledge Tower, the library (set to contain 200,000 books) will be accessible for users of all ages and interests, and travelling exhibitions will rotate throughout the great exhibition hall. It’s an audacious programme, one that will foster education and cultural dialogue.

Extending its generous ambitions to its community, the centre (and therefore Saudi Aramco) will also be supporting Saudi Design Week at this year’s Design Days Dubai. In 2016, the exhibition introduced a number of Saudi designers, including Wadha Al Rashid, Oelab, Ayah Al Bitar, Noura Bouzo and Misque. Together, they explored the notions of reinventing and reinterpreting heritage by showcasing everyday objects.

“When Saudi Design Week presented emerging Saudi designers last March at

Design Days Dubai, it was the result of a great cooperation that started back in 2014,” says Zammit. “Between the two countries, there has always been a natural link when it comes to design. In 2017, some of the designers will be showcasing independently at Design Days, a new step for a rapidly growing market.”

While the construction team finalises the last details of the cultural centre, the Snøhetta team is back in Oslo. Although they’ve recently skirted away from controversy for having delivered work in the kingdom, they’ve continued towards their mission of addressing problems through architecture and design. And they’ve taken on a number of new developments, including another Saudi project.

“We have a metro station in Riyadh going up,” says Yoon. “It’s going to be on a par with this project. It’ll be amazing.”

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BATHROOMS

MAKING A SPLASH 22

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As he releases his latest line of sanitary ware, Robin Levien talks about his journey from ceramics-mad schoolboy to world-renowned product designer

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ome people take decades to figure out what they want to do in life – for Robin Levien, that eureka moment came early. The British product designer was a teenager at boarding school when an art teacher introduced him to ceramics. “He brought clay and a kiln, we sat down for the lesson and he said, ‘Go away and find something you’d like to make, draw it and bring the sketch to the class next week’.

“I found a book on Chinese art and there was this sculpture of a seated Buddha, and I drew it.

I brought it to the class and the teacher said ‘I think that’s a little bit ambitious!’ and I said ‘Yes, but that’s what I want to make’. So I made it and listened to everything he had to say, about how you had to let it dry out properly before you put it in the kiln. It was about 30cm high, and the next week we opened the kiln door and my Buddha was sitting there.

“A lot of the other kids’ stuff had broken – they’d put it in while it was a little bit damp – and that was the moment. The teacher gave me a pat on the back and said ‘Well done, Levien’ and that was it – I was hooked!”

Levien’s sanitary ware has profoundly influenced the way we view the smallest room.

One of Europe’s most consistently successful product designers, he’s created numerous domestic goods for leading international companies through his company, Studio Levien.

He says: “This is a little bit corny, but I’m a child of the Sixties and the most famous pop group in the Sixties, the Beatles, were called the Fab Four.

So I take F-A-B, and for me it means ‘functional, affordable and beautiful’.

“Many, many designers will talk about functionality and beauty, and then I put this ‘A’ in the middle there, affordable. Because you can make things functional and people don’t like it, they don’t buy it; you can make it incredibly beautiful. But if people can’t afford to buy it, it’s not such a great achievement.”

Levien has been invited to a celebration at his alma mater, London’s Central St Martins School of Art and Design. “Its ceramics course is 100 years old this year – I’m going to be

Design Middle East

We are effectively in a fashion industry, because the toilet was invented 150 years ago and it hasn’t really changed much involved in an exhibition there, which is fun!,” he says. “I’m going to put a Connect toilet in the exhibition as an alumnus.”

Levien graduated with a bachelor’s degree in ceramics, then took an MA in the subject at the Royal College of Art. His professor was the renowned pottery designer and aristocrat David Douglas, the 12th Marquess of Queensberry, and in 1976, the pair went into business.

“I was in partnership with my professor for about 20 years before I set up my own practice,” he says, “so it’s been ceramics from being a 15-year-old in school, the whole way through – quite a singular road.”

Levien’s work is displayed in the permanent collection of London’s V&A museum; he’s also heavily involved with the UK’s Royal Society for Arts, serving as chair of one of its Student Design Award judging panels. In 1995, he became a Royal Designer for Industry, a distinction limited to 200 people at any one time. Presented by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, it’s one of the highest accolades a designer in the UK can achieve. More recently, he served as Master of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry, a two-year post.

“A friend of mine described bathroom design as the sculpture business, and in a curious way, it’s very sculptural and for every single piece that we design, we make a model in the studio, a full-size, one-to-one model. All the things in my studio we design – cups and

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BATHROOMS

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All the things in my studio are items we physically interact with. You hold them, you touch them, you pick them up – and that’s what I love making the most

Design Middle East

saucers, bowls and plates, all the way through to bathroom products – they’re all items that we physically interact with. You hold them, you touch them, you pick them up and that’s in a way what I love doing most.”

Levien’s Studio sanitary ware line, released in 1986 for Ideal Standard International, was phenomenally successful – in the UK, it was the bestselling suite for over two decades. In November, he flew into Dubai for the launch of the company’s new showroom and unveiled his 2017 range for the 100-year-old firm, Connect Air. It’s an update on the 1993 line Connect, now almost a brand in its own right. From his awardwinning Space collection, intended for smaller bathrooms, to his San Remo and Tesi lines, Levien has brought modern bathroom design to the mainstream – and producing for the mass market comes with its own challenges.

“It’s incredibly important that what you design for it actually works in volume – it’s not a niche market,” he says. “It has to be a product that

can be used by many people in many different ways. But that’s my favourite kind of design – I love the idea of making a design popular. For me, if lots of people choose it and want to have it in their homes, that’s enough for me – I’m thrilled.”

Changing times

Ideal Standard’s Connect Air modular system for 2017 offers 150 complementary products.

Basins, for instance, include the smooth, streamlined shape of Cube, the gracefully curved Arc and the fully rounded Sphere; various vanity and countertop options are also available. It’s a far cry from Levien’s first collaboration with the firm, the Studio line, more than 30 years ago. “It had 15 items, all designed at the same time, and that was really a big, big story – it got on the front page of Design magazine in the UK,” he recalls.

“That’s the most significant change; it’s the size of the offer that we now make, or the variations.

There can be eight or 10 toilets, whereas when we launched Studio 30 years ago there was one.”

efficiency has been no easy task, he says, reflecting on the bulky, wall-mounted units of old. “When you pulled the chain it was like Niagara! They really worked.”

Today’s economical systems take up far less space, but still not everyone is pleased. When Levien scaled down cisterns for the Connect range, he challenged perceptions of what a toilet should look like.

“People were saying the tank was too small.

And I said ‘It’s not. It’s still larger than it needs to be, and you’re just going to have to bear with me because you’re going to have to get used to it!’

“At the beginning, things can look strange and I often find myself saying ‘If you’re not a little bit scared of what I’m showing you, I haven’t done my job’. You have to be quite confident as a designer when you approach clients in that way.

“I’m not a big-time revolutionary or anything, but I think a designer’s job is to say what they really think, even if it might not be what the client wants to hear.”

Practice makes perfect

The pace has certainly accelerated over the past decade, a phenomenon Levien attributes in part to the proliferation of home decor magazines and property makeover TV shows.

“Whether or not consumers like the presenter or what they do, it still makes them feel as though they can decide what they want to happen in their homes, that they have a choice. I think the industry has had to supply the demand that’s come in from that,” he says.

“The toilet was invented 150 years ago and it hasn’t really changed that much, so why do we need a new one? But it’s the same as when you buy another blouse or a pair of shoes – you’re looking for the latest style. You only have to look at products from 10 years ago to realise they’re continually evolving.”

While acrylic sanitary ware is cheaper to produce, ceramic typically remains the first choice once price considerations are pushed aside. Why has its popularity endured?

“The wonderful thing about ceramics,

especially for bathroom products, is that it’s hygienic – it’s really tough and clean. You can have a washbasin at home for 10 years and it’s pretty much the same as it was when it was put in, and I think that is unique to ceramic.

“There’s a lot of these solid-surface materials and you can do amazing things with them, but after 10 years it wouldn’t look the same as it did on the day you put it in. Ideal Standard offers a 25-year guarantee on the ceramic – you wouldn’t give such a guarantee for what is essentially a plastic basin.”

Consumer demand isn’t the only factor that’s changing sanitary ware. Environmental considerations increasingly come into play, particularly where water usage is concerned.

“When I started as a designer in the bathroom industry, there were something like 13 litres in the tank. It’s gone from 13 to nine to seven to six to four – it’s a progression downwards in terms of the volume of water,” Levien says.

Maintaining performance while boosting

Studio Levien’s sanitary ware is modelled by hand, physically sculpted from slabs of Styrofoam that he melts using a hotwire.

“We make full-size bathtubs in the studio that you can get into. Styrofoam is soft and it’s blue, which is about as far as you can get from the finished thing, which is usually hard and white, but the ergonomics, the interaction between people and product, are really developed through modelling.”

Sometimes, two or three pieces of the same design are made, each of which must be complete before the team moves onto the next one.

“I was listening to a lovely little bit of audio about Leonard Cohen after he died recently.

I was never really a big fan of his, but he was talking about how he wrote songs, how Bob Dylan wrote a song in 15 minutes but he took two years, and how he would write anything up to 60 verses for a song and edit them down to five.

“What Leonard Cohen said was, he couldn’t eliminate a verse until he’d finished it. He couldn’t get halfway through a verse and say ‘This is rubbish, I’m going to move on’. He kept going until he’d finished it and then he put it to one side, and that’s a bit like our process as designers. We keep going, even though we think it might not be working out, and then we finish it, then we put it to one side and we make the next one and so on, until we get it just, just right. It’s kind of a labour of love.”

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HIDE AND SEEK

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world leader in luxury leather furniture has unveiled its latest lines in Dubai. Poltrona Frau, the 105-year-old Italian company, has showcased products under its eponymous brand, which focuses on classical, elegant styles, as well as the more modern Cassina and the smaller Cappellini collection.

The latter, created by Milanese architect Giulio Cappellini, is an eclectic collection of contemporary, avant-garde statement pieces, many of them feats of engineering as well as of design.

Many of the items on display were showcased at Italian design fair Salone del Mobile, which ran last April. Rayah Daban, sales & interior design executive at Poltrona Frau Middle East, talked us through of the collection’s key pieces‌

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Poltrona Frau Nivola

Roberto Lazzeroni gives form to the Nivola armchair and sofa with a light, streamlined shape. A compact and rounded seat with simple and precise lines, its feminine allure is enhanced by warm and natural materials.

Bullit

This modular sofa offers both style and flexibility. Rayah Daban says: “It’s a composition, so you can have choose how you’d like it to be arranged and it comes with a table.

You can extend the Bullit forwards or you can have a fourseater and you can have it with or without the chaiselongue. It’s beautiful.”

Fidelio Notte

Roberto Lazzeroni’s side tables and chests of drawers are elegant, subtly curvaceous pieces composed of leather and wood.

Part of Poltrona Frau’s eponymous collection, it was recently displayed at Milan design fair Salone del Mobile.

One example in the showroom is topped with marble, and buyers can ask to have the back of the chest leather-coated, enabling it to be displayed in the centre of a room rather than placed against a wall.

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Cappellini

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When it was first released in 2004, the Bong side table was made of fibreglass; today’s version is resin. Daban says: “It’s a modification of the Bong chair, which came in red, black or white. This has a summery butterfly pattern.”

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Drum

“I’ve heard Giulio Cappellini himself say that stretching this material over the frame took a very long time,” Daban says. “It’s quite eccentric in its form, but the funny thing about this chair is the way it’s made. In terms of industrial design – I’m a product designer as well – you can’t make this style of chair in a factory, it’s not that easy. You have to make a wire form and then you pump foam inside, and eventually this is the shape you get.

It’s quite amazing.”

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FURNITURE

Cassina Cassina’s I Maestri line contains iconic pieces designed by some of the leading architects of the 20th century, notably Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Its I Contemporanei collection, conversely, features the work of today’s most successful contemporary designers, including Philippe Starck, Jean Nouvel and the late Dame Zaha Hadid.

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LC4

Designed in 1928 in France by Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand and legendary architect Le Corbusier, this chair became famous in 1965 when Cassina reissued it. Marrying comfort and geometric purity, its stability is assured by the friction between the hide – either cow or pony skin – and the rubber tubes that cover the cross bar of the base. The adjustable frame is in polished trivalent chrome-plated steel.

Meltdown

This striking piece is a reflection on Japan’s Fukushima catastrophe of 2011, in which a tsunami triggered a sequence of events that caused a nuclear reactor to overheat.

Dabah says: “It comes in different colours and compositions; it could be a floor lamp or suspended from the ceiling.

“The glass bulbs have melted but not to the bottom, to show there is hope after disaster, that there is an endpoint.”

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INTERIORS

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Intersect by Lexus in DIFC, Dubai

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TAKING THE HEAT LXA’s David Rooney lets rip about regional challenges in restaurant design

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INTERIORS

The Music Rooms will be a standalone live performance venue in Dubai

David Rooney of interior design firm LXA

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avid Rooney knows a thing or two about restaurants. Interior design practice LXA, of which he’s creative director and a founding partner, has had a hand in creating some of Dubai’s most distinctive-looking dining destinations, including Asha’s, Chamas and Intersect by Lexus, the Tokyo-born, DIFC-based leisure concept that combines Japanese cars and cuisine. When Design Middle East caught up with him, he’d stopped off in the UAE en route to London from Doha, where a fourth outlet is set to open this year.

“What is it? Ostensibly it’s there to sell cars, but at the same time the added value is we’re putting a lounge into there, we’re putting a food offer in there. It’s breaking up the barriers and the lines between conventional institutions,”

he says. “Of course it’s about the car, but it’s not necessarily about buying one – it’s upscaling the brand. I love that. I love bolting on and adding to established formats and taking them to a completely different lifestyle level.”

To Rooney, Intersect by Lexus typifies the trend towards F&B offerings in hitherto unconventional settings. “I think things are going to get mixed up in a great way,” he says.

“For example, we’re looking at bringing boxing gyms into the market that have a food offer, that have lots of added value.

“You’ll see, in the not too distant future, that when a hotel chain decides to introduce a gym it’ll have a food offer, a drink offer – that’ll really mix it up. The lines are going to be blurred, even more than they are now.”

Intersect by Lexus

Flavour of the month

Rooney is well versed in the vagaries of Dubai’s fickle dining scene and cites Qbara, JAS Hospitality’s ill-fated Lebanese restaurant, as a cautionary tale. The cavernous space, designed

by Tokyo’s Studio Glitt, was remarkable, with a strikingly modern chandelier composed of hundreds of strands of steel wire; suspended ceiling panels and a stunning centrepiece of a carved timber installation off which bounced constantly changing LED projections. Yet the venue closed last summer, less than three years after its launch.

“What an awful story that is,” he laments.

“It was an amazing piece of design – and it’s not like us to praise other people’s designs, but it was beautiful. It was outstanding.

“The rise and fall of the über-restaurant in Dubai and the Middle East will be real.”

He believes Qbara’s failure has had a chilling impact on regional restaurateurs’ ambitions, dampening enthusiasm for largescale, big-money schemes.

“I think people looked at that and thought ‘Oh gosh, that is a massive investment that’s failed’. Now, things like that, when the market’s robust, have an effect.”

While Rooney thinks there will always be “high-end destination restaurants that are all about a specific cuisine”, he predicts they’ll be scaled down. Instead, smaller, more intimate boutique venues may be on the cards, “quasi private members’ clubs – not by invitation, but you’ll have to reserve your place at the bar.”

Asha’s restaurant in Manchester

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INTERIORS

Intersect by Lexus

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Over the past five years there’s been this kind of urban design where everything looks as if it’s been set on fire, put out and then put back into the space

Design Middle East

What other F&B trends can he foresee?

Smaller venues, for a start, and “a general paring down of design exuberance”.

“Over the past five years there’s been this kind of urban design where everything looks as if it’s been set on fire, put out and then put back into the space.”

While that might sound a tad extreme, he can certainly see a shift towards a more sophisticated, scaled down and calmer approach, adding: “I think that will happen because we’re working on things like that.”

Quality control

Operating in the Middle East is not without problems. One common complaint is unrealistic turnaround times; others include quality assurance and ensuring the firm’s vision for a space is followed through.

“Quite often we have to fight to stay involved,” he says. “There can be a propensity for clients to say ‘Thank you very much, I’ve got the design’ – and we really push back hard.”

He adds: “We do like to keep control over the

process to ensure the end result is what we want it to be. That is a perennial challenge, but nothing new.”

A recent LXA project in Al Habtoor City is a case in point. “The Rose & Crown is an example of us giving a really strong design concept, with great drawings to back it up, and them not taking enough notice,” he sighs. “It just wasn’t right – the lighting was ignored. Now if you ignore the lighting specification, then your scheme’s finished. I just walked in and the volumes were great, but it’s cold.”

How does that happen? “It’s always cost. So we would specify typically all the light fittings in this space had to be 270k, which is very warm, then somebody comes in who just doesn’t read.

“I don’t want to be too cynical, but somebody has looked at the spec and said ‘How much? I bet we can get that cheaper’. And the argument is, ‘Well, it’s a light, and it’s the same beam, the same input’.

“I kind of get it – cost is important – but it makes a massive difference. It’s the single biggest thing, for me, in a scheme, because if you

don’t light it properly it’s going to fail.” LXA tries to use lighting consultants whenever possible – Into Lighting worked on Asha’s restaurant in Manchester, for example – but persuading clients that the benefits of doing so outweigh the expense can be tricky.

He says: “It’s easy to walk in to a space and say ‘Your lighting could have been a lot better’, but you can’t flick a switch and say ‘That’s how it could have been better’.

“What we try to do is take clients to restaurants and say ‘Look, this is a great lighting scheme’ – we used to take them to Qbara. And what you’re doing then is endorsing their feeling that lighting is always too expensive, because Qbara was phenomenal. But nevertheless, it had brilliant lighting.”

The future’s bright

Rooney arrived in Dubai in 2005, three years before the financial crisis sent the city into freefall, but while he admits he and his business partners have “seen some ups and downs”, he brims with confidence about its ability to bounce back from trouble.

“I’m a great believer that the streets aren’t necessarily paved with gold in Dubai, but conversely, 2008 and 2009 weren’t quite as bad as everybody says,” he asserts. “Don’t get me wrong – it was tough – but it wasn’t the end of the world. There’s an ambition and resilience to this place that dictates that it won’t fail.”

The year 2017 will be hectic. There’s entertainment venue The Music Rooms and more work with Indian restaurant Asha’s – its LXA-designed Manchester branch has just earned a Michelin star. New clients include Jones the Grocer, the Australian delicatessen.

“It’s the first time we’ve worked with Jones and it’s brilliant,” Rooney says.

“They are refreshing because they’re an established brand but they’ve got a great vision and want to actively move it forward.”

He says he enjoys working with owneroperators as they tend to have teams in place from the outset, meaning his team can meet the staff who’ll actually work in the venue, from managers to the mixologist.

“With hotels, I’ll do a restaurant scheme and the team will all be there, but by the time it opens they’ll have gone – it really is shifting sands in the Middle East,” he says.

“Get the team in at the start and you’ve got half a chance of creating something special.”

Asha’s

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V ISUA L A RT S

A SENSE OF PLACE Doha designer Aisha Al Sowaidi reconnects to her heritage through art, writes Rima Alsammarae

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Design Middle East

“I

always liked to do things my way rather than follow someone else’s path,” says Aisha Al Sowaidi, a a multidisciplinary designer based in Doha. “I didn’t have this pressure – or stress – about what people would say. I create because it allows me to express myself and, as it turns out, other people relate to what I design, and I like that.”

It’s noon on a Saturday, and Al Sowaidi is peering into her freshly made cappuccino at the Address hotel in Downtown Dubai, which she’s visiting for a short holiday with her daughter. Her career trajectory wasn’t really planned, she explains. Having wanted to study computer engineering (“I was in love with computers”), Al Sowaidi opted to attend Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar to study graphic design, as her original passion wasn’t yet available for female students in Doha.

“I thought ‘I’ll just try graphic design at VCU for a year, and then go somewhere else to study engineering’. I was fascinated with programs like Adobe Photoshop, but little did I know that that’s actually design.” She went on to graduate from VCU with a degree in graphic design, but after she started work she drifted away from her field of study and towards conceptual product design. Ultimately, she would return to the same college to complete a master’s in fine arts, allowing her to explore her newfound

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V ISUA L A RT S

passion. “My final project for my MFA was about childhood memories,” she says. “There are moments in the past that I exaggerated and wanted to relive – either a specific incident, moment or even a general custom.”

Khaleeji culture

Nostalgia came to define Al Sowaidi’s many projects. Although she hopes not to pigeonhole herself, her Qatari heritage has been a source of inspiration from day one. An early piece aptly named Nostalgic Table, for example, was inspired by the old habit shared among Khaleeji people enjoying lunch together on an open carpet. Today, though, eating on the floor is a rare occasion; even rarer, coming home for lunch. A tall, thin table with enough space

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Design Middle East

for one, Nostalgic Table’s face boasts a floral rug-inspired motif, carved into the top slab with bone-white fringe dangling off the side. A piece of wet wool is placed beneath the surface, allowing the smell of old carpet to waft through the cutouts and evoking an intimate feeling of eating at home.

“I designed a series of objects that take you back to these kind of moments,” she says, “like the grandmother chair, which has one arm slightly higher than the other to make you lean.

It’s made out of scarf fabric, and the buttons are made of habba sawda – black seeds that release a smell once you rub them.”

Combining senses seems to be Al Sowaidi’s forte and smell, touch and feel are her favourite capabilities to activate. Most of her designs are

There are moments in the past that I wanted to relive – a specific incident, moment or even a custom

created to provoke memories so powerful, you’re transported to specific moments in time. Are they usable, though? For Al Sowaidi, the grey space between design and art has her tangled, and she’s currently trying to reconcile the differing forms.

“I’m still in this zone where it’s design, but it’s art, but it’s in between. So for instance, the medkhans – everyone wanted to buy them. I produce them now for sale, but they are conceptual pieces. They aren’t pieces my grandmother should use,” she laughs.

“Their function is not as good as the function of the usual ones because they’re glass – they’re fragile and they can get hot. That’s what I find difficult sometimes… the people who want to buy them. I don’t want to sell a bad product, but it’s a good design.”

Projects in the pipeline

Most of Al Sowaidi’s pieces have been bought up by museums in Doha, and, once again, she’ll be exhibiting a new range at Design Days Dubai. Called Shifted Reality, her upcoming series relates to the past and the notion that overtime, our memories alter and the story changes. At Athr Gallery in Jeddah, too, she’ll soon be exhibiting a new version of her piece Remembrance of a Majlis.

“Remembrance of a Majlis is tied to this memory I have of when I was a kid and I would go sit in my father’s majlis outside, rolling over the seating on the floor. And although adults surrounded me, I felt alone and disconnected.

“I would create this universe where my surroundings lost gravity – they fled the space they once existed in and now they belonged to my imagination,” she says. Made of walnut and white fabric – two of Al Sowaidi’s favourite materials to work with – Remembrance of

a Majlis is more or less a large wheel, with cushioned seating lining the inner circle. It’s a seat for one, and enforces loneliness on its user, as well as detachment from the surrounding environment.

“Everything started because I lost the feeling of being home,” Al Sowaidi says. “Doha is changing, everything that surrounds me is changing. Old neighbourhoods are torn down and towers are built.

“I love modernity, but it hit me one day that I lost a connection to the place and to the space that I lived in. So I don’t think my designs are solutions – they’re attempts to relive certain moments again. Shifted Reality is an attempt, and that’s the feeling I want to achieve, you know? Of being home again, even if for five minutes by having lunch at a high table.”

Despite her hectic schedule due to her upcoming exhibitions, Al Sowaidi has a new dream festering in the back seat: to grow a multidisciplinary design community in Doha, perhaps by opening her own studio (although not under her name, she insists).

Most of the designers in her home town, from fashion to graphic, are women, she says, because VCU is often a popular choice for Qatar’s female students.

And at the moment, the field of design in general is growing there, but multidisciplinary design needs more time. According to Al Sowaidi, designers like herself need the right environment to grow, and it’s something she’s looking for.

“I’m at the Fire Station for now,” she says, referring to the artist in residence programme in Doha. I’m sort of holding on to it because it’s a new place and if it happened to be the right place, it might create the community I’m searching for, and trying to create.”

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DESIGN CLASSICS

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Design Middle East

SLEEP TIGHT Tragedy propelled Viggo Einfeldt to create a cot that would keep kids safe at night. Now, his pioneering childproof bed has been reworked to protect generations to come‌

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DESIGN CLASSICS

V

iggo Einfeldt was a struggling Copenhagen architect when he happened upon the article that would change the course of his career. A toddler had been strangled between the bars of his own bamboo cot – and Einfeldt resolved there and then to create a safer model to ensure no other child met the same fate. It was 1942 and the outbreak of World War Two had abruptly halted all construction; with little building work on the horizon, he was compelled to pursue his passion for product design.

The piece of furniture Einfeldt came up with was not only safe, it could also be extended as youngsters grew from newborns into gangly teenagers. Called Juno, his creation found a place within the canon of inspirational Danish design – and now it has been reworked for the 21st century.

A noble legacy

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Design Middle East

beginning, there is no danger of the little one falling out, but the child soon begins to discover a zest for life. First, you can place grilles inside the bed, right down to the bottom, and remember that the mattress must first be lifted and then clamped down between the grilles. Later, when the child begins to stand up, the wisest step is to pull down the bed, so that the grilles can be placed in the right position.

“The child has now grown and the bed has grown along with your child. The grilles can still be used, but now as side rails to keep the quilt in place – here, the grilles must be way down on the bed base, while the mattress is lifted. The

bed has lost some of its childish appearance and is now better suited to the young lady’s or gentleman’s room.”

The perfect partnership

Danish design studio Sebra Interiør won the exclusive rights to the design. The firm’s founder and owner, Mia Dela, says: “Through the years, several generations have purchased the original Juno bed in new or used condition in Denmark, and generations of children have slept in this bed. Today’s parents, grandparents and greatgrandparents have a very special relationship with this design icon.”

PICTURES: SEBRA INTERIØR

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The concept was a pull-out bed constructed in a manner that could follow the child from the first weeks to the early teens. Marketed with the motto ‘The bed that grows with the child’, it could easily be extended. The side panels were removable, meaning it could also serve as a settee, years before sofa beds came to prominence.

The original Juno had features that made the piece suitable for use as a playpen, plus long round rods in the gable. These were later shortened, and it is this style that has stood the test of time. Its soft, child-friendly shapes were a dramatic departure from the rigid forms of the era; as was the case with clothes, 1940s children’s furniture looked like adults’ in all but size. The Juno came in a variety of pastel hues befitting the grandest of nurseries and, more crucially, its bars were so close together that no child could ever get his or her head stuck.

Einfeldt’s invention was an instant hit. A Danish newspaper of the day reported: “At the

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DESIGN CLASSICS

Generations of children have slept in this bed. Today’s parents, grandparents and great-grandparents have a very special relationship with this design classic

How it works…

1 2 3 4

Cot with sides attached, upper bed base position. Suitable for use from birth until the infant is able to sit unaided.

Cot with sides attached, lower bed base position. Ideal for when the baby can sit upright without help.

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Cot used with one or both walls removed and the base in a lowered position. Suitable for toddlers once they can crawl out of bed.

Junior bed. The frame is extended to its maximum length. The side panels are removed and the base is fully raised.

Design Middle East

Modifying the design to meet stringent EU safety standards was no small task. Although the bed had to be enlarged, Sebra managed to increase it to scale and retain the proportions of the original piece.

Dela says: “We had to modify the curves at the top of the four legs simply in order for the design to be able to meet modern stringent safety requirements. However, the bed’s overall expression and appearance with the classic cot sides and rounded gable ends – and the overriding aesthetic design – are, of course, maintained to the greatest possible extent.”

She adds: “We have somewhat adapted the functionality of the bed in order to accommodate the current requirements of parents. The bed base can be raised in the first months and the installation of the cot sides is more userfriendly.”

The Sebra bed’s interior base is 70cm wide and 112.5cm long, extendable to 155cm. Made of birch, it comes in white, grey and pastel-pink and blue, its predecessor’s pale yellow and green shades – so popular in the 1930s – having fallen out of favour with modern parents.

The paint is an antibacterial, non-toxic formulation that utilises microbiological silver ions. Primarily used in healthcare settings, these break down to prevent bacteria growing. Its ability to inhibit the spread of E. coli, a common cause of food poisoning, has been tested in accordance with the stringent ISO 22196 procedure, which measures the effectiveness of antimicrobial surfaces. In the study, a significant decline and a reduction of 99.9 per cent in bacterial growth was observed after 24

hours when compared to activity in untreated products.

A cultural treasure

Einfeldt’s classic design is still as fresh today as it was when first unveiled; his architectural training clearly had a bearing on its form. The Juno bed and Einfeldt himself are listed in Denmark’s Kulturkanon, a government initiative to affirm and publicise the country’s cultural heritage. Here, it rests alongside Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, Viking longships and even Donald Duck (Anders And in Danish), purportedly invented by a Dane, plus, less wholesomely,Lars von Trier’s 1998 film The Idiots.

Other Danish design icons on the 108-strong list include Nanna Ditzel’s 1955 highchair, Kay Bojesen’s wooden toys from the period 1920 to 1950 and the LEGO brick, launched by Godtfred Kirk Christiansen in 1958.

When Einfeldt died in 1993, the rights to the design were passed to his daughter, Marit Fabricius, who had, as a 13-year-old girl, named his invention after the Roman goddess of childbirth.

Speaking last year, Fabricius’ own daughter, Dorothy Lohmann, said the family felt Sebra had been “the right company” to take on the project.

“Its quality and other products are well suited to the Juno bed and Sebra’s intention with the new bed is to maintain the completely original and unique Juno design while implementing the current safety requirements,” she said.

Mia Dela says: “The heirs to this cultural treasure have chosen to allow Sebra to bring the Juno bed and the Danish design legacy forward – and we are very proud and thankful for that.”

In Du Te E-

OFFICE FURNITURE MANUFACTURER Introducing

design quality comfort durability

Height Adjustable Tables

Intermetal Ltd. Dubai, U.A.E. Tel: +971 4 884 1650 E-mail: sales@intermetal.com

www.intermetal.com

TEXTILES

A DIFFERENT CLOTH Staff from three Dubai-based soft furnishing firms share their insights into the market

Wilson Fabrics Middle East Pamela Opie, general manager

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How would you describe the company?

Wilson Fabrics Australia was established in 1926 as a specialist manufacturer of drapery and blind fabrics. We opened our showroom in Dubai Design District last October.

Wilson designs decorative window fabrics for the hot and humid conditions in Australia, which makes them perfect for the Gulf. We have a unique blockout coating process which ensures longevity, even for sun-facing windows.

What products does it offer?

We make blind and drapery fabrics. Most of our fabrics are made in our own factory in Australia – we design, weave, dye, coat and finish all of them in-house to high specifications. We custom-weave with flame-retardant polyester

Design Middle East

yarn for commercial projects to meet US fire resistance standards.

We also weave double-width jacquards at 280cm or 300cm wide and offers co-ordinating designs and colours in drapery, blind and sheers, so designers can use the same fabrics for several different windows in an installation.

We believe this to be unique.

What technology have you implemented or introduced recently?

We have developed a special blockout coating for drapery and blind fabrics that is not sensitive to heat or humidity.

What are the biggest trends influencing the market right now?

We are seeing a movement towards more use of blockout fabrics in hotels, because such material requires less sewing and lighter

curtain rails can be used. This can reduce cost on a project.

What emerging trends, technology and concepts are changing the soft furnishing industry?

We are seeing increased used of motorised solutions for windows. Property owners are spending much more on each window, therefore it makes sense to invest in a better-quality fabric to put into the automated systems. This is driving a lot of interest in our fabrics.

What projects are you working on?

Wilson Fabrics is quite new to the UAE, so we are delighted that it has has been specified for a number of upcoming hotel projects to be completed this year. wilsonfabrics.ae

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TEXTILES

York Furnishing Textiles

Lucy-Anne Perrin, communications, marketing and events manager

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How would you describe the firm?

York Furnishing Textiles is the largest supplier of furnishing textiles in the Middle East. As well as supplying its own brand, York is the exclusive distributor of Sunbrella and Serge Ferrari, which are contract-standard fabrics manufactured in France.

What products does it offer?

York offers a huge variety of fabric, be it velvet, leathers, sheers, solids or prints. It also supplies a broad selection of outdoor upholstery and awning fabrics which are particularly suited to hospitality projects.

Design Middle East

What emerging trends, technology and concepts are changing the soft furnishings industry?

I feel that there is one concept that is being pushed at the moment, and that is sustainability.

I feel that it is a subject that is being adapted into a lot of designs right now. It will affect the furinishing industry in terms of the logistics used and the composite of the fabrics, as well as how they could influence the end user.

Have you implemented or introduced any technology recently?

We are currently working on something very exciting that we hope to introduce very soon.

York is putting together an app that will show the full collection in a digital format, enabling users to view their chosen fabrics in a 3D room

scene as well as checking availability and placing orders.

What trends are influencing the soft furnishings market right now?

I find that one of the biggest trends at the moment is earthy textures. Basically, this is fabric that is typically a solid but has a natural texture.

What projects have you been working on recently?

I have worked on new hotel projects along the Creekside area and Business Bay, and on commercial offices and luxury villas. York has such an extensive selection, the scope of projects it can work on is endless. astyork.com

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TEXTILES

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Design Middle East

Contemporary Home

Joanna Morgan, marketing manager How would you describe your firm?

Contemporary Home is a home textiles specialist. We have been supplying quality European branded bed linen and bath towels to well-known department and linen stores in the Gulf for almost 10 years. We operate 12 Christy ‘shops inside shops’ across the GCC countries.

In December we launched the specialist website linenobsession.ae, which makes shopping for quality linen easy and convenient.

What products does it offer?

We are the Middle East distributor for Christy UK bed linen and towels – Christy invented the first bath towel-making machine in 1850! We launched Esprit bed linen in the Middle East 10 years ago and it has been fabulously successful, and we will launch a number of new linen brands on linenobsession.ae this year.

What are the biggest trends influencing the market right now?

We see the taste for bed linen is more closely following UK and US looks now, and the muted American colour pallette has become popular for coloured top-of-the-bed looks. We also see an increasing trend for customers to buy highquality sheeting. Our bestseller is our Christy

500-thread-count Egyptian or Supima cotton sheets, which are made in Portugal. This shows Middle East customers are prepared to pay a higher price for quality.

What technology has the company implemented or introduced recently?

In January 2016, we launched our range Linen Obsession Hotel Collection. This is the actual sheeting used by famous name hotels, not copies of the look, so people can now buy authentic hotel sheeting and towels for their homes. It’s a great product which is very long-lasting and almost indestructible.

What emerging trends, technology and concepts are changing the soft furnishing industry?

We are seeing the continued importance of high-quality white linen. This is why we are launching The White Collection by Christy next month. We have ordered a great range of whites and cream linen in both UK and Gulf bed sizes.

What projects have you been working on lately?

We are so excited to launch our website, linenobsession.ae, which showcases quality linen in a beautiful online store. linenobsession.ae

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Int

ers Cy ec C be ri 23 r Se tical – 2 cur Inf 4 J ity ras an Con truc ua ry feren ture 20 ce & 17

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Register online today www.IntersecExpo.com/R

Design Middle East

W I S H

L I S T

LES DANSEUSES The name of this suspension lamp is French for ‘the dancers’, a nod to piece’s undulating motion.

An engine mounted on the suspension shaft makes the fabric move, resulting in a diffused light and casting subtle, constantly changing projections. Altering the rotation speed causes the discs to move between vertical and horizontal positions, altering the amount of light illuminating the space.

Swiss design house atelier oï produces work ranging from interiors and architecture to product design, scenography and naval construction. danesemilano.com

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WISH LIST

CLOUD BOOKCASE This is an early design by French brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, who first came to prominence in 2000 through their relationship with Japan’s Issey Miyake. Paying homage to the organic forms of 1960s furniture, the Cloud bookcase is an interactive, modular storage solution, offering an array of compositional options and serving as a functional partition. cappellini.it

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Design Middle East

WISH LIST

VINTAGE TRAPEZOID BIN With a nod to this spring’s geometric trend, this trash can features intersecting lines of inlaid mother of pearl. Nada Debs takes a multicultural approach to design, reflecting her Lebanese origins and childhood in Japan. She studied interior architecture at America’s Rhode Island School of Design and moved to the UK, where she began designing and producing custom furniture. After a 40-year hiatus, Debs moved home to Beirut. Finding that designs for modern Middle Eastern furniture were nonexistent, she established her company East & East, which fuses minimalism with Eastern tradition. nadadebs.com, citiesstore.com

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WISH LIST

CHEST OF DRAWERS Italian designer Gio Ponti made several versions of this chest of drawers in the period from 1952 to 1955. This piece, from Molteni&C’s Gio Ponti Collection, was produced using original drawings kept in the Gio Ponti Archives; art direction came from Studio Cerri & Associati.

The handles on its hand-painted white drawer fronts are in elm, Italian walnut, mahogany and rosewood, while the elmwood frame rests on satin brass feet. molteni.it, finasi.ae

STRIP STOOL 60

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This iron seat comes in a serene blue shade that’s not dissimilar to Pantone’s hue Niagara, one of the colour-matching firm’s top picks for spring 2017. It was handmade in Lebanon by Orient 499, a boutique that blends Middle Eastern traditions and a modern aesthetic. orient499.com, citiesstore.com

Design Middle East

WISH LIST

CUPCAKE POUFFFE This sweeter than sweet seat is one of a line foodthemed offerings from Woouf!, a Barcelona brand that specialises in bold, playful home textile wares.

Digitally printed using environmentally friendly ink, the beanbag is fire-resistant, water-repellent and machine washable, making it suitable for use by children. woouf.com, citiesstore.com

ROUNDED WOODEN STOOL A vivid shade and knobbly natural wood combine to provide this striking creation by French design house D’un Continent à l’Autre (DCAA). Fun and functional, it comes in a variety of shades, shapes and sizes. citiesstore.com

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WISH LIST

MONOLITH CHAIR

A semi-opaque form appears to balance upon two toppling objects, creating a chair that is hard to visualise. Duffy London’s steel and Perspex creation is handmade in England using ethically sourced materials including wood from sustainable sources. The Monolith chair is available in a number of bespoke finishes.

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duffylondon.com, citiesstore.com

Design Middle East

CRYSTALEDITION WOLF This piece is one of Richard Orlinski’s trademark series Born Wild. The French sculptor seeks to conceptualise the transformation of the negative – wild, fierce natural powers and instincts – into positive emotions through his handcrafted objets d’art. citiesstore.com

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WISH LIST

ROCKING CHAIR Polart injects a youthful vibe into classical Baroque forms, borrowing designs from its brother brand, Polrey Furniture. Based in Mexico, the firm makes reproduction Victorian pieces using durable modern materials. polartdesigns.com, citiesstore.com

CRYSTAL VASE

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“Every facet should be meaningful,” says product designer Aldo Bakker.

Born in the Netherlands in 1971 to avant-garde jewellers Gijs Bakker and Emmy Van Leersum, he grew up in an environment infused with a strong aesthetic sensibility. After training as a silversmith, he set up his own studio and diversified into furniture and tableware; he’s now a professor at Eindhoven art college the Design Academy. The Aldo Bakker homeware line is his first collaboration with Swarovski. aldobakker.com

Design Middle East

TR ADE SHOWS

HOT TICKET Trade fairs you need to know about this spring...

Ambiente What is it?

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This major consumer goods fair is divided into three parts – Dining, Giving and Living.

Ambiente’s organiser, Messe Frankfurt, expects to welcome about 136,000 visitors from 143 countries to this spring’s event. In 2016, more than 4,386 exhibitors from in excess of 95 nations showcased their wares. A platform for the hotels, restaurants and cafés (horeca) segment and sourcing, Ambiente is also a trading post for the growing sustainable consumer goods segment.

The Living sector showcases avant-garde and design-oriented interior design concepts with furniture, textiles, lights, paintings and home accessories in a huge variety of styles, as well as luxury perfumes and room scents.

Other exhibitors focus on high-volume trade furnishing products for internal and external areas.

The Giving division highlights gifts, stationery, decorations and all manner of

Design Middle East

personal and fashion accessories, including bags and watches.

Why should I visit?

New for this year is a lecture zone, where experts in various fields will discuss the current market climate in relation to the trade in personal accessories.

Ambiente’s Next zone, now a regular feature, promotes young companies in creative industries. Its designers present and sell original, often unusual concepts on both the Giving and Living areas.

How much does it cost and how do I book?

The fair is only open to trade visitors, so you may need to present a business card upon arrival. Day tickets cost €28 when bought online in advance or €37 from the box office. Season tickets are €52 and €69 respectively, and students are admitted

PICTURES: MESSE FRANKFURT EXHIBITION GMBH/JEAN-LUC VALENTIN

Friday, 10 to Tuesday, 14 February 2017, Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt, Germany

for €16. Admission includes a free travel pass for use with Frankfurt’s public transport network.

Frankfurt’s hotels can fill up quickly when major trade shows are in town. Private homes across the city are a good-value option, and vetted rooms can be booked through the city’s tourism office. All accommodation it offers is located within the city and is close to public transport.

A room with a shared bathroom costs €60 for a single bed per night or €85 for a double or twin room. If you’d prefer a private bathroom, you can expect to pay €80 for a single room or €85 for a double or twin. Prepayment of 50 per cent is required 21 days prior to arrival. Visit frankfurt-tourismus.de to find out more.

If you’d prefer the creature comforts of a hotel, the brand-new Holiday Inn Frankfurt – Airport will set you back about €194 per night, without breakfast, while the 2* Ibis Frankfurt Messe West offers a superior single room for €229 per night, again on a board-only basis.

Both deals are based on a stay from 9 to 13 February. Although correct at the time of writing, figures are only for guidance.

Final call…

Heimtextil

Tuesday, 10 to Friday, 13 January 2017 Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt, Germany

What is it?

Heimtextil is thought to be the world’s biggest international trade fair for home and contract textiles.

Interior textiles. It’s divided into six categories; windows, walls, floors and upholstery are self-explanatory, as is home textiles. The ‘sun/deco systems’ group includes indoor and outdoor sun protection

systems, systems, curtain tracks and decorative curtain poles, while the Asian Vision, Asian Selection and Asian Feeling section showcases products from Far Eastern exhibitors in the home textiles and household textiles product segments.

How much does it cost and how do I book?

Day tickets cost €30; season ones are €54. Money-saving deals for travel within Germany are also on offer. Visit tickets. messefrankfurt.com to book. heimtextil.messefrankfurt.com

ambiente.messefrankfurt.com

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PICTURES: MESSE FRANKFURT EXHIBITION GMBH/JOHEN GÜNTHER

Where could I stay?

TR ADE SHOWS

Interior Design Oman Monday, 13 to Thursday, 16 February 2017, Oman Convention & Exhibition Center, Muscat

What is it?

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The fair has grown by a fifth year on year since its launch back in 2014. Aiming to display the latest technology, materials and innovations in decor, interiors and furniture, it attracted more than 4,700 visitors last year, mostly from within Oman or neighbouring Gulf states. Run by Muscatbased Al Nimr Expo, it targets architects, interior designers and decision-makers in the public and private sectors and is held in co-operation with Oman’s Ministry of Housing and Public Authority for Craft Industries.

The fair has a fairly broad remit and is divided into no fewer than 14 areas. Key sectors include commercial fit-out and interior and outdoor design; lighting; textiles, kitchens and bathrooms; fixtures, fittings, building materials, surfaces, flooring and finishes.

No Arabian expo would be complete without a look at luxury lifestyle and, last but not least, there’s a “special section”, an umbrella term for exhibitors that don’t fit neatly under any other

Design Middle East

category. Here you’ll find aquatic play solutions, eco building, plants, renovation firms and, for a dash of Eastern promise, consultants in the Japanese tradition of feng shui and vaastu shastra, an ancient Indian philosophy devoted to architectural principles.

I want to learn more about sponsorship. Who should I speak to?

Why should I go?

Where could I stay?

Oman has witnessed a construction boom in recent years, spurring demand for interior design, decor and furnishings, particularly within real estate and tourism. Interior Design Oman’s organisers. Notwithstanding its small size, the event encompasses a huge variety of exhibitors – you’re bound to find something that’s relevant to your work.

How much does it cost and how do I book?

Visitors can attend free of charge and prior registration isn’t required – just turn up with your business card.

Contact project director Adil Osman on +968 9404 1717 or, alternatively, send him an email at media@alnimrexpo.com

Muscat has a number of international and regional business-friendly hotels.

For a three-night stay, from 13 to 15 February, you can expect to pay in the region of $105 per night at the 3* Ibis Muscat, $106 at the Tulip Inn Muscat and $130 at the 4* Best Western Premier Muscat. Both are centrally located.

All of the prices are in US dollars and are based on a single-person stay in a double bed, without breakfast.

Although correct at the time of writing, all figures are provided only for guidance. interiordesignoman.com

YORK FURNISHING TEXTILE FZCO Design Middle East

Showroom: Naif Road, Deira, Dubai

Tel: +971 4 364 9699

Email: sales@astyork.com

OfďŹ ce/Warehouse: Dubai Textile City

Tel: +971 4 364 9675

www.astyork.com

Al Awir, U.A.E. P.O. Box 51638

Tel: +971 4 364 9676