RADAR

Goods • Design • Inspiration

 Place and Purpose

Jeanne Gang, of Chicago’s Studio Gang design firm, has been racking up the hardware as of late, earning the 2023 Charlotte Perriand Award, which recognizes architects whose designs improve the quality of life of their users and their community, and the Wall Street Journal ’s Architecture Innovator Award. Whether she is raising brows with her geometric skyscrapers (Chicago’s Aqua building, for example, is the tallest scraper designed by a woman) or her newly completed 230,000-square-foot interconnected sculptural masterpiece, the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation at the American Museum of Natural History, her mandate is one worth getting behind: Her goal is to create designs that connect people to each other, their communities and the environment in a way that is sustainable and socially conscious. More than just aesthetics, Gang is concerned with creating pieces that inspire change and as a result, the relationship and interactions people will have with her creations is always top of mind.

 Art of Nature

Spanish-born Nacho Carbonell pulled from the sea. Materials such as metal, mesh, sand, concrete and papier-mâché combine to create lighting that is simultaneously organic and highly stylized. While his pieces have been on display at Art Basel Miami with Carpenters Workshop Gallery, many reside in museums and private collections around the globe. The “One-Seater Concrete Tree,” with its coral-like base and intricate metal mesh branches, is arguably one of his most stunning creations—a true conversation piece, likely inspired by years spent growing up near the sea in Valencia.

 Pattern Play

Jamilla Okubo is a Kenyan-American interdisciplinary artist known for her pattern making, figurative paintings and collaborations with Dior and Gorman. Much more than just eye-catching and aesthetically beautiful, her work communicates stories about history and identity from her perspective as a Black woman. Inspired by kanga cloth, which is called the “talking cloth” because it has been used historically to transmit messages, her work has featured Swahili proverbs, quotes from the Qur’an and elements of African folklore. Her most recent pieces focus on the intimacy of home and examine Black femininity and style within this setting. Whereas earlier paintings incorporated her patterns into the wardrobes of her female subjects, in much of her new work the home furnishings take on the patterns and set the stage for the intimate moments she is depicting for her characters. 

 Car Couture

Taking its ethos of sophisticated luxury to the next level, this ultra-sleek, highly exclusive, collectible Mercedes-Maybach S Class Haute Voiture comes with plenty of nods to high fashion—it was fittingly unveiled at a curated Atelier Zuhra show in Dubai. With only 150 pieces created, this expertly crafted, extravagant showpiece features a two-tone nautical blue and shimmering rose-gold exterior and crystal-white interior with blue-tone piping, linen and mohair floormats and Chanel-like bouclé accents throughout. The powerful 621 horsepower twin-turbo V12 with all-wheel drive will have you moving around at jet-set speed with style, comfort and, of course, opulence. Matching luggage, a refrigerated champagne compartment and rose-gold champagne flutes are an added bonus. 

 Art of Time

It is next to impossible to cite a definitive guide to the world’s most luxurious timepieces that does not include the name Patek Philippe . The revered brand’s Grand Complications collection includes four recently released designs that add spectacular gem settings to the enduring allure and heritage of their signature manually wound, mechanical movement wrist candy. The coveted white-gold Haute Joaillerie version features 409 invisibly set, baguette-cut diamonds juxtaposed with a lustrous black, hand-stitched, alligator-leather strap. It also features 20 complications, including five chiming modes (two patented world exclusives: an alarm with time-strike and a date repeater, which sounds the date at will) and a double-faced reversible case which can be worn with either dial visible. 