*Architecture  Design  Art  Travel  Entertaining  Beauty & Grooming  Transport  Technology  Fashion  Watches & Jewellery b

 2021

25
ANNIVERSARY
ISSUE
5×5
25 leaders of the future
Selected by
Formafantasma
Frida Escobedo
Michèle Lamy
Nendo
Theaster Gates
 OCTOBER

THEASTER GATES, PHOTOGRAPHED ON THE

SOUTH SIDE OF CHICAGO, TIPS HIS CREATIVE
LEADERS OF THE FUTURE, SEE PAGE 174

25TH ANNIVERSARY 190 Michèle Lamy

077 Happy Birthday, Wallpaper*
Best wishes for 25 years, from some
of our nearest and dearest since 1996
163 x
25 creative leaders of the future, chosen
and introduced by these five visionaries…
164 Frida Escobedo
The prolific architect advocates variety
and champions diversity
174 Theaster Gates
The Chicago artist on clay, community
building and coming to London
182 Formafantasma
The duo on their GEO-Design master’s
programme and designers thinking big
Co-founder of Owenscorp addresses our
chaotic world with creative collaboration
198 Nendo
Designer Oki Sato on challenges past and
present, and talents to face the future
ARCHITECTURE
137 Architects’ Directory
Our annual hot list of 20 emerging
practices from around the globe
158 Zen den
In concrete, steel and charred timber,
this Melbourne home nods to Japan
252 Star turn
Charles Jencks’ postmodern
Cosmic House opens as a museum

∑ 029
 OCTOBER
124 Shape shifter
Daniel Arsham on his playdough-inspired
furniture, debuting at Friedman Benda
ENTERTAINING
260 High water
X Muse vodka is an alchemical adventure
264 Liquid asset
David Adjaye on his whisky decanter
designed for slow indulgence
266 Measure for measure
Mert Alas’ quest to create the perfect gin

LEFT, JACKET, £915, BY SPORTMAX. BOOTS, £1,050, BY JIMMY CHOO.

EARRINGS, PRICE ON REQUEST, FROM SUSAN CAPLAN. RIGHT, JACKET,
£429; ROLL-NECK, £119; TROUSERS, £219, ALL BY BOSS. TIGHTS, £32,
BY WOLFORD. SHOES, £495, BY PIERRE HARDY, SEE PAGE 288

ART
099 French odyssey
Athens’ Zoë Paul nods to travel and
scent for Diptyque’s itinerant art show
102 Box clever
The Louis Vuitton trunk, 200 new ways
314 Artist’s palate
Judy Chicago’s Niçoise salad
DESIGN
107
s l l i M s u g n A : y h p ar g o t o h p e f i l l l i t S

Salone del Mobile 2021

Hot tips from the Milan furniture fair
118 Top marks
Kvadrat and Peter Saville’s Technicolour
fabric looks to spray-painted sheep DETAIL OF ‘ORNATE’ BEDHEAD BY BETHAN LAURA WOOD, WITH NEAL FEAY,
FROM HER COLLECTION SHOWING AT NILUFAR, SEE PAGE 089

032 ∑
 OCTOBER
306 Dream sequence
Furnishing our castles in the sky
MEDIA
251 Subscribe to Wallpaper* and save
Plus receive artist-designed covers
RESOURCES
312 Stockists
What you want and where to get it
TRANSPORT
270 Gear shift
Mercedes’ new EQS electric sedan
WEDDINGPAPER*
BRICK HOUSE, BENGALURU, INDIA, BY COLLECTIVE PROJECT, PART OF
OUR ARCHITECTS’ DIRECTORY OF EMERGING PRACTICES, PAGE 137
207 Say I do to must-haves of the modern
bride and groom

FASHION
130 Into the fold
Chanel’s new 19M building gathers its
métiers d’art workshops under one roof
288 Put your hands up
We’re celebrating in style
FRONT OF BOOK
083 Newspaper
Renzo Piano’s new museum in LA,
hooray for canapés, and Nick Vinson
on the polluting internet
INTERIORS
276 Ringside view
The best seats in the house ‘DINO’ DINING CHAIR, IN BIRCH, FROM DANIEL ARSHAM’S ‘OBJECTS
FOR LIVING II’ COLLECTION, IN HIS NEW YORK STUDIO, SEE PAGE 124

040 ∑
 Wallpaper.com
@wallpapermag

EDITORIAL
Editor-in-Chief
Sarah Douglas

Editor Digitl Editor Exective Editor

TF Chan Elly Parsons Bridget Downing
Fshion Director Photogrph Director Gest Art Director US Director
Jason Hughes Holly Hay Dominic Murray-Bell Michael Reynolds

Architectre Editor Design Editor Hed of Interiors Fshion Fetres Editor Bet & Grooming Editor
Ellie Stathaki Rosa Bertoli Olly Mason Laura Hawkins Mary Cleary

Trnsport & Technolog Editor Wtches & Jeweller Editor Arts Editor Entertining Director
Jonathan Bell Hannah Silver Harriet Lloyd-Smith Melina Keays

Designer Assistnt Photogrph Editor Prodcer Prodction Editor Sb Editor Jnior Writer
Gabriela Sprunt Sophie Gladstone Tracy Gilbert Anne Soward Léa Teuscher Nuray Bulbul

Contribting Editors
Nick Compton, Deyan Sudjic, Ekow Eshun, Marco Sammicheli, Tilly Macalister-Smith, Nick Vinson, Dal Chodha, Emma O’Kelly,
Hugo Macdonald, Bodil Blain, Alice Morby, Henrietta Thompson, Suzanne Trocmé
US Editor Pei-Ru Keh • Miln Editor Maria Cristina Didero • Pris Editor Amy Serafin • Germn Editor Sophie Lovell
Mdrid Editor Maria Sobrino • Jpn Editor Jens H Jensen • Chin Editor Yoko Choy • Singpore Editor Daven Wu • Astrli Editor Elias Redstone
Ltin Americ Editor Pablo León de la Barra • Benos Aires Editor Mariana Rapoport

PUBLISHING & MARKETING

Mnging Director
Malcolm Young
Associte Pblisher Bsiness Director
Lloyd Lindo Kelly Gray
Advertising Bespoke
Digitl Advertising Director Senior Accont Mnger Bespoke Director Bespoke Editor
Chris Goh Tom Hemsley Sarah-Jane Molony Simon Mills

Wtches & Jeweller Advertising Bsiness Mnger Digitl Project Mnger Bespoke Art Director Bespoke Prodcer
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Silvia Blahutova
Bsiness Mnger
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 CONTRIBUTORS
TF CHAN
Editor
Having joined Wallpaper* as an intern in
2013, Chan knows the magazine inside out
and relished the opportunity to coordinate
our 25th anniversary celebrations. ‘This
issue is about looking forward, celebrating
five visionaries, and shining a spotlight on
their pick of creative leaders of the future,’
he says. ‘It was a joy to profile Theaster
Gates and Formafantasma [pages 174 and
182], both beacons of inspiration. I hope this
issue leaves our readers feeling optimistic
about the quarter century ahead.’
JUDY CHICAGO CAROLINE TOMPKINS
Artist Photographer
For our Artist’s Palate series, feminist art For this special anniversary issue, we
icon Judy Chicago and her photographer asked the New York-based Tompkins,
husband Donald Woodman composed a known for her intimate portraits and
theatrical take on a Niçoise salad (page 314). strangely familiar American landscapes,
Chicago’s recipe features colour-coordinated to turn her lens on five creative luminaries
carnations, seasonal ingredients and a (page 163). ‘From flying to Chicago to
specially created smoke sculpture. ‘We had photograph Theaster Gates to shooting the
no idea how much smoke we’d need,’ says other subjects remotely, this kept me on my
Chicago. ‘The first time we tried, there was toes,’ says Tompkins. ‘We did our best to
way too much; it completely covered laugh off all of the technical difficulties
everything and the fire department came.’ and make something fun along the way.’
MARKO MACPHERSON
Photographer
MacPherson grew up in California with a
camera in hand, following in his parents’
footsteps. This month, we tasked him with
shooting artist Daniel Arsham’s playdough-
inspired furniture (page 124). ‘Just walking
into Daniel’s studio was an incredible
experience,’ he says. ‘His work feels young
and playful yet a bit dystopian at the same kroY weN ,)SRA( yteicoS sthgiR stsitrA/namdooW dlanoD © :yhpargotohP
time. And when it came to his portrait,
he was so obliging. He had no reservations
and gave us the freedom to experiment.’
JASON ODDY IMOGEN KWOK
Photographer Culinary artist
Having shot some of the world’s most Sydney-born Kwok studied history of art in
unusual locations, from the Pentagon to Scotland and trained at the Michelin-starred
Oscar Niemeyer’s Algerian projects, Oddy Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York before
was the perfect fit to capture the uniqueness relocating to London, where she now creates
of Charles Jencks’ Cosmic House (page 252). multisensory culinary experiences for art,
‘In one shot alone, I took in a five-handled design and fashion events. This month,
door, a neo-surrealist bust made out of a Kwok styled our story on X Muse (page 260):
block of quartz and a bedroom that pays ‘The concept behind this new vodka is rich
homage to Charles Rennie Mackintosh,’ he in symbolism; from a styling perspective, it
says of the ‘eye-opening assignment’. Oddy was important to represent all of its abstract
is due to take part in an artist residency on elements in a way that was precise yet
the Greek island of Lemnos next month. still natural and calming,’ she says.

058 ∑ WRITERS: LÉA TEUSCHER, HARRIET LLOYD-SMITH


How very Wallpaper*
Newsstand cover Welcome to the 25th anniversary issue of Wallpaper*, and what a quarter of a century it
Photography:
Leandro Farina
Interiors: Olly Mason
‘Round D.154.5’ chair,
from £3,538, by Gio Ponti,
for Molteni & C. For more
chairs, see page 276
‘From Wallpaper* with Love’, which reached out to the design community to pull
And, of course, continue to be ‘very Wallpaper*’.
068 ∑
EDITOR’S LETTER
Limited-edition cover
has been! In celebrating our 25th birthday, I wanted to join up the dots from the past, by Daniel Arsham
to distil what makes Wallpaper* so special, and then look forward to the next 25 years... For the limited-edition
cover of our 25th
With this in mind, I welcome my esteemed predecessors, Tyler Brûlé, Jeremy anniversary issue,
Langmead and Tony Chambers, to share their thoughts and experiences, as each wrote Daniel Arsham redrew
such significant chapters in the magazine’s history. Then, looking forward, we invite the Wallpaper* masthead,
showing it eroded
five creative visionaries, Frida Escobedo, Theaster Gates, Formafantasma, Michèle Lamy over the passage of time.
and Nendo, to each select five creative leaders of the future. See page 124 for our
We reveal the ever-brilliant artist Daniel Arsham’s furniture range with design feature on the artist’s
collaboration with design
gallery Friedman Benda (he even designed an epic limited-edition cover for our birthday), gallery Friedman Benda
while Peter Saville and Kvadrat take us on a Technicolour tour, bringing together field Limited-edition covers
and factory with a collection of new fabrics. We showcase newly launched chairs with are available to
an outstanding shoot by photographer Leandro Farina and head of interiors Olly Mason, subscribers, see
wallpaper.com/sub21
which involved transparency film, the darkroom, enlargers, photograms and multiple
exposures – all a true celebration of the creative process.
And for another perfect union – our first-ever edition of Weddingpaper*, a guide
to your ‘very Wallpaper*’ nuptial choices. Following this, we also present an 18-page
showcase of this season’s glitziest looks, preview some highly anticipated Salone del
Mobile pieces as we gear up to visiting beloved Milano again, and celebrate our coveted
annual architects’ directory.
A project very close to my heart, documented here, is Discovered. In the midst of so
much uncertainty, early on in the first London lockdown, I wrote an editor’s letter titled
together and support the next generation of talent. So I was thrilled and inspired when
my long-time collaborator and friend David Venables, from AHEC, called me – and
through the conversations that followed, Discovered was born. We identified and
recruited 20 emerging designers from around the world to create a new object or piece of
furniture, made in four American hardwoods: soft maple, hard maple, cherry and red
oak. The work is extraordinary, and will be on display at the Design Museum in London
from 13 September until 10 October.
Nothing says celebration like a fireworks display so, for the finale, we have the
legendary Judy Chicago’s Niçoise salad, complete with a coloured smoke sculpture
created by the artist, and photographed by her husband Donald Woodman. There was
so much smoke involved in the shoot, the fire brigade was called.
Being in touch with so many old friends, Wallpaper* past and present, has been a joy –
and to read their memories and tributes to this iconic brand has been incredibly
heartwarming (see page 077). When I joined Wallpaper* nearly 15 years ago, I was
told it was the best place to be, and that it was the people that made it impossible to
ever leave. And it’s true. But it’s you, the readers, the audience that really drives
us. It’s an honour to be Wallpaper’s current caretaker, and I promise we will continue
to be dedicated in delivering the very best in design to you for many years to come.
Sarah Douglas, Editor-in-Chief
TYLER BRÛLÉ Founder
Editorial Director 1996–2002 25*
Let’s start at the very beginning. It’s summer 1996 and in a small
design studio in Vienna the first, freshly designed pages of a
soon-to-launch magazine are being pinned on a wall. Art director
Herbert Winkler is selecting pictures, playing with cover concepts
and smoking non-stop. On a nearby desk, a copy of The New York Times
is open to a page with a report about a curious new title that will
soon hit newsstands. Back in London, where the magazine is based,
ad pages (Gucci, Versace, The Gap and many more) are being
shipped to the printer in Austria, while the £100,000 that’s been
raised for this venture is dwindling fast. Can we pay the paper bill?
The courier costs? And will there be enough money for a party?
A few days later, on a sunny morning in early September, the first
issue of Wallpaper* hit newsstands across the UK and around the
world. On the cover, a handsome young man and an elegant woman
gazed out to the reader from their Manhattan apartment; hanging
in the foreground, the simple coverline ‘Urban modernists’ set the
tone for who this title was targeting.
In the weeks that followed, our little office filled with bouquets
of congratulations. Media columnists liked what they saw, and brands
big and small from the worlds of fashion, furniture and hospitality
wanted to be featured in our pages and buy advertising. It took
a few months to get issue two out the door, but gradually we found
our rhythm and Wallpaper* established itself as a curious, global,
slightly decadent and occasionally naughty periodical with a passion
for architecture, industrial design, entertaining, fashion, the Nordic
world and plenty of travel. Twenty-five years on, I often wonder
if Wallpaper* was the last great launch from the golden years of
magazine publishing. If talent, ambition, creativity, focus and
audience are a gauge, I feel it’s a confident contender for such a title.
Turn the page for many happy returns ≥

∑ 077
 25 Years of Wallpaper*
Recollections, reflections RICHARD COOK
Editorial Director, 1999–2016
and all-round best bits,
kindly recounted by some I’d worked at the Financial Times before
joining Wallpaper* in 1999, and at the FT had
of our Wallpaper* family become used to good access to chairmen and
and friends chief executives. But I quickly found out that
Wallpaper* opened some doors even the
global business bible struled to unlock.
I remember arriving in Kinshasa, the capital
of the Democratic Republic of Congo, for an
JEREMY LANGMEAD architectural story (W*52). We were told that
Editor-in-Chief, 2003–2007 the country’s charismatic young president,
Joseph Kabila, was something of an aesthete;
It was an intimidating office to first step into. TONY CHAMBERS that he was aware of our mission and broadly
Here was a perfectly dressed team – not too Creative Director, 2003–2007 supportive of it. However, he had inherited
fashion, not too street – perched in front of Editor-in-Chief, 2007–2017 the job after the assassination of his father,
perfectly placed Vitsœ shelving systems by Brand & Content Director, 2017–2018 Mobutu’s nemesis Laurent Kabila, and was
Dieter Rams. There were no coats hung on wary of outsiders as a consequence. He was
the backs of chairs, no clutter on the simple Wallpaper* is the most extraordinary and also currently preoccupied with fierce and
white desks. The staff embodied the pages of unique publication; during my 16-year stint, brutal fighting in the east of the country.
the magazine: stylish, global and a tad aloof. there was never a week without adventure. The local Reuters correspondent had been
It was at least a year until it felt normal. Picking one highlight is tough, but I’ll go for waiting, unsuccessfully, eight months for an
The team changed and settled and smiled a our epic BRIC Nations project (2009-2012). audience. And all he wanted was to talk up
little more; packing once a fortnight to visit Four epic journeys – to Brazil, Russia, the economy. We sent a copy of the magazine
clients and collaborators, everywhere from India and China – to produce four epic issues. more in hope than expectation and instantly
Manila to Moscow, felt humdrum; and Transferring the majority of the editorial received a summons to the Presidential
armchairs made of teddy bears (Campana team to report on the cultural and creative Palace to meet Kabila and shoot his portrait
Brothers) or a lamp poking out of a life-sized explosions behind the economic booms of (below). He was taken, it seems, by a story
horse (Moooi) being carried past my glass- what were then known as the emerging we’d run about the former holiday home of
walled office barely earned a second glance. territories. Setting up pop-up offices locally. the East German despot Erich Honecker.
It seemed normal, too, to visit Zaha Hadid Observing and absorbing. Mixing it up with Matchmaking the design choices of global
and ask her to design an exhibition for us the countries’ movers and shakers. Seeing leaders is a narrow niche, but it’s the sort of
(she agreed) in Giorgio Armani’s show space things from their perspective. thing you suspect only Wallpaper* could
(he kept peering around the door to watch it In 2009, we set up shop in Shanghai and quite carry off. The magazine has been doing
being built); to persuade Bombardier to Beijing and produced Made in China (W*123). that and so much more for 25 wonderful years
sponsor the building of a full-size Wallpaper* Next up, 2010 saw us land in São Paulo and and the best, you feel – both of dictator
bullet train that somehow resembled Dippy Rio de Janeiro to be Born in Brazil (W*135, design and the rest – is still to come.
the Diplodocus from the Natural History above). In 2011, we were in Mumbai and
Museum (W*80, below); and to collaborate Delhi, being Reborn in India (W*147). Finally,
with Phaidon to publish over 100 Pantone- in 2012, from outposts in St Petersburg and
hued, pocket-sized Wallpaper* City Guides. Moscow, we were Reigning in Russia (W*164).
By the time I left, I had grown to love the We profiled and collaborated with the
bonkers world of grand design; the fact that, leading designers, architects, artists,
on Friday nights, the core team would swap photographers, chefs, gallerists and cultural
green tea at their pristine desks for messy entrepreneurs in each country and reported
pints at the grotty pub behind the offices; on emerging, re-emerging and re-energised
and to understand the dedication to the new, cultures. We made our pilgrimages to
beautiful and clever design emanating from Le Corbusier in Chandigarh and Melnikov in
across the globe that the magazine’s team was Moscow. We conversed with Oscar Niemeyer
there to find, share and celebrate. in Rio and Ai Weiwei in Beijing. We
Tyler Brûlé cleverly created a brand strong commissioned major local artists to design
enough to navigate twists and turns in taste our front covers and to reveal their favourite ALICE RAWSTHORN
and demand, and survive 25 years that have recipes for our back page. We made lots of Contributor since 1996
seen the media landscape change beyond friends… and one or two enemies. Guest Editor, 2020
recognition. I feel fortunate to have played a But most importantly – we grew as a team.
small part in that sometimes minimal, other From editors to juniors and interns, there was A favourite memory from the first year of
times colourful, but always eventful journey. no hierarchy. All went and all rolled up their Wallpaper* was the arrival of a bunch of
sleeves. These were life-changing experiences. photos taken by a group of friends in Sydney
And most of those juniors and interns went who had taken to staging parties inspired by
on to run departments at Wallpaper*. the magazine’s shoots. They had reproduced
When the project was complete, we the locations, the food, the clothes and
wondered, ‘What next?’ How could we fill the everything else, even the models’ poses and
BRIC-shaped hole the following year? ‘How expressions. It summed up the spirit that
about Made on the Moon?’ we joked. Well, has defined Wallpaper* ever since: sharing
perhaps that’s not such a fantasy now. Go on a love of design, architecture, fashion and
Sarah – give Jeff or Elon a call – nobody dare other aspects of visual culture by taking
say no to Wallpaper*. And I’ll be an intern! them seriously, without losing a sense of fun.
 FIONA DENT
Publishing Director, 2006–2007
It seems only yesterday that I was celebrating
Wallpaper’s tenth anniversary (W*92) with
its unique team. At nearly 500 pages, that
issue was more sculpture than magazine.
ALBERT HILL Navigating the trickiest of schedules, the
Associate Design Editor, 2001–2002 partnerships of the world’s most famous
Design Editor, 2002–2004 fashion designers and their favourite
Contributing Editor, Design, 2004–2019 architects were documented. From Giorgio
Armani and Tadao Ando to Karl Lagerfeld
An article I wrote about the modernist and Zaha Hadid (overleaf), this story was an
residences of Sarasota, Florida (W*72, above), international, cross-disciplinary celebration MICHAEL REYNOLDS
inspired me to found The Modern House. of the power of encounters between diverse On the team since 1996 with roles including:
I came back from that trip and wondered if a people and perspectives. Exactly the enduring US Editor, 2012–2021
company celebrating and selling great houses quality that always keeps me coming back. US Director, 2021–present
might work in the UK. (Editorial Director)
Richard Cook was looking to buy a house at I had just embarked on a freelance career,
the time and was bemoaning the offerings of AMY SERAFIN after a seven-year stint at American Vogue,
estate agents – so I really set up The Modern Paris Editor, 2019–present when from out of the blue I received a call
House with Richard as a model customer! from Tyler Brûlé. He asked if I’d be game
I still haven’t managed to sell him anything. There are few things more exciting than an to create a set for the cover of a magazine
email from my editors at Wallpaper*, asking prototype. Being young, dumb, eager to
if I might be available to interview Sophie please and clueless as to what it would entail
FAYE TOOGOOD Calle (W*259), or Tomás Saraceno (W*235), – I said yes!!! Do I recall there being a budget?
Contributor since 2007 Jean Nouvel (W*235), or even Éric Cantona If there was, it was next to nil. I remember
(W*222). These are just some of the renting a cheap wreck of a van. Uninsured,
Early in my career, I worked as a stylist, and exceptional people this magazine has given I feverishly made the rounds pulling favours
Tyler Brûlé summoned me to visit Wallpaper* me the opportunity to sit down and talk with and plucking pieces from ‘this’ designer
HQ. I was transported into a world more over the years. I love that Wallpaper* is just as friend or ‘that’ design shop, chucking spoils
modern and forward-thinking than I’d ever willing to give space to lesser-known subjects I could beg, steal or borrow into the back of
experienced: a wall of front covers presenting – such as septuagenarian textile artist Simone said van. I even yanked a thick, hairy shag
beautiful half-naked people sitting on low Pheulpin (W*234), who sent me on my way (flokati, that is) from my living room floor.
modernist chairs; line upon line of up-to-the- with homemade quiches for the train. I’ll never forget arriving on the morning
minute iMacs; beautiful people dressed in of the shoot at the location on Lower Fifth
black; and sleek furniture made from blonde Avenue, the penthouse apartment of former
wood. I asked a gentleman (Scandinavian, of PABLO LEÓN DE LA BARRA male model Walter Schupfer, only to learn
course), ‘Why is it so immaculate here?’ He Contributing Editor, Mexico & that the elevator was broken and everything
explained that when Tyler came in each day, Central America, 2006–2019 needed to be schlepped up 14 flights of stairs.
always the first to arrive, he’d go round the Latin America Editor, 2019–present The cover shoot was a huge success, the
desks and throw away anything he thought image later used again for the launch issue.
to be neither beautiful nor useful. That has I bought my first copy of Wallpaper* in 1997, So nice, they used it twice! Had I been older and
stuck with me; I have to admit I am guilty of aged 25, when I moved to London to do my wiser, I would have probably passed on the
doing a similar thing in my studio to this day. master’s degree in architecture. Coming from opportunity and in doing so robbed myself
Wallpaper* has always felt otherworldly Mexico, what struck me was the magazine’s of a 25-year creative journey that I cherish
to me. Before social media, Wallpaper* was commitment to re-evaluating non-European as one of my greatest lifetime achievements.
the place to expose me and others to Asian and non-American modernities. In the early
cuisine, Scandinavian design, avant-garde 2000s, I was back in the UK doing a PhD and
fashion and global interiors. I have been lucky had to find a way to support myself. I wrote MELINA KEAYS
enough to work for it and be featured in it to Tyler Brûlé pitching ideas and two weeks Entertaining Editor/Director, 1996–present
and, I have to say, design and interiors would later I was on a plane to Mexico to write a
not be what they are without it. Thank you, story on modern architecture in Acapulco I never saw it coming – my Wallpaper* life.
Wallpaper* for actively reshaping the way we (W*40). Other stories followed – on the post- One day in 1996, Tyler simply told me that
eat, dress and live today. Barragán architecture scene of Guadalajara he was launching a magazine and I was the
(W*62), architect Agustín Hernández (W*64, (then) Food Editor. I said ‘OK’. Back then,
below), and more. Twenty-five years on, my most of our small team had little experience
NICK VINSON admiration for Wallpaper* (and its current in magazines, but with the bravery and
Contributing Editor, Milan/Milan Editor, 2003–2007 editor) continues, as well as my gratitude for brilliance of naivety, and the coming together
Special Projects Editor, 2007–2012 helping me survive those student years! of a collection of hugely talented people, we
Quality Maniac-at-Large 2017–2019 threw ourselves in, and somehow presided
Contributing Editor, 2019–present over the start of a global brand. Oh the thrill
of it! We travelled the world, seeing fantastic
Behind every great feature in Wallpaper*, places and meeting extraordinary people,
there is a designer, architect, artist, maker, curating it all through the Wallpaper* prism
hotelier or entrepreneur with a story to tell. – with joy and humour. We have always
It’s meeting those great talents that makes worked hard, with real passion and belief in
contributing to the magazine such a thrill. the brand – as that is the only way to do it.

∑ 079
 25 Years of Wallpaper*
SUZANNE TROCMÉ
Architecture & Design Editor, 2003–2005
Special Projects Editor, 2005–2007
Editor-at-Large, 2007–2019
Contributing Editor, 2019–present
My favourite moments have been those
where serendipity has played a part. For a
tenth-anniversary shoot (W*92), the idea was
to ask fashion designers whom they most
admired in architecture, and then to have an
art photographer shoot each pair.
My first call was to Karl Lagerfeld, and he
came back saying his answer would be Zaha
Hadid; he knew her show was opening at the
Guenheim that week. I wanted to know if
he was in New York, and he was, staying at
the Mercer hotel. I then found out that Zaha
was also in New York, also staying at the
Mercer. They were both there, in the same
building at the same time. So within an hour,
we found Roe Ethridge at the Gagosian, and
he hot-footed it to the Mercer to shoot them.
They’d never met before; that photo
(above) marks the moment Karl met Zaha.
They became firm friends and went on to
work together. It was raining that day and the
doormen put up umbrellas as the pair walked
out (we had no time for lighting inside, so it
had to be a daylight shot). I will never forget
that moment – a bit of history in the making.
For the same story, Alexander McQueen
elected Norman Foster as his most admired
architect; Tom Ford, Donna Karan, Ralph
Lauren, Paul Smith all followed. What I’m
trying to say is that Wallpaper* marks quite
some history, and has taken its responsibility
within the industries very seriously, but it has
been a lot of fun too being a cog in the wheel.
MARCO SAMMICHELI
Milan Editor/Contributing Editor, 2019–present
The relationship between Wallpaper* and
Milan is historical. Designers, companies,
exhibitions have been presented to the
world with a unique attention, full of details.
My personal memory goes back to the
days when Wallpaper* was arranging
extraordinary parties during Milan Design
Week and, as a design student and freelance
journalist, I tried hard to sneak in and feel
the atmosphere. Being part of the team
years later is an incredible experience.
Buon anniversario, Wallpaper*!
080 ∑
DAVEN WU
Contributing Editor, Singapore/Singapore Editor,
2007–present
I wrote my first article for Wallpaper* in 1999.
The years telescope into snapshots. My first
lunch with the then architecture editor, Clare
Dowdy, at Brettenham House, London, the
magazine’s first HQ. Assignments in Venice
(W*132), Shanghai (W*229), Seoul (W*140),
Porto (W*243), Bagac (W*219). Late nights
in the office, catching interviews in different
time zones. But what lingers most in the
memory are the people. You can look where
you will, but you won’t find a more talented,
dedicated, driven yet fun-loving group of
writers, editors, designers, and producers –
every single one at the top of their game.
JONATHAN BELL
On the team since 1999 with roles including:
Editorial Assistant, 1999–2000
Architecture Editor, 2009–2012
Transport & Technolo Editor, 2019–present
In need of a career change (at 25), I sent in a
letter promising a scattering of architectural
knowledge and 60 wpm. Luckily, the editorial
team was in Milan and issue 13 was on the
presses. Could I run the reception desk? My
role expanded. Could I fact-check a piece?
Give Tyler architectural talking points for an
interview? The late Annabel Tollman once
casually passed me an invite to a car launch,
inadvertently setting another path in motion.
The world of design has changed, but the
comradely brilliance of the Wallpaper* team
has made charting it an ongoing pleasure.
SOPHIE LOVELL
Contributing Editor,Berlin/Germany, 2000–present
Hmm, special memories. Having tea in a
Richard Neutra house in Germany’s Taunus
mountains (W*88, below), the owner telling
me how Neutra studied the phases of the
moon and the topography to take into
account how moonlight would enter the
house. Exploring Philip Rosenthal’s baroque
mansion/shag pad in Bavaria (W*81), with
secret doors and an underground pool.
Retrospectively, so much of it was a bubble
of its time: so white, so male, so Eurocentric,
so decadent… But hey, that was the noughties
and the 2010s, and Wallpaper* has been
an absolute style beacon all the way through.
I’m so happy you are setting your mark with
a powerfully inclusive and regenerative path.
EMMA O’KELLY
On the team since 1997 with roles including:
Contributing Editor, Intelligence 1998–2000
House Editor, 2006–2007
Contributing Editor, 2020–present
I joined the team as News Editor in issue four,
when we were all young and shooting from
the hip. At our first party at Salone del Mobile
in 1998, David Byrne came over and said
he loved the magazine. We came at things
sideways, and readers liked it. ‘That’s very
Wallpaper*’ soon became a way to describe
something that was cool. High points for me?
Exploring forgotten brutalist architecture in
Lagos (W*21); shooting behind the scenes at
the Vatican (W*223); and pacing Jardins in
search of São Paulo’s beating heart (W*26).
ANDREW BLACK
Executive Manager and Publishing Director,
2004–2007
I clearly remember the day the first issue of
Wallpaper* arrived on my desk. It was one
of those moments in life when you know you
are looking at something completely new,
that defies the status quo. Wallpaper* always
punched above its weight in every way,
making it a beacon for exceptional talent.
So in reminiscing about my wonderful tenure
there, what stands out is how exceptional
the collective team were, and still are.
YOKO CHOY
China Editor, 2018–present
It was November 2000 (W*33, above) when
I first discovered Wallpaper* – I was a design
student and a few of us would chip in for
magazines as our monthly inspiration. Eleven
years later, I got my first commission, to write
about the then up-and-coming André Fu for
Wallpaper.com. We’ve since captured many
great voices and moments from China and
beyond. Wallpaper* has been my mentor for
two decades, proving that design exists to
connect people and cultures, and that we can
build a better future collectively.
 Newspaper*
Wallpaper’s hot pick of the latest global goings-on

This October sees the launch of a new perfume Two titans of design distil their
collection by Louis Vuitton and Frank Gehry. Les creative juices for a new perfume line
Form masters
Extraits features five fragrances by the brand’s master
perfumer, Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud, formulated
without top, heart or base notes. ‘I wanted to reinvent
the notion of an extrait [the most concentrated form
of perfume] in a contemporary way,’ says Cavallier-
Belletrud. ‘In revisiting chapters, florals, chypres
and ambers, you create rounded, caressing forms
every time.’ Those forms find their visual counterpart
in Gehry’s sculptural bottle design, a continuation,
in miniature, of his nautically-inspired building for
Fondation Louis Vuitton (W*187). ‘I wanted to create
something that brings a sensation to life,’ says Gehry.
Rhapsody perfume, 450; Monogram case, £36,000,
both by Louis Vuitton, louisvuitton.com
* r e p a p l l a W r o f s o i d u t S er u t u F t a n i w d o G l i e N : y h p a r g o t o h P

Les Extraits is a collection of

five perfumes, which come in Frank
Gehry-designed bottles, featuring
curved glass bodies and crumpled
aluminium tops. An accompanying
leather case holds all five perfumes

WRITER: MARY CLEARY ∑ 083

 Newspaper
Herzog & de Meuron’s South Korean
debut is a triangular triumph
Angle delight
H erzog & de Meuron make
their South Korean debut
with a monolithic new
office building and cultural
space in Seoul that boasts
a majestic triangular silhouette, a shape
directly informed by the area’s zoning
laws. Housing the corporate HQ of
ST International, a Korean energy
and mining conglomerate, and its
constituent SongEun Art & Cultural
Foundation, which operates
a non-profit art space, this striking
11-storey edifice rises from the street
like a sheer cliff face. The south façade
presents a continuous concrete plane
interrupted by two slender windows
that puncture the otherwise uniform
surface. These precise incisions, the
larger of which is more than 13m tall,
accentuate the verticality of the
structure while hinting at the spaces
contained within.
A textured patchwork of intricate
patterns lends the building’s concrete
surfaces a tactile quality: when casting
the concrete, builders installed several
thousand square plywood boards, each
of which yielded a unique imprint of its
natural wood grain on the concrete as it
hardened. At the bottom of the façade,
both corners are cut away to create
lateral recesses that serve as points of
entry for pedestrians and vehicles. As
visitors pass beneath the suspended
084 ∑ PHOTOGRAPHY: JIHYUN JUNG WRITER: ANDY ST LOUIS
mass of the building’s cantilevered
upper floors towards the main entrance,
they emerge into an airy courtyard
ringed by a walled garden. It is here
that the glass-covered rear façade
begins its angular ascent, receding from
view as it climbs towards the sharply
pointed apex.
Inside, the focal point of the lobby
is a spiralling vertical layer of concrete
that carves a nautilus-shaped void out
of the floor, opening onto a cavernous
subterranean exhibition space below.
Tracing the outer perimeter of this
hollow concrete corkscrew is a circular
staircase that leads to a second floor
exhibition space. More than just an
aesthetic flourish, this is the result of
an inevitable spatial constraint
generated by the internal curvature of
the parking ramp, which circumscribes
the gaping cavity excavated from the
centre of the lobby.
To inaugurate the building, an
exhibition, curated by Herzog & de
Meuron and the SongEun Art &
Cultural Foundation, invites the public
to explore its spaces and consider the Above, the concrete 11-storey
relationship between architecture and façade of Herzog & de Meuron’s
art. Some of the most evocative works ST/SongEun Building is imprinted
on view comprise a photographic with intricate wood grain patterns
series by Jihyun Jung, who accessed the and is nearly 60m in height
site during all phases of construction Top, a nautilus-shaped void in the
and documented its progress. ground-floor lobby opens onto
herzogdemeuron.com a subterranean exhibition space
Newspaper

This page, ‘Belgian Linen’ cocktail napkin,

£39, by Gayle Warwick. ‘Dom Pérignon’
glass, £120 for six, by Riedel. ‘Form’ tray,
£175, by Tom Dixon. Vintage 2010
champagne, £152 for 75cl with gift box, by
Dom Pérignon. ‘Dé’ plate, £23, by Ann
Demeulemeester, for Serax. ‘Soup Passion’
spoons, £16 for two, by Villeroy & Boch
Opposite, top left, ‘Whitework’
cocktail napkin, from £60, by Gayle
Warwick. ‘Manufacture Rock’ small
plate, £15, by Villeroy & Boch.
‘Last Order’ light, £375, by Michael
Anastassiades, for Flos, from Aram
LOVE BITES
Good things come in small packages
Top right, ‘Rock’ serving board, £150,
by Tom Dixon. ‘Soup Passion’ spoons,
as before. Highball glass, £85, by Richard
Brendan. Hemstitch tablecloth, £295,
by Summerill & Bishop
Bottom right, ‘Tivoli Orient’ glasses,
£36 for four, by Normann Copenhagen.
‘Inku’ plate, from £19, by Sergio
Herman, for Serax. ‘Belgian Linen’
cocktail napkin, £39, by Gayle Warwick
Bottom left, ‘Royal’ serving tray, £61,
by Villeroy & Boch. ‘Eye’ votive, £415 for
two, by Nicolas Triboulot, for Baccarat,
from Selfridges. ‘Dom Pérignon’ glass;
hemstitch tablecloth, both as before
For stockists, see page 312

* r e p a p l l a W r o f s o i d u t S er u t u F t a n i w d o G l i e N : y h p a r g o t o h P
Here at Wallpaper* HQ, we love a good cocktail party (we can’t tell
you how much we’ve missed them over the last 18 months). And while
many things contribute to making a party one to remember, you just
can’t beat a great canapé, those salty, spicy or sweet bites than can lead
you to park yourself near the door to the kitchen when they’re
particularly moreish. The French are credited with making canapés
popular in the 18th century, the name coming from their word for
‘couch’ as some thought a piece of bread topped with food looked
like someone sitting on a couch. The rest of the world soon picked
up on the joys of finger foods and, over the years, a smörgåsbord
of delectable canapé trends have come and gone (devilled e or
ENTERTAINING DIRECTOR: MELINA KEAYS INTERIORS: OLLY MASON WRITER: ANNE SOWARD
mushroom vol-au-vent anyone?). To celebrate Wallpaper’s 25 years
in print and a return to party mode, we threw a little soirée and
rustled up five of our current canapés of choice (clockwise from top
left): a mini burger in a black brioche bun; tuna and avocado tartare
with quail’s e; feta, watermelon and mint skewers; fruit and flower
cream tarts; and nori tarts with grilled scallops and caviar (opposite).
And as a celebration isn’t a celebration without champagne, we
popped the cork on a bottle of Dom Pérignon Vintage 2010, served in
a specially commissioned glass designed by Austrian crystal brand
Riedel. Thin-stemmed, with an elegant tapered shape, the wide bowl
allows the champagne room to breathe and express its unique nose.
∑ 087
 Newspaper

Bethan Laura Wood’s

‘Meisen’ cabinets and desk
(below and right) were created
using Alpi veneer, hand-
selected by the designer, and
inspired by Meisen kimonos
and colourful bugs

Boudoir-and-bug-inspired furniture
from Bethan Laura Wood
Chamber pieces

D rawing from a pool of diverse inspirations,

ranging from the design of the boudoir
and Japanese travels to art nouveau and
jewellery, British designer Bethan Laura Wood
and Milanese gallery Nilufar conceived Ornate, a
contemporary collection of furniture exemplifying the
richness of Wood’s eclectic, colourful visual universe.
With pieces created in glass, wood veneer and
CNC-milled aluminium, the designer’s passion for
craftsmanship techniques, old and new, and her ability
to distil cultural references and inspirations from
past aesthetic movements are evident throughout.
The collection is a visual feast: there are the
wily curves of the ‘Ornate’ bedhead and sconces,
partly inspired by Alexander Calder’s 1940s bedhead
design for Pey Guenheim and created in
collaboration with Neal Feay in CNC-milled, anodised
aluminium. The ‘Meisen’ cabinets and desk, inspired
by Japanese kimonos and colourful bugs, explore
the process of wood veneer with specialist Alpi.
A continuation of Wood’s ongoing collaboration
with Pyrex glass specialist Pietro Viero (with whom
she made her Nilufar debut in 2011, with the ‘Totem’
series), the ‘Bon Bon’ lighting series includes a
chandelier and sconces that push the boundaries of
Pyrex manufacturing, mixing milky and transparent
glass in candy palettes. And finally, the ‘Aperitivo’
mirrors build on the designer’s ‘Melon’ mirror created
with Murano mirror workshop Barbini Specchi and
explore Wood’s interest in connecting contemporary
aesthetics with traditional craftsmanship. The
collection, which also marks ten years of Wood’s
collaboration with Nilufar and its founder, Nina
Yashar, is showing at Nilufar’s Milan gallery alongside
pieces from her previous collections and archive.
The Ornate collection is showing until 27 November
at Nilufar Gallery, Via della Spiga 32, Milan, nilufar.com

PHOTOGRAPHY: ANGUS MILLS WRITER: ROSA BERTOLI ∑ 089

 Newspaper
A new LA museum puts the
movie industry in the spotlight
Picture show
Renzo Piano’s Academy
Museum of Motion Pictures,
on the corner of Wilshire
Boulevard and Fairfax
Avenue, sports an enormous
concrete-and-glass sphere
with a rooftop terrace
090 ∑ PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSHUA WHITE WRITER: ELLIE STATHAKI
Set in the architecturally diverse
Museum Row on Wilshire Boulevard,
where the psychedelic Petersen
Automotive Museum by KPF sits side
by side with Renzo Piano’s geometric,
sawtooth-roofed Los Angeles County
Museum of Art (LACMA), the Academy
Museum of Motion Pictures is one
of LA’s most anticipated cultural
additions of recent years, and it’s
about to throw open its doors.
The building, designed by Renzo
Piano Building Workshop, in
collaboration with architects Gensler
and Studio Pali Fekete, is everything a
museum dedicated to the art of cinema
should be. There is historic glamour in
the shape of the Saban Building, a
renovated Streamline Moderne building
with a distinctive golden cylinder in
one corner (it was originally built in
1939 for the May Company department
store); sci-fi drama in the futuristic,
enormous concrete-and-glass sphere
housing a large 1,000-seat theatre that
will show nitrate, 16mm, 35mm and
70mm films and laser projections; and a
range of engaging and information-rich
exhibitions stuffed with beloved movie
characters and behind-the-scenes
goodies. Modern exhibition halls, an
education studio, and two state-of-
the-art theatres ensure the visitor
experience is just as dramatic and
impactful as watching the latest
Hollywood Academy Award winner.
An LEED Gold Certification marks
the team’s exceptional efforts
involving green building strategies,
while architect Kulapat Yantrasast
and his studio Why are behind
the exhibition design.
The opening displays include a
retrospective of revered Japanese
animator and Studio Ghibli co-
founder Hayao Miyazaki, which will
include pieces on public view outside
of Japan for the first time alongside
projections of film clips and immersive
environments. There is also a gallery
hosted by Rolex, a founding supporter
of the new museum, exploring the
brand’s ongoing relationship with
cinema. Old and new, past and
present, classic and avant-garde
converge in perfect harmony in this
300,000 sq ft complex.
‘The two buildings of the
museum flirt,’ Piano told us in 2018,
(the building scooped the Wallpaper*
Design Award for Best Building Site
the following year). Meanwhile,
a terrace on top of the sphere offers
sweeping views of LA and the
Hollywood Hills, forging strong visual
connections between the building
and its iconic urban setting.
academymuseum.org; rpbw.com

RM 037 Red Gold Snow Set
watch with white rubber
strap, CHF286,000
(266,316), by Richard Mille
Richard Mille’s snow-set sparkler
is a dazzling timekeeper
Red queen
PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSH DAVID PAYNE WRITER: HANNAH SILVER
When it comes to creating watches
for women, Richard Mille doesn’t shy
away from the sharp technicality and
futuristic design codes that characterise
its unisex pieces. The Swiss watch brand
has included watches for women in
its traditionally male output since its
inception, but has ramped up the
offering in the last decade, interweaving
advanced technical functionality with
a play on tough materials and intricate
high jewellery techniques. The RM 037
Red Gold Snow Set watch is a case
in point. A reinterpretation of the
RM 037 model, it puts the skeletonised
movement at its heart, with the
juxtaposition of textures on the
Newspaper
rotating discs an elegant foil for the
sparkling contours of the case. Present
are familiar design motifs, with the
distinctive curves and bridges of the
calibre here envisioned through a high
jewellery lens. When coupled with the
technically accomplished snow-setting
method – which closely sets diamonds,
ranging in size from 0.5mm to 1.6mm,
into prongs so slender as to be invisible
– the seemingly random pattern of the
stones endows the face with a brilliant
refraction of light. Extremely difficult
to execute thanks to the stones’ varying
sizes and the need for them to fit to
a micron’s precision, the result is
dazzling. richardmille.com
∑ 093
 Newspaper
‘OW58’ T-chairs in oak
or walnut, from 1,020
each, by Ole Wanscher,
for Carl Hansen & Søn
A relaunched Danish design classic has
functionality and form down to a T
Born again
Originally designed in 1958, Ole
Wanscher’s sculptural ‘OW58’ T-chair,
with its characteristic T-shaped backrest
and sinuous lines crafted from oak
or walnut, is the latest addition to Carl
Hansen’s offering of furniture created
by giants of Danish design. Wanscher
learned his craft under Kaare Klint,
the father of modern Danish design,
and his style embodies the movement
perfectly, with discreet design details
and functionality at the core of each
piece. ‘Ole Wanscher had a knack for
094 ∑ WRITER: ROSA BERTOLI
in-depth design,’ says Carl Hansen CEO
Knud Erik Hansen. ‘He sought to find
the ideal furniture constructions, which
he then gave a more modern expression.’
Faithfully reproduced with a small
height adjustment, the T-chair joins a
wide collection of pieces by the designer
in the Carl Hansen catalogue, including
the ‘Colonial’ and ‘Beak’ chairs. Adds
Hansen, ‘Wanscher considered furniture
design as architecture, and the T-chair
is a beautiful example of his focus on
sleek, refined shapes.’ carlhansen.com
wallpaper* podcast
Jonathan Bell talks to Nipa Doshi,
of Doshi Levien, in our new podcast
series ‘Found: Objects with Meaning’
Jonathan Bell Do you attribute
meaning to particular objects?
Nipa Doshi I believe in materialism in
a way that, for me, objects and things are
almost a kind of symbol of our existence.
They express human endeavour.
JB Do you have a particular object that
references your past and something
which you still think about?
ND One of the things I remember very
distinctly from my childhood in Bombay
was a portrait of my grandfather in the
living room. For a long time, I thought it
was a black and white photograph. It was
only when I was older, and looked closer,
that I realised it was painted as a black
and white photograph. I don’t know if
it’s still in my grandfather’s house, but
the house still exists. I want that picture.
But I think if I ask my relatives, they
will probably want to keep it.
JB Was your grandfather a very
influential figure in your life?
ND I think he was, because there was
a lot of care taken in his house, in the
way the bed was made every day, or the
way the food was laid on the table. Even
my grandmother used to make fresh
garlands of jasmine when she prayed
to Krishna every day. I think I grew up
thinking that design was a gesture, it
was a beautiful way of doing things.
And that’s something that’s really stayed
with me, this idea that design is not
necessarily about an object, it can also
be about an action, or a way of doing
things and caring about the simplest
of human gestures and rituals.
JB Is there an object you have that
you don’t ever want to lose?
ND It’s a miniature painting, which
Jonathan [Levien] and I commissioned
about three years ago, on a trip to Jaipur,
by a seventh generation Indian
miniature artist called Shammi Bannu.
So we have the world of beautiful Rajput
miniature paintings with Radha and
Krishna and the love between them. And
we have the setting in Le Corbusier’s
Villa Sarabhai that we’ve been to many,
many times, and Krishna sitting on a
daybed designed by us. It’s absolutely
one of the most precious things we have.
This is an excerpt from the ‘Found: Objects
with Meaning’ podcast from Wallpaper* in
collaboration with Vodafone Smart Tech. For
the full conversation, visit Wallpaper.com ∏
 Newspaper

  

Quality maniac Nick Vinson on the who, what, when, where and why

PICKY NICKY’S DATA ON DATA

The size of an average web page has increased
four-fold between 2010 and 2020
In rich countries, 84 per cent of the population
now uses a smartphone, which consumes
significantly less electricity than desktop
computers, but moves much of the
computational effort to data centres
Accessing the internet through a cellular
network requires roughly 20 times more
power than through WiFi
Software upgrades have substantial
bandwidth requirements so each rollout
involves a great many gigabytes
Ener is consumed not only when connected
devices are used, but also when they are
manufactured and recycled
Thanks to Kris De Decker of Low-Tech Magazine
Aerial view of the construction site in
November 2020 of the Huawei data centre
at Guian New Area, Guizhou, China

Online shaming
Picky Nicky champions the design duo addressing internet pollution
Most of us will have heard about giant
data centres, where Internet Protocol
(IP) traffic – colloquially referred to as
data – flows every time we use the
internet, email or apps on smartphones
and other connected devices. Out of
sight, these servers are powered up and
running all day, every day, requiring
vast quantities of energy to run and
cool. Data flow currently accounts for
one per cent of global carbon emissions,
having grown 12-fold since 2010 and
overtaken the aviation industry.
We have become accustomed to
TV, Sonos, Nest and more. We are
inured to this vast network of storage,
yet there’s barely any connection
between data and energy use.
Frequent flyers are shamed into
flying less, many have reduced their
meat consumption to help combat
carbon emissions, yet governments
push to increase connectivity and offer
faster broadband to more of their
populations. I have never heard of any
incentives, programmes or campaigns
to reduce browsing, downloading,
messaging or viewing online – until I
strategy session with graphic designers
Studio Blanco, who collaborated on
the design. Most visitors land on a
website’s home page, but it’s rarely
their final destination, so they kept
the home page as light as possible.
The logo is text in unicode rather
than an image, while classic typefaces
Arial and Times New Roman are used
to reduce HTTP requests. The layout
is straightforward to avoid loading
unnecessary content, and rather than
an infinite scroll where new images
constantly load, photos can be
segamI ytteG aiv GCV/nujgnoD uW :yhpargotohP

using more and more data, a seemingly
inexhaustible resource that is out of
sight, out of mind. As well as the
gigabytes gobbled up by my website,
email and mobile usage, and the 1TB
of physical storage on my devices,
there’s also 200GB of iCloud storage,
presumably scattered across many
distant data centres. My screen time is
six plus hours per day on a computer,
the smartphone is on top, and then
there is the WiFi-enabled Loewe
received an email from Formafantasma.
The Milan-based designers recently
redesigned their website specifically
to minimise energy consumption
and the carbon emissions that result
from browsing. The pair first became
interested in the subject while
investigating recycling of electronic
waste for their ‘Ore Streams’ exhibition
in 2017. Every Formafantasma project
begins with meticulous research, in this
case it meant a 20-page brief and a
previewed in a lower file weight, then
downloaded on demand. Offering dark
mode reduces screen brightness and
therefore energy, especially on mobiles,
which commonly use OLED screens.
The site is powered by a tailor-made
platform, with a significantly lower
resource consumption server-side,
and it’s hosted on GreenGeeks,
a green web-hosting provider. It’s
about time that more companies
were doing all this as standard.

096 ∑
 Art
This picture, Zoë Paul in her
studio in Athens, arranging
ceramic beads for one of her
new large-scale installations
Below, some of the artist’s
preparatory pastel sketches

French
odyssey
An ode to travel, Diptyque’s
itinerant art show features
the work of Athens’ Zoë Paul
The artist Zoë Paul hadn’t planned to end up
in a cave. A few months prior, the French
maison Diptyque had approached her to take
part in its celebratory 60th anniversary show,
which has now opened in Paris, with pop-ups
around the world to follow. The exhibition
features original works by nine artists.
Of these, five have created editioned objects
fragranced by Diptyque perfume, with
Paul drawing inspiration from Greece,
Joël Andrianomearisoa from France, Johan
Creten from Italy, Hiroshi Sugimoto from
Japan, and Rabih Kayrouz from Lebanon.
These five destinations were chosen
because they were places Diptyque’s founders,
Christiane Montadre-Gautrot, Yves Coueslant
and Desmond Knox-Leet, often travelled
to or took inspiration from. When the trio
opened Diptyque in Paris in 1961, the store
was not a fragrance house but rather a chic
curio shop packed with knick-knacks, an ode
to the wonders that can be found through arrival of domestic refrigerators had on rural
travel. Each item was selected for its Greek communities. Since people could keep
intriguing design or compelling story, be it food longer, rather than having to share it
a bistro sugar holder or Indian incense sticks. with others before it spoilt, they stopped
‘Le Grand Tour’ harks back to that origin eating together (and crafting together, due to
story, but with a more elevated collection of the arrival of mass-produced objects).
artist-designed objects, befitting the brand’s Her 2017 installation La Perma-Perla Kraal
evolution into an iconic luxury house. Emporium again examined the link between
Like Diptyque’s founders, Paul knows craft and community by inviting visitors to
what it is like to be in between places, having roll clay beads together. As people sat together,
been raised between the UK and Greece by they inevitably started talking, transforming
South African parents escaping the apartheid a gallery, which tends to encourage isolated
regime. She is now settled in Athens and observation, into a relaxed communal space.
much of her work is informed by Greek Paul’s work for Diptyque, The Cave of
traditional crafts. Using materials closely tied Chiron, embodies all of these facets. A curtain
to her surroundings, such as clay and wool, of clay beads, fired for days over a metal drum,
or scavenged industrial waste, Paul creates forms an image of a single hand, held together
works focusing on the corroding effect by a solid brass frame. For Paul, this curtain
modern technology has had on our sense of technique was the most sensible choice for a
community. Notable works include a series project with Diptyque: ‘There’s a fragility to
of rusted refrigerator grilles interwoven with it, in the same way that the perfume has this
wool tapestries that examine the effect the fragility to it and it hangs in there,’ she says. »

PHOTOGRAPHY: MARCO ARGÜELLO WRITER: MARY CLEARY ∑ 099

 Art
Paul had never been to Milies before receiving
the commission from Diptyque. ‘What
struck me the most about the place was its
profound spirituality,’ she recalls. ‘Following
the road to the village, quite by chance
I came upon Chiron’s cave. It was surrounded
by laurel bushes and, when I visited, little
violet-coloured wild irises. Inside, the space
opened out, taking on an unexpected
resemblance to a sepulchre.’
Inside the cave, Paul found the inspiration
she was looking for. In Greek mythology,
Chiron is a healer and practitioner of herbal
medicine. His name literally translates to
‘hand’, a traditional symbol of healing and
protection, and one that Paul already had
in mind before her visit. As she describes it,
when she first smelled Olivier Pescheux’s
Milies perfume for Diptyque, a rich blend of
cypress notes, fig trees and immortelles,
‘I was thinking about these hands crawling
their way out of the earth, because the
perfume smelled kind of soily and earthy.’
On a personal level, she found being in
Chiron’s cave so affecting that it ‘kicked into
place’ a desire to start seeing a healer herself,
and examine more closely how she uses this
imagery in her work: ‘It got me thinking
100 ∑
about what these symbols mean; it’s not
so much about religion as it is something
that brings people together spiritually.
The figure of the healer is something which
brings people together, there’s a lot of
reaching out of hands, of holding hands.’
To reaffirm this sense of spirituality,
Paul looked to the village’s ornate Orthodox
church to create the frame for The Cave of
Chiron. Paul found a reliquary craftsman
(with a studio ‘filled with drawers of
diamonds’ and ‘the little toe of a priest’) to
handcraft the gilded brass crown that sits
atop her artwork and holds a ceramic dish
imbued with the fragrance. ‘I wanted to make
something that was in between the feeling
of nature and these two spiritual places in
Milies – the church and the cave,’ says Paul.
‘Something that combined their energies.’
For Paul, there is not much difference
between the art people have on the walls
or the table they eat off – ‘everything should
have that energy’. It is not a surprising
philosophy, given her use of everyday
materials to create a communal atmosphere.
Creating communal atmospheres is not so
far off, either, from the mission of Diptyque’s
‘Le Grand Tour’. As the brand’s UK managing
Above, current works in progress include
terracotta pots and painted ceramic tiles
Left, Paul’s The Cave of Chiron for
Diptyque nearing completion. It features
raku-fired beads, nylon-coated steel cable,
a brass frame and a gilded brass crown
director Amanda Morgan explains: ‘In the
past 18 months particularly, people have just
been looking for extrasensory experiences
– visually or through fragrance – to heighten
everyday life. That’s what’s exciting about
having our 60th anniversary at this particular
moment. There’s a different level of
excitement and of gratitude.’
In its early years, Diptyque was a cultural
scene in and of itself. During the day, the
shop would play music, from Beethoven
to the Rolling Stones, and at night the crowd
that had gathered there would flow into the
Orphéon nightclub next door. A few years
later, the Diptyque trio created three candles
fragranced with hawthorn, cinnamon and
tea, the first of many strange but intoxicating
perfumes that would define the brand in the
decades to come. ‘Le Grand Tour’ is in some
ways a recreation of that foundation ethos.
It’s a collection of finely crafted objects, each
with its own story, bringing people together
and creating a special energy. ∂
The Cave of Chiron, edition of 15, €5,000,
by Zoë Paul, for Diptyque. ‘Le Grand Tour’ will
open in Paris on 14 September, and subsequently
appear in various locations, including New York
and Shanghai; diptyqueparis.com; zoepaul.studio
 TRUNK SHOW
Louis Vuitton celebrates the bicentennial anniversary of its eponymous
founder with 200 different creative takes on its iconic trunk
‘We’re always trying to tell a story,’ says
Faye McLeod, Louis Vuitton’s visual image
director. ‘But when it’s our founder, not
the brand, who is turning 200, we wanted to
really celebrate the man. We wanted to talk
about this person who was born on 4 August
1821, in the village of Anchay [in France’s
Jura region], and had the imagination and
creativity to build this business aged only 33.’
Monsieur Vuitton’s now iconic travelling
trunk was an item of innovation in its day:
clad in canvas, the water-resistant box was
leagues ahead of its competitors, which
featured curved tops so that rain would
run off them, and therefore couldn’t be
conveniently stacked. ‘He built a travelling
system that was more efficient and more
suited to the Industrial Revolution of his age,’
explains Ansel Thompson, Louis Vuitton’s
art director and McLeod’s right hand.
McLeod has a track record of conjuring
mind-expanding magic for the house (she has
masterminded fantastical window displays
with Olafur Eliasson and Frank Gehry,
crafted dancing lines of Yayoi Kusama-
spotted mannequins, and even created a
life-size steam train for the A/W12 show.)
102 ∑
WRITER: TILLY MACALISTER-SMITH
So naturally, for Monsieur Vuitton’s 200th
birthday, she dreamed big. ‘When I’m stuck
for an idea, I always go back to the mantra
pinned to my wall,’ she says of the A4 piece
of paper that reads, ‘Louis Louis Louis, can’t
you see how your world does amaze me?’
That trunk became the linchpin for
a celebration of grand scale. ‘We thought,
why don’t we find 200 people who amaze us?’
says McLeod. ‘We tried to make it as globally
reaching and diverse across age, gender,
ethnicity, and also including both emerging
and established talents – a celebration of how
creativity can come in all shapes, sizes and
disciplines.’ To help with the immense task of
collating the names, McLeod and Thompson
crowdsourced input across the business, also
consulting Bernard Arnault’s regular art
advisor, Hervé Mikaeloff, and Virgil Abloh.
Visionaries spanning the creative industries,
as well as science, ecology, and more, were
enlisted. ‘It’s a real cross-section of now,’ says
Thompson. Participants include Es Devlin,
Frank Gehry, Peter Marino, Cao Fei, Alex
Israel, Michel Gondry, Li Edelkoort, Wayne
McGregor, Pat McGrath, Urs Fischer, Gloria
Steinem, Jaron Lanier, Drake and more.
The brief? To reinterpret the famous Louis
Vuitton trunk for today, using any medium
available – as wide-ranging as AR, spoken
word, performance, video, sound, sculpture
and paint. Each visionary received a block of
poplar wood (the original wood used to make
the trunks) in the approximate dimensions
of the original travel case (50 x 50 x 100cm).
Some boxes even had to be quarantined when
arriving overseas due to the pandemic. ‘It was
really important to not be retrospective, but
to celebrate the future,’ says Thompson of
the brief he delivered 200 times via video
call to individual collaborators.
‘There’s a flying trunk,’ says McLeod of
the work of Franky Zapata, an inventor she
discovered on Instagram. ‘He flew it through
the Place Vendôme store; it was as noisy as
an aeroplane taking off!’ Artist Jean-Michel
Othoniel created a ‘trunk of hope’, a stack
of glass bricks blown in the region of the
Taj Mahal in India, inspired by the piles of
clay bricks found by the side of the road in
the region. ‘Those amber stacks wait to be
turned into homes. They are the dream that
everyone has: to build your own house one
day,’ he says. Fashion designer Samuel Ross  »
 Art

This picture, clockwise from top, skateboarder

Beatrice Domond’s trunk comes with wheels and
handwritten quotes; fashion designer Samuel Ross’
metal structure incorporates the brand’s damier motif;
Jean-Michel Othoniel’s glass-brick creation is inspired
by Indian bricks; Argentinian artist Alexandra Kehayoglou’
take is a woven offering in signature green tones
Opposite, Sou Fujimoto’s trunk features a simple
arrangement of squares and rectangles reminiscent
of the architect’s House N in Oita, Japan
 Art
Clockwise from top, Japanese lower artist
Azuma Makoto papered his box with seed
packets; Virgil Abloh’s London-based design
studio Alaska Alaska created a ‘Contemporary
Landscape Trunk’ with an industrial slant;
French designer Pierre Yovanovitch built a
colourful modular console out of small boxes
says his minimalist red metal structure,
which incorporates the iconic LV damier
square, ‘signals Vuitton’s deeply ingrained
relationship towards motion, engineering
and technology through the artisan’s lens.’
Pierre Yovanovitch, who created a console
with multiple drawers using 27 smaller boxes,
says his ‘interpretation of the trunk is as a
“box of ideas” symbolising the creative
process.’ Held in place by invisible magnets,
the boxes can be stacked in multiple ways to
create storage for a dressing room or kitchen.
Flowers are central to artist Azuma Makoto’s
work and he transformed his trunk by
papering the exterior with seed packets.
‘Seeds ride upon the winds, are carried by
a bird, crossing borders and the times,’ he
says. As for botanist Mark Spencer, he
requested to see LVMH’s published plans for
future environmental responsibility before
signing up: ‘We passed the test,’ says McLeod.
104 ∑
The reimagined trunks are currently on
display in multiple stores around the world.
For 100 days following Monsieur Vuitton’s
birthday, 20 top-tier boutiques in eight
different countries, including Champs-
Élysées and Place Vendôme in France,
Fifth Avenue and Rodeo Drive in the US,
Omotesando and Shibuya Miyashita in Japan,
and New Bond Street and Sloane Street in
the UK, will be outfitted with a 6m-high
robot composed of boxes made from LED
screens, playing footage of two artists’
projects each day. Other stores, such as
Avenue Montaigne in Paris, will showcase
the works on LED screen ‘magic boxes’.
Following the window display, the trunks
will embark on a global tour. Philanthropy
is key to the project. The brand has donated
€2m in lieu of paying the artists a fee. This
will be split between 15 carefully audited
charities located in Senegal, India, Colombia,
Guatemala, China and more, which, explains
Thompson, ‘in the spirit of the project, help
people to become more creative, especially
younger, underprivileged people’. There
is no commercial product in any of the
windows. The tour will culminate at the end
of 2022 with an auction hosted by Sotheby’s
in Paris, the proceeds of which will be used
to enable students of the arts, creativity
and innovation to complete their studies.
As part of the birthday celebrations,
there is also a documentary film launching
this winter; an NFT-based computer game;
and a triptych work by Alex Katz celebrating
the man himself. To expand the imagination
was the remit; one McLeod and her
collaborators have squarely accomplished.
‘We poured our hearts into this project,’
she says. It shows: the young Louis Vuitton
himself would have been awed. ∂
louisvuitton.com

Show business
As Milan’s furniture fair returns,
we present the pieces making a splash
‘ALLURE O’ TABLE Italian architect and designer Monica
Armani took inspiration from 1960s style
AND ‘FLAIR O’ CHAIR icon Jackie O to create her new ‘Allure O’
by Monica Armani, for B&B Italia table and ‘Flair O’ chair. ‘I love her glamorous
style; it’s always precise, never excessive,’
says Armani. ‘She’s the interpreter of what
I consider true luxury: the search for detail,
harmony and balance.’ Recalling the elliptical
geometric shapes of the designer’s 2017
‘Madison’ mirror, itself inspired by Jackie O’s
signature sunglasses, the pieces sport
ARTWORK: STUDIO LIKENESS INTERIORS: OLLY MASON WRITER: LÉA TEUSCHER
Salone del Mobile
similarly graceful, sinuous lines. The ‘Allure
O’ features a bevelled-edge rectangular or
square top sited on a perfectly proportioned,
truncated pyramid base. It is available in
either solid light or black oak, as well as a
variety of glossy and matt painted finishes in
18 different shades. The matching ‘Flair O’
chair, featuring the same truncated cone
base and rounded edges, can be upholstered
in any fabric in the B&B Italia collection.
Prices on request, bebitalia.com
∑ 107
 Salone del Mobile
‘SPARKLER’ LANTERNS For these sophisticated, portable lanterns,
which form part of Poltrona Frau’s inaugural
by Kensaku Oshiro, for Poltrona Frau
outdoor collection, Milan-based Japanese
designer Kensaku Oshiro took his cues from
the traditional amphoras and wineskins of his
adoptive country, as well as the rice paper
lamps ubiquitous in his home country. ‘When
I was a child, I remember being enchanted by
the magic of senko hanabi, or sparklers, which,
when burned, generate an incandescent
ball that spreads delicate sparks all around.
108 ∑
It brings back memories of time spent with
friends and family,’ he says. The lanterns are
made from handwoven taupe polypropylene
cord attached to a powder-coated aluminium
frame, and they come with LED spotlights
powered by a rechargeable lithium battery.
By day, illuminated by the sun, they create
ever-changing chiaroscuro effects, while
by night, they exude a warm, intimate light
that casts hypnotic shadows on the ground.
From €900, poltronafrau.com

‘TEA’ CHAIR
by Jasper Morrison, for Molteni & C
Jasper Morrison’s predilection for wood is
key to the design of this chair – the frame
is made entirely of solid eucalyptus, black
oak or natural oak, a simplicity that outlines
and reveals the profile of the chair in its
entirety. ‘My intention was to update the
traditional wooden-framed, upholstered
dining chair,’ explains the London-based
designer. ‘The upholstery has been reduced
to a surface rather than a volume, which
is hidden within the frame, so the visual
Salone del Mobile
heaviness that upholstery usually brings has
been eliminated.’ The chair’s backrest is also
precisely thought through. ‘I chose to give it
a more rounded shape and keep it relatively
low because I dislike the way tall-backed
dining chairs hide the table,’ says Morrison.
Blending elegance and ergonomics, the ‘Tea’
chair’s seat and backrest are clad in cold-
moulded polyurethane foam and available in
the entire Molteni & C fabric collection.
From £1,258, molteni.it
∑ 111
 Salone del Mobile
‘SLING’ CHAIR The design of the ‘Sling’ chair is rooted in
Arianna Lelli Mami and Chiara Di Pinto’s
‘soft touch’ texture. Meanwhile, the free-
by Studiopepe, for Ethimo
memories of childhood camping trips. The
Studiopepe founders reckon the chair will
look at home in any setting, although it’s
intended for the great outdoors. ‘We love
the idea that you can bring outdoor furniture
inside,’ they say. The chair’s tubular steel
frame, which gives it both its strength and
a feeling of lightness, is available in four
colours, including burnished bronze,
112 ∑
a new finish that stands out for its unique
hanging canvas seat, which hugs the contours
of the body, is made using French brand Élitis’
diamond-patterned ‘Lontano’ fabric, available
in two colourways. ‘We are still working on
the addition of a small cushion, and we will
introduce a new collection of patterns and
colours designed in collaboration with Élitis
in 2022,’ say the Milan-based designers.
Price on request, ethimo.com

‘HARPER’ SOFA
by Antonio Citterio, for Flexform
‘Every sofa sets the scene for a medley of
different uses,’ says Antonio Citterio. And
he should know, having designed dozens
of models for Italian brand Flexform over
the last 40 years. His latest, the ‘Harper’,
named after the harp, is designed as a delicate
and welcoming sofa, ‘like a lullaby created
by the sophisticated sound of the stringed
instrument’. It has a distinctive console
armrest, which is available in two widths
and 13 colours, including dark brown, olive
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and Bulgarian red. Set on a wooden frame
clad in polyurethane foam padding, the
seat cushions are filled with goose down
and inserts in crush-proof material, while
upholstery is available in hundreds of
exclusive fabrics (including linen, cashmere
and velvet) and leathers. We’re particularly
fond of the grosgrain piping detail, but you
could also pick your own favourite fabric
to create a completely unique sofa.
From £15,162, flexform.it
∑ 115
 Salone del Mobile
‘MARVIN’ TABLE Minotti’s art director Rodolfo Dordoni has
produced many iconic pieces for the brand
by Rodolfo Dordoni, for Minotti
over the years, and he shows no signs of
slowing: his latest work is a table designed
to fit anywhere, from private residences to
corporate meeting rooms. ‘I wanted a sleek
sculptural base with a precise geometrical
design that could instinctively dialogue with
a round tabletop as well as rectangular ones,’
says Dordoni. The base, formed from a series
of quarter circles, comes in a satin-finish
116 ∑
stainless steel or pewter-coloured varnished
metal, with distinctive black inserts on the
edges, while the top is available in Bianco
Nero marble, for a strong, modern feel; a more
subdued Marron Damasco marble; or a black
lacquered ash veneer with a contoured ash
border. Pictured here with GamFratesi’s
new ‘Lido’ chairs for Minotti, the result is
a pleasingly smooth piece that looks like
a contemporary twist on a 1970s classic.
Price on request, minotti.com
Design

TOP MARKS
A new collaboration between textile expert Kvadrat and iconic
British designer Peter Saville brings together field and factory,
contrasting natural wool tones with pops of colour inspired by the
spray-painted markings found on flocks throughout the country
WRITER : ROSA BERTOLI
This page, stills from the Technicolour film, by
Eva Weber for Kvadrat, showing smit marks being
sprayed on a lock, and the colourful result
Opposite, detail of the Technicolour collection’s
‘Fleck’ upholstery fabric, inspired by the markings

∑ 119

W hile travelling around the British
countryside, chances are you will
come across a flock of colourful
sheep in a field at some point in
your journey. A familiar sight for
country folks, and a vibrant
surprise for others, smit marks – the spray-
painted patches on the sheep – are commonly
used by shepherds in the UK to identify
animals in their herd. The chromatic custom
is also the starting point for Peter Saville’s
Technicolour collection of upholstery
textiles, rugs and curtains created in
collaboration with Kvadrat.
Saville grew up visiting the countryside
with his family, and developed a fascination
with what he calls ‘rural graffiti’. ‘I’ve always
seen the spray can as something modern,
because it’s a technological development.
There’s something very pop about it. So when
I saw sheep sprayed, I thought, that’s kind
of pop,’ he says. One of the most celebrated
British graphic designers, Saville is best
known as a co-founder of music label Factory
Records in 1978, and for album covers for the
likes of Joy Division and New Order. But his
impact on popular culture stretched much
nesrejeS repsaC :yhpargotohP
further over the years, as he served as creative
director for the city of Manchester, and
worked with a plethora of fashion clients on
advertising and brand identity.
Saville is a long-term collaborator of
Kvadrat, working with the Danish textile
company since 2004 on every aspect of its
Top, a mood board with fabric samples and colour
swatches for the collection, including, centre, squares
of the spotty ‘Fleece’ rug and stripy ‘Flock’ rug
Above, detail of the ‘Fleck’ upholstery fabric, which is
available in 11 colourways, each with different neutral
backgrounds embedded with tiny colourful fibres
Design
visual communication. ‘I cannot think of
any visual communication designer or
graphic designer living today who is more
influential than Peter,’ says the brand’s CEO
Anders Byriel. In the time he has collaborated
with Saville, he notes, the company has
grown eight-fold, and Saville was an integral
part of the transformation. ‘We came from
being very rooted in Scandinavian culture,
to being the global brand we are today.
We see ourselves as a contemporary culture
producer, and it’s very much Peter who
has helped us formulate this idea.’
Byriel had been asking the designer for
several years to create a textile project for the
company. ‘I didn’t do it before because I took
it seriously,’ explains Saville. ‘They work at
very different tempo: graphic design is very
high-speed, fashion is pretty high-speed, pop
culture in general is high-speed. And what
Kvadrat do is slower, but with depth.
‘And ever since I’ve started working with
Kvadrat, I’ve begun to understand a little bit
about the use of wool in textile production
and about the industrial processes from the
field to the furniture, and begun to think,
what would happen if the colour [of the smit
marks] wasn’t washed out from the wool?
What would happen if this colour made it all
the way through the production process?’
The answer to this somewhat provocative
question comprises an upholstery fabric, two
curtains and three rugs. Through a series of
conversations, Saville, Stine Find Osther,  »
∑ 121
 Design
vice president of design at Kvadrat, and
Dienke Dekker, design manager at Kvadrat
Rugs, translated his ideas onto the textiles
of the Technicolour collection.
An upholstery fabric made of 100 per cent
English wool and manufactured in England,
‘Fleck’ is perhaps the most subtle element
of the collection, and the one that best brings
Saville’s ideas to life. Featuring 11 colour
interpretations, the ‘Fleck’ fabric series is
based on neutral backgrounds, with bright
yellow, blue and red fibres adding chromatic
depth to the textiles; small, discreet moments
of colour. ‘I love the idea that a chair in a
waiting room will reward you: you sit down
and you think it’s a black chair, and then
you realise that it’s not, there’s actually a
cosmos of colour inside this black fabric.’
‘Fleck’ follows a 2013 collaboration
between Kvadrat, Saville, graphic design
agency Graphic Thought Facility and weave
designers Wallace Sewell, on a textile cover
for the book Kvadrat Interwoven. Featuring
slim, colourful yarns embedded in a grey and
white fabric, the piece set an early foundation
for the fabrics in the Technicolour collection.
Made of iridescent Trevira CS, the two
curtains in the collection include ‘Flux’,
defined by a colourful rainbow stripe motif,
and ‘Fade’, a transparent curtain declined in
122 ∑
nesrejeS repsaC :yhpargotohP
collection, which he describes as ‘making a
journey from the pastoral landscape into the
cultural landscape’. He continues: ‘The idea
is that it reminds you of the land, of the fields.
I am interested in bringing some of the
outside into the inside.’ For Byriel, the
collection is not as provocative as it is purely
poetic: he likens Kvadrat to a publishing
house, its textile collections to a catalogue of
books. ‘You need to produce poetry, you need
to produce something extraordinary,’ he says.
One thing Byriel hopes to achieve with
the Technicolour collection is to help set the
foundation for what a post-Covid interior
Top, the ‘Flux‘ curtain, woven from Trevira CS landscape could look like. ‘What I see around
Above, detail of the ‘Field’ rug me in the interior world right now, things are
very “good enough”, as I call it. There’s not
so much excitement,’ he says. ‘So when Peter
eight full-bodied colours, featuring hints of came up with this, I thought it was just what
iridescent neon that emerge with movement. we needed: the aesthetic language needs to go
The Technicolour range is then completed somewhere new, and this is our proposal.’ ∂
by three ultra-tactile rugs, handwoven The collection will be on show at Kvadrat’s Milan
and tufted by robots, offering different flagship until 10 September, then in Copenhagen
interpretations of the colourful wool concept. and London later in the month; kvadrat.dk
Crafted from pure new wool, ‘Flock’ and
‘Fleece’ mimic the sheep’s coats that inspired
Saville, while ‘Field’, made of fine bamboo
yarn, takes a more industrial approach. π
Bringing together farming, industry and For Kvadrat’s Technicolour film,
culture was one of Saville’s goals with the see Wallpaper.com
Design
 PHOTOGRAPHY: MARKO MACPHERSON ART DIRECTION: MICHAEL REYNOLDS WRITER: PEI-RU KEH

The artist in his New York studio

holding a copy of his sold-out
2021 book, Moonraker Time
Dilation. The ‘Bedrock’ dining
table and ’Bamm-Bamm‘ bench
are both part of his second
collection of Objects for Living

∑ 125
 T
.
he prolific multimedia artist Daniel
Arsham may be synonymous with
his Future Relic series, which casts
ubiquitous objects, such as Pokémon,
supercars and sneakers, as historical
artefacts, calcified, eroded and
unearthed a thousand years from now. But
it’s his new additions to a line of furniture
that are currently stealing the limelight.
This follow-up effort was developed off the
back of his debut furniture collection from
2019, Objects for Living, which the artist
exhibited at Design Miami that year with
New York design gallery Friedman Benda.
It sees Arsham continue his exploration of
structural, material and, of course, temporal
contrasts in a truly functional form. The
new pieces, which include lighting, a sofa,
and a dining table and chair, are being
presented as part of Arsham’s first solo show
with Friedman Benda this month.
Arsham’s foray into furniture design is no
surprise. He studied design and architecture
in high school in Miami, but then pivoted to
art at the Cooper Union in New York after
he wasn’t accepted onto its architecture
programme. Arsham’s long-standing interest
126 ∑
in design continues to be evident in his
involvement in Snarkitecture, the
multidisciplinary practice he co-founded
with Alex Mustonen in 2007. The firm is
known for its pioneering spatial interventions
and immersive experiences for celebrities,
brands such as Cos and Lexus, and real estate
developers including Related Companies
and Central Group, often realised in its
signature greyscale palette.
Objects for Living emerged from
Arsham’s desire to create pieces to fit his
weekend home on Long Island, a modest
yet distinctive bungalow designed by
American architect Norman Jaffe in 1971,
which the artist acquired in 2017. Inspired
by Jaffe’s juxtaposition of curves and angles,
Arsham designed several armchairs, a desk,
a floor lamp and a rug for his personal use
within the house. This inevitably caught
the eye of gallerist Marc Benda, who saw
the merit of revealing this other facet of
the artist’s practice to the public.
Although some of the pieces from the
inaugural series subscribed to Arsham’s
distinctive fossilised aesthetic, others took
on more organic, assemblage-like forms,
which is the direction Arsham has expanded
in for this second iteration, a reflection of the
extensive time he spent at the house with his
young family during the pandemic, along
with the types of pieces he wants to live with.
‘Most of the design for this happened
during the lockdown in New York,’ Arsham
recalls. ‘I had gone out to the house in early
March and I didn’t really have a lot of
materials or things there with me. I started
sculpting with playdough, which my boys
had loads of, and started modelling different
types of forms. I wasn’t thinking that those
would be the final forms, but I let them dry
and when we came out of lockdown, I ended
up just getting them 3D-scanned.’
Each piece’s hand-formed components
retain all the idiosyncrasies of sculpting
in playdough, from the rough edges and
indentations on the back of an armchair
to the organically-shaped legs of the dining
table. Realised in a combination of wood,
resin and stone, each sculptural piece has
a naive, almost primitive appearance that
taps into Arsham’s fascination with blurring
and warping time, albeit without the usual
archaeological overtones.  »
 Design
This picture, Arsham’s
‘Pebbles’ armchair in stone,
resin and birch, from the
Objects for Living II collection,
is surrounded by ‘Broken’
mirror and ‘Broken’ bench,
both by Snarkitecture for
Gufram, and Arsham’s Quartz
Crystallised Large Charmander
and ‘London Floor Plan’ rug
Opposite, taking centre stage
in Arsham’s studio is a custom
1973 Porsche RSA, given pale
yellow bumpers reminiscent of
RSR race cars of the era
 Design

Above, celebrating our 25th anniversary,

this issue’s limited-edition cover by
Daniel Arsham shows the Wallpaper*
masthead eroded over the passage of time.
Available to subscribers, see Wallpaper.com
Left, Arsham’s first furniture collection,
designed for his Long Island weekend
home, included this ’Shanghai’ chair and
’Jaffe’ desk, both made in resin and foam

backlight and a task light. The way the light

feels is based on different conditions.’ Some
details were inspired by Arsham’s stays at
hotels in Asia: ‘There’s a small bench on the
end of it that you can sit on if you’re putting
your socks on. It’s a very whimsical design.’
With a headboard formed by individual
organic shapes, the asymmetrical bed
facilitates an interplay of light and shadow
that transforms it into a sculptural art piece.
‘The wall that it will sit on doesn’t need
anything else. I don’t have to put an artwork
on the wall because the bed becomes that,’
Arsham adds. Completed with recessed
drawers that are concealed from view,
nightstands on either side that are integrated
into the overall form, and reading lights
that can be tucked away, the low bed frame
cuts a strong yet seductive figure.
‘There’s a material difference between the of each piece, inspired by the balancing of ‘As abstract as some of the first designs
two collections. Most of the first collection form and function in Wendell Castle’s were, I shaped the pieces to fit the body
was [made from] resin and sculpted digitally,’ ‘Triad’ chair (2006), which sits in his studio. perfectly, even if they looked like the most
explains Arsham. The new pieces express ‘I usually start with the chairs because they uncomfortable things ever. There’s a
‘a material transformation. There are pieces are the most generic form. Once I had counterintuitive thing you can have with
that are solid stone, solid resin and then everything sculpted, we milled it in foam and furniture,’ Arsham explains. ‘With artwork,
hollow resin, where you see the light push then I changed the scale and pitch of things sometimes the visual quality of the thing is
through it. There’s also this wood technique for ergonomics so that it actually feels different from what it makes you feel or what
that we’ve been using in the studio that gives comfortable,’ he says. ‘When you sit in the it means. With furniture, or design objects
all of these amazing patterns.’ armchair, your body fits in it correctly. I want that you actually touch, there’s a different
Deployed on the seat of a chair, for these things to actually be used. They’re not level of possibility in the contrast between
example, the technique produces a boisterous sculptures that won’t be touched.’ how it looks and feels. Even though this
wood grain that mirrors the topography of A highlight of the new ten-piece collection collection has things that are very playful,
the sculpted wood. ‘I achieve this variation is an ambitious bed frame, which Arsham I really spent a lot of time on the ergonomics,
by laminating the plywood, tilting the whole conceived for the Brooklyn brownstone that to make sure they work for what they’re
thing on an axis, then milling it as if it was he purchased last autumn. ‘I still just have a supposed to do. Every single thing that I’ve
flat,’ he says. ‘Once you start milling, you get mattress on the floor because I’m waiting to designed furniture-wise, I designed it with
these patterns that are impossible to predict finish this bed,’ he laughs. ‘Every single thing the intention of using it.’ ∂
because of the angle of the grain.’ that I want in a bed is in this, from the ‘Daniel Arsham, Objects for Living: Collection II’
Visual appeal aside, Arsham has also storage underneath to the charging ports runs until 25 September at Friedman Benda,
focused on the comfort and practicality and reading lamps; it has underlight, it has New York, friedmanbenda.com; danielarsham.com

128 ∑
 INTO
THE FOLD
Chanel gathers its métiers d’art ateliers under one roof
PHOTOGRAPHY: FLORENT TANET WRITER: AMY SERAFIN

130 ∑

Chanel’s 19M building (below) in Aubervilliers,
Paris, designed by Rudy Ricciotti and wrapped
in 231 white concrete threadlike structures,
is the new headquarters for the French fashion
house’s métiers d’art ateliers, including
embroiderer Lesage (left)
Seven years ago, French embroidery house Montex combined tiny
concrete cubes with pieces of leather, inventing a totally unique fabric
for Chanel’s A/W14 haute couture collection. Now Chanel has turned
concrete into a sort of fabric once more, with a head-turning new
building, designed by French architect Rudy Ricciotti (W*157), which
is wrapped in a chrysalis of white concrete threadlike structures.
Located on the northern edge of Paris, the building covers 25,000
sq m on seven floors. It houses 600 people and 11 métiers d’art, the
ateliers behind millions of hours of painstaking craftsmanship
(embroidering sequins, trimming feathers, sculpting sunburst pleats)
that transforms apparel into art. Chanel has named the building
Le 19M – ‘M’ for mains (hands), métier (craftsmanship) and mode
(fashion), and 19 for the arrondissement and Coco Chanel’s birthdate.
Montex and its architectural offshoot, MTX, were the first ateliers
to take up residence, in March. Nine others followed: pleater Lognon,
shoemaker Massaro, feather and flower expert Lemarié, flou (delicate
fabrics) atelier Paloma, milliner Michel, goldsmith Goossens and
embroiderer Lesage, along with its school and Lesage Intérieurs.
Fashion
(The building also houses swimwear maker Eres, which belongs to
the Chanel group.) At one time, workshops like these numbered
thousands across France, many of them family businesses going back
generations. Coco Chanel had a special connection to the métiers d’art
– Lemarié developed her fabric camellia, Massaro the bi-colour
slingback shoe, Goossens the bird’s nest earrings, to name just a few.
Karl Lagerfeld reinforced the relationship when he arrived as Chanel’s
creative director in 1983. And ever since current creative director
Virginie Viard joined Chanel as an intern in 1987, then becoming
studio director (Lagerfeld called her his ‘right and left hand’), she
has served as a direct liaison between the house and the métiers d’art.
Over the years, most of the workshops disappeared, victims of
industrialisation, changing fashions and a lack of family heirs to run
them. Concerned about their future, Chanel began to acquire those it
deemed most essential, starting with Desrues (buttons and jewellery)
in 1985. It now owns 38 métiers d’art, representing some 5,000 jobs,
under a subsidiary called Paraffection (W*240). ‘Without them,
creation couldn’t be what it is today in Paris,’ says Chanel’s fashion »
 Fashion
Design
president, Bruno Pavlovsky, emphasising that these highly skilled
artisans and the couture industry depend on one another for survival.
The ateliers had been scattered around Paris, many in buildings
that were charming but dilapidated. In 2011, Chanel moved several
of the ateliers to a 5,000 sq m building in the suburb of Pantin, but
soon that was too small, and they spilled over into another building
in neighbouring Aubervilliers, a gritty suburb just starting to gentrify.
So Chanel hunted for a site large and accessible enough for all, and
found a neglected industrial plot of land on the edge of Aubervilliers.
‘This area is evolving, and the upcoming Olympic Games will have
an interesting impact,’ says Pavlovsky. ‘I think this will be a strategic
location, full of an energy that goes well with what we do.’
The execution of the building was particularly challenging,
says Ricciotti, who regularly collaborates with a slew of engineers to
do revolutionary things with ultra high-performance concrete.
Its exoskeleton is composed of 231 slim concrete modules, each 24m
high, in different configurations, and each cast as a single piece.
Trucks delivered the enormous structures to the site in the middle
of the night, and special tools were used to carefully lift them into
their vertical, weight-bearing position. Ricciotti compared the physics
to the handiwork at Lognon, a workshop that pleats fabric using
accordion-like cardboard moulds. ‘A sheet of paper has no mechanical
resistance, but when you fold it and place it vertically, it is incredible
the amount of resistance it assumes.’
The façade might appear delicate, but don’t be fooled. Each module
is able to support its own weight, the exterior corridors, weather
(such as snow) and live loads (such as people). The building is triangular
in shape, following the footprint of the site, and Ricciotti created
a garden in the centre, enclosed by the arcades. Jean-François Lesage,
founder of Lesage Intérieurs, admits, ‘I was a bit apprehensive at
first, leaving a place where we worked for more than 100 years.
But the garden, the luminosity, the monastic feeling, it’s extraordinary –
like a cloister where you can fully concentrate on your passions.’
Within the building, the architect achieved a perfect balance
of natural and artificial light. ‘I can finally see the real colour of
the feathers,’ says Julie, a young plumassière at Lemarié. »
Left, a detail from a dress embroidered
by Montex for Chanel’s 2011 Paris-Byzance
collection evokes Byzantine mosaics
Below, at Lognon, the technique used to
create pleats involves steam and cardboard
moulds, some of which are over 100 years old

∑ 133
 Fashion

Pavlovsky made sure to create physical separations between the

ateliers to maintain each one’s unique style and savoir-faire, saying,
‘One should recognise right away whether something is embroidered
by Montex, Lemarié or Lesage’. At the same time, the new building
gives the artisans opportunities to easily interact. Montex’s artistic
director Aska Yamashita recounts that Virginie Viard stopped in one
day and had lunch with all the ateliers’ artistic directors, something
that never would have happened before. Chanel also encourages the
ateliers to continue working for a range of brands, both to feed their
creativity and maintain their business models. Each workshop pays
rent and is expected to turn a profit. Fortunately, they are all growing,
their rare ancestral skills being passed on to new generations.
Recruitment was an issue about 20 years ago, says Pavlovsky, when
the métiers d’art were considered fallback professions for those who
flunked out of school. That is no longer the case. Many of the artisans
are under 30 and as comfortable embroidering on antique Cornely
machines as manipulating a 3D printer.
While an influx of youth is key, so is exposure to life outside this
hive of activity. To this end, Le 19M includes a 1,200 sq m gallery
on two levels, La Galerie du 19M, opening this autumn. La Galerie
has already hosted artist workshops and signed partnerships with
alternative film school École Kourtrajmé, headed up by film director
Ladj Ly and artist JR. ‘If this building is insular and unengaged,
it will be very difficult to maintain a positive energy,’ says Pavlovsky.
‘Keeping these métiers d’art connected to the world of today is the
best guarantee they will still exist tomorrow.’ ∂ chanel.com
Embroiderer Montex (above) and its architectural offshoot MTX (right), which uses
architectural embroidery to create unique new surfaces, were the first ateliers to
take up residence in Chanel’s new 19M building, before being joined by nine more

134 ∑
Conceived in 2000 as an index of
up-and-coming architectural talent,
the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory
is our annual listing of emerging
practices from across the globe.
The project has, over the years,
spanned styles and continents,
while always championing the best
young studios and showcasing
inspiring work with an emphasis
on the residential realm. With a
500-strong back catalogue of
alumni, the Architects’ Directory
Wallpaper*
returns for its 21st edition. Join
us as we launch this year’s survey,
casting a spotlight on 20 studios
Architects’
with plenty of promise, ideas
and exciting architecture,
from Australia, Canada, China,
Colombia, Ghana, India, Indonesia,
Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the
Netherlands, Nigeria, South Africa,
South Korea, Spain, Sweden,
Directory
the USA, and the UK. Writer: Ellie Stathaki
 Fabian Tan
Malaysia
Fabian Tan leads a small team of
architects from his Kuala Lumpur HQ,
creating innovative home designs
with a unique character throughout
Malaysia. Founded in 2012, the
emerging studio focuses on residential
work, but designs in a large variety of
scales and typologies, stretching from
institutional, commercial and interior
projects to art pieces, furniture and
installations. Drawing inspiration
from ‘the spirituality of the site’, Tan’s
designs are elegantly pared down.
One of his recent works, Bewboc House
(pictured) demonstrates this approach,
led by the relationship between light,
material, volume and spatial flow.
Homes should be a haven of calm,
where we can escape our ‘hectic and
noise-filled era’, explains the architect.
‘Our approach is one that involves
evolution and flexibility; ideas that are
formed in the conception of a project
and never impose anything on the site.
We constantly reassess conventions,
resulting in individual variations of
concepts meant for a specific context;
repetitions of styles are not allowed
in our office,’ continues Tan. ‘We are
assumed to be minimalist, but really
we prefer the term “essentialist”.’
fabian-tan.com

Wallpaper*
Architects’
Directory
2021
auhC svaeC :yhpargotohP
Collective Project
India
This Bengaluru-based design studio
was founded in 2013 by co-directors
Cyrus Patell and Eliza Higgins, who met
while studying for master’s degrees
at Yale University. Currently working
on architecture and interior projects
throughout India, including a school
in rural Andhra Pradesh, the 16-strong
studio has already completed a wide
range of residential work, underpinned
by the team’s passion for a humble
but personalised approach, rich with
spatial and material explorations.
Examples include Brick House
(pictured), a Bengaluru home that
celebrates brickwork and traditional
latticed jali screens; Lake House
in Hyderabad, an impressive villa
perched on a sloped, rocky site; and
a garden pavilion in Bengaluru. ‘We
believe in responsive design that is
considered, personal and unique,’ say
the team. ‘Our work evolves through
building on clients’ personal stories;
our goal is to create spaces that feel
effortless and just right, that are not
overworked, flashy or superficial.’
collective-project.com
Maio
Spain
Splitting their time between Barcelona
and New York, this studio’s architects
– Maria Charneco, Alfredo Lérida,
Guillermo López and Anna Puigjaner –
are versatile and dynamic; an attitude
that translates consistently into their
graphic and visually arresting designs.
Founded in 2011, the practice’s work
includes House in a House (pictured),
a timber structure, created together
with Joan-Baptista Pont, that is cleverly
inserted within an existing farmhouse
in Mallorca. ‘We like to work on very
different scales, from furniture to urban
design,’ say the partners. ‘We think of
design as an open way of enhancing
reality that is full of potential.’
maio-architects.com
Visit Wallpaper.com
for more on our 2021
practices and the
Architects’ Directory’s
history and alumni ∏
gniksoH nimajneB :yhpargotohP
 Atelier Xi
China
This young yet fast-emerging practice
was founded in 2017 by Chen Xi, a
Chinese architect who now splits his
time between Shenzhen and New York.
Variety is the name of the game with
Xi’s work, as he caters to a range of
building typologies. However, there are
common threads throughout, notably
a sculptural approach that produces
buildings akin to art pieces, at once
functional, minimalist and dramatic.
‘The studio aspires to create spaces
that bring a unique poetry to urban
and rural environments,’ says Xi.
‘By planting these quiet and resilient
spaces one at a time, we envision
architecture to branch out and blossom
with life and narratives.’ The studio’s
Y House (pictured) is a new home for
two photographers outside Shanghai;
other works include the award-winning
Peach Hut, a pink-hued concrete
community centre located in the
middle of an orchard in Xiuwu, Henan.
atelierxi.com

Palma
Mexico
Partners Ilse Cárdenas, Regina de
Hoyos, Diego Escamilla and Juan Luis
Rivera co-founded Palma in 2016,
almost straight after graduating from
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México (UNAM) School of Architecture.
In the past five years, their studio,
based between Mexico City and the
Pacific coast village of Sayulita, has
been growing steadily, completing
a varied range of works, from homes
to playgrounds and art installations.
A key example of their work is the
Jilotepec retreat (pictured). Defined
by simple shapes and a humble and
natural material palette, the twin
houses offer a refreshing minimalism.
‘We find it stimulating to work in such
diverse and intricate environments,’
say the team. ‘On one side is Mexico
City, a chaotic setting that is pushing
designers towards a tendency to reuse
and repair, making the most out of the
available space. And on the other side
is Sayulita, where we can build larger-
scale projects while developing a close
relationship with a team of people.’
palma-mx.com

Wallpaper*
Architects’
Directory
2021
Câpâ
Colombia
Câpâ was founded in 2015 by Catalina
Patiño and Juan Pablo Ramos, who
both hail from Medellin. The studio
focuses on family residences where
architecture meets sustainability
and equity: ‘We seek to have ethical
fair wages and working conditions,
putting great effort into using local
manufacturing and sustainable
processes,’ they say. ‘We work hand in
hand with artisans and like to build
with noble materials, such as concrete,
wood, metal and brick, using them in
a raw way.’ Works such as their just-
completed Casa SKL (pictured) and
upcoming Casa Arigato demonstrate
just how Câpâ unites a sensitive
approach with architectural skill and
a clean, contemporary aesthetic.
caparquitectura.com
otoS o etaM :yhpargotohP
 Chohelo
South Korea
Dedicated to challenging our views
on aesthetics and architectural
typologies, Chohelo was set up in 2015
in Seoul by Shinhyung Cho and Stuart
Helo. Their focus is on experimentation:
‘Architects design buildings, but if we
just design buildings, then tomorrow
will be no different from today,’ they
say. ‘Chohelo opens up possibilities
so that life can go beyond the current
reality. We are building the future vision
of the city. We are also exploring
alternative ways of approaching the
debate around sustainability, from
a critical lens rather than from a
technological one.’ The pair’s bold
statements are accompanied by
equally powerful imagery, their work
often defined by sweeping curves,
dramatic geometries and eye-catching
compositions. Their designs include
several residential projects, such as
Rounded House (pictured), a subtly
futuristic white home on the outskirts
of Seoul, as well as a range of other
commissions, from galleries to retail
and a beautifully sculptural chapel.
chohelo.com

Suzuko Yamada
Japan
This boutique office with a team of
just three is led by Tokyoite architect
Suzuko Yamada. A Berkeley and Tokyo
Art University graduate, Yamada set up
her studio in 2013, having previously
been at Sou Fujimoto Architects. Her
work is distinctly experimental, and she
has scooped up a range of awards for
her projects that push the boundaries
of domestic space. Particularly striking
is Daita2019 (pictured), a home with
a scaffolding-like composition on an
urban plot. ‘When we start any project,
we always wonder if the architecture
we create has the same sense of
rationality and beauty as other
vernacular expressions such as music
or language,’ says Yamada. ‘We seek to
propose a new vernacular architecture
that is rooted in the times we live in.’
suzukoyamada.com

Wallpaper*
Architects’
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2021
onoK akiruY :yhpargotohP
Daniel Boddam Studio
Australia
With work spanning architecture and
furniture design, Daniel Boddam set
up his practice in Sydney in 2013.
‘We are driven by a pursuit of simplicity,
with a singular belief that a sense of
calm and wellbeing can be achieved
through design,’ explains the architect,
whose key designs include Villa Carlo
(pictured), a sculptural yet warm
reinterpretation of a Californian
bungalow in the Sydney suburb of
Mosman; and Carthona House, an
elegantly minimalist, dark timber-clad
extension of an existing home.
danielboddam.com

Fabel
Sweden
Sofie Campanello and Catharina Dahl
Palmér set up Gothenburg-based
studio Fabel in 2012. ‘We are especially
interested in working with timber,’ they
say. ‘We take great interest in materials
and detailing, and put in a lot of effort
to make each building find context in
its history and setting.’ This sensitive
approach has produced striking results,
such as this summer cabin in Höghult
(pictured); other works include the
Villa Ödsmål and Vallda single-family
houses. ‘For us, great architecture is
equal to simplicity and effortlessness,’
they explain. ‘Our goal is to get there
by learning from historical techniques
when building new projects.’
fabelarkitektur.se
n o s s l O l e a k i M , a g i eV olb aP :yhpargotohP
 Raw CM Design Atelier
Indonesia Nigeria
Founded in Jakarta in 2011 by Realrich Founded in 2012 by Tosin Oshinowo,
Sjarief, Raw comprises architects the Lagos-based CM Design Atelier
but also ‘thinkers and craftsmen’, says takes a site-specific approach, while
Sjarief. ‘It is part of the long history blending Oshinowo’s own experiences
of craftsmanship in my family, who in Nigeria with her time in the UK and
have been builders for generations.‘ the Netherlands. ‘We create solutions
As a result, Raw’s work feels rooted that are challenging and culturally
to its place, being both modern and relevant to the identity of architecture
experimental. Much of its portfolio in the context of Nigeria and West
consists of new-builds (such as Guha, Africa,’ says Oshinowo, whose output
a live/work renovation and extension ranges from private villas and offices
project, pictured) that aim to be to beach houses, such as the crisp
‘relevant and climate-responsive’. white Fowóralé (pictured) in Lagos.
raw.co.id cmdesign-atelier.com

Studio Aki
UK
London architect and filmmaker Sarah
Akigbogun founded Studio Aki in 2015,
bringing together a range of interests,
including art, theatre, architecture and
engineering. ‘The uniting elements are
the human story and social purpose,’
she says. Her rich and varied output
includes the Green House (pictured)
in Hackney, as well as theatre and
performance work. Her designs are
clean and pragmatic, enriched by
a playfulness and unexpected twists.
studioaki.london

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2021
Frederick Tang
USA
Set up by Frederick Tang in 2016 (and
later joined in 2018 by Barbara Reyes,
the current director of interior design
and branding), this Brooklyn practice
has gone from strength to strength.
It already has a range of projects
under its belt, including the colourful
Pink House (pictured), an elegantly
whimsical renovation of a brownstone
townhouse in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.
More work, including a Williamsburg
studio for the artist Adam Pendleton,
a restaurant on Court Street in Cobble
Hill, Brooklyn, and a guest house in
Germantown, New York, are currently
underway. ‘Rather than approach
each project with a particular style, we
prefer to emphasise experimentation,
curiosity and collaboration,’ says Tang.
fredericktang.com

Local Studio
South Africa
‘Our studio is a quintessentially Joburg
outfit: fast-paced, entrepreneurial
and imperfect,’ says Local Studio’s
founder Thomas Chapman, who set
up the firm in 2012 and now runs it
together with Samantha Trask, Daniel
Trollip, Shawn Constant, Khensani de
Klerk and Njabulo Phekani. Although
just 12-strong, the small practice
has built more than 40 projects in the
past nine years. Its experimental
approach allows it to design anything
from community centres to schools
and homes, including Cotswolds Cubes
(pictured), a low, elegantly minimalist,
red and black brick home in the Joburg
suburb of Saxonwold. ‘Design should
be a reactive rather than a prescriptive
process,’ says Chapman. ‘This way, it
becomes a co-production, with unlikely
collaborators. Buildings conceived in
this spirit can become rich archives of
a time and place. Another idea we are
driven by is the promise of “soft-power”
in architecture. We are deeply aware
of our post-apartheid political context,
and we believe in the subtle power of
a crafted public interface to transform
physical and social context.’
localstudio.co.za
n o s r e d n A s ev e i G : y h p a r g o t o h P
 SOCA O’Sullivan Skoufoglou
Canada UK
Founded in 2018 in Toronto, SOCA is Jody O’Sullivan and Amalia Skoufoglou
one of the youngest practices in this set up their studio in London in 2016,
directory. Set up by Shane Laptiste and after knowing each other for more
Tura Cousins Wilson, it is ‘dedicated to than 15 years (the pair studied
inclusive city building and the creation together). Works so far have included
of beautiful spaces’. While Granny’s Dewsbury Road (pictured) in north
House (pictured) and its bright yellow London, a house extension that puts
front porch caught our eye, the studio timber centre stage, and Grove Park,
is involved in schemes of all scales and a revamped 1980s red brick house in
types. The common denominator? south London. ‘We strive to make
A distinctly contemporary approach, buildings with integrity that respond
peppered with playful twists and to the place they are sited and are
a sense of experimentation. tectonic in their expression,’ they say.
socadesign.ca osullivanskoufoglou.com

Mustard
Ghana
Mustard was born in 2015 ‘in response
to an increasing need for architecture
that responds to the African context,
and a growing demand for sustainable
spaces,’ says its founder Alice Asafu-
Adjaye. The architect, who trained in
the UK before relocating to Accra, has
built a diverse portfolio, including villas
such as the Compact Lap Pool House
(pictured), and is now working on the
refurbishment of the National Museum
of Ghana. ‘The focus of all our projects
is the creation of inclusive spaces that
have community at the core,’ she says.
mustardarch.com

Wallpaper*
Architects’
r e n i d r a G y r o R , u a L e i s s e J , w o n S w er d n A : y h p a r g o t o h P

Directory
2021
New Affiliates
USA
Ivi Diamantopoulou and Jaffer Kolb
founded this New York studio in 2016,
and have been collecting awards –
including the Architectural League
Prize – ever since. ‘We like to make
things we find beautiful,’ say the duo.
‘But the projects also brush against
deeper issues, such as sustainability,
public space and material research.’
Their portfolio comprises ground-up,
entirely new projects (such as the
Tunbridge Winter Cabin, pictured) and
interiors projects, but also exhibitions
and installations for prestigious
institutions such as New York’s
Jewish Museum and the Canadian
Center for Architecture.
new-affiliates.us

Drom
The Netherlands
Timur Karimullin, Sofia Koutsenko and
Timur Shabaev founded Drom in 2017
after gaining degrees from Harvard,
TU Delft and the Berlage Institute, and
experience at acclaimed firms such
as OMA/AMO. The Rotterdam-based
practice’s key built works so far have
included the minimalist Tower 24 in
Novosibirsk and Campus (pictured),
a live/work incubator in Moscow. ‘Our
projects act as catalysts to improve
their existing contexts,’ they say.
d-r-o-m.com
v o f a r g v E y n e g v E , o t s E / d l a w n e r haV l e a h c i M : y h p a r g o t o h P
158 ∑
 Architecture
Located in the inner city suburb of
Windsor, Eastop Architects’ Eastbourne
House features a slanted front door
accessed via a rough granite step

ZEN
DEN
We’ve found the perfect
retreat in this Japanese-
inspired Melbourne house
PHOTOGRAPHY: WILLEMDIRK DU TOIT
WRITER: STEPHEN CRAFTI

This modest house in Windsor, Melbourne,

sits quietly in its streetscape. Its concrete,
steel blade walls and charred-timber first floor
could easily be found in Tokyo. ‘We have
always admired the beautifully crafted homes
you find there, in a tight urban context,’ says
owner Hamish Cant, who has travelled
extensively with partner Maria Rinaldi-Cant
and their 16-year-old son Sebastian. Cant,
who worked as an architect for many years
(but is now in IT), and Rinaldi-Cant, a
fashion designer, were looking to build a
truly unique new home on a modest, 160 sq m
site. They found a kindred spirit in Liam
Eastop, director of Eastop Architects.
Eastbourne replaces a three-bedroom,
Californian-style bungalow from the 1920s,
while almost doubling its floor area. ‘The
bungalow didn’t provide us with sufficient
space and the main problem was that it
lacked natural light,’ says Cant. He and his
family were keen to live in a house that was
bespoke and not targeted simply for resale.
Rinaldi-Cant took a similar approach to the
interiors as she does with fashion. ‘I wanted
the house to be sophisticated but effortless,
with furniture that can be easily moved,
rather than restricted to one place,’ she says.
One of the first design features in Eastop’s
initial schemes was a 6m-high void at the
core of the floorplan, with a glass and
crucifix-shaped plaster-beam ceiling allowing
natural light to permeate the core. Loosely
inspired by the work of American artist Bruce
Nauman, this void, framed by a textured
stucco wall, brings the open-plan spaces
together. Equally, the steel and glass bifold
doors, separating the kitchen and living areas
from the courtyard, allow the Japanese-style
garden there to appear as an ‘outdoor »
 Architecture
‘When you’re working with relatively small
spaces, every moment needs to count’
room’. ‘The idea was to play with light and
texture,’ says Eastop, pointing out the long
opening cut into the stuccoed dining room
wall. Walking up the staircase allows
for a controlled, almost theatrical view of
the dining area through the gap.
Texture is prevalent throughout this
house, whether it’s the large pivoting door in
reeded glass and steel adjacent to the carport
(designed to protect the undercroft at the
front of the home from the elements, and
allow it to be used for entertaining), or the
almost leathery feel of the quartz benches
in the kitchen. And one can’t be blamed for
caressing the 4m-long dining room table,
made from stained oak and treated as an
extension of the kitchen joinery. Steel also
appears at the entrance, forming a wall that
conceals a powder room and laundry.
The first floor contains two bedrooms,
including the main bedroom, dressing area
and ensuite, along with a separate Japanese-
style bathroom for Sebastian. A multipurpose
area at the top of the stairs currently features
Sebastian’s drum kit, but could easily be used
as a study nook, with a built-in oak desk.
Here, one also witnesses Eastop’s ability to
orchestrate the light, using operable external
timber floor-to-ceiling shutters to diffuse
the sunlight. ‘I could have automated the
shutters, but part of the appeal is continually
160 ∑
Top, bifold doors in the living area open
onto a small courtyard garden
Above, a graphic vertical opening allows
views from the staircase to the dining area
touching materials and feeling part of the
architecture,’ says Eastop, who used a heavy
cord to manoeuvre the shading.
The bespoke and handcrafted appear at
every turn, whether it’s the stained oak plinth
in the lounge that morphs into a stone bench
in the pint-size courtyard, or the beautifully
embedded spotlights in the void (framed in
circular plastered openings, they look as
though appearing from behind the curtains).
The built-in mirrored shelves separating the
kitchen from the dining area create a
‘breathing’ space between the two and act as
another point of reflection, not only literally,
but psychologically. ‘When you’re working
with relatively small spaces, every moment
needs to count,’ says Eastop. To the rear of
the home, a series of polychromatic Victorian
chimneys appear to be ‘floating’ above the
high brick wall in the courtyard garden.
‘There is that sense of the “moment”
when you reflect, but I was keen to create
something of the unexpected, as well as
giving back to the street,’ says Eastop, who
created a Japanese-style garden at the front
of the house too. And instead of a traditional
step, there’s a slab of granite on which to
place one’s feet, just before discovering
the front door, slightly angled to one side.
‘It’s all part of the experience,’ adds Eastop. ∂
eastop.com.au
 5x5

5×5
To celebrate 25 phenomenal years, we called
on five visionaries who have shaped the
world of Wallpaper*. Each put forward five
creative leaders of the future, who blaze
a new trail with their talent and promise
Portraits Caroline Tompkins

164
Frida Escobedo
174
Theaster Gates
182
Formafantasma
190
Michèle Lamy
198
Nendo
∑ 163
 Frida Escobedo
Thrust into the spotlight in 2018 when selected to design the Serpentine
Pavilion, the prolific Mexican architect advocates variety in work,
and champions diversity and female creativity in her future leaders
INTERVIEW: ELLIE STATHAKI
Frida Escobedo is busy. While the pandemic slowed
things down a bit for her and her Mexico City practice,
also coinciding with a break from academic teaching,
business is now picking up again. She currently has
some 15 projects on the go, is about to travel to Europe
to meet a client, and has been knee-deep prepping for
a new design workshop she is about to lead at the
Yale School of Architecture, kicking off in spring 2022.
It is a stage of intense research and preparation, an
incredibly demanding and rich period in an architect’s
creative process that often remains unseen.
While disclosing competition wins and celebrating
high profile completions with sleek, immaculate
photography feels central to the day-to-day of
architecture practice, these are only short moments
in the daily operations of a busy office and reveal little
of the highly involved process of building design. Most
of the time is spent in quiet preparation – or frenzied
drafting – with little output that is visible to the
outside world. Escobedo is exactly in this ‘black box’
phase of architectural production, where her 17-strong
practice is frenetically producing, all guns blazing, but
it will be at least another year before the results of the
next ‘big one’ reach the public. Smaller scale works
keep trickling through in between. Projects such as
the Niddo Café, a flowing, green-tiled corner space in
Mexico City’s Juárez neighbourhood, and a reflective,
geometric installation for the Cartier store, hint at
what goes on below the seemingly calm surface.
Escobedo founded her studio in 2006, but her
widely acclaimed Serpentine Pavilion in London,
unveiled in 2018, was a gamechanger for the practice.
‘I remember having a conversation very early on with
Julie Burnell, who was in charge of coordinating the
pavilion, and she said, “Things are going to change very
drastically for you,”’ says Escobedo. ‘I didn’t believe it at
the time, but she was right.’ The pavilion, small as it
164 ∑
was, ended up becoming a tipping point and a seminal
moment for generating new discourse, even though
‘it evaporates quickly’. In the ensuing years, her practice
has grown, slowly but steadily, and after a ‘slightly
quieter’ first year, towards the end of 2019, phone calls
and requests started pouring in.
Now, her to-do list includes a public space project in
San Francisco (‘I actually won it as an art commission,
rather than an architecture one,’ she says). She puts
down the creative freedom she’s been allowed to her
being ‘treated as an artist’ in the project. ‘I could take
more risks,’ she says. Completion is due in late 2022.
Another important one currently in the works is
Ray Harlem, a mixed-use development in the New
York neighbourhood for Russian art collector Dasha
Zhukova’s new real estate company Ray. The scheme
intersperses apartments with artist studios and
co-working spaces, as well as, importantly, Harlem’s
historic National Black Theatre – the whole scheme
sits on the theatre’s original site. ‘The goal here was to
connect the new community with the existing one and
the artistic world of the theatre,’ says the architect.
More large-scale commissions in development
include a hospitality scheme for a European client with
a strong sustainability angle, which allowed Escobedo
and her team to explore upcycled materials (‘Thinking
about the afterlife of a building broadened for me the
spectrum of what architecture is,’ she says). Add to that,
retail work, smaller scale residential projects (including
some pro bono low-cost housing) and competition
entries, and it becomes clear that, since the Serpentine
job, Escobedo has been nothing if not prolific.
Looking at all her past and ongoing projects,
another thing also becomes apparent; variety is
important for Escobedo. ‘You have to pick your clients
in a way that allows you to be yourself,’ she stresses.
‘Don’t depend on only one form of investor or client.’ »
5x5: Frida Escobedo
Frida Escobedo,
photographed on
16 August at her
Mexico City studio
 5x5: Frida Escobedo
Her academic work is an important part of this and
allows her to explore areas of her profession that
might be difficult to investigate through commercial
relationships. Topics of past workshops that she has
taught have included the life and potential of
abandoned buildings, and the spatial representation
of domestic workers.
This idea of variety is part of the advice she offers
to her students, too. ‘Make sure you understand who
you are working for,’ she tells them. ‘Having a more
diverse practice has allowed me to distance myself from
the economic pressures of being an architect. If, for
example, I only did residential, the amount of pressure
I would get from developers would restrict my practice.
Now I have more wile room. It may be riskier, but
it opens the door to more interesting work.’ She hastens
to add: ‘I have generally been very intuitive about it,
but I found that older generations felt they had to
build a career that had a well-defined expertise in
something specific, whereas newer generations tend
to be much more flexible on that front.’
Her recommendations for five creative talents to
celebrate in our anniversary issue follow a similar
vein, supporting diversity while championing female
architects. ‘I didn’t set out to only suest women, but
I realised that all the names that came to mind were
female,’ she says. ‘They are all extraordinary architects.
Meet Frida Escobedos five creative leaders of the future
166 ∑
Frida Escobedo’s designs for,
clockwise from far left, the Mar
Tirreno residential complex
in Mexico City, with its façade
of undulating concrete blocks
punctuated by latticework
sections; the ’Lina Bo Bardi:
Habitat’ exhibition at Museo
Jumex; and the green-tiled
Niddo Café in Mexico City's
Juárez neighbourhood
But I also feel they face a challenge and don’t have
the same opportunities as their male counterparts.
And they still create very interesting work that does
not align with the typical patriarchal values. It has
to do with collaboration, with understanding the
community, with a more poetic sensibility – things
that I feel are very valuable in architecture but are
not necessarily valued.’
Her list includes the Rio de Janeiro-based Carla
Juaçaba, whom Escobedo met while the Brazilian
was exhibiting at the Liga showroom in Mexico City;
fellow Mexican Gabriela Carrillo, partner at Taller
Rocha + Carrillo (which she established with Mauricio
Rocha) until 2019, and now a solo practitioner;
Nigerien Mariam Kamara of Atelier Masōmī, and her
explorations of locally produced, African materials;
Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum; and Chicago
visual artist Amanda Williams. They are all respected
and distinguished in the field, yet perhaps still
somewhat lesser known to a wider, non-specialised
audience. Their dynamism and creativity touches upon
many critical issues of our time, from sustainability
and locality to inclusion, and they all navigate different
sevahC orimaR ,omaG leafaR :yhpargotohP
scales and typologies with ease and skill, injecting hope
and diversity to the future of architecture. Escobedo
smiles: ‘Despite any obstacles, they still flourish.’
fridaescobedo.com

1.
Marina Tabassum
At her eponymous studio in Dhaka, Bangladesh,
where she was born and raised, Marina Tabassum is
pioneering a new generation of architectural thought,
calling for a focus on ‘architecture of relevance’. She
says, ‘The market-driven building industry must focus
on social and economic equity instead of solely profit-
driven practice. We must rethink and re-evaluate our
living habits and demands. Small changes can be
powerful tools to influence major changes in the world.’
Pioneering architect Muzharul Islam inspired
Tabassum to found her practice in 2005, and her
ten-strong studio now has a portfolio that includes
museums, community centres and private residences.
There is a consistent focus on the relationship that
contemporary architecture has with local materials,
a s r a D o l r a C i d or d n a S : y h p a r g o t o h P
climate change, culture, history and the community.
In 2016, Tabassum received the Aga Khan Award
for Architecture for one of her most notable projects,
the Bait ur Rouf mosque (above). Situated in a dense
neighbourhood on the outskirts of Dhaka, the one-
storey building poetically weaves light and vernacular
materials, creating modest communal spaces within
the busy landscape. Characterised by its raised plinth,
light wells and intimate courtyards, the structure
WRITER: SHAWN ADAMS
5x5: Frida Escobedo
provides a humble place of worship where the local
community can host events and gatherings.
Tabassum is currently working in the Rohingya
refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, in south-east Bangladesh,
and designing mobile modular houses for ultra-low-
income people in the country’s coastal areas. ‘These
days, I am more drawn to projects that help to elevate
human conditions for a dignified living,’ she says.
Beyond her humanitarian work, she is a leading
advocate for a more environmentally responsible
architecture industry. ‘To make a better world, the first
step is to realise that we are heading towards extinction
as a species because of our actions of the past century
and our inaction to change our ways,’ she explains.
Tabassum’s work is human, refined and well-
considered. However, what sets her apart from fellow
architects is her critical thinking and holistic approach.
She isn’t interested in bold, aesthetically pleasing forms
but in ways in which she can better the lives of others.
‘A work of architecture may not always result in a
building or an object that is visually pleasing,’ she says.
‘Depending on the context, it could mean the well-
being of the human condition and environment.’
mtarchitekts.com
∑ 169
 5x5: Frida Escobedo
2.
Amanda Williams
Chicago-based visual artist Amanda Williams uses
colour to illustrate the ways race informs the value
we assign to spaces. Her exhibitions, which have taken
place at the Venice Architecture Biennale, MoMA in
New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in
Chicago, challenge viewers to look at urban landscapes
in new ways. She credits her training as an architect at
Cornell University for honing her unique appreciation
for space. One of Williams’ most notable works to
date, Color(ed) Theory (left), explores how definitions
of colour can be reimagined through Black culture.
The project comprised a series of eight houses slated
for demolition in Chicago’s Englewood neighbourhood.
By repainting them in colours she felt represented
Black culture and photographing them, Williams drew
attention to the underinvestment in African American
communities across the city. Later this year, Williams
will be part of a group exhibition ‘Social Works II’ at
Gagosian London and will have a standalone booth at
Art Basel Miami Beach with Rhona Hoffman Gallery.
‘I feel fortunate to be able to ask very difficult and
troubling questions about why Black people around the
globe still have to fight daily just to exist. It’s a spatial
question, but also one that art, design and architecture
play a part in fostering,’ says Williams. awstudioart.com

3.
Carla Juaçaba
Carla Juaçaba set up her studio in Rio de Janeiro in
2000 and the Brazilian architect has turned her hand
to everything from private residences to exhibition
design. She regularly lectures at high profile universities
such as Harvard and Columbia, but considers her
participation in the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale
with the Vatican Chapel’s Holy See Pavilion (right)
her breakthrough work. ‘It was a synthesis of a very old
programme: you go to the chapel and you sit to look at
the suffering: the cross. Translating a programme into
space – this is architecture,’ she says. Understanding
how a space can be ‘political, democratic and essential’
is a key driver in Juaçaba’s practice. ‘Architectural
design should be understood as action over a territory.
i l o r i a C o c i r e d e F , s m a i l l iW a d n a m A : y h p a r g o t o h P

Each line, idea or sketch of an architectonic design

represents a material and geographical transformation.
We should work together with other disciplines to
build a landscape where nature, design and
infrastructure coexist.’ Juaçaba is currently working on
a project in Geneva where architects (including Frida
Escobedo) and artists were called on to design a series
of temporary shelters. She is also working on a project
with a strong social purpose in Brazil: a café, a museum
on the history of coffee and a school in a campus
conceived to boost small farming businesses through
agricultural tourism. carlajuacaba.com.br

WRITERS: SHAWN ADAMS, ELLIE STATHAKI ∑ 171

 5x5: Frida Escobedo
4.
Gabriela Carrillo
Mexican architect Gabriela Carrillo is passionate about
her business. ‘I have a six-year-old boy, and he and the
country where I live are my guidelines in my work,’ she
says. ‘I am a determined feminist, completely against
the traditional practices that prevail in our patriarchal
system. I believe my work can do something against
that in a constructive way. I am always thinking of
the future, that I might not see, but my kid will.’ After
working with Mauricio Rocha in Mexico City for
16 years, Carrillo set up her own studio in 2017, and in
2019, co-founded C733, a platform to focus specifically
on public projects. Museums, hotels, and residential
and community work are part of her ever-expanding
portfolio, and she has won several awards in her field.
Carrillo feels especially strongly about projects that
are ‘meaningful’. She mentions, as an example, working
on a library for blind and visually-impaired people.
‘It forced me to be aware of the strength of the senses,’
she says. Matamoros Market (left), a public space on
the country’s northern borders, plays with notions
of freedom and spatial flexibility, and works with
the region’s climatic conditions. ‘The most powerful
tools of architecture are priceless,’ she says. As for
architecture’s biest challenge? ‘To reinvent its
meanings,’ she concludes. gabrielacarrillo.mx

5.
Mariam Kamara
Architect Mariam Kamara gained global recognition
in 2018 when she was mentored by Sir David Adjaye
for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé scheme (W*244),
and she was also shortlisted for the 2019 Royal Academy
Dorfman Award. She now heads up Atelier Masōmī,
a boutique architecture practice in Niamey, Niger.
Kamara considers collaboration a crucial part of her
work. ‘With each collaboration, we push the needle
further, but also learn so much from the people we
collaborate with,’ she says. ‘The Hikma religious and
secular complex (right) allowed us to work with local
masons to reinterpret traditional Hausa architecture.’
Meanwhile, her design for the Niamey Cultural Center
is currently under construction while also being
exhibited at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale,
where the architect is showing an installation,
gnaW semaJ ,euquL sinnO :yhpargotohP

responding to the theme ‘How will we live together?’,

created in collaboration with the Tuareg Sculptors
Collective in her home country. Despite undeniable
challenges ahead, the future feels exciting for Kamara.
‘What’s exciting about the future of architecture is the
chance to tackle some of our biest challenges at the
moment. The demographic explosion in the Global
South is one such challenge. How do we think about
building capacity and infrastructure while also trying
not to exacerbate the climate crisis?’ ateliermasomi.com

172 ∑ WRITER: ELLIE STATHAKI

 Theaster Gates
The American artist and urban planner returns to London for
a cultural takeover on a grand scale, and picks five exemplars of
Black excellence leading the way for social and creative change
INTERVIEW: TF CHAN
The life and work of Theaster Gates are famously
intertwined with Chicago – the city where he was born,
raised, and continues to be based, whose South Side
neighbourhood he has transformed one building at a
time. Lesser known is his long-standing affiliation with
London. He remembers his first visit, in 1998, vividly:
it included a trip to the Crafts Council Gallery.
‘I remember being so excited that I could see a Julian
Stair work, and a Michael Cardew, a Shoji Hamada,
and a Bernard Leach,’ he says, listing the ceramic
artists who have since shaped his artistic practice.
In 2012, he returned to London for his first show
with White Cube, suspending a fire truck from the
ceiling of its Bermondsey gallery, with a cabinet full
of Ebony and Jet magazines on its tether. Titled Raising
Goliath, the work pointed to culture as a way to
alleviate the Black American strule. The audience
‘was so kind and generous,’ recalls the artist. ‘London
has been like my second home, and I’m very excited to
offer this proposal to this place that I love so much.’
The proposal he refers to is ‘The Question of Clay’,
which involves solo exhibitions at Whitechapel Gallery
and White Cube Mason’s Yard, and an intervention at
the V&A, followed by a commission to create the 2022
Serpentine Pavilion. It’s the biest takeover by an
artist that London has recently witnessed.
In parallel with his conceptual inclinations, Gates
has always had a fondness for craft. He took up pottery
as an undergraduate, eventually completing a residency
in Tokoname, Japan, with a group of master potters.
For 2007 exhibition ‘Plate Convergence’, he disguised
his pottery as the work of a fictional Japanese potter
who married a Black civil rights activist; three years
later, his show ‘To Speculate Darkly’ paid homage to
Dave the Potter, an enslaved 19th-century stoneware
artist. Gates believes training in craft involves ‘thinking
with the hands. If you bring contemporary art and craft
together, you have the best of two amazing worlds’.
Not surprisingly, craft was the starting point for the
Whitechapel show. In 2015, Gates and Lydia Yee, the
gallery’s chief curator, sat next to each other at a lunch
in Venice. They discussed ‘The Spirit of Utopia’, a 2013
174 ∑
show at Whitechapel for which Gates had installed
Soul Manufacturing Corporation, a working pottery
studio where visitors could learn how to make bricks
and throw clay on a wheel. Gates expressed interest
in a follow-up show: ‘The more we talked, the more
I thought, there are so many places in London that have
amazing craft histories and things in their vaults, but
they’re rarely seen in a contemporary light.’ He thus set
on a path to draw from other collections, and display
the work of his artistic ancestors alongside his own.
Then came an invitation from the V&A to
undertake a research fellowship. Given free run of the
museum’s ceramics collection, Gates gravitated towards
craft potters who worked across different cultural
contexts, such as Ruth Duckworth, who fled Nazi
Germany, studied in London and became known for
monumental stoneware murals in Chicago. He sought
out ‘perversions’ within the collection, too, such as the
ceramic figures of enslaved Black people, some serving
as tobacco jars or candlesticks – though commissioned
by abolitionists, these figures have exaerated physical
features that perpetuated racial stereotypes. A selection
of these ceramics will be shown at Whitechapel,
complemented by loans from other collections.
‘The V&A was so excited that a contemporary artist
was interested in these things,’ says Gates. ‘And because
they are loaning me works from their ceramics galleries,
I will replace those works with my own, so their vitrines
are not empty.’ He also applauds the institution for
opening itself up to ‘more artists of colour, more queer
artists, artists across the gender spectrum, people who
are trying to say new things with old objects’.
At Whitechapel, the juxtaposition of the
aformentioned objects speaks to the relationship
between global trade, colonial expansion, slavery and
abolitionism. They accompany two decades of Gates’
ceramic work, including his ‘Afro-Mingei’ sculptures.
‘I’m trying to couple Mingei, the folk craft movement
in Japan, with the Black Arts Movement in the US.
[In the 1930s] Japan was saying, “We don’t need Western
culture to reaffirm our beauty and the importance
of our craftsmanship and our people. In the US, »
5x5: Theaster Gates

Theaster Gates
photographed at his
South Side studio in
Chicago on 3 August
 5x5: Theaster Gates
Still Life of A Potter, work in
progress at the Archie Bray
Foundation in Helena, Montana
20 years later, Black people were saying, “Our hair
and our skin are beautiful, and the objects and the
foods of our culture are important”.’
While the design of his 2022 Serpentine Pavilion is
yet to be unveiled, Gates is brimming with enthusiasm,
unfazed when I point out that he will be the first
non-architect to take it on (previous participating
artists partnered with architects). ‘I’ve restored a lot
of buildings,’ says Gates. ‘And while I’m not a trained
architect, I think about space more than anything.
I’m part of a continuum of artists who have been
thinking about disruptions and interventions in the
public sphere and in nature – in my case, the urban
environment in a Black neighbourhood.’
In the various elements of ‘The Question of Clay’,
it becomes clear that Gates wants us to engage deeply
with art, design and architecture, understanding their
social functions and political implications. It follows
naturally that his creative leaders of the future for our
anniversary project would be creators of distinctive
forms who are also advancing a social message. His
pick of five talents are exemplars of Black excellence in
Britain and the US, including shoe designer Kendall
Reynolds, who delivers ‘an elegance, luxury and
femininity for Black women’, menswear designer Grace
Wales Bonner, who offers ‘a new lens through which to
consider conversations on race, identity and sexuality’,
Meet Theaster Gates’ five creative leaders of the future
176 ∑
s e t a G r e t s a e h T © g n or t S s i r h C : y h p a r g o t o h P
and fashion and textile designer Tolu Coker, ‘a fierce
advocate for Black models and models of colour’. He
selected architect Germane Barnes for being ‘unafraid
of uprooting contemporary notions of scale, ideological
complexity, or boundaries within his design’.
Also on the list is designer Norman Teague, who
worked on Gates’ 2012 installation at Documenta 13
in Kassel, Germany. ‘Brother Teague designs
collaboratively, thinks strategically, and is committed
to training Black and brown makers,’ says Gates.
Gates’ mentors – among them artists Kerry James
Marshall and Ingrid Lilligren, and curators Okwui
Enwezor and Thelma Golden – had a major role in
shaping his practice, encouraging him to study other
cultures and craftsmanship. Accordingly, with support
from the Prada Group, he has just launched the
Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab,
a three-year programme that will offer opportunities
for exchange, training, critical feedback and exposure
to emerging artists of colour. ‘I’m trying to mimic
what I was blessed to receive,’ he says. ‘And I’m excited
to be able to invest financially and emotionally into
designers, artists and other creatives so that they can
do more of the great things they want to do.’ ∂
‘Theaster Gates: A Clay Sermon’ is showing from
29 September 2021–9 January 2022 at Whitechapel Gallery,
London, whitechapelgallery.org; theastergates.com
 6.
Norman Teague
‘Design should always satisfy a level of learning, human
connection and interaction,’ says the designer, maker
and educator Norman Teague, whose studio, set up in
Chicago in 2018, focuses on connecting with local
communities and specialises in spatial design, furniture
fabrication, objects and custom millwork.
His 2020 exhibition ‘From Lawn Road to South
Chicago’ at New York gallery R & Company featured
pieces by Gerald Summers and Marcel Breuer, as well as
Teague’s ‘Africana’ chairs and ‘Sinmi’ stools (pictured).
The latter are based on Chicago city life, their rocking
movement inspired by chilling out while leaning on a
car or the backrest of a sofa. These pieces ‘speak to the
African diaspora, its steadfastness and resilience’.
Often more important to him than physical designs
are local initiatives such as Back Alley Jazz, an annual
community festival he helped set up to pay tribute to
the jazz alley jams that took place in Chicago’s South
Shore in the 1960s and 1970s; and the Tilden incubator
programme, which introduces design fundamentals
to high school students in a predominantly African
American/Latinx school district.
‘Teague designs collaboratively, thinks strategically,
and is committed to training Black and brown makers.’
says Gates. ‘His determination and design vocabulary
continue to inspire me. I’m grateful to have this
Chicago-based brother in my circle.’
normanteaguedesignstudios.com

7.
Grace Wales Bonner
One of today’s most talked-about fashion designers,
Grace Wales Bonner is known for using her mixed-race
heritage as a starting point for her collections. Best
known for her menswear (though she does produce
womenswear as well), she has become a force to be
reckoned with, not only because of her impeccable
craftsmanship but also her ability to weave explorations
of Black sexuality and identity in sartorial form.
Since launching her eponymous label in 2014, Wales
g n e S d n a n a e S ; y n a p m o C & R f o y s e t r u o c , m m ar K e o J : y h p a r g o t o h P

Bonner has created a complex world that embraces

multiple disciplines, and proposed a new vision of
luxury that fuses the Eurocentric perspective with an
Afro-Atlantic approach. Her A/W21 Black Sunlight
collection (pictured), for example, is based on Black
Oxford scholars and the radical thinkers of the 1980s.
‘My research is quite broad,’ she says. ‘Usually it starts
from literature. I’ll have some books or poems in mind
and then build a visual world around that, and then a
musical world around that, until I have this complete
sensory world that’s a hybrid of different things.’
It’s no surprise that Wales Bonner’s poetic approach
has made her a beacon of inspiration to Gates. ‘Grace
offers a new lens and platform through which to
consider conversations on race, identity and sexuality,
he says. ‘Her quiet intensity and strategic approach
will continue to rock the design world.’ walesbonner.net

178 ∑

8.
Germane Barnes
According to architect and urban designer Germane
Barnes, we cannot look at cities without acknowledging
the social and racial demographics that shape them.
Although these urban ‘spaces have been transformed
through the material contributions of the diaspora,’
says the 2021 Wheelwright Prize winner, the stories,
methods and practices of that same diaspora have
been erased by colonialism and imperialism.
Currently an assistant professor and the director
of the Community Housing & Identity Lab at the
University of Miami School of Architecture, Barnes
explores the link between architecture and identity.
By investigating social and political matters through
historical research, he uses his design training to
reorient the discipline of architecture through a
‘familiar lens’. There is an unwavering amount of
Black culture embedded in the Miami-based architect’s
work, but ‘one need not be an architect or designer
to grasp my intentions,’ he explains.
One of Barnes’ most notable projects was A Spectrum
of Blackness: The Search for Sedimentation in Miami,
shown at MoMA in 2020 as part of the group show
‘Reimagining Blackness and Architecture’. Consisting
of 12 carefully composed collages, a spice rack and a
map, the installation asked what it means to be Black in
Miami, examining Black culture, practices and spaces
WRITERS: ROSA BERTOLI, PEI-RU KEH, SHAWN ADAMS
5x5: Theaster Gates
of gathering. ‘The Blackness present in my work is
from a very specific perspective. It’s the Great
Migration, it’s porch culture, it’s plastic over furniture
and hot curling irons on the stove,’ explains Barnes.
Visitors learned about the African and Caribbean
people who, despite helping build Miami, were unable
to live near the water due to discriminatory planning
policies. The project recounted the stories of the
Bahamian immigrants through water, the kitchen,
and the porch, while celebrating the African diaspora.
‘Barnes moves comfortably between set design,
pavilion making, social planning and installation art
with an unrivaled ease and confidence,’ says Gates.
‘Another Chicago brother, Germane is one of the
brightest lights in the field of design. His tenacity
as a designer moves me to have deep conversations
about what design can achieve for the masses.’
Currently working on Belize House (pictured),
a residential project in Central America, Barnes will
also be participating in the 2021 Chicago Architecture
Biennial with a project that pays homage to Chicago’s
block parties. It’s a collaboration ‘with the organisation
Under the Grid, on the West Side, my home turf,’
says Barnes. ‘It’s the purest version of community
collaboration and activism, two components integral
to my work.’ germanebarnes.com
 5x5: Theaster Gates
9.
Tolu Coker
Although only 26, the British-Nigerian fashion designer
Tolu Coker is already poised for greatness. A graduate
of Central Saint Martins, Coker launched her fashion
label in 2018. ‘I’ve always been interested in the concept
of identity and the role which clothing plays in how we
navigate and perceive ourselves and others in society,’
she says. ‘I consider myself more of a multidisciplinary
artist, with clothing being just one of the many forms
through which I have conversations.’
Her label is a clear departure from her experience in
the industry, ‘which had a tendency to design around
ideals of a consumer that didn’t exactly exist; one
which we were expected to aspire to, as opposed to
drawing inspiration from real experiences,’ she reflects.
On the contrary, her collection ‘Soro Soke: Diaspora
’68’ (pictured) is based on real people’s stories and
photo albums, including her father’s archives.
Rooted in community, craftsmanship and cultural
inclusion, Coker’s vibrant, sophisticated and largely
genderless collections are backed by sustainable
practices that include manufacturing locally, ensuring
fair wages are paid and using deadstock fabrics and
upcycling waste materials where possible. ‘Tolu’s work
is absolutely amazing. It is bold. It is feminine,’ says
Gates. ‘I love that there is a part of her work that
references so many great Black moments at the same
time. I’m extremely moved by her.’ tolucoker.com

10.
Kendall Reynolds
Although Kendall Reynolds was only 21 when she
founded the Kendall Miles footwear label in 2014, her
motivation was as clear as it is today. ‘Our mission
has always been to become the first mainstream Black
women-owned luxury footwear company to bring
Italian craftsmanship to the modern shopper,’ she says.
This confidence has made Reynolds one of the most
inspiring young entrepreneurs in the fashion industry.
Her collections feature glamorous, sky-high heels that
are teamed with eye-catching embellishments ranging
from studs and zippers to feathers and fur (such as
in this year’s blue ‘Foxxy’ sandal, pictured).
Reynolds is the daughter of global investment firm
Loop Capital’s CEO James Reynolds, and ‘represents
Chicago entrepreneurial royalty,’ says Gates. In fact,
Reynolds steers the Kendall Miles label together with
her mother and co-founder, Sandra. ‘Through her
tremendous creative capacity, Kendall is creating access
for emerging designers of colour like herself.’
As one of a few Black, female shoe designers creating
luxury footwear today, Reynolds’ innate understanding
rekoC e dA :yhpargotohP

of her clientele and the community she has created is

probably the most significant of all. ‘So many of us use
fashion as a means of personal expression. We encourage
women to dress boldly and it’s such an honour to
be our clients’ biest cheerleader when they are out
wearing our pieces in the world.’ kendallmilesdesigns.com

180 ∑ WRITER: PEI-RU KEH

 Formafantasma
The Italian design duo on heading the GEO-Design master’s
programme at Design Academy Eindhoven, and the star
students they hope will transform tomorrow’s creative fields
INTERVIEW: TF CHAN

182 ∑

Formafantasma describes itself as ‘a research-based
design studio investigating the ecological, historical,
political and social forces shaping the discipline of
design today’. This mission statement is as ambitious
as it gets. But it’s apt for an outfit that, for over a
decade, has constantly pushed the boundaries of design
and evolved our understanding of the field. From its
‘Ore Streams’ project (2017-19), which considered the
recycling of electronic waste, to the ongoing ‘Cambio’,
which explores the ecological impact of the timber
industry, Formafantasma’s work has inspired a new
5x5: Formafantasma
generation to see design not just as a styling tool, but
also as a transformative force in an era of uncertainty.
It is fitting that Design Academy Eindhoven would
appoint the studio’s founders, Simone Farresin and
Andrea Trimarchi, as department heads for its GEO-
Design master’s programme. At its launch last year,
Wallpaper* guest editor Paola Antonelli interviewed
the duo on their plans to encourage students to  »
Formafantasma’s Simone Farresin (opposite), photographed in his
family home in Vicenza, Italy, on 24 August, and Andrea Trimarchi
(above), photographed in Taormina, Italy, on 18 August
 5x5: Formafantasma
‘GEO-Design is about experimenting with the boundaries of your
design education, transcending the design discipline itself’
‘go beyond the product and the object’ (W*258). One
year on and the programme description, unsurprisingly,
shares similarities with the design studio’s stated goals.
‘It’s about an attitudinal approach,’ explain Farresin and
Trimarchi. ‘Tapping into the politics that shape not
only the discipline of design, but also the way we
produce and distribute things.’ The design industry,
as they see it, has not had a sufficient grasp on the
infrastructures it supports and its ecological impact.
GEO-Design aims to reframe the conversation so
designers are taking on the issues arising from ‘design’s
complicity across multiple industries, communication
networks, and aesthetic cultures’.
The duo have been responsible for selecting both
tutors and students, and creating the programme.
The impressive tutor line-up includes the founders of
renowned design studios, leading curators, and even an
ethnobiologist, Meredith Root-Bernstein. Workshops
have featured the Turner Prize-nominated Cooking
Sections (W*268), artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and
‘scientist of smell’ Sissel Tolaas (W*253), while among
the guest lecturers are Teresa Castro, a historian who
investigates the links between cinema and animism;
Philipp Pattberg, a political scientist who specialises in
climate change; and Paulo Tavares, an architect who
researched the impact of colonial racism on Brasília.
‘GEO-Design will grow as an octopus, with a complex
central consciousness and individual far-reaching
tentacles,’ reads the programme description; the diverse
curriculum certainly helps reinforce this goal.
The courses themselves are unusual: a highlight this
year was Pedagogies of the Sea, led by design critic and
curator Angela Rui and coinciding with her exhibition
‘Aquaria’ at Lisbon’s MAAT, on our relationship with
the oceans. Student projects showcased on the course’s
Instagram feed (@pedagogiesea) include a collection of
postage stamps interrogating contradictory marine
conservation policies; a book on a genus of sea squirts
as a symbol of resistance to human exploitation of the
sea; and an investigation into surimi paste.
At the end of the course, students presented their
outcomes as part of MAAT’s public programme.
‘They had to engage in how to make their work speak
to an audience, and how to present in an exhibition
space,’ recall Farresin and Trimarchi. ‘Some students
created small installations, others monologues and
even ritual performances... It goes to show that
GEO-Design is about experimenting with the
Meet Formafantasma’s five creative leaders of the future
184 ∑
boundaries of your design education, transcending
the design discipline itself and how it was theorised.’
This dynamic approach has certainly captured
wider attention, but Farresin and Trimarchi admit
that ‘education is an ever-changing organism’, and
there is some fine tuning to do. ‘There’s a need to
ground this in materiality,’ they say. ‘So for the year
ahead, we’ll have more of a making element. There
will be a ceramics workshop, and it will not be about
contextualising ideas; you’re just going to experience
ceramics: mould making, creating shapes. Then it’s
up to you to link it with whatever else you’re doing.’
There is, of course, the question of what GEO-
Design students will do once they graduate. ‘We’re not
here to professionalise people. The whole idea is also to
rethink the purpose of design school,’ say Farresin and
Trimarchi. ‘We’re here to help students develop their
critical attitude, and we hope they will take what they
have learned back to their own discipline of reference.
It’s the only thing you can do as a responsible educator.’
Within its own practice, Formafantasma has ably
demonstrated the practical potential of this critical
attitude. Following its acclaimed launch in London,
‘Cambio’ is now on view in Tuscany and will transfer to
Zurich later in the year; with every iteration, its
displays (themselves elegant and enlightening) are
complemented by more and more real-world projects.
On the following pages, Formafantasma’s edit of
creative leaders of the future run the gamut from
former students Johanna Seelemann and Irakli Sabekia
to established studios such as Superflux and Studio
Plastique. Among them, the founders of Buro Belén
–‘who have been thinking about material research for
years’, say Farresin and Trimarchi – stand out for also
being GEO-Design tutors. It is not difficult to imagine
these young creatives eventually making the same
impact as ‘Cambio’, both in terms of industry practice
and public perception. ‘They are all people who are, in
one way or another, expanding the ways of practising
design today,’ say Formafantasma, pointing out that
their experience with younger designers should give us
optimism for the future. ‘The next generation is much
less attracted to design because of a possible glamorous
side to it. They’re much more aware of the pitfalls of
the discipline, and definitely more engaged. They want
what they do to be meaningful, and they are adamant
to contribute to the world for the better.’ ∂
designacademy.nl; cambio.website; formafantasma.com
 5x5: Formafantasma
11. Studio Plastique
This Brussels-based studio was founded by Theresa
Bastek and Archibald Godts, who met at Design
Academy Eindhoven, where they ‘found a common
desire to address the many challenges our world is
facing’. They do so by investigating production
processes and their social and environmental impact;
designing ‘recycling scenarios’ for objects; challenging
common concepts such as ownership; and exploring
the ecological and economic sustainability of design.
For example, their 2020 project Current Age (pictured)
looked at electricity and its indispensable role in
today’s society. ‘There are so many ways of making
sensible and empathic contributions as a designer and
the world urgently needs those,’ they say. ‘Reaching out
to others is key. Collaboration isn’t just meaningful,
it is also rewarding.’ studioplastique.be

12. Irakli Sabekia

‘Artistic work has a great power to make complex
subjects approachable. It allows us to put down our
shields and let the world affect us,’ says the Amsterdam-
based Georgian designer Irakli Sabekia, whose projects
take on weighty themes such as spatial justice to spark
powerful conversations. ‘I think of my projects as
artistic interruptions of functioning systems, aiming
to create possibilities for the re-evaluation of existing
structures,’ adds the Design Academy Eindhoven
graduate. One of his most notable projects to date is
Spring (pictured), a 2017 installation consisting of
50 oak seedlings growing on ash produced by burning
books; it symbolises new ideas ‘unburdened with the
weight of bygone ideologies’. More recently, Sabekia has
been exploring memories of spaces that have been
erased. He will be exhibiting at Eindhoven in October,
as part of the GEO-Design platform. iraklisabekia.com

13. Buro Belén

Brecht Duijf and Lenneke Langenhuijsen met in Milan
in 2011, as they were unpacking their respective works
at Salone del Mobile. ‘Our products had exactly the
same colours,’ recall the pair, who founded Buro Belén
soon after. Beyond colours, the Dutch designers’ shared
interests formed a fertile ground for collaboration:
iritramreiP ailuiG ,zubruG amleS :yhpargotohP

while Duijf researched the reflective potential of

materials, Langenhuijsen looked at how wood could be
made flexible. Among their key projects so far is Sun+
(pictured), a series of textile products questioning our
relation to the star. But their latest interest is closer to
home: the pair are now focusing on walls – ‘they are our
third skin in a way’, they say. For the duo, this focus on
immediate surroundings should be a key aspect in a
designer’s outlook. ‘Study your surroundings, and you
will see possible projects that need a creative mind,’
they advise. ‘Don’t think as big as the world’s problems.
It will kill your skill of seeing possibilities.’ burobelen.com

WRITERS: ROSA BERTOLI, SHAWN ADAMS ∑ 187

 5x5: Formafantasma
14.
Superflux
Working at the intersection of the climate crisis, politics
and artificial intelligence, this critically acclaimed
studio was founded in 2009 by Royal College of Art
graduates Anab Jain and Jon Ardern. While studying
under Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby at the RCA,
the pair were encouraged to consider the implications
of emerging technologies on modern society, which
led them to create Superflux. The London-based
practice ‘constructs narratives, worlds, and tools that
provoke viewers to engage with the rapidly changing
world’, explains Jain.
Currently operating out of Somerset House, the
Anglo-Indian studio creates installations – from dining
tables oozing with fungi to a high-tech apartment of
the future – that make viewers carefully consider the
planet. Among their notable projects is Invocation for
Hope (pictured). Exploring the impact humans have
on the planet, this installation of more than 400 pine

reuabfoH rogerG :yhpargotohP

trees is currently on show at Vienna’s Museum of
Applied Arts. Up next is a film with Omidyar Network
that explores capitalism, data, and the environment.
Weaving together a warren of themes, mediums,
and technologies, Superflux is bringing conversations
about pressing issues to the centre stage. Its work
is evocative and visceral and challenges viewers to
imagine ‘plural futures’. superflux.in

15.
Johanna Seelemann
The realm of conceptual design may feel nebulous, but
Johanna Seelemann was drawn to the opportunity to
approach design in an analytical manner. ‘In a world
that’s full of objects, I always had a hard time justifying
simply redesigning an existing object – what would
I add?’ explains the German designer, who studied in
Iceland and then at Design Academy Eindhoven.
‘The change of scenery from Germany to Iceland
was a key event for me as a designer. There was a shift
from the apparent abundance of everything to a place
where nearly everything mundane is imported; a shift
from aiming to protect nature, to protecting yourself
from extreme conditions, and respecting natural forces
such as volcanic eruptions,’ she says. ‘My understanding
of available material and production completely
changed, changing my way of looking at design.’
Since then, much of Seelemann’s work has focused
on exposing the hidden networks of global trade. One
project, Banana Story (pictured), created with Björn
Steinar Blumenstein, charts the fruit’s complex journey,
encouraging consumers to rethink the value of food
and discourage food waste. ‘As much as I might want
to point out certain issues,’ says Seelemann, ‘the aim
of my project remains an optimistic suestion,
a counter-proposal, or an alternative possible scenario
to the one I’ve explored.’ johannaseelemann.com

188 ∑ WRITERS: SHAWN ADAMS, PEI-RU KEH

 Michèle LamyCo-founder of Owenscorp, artist, performer, agent
of change: Lamy on her conduits to co-creation, and the
creatives who can lead us into the future
INTERVIEW: DAL CHODHA
Michèle Lamy is a mesmeric force of intention. As a
co-founding partner of Owenscorp and the executive
manager of the Rick Owens furniture collection, her
life is a tactile one. The jewelled mouth, the smudged,
blackened fingertips, the clank of bangles and the
dulcet French drawl are Lamy’s talismanic armour
and invitation. She creates opulently monastic home
furnishings and sculptures in metal, bone, wood,
cement and stone – and cocoons herself in silk, wool,
leather, nylon and languid plumes of cigarette smoke.
When we speak via Zoom in mid-August, Lamy is
fresh from an appointment with the butcher. ‘We have
been doing some furniture pieces in ox bone, which
looks just like ivory, and we needed some more,’ she
says. ‘The artisans at the atelier like it so much because
they always get a serving of filet mignon, too.’ In a few
days, Lamy will travel to Venice for the second edition
of the Floating Cinema – Unknown Waters festival,
for which she asked filmmaker Matt Lambert to curate
a series of short films. Next up, she is unveiling a large-
scale monochromatic sculptural work at Design Miami
Basel. Lamy is always on the move.
‘I like to think that I don’t know when something
is work or holiday, some places open your eyes to
something else. I have this base with Rick and the
furniture, so that maintains a certain direction. It helps
me to travel and do other things I want to do.’ What
Lamy wants to do is use the formidable circle of artists,
musicians, designers, philosophers, chefs, and even
boxers around her to piece together an idea of where
our lives are headed. Recently, she has been posing
the question ‘What Are We Fighting For?’, taking
inspiration from the slogan used by her friends at the
Overthrow Boxing Club, a Manhattan gym with a
philanthropic mission. It is, she admits, a big question
that needs an even bier answer. In Milan last
year, she hosted a day of multidisciplinary discussions
to unpick the provocation, while travelling around
on a Moncler + Rick Owens tour bus upholstered in
French army surplus blankets, fitted with a stainless-
steel bathroom and a Bang & Olufsen flat-screen
TV. It was typical Lamy – both flamboyant and alert.
190 ∑
The act of curious intervention is her kickback to a
chaotic world. ‘For some reason, people come and talk
to me, and when you’ve been around for a while, it’s
more like dancing out ideas. That’s how things come
about,’ she says. Under Lamyland – the moniker used to
describe her broad output – she creates settings for
people to engage with an eclectic mix of allies, from the
Bronx-based culinary collective Ghetto Gastro to the
boxers at the Overthrow, and her own band, Lavascar.
Lamy is a conduit for co-creation: ‘I like leading, but
sometimes I’m just getting seduced by who I meet – if I
was in front of a blank page, I could write things all over
it. But it’s always about collaboration,’ she says.
In the early 1960s, Lamy was a philosophy student
under Gilles Deleuze, who believed that the standards
we use to assign value are internal and intrinsic rather
than speculative. ‘Everything came together for me
when I met him. I was 17,’ she says. She learned the value
of lived experiences from Deleuze: ‘You have to digest
things and see stuff that you can analyse for yourself.
My bêtes noires are all the books today with titles like
How to Live Your Life – you have to read the artists, the
writers, and figure it out for yourself! These stupid
recipes – which people make fortunes from – are like
diet books. They never work.’
Lamy suests we look to the Afghan-born coder
Tameem Antoniades – a co-founder of Ninja Theory,
the company that created the action-adventure video
game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, developed using
research from neuroscientists at Cambridge University.
‘Tam is somebody who directly answers the question
about where we are going and what is the future.’ His
work exemplifies the power that tech has to help us
understand humanity and ‘how to understand harm’,
Lamy says. Similarly, she is drawn to the computerised
violence in LA-based artist Jordan Wolfson’s work and
the viscerality of artist Anne Imhof’s output: ‘Jordan is
so gentle. He believes in fairies. He has something with
the mind that is beyond conventional thinking – he
sees things other people don’t. He presents a future
where robots seem to have more feeling than us. There
is this tenderness even when there is violence and,  »
5x5: Michèle Lamy
Michèle Lamy, this page and
overleaf, photographed at
home in Paris on 13 August
 5x5: Michèle Lamy
because this technology is being used by an artist, you
can perhaps imagine that robots are going to save our
world.’ Lamy seems drawn to deeply psychologically
affecting works by artists who are unflinchingly
sensual; Imhof’s seductive and melancholy endurance
art is as primordial and spiritual as Lamy’s own.
She finds the ecological radicalism of Argentine
artist Tomás Saraceno, which draws on the social
sciences, compelling. ‘He’s pushing us to get strength
from the sun. And he also wants us to fly! His is a very
direct answer to the question of what is pushing us into
the future and the direction we want to go,’ she says.
In 2018, Lamy discovered the poet, essayist and painter
Etel Adnan at Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech,
and was moved by the wholeness of her practice: ‘When
I saw her work, I could not believe that I did not know
her all my life. She is fantastic – she’s 96. You really
have to read her writing to understand her painting,
but most importantly, all the people I have chosen
[as creative leaders of the future] are not trying to
explain anything. They are just saying how they feel.
I like when there is the beginning of something, and
you are left to figure the rest out for yourself.’
Figuring it out is Lamy’s full-time occupation.
The protests in France in May 1968, she says, helped her
to develop a freer way of thinking; to forge a life amid
music, poetry, art. ‘You talk about collaboration, but it’s
more like participation. Participation with the world.’
Such an intuitive approach feels pertinent in a world
struling to reconcile its global and political troubles.
The commercialised creative disciplines like fashion,
architecture and furniture design have operated within
Meet Michèle Lamy’s five creative leaders of the future
192 ∑
the same formal structures for decades and feel at odds
with the fluidity demanded of any creative process.
All of those formal structures are falling apart. Perhaps
now is as good a time as any to adopt a Lamy-approved
MO: to just go with the flow.
Lavascar – the band Lamy fronts with her daughter
Scarlett Rouge and the artist Nico Vascellari – testifies
to this approach. In 2017, Lamy was approached to
record an album by Red Bull Studios and around the
same time was introduced to Vascellari, who was about
to have a show at Palais de Tokyo, Paris. ‘He wanted
me to be in it somehow, so I said yes.’ Together they
presented a découpage of Langston Hughes’ poetry;
today, Lavascar exists as a bridge between spoken word
and gothic electronic music. ‘I am very One Thousand
and One Nights – I have this deep fear that I have to tell
these stories. People sometimes complain about my
chaos, but it’s not chaos. It is spontaneity.’
Many of her projects have a moral imperative.
Later this year, she will work with Brussels-based social
enterprise The Skateroom to fund the building of a
skate park in Morocco. ‘It’s a way to go to people –
or reach something that shows you where you stand,
to do something that isn’t polluting the world. To work
with artisans and create things that are disappearing
is very important,’ she says. ‘The five creative leaders
of the future that I have chosen are all artists. We call
them artists because they are the ones that push us
towards the future. I like to be connected to something
and “What Are We Fighting For?” is an event that
makes us come up with answers. They are not textbook
answers, but they are mine.’ ∂ @lalamichmich
 5x5: Michèle Lamy
16. Anne Imhof
For German artist Anne Imhof, the human body is a
tool, canvas and concept. Her work spans painting,
drawing, film, music, installation, sculpture and
architectural intervention, as well as performances in
which disciplines may intersect. Based in Frankfurt and
Paris, she has spent a decade probing the intensity of
isolation, fetishising consumer culture, and imitating
the motifs of neoliberalism. Awarded the Golden Lion
at 2017’s Venice Biennale, she is currently taking over
Paris’ Palais de Tokyo with ‘Natures Mortes’ (right,
until 24 October), where a glass maze disorientates and
a polyphonic soundtrack impales the senses. Also on is
‘Sex’ at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
(until 7 November). She’s said of her choreography: ‘It’s
basically the thoughts of the people that are performing
in it that, in the end, shape it.’ spruethmagers.com

17. Etel Adnan

Artist Etel Adnan, 96, has proved that to shape the
next generation, art must often shift its shape. Through
visual art, poetry, journalism, prose and plays, she has
become a potent voice of contemporary Arab-American
culture, author of acclaimed war literature, a devotee
of colour, and creator of vivid, elemental abstract art
(pictured is Untitled, 2018). Born in Beirut, she moved
from Paris to America in 1955. Ceasing writing in
, s r e g a M h t ü r p S d n a z l o h h c u B e i r e l a G , t s i t r a e h t f o y s e t r u o c , 1 2 0 2 , ) s e t r o M s e r u t a N ( d e l t i t n U d n a , 1 2 0 2 , egassaP , f o h m I e n n A : s e g a m I
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French in the wake of the Algerian War, she turned

to colour field abstract painting. ‘Abstract art was the
equivalent of poetic expression. I didn’t need to use
words, but colours and lines. I didn’t need to belong
to a language-oriented culture but to an open form
of expression,’ she has said. Opening on 8 October,
Adnan’s expansive career will be celebrated in a solo
exhibition, ‘Etel Adnan: Light’s New Measure’, at
the Guenheim New York. eteladnan.com

18. Tameem Antoniades

‘There is no medium that allows you to become
another person and see through their eyes like video
games,’ states Tameem Antoniades. Co-founder of
Ninja Theory, a British game development studio
acclaimed for Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (the follow-up
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, right, is in the making), he
pushes the boundaries of technology while providing
riveting experiences. He is working with Paul Fletcher,
professor of health neuroscience at the University of
Cambridge, to understand how the brain creates an
image of the world; The Insight Project, their ongoing
focus, explores how we can use games to help deal with
mental health issues. ‘The goal is to use digital
technology to allow people to experience what it is like
to have a serious mental condition,’ says Antoniades.
Architecture, cinematography, science, music, costume
design, screenwriting, gaming and tech all meet in his
immersive and human-centred work. ninjatheory.com

WRITERS: HARRIET LLOYD-SMITH, SHAWN ADAMS ∑ 195

 5x5: Michèle Lamy

19. Tomás Saraceno

Tomás Saraceno believes that we’re at the point of no

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return. His installation at Copenhagen’s Cisternerne
(until 30 November), navigable only by boat, is titled
Event Horizon, after the astrophysical term for the
moment when gravity makes it impossible to escape the
pull of a black hole. His art investigates the relationship
between humans and the planet, and calls for a radical
transformation. His Aerocene project – exploring fossil
fuel-free flight with balloon sculptures kept afloat by
the sun and travelling with atmospheric currents –
has captivated audiences around the world. For a recent
collaboration with Maison Ruinart (above), he added
an AR experience, allowing the trajectories of Aerocene
flights (‘Aeroglyphs’) to be shared with a global
community. The Argentine artist’s upcoming show at
Berlin’s Neugerriemschneider continues his exploration
of environmental concerns. studiotomassaraceno.org

20. Jordan Wolfson

The art of LA-based Jordan Wolfson has been described
as bizarre, transgressive, ‘borderline insane’. An
animatronic piece, Colored Sculpture (2016), sees a child-
like puppet with a demonic expression, suspended from
a gantry system with heavy chains. It’s flung back and
forth and thrown against the floor, while the love song
‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ starts and halts, and
Wolfson’s voice reads a menacing text. A recent work,
Untitled (2021, right), is plastered with stickers bearing
the words, ‘Describing how a dog was slaughtered’.
Born in 1980, Wolfson belongs to a generation of artists
who came of age with the internet. Online culture has
informed the irreverence, brutal honesty and even
deprivation that permeates his work. While he avoids
prescriptive readings of his art, he is confident in his
broader intentions: ‘I’m not here to heal the world.
I’m an artist. My job is to see the world.’ davidzwirner.com

196 ∑ WRITER: TF CHAN

 Nendo
Oki Sato, founder of prolific Japanese studio Nendo,
reflects on past and present challenges – including
designing Tokyo’s Olympic cauldron – and presents
the young talent ready to pick up the torch
INTERVIEW: DANIELLE DEMETRIOU

It’s not every day a creative is given carte blanche to
‘design flames’ – yet this was one key task among many
which Oki Sato of Nendo found himself tackling
recently. These were admittedly no ordinary flames:
they were created to flicker at the heart of the Olympic
cauldron, designed by Nendo for this year’s belated
summer games in Tokyo. Inspired by the sun, the white
orb blossomed into ten reflective aluminium panels
beneath the night sky, opening like the petals of a
flower before being lit by tennis player Naomi Osaka.
The lighting of the cauldron was not only the final
chapter in a painstaking design journey (a two-year
process involving no fewer than 85 prototypes, combined
with multiple pandemic challenges). It also marked the
apex of Nendo’s consistently upward trajectory since
a freshly graduated Sato and four friends launched the
design firm in 2002, in his parents’ garage in Tokyo.
Over the next two decades, the studio’s prolific
output has been true to its name – nendo means clay in
Japanese. Its ever-busy team (today totalling around 60,
in Tokyo, Milan and Shanghai) are behind a malleable
catalogue of projects nimbly spanning the creative
spectrum, from homes and restaurants to furniture
and products, with no detail of daily life overlooked –
right down to soap dispensers and recyclable paper clips.
Playful, minimalist, innovative, functional and
deeply rooted in daily life, Nendo creations are often
instantly recognisable. Underpinning the studio’s
creative DNA is the clean-lined simplicity and quiet
colour palette of modern Japanese aesthetics, always
balanced with a refreshingly universal perspective, rare
in Japan’s often insular design industry. A clue behind
this global vision might be traced to Sato’s childhood:
he spent the first ten years of his life in Toronto, before
his family relocated to Tokyo – an experience that
enables him to navigate the multifaceted layers of
Japanese life as both outsider and insider.
Nendo’s highlights – too many to list – range from
the graphic simplicity of ‘Thin Black’ table, produced
for Cappellini in 2011, to the cubist formation of
Kashiyama Daikanyama, a luxury retail and hospitality
complex which opened in Tokyo two years ago.
Not to forget the Olympic cauldron, which has
demanded exceptional attention to detail. There
was the high-tech moulding of aluminium plates by
a special hot-press machine; the super slow milling
guided by laser scans to avoid distortion; and the
extensive heat, fire and wind resistance testing of the
polygonal mirrors and compact internal drive unit.
And of course the flame itself – from the use of hydrogen
(a first for the Olympics), generated through electrolysis
of water from a solar power facility in Fukushima
prefecture, where a nuclear disaster had struck in 2011;
to the endless explorations of the perfect shade of
flickering yellow, via sodium carbonate reactions.
Beyond the design innovations and technological
tinkering, the studio had to contend with a pandemic,
as well as surging public opposition and an endless
will-it-won’t-it-happen countdown to the games; the
project was as complex and sensitive as it was high-
profile. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sato simply recalls
a sense of ‘relief’ above all else when the cauldron –
which he describes as ‘crystallising the essence of
Japanese manufacturing’ – was finally unveiled to the
world. ‘The last six months were very tough mentally,’
he explains. ‘So I didn’t feel emotions such as joy. I was
just relieved that the project finished without any major
trouble.’ He adds: ‘I hope that many people could feel
the vitality and energy behind the concept of the
cauldron – not just the athletes, but also the many
people still struling from this pandemic. I hope it
gave courage and hope to those people.’
Sato is also all too aware that courage and hope
are precisely what’s needed among a new generation
of designers in Japan and beyond, who are juling
shifting global industry dynamics and the uncertainty
of a pandemic with the challenges of launching their
careers. ‘Now, many companies are observing the
situation and refraining from investing,’ he says.
‘So huge branding projects and new projects may be
rarer. And even if there were these projects, I feel
that they would choose a designer with a stable history
of accomplishment instead of giving the challenge
to young designers, to lower the risk.  »

198 ∑
 5x5: Nendo

Nendo co-founder Oki Sako

photographed at his Tokyo
HQ on 9 August with a
‘Melt’ chair from the 2012
Black on Black collection for
Singaporean brand K%
 5x5: Nendo
‘The connection between young designers and society
is getting looser and looser and I regard this as a serious
problem. Also, if travel restrictions continue, this may
lead to a decrease in engagement with overseas designers,
and in the presentation of new products. It is possible
for a designer who already has connections, but it is
a different situation for designers starting from zero.’
In terms of his own efforts to support young
creatives, he highlights how designers at Nendo are
often allowed to work on a half-freelance basis after
acquiring sufficient skills at the studio. ‘This may help
to maintain a longer relationship between us,’ explains
Sato. ‘In Japan in the past, you had to choose between
being freelance or a salaryman. But to take the pros
from both sides and make their status more ambiguous
gives designers more opportunity for growth and the
chance to perform a wider range of activities.’
When asked about mentors encountered on the
pathway to his own success, Sato cites perhaps Japan’s
most iconic design name: Issey Miyake. In 2008, Sato
was invited by Miyake to join a string of other young
designers to create works for an exhibition. The end
result? The ‘Cabbage’ chair, an organically unfolding
structure fashioned from rolls of pleated paper left over
from Miyake’s famed pleated textile process, which
now sits in MoMA’s permanent collection.
The experience was a milestone for Sato because of
the invaluable creative lessons he learnt in the process.
‘I trained as an architect, which meant I had a goal to
fulfil and I needed to finish every project,’ reflects Sato.
‘However, Mr Miyake told me that I really didn’t have
to finish the project. When you feel that it’s finished,
Meet Nendo’s five creative leaders of the future
200 ∑
Nendo’s spherical cauldron
with hydrogen flame or
the Tokyo 2020 Olympics
it’s finished. That was inspiring; I learned that I am the
one who creates the goal. That’s what makes design so
free and interesting. Every project has a different goal.’
It’s a creative lesson that’s long lingered with
Sato, who today has his own advice to offer designers
starting out: don’t take the easy route. ‘There are
always two paths to choose in any situation,’ he says.
‘The choices are the easy way and the difficult way.
I strongly suest taking the difficult way. The easier
way can only give you the solution to the problem,
but the difficult way will lead you to experiences and
engagements that will benefit you in the future.’
Like many global designers, Sato’s own creative
vision of the future has been dramatically recalibrated
by the pandemic. Yet Nendo’s output appears to have
been no less prolific: this year alone, it launched a new
online store, Nendo House, and amenity kits for JAL;
future projects include the interior design of France’s
new high-speed TGV trains, to be unveiled ahead
of the 2024 Paris Olympics, and an exhibition of
collaborations with Kyoto craftsmen early next year.
For a designer who used to pretty much live out of
a suitcase, Sato describes the unusually long amount
of time he has spent in Japan as a period of ‘overhaul’
– a moment to analyse past projects as well as plant
creative seeds designed to flourish in a post-pandemic
world. ‘It’s a strange moment in my career because
I can look back on our past activities and review
each and every one of the things we have done so far.
0 2 0 2 o y k o T f o y s et r u o c : y h p a r g o t o h P
And perhaps the thoughts and arrangements I’ve
made over the last two years will bring great value
to Nendo in ten or 20 years.’ ∂ nendo.jp
 5x5: Nendo
21. Takt Project
This Japanese multidisciplinary studio was founded
in 2013 by Satoshi Yoshiizumi, formerly a member of
Nendo’s team. Describing itself as a ‘Design Think +
Do Tank’, the studio works on briefs for clients such
as Toshiba and Sony, in parallel with research projects
on how design can have a positive impact on society.
It is based both in central Tokyo and the rural Tohoku
region – ‘to reaffirm design and manufacturing from
multiple perspectives’. One of its most impactful
projects is Glow ⇄ Grow (pictured), which sees resin
dripping onto LEDs, slowly solidifying into an organic
form defined by gravity and chance. ‘Takt Project’s
designs are not only sharp and advanced, but Satoshi
Yoshiizumi’s understanding of and insights into
materials and techniques is far deeper than that of
designers in general,’ says Sato. taktproject.com

22. Federica Biasi

A rising star of contemporary Italian design, Federica
Biasi set up her studio in Milan in 2015. A graduate of
the European Institute of Design, she has worked for
clients including Gallotti & Radice and CC-Tapis, also
serving as art director of metal workshop Mingardo
since 2017. ‘Her lean, soft and sophisticated forms
remind me of Japanese design elegance,’ says Sato. ‘In
addition, her art direction and interior styling suests
very mature design skills. I sometimes imagine that she
has a cockpit in her back with an elder designer inside.’
Including the ‘Timo’ chairs for La Cividina (pictured),
a collection of coffee cups for Nespresso and woven
baskets for Rabitti 1969, Biasi’s projects span materials
and mediums. ‘I like it when an artisanal touch turns
into an industrial product,’ she says. ‘I like studying
the object and imagining the process that will make
it accessible to everyone.’ federicabiasi.com

23. Mario Tsai

‘Tsai is a designer who seems to go back to the “roots”,
such as the process of making things, the principles
of nature, and the laws of physics,’ says Sato of the
Hangzhou-based creative, one of a select few Chinese
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designers who receive commissions from global

furniture brands (see W*266). ‘His is like a scrap-and-
build process with a completely different methodology.
I would love to see his architecture work someday.’
Among Tsai’s latest creations are no buildings yet, but
striking designs such as the axe-cut and burnt ‘Origin’
bench (pictured), inspired by primitive tools, and
the ooden ‘Rong’ bookshelf, ith its cross-shaped
details. Both are part of a series of designs for Designe,
an initiative Tsai established to help amplify the
value of design within the industry. ‘My time spent at
factories taught me how to execute ideas with the
least amount of material and energy consumption to
achieve maximal results,’ says Tsai. mariotsai.studio

WRITER: ROSA BERTOLI, YOKO CHOY ∑ 203

 5x5: Nendo
24.
Studio Jinsik
Korean designer Jinsik Kim has been on our radar
ever since he founded his studio in Seoul in 2013; we
find his ability to seamlessly intersect materials, such
as stone and metal (as in the 2018 series of ‘Weight’
bookcases in stainless steel, metal wire and Boryeong
stone, pictured), endlessly fascinating. This fearless
aesthetic was also noticed by Sato, who has been
following Kim’s career since his ECAL days. ‘Kim’s
approach toward materials is very inspiring; he is not
afraid of combining different materials, but looks as if
he is enjoying the jam session with them,’ says Sato.
Kim’s pared-back aesthetics are the result of regular
observations of his environment. ‘If you look at old
houses in Korea,’ he says, ‘decorations are often kept to
a minimum, so that materials and their original texture
and colour are revealed. As time goes by, their natural
beauty emerges.’ He often finds inspiration in the time
he spent living with his grandparents: ‘These memories
have affected me: since then, I think that the atmosphere
of a space is more important than its visible function.’
Kim’s current focus is on integrating touch, smell
and sound in his designs. The results of this exploration
will be channelled into a brand he is developing with
a Seoul-based entrepreneur, to ‘create an intersection of
five senses through objects and space’. studiojinsik.com

25.
Julie Richoz
Swiss-French designer Julie Richoz studied at ECAL
(where she now also teaches) and set up her design
studio in Paris in 2015, following a time assisting
designer Pierre Charpin. Whether furniture or design
objects, her pieces are characterised by brightness and
lightness – Sato praises ‘her unique sense for colour
and outstanding details’. In 2019, Richoz won the
Swiss Design Award for her commitment ‘to exploring
ancient, including extra-European, crafts and
integrating them into contemporary object design.’
Recent projects include Shed (pictured), part of
the ‘Knit!’ exhibition – Kvadrat’s initiative involving
28 emerging global designers who were invited to create
furniture and objects using the Kvadrat ‘Febrik’ textile
range. Following research into the history of nomadic
structures, she created a work of mini-architecture
with the ‘Plecto’ fabric collection, exploring the way
s n av E e k u L , e eL l i p g n a S : y h p a r g o t o h P

textiles can create space and structure.

Throughout her work, Richoz’s strong interest in
craft emerges with projects such as the terracotta ‘Giro’
tableware for Trame, or the ‘Noise’ and ‘Stereo’ rugs,
both handmade in Morocco by local artisans. She has
recently unveiled solid ash bowls for Italian brand
Mattiazzi. ‘What interests me is the savoir-faire, the
precision in the way materials are employed, and that
things are done with passion,’ she says. julierichoz.com

204 ∑ WRITER: ROSA BERTOLI

Weddingpaper*
Must-haves for modern brides and grooms

Dress, £2,000, by
In-Grid Bride. ‘Opera’
earrings in white gold
and diamonds, £96,000,
by Buccellati
For stockists throughout,
see page 314

PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSH DAVID PAYNE FASHION: JASON HUGHES JEWELLERY: HANNAH SILVER ∑ 207
 Clockwise from right, jacket,
£1,895; shirt, £575, both by
Dunhill. ‘Kofuku no ki’
brooch in 18ct white gold with
akoya pearls and diamonds,
£6,000, by Mikimoto. Jacket,
price on request; shirt, £395,
both by Celine Homme by
Hedi Slimane. ‘Serpent
Boheme’ brooch in 18ct pink
gold with diamonds, price on
request by Boucheron. Jacket,
£1,605; shirt, £810, both by
Saint Laurent by Anthony
Vaccarello. Opal diamond
and aquamarine brooch
(c. 1930), £32,000, by Raymond
Yard, from Omnēque

B ring an oeat elegance to the sharp

silhouette of a suit with a brooch. Vintage
and traditional designs, when intertwined
with contemporary references, make for a very
modern wedding. Playful placements can bring
new life to a heritage piece; a bow tie, when drawn
in platinum and tourmaline and pinned in place,
brings a mischievous modernity to a Cartier clip
dating from the 1940s. Other pieces make arresting
adornments with colour contrasts; the cool blue
of a 1930s Raymond Yard brooch, which fringes an
aquamarine in opals and diamonds, is brought to
life against a dark lapel, while lustrous Mikimoto
akoya pearls suspended from their white gold
branches are coolly current when juxtaposed
against Dunhill polka dots. A hidden functionality
in Boucheron’s ‘Serpent Boheme’ brooch adds a
pleasing wearability: swing the diamond-studded
teardrop pendant from a long necklace or wear
alone on its rose gold pin to add a glittering
minimalism to your wedding day wardrobe.

208 ∑ PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSH DAVID PAYNE FASHION: JASON HUGHES WRITER: HANNAH SILVER
 Weddingpaper*
Jacket, £740; shirt,
£240, both by AMI.
Platinum and yellow
gold diamond and
tourmaline double
clips (c. 1940), price
on request, by Cartier,
from Omnēque

Brooch the subject of style and

sophistication on the big day
PIN SHARP

Twenty-4 Automatic watch
in rose gold with silvery,
vertical and horizontal
satin-finished dial, £37,350,
by Patek Philippe
Rosy tones and double diamonds
marry well with feminine frills
BAND OF GOLD
PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSH DAVID PAYNE WRITER: HANNAH SILVER
Warm metallic tones lend a welcome
toughness to the cool whites of a
wedding dress, with chunky rose gold
chain links adding an androgynous
touch to the femininity of frou-frou
frills. Patek Philippe veers away
from the overly delicate in its only
collection aimed solely at women,
translating the clean design codes of its
traditionally male collections into the
Weddingpaper*
women’s Twenty-4 collection.
A dial, embellished with a subtle
pattern that recalls the grainy textured
finish of silk, is juxtaposed with the
smooth finish of rose gold and edged
in a double loop of diamonds for
a sporty luxe finish. A round case
and the uncluttered simplicity of
the face make this the ideal choice
for a more casual celebration.
∑ 211
Weddingpaper*
This page, clockwise from
right, dress, price on request,
by Molly Goddard Bridal.
Opium poppy crown in
brass, £950, by Christopher
Thompson Royds. Dress,
£1,295, by Christopher Kane.
‘Garland’ white gold tiara with
akoya pearls and diamonds,
price on request, by Tasaki.
Jacket, £675; dress, £485, both
by Asceno. ‘Kryptonite’ silver
tiara with brown diamonds,
£4,000, by Bibi van der Velden
Opposite, dress, £4,370,
by Paco Rabanne. ‘Laurier’
white gold head ornament
with brilliant-cut diamonds,
£42,500, by Chaumet

There’ll be no tantrums with these

tantalising tiaras and head ornaments
CROWNING GLORY

PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSH DAVID PAYNE FASHION: JASON HUGHES JEWELLERY: HANNAH SILVER ∑ 213
 Weddingpaper*
Snow-set diamonds and white gold
make for a dazzling combination
LITTLE SPARKLER
First unveiled in the 1970s, Piaget’s
Limelight Gala Precious Sunrise is
still characterised by its asymmetrical
profile and the sweeping lines that
circle the bezel before continuing their
journey along the bracelet. The bold
colours that defined the women’s
watches of previous decades here give
way to bridal-friendly softer shades,
with an intricate gradation of pastel
blues plotted in brilliant-cut sapphires
and diamonds. High jewellery
elements continue in both the dial,
sprinkled with snow-set diamonds,
and the supple bracelet in white gold.

Limelight Gala Precious Sunrise

watch in 18ct white gold with
sapphires, diamonds and a snow-set
dial, price on request, by Piaget

No gift list is complete without

some icons of Italian design
PRESENT FORM
As far as timeless gifting is concerned,
Poltrona Frau’s collection of objects
by legends of Italian design hits the
spot. The sculptural forms of Angelo
Mangiarotti’s ‘Askos’ crystal pitcher and
‘Pura’ marble plate combine minimalism
with a pure elegance, stretching
materials to their extremes. Michele De
Lucchi’s ‘Marianne’ vases, meanwhile,
elegantly explore the potential of blown
glass. Created using an open mould
made of steel strips that give each piece
a unique, distinctive ridged form, the
vases combine white and transparent
layers moulded together in a crucible.

‘Pura’ marble plate, from

£540, by Angelo Mangiarotti;
‘Marianne’ vases, from £960,
by Michele De Lucchi;
‘Askos’ crystal pitcher, £540,
by Angelo Mangiarotti,
all for Poltrona Frau

214 ∑ PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSH DAVID PAYNE INTERIORS: OLLY MASON WRITERS: HANNAH SILVER, ROSA BERTOLI
 Weddingpaper*

Avant-garde altar looks for

the contemporary bride
MODERNLOVE

Dress, £19,000, by
Valentino. Bag, £480, by
Molly Goddard Bridal.
‘Opera’ earrings in white
gold and diamonds,
£96,000, by Buccellati

PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSH DAVID PAYNE FASHION: JASON HUGHES JEWELLERY: HANNAH SILVER ∑ 217
 Weddingpaper*

F orget timeless and understated.

Your big day should be all about
seizing the moment, using the
conduit of The Dress to really say
something. Never shy of a tulle ruffle,
Molly Goddard’s recent foray into
bridalwear was a natural evolution for
the London designer. Her distinctly
feminine approach has a cool edge
that keeps things on the right side of
frou-frou. Meanwhile, In-Grid Studio,
known for its riffs on the white shirt,
expanded into wedding attire when
co-founder Katie Barclay started
creating ‘art-focused couture pieces’.
Her clean, voluminous shapes are
striking and entirely modern.
Christopher Kane laces his semi-sheer,
marabou-trimmed, figure-skimming
gowns with a tantalising lick of
subversion, while London studio
Wed romantically reimagines beautiful
deadstock fabrics into truly marvellous
gowns – look out for its signature
drapery and sequins. But let’s
not do away with tradition entirely.
Something blue? Manolo’s velvet
heels spark a love affair that endures.

Above, dress; hat, both

price on request, by Wed.
Right, dress, £1,995; veil, £595,
both by Christopher Kane.
Shoes, £975, by Manolo
Blahnik. ‘Laurier’ white
gold head ornament with
brilliant-cut diamonds,
£42,500, by Chaumet

218 ∑ PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSH DAVID PAYNE FASHION: JASON HUGHES JEWELLERY: HANNAH SILVER WRITER: TILLY MACALISTER-SMITH
 Weddingpaper*
Say it with flowers (and diamonds)
with a botanically inspired piece
BRIDALBOUQUET
Translating the magic of a fairytale
garden into an horological fantasy,
while also giving a nod to Christian
Dior’s horticultural passions, is
Dior’s dreamily indulgent Grand Soir
Aquarelle timepiece. Under the glass
blooms a white gold and pink gold
flower, its petals studded with round-
cut pink sapphires and tinted glass
in a play on volume that adds layers
of detail to the watch face. Pear-cut
and round-cut diamonds drift across
a fabric dial that looks to have been
daubed with a paintbrush, with the
paint blossoming over the face and
infusing the white leather watch
strap with colour.

Left, Grand Soir Aquarelle

watch in pink gold and white gold
with diamonds and sapphires,
price on request, by Dior
Below, ‘A Listener’ centrepiece,
price on request, by Jie Wu,
from Gallery Fumi

Rosewood and resin make easy

bedfellows in this ethereal centrepiece
PERFECT MATCH
The work of Chinese-born, London-
based artist Jie Wu elegantly marries
East and West, the natural and the
manmade. Having studied textile
design at Chelsea College of Arts and
the RCA, Wu turned her attention
to recycled rosewood and translucent
resin, which she calls ‘an inclusive
material that can bring a new life to
wood’. Combining the two, Wu created
a collection of furniture and vessels on
the theme of silence earlier this year,
which included this evocatively hued
centrepiece, inspired by Chinese
bronzeware from the Warring States
period. It would make a showstopper
of an addition to your wedding table,
or, considering its title ‘A Listener’, an
apt gift to symbolise your dedication
to your spouse-to-be.

220 ∑ PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSH DAVID PAYNE INTERIORS: OLLY MASON WRITERS: HANNAH SILVER, TF CHAN
 Weddingpaper*
Rendez-Vous Dazzling Moon
Lazura watch in rose gold
with diamonds, price on
request, by Jaeger-LeCoultre

There'll be no mooning around

on the day with this star turn
SOMETHING BLUE
Crafted in inky lapis lazuli,
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Rendez-Vous
Dazzling Moon Lazura sports a
moonphase display drawn in milky
white mother-of-pearl, with the
moon suspended under polished
gold constellations that map the
night sky in accurate detail. The night
scene is lit up by the halo of floating
diamonds encircling the dial, which
are held aloft by claws in a brilliant
refraction of light. On the edge
of the face sits a gold star; controlled
by the second crown, it is designed
to mark an extra-special calendar
date – a function surely made
with your wedding day in mind.

PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSH DAVID PAYNE WRITER: HANNAH SILVER ∑ 223

 Weddingpaper*
Our finest hour requires an
elegantly ed labour of love
TRUE ROMANCE
A classic with a twist is the motto
behind Vacheron Constantin’s edgy
sophistication, making its timepieces
the natural choice for the chic watch-
loving bride. This piece builds on the
Heures Créatives collection, originally
released in 2015; drawing from the
archives, pieces were inspired by
everything from the curving forms
of the Belle Époque era to the slyly
humorous design codes of the 1970s.
The Heures Créatives Heure
Romantique model borrows from
the romance of the art nouveau
period, taking inspiration from a 1916
timepiece and translating it into a
contemporary silhouette. Flowers,
drawn in white gold and studded with
diamonds, are sweet not saccharine,
while glittering leaves branching from
their petals make a brilliant foil for
the delicate mother-of-pearl dial.

.nodnoL kaizziD gnisu sinnE yhtaC :riaH .1 sledoM ta arahibE ayukaT ,tnemeganaM kliM ta abozihC :sledoM
nilreBGR :gnihcuoteR .1202 retniW-llaF ytuaeB lenahC gnisu iznattaL anitraM :tsirucinam dna pu-ekaM

Heures Créatives Heure

Romantique watch in 18ct
white gold with a diamond-
set folding clasp, £49,600,
by Vacheron Constantin

224 ∑ PHOTOGRAPHY: JOSH DAVID PAYNE WRITER: HANNAH SILVER

3 Introduction
4 Mentors
5 Workshops
7 Materials
9 Sustainability
10 Designers
24 Credits
Touch, reflection and strength. How do our
objects help combat isolation in a pandemic-
afflicted reality? How can we foster a sense
of touch in an increasingly virtual world?
Wallpaper* and American Hardwood Export Council
(AHEC) present Discovered, a platform to promote
and support design’s next generation, in partnership
with the Design Museum, London. Twenty young
designers from 16 countries were invited to create
objects that represent the functional and emotional
connections to our everyday items, guided by the
themes of touch, reflection and strength.
To work with, the designers were given the choice of
four sustainable US hardwoods: red oak, cherry, hard
and soft maple. Their pieces have since been made
by AHEC’s global manufacturing partners, and the
results are unveiled here by Wallpaper* and on display
at the Design Museum, London, from 13 September
to 10 October 2021.
The designers were invited to think freely about
their experience of isolation in creating their objects.
They also considered the materials’ tactility as a key
component of the creative and production processes.
Design entrepreneurs Tomoko Azumi, Nathan Yong,
Maria Jeglinska-Adamczewska and Adam Markowitz
were on hand to mentor the designers throughout the
process. Support was also given by an advisory panel
comprising Wallpaper* editor-in-chief Sarah Douglas,
AHEC’s European director David Venables, and
regional director for Africa, Middle East, India and
Oceania, Rod Wiles.
On the following pages, meet the mentors and the
workshops, learn about the materials and their
sustainability, and explore the designs of Discovered.
3 Introduction Discovered
 Japanese designer Tomoko Azumi is a director of TNA Design Studio,
a London-based furniture, product, exhibition and retail interior design
consultancy. She graduated with an MA in furniture design from Royal
College of Art in 1995, co-founding design partnership AZUMI, and
then opening her solo studio in 2005. Recent works include furniture
for the UK Supreme Court, as well as pieces for Ercol, Röthlisberger
and Zilio A&C. She has been teaching design since 2000 at Glasgow
School of Art, Royal College of Art, Middlesex University, London
Metropolitan University, Vitra Design Museum summer workshops,
Iuav University of Venice, and Liechtenstein University.

Maria Jeglinska-Adamczewska established her Office for Design &

Research in 2012. The Polish designer graduated from ECAL’s industrial
design course in 2007 and went on to work for Galerie Kreo in Paris,
Konstantin Grcic in Munich, and Alexander Taylor in London. She
works on a wide range of commissions: industrial design projects and
exhibition design, as well as research-based design projects. Her work
is inspired by the idea that in today’s world, research can trier and
generate new forms of answers and offers.

Melbourne-based Adam Markowitz is an award-winning designer and

maker of furniture and lighting, as well as a practising architect. He has
trained in Tasmania and Denmark, and at the Center for Furniture
Craftsmanship in Maine, USA. Since 2015 he has operated his independent
design studio, Markowitzdesign, delivering residential architectural
projects, small batch production furniture and custom commissions.
Markowitz has been co-teaching the ExLab experimental making
programme for the last four years at the University of Melbourne, and is
the current vice president of the Victorian Woodworkers Association.

Nathan Yong graduated from Singapore’s Temasek Polytechnic in

1991, with a diploma in industrial design. He began his career
working as a buyer, as well as engaging in product development for
REGAJ EJNA :ROTARTSULLI

various companies in Singapore. Now running his industrial design

consultancy, he has collaborated with international furniture
companies such as Gebrüder Thonet Vienna, Living Divani and
Ligne Roset, among others. He has twice won the Red Dot Concept
Design Award, and was also named Designer of the Year at the
prestigious Singapore President’s Design Award in 2008.

4 Mentors
A Discovered piece in production; the human touch is evident throughout the collection

Benchmark
West Berkshire, UK
A powerhouse of craft, Benchmark is one of the UK’s
leading furniture makers. Founded by Terence Conran
and Sean Sutcliffe in 1984, the company has a mission
to create furniture that contributes to human health
and wellbeing, using natural, sustainable and non-toxic
materials. With workshops in West Berkshire and
Dorset, Benchmark works with many of the world’s
leading architects and designers on commercial and
residential projects. From forest to finished piece,
Benchmark is positioned as a leader in sustainable
enterprise. Its approach marries forward-thinking
design with exemplary levels of craftsmanship and
creativity, producing furniture that exudes natural
warmth and soul.
Wewood
Gandra, Portugal
Wewood – Portuguese Joinery is a brand founded in
2010, as a result of the Research and Development
Office of Móveis Carlos Alfredo. The family-owned
company has specialised in manufacturing solid wood
furniture since 1964. Wewood’s heritage is grounded
in more than five decades of production, and the
handmaking or hand-finishing of all of its pieces,
away from standardised, large-scale manufacture.

5 Workshops Discovered
Fowseng
Johor, Malaysia
Founded in 1969, Fowseng prides itself in thinking
differently about manufacturing fine furniture.
Underpinned by a culture of open-mindedness and
tenacity, it has become renowned for its attention to
detail, and creates furniture for brands including
Liberty, Ligne Roset and Heal’s. The company focuses
on taking well-conceived designs and developing them
into well-made products. Working only with American
timber and employing the latest technology, combined
with an understanding of the tools and skills of
traditional craftspeople, it produces furniture pieces
that are made to last, both physically and aesthetically.
Evostyle
Sydney, Australia
With three generations of woodturning and joinery
experience under its belt, as well as a workshop
employing high-tech machinery, Evostyle has the
knowledge, experience and capabilities for a range of
projects. The maker of choice for many of Australia’s
high-end furniture brands, including Cult, it is
committed to the environment and uses sustainable
American hardwoods. It also believes in preserving
craftsmanship in Australia, and is developing training
programmes to ensure high-end production skills
are handed down to future generations.

Each design was inely crafted and highlights the natural characteristics of the wood

6 Workshops
American red oak
American red oak is the dominant species in
the US hardwood forests, 17.9 per cent of the
resource overall, with distinctive grain and
wood that is not always red in colour. The
name comes from the leaf colour in the fall.
Red oak may be sold on the basis of ‘northern’,
‘southern’ and ‘Appalachian’.
Red oak trees grow naturally, and almost
exclusively, in North America, although
planted elsewhere. They are widely
distributed throughout most of the eastern
United States in mixed hardwood forests.
The trees are very tall. There are many
sub-species, all within the red oak
classification, which grow at various
latitudes; some high in the mountains and
others on low land, giving rise to different
characteristics. Thus there are significant
variations in red oaks depending on location,
in particular between the slower grown
northern and faster grown southern trees.
Red oaks are regarded as highly sustainable
for both domestic and export consumption
and, being the largest species group,
are more abundant than white oaks.
Detail of Reframe, by Ivana Taylor

American hard maple

American hard maple, growing naturally
in the hardwood forests of North America,
is world-renowned for its delicate colour,
hardness, fine grain and finishing quality.
The species makes up 6.6 per cent of the
total US hardwood growing stock.
It is a cold-climate species. Trees
can grow throughout the USA in mixed
hardwood forests, but favour the more
northern states. The species is quite different
from other maples throughout the world.
The trees often grow in dense stands on
many types of soil and are also farmed for
their famous maple syrup. Harvesting the
trees is seasonal (autumn and winter).

Detail of Winding Stream, by Yunhan Wang

7 Materials Discovered
American soft maple
Soft maple, growing naturally in the
hardwood forests of North America, is one
of the most prolific and sustainable species,
making up 11.1 per cent of the total US
hardwood growing stock. Soft maple is
similar to hard maple, but slightly softer in
impact hardness.
American soft maples grow widely across
the eastern USA in mixed hardwood forests,
with more red maple in the north-east and
silver maple concentrated in the mid and
southern states. The name can be misleading,
as soft maple is not technically very soft.
There is a significant number of sub-species
– all sold as soft maple.

Detail of Corners Lamp, by Mew Mungnatee

American cherry
American cherry comprises just
3 per cent of the American forest
resource overall, but in the northern
Appalachians and particularly
Pennsylvania and West Virginia, it is
very abundant. Cherry has a relatively
short rotation, taking less time
to mature than other hardwoods.
The narrow sapwood is a light
pinkish colour, while the heartwood
varies from rich red to reddish brown,
and darkens on exposure to light. It is
a high-quality cabinet wood and may
contain streaks of lighter sapwood and
dark gum pockets. With a straight,
unpronounced grain and fine texture,
the wood is medium density and
moderately strong. It is easy to
machine, shape and connect, and
when sanded and polished, produces
Detail of Riverside, by Juan Carlos Franco & Juan Santiago Sierra an excellent smooth, glossy finish.

8 Materials
In the face of mounting global environmental
challenges, we need to make the most of the
sustainable raw materials available to us.
The familiarity of wood and the fact that it derives
from a once-living organism makes it an attractive
material for design. Strong, tactile and visually
appealing, wood is essential in an era of plastics,
over-consumption and climate change, because of its
low impact on the environment and the fact that it
can be easily recycled. As well as being a material for
making, it is also a low impact fuel and a carbon store.
This project presents four underused timbers –
American red oak, cherry, soft and hard maple – and
questions the assumption that the best-known wood
varieties are always the only ‘right’ woods to use.
These woods grow abundantly in the American
hardwood forests and have incredible design and
performance potential. As David Venables explains,
‘AHEC’s emphasis is also on the environmental merits
of using the range of available species. Overreliance on
a narrow selection will ultimately result in supply
stress. The realisation is growing that, to make the
most sustainable use of the forest, we have to expand
our portfolio and use the species nature produces.
Combined, cherry, the maples and red oak account for
more than 40 per cent of standing US hardwoods.’
AHEC uses a range of tools and data to
demonstrate the environmental credentials of the vast
Forests in Pennsylvania, USA
9 Sustainability
American hardwood resource. These include an online
interactive map that draws on information provided
by the US Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and
Analysis (FIA) programme and gives a picture of
hardwood forest growth and timber offtake, drilling
right down to county level. Also available from AHEC
is its life cycle analysis (LCA) tool, which offers users
details on the environmental impact of shipping a
specified volume of the commercial US hardwoods to
any destination worldwide. This shows that US
hardwood lumber delivered anywhere in the world
is almost always better than carbon neutral (more
carbon is stored in the wood than is emitted in all the
processes to harvest, process and transport the timber).
Another AHEC tool is an online calculator
showing the rate of renewal of each species. For
example, a cubic metre each of cherry, hard and soft
maple and red oak is replaced in the US hardwood
forest in 2.69, 1.7, 0.87 and 0.57 seconds respectively.
‘There’s a growing feeling that, as we come out of
the pandemic, there will be a deeper realisation that
the climate crisis we are all facing potentially threatens
even greater disruption, unless we can work together
to find solutions, collectively changing the way we
behave, work and consume,’ says Venables. ‘Our aim is
to highlight that greater use of sustainable American
hardwoods, with all their carbon and wider
environmental benefits, is one of those solutions.’
Discovered
 Sizar Alexis, Lahmu
Eskilstuna, Sweden
Woods: cherry and scorched red oak
Having lived through the Iraq war in
the 1980s, Alexis imagined his home
as a bunker, protecting his family and
newborn son during the pandemic.
Drawing from the similarities between
his own childhood experience and his
young son’s, his sculptural pieces are
defined by stark monolithic forms and
stillness, representing the emotional
connection to his thoughts in the
pandemic. The chunky volumes serve
as side tables or stools, and together as
a bench or low sideboard, inspired by
bunker architecture. Alexis chose two
contrasting woods: one half of his piece
is in American cherry, for its warmth,
and one half is in red oak, its surface
burned with a scorching technique.
@sizaralexis

Isabelle Baudraz, Presences

Lausanne, Switzerland / Athens, Greece
Wood: cherry
Fighting a feeling of isolation, Baudraz recreated tactile and emotional connections through
her four objects. Inspired by the idea of bringing natural movements and forms into the
home, her collection comprises two suspended mobiles, a desk object, and a wall-mounted
installation designed to create moments of tactile connection during isolation. Her pieces
are made of American cherry: ‘It was an instinctive choice,’ she says. ‘We received all these
beautiful samples from AHEC and I was touched by the colour of the cherry and the texture
of its grain. I also liked the fact that it was going to evolve and get darker with age.’
@isabellebaudraz

10 Designers
 Nong Chotipatoomwan, Thought Bubble
Bangkok, Thailand
Wood: red oak
A nostalgia for travel and social interaction guided Chotipatoomwan’s creative thinking through
her project. Physical transitions were replaced with changing states of mind, and the physical
realm merged with the psychological realm through domestic space. The designer looked
at furniture created for relaxation, and landed on a rocking motion, which became the basis
for her chair, offering a mix of relaxation and repetitive movement to enhance mindfulness.
She used red oak for the chair, because she was fascinated by its grain. ‘It’s quite expressive
and I was interested in its porous nature.’
@nong_kornpetch

Mac Collins, Concur

Newcastle, UK
Wood: cherry
While the term ‘isolation’ has acquired negative meaning over the past 18 months, Collins
takes a more positive view. ‘For me, the word has always carried romanticised connotations
of contentment, serenity, contemplation and a sense of withdrawal from the rigmarole
of socially prescribed routine,’ he says. During his time alone, books became precious
companions, and this inspired him to create a place for reflection and reading. His lounge
chair and bookrest, a ‘companion object’, encourage the sitter to tune out of daily life and
focus on an analogue task. Collins chose cherry for his chair, aiming to create a welcoming,
warm and inviting piece.
@maccollins__

Discovered
Pascal Hien, Migo 01
Berlin, Germany
Wood: red oak
‘The pandemic was a time for pause
and reflection, when we became more
present with ourselves and our
surroundings,’ observes Hien. His object,
a multifunctional stool, is the result of
his reflections during a time of change
and uncertainty, as he learned to adapt
and tune out of his fast-paced life.
The stool represents a period of constant
change: ‘You can adapt it in various
ways, there is no front or back, no right
or wrong.’ It’s a helper around the house
or a place to sit. He chose red oak for
its strength and worked on a design with
a rational construction: each chair is
made from a single plank of red oak
(so you get consistency of grain), and its
parts are held together with dovetails.
While living with his family during the
pandemic, Hien involved them in the
testing of the piece, for the first time
making them a part of his design work.
@pascal_hien

Kodai Iwamoto, Pari Pari

Tokyo, Japan
Wood: red oak
For his project, Iwamoto researched traditional Japanese techniques, such as uzukuri (giving
texture to wood by scrubbing) and chouna (chiselling the surface with an adze), and then
started experimenting directly on the wood, peeling its layers to create a new veneer.
Working with red oak, he peeled it by cutting the panel’s edge and removing the surface by
hand, resulting in a jaed effect where the texture of the grain emerges. These imperfectly
textured panels became the starting point for a design exploration that led him to a round
table shape, using the subtle material as a base to create the effect of an ancient tree trunk.
@kodaiiwamoto
Josh Krute, Toteemi
Helsinki, Finland
Wood: hard maple
Inspired by totems (toteemi meaning ‘totem’ in Finnish), Krute created a multifunctional
storage system. As domestic spaces get taken over by work materials during time at home,
Krute imagined a series of stackable boxes to stow work supplies and small objects, while
other components serve as a side table, tray or stools. The design features a ‘lip’ that serves
as a handle, and each box has a different colour on the inside, providing them with a
distinguishable character; Krute chose hard maple because of its light hue and ability to take
colour. The modular system explores tactile wooden objects, birdhouses and small structures,
which Krute streamlined into a compact, practical design. ‘Toteemi provides solutions for
how we delve between living and working in the same environment,’ he says.
@josh_krute

13 Designers Discovered
Siyanda Mazibuko, Kumsuka (Evolve Your Space)
Johannesburg, South Africa
Wood: thermally modified red oak
The inspirations for Mazibuko’s piece include isicholo, a hairstyle symbolising tribal identity
in several African cultures, and indlamu, a traditional Zulu dance practised in celebratory
ceremonies. He paired these visual references with a reflection on themes of engaging
human behaviour, and the role of design in people’s lives. ‘Engaging with other people is an
intrinsic human trait,’ he says, citing this as the reason for his design, a modular, layered seat
imagined for public spaces. He took a practical approach, looking into ergonomics and
function to create his bench, composed of interlocking strips of thermally modified red oak
– timber that has been baked to a high temperature, making it suitable for the outdoors.
@_kumsuka_

Mew Mungnatee,
Corners Lamp
Bangkok, Thailand
Woods: soft maple and cherry
Mungnatee’s emotional
response to the objects
surrounding her took in the
relationship between form,
light and shadow, and with
this project, she explored this
connection through geometry.
Her lamp designs, inspired by
pagodas, are based on a bulb
casting a shadow over surfaces
below thanks to an intricate
grid composition featuring
wooden slats and indented
corners. She worked with soft
maple, because of the manner
in which light bounces off its
surface (‘The wood has an
opalescent gleam,’ she explains)
and American cherry for its
ability to take stain.
@budd.designstudio
Trang Nguyen, The Roof Stool
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Woods: cherry, red oak and hard maple
Nguyen looked at traditional Vietnamese
roof tiles for her project, creating a
collection of nesting stools that replicate the
way the tiles overlap to hide the connecting
structures below. Her simple stool design is
inspired by traditional temple architecture
and Vietnamese dresses, and features pins
made of contrasting wood at the joint,
which remains hidden when the stools are
stacked and is revealed when they are in use.
‘I chose the three different types of wood
because of their colour differences,’ explains
Nguyen. ‘By randomly using two of the
species for the pins and another one for
the rest for the stool, users can explore the
various timbers when they unstack each
piece.’ As people have been spending more
time at home, her design is imagined to
provide additional seats, while creating
a beautiful composition when not in use.
@tra.ng.trang

Alessandra Fumagalli Romario, Studiolo 2.0

Milan, Italy
Wood: cherry
During extensive Zooming, video meetings and Insta-lives, Fumagalli Romario observed
people’s curated backgrounds, which got her thinking about ‘the importance of objects as
extensions of ourselves: from one side, many boundaries are created, from another,
boundaries disappear, private and public are mixed together’. She likened this curated space
to the small studioli found in Renaissance paintings, and to cabinets of curiosities. Inspired,
she created a visual background, a cabinet to present oneself through objects that may
be exhibited or hidden. Adding to its intrigue, she angled the vertical planes that divide the
cabinet; together with gradient finishing, this creates the illusion of greater depth. Of her
cherry wood choice, she says, ‘I wanted a wood that talked by itself. Also, I love its warm
colour. It’s a wood that changes colour quickly if exposed to light. It’s important nowadays to
have objects that remind us that they come from nature and change and mutate over time.’
@alessandra.romario

15 Designers Discovered
 Taiho Shin, Ikare
Seoul, Republic of Korea
Wood: hard maple
During his time in isolation, Shin noted that
‘objects help human resilience through
unusual situations’, and this thought served
as the basis for his project. Guided by the
‘Ikea effect’ (consumers place higher value
on products they partially created), he
thought of a half-made design that users
could partly assemble to foster interaction
with their objects. He created one small
table, put together thanks to an ingenious
but simple-to-use joint system (no glue
necessary), and the design multiplies to
create a stackable system of shelves, suitable
for different spaces. He chose hard maple,
as the density of the timber means the joint
can be moved in and out without crushing
the fibre of the wood.
@taihoshin

Mimi Shodeinde, Howard Desk

London, UK
Wood: hard maple
The pandemic world is all about newness,
observes Shodeinde: new dangers, and
new ways of interacting, living and working.
‘In designing furniture for this new
paradigm,’ she says, ‘we should lean into the
familiar and the comforting. We should seek
freedom, connection, stability and strength.’
These qualities are to be found in her design:
a solid desk whose light forms contrast with
the rigorous construction and weight of the
wood. The designer looked to a vast pool of
cultural references, from the compositions
of British sculptor Barbara Hepworth to the
modernist architecture of Lina Bo Bardi,
and the aerodynamics of flight (pilot
Howard Hughes inspired the name of the
piece). These influences converged into a
sinuous silhouette, a design that challenges
the familiar but also offers a sense of safety.
@miminat_designs
Juan Carlos Franco & Juan Santiago Sierra, Riverside
Medellin, Colombia / Barcelona, Spain
Wood: cherry
During isolation, objects change their function and their meaning, and we find ourselves
looking for space within our space. This was the observation that kicked off Franco and
Sierra’s project, which looks at how our furniture changes purpose and how adaptability is
key (in a pandemic as much as in modern living). Inspired by adaptable design (such as the
pile dwellings, or stilt houses, in Colombia), they created a bench that suits different needs,
thanks to the addition of accessories such as trays, dividers and storage that fuse into a
central fissure. This way, the bench becomes a multifunctional space that can adapt to home,
workspace or public environment. The designers chose cherry for their piece: ‘We’d never
worked with cherry before, and it was a great opportunity to take advantage of that wood,’
says Sierra. ‘Also, we saw what our mentor, Maria Jeglinska-Adamczewska, did with her table
and chair in AHEC’s previous project, Connected. It was made from cherry and it was really
beautiful: we loved the grain and the texture.’
@juancarlosfg @juan.santiagosierra

17 Designers Discovered
 Ivana Taylor, Reframe
Adelaide, Australia
Woods: hard maple, cherry
and red oak
Taylor’s own experience of solitude
led to extensive periods of reflection,
ultimately inspiring her to change her
approach to designing and making.
For this project, she aimed to ‘design
a contemplative sculptural object that
triered reflection on the multi-
layered nature of any experience,
including isolation’. A recurring theme
of her research featured ways of
framing a view at different scales,
and the resulting design is a sculpture
made from a series of small carved
objects that layer to create a
composition acting as a ‘sculpted path
for light’. Working with three woods,
Taylor was interested in exploring
different material hollows, cutting
each layer to expose the wood’s grain.
@ivanataylordesign

Martin Thübeck, Rå
Stockholm, Sweden
Wood: red oak
While confined at home with his young children, Thübeck found inspiration in the way
they adapted their surroundings for play, challenging conventional ways to use furniture:
‘Limitations became possibilities,’ he comments. After looking at traditional furniture
and playground equipment, he developed a piece (Rå, meaning ‘pure’ in Swedish, also
referring to a mythical forest creature from local folklore that can change its appearance)
whose construction is informed by Swedish craft, and whose function can be interpreted
either as a chair or a slide, as it is flipped upside down. He chose red oak for his design, based
on the way the wood soaks up pigment and gives depth to it. ‘This piece is a symbol of
coexistence, and the act of turning it is like moving between worlds,’ he says, citing an
approach that merges the indoor and outdoor, staticity and movement, adults’ and kids’
points of view. ‘My intention is not to fully merge the two functions, but to see what
happens when they are so close to each other that they are perceived as one,’ he says.
@mratin
Yunhan Wang, Winding Stream
Zhuhai, China
Wood: hard maple
Unable to carry out certain customs during lockdown, people are confined to performing
rituals at home. There is a novel need for suitable furniture and objects that can fit a small
space but serve the same purpose. Wang wanted to create a domestic alternative to the
‘winding stream party’, a Chinese drinking custom in which poetry is composed while a cup
is floated down a stream with people sat on both sides; the person sitting in front of the cup
that stops has to drink it. Inspired by Hakka round houses, Wang created a compact table
design with storage concealed in the legs and a central slit to fit trays and cups. The table is
also equipped with a drain so users can dispose of their water through the twisting gully,
and it then trickles into a waste bucket housed in the main leg. Wang chose hard maple for
Winding Stream because she was drawn to the light colour, and the timber has been
spray-painted to prevent rot from setting in.
@dorisofia21

19 Designers Discovered
Vivienne Wong, Iuxta Me (beside me)
Melbourne, Australia
Wood: cherry
Dancer-turned-designer Wong looked at non-verbal communication as the starting point
of her project, approaching the task from a personal point of reflection and knowledge.
‘I wanted to translate my previous understanding of how we can connect and communicate,’
she says, and looked to create a piece to nurture strength, intimacy and connection. Invisible
physical boundaries and the creation of textures through light formed the basis of the
project, which developed into a coffee table featuring interlocking echoed forms, where the
functional joinery also became a decorative motif for the piece. Wong chose American
cherry because of its grain and colour. ‘It has a beautiful warmth in its pinkish, red hue,’ she
says. ‘I felt that supported everything I was trying to put into this piece.’ Her design’s name
(using the Latin word for ‘beside’) represents the desire for human connection and closeness
that guided the process.
@vivienne_l_wong

20 Designers
Tan Wei Xiang, Recollect
Singapore
Woods: hard maple and red oak
Searching for a tangible physical connection to loved ones (beyond virtual calls), Tan turned
to keepsakes as a way to fight nostalgia. His keepsakes cabinet is imagined as a way to hold,
preserve and give respect to the items we hold dear. Its forms were inspired by Singapore’s
ubiquitous construction sites and the ridged zinc sheets used to protect them. Tan recreated
this motif as the outer shell of his tall, lean cabinet, and created curved shelves to sit inside
it, with a mirrored, polished brass circle, mimicking the sun setting on the horizon. The
designer had worked with maple before but never from the American hardwood forests and,
for this project, he selected a combination of hard maple of different thicknesses to achieve
the ‘crinkled’ effect on the shell, and red oak for the curved shelves inside.
@helloweixiang

21 Designers Discovered
Duncan Young, Shelter Within
Adelaide, Australia
Wood: hard maple
Young focused on the materiality of timber, and how this organic material can help us
connect with nature while confined at home. ‘For those in dense urban environments,
lockdowns have impacted our physical and mental strength by limiting the biological need
humans have for being in outdoor spaces,’ he says. He looked at studies analysing the positive
impact of nature on physical and mental health, and in response created a modern cabinet of
curiosities as a pillar to nature, for the user to engage with the natural world while at home.
Featuring a solid carcass with discreet joinery and a moiré-effect shelf (a design inspired by
the historic symbolism of the cabinet as a theatre), the simple plinth includes two glass
sculptural elements handmade at Young’s studio, refracting and distorting the light to evoke
the effect of walking beneath a canopy of trees. Young used hard maple to create the carcass.
‘It’s such a pared-back timber,’ he explains. ‘It has a gentle grain structure and I thought the
lightness would soften the heaviness of my piece’s form.’
@duncanyoungstudios

22 Designers
23 Designers Discovered
Discovered
The Design Museum, London
13 September – 10 October 2021
Publication photography:
Petr Krejčí, Tim Robinson,
Winston Chuang, Jason Yates,
Fraser Stephen, Nuno Faria
discovered.global
#discoveredglobal
AHEC
American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) has been at the forefront
of global wood promotion for over 30 years, successfully building a
distinctive and creative brand for US hardwoods. AHEC’s support for
creative design projects demonstrates the performance potential of
these sustainable materials and provides valuable inspiration.
americanhardwood.org
@ahec_europe, @ahec_anz, @ahec_sea
Wallpaper*
Wallpaper* is the global design authority, leading the way in architecture,
design, art, entertaining, beauty & grooming, transport, technology,
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Wallpaper* is at the forefront of the global creative community.
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The Design Museum is the world’s leading museum devoted to
contemporary architecture and design. Its work encompasses all elements
of design, including fashion, product and graphic design. It has staged
over 100 exhibitions, welcomed over five million visitors and showcased
the work of some of the world’s most celebrated designers and architects.
designmuseum.org
@designmuseum
Timber kindly donated by
AHC Export Lumber, APP Timber, Allegheny Wood Products,
Blue Ridge Lumber Inc, Cersosimo Lumber Co Inc, Danzer Veneer,
Graf Brothers Flooring, Horizon, J & J Log and Lumber, James Latham,
Wheeland Lumber Company Inc, Maple Street Timbers, Midwest
Hardwood Corporation, Northland Forest Products, Oaks Unlimited,
Robert Coleman Lumber, Turman Sawmill, Tyler Hardwoods,
and WM Cramer Lumber Co.
TM Red oak donated by Bingaman & Son Lumber.
With the support of the US Department of Agriculture,
Foreign Agricultural Service.
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 Architecture Icon

Star
turn
Charles Jencks’ scintillating
PoMo masterpiece, Cosmic
House, opens to the public
PHOTOGRAPHY: JASON ODDY WRITER: DEYAN SUDJIC

It’s more than 35 years since Charles Jencks –

the critic credited with the briefly shocking
idea that modern architecture was dead, and
then with popularising postmodernism –
first opened the door of his newly completed
home and ushered me into the lobby. Except
that it wasn’t a lobby. It was a Cosmic Oval,
a space which would, he said, introduce me
to all the themes he had explored in the
design of his house in London’s Holland
Park. For the next two hours he proceeded to
explain them to me in head-spinning detail.
He had three closely typed A4 sheets full of
notes in his hand to prompt him. He checked
them from time to time, just in case there
were details he had forgotten to mention.
But he didn’t really need to, his enthusiasm
kept him going without missing a beat.
It was a disorientating experience, which
began with the whirlpool of mirrored doors
lining the Cosmic Oval all around us. I never
counted them, but the precise number of
mirrors would have been important to
Jencks. It was an opaque reference perhaps to
the 13.7bn years since the Big Bang, which the
Cosmic Oval represents, or to the number of
years that elapsed from the Big Bang to the
appearance of the first atoms. Or maybe the
‘quadrupole anomaly’ that describes the
geometry of the Oval. Or maybe all three.
Before I had a minute to try to take all
this in, Jencks, lanky and angularly elegant,
with a fondness for pocket handkerchiefs,
fedoras and velvet suits, was pointing up at
the frieze above our heads, painted by the
artist William Stok to his instructions. There
were Imhotep, architect to the Pharaoh
Djoser; Abbot Suger, the great patron of early
Gothic architecture; Pythagoras; Erasmus;
the emperor Hadrian; Thomas Jefferson;
and Hannah Arendt, in no particular order.
While I was still trying to come to terms
with this cosmic dinner party, Jencks was
pointing out that each of the doors that
circled us had two symmetrically positioned
handles, implying that the house was
essentially a duality. The house was about  »
 The Architectural Library
was designed by Jencks as
a ‘City of Books’ so that
each bookcase’s shape
relates to the individual
architect or thematic style
of the books it displays

∑ 253

For the next two hours, Jencks proceeded to
explain the house to me in head-spinning detail
cosmic time, but it was also about earthly
time. And we were just getting started. Here
was the staircase that spirals up through the
house, with its 52 steps, each of them divided
into seven segments to measure out the years.
At the bottom was Eduardo Paolozzi’s mosaic
representation of a black hole.
On the ground floor was a celebration of
the seasons: Michael Graves’ Spring Room,
beyond which was the Indian Summer
kitchen, and to the right was an Allen Jones
painting inspired by Poussin’s A Dance to the
Music of Time. Looking into the garden was
Piers Gough’s jacuzzi, modelled on an
upturned version of a dome by Borromini.
When we finally got into the garden at the
end of the tour, I could see the back of the
house, a symbolic representation of its four
occupants: Jencks, his wife Maie Keswick
Jencks, and their two children.
Jencks called me afterwards. People were
asking him how much of the house was Terry
Farrell, his co-architect on the project, and
how much was Charles Jencks. He wanted me
to act, as he put it, ‘as a neutral observer from
the high-tech tendency with no skin in the
postmodern game, to adjudicate on giving
Architecture Icon
credit where credit was due’. Thankfully it
was never necessary; the house was certainly
the combined work of many designers, artists,
architects and craftsmen. Farrell later said
the project set in train the chain of events
that led to the break-up of his architectural
partnership with Nicholas Grimshaw, who
remained a high-tech enthusiast.
In May 2021, on my most recent visit,
Jencks’ daughter Lily let me into the house
through a different door, where the garage
had once been. We walked into a gallery that
acts as a temporary exhibition space for the
house in its new role as a museum. It’s an
alteration planned by Jencks and Lily, and
approved by the local planners before the
house was listed by Historic England as a
monument of outstanding architectural and
historic importance in 2018. The new gallery,
with a floor painted to look like malachite,
does more than defer to the original building. Top, the Moon Well brings light
It adds a new layer to the house, one that through three floors, using mirrors
represents Jencks’ growing fascination with to inflect the circular shape
cosmology. Hanging in the new space is a Above, the house’s garden açade
globe, representing the damage of climate is a symbolic representation
o Jencks, his wie Maggie and
change, that Jencks was painting almost to
his last moment (he passed away in 2019).  »
their two children, through
the repeated ‘Jencksiana’ moti
∑ 255
 Architecture Icon
Above, the new exhibition space, with
a painted floor and a sculpture o the sun
and Earth by Charles and Lily Jencks
Below, Charles and Maggie’s bedroom
256 ∑
Restoring the house has given it a new lustre,
but there is something more than a little
melancholy about the idea of a house – a
place I remember as full of conversation and
people – becoming a museum. There are
depressing precedents. Gerrit Rietveld’s
house in Utrecht, where every trace of the
lives of its remarkable inhabitants has been
wiped clean, is one. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s
house for his sister in Vienna, now occupied
by the Bulgarian government, is another.
But Lily, who worked closely with her
father on the transformation of the house
into a base for his archive, and a place in
which to explore the many subjects that
fascinated him and her mother, has no
intention of allowing the house to become a
lifeless shrine. She wants to make the Cosmic
House an intimate setting for a limited
number of visitors, even if she remembers it
from her own childhood as a place where she
was reluctant to bring her school friends.
Maie and Charles, and later, his third
wife Louisa Lane Fox, filled the place with
people and got them to talk and think. At
one particular dinner party, a conversation
between Norman Foster and Michael Graves
ended with Graves finally snapping,
‘Norman, I would rather practise law than
make buildings that are like yours.’
Maie and Charles did so many things
with their lives that it is hard to define them
by any one pursuit. Both studied architecture:
he at Harvard, and she at the Architectural
Association (after reading English at Oxford,
and starting a fashion brand). Spurred on by
Maie’s experiences with cancer, they
created Maie’s Centres, a network of
intimate refuges for patients. Each is
designed by a different architect, ranging
from the Jenckses’ personal friends, including
Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry, to younger
designers such as Carmody Groarke.
Working with Lily, Jencks developed an
impressive career later in life as a landscape
architect, not least with the 30-acre Garden
of Cosmic Speculation at the Keswick family
home outside Dumfries, as well as at the
Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, and in
locations from Beijing to Milan.
Jencks originally called his London home
‘The Thematic House’. He saw it as a chance
to explore his own view of postmodernism, at
a time when it was already in danger of being
swamped by a set of superficial clichés. His
later enthusiasm for cosmology took him
in the different directions that are reflected
in the most recent additions to what is now
the Cosmic House. It has always been a house
with something to say. And that is what it
intends to go on being. ∂
The Cosmic House, 19 Lansdowne Walk, London
W11, opens to the public on 24 September 2021;
thecosmichouse.com
π
For the full gallery, see Wallpaper.com
 Partners Since…

Poltrona Frau’s ‘Vanity Fair’ armchair, photographed in 1996

Poltrona Frau; beautiful furniture design and l’intelligenza delle mani since 1912.
Wallpaper* partner since 2002. Buon 25° compleanno da Tolentino, Wallpaper*
 Entertaining
HIGH
WATER
A luxury vodka brand arises from an alchemical
adventure with aquifers, amethysts and art
WRITER: HARRIET LLOYD-SMITH CREATIVE DIRECTION: TONY CHAMBERS STYLIST: IMOGEN KWOK
The story of X Muse begins in an ancient
aquifer, an underground layer of rock that
holds groundwater, beneath the Jupiter
Artland sculpture park near Edinburgh.
This water source had already inspired
American cultural theorist and landscape
designer Charles Jencks (see page 252) to
create Cells of Life, eight site-specific,
otherworldly landforms that form the
park’s utopian centrepiece.
In 2016, Robert Wilson – who had co-
founded Jupiter Artland with his wife Nicky
in 2009 – was looking for another use for
this precious water. It took synchronicity
and serendipity. Both arrived in the form of
a dinner invitation from Vadim Grigoryan,
an alcohol industry expert and former
global director of creativity and luxury at
Pernod Ricard. In his career, Grigoryan
witnessed the most exciting and frustrating
sides of the alcohol industry. ‘Things were
frequently driven by financial aspects rather
than an honest desire to bring something
new,’ he says. ‘One thing that always
surprised me was the emphasis on yield,
rather than the quality of the ingredients,
such as water and grains for distillation.’
Grigoryan wanted to transcend consumer
trends and transactional value to create
a brand that would be culturally enriching
and respectful of its ingredients.
Synchronicity was served over dinner.
Ideas began to germinate when Wilson
and Grigoryan found common ground in
philosophy, creative spirit and actual spirits,
which often comprise 60 per cent water.
Cue serendipity: ‘Bingo,’ says Wilson. ‘I had
a use for my precious, energetic water, and
the idea of creating a luxury vodka brand
with art and art practice at its centre.’
The result is X Muse (pronounced ‘tenth
muse’). Three key artworks give the new-

generation vodka brand life, all of which
live at Jupiter Artland. The brand’s name
is derived from Ian Hamilton Finlay’s
sculpture X Muse, created in 2005 and
installed and sited posthumously in 2008.
It depicts the head of Sappho, the Greek
lyrical poet whose extraordinary creative
gifts led Plato to dub her the ‘tenth muse’,
thus ranking her alongside the Nine
Muses of Greek mythology.
Jencks’ Cells of Life serves as both the
gatekeeper for the vodka’s water source
and also the inspiration for the bottle
shape, which was conceived by packaging
designers Stranger & Stranger. It ‘echoed
the ridges and gentle sweeping lines of
Jencks’ artwork,’ says Wilson. Meanwhile,
Anya Gallaccio’s The Light Pours Out of Me,
a subterranean grotto lined with dazzling
purple amethysts, inspired the processing
of the water through an amethyst vortex
to increase the energy within it.
In his role as artistic and brand director,
Grigoryan developed a mission statement
for X Muse based on ‘the values at the
intersection of genuine craft, contemporary
art and the alchemical origins of spirit
making’, he says. This would require
Elements from the X Muse
Helicon vodka-tasting
workshops, by Formafantasma
and Lobmeyr, include
vodka-tasting glasses with
lids, a water glass, a coupette
with olive pick, an olive glass,
a bottle of X Muse vodka
on a bronze bottle glorifier,
an amethyst water container,
and a bronze container with
an amethyst crystal
not only a meeting of artworks but a
meeting of creative minds.
London-based graphic design studio
APFEL took the reins on the multi-element
brand identity, inspired by alchemy, sacred
geometry, and the art on show at Jupiter
Artland. The main logo draws on the
lettering carved into Finlay’s sculpture, with
‘high contrast between the thick and thin
strokes and a mixture of serif and sans serif
lettering’, explain APFEL founders Kirsty
Carter and Emma Thomas. ‘For the brand
illustration, we researched the alchemical
symbols that were used in hermetic texts »
∑ 261
 Entertaining
as a form of notation. The Monas
Hieroglyphica is an esoteric symbol invented
and designed by John Dee in the 16th
century, and its meaning is linked to the
essence of X Muse – distilling the sun,
moon, elements and fire.’
X Muse’s outlook is international,
but its heritage is rooted in Scotland,
with the founders aiming to bring Scottish
spirit-making traditions – synonymous
with whisky and gin – to the world of
vodka. It required science, research and help
from experts at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt
University. Less conventional still was the
base ingredient for the drink – not potatoes
or wheat, as one might assume, but two
varieties of heritage barley, Plumage Archer
and Maris Otter, inspired by whisky making.
‘In a blind tasting with a group of experts,
we proved my hypothesis that different
varieties of barley have different tastes,’ says
262 ∑
Ian Hamilton Finlay’s sculpture of Sappho, entitled
X Muse, left, provided the inspiration for the new
vodka brand’s name, while the hexagonal gift box,
below, contrasts with the contoured bottle, which
was inspired by Charles Jencks’ Cells of Life
Grigoryan. ‘In vodka, unlike brown spirits
or gins, there’s nowhere to hide. We wanted
to make a sipping vodka that is also great
in classic cocktails such as martinis.’
Beyond its alchemic innovations,
visual appeal and historical significance is
the art of ceremony, or what the brand
calls ‘ambromoments’. ‘With X Muse, we
have involved collaborators of the highest
artistic quality, who fully understand the
importance of detail, design and creativity,’
says Wilson. To enhance this idea of
ceremony, the brand created the Helicon
vodka-tasting workshops, which take their
name from Mount Helicon, a source of
poetic inspiration and the site of two springs
sacred to the Muses in ancient Greek
mythology. ‘Our Helicon workshops will
attempt to recreate that creative blend of
experience and pleasure,’ explains Wilson.
Design research studio Formafantasma
– Wallpaper* Designers of the Year 2021,
and one of our 5x5 visionaries (see page 163)
– teamed up with crystal glass manufacturer
Lobmeyr to bring the X Muse Helicon
tasting workshops to life, creating elements
such as glassware, bottles, glorifiers,
tableware and containers for presenting
ingredients. ‘A lot of skill is needed to blow
and shape those precise and delicate forms,’
says Lobmeyr’s managing director Leonid
Rath. The studio also created the X Muse
Temple, the physical embodiment of the
brand. Founders Andrea Trimarchi and
Simone Farresin sought to avoid ‘certain
clichés in the world of alcohol’ and instead
sensitively ritualise the ‘good side of
drinking’. ‘There is this part of alcohol that
should be recognised and not necessarily
seen as evil. This is a way of celebrating
this,’ says Farresin.
‘We commissioned Formafantasma to
imagine our ideal tasting experience, full
of hidden cues, artistic references and
storytelling. What Simone and Andrea did
is a perfect example of showing without
y r u o h K m a S : yh p a r g o t o h P / e s u M X f o y s e t r u o c s e g a m I
saying,’ adds Grigoryan, nodding to the
brand’s motto, Plura Latent Quam Patent
(more is concealed than revealed). The
brand’s draw is also its subtlety. Like any
great art, it doesn’t give too much away.
The creation of X Muse has required
many ingredients. It was born from water
but brought to life through art, science,
design, chemistry, physics and a shared
zest for collaboration. ∂
To buy X Muse vodka (£57 for 70cl), or to find
out more about the Helicon vodka-tasting
workshops, visit xmusevodka.com
 LIQUID ASSET
The oldest single malt Scotch ever bottled, Gordon & MacPhail’s latest batch
of Glenlivet comes in a fittingly sober decanter and case by David Adjaye
WRITER: DAVID RS TAYLOR
When Sir David Adjaye drinks, there are
no half measures. ‘One of my uncles is a huge
whisky fan in Ghana,’ he tells me via Zoom.
‘West Africans brew all these high-octane
things – they call it akpeteshie. Very DIY,
but very loved. Whisky feels like something
that’s really engaging with the body; I love
that fire that goes down you. It makes you
feel so alive.’ It seems, then, that far from
being a surprise move, the RIBA Royal Gold
Medal-winning architect’s newest project
– designing the case and decanter for the
oldest whisky ever to be freshly bottled –
makes complete sense.
In 1940, in Elgin, north-east Scotland,
26 years before Adjaye was born, father-and-
son whisky team John and George Urquhart
were considering the latest batch they
had acquired from Glenlivet Distillery. John
had worked his way from apprentice to
sole owner of Gordon & MacPhail, one of
Scotland’s finest bottlers. Their decision
to put aside a cask of Glenlivet for 80 years,
knowing they would never taste it, took
experience, foresight, and a little madness.
Stephen Rankin, director of prestige at
Gordon & MacPhail, and fourth-generation
member of the Urquhart family, explains
that the pair weren’t averse to forging a path:
‘You can release a blend when it’s three years
old, but in the 1970s, George released Macallan
whisky from 1937, for £4.50 a bottle. It’s
worth tens of thousands of pounds today.’
The result of this long-term thinking is
Gordon & MacPhail’s latest release: the
Generations 80 Years Old from Glenlivet
Distillery, the oldest single malt Scotch
whisky ever bottled. Maturation is a delicate
art, especially when dealing with a spirit as
rare as this, and decades of judgement has
paid off. The 80YO, at an astounding 44.9 per
cent ABV, is remarkably multifaceted. Each
sip of the amber liquid brings forward new
264 ∑
notes, from citrus to vanilla and leather.
While requiring astronomical restraint,
leaving a drop in the glass overnight to
revisit the next day brings its own rewards
of lingering fragrances that transport
you to a comfy corner in an old library.
There’s a smokiness here, missing from
most Speyside drams, that’s linked to the
whisky’s age: distillers in 1940 would malt
barley on site, creating more varied flavours.
Decades on, the 80YO’s light smoke settles
into the background, elevating the lighter
notes at the forefront. It’s magnificent,
the result of generations of care.
Adjaye’s pavilion-like oak enclosure,
crafted at Wardour Workshops in Dorset,
pays homage to the wood that made this
whisky possible. When the oak tree harvested
to make the cask first sprang to life in 1840,
Queen Victoria had just married Prince Albert.
A century later, after housing mosto (pressed
grape juice), sobretables (newly fermented
wine) and sherry, Cask No. 340 was sent
from Spain’s Jerez to Elgin, to be filled with
Glenlivet’s best spirit, made rarer by the
wartime rationing of barley.
There’s an enigmatic nature to Adjaye’s
case, with only narrow slits in the front
teasing at the interior. Innovative hinges
click open to reveal the crystal decanter
inside, topped with darkened oak to connect
the whisky with the wood to which it owes
its flavour. Individually hand-blown at
Scotland’s Glencairn Crystal Studio, each
decanter is encased by thick glass and two
cut lenses, both magnifying the liquid
inside and helping you keep a firm grip.
‘I’ve been obsessed with glass for a long
time,’ says Adjaye. ‘It’s another world.
There are certain proportions and certain
flows: bottles follow some crazy laws. I did
everything just to slow you down. I basically
want you to really appreciate it – I don’t
want you to casually pick it up. Please give
it some respect, pick it up with two hands,
watch the liquid slowly descend.’
This considered approach has been key
to the work of Gordon & MacPhail for
generations. ‘It’s all about the long term,’
says Rankin. ‘We’re not looking at how things
will look for the fifth generation, it’s how
it’ll look for the sixth, seventh generations.’
Adjaye, too, takes the long view: ‘I think that
within five years, if you’re not doing anything
meaningful about sustainability, your
business is going to suffer, no matter how
good your brand is,’ he says. ‘For younger
generations, it’s not even a conversation.
“How are you not thinking about this?
Are you mad?” They’ll be laughing at us;
we’ll be like the tobacco industry.’
To this end, Gordon & MacPhail supports
the local charity Trees for Life in its mission
to rewild the Caledonian Forest and, along
with Adjaye, has committed to similar
projects in West Africa. Proceeds from the
sale of decanter #1, due to be auctioned at
Sotheby’s Hong Kong in early October with
an estimate between £80k and £140k, will
go towards the Trees for Life nursery,
which grows 100,000 native and rare trees
(including oaks) from seed each year.
Time and patience are concepts that
seem in short supply in the modern world.
For the fields of architecture and whisky,
they’re two of the most important. With
this project, the disciplines have combined
to create a product that respects the past,
embraces the present and focuses on the
future. Not bad for something that’s been
sitting around for 80 years. ∂
Public showcases of the Generations 80 Years Old
will be held in London, New York and Hong Kong
as part of Sotheby’s 2021 Hong Kong Autumn
Sales Series preview exhibition; sothebys.com;
gordonandmacphail.com; adjaye.com
 Entertaining
Handmade in Dorset by Wardour
Workshops, David Adjaye’s
pavilion-like oak case opens up
to reveal the mahogany-coloured
whisky, which is housed in a
decanter produced by Glencairn
Crystal Studio and designed by
the architect to appear as hewn
from a single block of crystal
*repapll aW rof soidutS erutuF ta
niwdoG lieN :yhpargotohP
 Entertaining
It was the 71st night, a cold night in
Rotterdam, recalls Mert Alas, when he
and his team opened the oak casks in which
his new gin had been ageing. They hadn’t
expected to try the contents so soon, but this
was all one big experiment, so why not?
One sip of the honey-coloured liquid and it
was immediately clear – it was perfect.
Alas and his creative partner Marcus
Piott form the fashion photography duo
Mert & Marcus, known for crafting glossy
editorials that feature glamorised characters
playing out off-kilter scenarios. Seventy
One gin initially kicked off as an outlet
outside Alas’ demanding, fast-paced world.
‘It started as a passion project. I was just doing
it for myself as a way of doing something
beyond photography,’ he says.
The more he experimented, the more
he became enamoured with the technical
construction of taste, the pairing of different
ingredients to get the results he wanted.
But he soon found himself questioning the
traditional method of creating gin.
‘Traditionally, gin is made by mixing
alcohol with botanicals and vaporising them,
heating them up, and the vape becomes the
gin. But this led me to question, “Why am
I putting everything in at the same time?”’
The solution was to create a gin the same
way that a perfumer creates a perfume.
‘I took the absolutes of botanicals individually
and then assembled them, like a perfumer
would do. This meant I could regulate how
much the rose should be a top note, how
much the juniper should taste more smoked,
or more fresh. This gave me a lot of control,
but it was also like an exciting nightmare
because there were hundreds of choices.’
In the end, that exciting nightmare
yielded a gin with familiar ingredients, such
as juniper, coriander, angelica and lemon,
as the heart notes, but which are rounded
out with unexpected flavours, such as rich,
resinous base notes of smoke, peat and spice.
These are finished off with the crisp, slightly
sweeter notes of Albanian ivy leaves, damask
rose and grapefruit. The most notable
ingredient is an orchid cactus known as

Measure
Queen of the Night, which only blooms for
a single night. It infuses the gin with a
jasmine-like flavour without being as sweet.
Once blended, the gin is aged in a
sequence of barrels. These include virgin oak

for measure
Fashion photographer Mert Alas’ new
gin label evokes the spirit of perfumery
casks from Spain that are charred to impart
smoky depth, sherry-saturated American
oak casks that lend the sweetness of sherry,
and French oak casks that infuse the gin
with the warmth of cognac.
With Seventy One, Alas set out to create
an homage to the perfect night out. And he
reckons he has conceived a drink well-suited
to a new era of socialising in the post-Covid
landscape. ‘Seventy One is not for getting
drunk,’ he says. ‘It will hopefully bring good,
creative minds together, minds with voices,
minds with ideas, minds with surprises.’ ∂
£140 for 70cl, seventyonegin.com

266 ∑ PHOTOGRAPHY: MERT ALAS WRITER: MARY CLEARY

Wallpaper* Bespoke

Take
a seat
WRITER: ALICE MORBY
ARTWORK: ROSE PILKINGTON
Interstuhl’s uplifting office
chairs offer WFH comfort
Rumour has it Charles Darwin fitted
wheels to the chair in his study so he
could get to his specimens more quickly.
What’s certain is that designers and
brands aplenty have long looked to
create the perfect solution for desk-
based work. And sitting comfortably
has never been thought about more.
Working from home has seen us
spend hours sitting on dining chairs,
beds, sofas, floors, rugs and garden
furniture in pursuit of a position that
preserves our posture. Rather than
acquire an office chair, some of us have
compromised our bodies for our
surroundings; but we needn’t have done.
For some, the words ‘office chair’
conjure up images of black plastic,
gaudy metal and scratchy fabric. But
German brand Interstuhl is on a mission
to change that. Uniting luxury with
utility, its Pure Fashion collection of
desk chairs, which it dubs a ‘modern
sculpture of professional seating’, pairs
nappa leather upholstery options with
coordinated metal and plastic elements.
While aesthetics are important,
Interstuhl is a keen advocate of form
following function, and the design of
the chair began with its performance.
‘To us, form follows function means a
design that is not loud, not a star in the
room, but more an accessory,’ says the
brand. Smart Spring technology adapts
to the body’s position to provide the
utmost support. As you sit, the system
helps to activate muscles by moving
alongside the body rather than rigidly
working against it. Darwin, surely,
would have been thrilled.
shop.interstuhl.com
The colourful Pure Fashion series, with
ergonomic Smart Spring technology
∑
 GEAR SHIFT
Mercedes-Benz enters a new era with its EQS electric sedan
Mercedes-Benz is making a big commitment
to electrification. It currently has three
pure EVs on the market, the compact EQA,
the EQC SUV and the new EQS sedan,
shown here in the cavernous surroundings
of Zurich’s new Halle 550 exhibition space,
designed by Spillmann Echsle Architects.
There’s also the forthcoming EQB
seven-seater SUV and an electric version
of Mercedes’ V-class van, the EQV.
While EQs A, B and C follow established
car design principles, the EQS is way
bolder, making the most of all-new electric
underpinnings. The next Mercedes-Benz
EVs will deploy this platform to increasingly
spectacular effect. Gorden Wagener has
headed up Mercedes’ design team since 2008,
becoming the company’s chief design officer
in 2016, and the EQS is the culmination
of a long-term design project, as well as the
start of something new.
‘The design team helped define the new
architecture, starting with our 2015 design
vision, the F 015 Luxury in Motion concept
car,’ says Wagener. ‘This provided an answer
to pretty much everything – autonomy,
digital connectivity, electric drive. We’ve
270 ∑
WRITER: JONATHAN BELL
tried to make that vision become reality with
the EQS and the cars that will follow.’
In some respects, the ultra-aerodynamic
EQS goes head-to-head with Mercedes’
long-established flagship S-Class range, the
Sonderklasse (‘special class’) that has led
its line-up since 1972. As the designer notes,
‘S-Class is the core of our brand, our most
important product’. Over the decades, the
S-Class has ushered in a host of automotive
technologies that are now industry standard.
The baton is about to be passed. ‘We are in
a transition phase right now,’ says Wagener.
‘We still have combustion cars and we’ve
just launched a new S-Class with both
combustion and hybrid models. The EQS
stands next to the existing model – it’s not
yet time to completely replace it.’
In terms of design, the EQS offers new
levels of interior space. ‘The biest
challenges with electric cars are the height
of the battery, which makes the body taller,’
Wagener explains. ‘The EQS has a long
wheelbase and a decent wheel size, so there’s
a good wheel-to-body relationship, which is
so crucial on luxury cars. It incorporates that
fine fluid line you saw on the F 015, with
stretched windows and a roof line that
creates an entirely new silhouette. Inside,
there is another paradigm shift, the MBUX
Hyperscreen. Stretching door to door, this
colossal display screen was a huge technical
challenge. ‘The Hyperscreen came out
of an early interior sketch. At that point,
it was impossible to realise,’ says Wagener.
‘What I love so much about this company
is that we made it a reality using our
engineering skills. The Hyperscreen will
change the industry – it’s so disruptive.’
Wagener believes that technology impacts
on aesthetics, not just urban emissions and
driving habits. ‘Technology fundamentally
changes the look of the product,’ he says.
GA zneB-sedecreM fo ysetruoc yhpargotohP
‘For me, it’s almost like the shift from steam
trains to bullet trains.’
At this year’s IAA Mobility Show in
Munich, Mercedes unveiled the EQE sedan,
in addition to new electric concepts from
Mercedes-Maybach, Mercedes-AMG and
Smart. In 2022, it will reveal the Vision EQXX
concept, which promises a range of around
1,000km. The company seems determined
to ensure that aesthetics and innovation
go hand in hand. ∂ mercedes-benz.com
 Transport

This page and opposite,

the Mercedes EQS sedan,
which features a dramatically
long glasshouse and a
display screen that stretches
door to door, shot in the leafy
grounds of the Halle 550
exhibition centre in Zurich
 Wallpaper* Bespoke

Future
vision
ARTWORK: LEONIE BOS
Brückner Architekten proposes
an office that creates more
energy than it consumes
This office concept by Brückner
Architekten combines tectonic forms
with ultra-high environmental
performance. Intended to occupy a
prominent corner plot, it straddles its
site with a lattice-like composition of
stacked and interlocking forms.
The Munich-based architecture
studio has explored the ways in which
technology can reshape an office’s
environmental footprint. ‘The office
districts of the future will have to meet
completely different requirements in
terms of sustainability and quality of
space than is customary today,’ the
architects say. ‘As a result, our projects
and developments must go far beyond
the legal requirements. The days of
heating a building with fossil fuels and
cooling with electricity are gone.’
Central to Brückner’s ethos is
creating buildings that produce more
energy than they consume. This concept
illustrates the myriad ways in which
energy can be generated, conserved and
redirected. The key technologies on
offer – in addition to using renewable
sources – are photovoltaic panels,
geothermal energy, hydropower and
channelling waste heat from data
centres. ‘These approaches should be a
matter of course for a modern office,’
the architects say. ‘We want companies
and their employees to feel that, over
the course of their working life, they
can reduce or even completely eliminate
their lifetime carbon footprint.’
An office offers unseen opportunities,
from waste heat from computers, to
geothermal energy from heat pumps, to
efficient storage and management
systems that direct energy where it is
needed most for heating and cooling.
Rooftops will combine photovoltaic
cells and green spaces. As this dynamic
design so ably demonstrates, the art of A concept office building by Brückner
energy management and bold, creative Architekten, which explores ways of
architecture can go hand in hand. maximising environmental performance
bruecknerarchitekten.com
∑
 OCTOBER IS ALL ABOUT...
GOING BIG OR GOING HOME
p276
TAKING PRIDE OF PLACE
The best seats in the house
p288
PUTTING ON THE GLITZ
This season’s most sensational looks
p306
LIVING THE DREAM
Blur the boundaries between fantasy and reality
p314
LIGHTING UP THE SKY
Judy Chicago’s Niçoise salad
∑ 275
WEIV EDISGNIR
     L L  s r o i r e t n I             L y h p a r g o t o h P
sriahc elbadnemmoc fo nwodwohs ruo rof staes ruoy ekaT

∑
276
In The Market For...
From left, ‘Platner’ chair,
from £3,576, by Warren
Platner, for Knoll, from Aram.
‘Tia’ seat, price on request, by
Antonino Sciortino, for Baxter.
‘Triangolo’ chair, €1,065, by
Per Holland Bastrup, for Frama
278 ∑
 In The Market For...
This page, ‘DU30’ chair,
£1,140, by Gastone Rinaldi,
for Poltrona Frau
Opposite, ‘CH07 Shell’ chairs,
£1,991 each, by Hans J Wegner,
for Carl Hansen & Søn
In The Market For...
This page, clockwise from
bottom left, ‘Neil Leather’
chair, £1,344, by Jean-Marie
Massaud, for MDF Italia.
‘Vipp451’ chair with fabric seat,
€469, by Morten Bo Jensen,
for Vipp. ‘Chair 01’, €545,
by Frama. ‘Roquebrune’ chair,
£1,197, by Eileen Gray, for
Aram. ‘9.5°’ chair, €810,
by Rasmus B Fex, for Frama.
‘Vipp451’ chair with leather
seat, €809, by Morten
Bo Jensen, for Vipp
Opposite, above, ‘Teresina’
chair, £3,054, by Andrea
Parisio, for Meridiani
Opposite, below, ‘Hydro’
chairs, £2,021 each, by
Tom Dixon, for Hydro,
from Tom Dixon
∑ 281
282
164 ∑
 In The Market For...
This page, ‘Sheru’ chairs,
£1,093 each, by Eoos, for
Walter Knoll, from Aram
Opposite, ‘Echoes’ chair,
from £1,801, by Christophe
Pillet, for Flexform
284 ∑
In The Market For...
This page, ‘Fynn’ chairs,
from £5,010 each, by
GamFratesi, for Minotti
Opposite, above, ‘Wired’
chairs, €456 each, by Michael
Young, for La Manufacture
Opposite, below, ‘Hunting’
chair, €6,224, by Børge
Mogensen, for Fredericia
 This page, ‘Carimate’ chairs,
£1,008 each, by Vico
Magistretti, for Fritz Hansen
Opposite, ‘Kangaroo’ chair,
part of the Hommage à Pierre
Jeanneret Collection, £2,041,
by Pierre Jeanneret, for Cassina
For stockists, see page 312

286
168 ∑
In The Market For...
Fashion

PUT YOUR

HANDS UP
Get your glitz on and throw some shapes
Photography Romain Duquesne Fashion Jason HugHes
 This page, dress, £3,600, by
Loewe. Boots, £1,050, by
Jimmy Choo. Earrings, £300,
by Alessandra Rich. Cuff,
£1,250, by Balenciaga
Opposite, dress, £15,540;
leings, £675; sunglasses,
£270, all by Saint Laurent
by Anthony Vaccarello

∑ 289
290 ∑
 Fashion

Romi wears jacket, 1,250, by

Rokh. Earrings, price on request,
from Susan Caplan. Tights,
£21, by Falke. Gabriella wears
dress, £4,100, by Miu Miu.
Shoes, £495, by Tod’s. Seth wears
shirt, 1,450; trousers, 995,
both by Dolce & Gabbana
 Fashion

This page, above, coat, £2,550; top, £910, both by Issey Miyake. Glasses, £420, by Lindberg.
Earrings, price on request, from Susan Caplan
Below, Romi wears cardigan, £1,590; skirt, £1,790; boots, £1,150, all by Fendi. Seth wears jacket, £1,690;
trousers, £620, both by Fendi. Top, £165, by Gerbase. Boots, £1,045, by Bottega Veneta
‘Terrazza’ sofa, price on request, by Ubald Klug, for de Sede, from Monument
Opposite, Romi wears jacket, £2,290; skirt, £2,290, both by Givenchy. Earrings, price on request,
from Susan Caplan. Gabriella wears coat, £7,905, by Loro Piana. Tights, £32, by Wolford

∑ 293
 This page, dress, £5,500, by Hermès. Boots, £1,050, by Jimmy Choo. Earrings, price on request, from Susan Caplan
Opposite, shirt, £3,085; trousers; £2,750; boots, £1,045, all by Bottega Veneta

294 ∑
Fashion
Fashion
 This page, left, top, £1,320; trousers, £2,460; gilet (in hand), £5,710; brooch, £1,320, all by Gucci. Boots, £1,045,
by Bottega Veneta. Right, coat, £4,200; trousers, £695, both by Louis Vuitton
Opposite, jacket, £9,500; roll-neck, £790, both by Prada. Shoes, £725, by Pierre Hardy. Tights, £32, by Wolford

∑ 297
Fashion

This page, catsuit, £1,875, by Salvatore Ferragamo. Shoes, £495, by Tod’s. Earrings, price on request, from Susan Caplan
Opposite, Gabriella wears jacket, £6,275; skirt, £2,480, both by Chanel. Shoes, £495, by Tod’s. Earrings, £250, by Swarovski.
Romi wears coat, £8,935; top, £2,900; skirt, £2,415, all by Chanel. Shoes, £495, by Tod’s. Earrings, £300, by Alessandra Rich
‘First’ chair, £1,250, by Michele De Lucchi, for Memphis Milano, from Béton Brut
∑ 299
Fashion
Gabriella wears coat, £4,560;
belt, £295, both by Akris. Shoes,
£725, by Pierre Hardy. Earrings,
£285, by Alessandra Rich. Tights,
£32, by Wolford. Romi wears
bralette, £490; skirt, £850, both
by Jil Sander by Lucie and Luke
Meier. Boots, £1,050, by Jimmy
Choo. Earrings, price on request,
from Susan Caplan. Seth wears
jacket, £865; trousers, £545, both
by Margaret Howell. Boots,
£1,045, by Bottega Veneta.
Sunglasses, £270, by Balenciaga

∑ 301
Fashion
This page, jacket, £5,200; skirt, £4,800, both by Dior. Shoes, £725, by Pierre Hardy.
Earrings, £440, by Alessandra Rich. Tights, £32, by Wolford
‘Calla’ chair, £2,800 for set of four, by Pompeo Fumagalli, from Béton Brut
Opposite, dress, £1,300; feather brooch, £290, both by Emporio Armani.
Earrings, price on request, from Susan Caplan

∑ 303
 Above, Gabriella wears jacket, £2,300; trousers, price on request, both by Celine by Hedi Slimane.
Shoes, £495, by Tod’s. Earrings, £440, by Alessandra Rich. Seth wears jacket; trousers, both price on request,
by Celine Homme by Hedi Slimane. Boots, £1,045, by Bottega Veneta
Below, Seth wears jacket, £1,000; trousers, £1,510, both by Paul Smith. Necklace, £1,400, by Hermès.
Romi wears dress, £1,790; earrings, £950; cuff, £1,250, all by Balenciaga. Shoes, £495,
by Pierre Hardy. Gabriella wears bustier; top (worn underneath); skirt, all price on request,
by N21 by Alessandro Dell’Acqua. Shoes, £495, by Tod’s. Tights, £32, by Wolford
Opposite, dress, £1,680, by Missoni. Shoes, £725, by Pierre Hardy.
Earrings, price on request, from Susan Caplan. Tights, £32, by Wolford
For stockists, see page 312

304 ∑
 Fashion
Our set was inspired by Himmelbett,
a 1974 theoretical project by Austrian-
American architect Friedrich St Florian,
which imagined a steel and stone
pavilion that would allow its inhabitants
to float between heaven and earth

Models: Gabriella Michelazzo at Milk

Management, Romi Peled at Established
Models, Seth Bedzo at Premier. Casting:
Svea Casting. Set design: Samuel Pidgen
at Bryant Artists. Hair: Tosh using
Bumble & Bumble. Make-up: Victoria
Martin using Glossier. Digi-tech: Joe Smart.
Photography assistant: Gray Brame.
Set design assistants: Clodagh Farrelly,
Tom Hope. Fashion assistants: Kris Bergfeldt,
Sammiey Hughes. Hair assistant: Ellie
Bond. Make-up assistant: Lizzie Checkley
 DREAM
SEQUENCE
Real and virtual worlds collide
in our castles in the sky
Artwork S BS Interiors  mS

306 ∑
 Space
From left, ‘Building’ low
table, price on request, by
Alessandro La Spada, for
Visionnaire. ‘Coordinates’
pendant, £2,165, by Michael
Anastassiades, for Flos.
‘Noctambule’ floor lamp,
£3,625, by Konstantin Grcic,
for Flos. ‘Ripamonti’ lounge
chair, from €2,238, by Keiji
Takeuchi, for De Padova.
‘Barista’ bar cabinet, €13,200,
by Adriano Design, for De
Castelli. ‘Suku’ table, price
on request, by Niko Koronis
Space
From left, ‘Hydro’ vase, from
€571, by Sofie Østerby, for
Fredericia. ‘Lodge’ chair, from
€989, by Morten Bo Jensen,
for Vipp. ‘Lilas’ armchair, from
£2,200, by Dainelli Studio,
for Gallotti & Radice. ‘Balzac’
coffee table, £6,330, by
Tom Faulkner. ‘Materic’ table,
from €8,146, by Piero Lissoni,
for Porro. ‘100’ pendant,
price on request, by Bocci
∑ 309
310 ∑
 Space
From left, ‘FS 8’ console,
€40,000, by Felix Schwake.
‘Ambrosia’ pendant, £829, by
Ciszak Dalmas, for Marset.
‘Pacific’ sofa, price on request,
by Patricia Urquiola, for
Moroso. ‘Tubs I Ilums’ lamp,
from €2,000, by Max Enrich.
‘Le Club’ armchair, price
on request, by Jean-Marie
Massaud, for Poliform
For stockists, see page 312
Stockists

A
Akris
akris.com
D
De Castelli
decastelli.com
H
Hermès
hermes.com
Molly Goddard Bridal
mollygoddard.com
Molteni & C
molteni.it
S
Saint Laurent by
Anthony Vaccarello

I
Monument ysl.com
Alessandra Rich at De Padova monumentstore.co.uk
Matches Fashion depadova.com Moroso Salvatore Ferragamo
matchesfashion.com Dior moroso.it ferragamo.com
AMI dior.com Muller Van Severen Selfridges
amiparis.com Dolce & Gabbana In-Grid Bride mullervanseveren.be selfridges.com

N
Aram dolcegabbana.com in-gridstudio.co Serax
aram.co.uk Dom Pérignon Issey Miyake serax.com

J
Asceno domperignon.com isseymiyake.com Summerill & Bishop
asceno.com summerillandbishop.com

B
Dunhill
dunhill.com Susan Caplan

E
N21 by Alessandro
Dell’Acqua susancaplan.co.uk
numeroventuno.com Swarovski
Jaeger-LeCoultre swarovski.com

T
jaeger-lecoultre.com Niko Koronis
Balenciaga nikokoronis.com
balenciaga.com Emporio Armani Jil Sander by Lucie Normann Copenhagen
Baxter armani.com and Luke Meier

F
normann-copenhagen.com

O
baxter.it jilsander.com
Béton Brut Jimmy Choo Tasaki
jimmychoo.com

L
betonbrut.co.uk tasaki.co.uk
Bibi van der Velden Tod’s
bibivandervelden.com Falke Omnēque tods.com
falke.com omneque.com

P
Bocci Tom Dixon
bocci.com Felix Schwake tomdixon.net
felixschwake.com La Manufacture
Bottega Veneta lamanufacture-paris.fr Tom Faulkner
bottegaveneta.com Fendi tomfaulkner.co.uk

V
fendi.com Lindberg
Boucheron lindberg.com Paco Rabanne
boucheron.com Flexform
flexform.it Loewe pacorabanne.com
Buccellati loewe.com Patek Philippe
buccellati.com Flos

C
flos.com Loro Piana patek.com Vacheron Constantin
loropiana.com Paul Smith vacheron-constantin.com
Frama
framacph.com Louis Vuitton paulsmith.com Valentino
louisvuitton.com

M
Fredericia Piaget valentino.com
Carl Hansen & Søn fredericia.com piaget.com Villeroy & Boch
carlhansen.com Fritz Hansen Pierre Hardy villeroy-boch.co.uk
Cassina fritzhansen.com pierrehardy.com Vipp

G
cassina.com Poliform vipp.com
Manolo Blahnik poliform.com
Celine manoloblahnik.com Visionnaire
celine.com visionnaire-home.com

W
Margaret Howell Poltrona Frau
Chanel margarethowell.co.uk poltronafrau.com
chanel.com Gallery Fumi Porro
galleryfumi.com Marset porro.com
Chaumet marset.com
chaumet.com Gallotti & Radice Prada
gallottiradice.it Max Enrich prada.com Wed

R
Christopher Kane maxenrich.com wed-studio.com
christopherkane.com Gayle Warwick
gaylewarwick.com MDF Italia Wolford
Christopher Thompson mdfitalia.com wolfordshop.co.uk
Royds Gerbase
christopherthompson gerbase.com Meridiani WonderGlass
royds.com Givenchy meridiani.it Richard Brendon wonderglass.com
givenchy.com Mikimoto richardbrendon.com
Gucci mikimoto.co.uk Riedel
gucci.com Minotti riedel.com
minotti.com Rokh
Missoni rokh.net Opposite, ‘Alltubes’
missoni.com chairs, price on request, by
Muller Van Severen. ‘Melt’
Miu Miu chair, £9,500, by Nendo, for
miumiu.com WonderGlass, see page 276
∑ 313
 Artist’s Palate

JUDY CHICAGO’S #125

Niçoise salad
Through searing, potent pieces such as The Dinner
Party and her smoke sculpture series, artist Judy
Chicago has reimagined and rewritten the role of women
in the history of art, confronting patriarchal systems
with a fearless zest. Her chosen dish, selected for its
simple genius, is a Niçoise salad, with a recipe attributed
to Jennifer James, who co-owns Albuquerque restaurant
Frenchish with Nelle Bauer. Photographed by Chicago’s
husband Donald Woodman, the salad is served with
carnations and a specially created mini smoke sculpture
titled Niçoise Smoke. ‘Until the pandemic, we regularly
celebrated our wedding anniversary with the festive
New Year’s Eve dinners that Jennifer cooked up at
Frenchish. And in 2020 – our 35th – Jennifer and Nelle
personally delivered our feast to us at home.’ When
composing the salad, ingredients should be seasonal,
in their prime, and ‘at the whim of mother nature’.
Judy Chicago’s first retrospective is at San Francisco’s
de Young Museum until 9 January, deyoung.famsf.org.
For the recipe, see Wallpaper.com ∏

314 ∑ ARTWORK: JUDY CHICAGO PHOTOGRAPHY: DONALD WOODMAN FOOD: JENNIFER JAMES WRITER: HARRIET LLOYD-SMITH