“” ,w r ite r
— An inviting g limpse into one of our global homes, Ararat Park Hyatt Moscows winter suite, where Tze lan’s Desk and Vanit y Chairs ( shown on page 6 ) live.
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SENSE
LATEST
MUSINGS
ON THE
PORTRAIT OF
OF PLACE
CREATIONS
MATTER
HUNT
AN ARTIST
A friendly inquiry into the meaning of house and home.
Our latest in-house creations feature on illustrated postcards
Branding expert Robert Louey redefines comfort and luxury in hospitality
Shopping for curious curios in Buenos Aires’ San Telmo market
Introducing the inimitable Paul-Ching Bor and his paintings
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Warm greetings from Tammy & Alison
— A montage of Tze lan’s mother-da ughter duo, T ammy Chou and Alison Chi, over the y e ars.
O
ur difference in age will always be 29 years, so we like to think we are both only ever just shy of thirty. In a city like New York, that might mean we are forever in our spiritual prime––full of life and vitality, on the brink of reaching real maturity, and enthusiastically setting the stage for better years to come. This habitual fantasy aside, we are also just a mother and daughter on a lifelong mission: to rediscover integrity in design. Together, we’ve had the good fortune of living among worlds. For Tammy, who was initially displaced transitioning cultures from East to West (she was given the name “Tammy” because a high school teacher was unable to pronounce her Chinese name “Zhilan” or “Tzelan”), life meant building up a habitable world in her newly adopted home of New York, where she’s managed and run tonychi and associates for over twenty years. For Alison, growing up of a different, Millenial generation, life meant cultivating her insatiable curiosity irrespective of time and place. Her journey for selfactualization took her from such disparate places as Buenos Aires to Beijing, Nairobi to Ulan Bator.
One lingering constant for the both of us, however, has always been this unrelenting ability to fill our lives with beauty and to share this with the ones we love, which served as the founding premise of Tzelan. It’s with this new joint venture that we can finally platform our unique aesthetics and confluent views about the world through assemblage and creation. We take the very best of regional manufacturing and impart our signature wit, savvy, and savoir-faire to create collections of beautiful, everyday objects with global resonance. This debut issue of The Fifth Quarterly celebrates our collaborative process to date, brought to you by the wonderfully vibrant and talented community of friends, family and colleagues we are so lucky to be surrounded with and adore for their continued creativity and joy. They share our penchant for authenticity in design and always stay true to themselves. We are all born as natural, fearless, uninhibited, impromptu beings and love is truly a virtue. We hope that you are inspired to join us on our journey, or at the very least, come by when in New York to say hello.
Tammy & Alison
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ISSUE I
Ju: House & Home SENSE OF PL ACE
T
he Chinese character “ ” or ju, as it’s phonetically pronounced and transcribed in Pinyin, represents a myriad of meanings, the most significant of which is “home.” Specifically, it’s used in colloquial terms to represent a dwelling or residence (noun) or to stop, remain and stay awhile (verb). It’s this particular word–– or eight character strokes––that we’ve chosen to base the inaugural issue of The Fifth Quarterly on: house and home.
Whether it’s the family home of Tzelan founder Tammy Chou’s Central Park South residence in New York City, a room at Ararat Park Hyatt Moscow, InterContinental Geneva or Rosewood London (among other properties where Tzelan products live), one overarching thread is warmth. “Regardless of the definition, whether it be a home or hotel, it’s about who you’re with and how comfortable you are,” Chou says. One thing she can’t leave home without? “Bubbles,” she replies, referring to the family’s beloved 17-year-old Jack Russel Terrier.
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— The living ro om of Tze lan founder Tammy Chou’s family residence in Manhattan.
— A close - up of Chou’s home office, which she shares with husband Tony Chi.
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— Capturing the warm fe e ling of home at Ararat Park Hyatt Moscow ; Desk Chair by Tze lan in center.
What does home mean to our friends and family?
Matthias Roeke
Marcelo Lucini
Ralph Pucci
Eva JeanbartLorenzotti
Albert Herrera
MANAGING DIRECTOR,
FOUNDER, AIREDEL SURE &
FOUNDER,
FOUNDER,
SENIOR VP GLOBAL
ROSEWOOD HOTELS &
A RIE L E S TA N G A
RALPH PUCCI GALLERY
VIVRE
P ROD U C T PA RT NER S HIP S,
RESORTS, LONDON
VIRTUOSO
“”
“”
“”
Home is a place of solace and escape. A place where memories and objects collide forming a collage of life. No matter what country, city, building or canvas— home is the collection of the physical memoirs gathered throughout life. Memories of countries visited, people met, exciting little shops, or family occasions- home is where these come together to form the diagram of an individual’s journey through life. A place of happiness, sadness and all imaginable emotions- home is a place of contentment and comfort. — My home moves countries a lot!
Home is love, fun, family, friends, inspiration, parties, a place to relax and be yourself. Home is where you don’t need to get dressed, look well, be polite and sound nice. Home is my art, my paintings, my antiques, my books, my colors, my feelings, my laughter and my dearest Ariel, Tigre and Leon.
Home should be a sanctuary for the people living there. My feeling is that minimalistic surroundings are calming, soothing and conductive to private family functions and gatherings with family — both adults and children residing there. The surroundings serene, the people important.
“” Home means… a lot of laughing with my children and my friends over great, long, dinners. I enjoy cooking at home and setting beautiful tables. Home, for me, is also about the stories of your life layered, collected and shared with those you love.
“” Is Home defined where I was born or where I currently reside? Or perhaps the many places that I am fortunate enough to visit around the world that my travels take me to—from the caves in Cappadocia to a tent in the Serengeti or a simple neighborhood jaunt in New York City. For me, I have come to realize that Home is a feeling. A deep emotion. A special experience that allows me to connect with the community that I find myself in. Lucky for me, I am blessed to be able to call so many places around the world my Home.
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—Inside the b e dro om of Chou’s Central Park South Home in New York Cit y.
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Studio Collections
L AT E S T C R E AT I O N S IL L U S T R AT I O N S B Y A N T O N A N G E R
“T
he unconscious mind,” as New York Times columnist David Brooks said, “hungers for those moments of transcendence, when the skull line disappears and we are lost in a challenge or a task––when a craftsman feels lost in his craft, when a naturalist feels at one with nature.” He was describing limerence, a certain psychological state that we liken to creative brilliance. Our inhouse studio takes on the challenge of emulating beauty in product design, applying effort, love and uniqueness. “Studio Collections” is Tzelan’s ongoing collection of furniture, accessories, lighting, linens and tabletop items that result
from our rigorous design process. Our Winter ���� debut furniture within the collection was a collaborative effort led by Tzelan founder and Industrial Designer Jessica Corr. The line draws from the inspirational work of ÉmileJacques Ruhlmann, the iconic French Art Deco furniture and interiors designer, we coupled masculine rigidity with subtle, feminine features for a decidedly modern feel. Here, we chose to feature three pieces in illustrated vignettes, imagined scenarios around the world where our work can exist and function, irrespective of time and place––Brooks might just call that “classic.”
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Our Chinese walnut multi-purpose table with tea-stained glass top and antique brass base “in� London, England.
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Antique brass hardware and chocolate leather-wrapped doors add a timeless feel to our long, slender multipurpose console “traveling� through India.
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Our chocolate leather-wrapped vanity desk features a front-facing drawer and Art Deco legs “in� the dynamic city setting of Hong Kong.
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Robert Louey: on Hospitality & Home M U S IN G S M AT T E R
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tandards’ would be the word that laid the foundation for what would become an unintentional homogenization of Hotels abroad a wide spectrum of development in countries worldwide,” Robert Louey, the creative director of Tzelan and founder of Robert Louey design, tells us of an earlier, global shift in the hospitality industry towards an almost uniform, monotonous feel. “Standards offered a growing population of both business and leisure travelers the consistency of quality they were seeking,” he says, which was not without its consequence. “The downsides were a loss of the sense of place, a loss of the unique cultural enrichments that make travel so inspiring.” As one of the industry’s most celebrated branding gurus whose portfolio includes the creation of numerous identities for Rosewood, Park Hyatt, and Andaz hotels am o n g oth er awa r d -wi n n i ng propert ies, Louey has been privy to the overarching movements that have
shaped the global hospitality scene to date. “Following two decades of rampant expansion and development of major Hotel brands up until the pre-2008 financial crisis, skylines across continents became hauntingly similar,” he explains, “driven by the commonality of consistent standards, rooms across the globe became what we now call ‘cookie cutter’.” Its saving grace, as Louey sees it, was the growth of a diverging, counter cultural trend among independent boutique hotels that was later adopted by larger hotel chains. “The world began to question the values and definitions of comfort and luxury,” he reveals, “guests began looking for the greater value of authenticity and experience which was not driven exclusively by expense.” Here, we speak with Louey on this continued upturn, whereby hotels around the world are seeking to adopt newly defined standards of design and living, in which the notion of hospitality as home (also Tzelan’s raison d’être) is at its very center.
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What do you think are the qualities, aesthetics and things that comprise a home? As is said, home is not a place. It is an emotion. It is the hearth and the heart, where our lives originate from, where one always returns for warmth and comfort. The feeling of home is a history of the humanity, of people, of family, of the ones we love and who love us back...comfort, and the feeling that somehow in this crazy, unpredictable world, coming home, is the infinite constant, where everything will be, just as you left it. Home is part of you, intangible, effortless and always imperceptibly present. Home is where one always returns to. The beginning and end of one’s every day and long journeys. The feeling of home is driven by powerful emotions and memories. Home needs no translation. It is an infinitely human emotion. It transcends time, language, country, culture and custom. The things we surround ourselves with, objects personal, collected through life, are ciphers, emotional bookmarks along our journey. Romance, inspiration, discovery, wonderment and beauty represent meaning and extraordinary moments of curating a life. Do you think it’s possible to actually recreate or replicate that intangible feeling of “being at home” in an environment that in actual effect, is not? To create the feeling of home, in a described commercial environment, requires unimaginable talent, sensitivity and a bit of magic making. It is a distinctive passion, an ability to collect and curate every single item which best defines the unique and authentic emotion of the experience. Innumerable hours are spent in the choosing of what would be collected items found in one’s own home. Creating unforgettable emotions of comfort and well being in a well planned, warm and residential experience which feels authentic, enriching and culturally relevant for the country it resides in. All the while avoiding crossing the fine line of a staged set and a themed space. This is the goal of many and the mastery of only a handful in the design and development industry today. A richness of experience. A wealth of inspiration. Emotions which make lasting memories and those intangible, yet definable moments of the feeling of home. Who then best represents that new breed of person (whether traveler or consumer) who is after that exceptional experience of the home as hotel? Anyone who is human and alive. It is all of us. The 21st century will be the century of the global citizen. We are now all connected, continent to continent, by technology. Life, however, is not about emails, it is about relationships and relationships will be pursued more than ever with a plane ride, a hotel and a
gathering of people. While people travel further and more often from home it will be more important than ever to create residential, home-like environments and experiences throughout both the travel and the hospitality industry. Who do you think—if anyone—is most resistant to the concept? It is said that ‘good design is good business’. I can not see who in the business of hospitality development would be resistant to the concept, as even simple service sectors in hotel development are creating ‘home like’ operations and ‘home like’ design and décor and experiences. A cold un-hospitable environment garners little revenue. In the age of the consumer, it is not a demand I feel, which will go away anytime soon, or ever. The market goes where the consumer wishes and the true innovators will deliver levels of these experiences which the consumer has not yet even thought or dreamed of. Innovation will redefine the very definition of hotel, home and hospitality. Creative, intelligent, sustainable development in the future has an unimaginable brilliance of remarkable possibilities. What are the properties around the world (whether you helped brand them or not) that successfully capture the hotel as home experience and aesthetic? Certainly one of the first more residential hotel design concepts was the Park Hyatt Tokyo, followed by the Park Hyatt Shanghai whose concept was distinctly the ‘Chinese Scholar’s Mountain Home’. Most recently, the Rosewood London, Virtuoso’s Hotel of the Year, expresses the ideal of the home-hotel with an exquisite and exceptional attention to detail. Lastly, where is it that you feel most at home? As a native New Yorker, residing in both Santa Monica and New York City, who is on the road more than 200 plus days a year, I find, amongst our friends and colleagues, over the past decade, that we have become the norm rather than the exception. I travel with a number of small and special personal items, which I set up in every room to give myself a sense of familiarity and consistency of place. I like, whenever possible, having the same room in each city and I find for me, I feel at most at home in the cities where I have friends and loved ones. Hospitality and the craft of being hospitable is a large part of feeling at home... how song goes...‘where everybody knows your name’. For me, it is the relationships that drive the emotion of home. Eating at our most familiar places with those we came to visit and work with, homey, authentic and simple rituals which gives one a constant and consistent, comfort of, well, being... home.
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Zine 1 0. y es, and
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hat’s in a zine, that glorious short form, independent publication that has served as an alternate form of expression for counterculture movements since the invention of the printing press? At Tzelan, its designers, along with those of the adjacent tonychi and associates studio, get together to dream up subversive submissions into the companies’ shared monthly zine called �� (for there are only ever that many pages). With prompts ranging in theme from “out of focus” to “pas de trois,” designers send in their submissions anonymously. See the two-sided cover stories for each monthly issue thus far, along with their respective themes.
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1. out of focus
2. windows
3. pas de trois
4. mask
5. p ositionalit y
6 . impla usible romane sc enc e s
7. b l a c k b a g i t
8. some advice
9 . nine square
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Winter Revelry
A MOVEABLE FEAST
“” There is no
sincerer love than the love of food. - George Bernard Shaw, playwright At our studio, showroom and work-life space, collectively known as Tzelan House, in Manhattan’s Soho district, no one area is used as frequently and communally as the kitchen. It’s where our creatively inclined gather over exchange and eats despite looming deadlines and deliverables. To combat the wintry cold, we chose to put on a midday roast, prepared by our friend, Massimo Scoditti, and his uptown Italian eatery Brio––delightful fodder for the insatiable soul.
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— Our ce lebrator y roast, wor thy of Shaw’s en v y.
— The scene : collab oration and con vivialit y over a Brio-catere d lunch at Tze lan House’s kitchen.
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Collecting Curios in Argentina ON T HE HUN T
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hile winter began to rear its head in New York, we chased the warmth of the southern hemisphere for our annual sojourn to Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the “Paris of the South,” as it is often referred to, we never fail to find solace in the sun. Attempting to speak our best lunfardo, or local dialect, we aimlessly walk the streets that inspired greatness, whether the stories of Jorge Luis Borges or the lyrical steps of tango.
To capture the impressions of our adopted, South American home, we wandered the city’s famed flea market in San Telmo on a quest for tabletop treasures. What we found—1930’s German art deco espresso sets, vintage Argentine tea caddies and glass or French ceramics among other bric-a-brac––spoke to the multicultural mix of Buenos Aires’ past. Brought back to Tzelan House in New York, we know these collected curios will maintain their luster and add an alluring and colorful charm to our curated assemblages.
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(Clockwise from top left) —French 1920’s ceramic and glass cookie jar. —Argentine champagne and wine glasses artfully arranged. —1930’s German Art Deco pink espresso sets that combine traditional craft with bold color and lavish. —Proof of objects’ timely origins. —Vintage flower vase from the Czech Republic. —More local flair—tea caddies, burners and flatware—collected from various residences around Buenos Aires. —Tzelan’s Tammy Chou (right) pictured with a vendor at the Feria de San Pedro Telmo in Buenos Aires.
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Portrait of an Artist “”
I think about water a lot. It’s an object with curing properties that does amazing things. Where I grew up [in China] there’s also a saying that ‘Water is prosperity… I call it synchronizing humanity.
– PAUL-CHING B OR
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n the opposite wall of the entrance to the multi-purpose “Art Room” at Tzelan House in New York City, hangs a portentous painting whose brushwork is deeply dark and sentimental. “My intention was to have the watercolor overdone,” says the tableau’s creator, the Guangzhou-born, New York-based artist Paul-Ching Bor. “This particular painting, entitled Parallel Passage 1+9 North III, is an image of the Holland tunnel’s exit on the highway 109 North from the New Jersey side,” he adds. Bor, who came to New York years prior, left China early on for life in Sydney, Australia. His artistry– –a culmination of his physical and mental state–– has always been a consequence of his cultural displacement. “One cultural background transforms into another cultural background,” he says, “and a lot of inadequacy happens in both languages, in
both cultures…so I have to make my painting totally adequate.” Painting, in effect, becomes a way for Bor to compensate for this resulting feel of not fully belonging to one culture or place. In New York, where his studio is based out of Harlem, Bor cites the city’s frenetic energy as the basis of his watercolors, an artistic medium that he’s explored for nearly 30 years. “We come to New York City because we love tension,” he confesses––and what better setting fuels tension than a commuter highway linking the island of Manhattan to the rest of the world? “You know, water color doesn’t lie to you,” Bor concludes, “in the 18th and 19th century, the English used it as a medium to look for utopia, it was very romantic and ‘wish-wash,’ he tells us, “It has been seen that way all along. Now, living in New York City today, in this real world, I want [watercolor] to be more grounded and rooted in realities.”
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— Ar tist Paul Ching B or ’s painting P arallel P assage 1+9 Nor th III (2008) as it hangs in Tze lan House ( ba ck ground) .
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— Bro o ding br ushwork captures the tension of the ar tist’s p ersonal and professional life living as a cre ative émigré in New York .
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The Lattice BEFORE
WE
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G O ODBYE…
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et there be plates. Our lattice-worked tableware represents the collaborative spirit of Tzelan. Marrying French heritage––Legle’s porcelain from the storied region of Limoges––the Ruyi forms of acclaimed British-Chinese ceramics designer Peter Ting, and the floral illustrations of New York-based artist Kathy Moss, we introduced a layer of linear symmetry in orange and blue hues to evoke the cultivating spirit of a garden trellis. For further inquires, please contact tzelan@tzelan.com