Identity | September 2010 by Motivate Media Group

The Middle East’s interiors, design & property magazine

identity

Have it your way: Bouroullec’s apps for baths Culture’s new format: Saadiyat goes techie Florence today: ethical dreams come true Property portals: to surf or not to surf

ISSUE eightyfour Year seven september 2010 A MOTIVATE PUBLICATION

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Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone Authority

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INSIDE

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28 60

Cover: Bouroullec Brothers. Photography: Morgane Le Gall.

ICON VALLARTA

BOUROULLEC BROTHERS

SIMONE MICHELI

SEPTEMBER 2010

FEATURES

22 On/Site inspection

60 Freestyle compositions

Designs far outside the conventional made political and social statements at the Basel edition of Design Miami’s Design On/Site exhibition.

Representing the new generation in the Axor Hansgrohe stable of celebrity designers, the Brothers Bouroullec humbly credit hard work for their success.

28 French connection

88 What’s in a name?

From cars to construction, France is joining the eco movement and is also bringing the world mobile phones charged up by bicycle or solar power.

Developing brand name recognition and respectability are becoming even more important as companies cross sector lines into new ventures.

36 Heroic pursuits For his own home, architect and futurist Simone Micheli weaves a colourful tapestry of his dreams and passions, whether bubble gum pink or shocking yellow.

September 2010

INSIDE

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DESIGN FORMULA

ISSUE #84 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Obaid Humaid Al Tayer GROUP EDITOR & MANAGING PARTNER

Ian Fairservice BURGBAD’S SENZA TUB

GROUP SENIOR EDITOR

Gina Johnson | gina@motivate.ae GROUP EDITOR

Catherine Belbin | catherine@motivate.ae FEATURES EDITOR

Dorothy Waldman | dorothy@motivate.ae

CHIEF SUB-EDITOR

Iain Smith | iains@motivate.ae

Awash with invention With ostentation a thing of the past, the WOW-factor in bathrooms is being created from sleek shapes, open spaces, free-standing fittings, splashes of colour and even the return of corners, but in a new, softer format.

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Belinda Igaya | belinda@motivate.ae ART DIRECTOR

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+ Lighting on track + Exhibitions on show + Conscientious design + Steering to INDEX 2010 + Haute property politics + And much, much, more… All prices quoted in identity are correct at the time of going to press.

September 2010

EDITORIAL

Clockwise from top left: Noor Ali Rashid; Christian Louboutin; Kate Moss; Roderick Wiles.

PHOTOGRAPHY: VIKRAM GAWDE

After a long, hot summer the coming season’s design agenda is overflowing with exciting new prospects as the sector enters the last leg of this critical year. Optimism is high and the creative juices are flowing with dynamic, eco-efficient and, most of all, practical design solutions, which are expected to be seen when the new collections are unveiled at some of the year’s most important events as Maison & Object, MACEF and Abitare Il Tempo. The King of Shoes, Parisian Christian Louboutin, is expected to click his heels soon at the Dubai Mall following the inauguration of his sleek new 100-square metre shoe emporium. The interior by Household of London was influenced by the aesthetics of Louboutin who has a keen eye for interior, as well as shoe design, and who spends much of his time at his luxurious, much-photographed holiday home in Egypt. He has succeeded in creating the ultimate shoe haven for women. Louboutin’s patented, red-soled high-heeled shoes, the must-have accessory for Sheikha’s and film divas, and has opened a number of stand-alone boutiques in the Gulf recently, all of which boast striking interiors. The high quality of US hardwood and its importance in design is to be highlighted at a seminar for architects and furniture manufacturers at the Park Hyatt on September 26, organised by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC). The seminar will be led by sustainable hardwood design consultant Criswell Davis and Bob Sabestina, a hardwood technical consultant who will provide info on the environmental credentials of the American hardwood forests and their growing use in sustainable design practices in the Middle East. Exports of hardwoods to the UAE have increased by over 80 per cent during the first six months of this year, with the greatest demand being for red oak. Roderick Wiles AHEC Director said: “There are numerous opportunities in domestic interiors, furniture, flooring, kitchen cabinets, doers and the internal joinery markets.” Iconic photographs and fashion are the focus of a stunning photographic exhibition that opens at The Empty Quarter Gallery in mid-September. The exhibition, The Story of a Lifetime, curated by Elie Domit, presents a selection of photographs, many being exhibited here for the first time, and were shot in the region by some of the world’s leading photographers including Norman Parkinson, Lillian Bassman, F.C. Gundlach, William Klein and Albert Watson. The exhibition also features a rare collection of haute couture dresses from Saudi Arabian-born fashionista, Parveen Shaath. Ramadan Kareem!

PHOTOGRAPHY: ALBERT WATSON

Future forward

In Memorandum Noor Ali Rashid, 80, the award-winning UAE royal photographer who has captured the region’s growth and development on film passed away during the Holy Month of Ramadan. Born in Gwadar, Noor spent over 50 years in Dubai. He was working on a commerative book with Motivate Publishing to mark UAE-British relations to coincide with the state visit of Queen Elizabeth ll to Abu Dhabi in November.

Group Editor Catherine Belbin.

September 2010

On/Site inspection From customs charges to super-sized lamps, the exhibits at Design Miami/Basel 2010 included a number of thought-provoking surprises. TEXT: RICHARD WARREN

The fifth edition of Design Miami/Basel 2010 attracted a record 16,600 visitors this summer. New collectors from Asia, Europe, the United States and South America came to the Basel design fair between June 14 - 19 with British architect Lord Norman Foster, Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich and Indian royal Arvind Singh Mewar among them. Sponsored by HSBC Bank, Design Miami/Basel combines commerce with art, bringing together collectors, gallerists, patrons, designers, artists and journalists. In addition to some multi-million dollar deals between collectors and galleries, the fair featured talks on developments in design and exhibitions of specially commissioned work. The Swiss fair is the European offshoot of Design Miami/, which is held in Florida each December. Design that crosses boundaries into art, fashion, science, music and architecture, dating from the 18th century to the present day, is exhibited at both fairs. In addition to standard gallery displays of designers’ works, specially commissioned pieces were also on display at the Basel fair. Running for its second year, the Design On/Site programme featured eight

identity [interior/design/property]

installations by “maverick” designers who are considered to be pushing the boundaries of art, craft and technology. Their designs ranged from furniture to lighting design to custom software programming. “Design On/Site has quickly developed into a space where progressive galleries can launch new work, install experimental commissions and bring a focused eye onto what is being made in the design world right now,” says Alexandra Cunningham, Design Miami/ exhibitor and special projects manager. The work of new and emerging designers was celebrated at the fair through its Designers of the Future award, which was sponsored by W Hotels. The award is given to designers whose new materials and processes are most innovative. This year’s four award winners, Beta Tank, Graham Hudson, rAndom International and Zigelbaum & Coelho, exhibited at the show. “The common thread shared by the four diverse (Designers of the Future) award-winners consists of experiential and cross-disciplinary approaches that prompt visitors to participate and re-think the definitions of design practice,” says Wava Carpenter, Design Miami/’s associate director.

TRENDS

The business of art Berlin and London studio Beta Tank was one of four winners of the Designers of the Future Award. Its founders, Michele Gauler and Eyal Burstein, seek to translate complex social and technological issues into easily understood objects and services. For the award, they created part hand-made, part machine-made objects. To question bureaucratic processes, these were delivered to the fair in separate shipments, incurring different customs charges along the way. This project will appear in their book on business models for creative businesses.

Making the virtual real American “post-industrial” design studio Zigelbaum & Coelho, founded by Jamie Zigelbaum and Marcelo Coelho, is at the “intersection of design, technology, science and art.” The Designers of the Future Award-winner’s installation, Six-Forty by Four-Eighty, features thousands of luminescent pixels controlled by remote “light brushes”, an example of its new controllable, ambient lighting for interiors. “By transposing the pixel from the confines of the screen and into the physical world, focus is drawn to the materiality of computation itself,” Coelho says.

Man v machine Opened in 2004 by collectors Virginia Damtsa and Tot Taylor, Riflemaker exhibits work by young and emerging artists at a former gun-maker’s shop that dates from 1712. For On/Site, the gallery presented two videos by John Maeda, an artist, graphic designer and computer scientist whose work centres on humanising technology. His videos, Handsome and Grey, address the issue of man’s interaction with computers and the computer as substitute for human action. Museums bought both videos on the first night of the fair.

September 2010

TRENDS

Concept curios Italian architect, Claudia Pignatale, opened design gallery and concept store Secondome in Rome in 2006. For On Site, the gallery presented Cut and Paste, a series of hand-made curiosities by Dutch designer Kiki van Eijk, several of which were multi-functional, including a jewellery box with hidden compartment. In making these experiential pieces van Ejik questions conventional design approaches, including size, complexity and techniques. The resulting diversity of designs is made from a wide range of materials, including wood, brass, copper, ceramic, glass and steel.

Tree-mendous Launched by the former London Design Museum curator, Gallery Libby Sellers supports post-industrial design. Her artists’ creations are so individual they cannot be manufactured. For On/Site the gallery presented an immersive installation by London designer Simon Heijdens – Branches is a digital tree canopy projection that spreads over the ceiling of its exhibition booth. Its branches and leaves moved like the real thing in response to internal movement monitors and external wind speed sensors feeding information into the artist’s computers.

Molten magic For the first time the Basel fair featured a jewellery gallery. Brussels-based dealer Caroline van Hoek showed Ruudt Peters’ Platina collection of limited edition platinum pieces for On/Site. A special technique involves drawing with wax underwater, catching the fluid line in coagulated form, before casting the forms with a layer of platinum that the Dutch jeweller describes as “playing a game of hard and soft; a symbiosis between male and female”. A video showing the “melting” pieces was shown in the exhibition booth.

Light years ahead Milan-based gallery, Dilmos, asked two design studios that operate in Italy and the Netherlands, Studio Job and Pieke Bergmans, to combine their skills as bronze-smiths and light-bulb-makers, respectively, to create Wonderlamps. Their creations, some more than a metre tall, transform an everyday object, the humble lamp, into a piece of sculpture, challenging the way many products are designed as disposable objects. The lamps’ design combines Bergman’s interest in creating pieces that correlate with reality with Studio Job’s love of fantasy and surrealism.

identity [interior/design/property]

TRENDS

Steely determination The Karena Schuessler Gallery is the first in Berlin devoted to commissioning design and all works are one-offs or limited editions. For On Site, the gallery presented metal furniture made by award-winning Polish designer and inventor Oskar Zieta, who developed a process for inflating steel while a post-graduate student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. This enables him to make steel stools, chairs and other pieces with the “lightness of a balloon”, admirers say.

Slow furniture Brand new Amsterdam gallery Particles presented Aldo Bakker’s Urushi Series for On/Site. The Dutch designer’s curvaceous furniture pieces have 30 layers of Japanese Urushi lacquer applied to them by Mariko Nishide. Echoing the Slow Movement’s desire for people to lead more relaxed, reflective lives, the designer says this lengthy lacquering process is his response to the fleeting nature of mass production and consumerism. Bakker wants his objects to have a meditative quality that will help slow us down when we gaze upon them.

Brought to book Gallery D&A Lab (Design and Art Laboratory) has no permanent space, but holds “guerilla events” where artists, using new techniques, present functional, everyday objects that appear to be art pieces. The gallery invited British designer Jonathan Monk to reinterpret US artist Donald Judd’s bookcase, Bookshelf 1984, for On/Site. Berlin-based Monk rearranged the shelf’s original elements into a low table, using white for its base and some of the colours used for the original bookshelf for its top.

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Visit our showroom on: Sheikh Zayed Rd. Opposite Times Square and next to Reem Al Bawadi For more information, contact:

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Frenc h con nectio n

Construction work on one of Franceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first low energy buildings, plans for Madinat Zayed in Abu Dhabi to become home to the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest concentrated solar power plant and a mobile phone that can be charged by the sun capture the imagination. TEXT: STEVE HILL

Lace Hill.

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ECO

NO QUARTER GIVEN

Construction work is due to begin next year on one of the first low energy buildings to be realised in France at what is being billed as the first eco-quarter in Paris. The 19,000 square metre Pushed Slab office will cost Dhs164 million, and has been designed by Dutch architectural company MVRDV and commissioned by French project developer ICADE Promotion. The project combines proven energy efficiency technologies with individual office floors and outside spaces such as patios, balconies and a garden. The building is highly flexible, offering three cores and a central lobby, and can be rented out to one or various tenants without structural changes. The building has two faces: a calm side in dialogue with the urban fabric of the north side of Paris, and a more dynamic side facing south, rectangular to the boulevard. It is wrapped in a skin of certified wood and windows form a rhythmic ribbon, offering optimal sunning and light control of the inner spaces. The climate is controlled by natural ventilation; 1,500 square metres of solar panels on the roof provide renewable energy and a grey water circuit will be applied. Blinds will be integrated in the south facade and in the cuts while the building will be insulated from the outside in order to reduce thermal bridges. The accumulation of these proven reliable techniques results in a highly efficient low energy structure.

September March 2009 2010

ECO

Clockwise from left: Nokia’s bicycle charger; Modern Eco handbag by Earth Divas; Shams 1, the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant.

PEDAL POWERED

Nokia has unveiled a bicycle charger kit to power its mobile phones, enabling users to generate free “clean” electricity. It consists of a bottle dynamo, a charger and phone holder. The dynamo fits on the front of the bike while the charger and phone holder attach securely to the handle bars, so they can be easily removed whenever the user parks. The kit starts charging at walking speed (6km/h) and stops when the cyclist’s speed reaches 50 km/h. Nokia estimates that 20 minutes of cycling at 10 km/h will power up a Nokia 1202 for an hour of talk time or 74 hours of standby time. The rubberised phone holder mounts a phone securely to a bike and protects it from the vibrations of bumpy roads while the charger has been designed to withstand dirt, humidity and weather, with an ultrasonically welded case and clear coating on the electronics. The dynamo is also very robust, while the phone holder comes with a transparent bag to protect phones. POWERFUL STATEMENT

Abu Dhabi future energy company, Masdar, has appointed the bidding consortium of Total and Abengoa Solar as a partner to own, build and operate Shams 1, the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant and the first of its kind in the Middle East. This flagship project will directly contribute towards Abu Dhabi’s target of achieving seven per cent renewable energy power generation capacity by the year 2020. The joint venture between Masdar (60 per cent), Total (20 per cent) and Abengoa Solar (20 per cent) will develop, build, operate and maintain the plant,

identity [interior/design/property]

which will be located in Madinat Zayed, approximately 120km south-west of the capital of the UAE. It will be the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world, extending over an area of 2.5 square kilometres with a capacity of approximately 100MW and a solar field consisting of 768 parabolic trough collectors to be supplied by Abengoa Solar. Shams 1 is registered as a project under the United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism and is eligible for carbon credits. The plant will displace approximately 175,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to planting 1.5 million trees or removing 15,000 cars from Abu Dhabi’s roads. HIMALAYAN HEMP

Earth Divas has launched its Modern Eco handbag collection, incorporating Eastern hand-loom fabrics and stitching with contemporary Western designs. It has taken five years to develop this collection, which is based on a tightly woven hemp fabric that is durable, contoured and structured. This hemp grows wild in the lower Himalayan mountain region and is not cultivated or farmed. It is cut by hand and softened in water – no chemicals are used – before the stalk of the plant is brushed into a wool-like material and spun by hand into a strand twine. The twine is then woven by hand on a pit loom into a piece of fabric, typically one metre by three metres, before it is taken down the mountain on foot to Kathmandu where craftswomen buy the fabric and create handbags and accessories. All Earth Divas handbags are hand-crafted by cottage industry producers and working women’s co-operatives in Kathmandu, Nepal. Each artisan is paid a minimum of 30 per cent more than the local wage rate and 100 per cent of company profits are returned to these workers.

ECO

Clockwise from left: Puma’s cell phone, Renault’s two-seat DeZir; FlexibleLove from Chishen Chiu.

SUSTAINABLE CALLS

The Puma Phone, produced by the sports designer in partnership with Sagem, features a solar cell that allows users to charge the device simply by sitting it in the sun. A single charge, according to Puma, will provide five hours of talk time and 140 minutes of video calling. Now available in a select number of European and African countries, this video chat-capable device also comes complete with a pedometer – allowing users to see how far they have run – and a yachting compass. It is further preloaded with applications that assist users to tap into news and sport information as well as maps of Europe with pedestrian navigation. And its sustainability credentials are further underlined by Puma’s eco-friendly and innovative packaging.

its capacity in 20 minutes; and a fast battery exchange utilising Renault’s Quick Drop technology. The vehicle’s energy efficiency package also includes the recovery of deceleration energy. This technology is based on the same principles as the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) seen in Formula One, where, when a car decelerates, kinetic energy is recovered and stored in the battery. In the case of DeZir, this energy can then be employed by the driver to provide a temporary power boost at the moment he or she chooses, using a button located on the steering wheel.

TOP GEAR

Chishen Chiu takes recycled paper and recycled wood waste, and transforms them into his FlexibleLove sustainable furniture. Experiments by the Taiwanese designer produced an accordion-like, honeycomb structure from this reconstituted cardboard, which has proved to be exceptionally strong and durable. Established manufacturing techniques minimise the overall impact on the environment. Chiu originally designed a flexible love seat that can seat from one to 16 people, easily changing length and shape with a simple “pull” at each end. This unique ability to extend and collapse means there are endless permutations, but one home truth remains the same – don’t leave the love seat out in the rain. ID

Renault is due to unveil its new concept car, the two-seat coupe DeZir, at next month’s Paris Motor Show. It is powered by an electric motor mounted in a mid-rear position to optimise weight distribution over the front and rear wheels. The verticallymounted 24kW/h lithium-ion battery is located behind the bench seat and provides the car with a range of 160 kilometres. Three battery-charging methods can be employed: a standard charge using a conventional household plug, which powers the batting in eight hours; a fast charge using a 400V three-phase current, charging the battery to 80 per cent of

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Books

A cobweb-like, dream-catcher woven of rope serves as an ethereal, elegant crown atop the main living space.

Heroic pursuits Italian designer Simone Micheli champions a brand of futurism where the main protagonists break from tradition, embodying simplicity and ethics in search of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ethical luxury.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; TEXT: LISA VINCENTI PHOTOGRAPHY: JUERGEN EHEIM

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INTERIORS

September 2010

INTERIORS

Left to right: Soft shapes and spotless finish create formally clean patterns and house the few essential elements, including the OH! bidet and WC designed by Micheli and made by Simas; Simone Micheli.

Simone Micheli, aka Simone Micheli Architectural Hero, has dreams of a world in which design transports man into another, brighter, sensorial realm. From his studio in Florence, the Italian visionary, designer, architect and daydreamer has become the leading proponent of what he has come to call “ethical luxury” – a daily battle to imbue everyday life with beauty and magic, while protecting the surrounding world. Not far from the city’s centre, in a sliver of green, Micheli recently conceived his 200 square metre private residence in a 19th -century weaving shop. Though an avowed futurist, Micheli doesn’t avoid the past altogether, instead his loft space pays homage to history, while connecting it to the unstoppable metropolitan life all around. A hyper-realist portrait of ethical luxury, the design, where 90 per cent of the materials were culled from eco-conscious sources, illustrates his current adoration of white, cleverly layered with vivid strokes of yellow, green and pink; soft edges and rounded forms; and sensorial experimentation. Streamlined and flowing, the futurism Micheli’s work evokes strives to break free of traditional conventions. Nonetheless, the primary goal of his oeuvre is to repossess everyday beauty and truth, and to revive one’s emotional involvement in and connection to inhabited space. “I am a city fighter that struggles with never-ending battles to not give up the dream,” Micheli says of the name chosen for his design studio, which began in 2003 and has offices in Florence and Milan. “Simone Micheli is a sort of ancient fighter, like the Orlando Furioso, that fights against stereotypes, that is against the tide, that doesn’t accept banality and platitude, and wants to create new dimensions, able to make people live magical moments that will remain in their hearts like memories.”

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The poetry of his prose is no wonder. Micheli grew up amid the drama of Italy and its rich artistic legacy, exposed early on to the world of painting in the studio of his father and later steeped in the nation’s history of avant-garde, contemporary design. His DNA positively oozes romance, idealism and poetic meanderings. “Design is without doubt a kind of art, a means to generate emotions, to challenge the senses of all who make use of it, to define new possible answers to the always more fitting and anomalous needs and necessity of the human visitor,” he says. From the beginning of his architectural career in 1990, Micheli has been called on to create cosmic, serotonin-spiking environments. His recently completed i-Suite Hotel in Rimini takes guest on a wild journey where they will discover a sensorial delight as the natural/artificial, known/unknown turn convention on its head. For his wellness centre at the Milan Exedra Hotel, he takes guests on a bleeding-edge, space-age voyage into another 3D, surreal dimension. The Atomic Spa Suisse is a dizzying, fantastic world inspired by Italian mid-1960s pop singer Mina, who in Le mille bolle blu, (the thousand blue bubbles) crooned: “I can see a thousand blue bubbles and they wander weightless, they chase each other, they climb up and down the sky… dancing over clusters of clouds while harps are playing music inside my soul.” In this Micheli dreamscape, silvery-blue bubbles cling like dew to the ceiling and walls amid an environment composed of irregular, flowing shapes and spaces painted in soothing or energetic strokes of pinks, blues and whites. Likewise, his conception of the recently completed interior of Town@House Street hotel in Milan proves equally as evocative; a wondrous marriage of the practical and the intriguing. “My architecture is anti-mimetic, strong, raging, deep-rooted, deep, unpredictable,” he notes. “The main goal that guides my every planning thought is linked with the desire to qualify human life, to favour its emotional revival.

Brushed in strokes of yellow, Micheliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s room, where the architectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s adoration of soft edges and flowing lines are apparent, was designed to evoke brightness, vitality and happiness.

identity [interior/design/property]

INTERIORS

The soaring great room hosts the episodes of daily life in succession while a wedge, a low height diagonal splinter houses an all-white kitchen.

“The leitmotif that links all my works is sensorial: all my realisations wrap and involve man bringing him to a oneiric dimension of wonder and surprise. For my home, the architecture tells my story, that of my child, Cesar, and of my wife, Roberta – of love, transparency and truth.” In Florence, his family’s just-completed home was conceived to be dynamic, über-fresh and vivid, where the past glissades through the present and into the unknown future. With all the furnishings designed by the Tuscan architect, the overall spirit of Micheli’s private quarters erases the extraneous, creating instead an emptiness for the soul to fill. “[The interior design] comes from my conception of luxury,” he says. “The new luxury in architecture is connected with the basic will to repossess little everyday beauties and truths, and sensations’ privacy; it is linked more to emptiness than fullness; it is more mental than physical; it is not opulence but clearness. I wanted to build a new story connected with the wonderland, free from traditional bonds, aimed at simplifying and appreciating my life and my family’s life in a space where everything is lacking in undesired un-essential.” The cavernous, echoing living area breaks traditional design rules. Divided by a sweeping brick arch, it features an unconventional distribution pattern on the ceiling and large openings which reveal the opposite garden. The main great room was designed to hosts the episodes of daily life while a low-height diagonal wedge contains the kitchen, which can be screened off from view. The entire vista is crowned by a cobweb-like thread of ropes – a highly imaginative dream-catcher and microcosm, lending lightness and elegance to the space below, while providing a safe play area for Micheli’s son, Cesar. Luxury to Micheli is irrespective of financial wealth, opulence and bling. It is merely the splendour, delight and well-being of the soul, fed and nourished by

architecture and design. For his own residence, he created a dimension that is unconventional and visionary, candid in its clarity. “Living in a luxury sphere nowadays means succeeding in loving and being loved in a truly complete and full way; it means being absorbed in simplicity, like making a blade of grass fluttering in the wind. It means repossessing of the truth of life, living the beauty of the everyday life,” he says. For Micheli, colour, or the lack thereof, in his work comes from the “chromatic heritage that flows in my body.” Inspiration comes from 15th and 16th century Italian paintings, from studying its use around the world, and his work has the ability to create a “new magic moment of great physical and emotional transport.” The Florence home is bathed in white, nonetheless strokes of pink were employed in the great room, through bubblegum pink upholstery and a fragment on a painted wall. Micheli considers pink the new cult colour, borne of the fusion of the purity of white and the passion of red. In Cesar’s room, sunshine yellow was chosen for the glossy, soft-edged shelving and desk; a pattern of yellow bubbles on a wall; and an L-shaped platform that provides a sleep area and plenty of storage. “Luxury means reconsidering, dreaming, starting to love again without asking anything back, giving without having anything back,” Micheli says. “It means building without destroying, having a strong ethical sense and being capable of generating healthy beauty. Luxury does not mean opulence and redundancy, but rather the essentials, ethical gestures, free spaces with scattered basic elements. I wish to create new stories connected with the world of the wonders and having no bonds with tradition… To simplify and improve the life of man by eliminating all the unessential and undesired elements in the space he lives in.” ID

September 2010

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BATHROOMS | DESIGN FORMULA

Awash with invention Trends that gained momentum in early 2010 in other parts of the home have become de rigueur for the bathroom as the year has progressed, so that splashes of subtle sophistication and texture, coupled with ample room for individuality, are spicing up the roomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interior design needs. TEXT: LISA VINCENTI

DES

CONTENTS: 44 Simple yet special 50 Simplex solutions 51 Discreet decorations 55 Magical metallics 56 Powder room plans

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From Dornbracht comes Tara.Logic, a supremely simple design, which adds instant personality to any bath.

September 2010

DESIGN FORMULA | BATHROOMS

The Zucchetti Kos Faraway Bathroom Collection, designed by Ludovica and Roberto Palomba and available at Sanipex, won the Elle Decoration Award 2010.

As we enter the final quarter of 2010 and summer’s heat begins to wane, the interior design world is already well into 2011. In the bathroom, where the home spa experience has been the major development of the past few years, another layer of intrigue and intelligence can now be found. So while the major themes of rejuvenation, serenity and purity continue to play a starring role, a renewed inventiveness and new interpretations are also proving a major factor in the latest designs, where the use of intricate textures, smart technologies and a more complex interplay of shapes, pattern, lighting, and colour are injecting a revitalising splash. With a renewed focus on home life, spurred by the shift in consumer attitudes towards more modest living, calming minimalist interiors and an ever-growing environmental awareness have provided the impetus for interior design over the past few months. Yet by mid-2010, the back-to-basics attitude, where excessive ornamentation and ostentation was stripped from furnishings and rooms, began to give way to a new sense of optimism. Designs again witnessed a more exuberant and bolder attitude – albeit still more tempered and restrained than in earlier epochs. “People around the world are slowing down and re-evaluating their lifestyles,” says trend forecaster Milou Ket of Milou Ket Style & Design in the Netherlands. “They’re rediscovering traditional values like honesty and trustworthiness, placing more worth on the environment and natural resources, and finding greater appreciation for family, friends and community. As a result, interiors will become even more individual and personal in upcoming years, with an emphasis on quality, performance and innovation.” Consumers are ready to turn the page, having tired of the economic gloom hanging over the world. Trend forecasters anticipate that while the new lifestyle

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attitudes that shun excess and ostentation are here to stay, they do expect consumers to take on added risks in the designs of their homes, where extra layers of complexity and colour can create a sense of boldness that has been missing in recent months. “The post-crisis time is characterised by the appearance of new and spontaneous creativity,” says Mayouri Sengchanh from Paris-based trend agency Carlin International, who earlier this year, alongside a team of other industry experts at German design exposition Heimtextile, predicted an explosion of good humour and bright colours would infuse future design with a sense of impulsive creativity. Patterns from different cultures, wonderful forms and colours, prints and surface coverings play with form to introduce a more capricious tone into creative home design. The lavatory proves no exception: strong and bold monolithic shapes, fantastic tile and surface treatments, washroom features that glow at night, and the judicious interjection of colour and pattern form the backdrop to sophisticated, contemporary installations. SIMPLE YET SPECIAL

“There is much talk about there being a return to minimalist design post-recession, but most trend forecasters, including me, believe that revisiting any earlier design style would be just too simple a solution,” comments Victoria Redshaw, director of trend-spotter Scarlet Opus. “The global economic crisis has changed everything; consumer attitudes, spending patterns, decision-making processes, priorities and taste. Therefore, to the same degree that ostentatious ‘bling’ styling is no longer appropriate,

The Forma freestanding bathroom suite designed by Andrea Andretta for Toscoquattro offers striking silhouettes of pure white and asymmetrical ovals.

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BATHROOMS | DESIGN FORMULA

September 2010

DESIGN FORMULA | BATHROOMS

minimalism per se is not relevant either. Yes consumers will desire greater simplicity, with a focus on restraint and sophistication, but this does not mean a desire to dwell in plain, sparse, masculine, hard-edged living environments.” Redshaw says that by autumn 2010, increased optimism will be reflected in a yearning for a greater use of colours and patterns throughout the home. Consumers are ready to be more adventurous and open to the idea of creating bolder interior statements, she notes. “The key issue for product designers and interior designers alike is to satisfy the need for new and interesting design experiences [emotional and physical/ sensorial] and to answer the growing need for a sense of escapism within the home and hotel environment,” Redshaw continues. “The challenge is to create WOW-factors without being excessive and ostentatious. Consumers will desire interior schemes that intrigue, enchant, delight and surprise them. And they will also be looking for bathroom schemes that tick these boxes, too.” Subtle patterns on tiles are one way to set the tone by creating a chic canvas on which to layer fresh textures. In fact, the judicious use of tiles is one of the simplest ways of injecting individual style and complexity into any bathroom. In the world of tiles, a preview of prominent Italian bathroom show Cersaie 2010 clearly illustrates a fascination with texture and shape. Hard surfaces will be transformed into masculine stripes, delicate fabrics and muted metallics. The 2011 style forecasts call for everything from renaissance-inspired looks to patchwork patterns, but advances in technology ensure these archetypes are given a modern twist. In fact, what’s old is new is proving the rallying cry of many upcoming introductions. Popular TV shows, such as HBO’s smash hit Mad Men, illustrate that the swinging 60s are making a comeback. “Often when we think of patterned tiles we have in our minds a picture of old-fashioned styling or loud retro designs,” Redshaw says. “But by incorporating pattern into tiles you can create a beautiful balance between the worlds of contemporary and classic design.”

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Clockwise from left: Crystalline, a new basin design from Alape, features crisp, beveled edges; Colombo Design’s Lulù collection is comprised of 22 pieces. Alessi’s updates Ilbagnoaless include a new touchless faucet that favors generous curves.

From Milanese designer Paolo Zani, who was born in 1960, comes a range of ceramic tiles for Ceramiche Ascot called Murmansk. Available in a neutral palette of white, black, beige, brown, sage, and grey, Murmansk’s strongest impression comes from its pattern of what looks like tiny, irregular pebbles or bumps. The Studies series by Diego Grandi for Lea Ceramiche, reworks geometry and shape. With names such as Grid, Outline, Plan and Seed, the grès porcelain, in some cases incised and sanded, becomes an intriguing background for new designs. Also from Lea Ceramiche, come Lines and Waves, a new collection by Patrick Norguet that explores a whole new sensory concept of surfaces. In Lines, a three-dimensional effect produces a virtual, visual landscape evocative of a city skyline; while the repetition of dots that characterise the Waves collection create an optical effect reminiscent of waves and movement. Romance and tradition are also expected to make a strong showing at Cersaie. However, in their current incarnations, they are neither saccharine sweet nor buttoned up. Collections such as Cathay 4 Fine by La Fabbrica or Jardin by Maison Sichenia introduce a more feminine aspect to the bathroom, but neither is overwrought. In the Cathay series, which can be used to recover existing surfaces without demolishing them, contemporary floral patterns and arabesque scrolls add a softer dimension; while Jardin is characterised by a dusted and delicate “Barelythere” flower.

In installations to be presented by tile makers, patterns are used sparingly along a single wall, or as the backdrop to a freestanding tub, striking the perfect balance between minimalism and decorative flourish. SIMPLEX SOLUTIONS

Two prominent designers who have long understood the transformative power of pattern are Patricia Urquiola and Marcel Wanders. When Urquiola conceived her line of bath products for Axor, the forms proved simple and pure, but the space she envisioned proved richly layered. With her knack of transforming traditional elements into a contemporary look in the bathroom setting, where the lines between bath and living area are increasingly blurred, Urquiola Axor blends form, function, and imagination: the classic shapes of the vessel sinks and tubs are a modern interpretation of an

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old-fashioned washtub; faucets combine shining surfaces with soft contours; handles are cut out rectangles with soft, rounded, super-thin edges and the top of the faucet features a subtle wave; while the generously-shaped levers offer a pleasant feel for the hand. In the setting in which she chose to showcase her Axor line, Urquiola blended various elements, culled from tradition, nature and travels, to create a deceptively simple outlook, which was full of charm, emotion, differing styles and objet trouvé. For the Verona-based fair for stone design and technology Marmomacc, the Spaniard dreamed up a collection that clearly illustrates the significance of surface pattern in interiors. The graphic series she created for Budri, an installation called Micrasterias, represents the differing use of marbles and stones of different origins. The project arose from her observation of vegetal micro-organisms – micrasterias – and she mixed these minute forms, blown-up to magnified proportions, with

BATHROOMS | DESIGN FORMULA

Left to right: Karim Rashid’s Kelvin radiator for Caleido, proves a colourful canvas; Antrax IT’s Serie T radiator pulls double duty as a towel bar.

graphic symbols to create a new digitally-enhanced biological vision. For a less esoteric interpretation of pattern, Redshaw suggests a study of Wanders’s recently opened neo-baroque Mondrian Hotel in South Beach, Miami. “He shows how successful relationships between contemporary shapes and classic patterns can be forged to create new, beautiful and powerful interior design statements,” she explains. “The fabulous patterned tile floor of the carport illustrates how even dense pattern can be applied across large areas and still achieve a visually harmonious balance and a successful integration into the interior scheme. In this way Wanders’ interior design style creates whispered wow-factors. It is theatrical, sculptural, luxurious, weighted and dramatic. “He makes the complex look simple and this is the essence of the design philosophy of ‘Simplexity’ – simplicity layered with complexity. The focus of Simplexity is to make the complex look simple and allow what appears to be

simple to also have an underlying layer of complexity. Nothing is superfluous, everything is significant. “This is a design philosophy which results in elegant innovation. It is a way of introducing subtle, sophisticated twists of intelligently applied decoration. Beautifully detailed surface finishes and dense decoration pull us in and attract our attention and appreciation.” Concentrated layers of pattern can be applied in a modest way to achieve such affect, even in the bathroom, a direction that is anticipated to be evident at Cersaie. From bath and kitchen fittings maker Kohler comes an artful, exceptionally executed series of basins and toilets. The Empress Bouquet pattern offers a modern interpretation of 18th -century Chinese print work, with an elegant floral motif detailed with brilliant golds and metallics. Each fixture showcases a slightly different variation of the pattern, creating a one-of-a-kind piece that pairs simple forms with the quiet whisper of florals, geometrics and rarely spotted birds in flight. For those who desire a less ornate approach, from Italian Neutra by Arnaboldi Angelo comes a supremely sophisticated and inventive solution. In its Augmented Texture LED series, designed by Elia Nedkov, a highly textured, multi-dimensional stone wall throws off evocative bands of light to create a new perspective on the surfaces, making soft, subtle luminous effects that gently graze the texture and material. Stone tiles of variable thicknesses produce tactile, light and voluminous effects, or a smooth finish. It also drenches the bath in a natural element, playing off earlier trends to bring a more natural, organic element into home design. “This trend [Simplexity] promotes a new design ethos, which respects old craftsmanship and the beauty that old products and patterns can bring to new introductions. So search the archives and respectfully innovate the classics as history leads us to the future by introducing layers of beautiful patterns,” Redshaw says. DISCREET DECORATIONS

If the master bathroom remains predominately white or ultra-clean, free of any excess, that doesn’t necessarily mean sterility. In fact, as it continues to morph

September 2010

DESIGN FORMULA | BATHROOMS

Top to bottom: Dornbracht presents two introductions: it’s Performing Shower rain-head and Supernova, a suite of angular, geometric forms; Inda’s Divos offers a complete system, replete with storage solutions; bold statements, such as Aquamass’ Dip tub in fuchsia, add a playful dimension.

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into an extension of the master suite, the walls are coming down, in some cases literally, and bathroom elements are taking on the role of sculpture and furnishings. Many current designs play with the tendency to expand the bath out into the master suite by viewing it not as a bathroom fitting, but a decorative object that is subject to different styles, materials and shapes. On one hand, some in the industry (such as Inda and Duravit’s 2nd Floor collection) are introducing furniture-like systems to outfit an entire bathroom, much like what we’d find in the kitchen or home office, while other others are taking an even more flamboyant approach. Even if the overall design effect remains minimalist and pure, more discreet flourishes can be achieved in a fresh manner. Monolithic and freestanding tubs prove the dernier cri in the bath. From Domovari comes the swooping, crescent-shaped freestanding Vela by Karim Rashid and, as part of its new Duo collection by Matteo Thun, Neutra has introduced a pair of freestanding, counter-height his and her sinks carved from a single block of stone. Likewise, Toscoquattro offers a similar monolithic interpretation in its Forma collection. Brussels-based Aquamass has several roomy tubs that embrace today’s design mood. While the oval-shaped Stone One tub (available in a variety of colours and patterns) has been updated to include a bi-coloured version that features a matt white interior swathed in a pastel grey, anthracite or vibrant orange exterior; it is the Dip, now available in fuchsia, that was specifically developed to offer a brighter mood. “Today, still sensitive to the changes at work in society, Aquamass wishes to show its willingness to lead from the front and launches the fuchsia Dip bathtub, in association with the League of Optimists of the Kingdom of Belgium,” states the company’s Jean-Pol Piron.

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“The League of Optimists of the Kingdom of Belgium is a non-profit making organisation, part of the International Association of Optimists Without Borders, a non-profit making body set up in 2008 with the aim of promoting beyond all boundaries the evolution of mentalities towards more optimism, strengthening enthusiasm, good humour, positive thinking, audacity, enterprising spirit and tolerance, as well as harmony between people and communities.” Interestingly, the goals of the group clearly parallel the shift in thinking not only among designers, but consumers as well. All are more than ready for the next chapter, in which hard edges and sharp turns are replaced with flowing curves and feminine principals, only now infused with a touch more drama. Early this year, the crisp and tailored lines of the first part of the decade were superseded by more sumptuous and voluptuous profiles throughout the major European fairs and the closing chapters of this year will see a touch more drama to interior settings. The likes of Duravit with its Pura Vida collection or Alessi’s update of its existing Ilbagnoalessi One line, designed by Stefano Giovannoni, lead the way. A complete scenario for the bathroom, Ilbagnoalessi includes sanitaryware, bathtub, shower cabins and furniture, and the expanded range, to be presented at Cersaie this autumn, was prefaced by the new touchless wash basin faucet, produced by Oras, which eschews sharp lines in favour of generous curves. While the colour palette remains predominantly based upon 2010’s interpretation of neutrals, where shades of grey have proved the new beige, more vibrant and lively hues are making a comeback to imbue spaces with a more dynamic atmosphere. “From the moment you enter a space, you are inundated with the sense of the colours surrounding you,” says international colour guru Leatrice “Lee” Eiseman, a prime consultant to Pantone.

BATHROOMS | DESIGN FORMULA

Left to right: Highly textural tiles and rounded shapes add another layer of interest in Grohe’s Veris bath; a barely-there shower enclosure, such as Tecnodoor from Cesana, adds simple flair.

“It is the first thing you notice when you enter and the final message that you take away when you leave. People are being more practical, but they still want excitement. You can bring in yellow, orange or red, which gives energy to a more neutral shade.” She has dubbed this palette “Focus”, where deep graphite blues and greys are the neutrals, but where hotter hues are added to infuse space with energy. Dornbracht presented its gorgeous Supernova collection in what it dubbed its “Lemon Suite”. In that presentation, a mellow yellow wall paint bathed a predominantly white bath in a soft sunny glow. MAGICAL METALLICS

The range of colours available today is not as simple as in earlier decades. It is complex, multi-dimensional and multi-faceted, nothing is ever black-and-white but is instead painted in varying shades of grey. Whether pale nudes, intimate pinks, warm-tinged greys and purple nocturnes or a peppery liquorice and smokey black (used to deliver dark moody shadows), late 2010 and beyond offers a quieter palette completed by pale brushed gold, blackened gold, rosetinted gold and tarnished pewter, Victoria Redshaw notes. “Even though the days of ‘bling’ being seen as cool and fashionable are decidedly over, consumers still have a desire for a little metallic magic in their lives,” she continues. “Fashion has shifted away from ‘full-on’ gold, and now softer and lighter tones of gold are in vogue with glamorous glistening effects.

There is also a developing interest in other metallics and moving forward the focus is on warm copper tones, antiqued bronzes, lightly tarnished silvers, dark pewter, platinum and super-iridescent finishes. “Subtlety is key to new metallic tile styles. The application of metallics now needs to be elegant and intriguing rather than bold and over the top but it must still deliver a WOW-factor. It can be a difficult balance to strike but over-application will look excessive, which is not good, particularly at a time when excess is seen as vulgar. Metallics should be used to add a tasteful touch of luxe.” Without doubt the home has now fallen victim to fashion’s fickle whims, but keeping interiors feeling fresh without falling victim to fleeting trends can prove quite simple. “Another way to think about it is that trends tend to swing in a pendulum motion – a trend only swings so far in one direction before it reaches its peak and naturally swings back in the opposite direction. This theory can be seen to apply to metallics in fashion and interiors because after several seasons of ‘bold gold’ there is now a desire for more of a ‘subtle shimmer’,” Redshaw says. “Originally our new love of metallics filtered down from the catwalks and red carpet glamour. Now the trend is also being reinforced by exotic North African and Moorish influences in interior design. Coppers and bronzes are key to the trend. There is a sophisticated bohemian spirit apparent in this trend’s styling and an exotic glamour. There are hints of a harem atmosphere, of languid relaxation and escapism.”

September 2010

She points to ever-inventive Sydney-based ALLOY as an example. The company’s line of locally made stainless steel, raw steel, titanium plated, brass and copper mosaic tiles are sleek, stylish, sophisticated and ideal for adding a dose of glamour to the bath. “Subtle but alluring flecks and flakes of metallics can also deliver a luxurious statement,” Redshaw says. “The artistic shimmer of glitter looks particularly striking when used with dark colours such as aubergine and black.” POWDER ROOM PLANS

While the master bathroom dominates the attention of most when it comes to designing their interiors, the powder room has fallen by the wayside in many minimalist homes. But for decades traditional residential designs used the powder room as a way of injecting a bit of whimsy and drama, especially via wallpapers – think chinoiserie or jungle prints. For centuries, the powder room has allowed visitors to use amenities without encroaching too much into the more private areas of the house, generally garnering the smallest interior space in the house. However, it was also a world of its own, employing completely different colour schemes and design features. It was a place of experimentation and the room where, historically, residents were most willing to take design risks, often via bold and whimsical wallpaper featuring quirky patterns and vivid hues. “In small spaces like powder rooms, you’re free to indulge a fantasy,” notes Patrick Frey of renowned Parisian textile maker Pierre Frey, whose wallpapers often serve as the backdrop to these tiny chambers. Mike Brummel, from fabric maker Kirk Brummel, adds: “If powder rooms are small, brief moments of checking oneself over before stepping out into the world again, you want something exciting and flattering on their walls.” But such devices needn’t be limited to more traditional settings. There are a slew of contemporary wallpapers (including LED versions) and bath fittings that push the envelope as well as futuristic tiles and innovative lighting that make a dramatic bathroom a distinct and viable possibility. In fact, designers note that more homeowners are becoming interested in creating a more melodramatic powder room. Designers Darren Genner and Simona Castagna, from Minosa Design in Sydney, took such an approach to a powder room they dreamed up for a contemporary house. “We wanted something dramatic, hence the feature wall of Bisazza glass mosaics in varying shades of black and grey,” says Genner, who notes the powder room is next to the wine cellar and home theatre, which features a dark grey floor and near-black walls and ceiling. “The grouting was colour mixed to match the individual tiles and provide a more seamless image.”

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BATHROOMS | DESIGN FORMULA

Left to right: Zucchetti reworks the traditional footed tub into a modern statement in Morphing; Patricia Urquiola’s showerhead for Axor.

The sense of theatrics is enhanced by the contrast between the classical profile created by the Bisazza mosaic, and the contemporary fixtures and fittings. A sleek Ovale Gessi faucet spouts water directly out of the face on the wall into a suspended Minosa Puddle basin and the lighting was designed to provide a soft, relaxing ambiance for guests. Ceiling lights illuminate the walls, accentuating the face and basin, while two pendants heighten the drama and throw light onto a black shelf. Genner adds that a lot of homeowners are looking for innovative design solutions for powder rooms and often seek to replicate the extravagant bathrooms seen in expensive restaurants. “For many years, a powder room was simply a toilet and a pedestal basin. Today, we are seeing a move towards darker, more dramatic environments, and a lot of mood and special effects lighting,” he says. For those looking to create a more sensual and sensational bathroom, whether as part of the master suite or merely in the water closet, the future is brimming with products that provide just the right splash of drama. “As the future unfolds, people are eternally full of hope,” Milou Ket says. “Society is built on the hope that one day things will be better, and dreams can be fulfilled.” Here’s to happier times and braver escapes, even if it lasts for just the few fleeting moments required to powder one’s nose. ID

September 2010

DESIGN FORMULA | BATHROOMS

Design sources alape.co.za; tel: (04) 330 7771 alessi.com; tel: (04) 344 5624 antrax.it ascot.it aquamass.com axor-design.com; tel: 332 6565 bisazza.it; tel: (04) 347 3347 budri.com burgbad.com caleido.bs.it ceramichelea.it; tel: (04) 262 9100 cesana.it; tel: (04) 339 5660 colombodesign.it duravit.com; tel: (04) 556 2232 dornbracht.com; tel: (04) 335 0731 gessi.com; tel: (04) 339 0760 grohe.com; tel: (04) 331 8070 hansgrohe.com; tel: (04) 332 6565 inda.net kohler.com; tel: (04) 321 1330 maison.sichenia.it toscoquattro.it totousa.com; tel: (04)265 0999 zucchettidesign.it; tel: (04) 339 5660

Bath by Toto.

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Feel the difference

PHOTOGRAPHY: PAUL TAHON AND R & E BOUROULLEC

Variations on a theme, bathroom apps from Axor Bouroullec.

Freestyle compositions Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, the reigning EIDA Designers of the Year, work tirelessly with an endless flow of creativity, inspiration and precision, as seen in their latest designs for Axor Hansgrohe. TEXT: CATHERINE BELBIN

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PROFILE

September 2010

Fresh, young and dynamic, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec represent a new generation of industrial designers. They have grown up in the age of celebrity designers – a time when the world’s leading manufacturers have realised the potential value that the signature of a well-known name can add to a product, especially if it wins an international design award such as the red dot or iF. The Bouroullecs ascended into the limelight with designs for office systems, lamps, fragmented filaments of fibres that create almost invisible room dividers and their now classic Clouds, which is housed in some of the world’s leading design museums. They have since received their share of accolades with their latest being the award EIDA (Elle Decoration International Design Awards) Designers of the Year 2010. With an enviable track record, it is not surprising that Philippe Grohe commissioned them to create a designer line for his Axor range, following in the footsteps of Citterio, Starck, Massaud and Urquiola, among others, whose collaboration with the German company has propelled the Axor brand to the upper echelons. The brothers’ new concept encourages users to create a personalised bathroom from their collection of basins, tubs, shelves and taps. Allowing them to determine exactly where to place the taps – nothing is preconceived – consumers can create their own dream bathroom made from the finest materials and incorporating the latest water-saving technology developed by Axor engineers, which is exactly what is being demanded in the upscale market today. “It is a very contemporary approach as consumers like to add their own images to screensavers and to select the apps that they need on their iPhones depending on how that are going to use that device. Today we can interact personally with technology,” says Erwan, who takes on the role as spokesperson. “The Bouroullec Axor collection that we have worked on for the past six years reflects this trend. You can mix and match the different elements to create a bathroom that is unique and custom-designed for you, depending on your height, habits, whether you want the tap levers on the left or right, on the wall

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PHOTOGRAPHY: TAHON AND BOUROULLEC

PHOTOGRAPHY: ORA LINDAL

PHOTOGRAPHY: RONAN & ERWAN BOUROULLEC

PROFILE

Clockwise from left: Lighthouse lamp; Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec; Axor Bouroullec collection 2010.

PHOTOGRAPHY: STUDIO BOUROULLEC

PHOTOGRAPHY: TAHON AND BOUROULLEC

PROFILE

PHOTOGRAPHY: TAHON AND BOUROULLEC

Clockwise from above: Baguette table; Slowchair 2007; Kreo Exhibition.

or basin. The installer drills all the holes for taps in the sinks, bathtubs in situ, confirming Axor Hansgrohe’s belief that the user is in total control as to where the fixtures are placed.” However, the brothers gained their reputation with products other than those for the bathroom. Designing a table is much different from designing a bathroom. Their new table, Baguette for Magis is, ”meant for life with just enough shininess of the chrome, but at the same time, not interfering with the space. It is a really good table with attention to detail. This bathroom has more function involved so there is a meeting of many elements. Naturally there is a certain disorganisation that we need to organise, dimension that we can provoke. A table is much more condensed and this is reflected in the design for our new Baguette table for Magis. It is completely different to the Axor collection,” Erwan says. “We are designing a tableware collection for Alessi. To me it’s an art to construct something that is totally different using the modern materials that we have available to us today and as much as possible we avoid circles and squares.” Their design philosophy is illustrated by the Slow chair, a product that makes you want to sit comfortably and not just perch on. “We always try to make our designs functional and inviting. Our designs are meant to be used and not just looked at. Our designs are not minimalist,” Erwan says. The relatively young duo – they are still in their 30s – have worked together since Erwan was at art school and Ronan got his first break with the Italian Capellini group, and have been riding the wave of success for almost a decade.

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“We both have different skills and we thrive on each other’s creative energies. Of course we could work independently, but together we are stronger,” Erwan says. “We are simple, hard working people, passionate about what we do and revel in having time to experiment with new materials, shapes and forms, and to generate new ideas as to how we can better organise work and living environments.” Today, manufacturers are lining up with project proposals for the cerebral pair yet, despite their success, they remain unpretentious and almost oblivious to the trappings of success. “We actually still have a core niche of companies that we have been working with over the years. We are comfortable with them and they with us. We share the same philosophies and we work well together, so we are hesitant about working with others,” Erwan says. “We love to maintain long relationship with eight main companies, as well as with a few smaller collections. Our strategy is based on our belief that the better you know the client, the better the product will be.” He goes on to explain that their success is not an accident. “The only thing that I know is that it’s work, work and work: I am a workaholic. It’s mental. It’s tiring. From the moment I wake up my mind is already buzzing with creativity. I spend a lot of time observing, people, things, life and it is always nice to stop and look at the details especially if its done in a special or unusual way. My thoughts are not always focused. It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact inspiration or reasoning as to why I did something when I did something,” Erwan says. “Yes we have a lot of pressure, but we self-generate this pressure [because] we are incredibly afraid of making a mistake. Axor was a major project that stretched over six years. It was challenging, completely new for us. Now we want to realise other projects that are realistic, but are as strong conceptually. We are so afraid of not being at the top, we have to keep pushing ourselves.” So what is next for the Bouroullec brothers? “My dream is to design a summer house for myself. I’d love to build in front of a lake, but my wife hates lakes, so we will compromise for a site on a riverside. I would never build on the coast as there are too many people and much of the French coastline has, architecturally speaking, been spoilt,” Erwan says. However, with the brothers’ current frenetic pace, it may be a while before this dream is realised, but it is far more likely that the pair will succeed at their passionate quest to create a truly iconic piece of work, like an Eames chair or Sarrien’s Tulip chair. “It doesn’t take time. I think it just happens. I think we tried to force it, but it is just something that will happen one day,” Erwan concludes. ID

MANARAT AT SAADIYAT

idProperty

CONTENTS: 68 Interactive enlightenment 72 Portfolio 76 Net profits 80 Antennae

September 2010

Interactive enlightenment The challenge in designing Manarat Al Saadiyat, the exhibition centre for Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, was to make it as phenomenal as the development it represents. TEXT: DOROTHY WALDMAN PHOTOGRAPHY: DUNCAN CHARD

Action Impact designed interactive technology that permits live updates from the various developments on Saadiyat island.

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NATIONAL | idProperty

September 2010

Visitors explore the roots and history of Abu Dhabi through literature and images.

New developments often have exhibition centres that convey the project’s message with a few doll-sized architectural models, enormous computer-generated imagery and perhaps a video display. However, when the development is Saadiyat Island, with a collection of major buildings by five Pritzker prize-winning architects and a Gary Player-designed golf course, the exhibition centre itself, Manarat Al Saadiyat, needs to be as exceptional and innovative as the project it represents. Never before have there been buildings by such renowned architects as Frank Gehry (Guggenheim Museum), Jean Nouvel (Louvre Museum) Lord Norman Foster (Zayed National Museum), Zaha Hadid (Performing Arts Centre) and Tadao Ando (Maritime Musum) in close proximity to each other. And there is much more than just this collection of stunning buildings, which comprise the core of the Cultural District to the 27 square kilometre of Saadiyat Island, being developed by Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development and Investment Corporation (TDIC). The large natural island, whose name means Island of Happiness in Arabic, is 500 metres off the coast of the mainland and is projected to become home to 150,000 residents along with the full complement of services and facilities to meet their needs, as well as hotels, beaches, marinas and other amenities associated with a premier tourist destination.

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As an integral segment of Abu Dhabi’s 2020 vision, Manarat’s goal is to capture and communicate the excitement and magnitude of the Dhs100 billion project, as well as the innovative spirit of Saadiyat Island and its role as a model of sustainable development. Rising to TDIC’s challenge to design a new format for exhibition centres, one that imbues the historical and cultural significance of the island as well as the vibrant vision for its future, the live communications and design agency Action Impact created a multi-dimensional, interactive experience at Manarat Al Saadiyat, which translates from the Arabic to mean place of enlightenment for Saadiyat. Like stepping into the pages of a captivating book, the nine chapters of The Saadiyat Story flow seamlessly through an open, clean space. Information is etched onto glass boards, while black light boxes and a simple palette of colours entice visitors to further delve into the experience, drawing them in, captivating their imaginations and gently guiding them from one area to the next. Each space, distinguished by low lighting, presents a different dialogue, a different format. Architecture, technology and design interact to convey the lofty vision of Saadiyat Island. While architectural models provide three-dimensional representations of everything that will be created on the island, technology builds the excitement. For example, in the second chapter, The Vision for

NATIONAL | idProperty

Left to right: Visitors are enveloped by an immersive AV experience in The Vision for Saadiyat that prepares them for what is to come; even the architecture of utilitarian spaces evoke the forward thinking of the project.

Saadiyat, an audio-visual presentation is revealed in an open-plan auditorium on an elevated 20 metre by 3.6 metre curved screen that encapsulates the viewersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; entire field of vision, creating an understanding of the huge magnitude of the project. At the conclusion of the film, each person walks beneath the screen in their own manner and direction, without the restrictions of walls and doors, and out into the rest of the exhibition. Sound was also given great importance in this free-flowing environment. Without walls to act as sound barriers between the theatre and the spaces elsewhere, the soundtrack can be heard throughout. But to prevent a cacophony of duelling fugues, the various soundtracks associated with the different exhibition areas were composed to provide harmony with each other, a subtle, yet challenging task that conveys the many layers of planning that went into the creation, not only of the centre, but also of the development as a whole. Videos, easily updateable LED message displays and interactive touch screens that catalogue real-time activities to keep pace with the islandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rapid changes

are only a few of the uses of the latest technological innovations harnessed to express the excitement engendered by the project. A specially designed X-Desk allows multiple users to simultaneously navigate the unique digital content of the multi-touch table top surface and the LCD screens of the virtual books allow visitors to flip pages without touching. The free flowing spaces of the open environment and the innovative technology not only provide spatial flexibility and current content, it also permits the customisation of the exhibition to accommodate the requirements of different audiences, whether that be a class of school children on an educational field trip or a small group of visiting VIPs. Different programmes have been developed that allow for the transformation of the experience from a constant flow, high-throughput cued progression, to a slower, more intimate presentation. The end result, as the thousands of visitors who have already experienced the exhibition will attest, is that Saadiyat Island is well represented by the creativity and innovation that lead to enlightenment at Manarat Al Saadiyat. ID

September 2010

Beneath the surface Much of what goes into making a building green cannot be seen as these examples of sustainable building practices illustrate. TEXT: LYNN DAVIS

Eco-friendly grouting by Mapei, Terminal 3, Dubai International Airport.

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PORTFOLIO | idProperty

HIDDEN GREEN

Natural, locally sourced materials, energy-efficient LED lighting and passive cooling are all ecological steps that have become de rigueur in today’s architecture. However, as some of Dubai’s newer buildings illustrate, a few of the more significant efforts to lower our carbon footprint remain unseen. Terminal 3, the newest at Dubai International Airport, was designed with soaring ceilings and natural light to create a sustainable structure. However, beneath it all, the vast expanses of flooring contribute ecological benefits of the airport. Throughout the airport, products by Italian manufacturer Mapei, which produces adhesives, sealants and other unseen and often underrated products, were used to ensure optimum quality in the floors and finishes. Known for its commitment to sustainability, the company has developed energy and water-efficient concrete, antimicrobial agents, low-emissions compounds and construction processes that make buildings healthier, as well as reducing their carbon footprint. “Our commitment to environmental sustainability is very clear, as we believe that industry needs to play a greater role in promoting sustainable practices. For our part, we will continue to develop and introduce eco-friendly products that aim to address the challenges of the construction industry throughout the Middle East,” says Laith Haboubi, Mapei’s business development director for the UAE. The company was also instrumental in the creation of the Armani Hotel at Burj Khalifa, which reflects the understated design philosophies of Giorgio Armani and his exacting demands for perfection. Consistent with the use of rounded organic shapes, warm woods, stone and other natural materials are other eco-friendly components in many locations throughout the hotel, including Armani/Hashi. “The Armani Hotel was easily the most challenging part of our scope of supply to the Burj Khalifa because Mapei was making sure not only to supply quality materials, but to ensure that the style and aesthetic requirements of the contractors were achieved,” Haboubi says. The company has also committed Dhs387.3 million, which is 70 per cent of its annual budget, to the research and development of eco-friendly construction products and materials in an effort to stem the huge levels of waste from this sector of the economy. In the GCC alone, 55 per cent of the 120 million tonnes of waste (about 66 million tonnes) is generated each year from construction.

Top to bottom: Armani/Hashi, the Japanese restaurant at the new Armani Hotel in Burj Khalifa, and the hotel’s entrance utilise green adhesives by Mapei.

Mapei green materials have also been used in the recently opened Matalan store in Lamcy Plaza; Qasr El Sarab; Atlantis Hotel on Palm Jumeirah, the Emirates Palace Hotel; Burj Al Arab and Dubai International Airports Terminal 1, 2 and 3, among other projects. DUBAI ROCKS

After 11 years in its Sheikh Zayed Road location and a year-and-a-half hiatus, the Hard Rock Cafe is set to once again open its doors in Dubai. The 2,452 square metre location in Festival City will seat more than 300 guests and will feature a convertible live music venue that will showcase

September 2010

idProperty | PORTFOLIO

performers, both famous and emerging, with an as yet unannounced group anticipated to be at the official launch at the end of this month. In the classic Hard Rock style, it will be marked by a huge 35.9 metre guitar, which is thought to be the world’s largest and will be submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records. Known throughout its 39-year history for its rock music memorabilia décor, with items from the world’s largest collection on display at all of its 152 venues in 52 countries around the world, the Dubai restaurant will follow the same pop music theme. The new location, above the Marks & Spencer store in the mall, also boasts a 232 square metre Rock Shop featuring Hard Rock’s limited-edition merchandise, as well as original rock ’n’ roll memorabilia from the group’s legendary collection that began with an Eric Clapton guitar. A LEED certified building, as defined by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, in Seattle, United States, the birth place of Jimi Hendrix and where he performed his first gig, is the home of a 1,300 square metre Hard Rock Cafe, illustrating the company’s concern for the environment. EDUCATE AND INNOVATE

Hilton Worldwide will be opening a 241-room Hilton Riyadh King Saud University and a 155-room Hilton Riyadh King Saud University Residence in 2012. “Saudi Arabia is our number one development market in the Middle East. Riyadh is drawing both domestic and international visitors from strong business and corporate markets, and we are delighted to meet this demand with two additional Hilton-branded properties,” says Andrew Clough, senior vice president of development for Hilton Middle East and Asia-Pacific. King Saud University, Saudi Arabia’s oldest, largest and most prestigious higher education centre with a student population of 70,000, is establishing a sustainable energy technology programme, which will initially focus on solar, wind, hydrogen and nuclear energy. BLU GREEN

Top to bottom: Exterior and interior of the new Hard Rock Cafe; Hilton Riyadh King Saud University.

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The Radisson Blu, Dubai Deira Creek, is the area’s first five-star hotel to be awarded the international Green Globe Certification after undergoing a Dhs1.25million investment in sustainability. Green policies, in accordance with the Rezidor Groups Responsible Business Programme, have been instituted since the company began managing the 35-year-old, 276-room property in 2006, proving that even older properties can be environmentally friendly. “The Green Globe Certification Audit is based on a number of environmental factors, in all we had 250 points to address. Some of the inefficient old and highpower consuming air-conditioning equipment was replaced, coupled with the energy-saving wheel, which cools hot air drawn from outside, before passing it through the hotel chillers,” says Arthur Rodrigues, the chief engineer. “It is always more challenging for an older property to attain such rigorous standards, but, considering that, it is so much more rewarding to be recognised for our achievements.” The Rezidor Hotel Group has also recently announced the 2013 opening of a Radisson Blu Resort, Andematt, at the foot of the Gotthard Massif in the Swiss Alps. “Rezidor is expanding its young, contemporary and successful resort portfolio which now features 45 properties with more than 10,700 rooms in operation and under development across Europe, the Middle East and Africa,” says Kurt Ritter, president and CEO of Rezidor. “Andermatt, as a well-established winter sports destination, is a perfect fit for us – we are looking forward to also building up the summer business together with our partners.” ID

Central London apartment designed by Gregory Philips Architects.

Net profits Never before have homebuyers had access to so much useful information. The question is, how can you fully utilise it? TEXT: RICHARD WARREN

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INTERNATIONAL | idProperty

“Video killed the radio star,” sang pop group The Buggles in 1979. Back then, video recorders had just come into the shops and we marvelled at how you could record your favourite TV programme and watch it again and again and again. Since then, video has become an everyday feature of our lives and, if hi-tech gurus like Michael Dell and John Chambers are correct, it will grow even more important in years ahead. Video and other technological improvements allow us to take a virtual walk along a street in New York, London and myriad other destinations, courtesy of Google Street View, and discover with the click of a mouse the values of the homes we pass. If we stop at a property for sale along the way most estate agents will allow you to take a 360-degree tour of it from their website, which will also display floor plans, as well as local schools and transport info. These are golden times for homebuyers because the flood of property data pouring into our home computers coincides with a proliferation in the number of buyers’ agents around the world. Widely used in Australia, South Africa and the United States, and becoming more numerous in Europe, buyers’ agents (aka property finders) promise to help homebuyers choose the right property at the right price. However, do we really need a buyers’ agent when we can access so much data on the web with our increasingly powerful and portable tools? With a mobile phone we can take photos of the home we may want to buy, connect to the internet to compare its price with similar properties and phone the sales agent. Some of us even feel confident enough to bid for property on auction sites such as eBay. Will video, Google, the iPad and their like kill the careers of buyers’ agents stone dead? Or do we need these property professionals now more than ever, to help us navigate our way through an ocean of increasingly complex data?

September 2010

Clockwise from above: Central London apartment designed by Gregory Philips Architects; interior of apartment designed by Zook Interiors, at Charters, Berkshire; interior of house on Chester Square, Belgravia, London, designed by minimalist architect, John Pawson.

We certainly have a big appetite for what’s available on the web. Zoopla.co.uk is the second most-visited property website in Britain and it allows homebuyers to find out what homes are for sale, compare property values and chart price movements. It has received 50 million visitors since launching in 2008. “We average over two property searches per second and serve more than 40 million page views per month,” says Alex Chesterman, founder and CEO of Zoopla. “We help our users make sense of the residential property market by combining property listings with market value data, local information and community tools.” The pace of technological development, and the release of commercial applications to exploit it, like Zoopla, is rapid, a seemingly endless stream of new opportunities for homebuyers and sellers. Over the space of a few weeks this year, Chesterman’s company teamed up with United States website REDC, which auctions 1,000 properties online each month, to start auctioning British properties through both portals. In the same month, Spanish auctioneer, Direct Auctions, added Portuguese properties to its online listings for the first time. Shortly after that, Apple launched the iPad, a hand-held computer that provides more comprehensive internet access than a mobile phone and is more portable than a laptop, a useful piece of hardware for people on the move, including those bidding at online property auctions. Within a couple of weeks of the launch, property portal Primelocation.com, created an app for it that allows users to browse through images of properties for sale. Other companies across the world launched property apps tailored to the computer’s touchscreen technology. These are just a few of the techie gadgets and giszmos for homebuyers to appear in recent months. They add to a growing plethora of websites that help you get a mortgage, find a conveyancing lawyer, check for nuisance neighbours, track which homes have had sales prices reduced, calculate your mortgage payments, describe a locale’s facilities, give house price statistics, advise on how to refurbish a home and much, much more. Chesterman says buyers can look forward to more technological advances. “Mobile access is likely to have an ever increasing impact in the property space over the coming months,” he says. ‘Whoopee!’ many homebuyers might reply, especially since most data is free.

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However, Tim Hammond, chief executive of the Association of Property Finders and Buyers Agents, says new technology’s usefulness is limited. “There has been a proliferation of property portals, but they only fulfil the very first part of the homebuying process,” he says. “What is time consuming and stressful is everything that has to be done after finding the property you want to buy. A buying agent can substantiate an offer based on in-depth evaluation of data. Estate agents are well versed in the art of trying to push prices higher on behalf of the seller. Typically for most people, you buy a house as often as you have a tooth pulled, but you wouldn’t pull your own teeth. Buying Agents are trained negotiators and buy scores of properties every year.” Some property experts say technology confuses buyers, including investors who could be deemed professional property purchasers. Robert Hadfield,

INTERNATIONAL | idProperty

Clockwise from above: 49 Bishops Avenue, Kenwood, London; The Mansion, Kenwood, London. House built by developer, Harrison Varma; interior of villa at Zil Pasyon estate, Seychelles.

whose London-based company, Pineflat, manages investors’ properties and invests in its own property portfolio, says buyers’ agents may be needed even more in future. “On the letting side of our business we can see that people are spoiled for choice,” he says. “In some cases they will create a short-list from online listings, but often they seem to just arrange multiple viewings, miss half the appointments and then end up staying put because the choice is too bewildering. New devices and services will make this harder.” Hadfield says circumstances vary between countries depending on access to technology and data. For example, in the US, the online Multiple Listings Service (MLS) is useful to buyers. “As an investor in the US we use the MLS system for pre-screening possible purchases and then our local people visit the properties with ‘our’ realtor,” he says. “On the whole it is easier to get the relevant supporting information than in Britain or by simply using Google Street View, but it’s still a bit hit and miss. So, all in all, I think that far from making buyers’ agents redundant the new technology will create new job opportunities for them.” So the websites most sought-after by homebuyers in the future may belong to buyers’ agents. Indeed, rather than killing off property finders, video has made some of them stars – quite a few of them front TV property shows and have high profiles on the web. ID

Net guide Whether hiring a buyers’ agent or not, here are some useful property websites for homebuyers to look at: for US property online listings, mortgage information and property market news, try mls.com; in Spain look at amlaspain.com, and in Britain consult Globrix.com and zoopla.co.uk. For the most accurate property price data, try a country’s relevant government department which, in Britain, is landregistry.gov.uk. For free advice, you can always twitter for it on twitter.com, where property experts from around the world can be found answering questions. Google has several features useful to property buyers. By typing in a property’s address, Google Street View and Google Earth give useful street level and bird’s eye views of it and the surrounding area respectively. Google Maps shows where a property is located. If you do opt for a buyers’ agent, the London-based Association of Property Finders and Buying Agents (APFBA) has 50 members listed on its website, apfba.org, who operate in a number of countries.

September 2010

idProperty | ANTENNAE

A castle in Tuscany, an eco-friendly bungalow in France and a house with its own golf course in England – the world’s housing market is always and exciting and varied place. TEXT: RICHARD WARREN

OVERSEAS INVASION

GROWING APPLE

SEVERN HEAVEN

Seven out of 10 buyers of central London homes priced at Dhs28 million or more come from overseas, estate agency Knight Frank reveals. UAE purchasers are prominent among them, making up six per cent of all international buyers, the sixth biggest group. Russians, Americans and Italians are the three most prevalent nationalities. UAE buyers dominate overseas demand on the Hyde Park Estate and are high-profile in Belgravia. With the pound down by 28 per cent against US dollar-pegged currencies since March 2008, London property prices are still relatively cheap for UAE buyers, despite a revival in the British capital’s housing market over the past year. Buyers from 51 countries have piled into central London this year, but it is not just in the city centre where they have been busy – in suburban districts like Richmond, 40 per cent of buyers of homes valued Dhs11.5 million or more come from overseas.

The United States housing market has taken a tumble since tax credits on home purchases were withdrawn in April, but Manhattan’s luxury homes market is buoyant. Prices for homes valued at Dhs7.3 million or more on the island are edging up, because Wall Street bonuses and earnings are on the rise again, Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers reveals. However, problems still dog the luxury sector – overpricing of new build homes means there is enough stock to meet seven years of expected take up, the agency says, and that is acting as a drag on the market. Another negative is that mortgages remain hard to come by. Meanwhile, the rest of the US housing market remains on course for a double dip in prices now that transactions have dropped following the withdrawal of tax credits. Prices will drop five per cent nationally in 2010, forecasts consultancy Capital Economics.

Hong Kong has the most expensive street on the planet. A Financial News survey has found that Severn Road in Hong Kong’s most salubrious district, The Peak, has the world’s most expensive homes, averaging Dhs257,000 per square metre, a whopping 74 per cent rise on this time last year. It has knocked last year’s top location, Monaco’s Avenue Princess Grace, down into fourth place. Homes cost Dhs235,000 per square metre on the Monaco street, just half what they were 12 months ago. The principality is one of the biggest victims of a downturn in the international market for billionaire homes – values have dropped 15 per cent globally. Exceptions to the rule have been London and New York where prices have risen 15 per cent. This has helped London’s Kensington Gardens and New York’s Fifth Avenue move into joint second place with sales prices on both streets averaging Dhs238,000 per square metre.

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GOLF HOMES ON PAR

WHEREVER YOU MAY RHONE

Eco-friendly holiday homes for nature lovers are on sale in the south of France. Located within the La Camargue national park, Domaine des Flamants Roses, a holiday community of 93 bungalows, is being built by developer Terresens using wood from sustainable forests. Photovoltaic panels will power the lights and solar power will heat water in homes and the estate’s spa. Rainwater will be collected for the swimming pool and plant watering, and grey water will be recycled in a reed pool. Covering 930 square kilometres, La Camargue is where the River Rhone meets the Mediterranean Sea and 400 species of bird, including the pink flamingo, call it home. The homes are offered as leaseback properties by marketers Experience International – owners receive a guaranteed rental return of four per cent per year for 18 years on the properties, which are let out when the owners are not there. Prices start at Dhs887,000 and completion is scheduled for 2012.

The market for homes in golf communities survived the global property downturn pretty well estate agency Chesterton Humberts reports. The strong letting potential of these properties ensured demand from second home buyers remained firm over the past couple of years, the agency says, and the demand for golf homes may grow stronger in future thanks to China’s rapid economic expansion. China’s burgeoning middle class loves golf and many are finding ways around the country’s tight capital controls to buy homes abroad. As these controls loosen, many more will buy overseas homes, with golf communities among their favourite destinations. Many Chinese golfers might wish they could buy overseas without restriction now, so they could buy a very rare type of property currently on the market in Suffolk, England. On offer is a home with its own private 18-hole golf course in the garden in Glevering Mill at Dhs5.7 million.

BRAZIL SCORES

TALKING TURKEY

A WINE TIME

One World Cup ends and the hype for the next starts immediately. As the world recovers its sense of hearing after being deafened by vuvuzelas during the South Africa 2010 World Cup, we read that Brazil will become an “economic winner” when it hosts the next tournament in 2014. Estate agents are especially keen for us to consider the cities where World Cup matches will be played, such as the north east coastal city of Fortaleza, where many foreigners have already bought holiday homes. Buying a brand new home in Brazil is a bit tricky, because quite a few developments were left unfinished during the global property slump and some investors recommend buying land that can be built upon when the market recovers. Some resort schemes offer land plots to buyers, including the Tambaba Country Club Resort, on the northeast coast, where 450 square metre plots of land are available for Dhs20,000 each through marketers Experience International.

Turkey is winning the Balkans property war. Property prices have crashed in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania and taxes are up; Romania is levying a Solidarity Tax on foreign property owners so they can share the pain. But, in Turkey, GDP is forecast to grow seven per cent this year and Istanbul has become a favourite with overseas investors – 1,400 foreigners started businesses in the city in the first half of 2010 and property investors are pouring in. At condo scheme No 1 Knightsbridge, 60 foreigners from Britain, the United States, Pakistan, the Middle East, Nigeria and Canada have bought apartments, and only about six apartments remain available for sale to foreigners at this suburban project on the European side of the city, at prices starting from Dhs132,000. German and French opposition to Turkish EU membership does cast a small shadow, but many Turks may wonder if they need to join when they are doing so well.

A castle in Tuscany is for sale. The 1,000 -year-old Castle of Montauto and eight acres of surrounding land is on the market for Dhs95 million through Aylesford estate agents. With a floor area of 1400 square metres, the building is filled with a multitude of frescoes, giant, stone fireplaces and other centuries-old features. Tuscany remains a popular destination for holiday homebuyers, according to Knight Frank. The weak pound may mean there are fewer Britons than a couple of years ago and the Russians remain elusive, but the Dutch, Belgians, Scandinavians and French have been migrating south. They have been taking an interest in the wine estates, where they can benefit from sales of produce to help pay for the costs of upkeep of their holiday homes. Apartments in Florence are also catching their eye, especially those within earshot of the Duomo’s bells. Many of the city’s older apartment buildings are being refurbished.

September 2010

Inveﬆ in the French Riviera Exclusive Holiday Homes Perched on a hillside 300 metres above the sea, these holiday homes in Vence, between Monaco and Cannes, oﬀer breath-taking panoramic views of the spectacular surroundings. Only 15 minutes from Nice Côte d’Azur Airport, they are easily accessible while providing the ultimate in holiday pleasure.

Panoramic views of the sea, the old city and the mountains can be enjoyed from the 2,500 square metres of landscaped gardens of the villa located on a hillside just 1.5 kilometres from the city centre. A mirror swimming pool outside and approximately 300 square metres of exceptional quality living space inside make this a truly spacious and luxurious four bedroom, four-bathroom home. 1,650,000

Designed to harmonize with their environment, the two bedroom penthouses feature large terraces facing the south for viewing the sea and the Cap d’Antibes. A lovely garden with swimming pool and underground parking will complete the new construction for a 2011 delivery date. It is situated only 500 metres in a very quiet area from the shops. 1,070,000

The Provençal style villa is a private retreat featuring gardens and terraces overlooking the sea with spectacular views of Cap d’Antibes and mountains, yet close to the city centre. Enjoy summer evenings in the pool or dining in the summer dining room complete with ﬁtted kitchen. Perfect for entertaining with four bedrooms, including a massive Master suite, and brilliant lounge, dining room and more. 1,380,000

Located in a peaceful residential area facing the south with open views spanning from Cap Ferrat to Lerins Islands, the villa was built in 1987 in the Provençal style, offering the cosy warmth of solidarity. With three bedrooms, three bathrooms and garage for three cars, it also features magniﬁcent views from the landscaped grounds and the tiled 12 X 8 metre swimming pool. (Needs some refurbishment) 1,650,000

To view our full portfolio of exclusive residences from Monaco to Cannes visit: realimmo06.com

4 Place Du Mal Juin, B.P. 24, 06141, VENCE, FRANCE Tel +33 (0) 4 93 58 11 03 Fax +33 (0) 4 93 58 29 84 realimmo06@orange.fr

FORUM

Liquid gold Whimsy and practicality perform a sparkling pas de deux as design dances to an innovative tune. TEXT: DOROTHY WALDMAN

BRILLIANT BALLERINAS

Throughout her life, Anna has had many transformations; and her latest reincarnation is as a prima ballerina crowned with a tiara and bedecked in a diamond necklace. Her entourage includes six dancers, each with their own shimmering personality. Created by a master jeweller from Valenza P Ennamels, the face and body of each of these Anna G corkscrews from Alessi is adorned with precious stones. The seven works of art are presented on pedestals to emphasise their beauty but they are all fully functional. Anna G will make her Middle East debut later this year.

September 2010

INNOVATION CELEBRATION

This year marks two creative anniversaries for Edra, which will be celebrated at October’s Triennale di Milano, along with a major retrospective. Celebrating their 20th year are Masanori Umeda’s Flower armchairs. “The flower is the biological representation of concentrated beauty,” he says. “Getsuen is a giant lily with pointed petals: it’s a flower, it’s a mainstay of heraldry, and it’s the shape of a minstrel’s hat. Rose Chair is, literally, a rose shaped chair: it is plump and pouty, yet soft and sexy – as luxurious as a couture gown. Soshun is a simple, uncomplicated daisy.” Francesco Binfare’s innovative Flap sofa, a deeply slashed curved platform with numerous reclining back rests, is as contemporary today as it was when first introduced 10 years ago. Fernando and Humberto Compana have amassed an impressive body of designs during the past 20 years that are featured at Antibodies: works 1989/2009, originally hosted by Vitra in Rhein. It will be on display from October 14 to January 16, 2011.

WINNING WELLNESS

Expanding the cardio session beyond the treadmill, Technogym’s Crossover is an innovative machine for a total body workout that engages muscle groups not used with conventional exercise machines. The total body workout is accomplished with the Italian company’s aesthetic sensibilities – smooth curves, tactile surfaces and smooth movement – and completes the company’s Excite+ line. Technogym has been selected as the official gym equipment provider for the 2012 London Olympics.

OUD GOLD

Iridescent Italian glass holders in a sophisticated champagne hue decorated with the distinctive gold Amouage logo make a fitting presentation for the company’s three new oud fragrances, which combine with different blends of exotic spices and scents. Developed over two years by Christopher Chong, the fragrances are as beautifully complex, as the container is elegantly simple.

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FORUM

CHARMED

Elegantly simple, Fasem’s Charme Gold chair makes a heavyweight impact, with its gracefully curved, yet lightweight, aluminium structure. The soft capitone leather adds comfort with a classic touch to this distinctly 21st century interpretation.

Design agenda Ceranor Expo, Porto, Portugal, September 1-5 Habitare, Helsinki, September 1-5 Maison & Objet, Paris, September 3-7 Meuble Paris, Paris, September 3-7 Now! Design a Vivre, Paris, September 3-7 Macef, Milan, September 9-12 MoOD, Brussels, September 14-16 Zow 2010, Istanbul, September 16-19 Abitare Il Tempo, Verona, September 16-20 London Design Festival, London, September 18-26 100% Design, London, September 23-26 Decorex International, London, September 26-29 Salon de l’Habitat, Toulouse, September 25 - October 3 Casa Moderna, Udine, Italy, September 26 - October 5 SICI, Madrid, Spain, September 28 - October 1 Cersaie, Bologna, Italy, September 28-October 2 Cityscape, Dubai, October 4-7 InterCasa, Lisbon, Portugal, October 2-10 Saudi Build, Riyadh, October 18-21

SOMETHING FISHY

The Fishcondo fishbowl from The One is a geometric confluence of metal and glass that makes it as intriguing as the creatures living inside.

SÉ HERE

The bold, confident Sé Collection by Spanish designer Jaime Hayon will launch at The London Design Festival in September. Curved side tables of solid bronze, lacy wood lounge chairs and fluid shapes give the series, Hayon’s first complete furniture collection, a dynamic, new look. It features bold colours, striking combinations and refined upholstery with innovative touches combined with dynamic, yet light shapes. Produced by a network of French craftsmen and artisans from fine woods, metals, marbles and fabrics, each piece is an amalgamation of design, detail, wit and artistry. British luxury brand Sé first launched at Maison et Objet in Paris in 2008 with a collection by Damien Langlois-Meurinne.

September 2010

ANTENNAE

Competition-winning designs for an unusual shaped aquarium in the capital of Georgia, a new gallery due to open in the Slovenian city of Maribor and Singapore’s spectacular Marina Bay Sands project grab this month’s headlines. TEXT: STEVE HILL

2 5 6

PHOTOGRAPHY: MVRDV

2. CANTERBURY 1. CHUNCHEON

AWARD HONOUR

TEE TIME

The University of Kent’s new Dhs36.3 million School of Arts Building recently won a Royal Institute of British Architects award, celebrating its high architectural standards and contribution to the local environment. The 2,500 square metre building, named after influential British artist Derek Jarman and designed by London-based architects Hawkins/Brown, has been short listed for the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize, which will be announced next month. The building features state-of-the-art facilities, including drama and film studios, computing and editing suites, a large art gallery, teaching rooms, postgraduate space and staff offices. The steel-framed building features a distinctive zinc wall tiled cladding system, plus glazed walling.

3. FREDERIKSBERG

Currently under construction is a clubhouse for the Whistling Rocks golf course some 75 kilometres north-west of Seoul. The mountain landscape has inspired Mecanoo’s design, which allows visitors to make the most of the spectacular views. The 6,000 square metre clubhouse features a ground floor entrance lobby leading to changing rooms while the first storey is dedicated to restaurants and eight banquet rooms. In the basement, there will be a golf shop and employee offices. The design also includes three tea houses which are sculptural in form and at night form a visual icon golfers can experience from the clubhouse or while on the course.

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ON THE MOVE

This municipality to the west of Copenhagen is to become home to the Dhs80 million House of Culture and Movement. MVRDV and ADEPT won a competition to design the 4,000 square metre building, which will be set in 4,500 square metres of public gardens and is due to be completed in 2015. Three buildings are to be built on the site, including the House of Culture and Movement, which is a rectangular glass volume containing six stacked elements accommodating a theatre, health zone, food zone, Zen area, study centre and exhibition hall, fitness and activity centre.

DESIGN: ERICK VAN EGERAAT

5. MARIBOR FOCAL POINT

The redevelopment of the Dynamo Moscow stadium and its surrounding park is to be undertaken by Erick van Egeraat, which won a closed international design competition. The focal point of the successful proposal is a 300,000 square metre multi-functional culture, health and sports centre to be developed on a 116,000 square metre site and which will comprise a 45,000-seat football stadium, a 10,000-seat arena hall, a retail and entertainment complex, restaurants, parking and other facilities. The stadium will be FIFA compliant with the aim that it will play a key role in Russia’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

Slovenia’s second city will soon have a new art gallery. Hungarian architects Tamás Lévai and Ágnes Jószai beat 200 rivals to win a competition to design the new structure, which is due to open in July 2012. The 14,000 square metre facility will include 8,000 square metres of gallery premises, a children’s museum, an architectural centre and a creative industry centre, museum library, and retail facilities. The gallery, complete with its transparent lower areas and facade of uniform, white resin-based plaster, will become a focal point of Maribor as it prepares to become European Capital of Culture in 2012.

6. BATUMI

7. SINGAPORE

8. TORONTO

MAKING A SPLASH

SKY’S THE LIMIT

POWERFUL PROPOSAL

Henning Larsen Architects has won a competition to design a new aquarium in the seaport capital of the Republic of Georgia. The 2,000 square metre proposal was inspired by the shape of pebbles on Batumi beach, and the main structure is easily visible from land and sea. It accommodates four self-contained exhibition areas representing the Aegean and the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, the Black and Red Seas and an interactive display space. A café and retail outlets are also planned, as well as educational facilities, while it is hoped that the aquarium will make a state-of-the-art contribution to exploring life underneath the sea.

The spectacular Dhs3.1 billion Marina Bay Sands offers stunning views across this city-state. The 2,560-room resort was recently officially opened with officials predicting that more than 70,000 visitors a day, and some 18 million a year, will be attracted once all facilities are fully operational. The 1.2-hectare Sands Sky Park sits on top of the resort’s three hotel towers 200 metres above ground, and features a 150 metre-long infinity edge swimming pool and gardens that are home to 250 trees. There are 18 different room types and some 230 luxury suites as well as exclusive restaurants, including The Sky on 57 helmed by Singapore celebrity chef Justin Quek.

The mothballed Hearn Generating Station could become home to a sports complex housing three ice rinks, according to plans recently unveiled by the Los Angeles office of German company Behnisch Architekten. The Hearn, which ceased power production in 1983, could also have a second life as home to tennis courts, indoor football pitches, a conference centre or concerts, according to the company, which is renowned for its environmentally sustainable buildings. A 70-storey smokestack next to the structure could be used as natural ventilation for the station, which also features extremely strong foundations and generous parking facilities.

4. MOSCOW GOAL SCORER

September 2010

What’s in a name? From New York’s Trump Tower to Dubai’s Palazzo Versace, branding has spread far and wide in property, but is it all just bling and blather? TEXT: RICHARD WARREN

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DESIGN@LARGE

The Baglioni Marrakech hotel created by Ajensa, international developer of hotel and residential resorts. The Baglioni Marrakech incorporates the brands of its collaborators, The Baglioni Hotel Group, Jade Jagger for yoo, Six Senses Spa and Patrick Genard and Associates, as well as Ajensa.

September 2010

DESIGN@LARGE

Icon Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta, Gold Coast, Mexico. A new development branded, marketed and interior designed by yoo.

It has not quite got to the stage where we buy homes from McDonald’s or Gordon Ramsay, but such scenes are definitely easier to imagine now than 10 years ago. After all, Cipriani has sold New York apartments to people who reckon that if the eatery can knock up a tasty dish, then why not a des res condominium. Brands have become as powerful in property as they have in catering, fashion, airlines and most other business sectors. Donald Trump led the way with New York’s Trump Tower in 1983, but when British property developer John Hitchcox and French designer Philippe Starck joined forces in 1999 to create yoo, the first company to build homes and design the interiors – the focus of its brand, branding, became all the rage in property. In addition to a growing number of brand conscious and design conscious developers appearing during the noughties, the property sector was invaded by brand-savvy operators from other spheres who noticed an opportunity to generate additional wealth from their good names. Restaurateurs, hoteliers, furniture makers, fashion designers and even golfers have put their logos to residential schemes across the world. Buyers have lapped up brand-name homes because the familiar logo of a company with a proven track record, albeit so often in a completely different trade, implies good quality. Brands have been particularly important to buyers of overseas property as they can be useful points of recognition in little known locations. As the global property market recovers from its biggest crash in modern times, brands have taken on renewed importance, because many buyers, uncertain of what might happen next to real estate, are homing in on them as guarantees of

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intrinsic value that can weather economic storms. In brands we trust. But not all brands are equal, some promise reassurance, some provide it. The question is how to select the winners from the poseurs? Lucy Russell, managing director of Lucy Russell Limited, a London-based company that helps private clients buy and sell homes, says brands are most important at the top end of the market. “People these days expect a lot for their money. They are not just after space, they are not just after location, they are after the actual brand names involved,” she says. “If you take some of the best brands in London, like One Hyde Park, the Candy and Candy development, which is all about the names involved, including the Candys’ own name, which is a very strong name these days.” One Hyde Park’s winning team of brands includes Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the architectural practice led by Lord Richard Rogers, which designed the scheme, and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, which will provide services to its residents. Although the development is sandwiched between two busy roads and its apartments are London’s most expensive, overseas buyers, especially Russians, have bought heavily. Half of its 86 apartments are already sold, with prices reaching Dhs156.7 million per unit. The developer, whose reputation for creating smart homes in London, Moscow and Monaco has spread worldwide, plans to complete construction this October. Developments bearing the names of fashion designers were among the most popular at the height of the noughties property boom. Following the success of its first resort scheme on Australia’s Gold Coast, in 2005 Italian fashion house Versace launched Palazzo Versace Dubai, a 130,000 square metre hotel and condominium scheme in the emirate’s Culture Village. Built jointly

DESIGN@LARGE

Clockwise from above left: A home in Parsons Green, London, renovated and interior designed by developer Blaze; yoo Nordelta, Buenos Aires, Argentina, a new development branded, marketed and interior designed by yoo; a home in Central London renovated and interior designed by Rigby & Rigby, a developer which also made all the furniture bespoke for these properties, a key trait of their brand.

with UAE-Australian developer Emirates Sunland Group, half of the scheme’s apartments were sold prior to its official marketing launch in 2007. Completion is scheduled for early 2011. “In Dubai they love the fashion brands,” Russell says. “It enables people to say: ‘Oh, I have a Versace apartment,’ and people instantly know it is going to be at the very, very high end.” Versace is popular with Italians, too, as is another Italian brand that moved into property, the jeweller and hotel operator Bulgari, which has also proved a hit with Russians. “People, definitely international clients, associate themselves with certain names and there are definite nationalities that they are attracted to,” Russell says. “So, for example, Italians are very loyal to Italian brands, Germans are very loyal to German brands, whereas the British and Americans aren’t quite so loyal, but I think at all levels now, branding is very important and it is very recognised globally.” In the aftermath of the property market slump, buyers in some locations, like London, now focus on brands associated with hotel operators and specialist property developers. “I think now people are looking for brands that are linked to longevity in the property market,” Russell says, “People are more savvy than they were a few years ago, so they are looking for brands not just for the sake of brands, but for brands where there’s actually something behind it. For example, if you are linked with the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts you are going to get exceptionally good service. Each name has its own connotation.” With that thought about connotation in mind, London’s designer property developers are keen to define their own brands. For example, Rigby & Rigby designs and makes furniture bespoke for each property it works on, while

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Blaze says its family friendly-homes have ample storage space, and can easily be updated and adapted. Buying into a brand can be costly, so choosing the correct label is important. Depending on size and location, the premium on a brand name home can touch 30 per cent, Russell estimates. “I think in 2007 everyone was whacking on a brand everywhere and I don’t think it’s necessarily paid off,” she says. “The hotel brands have done very well, like Six Senses, which has done its own villas. People know the brands globally, because of the hotels, so it follows very well through to the property side, whereas when you are talking about the more fashion-related brands it is difficult to know how long that lasts for, because, like fashion, it is of the moment. It is not necessarily fashionable later.” The most successful brand, yoo, has now dropped property development altogether to focus on lending its name to others. It goes into joint ventures with less well-known property developers around the world who do the hard graft of building while the London-based firm sets standards of construction, designs interiors, helps with marketing and stamps its highly valued brand name on the finished product. Starck and the company’s other designers, such as Jade Jagger, are brands in themselves, so their involvement gives extra cache to the corporate label. Now, Starck and Hitchcox may lead the way once again, this time for design-led property companies looking to expand into other business areas, returning the compliment of fashion designers and others who moved into their realm. Like the Versaces and Ciprianis of this world, yoo wants to offer a complete lifestyle package linked to the home. Starck already designs a wide range of domestic products, but more can be added, according to his business partner Hitchcox. “We’ve just designed a bicycle, because there is a property scheme where we can’t have any car parking spaces, so we are looking at products that complement our brand and styling,” yoo’s chairman says. “We are looking at the furniture business, at creating everything for the home. I am intrigued by the depth of the market, by how far it can go. Fashion has been in our discussions.” Versace had better watch out. ID

Inspirations September 2010

BOOKS

Black and white is always effortlessly elegant, some faded classics have been given a modern update and living on the water can be awe-inspiring, according to identity’s reading list this month.

ARCHITECTURE NOW! 7

TRANSFORMER

DESIGN IN BLACK AND WHITE

ISLANDS

PHILIP JODIDIO

WANG SHAOQIANG, EDITOR

JANELLE MCCULLOCH

MARK FLETCHER

TASCHEN

SANDU PUBLISHING

IMAGES PUBLISHING

H.F. ULLMANN

DHS163

DHS234

DHS260

DHS246

Like the previous books in this series, this spans the globe examining some of the best examples of architecture completed in the past couple of years and discussing some important recent trends, such as temporary and eco-friendly buildings. The Burnham Pavilion, in Chicago, United States, designed by Zaha Hadid and completed in 2009, is constructed of a fabric skin stretched over a frame of bent aluminium to create the easily dismantled or recycled exhibition space featured on the cover. The Mountain, in Copenhagen, features apartments that each open directly onto a grassy terrace, while the Greenhouses of the Japanese Pavilion of the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale are a series of glasshouses set in a lush garden. Meanwhile, Yoshioka Tokujin incorporated a crystal forest in the Swarovski Ginza, in Tokyo, and surrounded by snow, the space saucer-shaped Princess Elisabeth building in Antarctica houses scientific teams. Also highlighted are the Yas Hotel, in Abu Dhabi, designed by Asymptote, and Burj Khalifa by SOM.

Reworking a structure from another era to fit contemporary needs is an exciting challenge for architects, and a way to preserve the authenticity and originality of the past. Renovations by some of the world’s best architects are examined in this book, with beautiful photographs of the original buildings and the final makeovers. For example, Steven Holl Architects reorganised the interior of the 1890s warehouse where the NYU Department of Philosophy is located, pictured on the cover around a spine of light to form bright, open spaces that interact with the changing positions of the sun. Across the Atlantic, a grounded Boeing 747-200 has been transformed into the Jumbo Hostel at the entrance to the Stockholm Atlanda Airport. In Mumbai, an industrial warehouse was converted by Seie Architects into the Blue Frog Lounge, a complex of sound recording studios, along with an acoustic lounge, restaurant and other social areas that features state-of-the-art technology, elegant fluid curves and ever-changing lighting.

Dramatic and sophisticated, contemporary and classic, the combination of black and white perennially represents glamour and luxury. Whether it is a well-tailored tuxedo with a crisp white shirt, a checked pattern floor or a page of print, the combination is the quintessential expression of style. For this book, Janelle McCulloch travelled the world documenting timeless examples of black and white buildings and interiors, including the Ubud Hotel in Bali, where a freestanding black bathtub with a white interior is draped with flowing white netting. A Manhattan pied-a-terre features wide horizontal black and white stripes on the lounge walls and curtains with narrow stripes. A sun umbrella, club chair in a hounds tooth upholstery or even a French Metro sign can all impart the essence of elegance. Even the design of this strikingly stylish book – black and white striped front pages and white on black elements – re-enforce the power of the combination illustrated in the images of coastal, classic, country and high glamour spaces.

The book’s subtitle, Contemporary architecture on water, explains exactly where the 47 projects featured here are located. These beautifully photographed buildings by some of the greatest architects and designers in the world, including IM Pei, Renzo Piano and Zaha Hadid, are all on islands, both natural and man-made. Featured on the cover is the Wave Tower, designed by A-cero Studio and Joaquin Torres & Rafael Llamazares architects, which is slated to be built on its own island in Dubai and where a double-skin silkscreen glass facade was developed to reduce energy consumption. One section highlights island resorts, like the Bulgari Resort in Bali, designed by Antonio Citterio and featuring a cliff-side infinity pool that reiterates the water theme. Other sections concentrate on residences, cultural islands that support museums, buildings that are themselves islands suspended above the water and urban areas surrounded by water. Floating island projects not yet realised present another intriguing view of living on water. ID

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BOOKS AVAILABLE FROM MAJOR UAE BOOKSTORES

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HANDWO VEN O UTDOOR FURNITURE CREAT ED WITH WEATHER-RESISTANT D EDON FIB ER

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Range Rover TEXT: STEVE HILL

It’s easy to forget, but before 1970 a customer would have been laughed out of a car showroom if they had had the temerity to ask to test-drive a luxury off-road vehicle… for the simple reason that they did not exist.The launch 40 years ago of the Range Rover changed everything, creating an entirely new market niche and a concept that was embraced as quickly by the motor-buying public as it was by manufacturers, who scrambled to launch their own versions of this instant icon. Virtually every major car maker is now represented in the Sports Utility Vehicle market, testament to the tremendous impact that Range Rover continues to have on the motor industry. The fundamentals have changed little, with today’s owners still attracted to a status symbol that offers a lofty driving position, space and prestige around town and on major highways, as well as proven off-road capabilities for those who enjoy the country lifestyle.

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The Range Rover success story owes much to the post war-popularity of the Land Rover – a rugged no-frills four-wheel drive workhorse itself inspired by the Willys Jeep that was aimed squarely at the military and agricultural markets. The Rover Company first began developing ideas for a station wagon version of the Land Rover in the late 1940s and these plans were given further impetus by the firm’s desire to develop a model that would spark sales in the vital American market. Following a takeover by British Leyland, the first Range Rover was launched to the world in June 1970. And although much has changed in 40 years, current models still honour the company’s evocative past while also looking forward, as can be seen by the appointment of Victoria Beckham as a design partner for the new Evoque model, which is due to go on sale next summer. ID

KOMMA

Model Crystal design Vuesse - Texture by Karim Rashid

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