Archives for the month of: March, 2009

Beige Pride

March 31, 2009 //
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The transformation of this London interior from erstwhile sales office of the iconic seventies development, the Barbican Estate, into smart city residence displays a sobriety and respect usually reserved for the conversion of vintage buildings of much greater years.  Rather than planting tongue in cheek as other renovators of 70′s interiors might have been tempted to do, Mackay + Partners Architects show real love for the task, exalting rather than parodying (or worse trying to ignore altogether) the quintessential low ceilings and big rough textures.  And, in the tradition of the best seventies interiors, the detailing is exquisite.


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Categories architecture, design stories, interior design, materials, vintage

Alpine model

March 27, 2009 //
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This new take on the traditional mountain cabin by Ofis architects is so fresh and clean.  The house may be Slovakian but is absolutely the brand of authenticity that Australian builder makers need to channel when rebuilding the homes so brutally lost in the recent Victorian bush fires.

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Categories architecture, design stories, exteriors, interior design, materials

Beautiful on the inside

March 22, 2009 //

If charity retail and the pinnacle of Paris chic sound like unlikely bedfellows think again. Merci, the newly opened exquisitely styled ‘mixed bag’ boutique by the founders of children’s couture brand Bonpoint, is what can happen (in the French capital at least) when cashed up creatives and their A-list clique of design stars and intellectuals, develop a social conscience.  And the results are stunning.

Already being talked about as a new direction in retailing (for luxury brands especially), the really intoxicating thing about Merci is how its creators have so cleverly and elegantly reinvented the often awkward idea of the charity store, turning it into what Trendwatching might call the most desirable ‘status story’ in town.  Simply by insisting on the best. For everyone.

 



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Categories art, children, colour, craft, decoration, design, design stories, fashion, food, furniture, interior design, lighting, products, vintage

Utility Rules

March 19, 2009 //

The theme of the Tom Dixon roadshow for Milan design week is, very sensibly, ‘Utility’.  A quality captured utterly in the heavy duty, no nonsense aesthetic of the London-based designer’s collection 2009/2010, now previewing online ahead of I Saloni in April.  

I’m an always more ardent fan of Tom Dixon’s work since seeing his Zona Tortona Superstudio Piu’ show first hand in Milan last year.  Dixon does the very English cool, clever, gorgeous, practical thing better than anyone and the design world’s growing appetite for a new refined frugality should play right into this Brit’s very talented hands.

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Categories design, furniture, lighting, products

Bags of potential

March 16, 2009 //
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Goldsmith turned industrial designer turned jewellery designer again, Saskia Diez is chaneling the zeitgeist in spades with her sensational new range of low key, classically styled travellers.  Papier bags are hand crafted from Tyvek (a super tough synthetic paper by Dupont) making them lightweight, water resistant, recyclable and tear proof.  The goldsmith’s touch isn’t missing though with the bags labelled in sterling silver.  And I love the way Diez insists on presenting the bags in both their pristine ‘unused’ and rather more lived-in ‘used’ forms.  Either way they look great.

And there’s not long to wait.  The Munich-based designer is launching the Papier range through her online shop and selected stores in April 2009.

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Categories craft, design, design stories, fashion, products, travel

Roman Holiday

March 13, 2009 //
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The ultimate Italian property fantasy for many of us pretty well begins and ends here: a recycled medieval oasis, complete with secret garden, Roman wall, and just a stone’s throw from the borderline pandemonium of Stazione Termini and Santa Maria Maggiore…  These days more dream than temptation perhaps?  

Still we can all take heart.  The house – product of the unlikely union of a disused bakery and former dairy – is not on the market.  Instead its odd, beautiful rooms are home to the (much envied) Milan-born collector, and PR consultant to the architectural profession, Paola Maugini.  

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Categories architecture, art, decoration, design, exteriors, furniture, garden, interior design, Italy, travel, vintage

Villa Julia

March 9, 2009 //
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Cute as a button but hip enough to hold her own in Milan at design week 09, welcome to Villa Julia.  The creation of Javier Mariscal for the Magis ‘mini brand’ Me Too, this stylish cardboard cubby is the playhouse the (offspring of the) design-savvy, semi-nomadic, apartment-dwelling world has been waiting for.

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Categories architecture, children, decoration, design, interior design, Italy

Slow Food

March 7, 2009 //
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Four long years in the making, Vegetal designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec and produced by Vitra is a chair with a very long tail… In fact, as the story goes, one that leads all the way back to the gardens of the 19th century, to a time when young plants were painstakingly trained to grow in the form of chairs…  But this just released work by the French duo is much more ode than parody.  With Vegetal it was important for the Bouroullecs and Vitra to create not just an evocative visual rendition of a chair inspired by plants but also to replicate their natural growth patterns within the very process of mass manufacture.  (Suddenly the four year time line starts to feel reasonable.)  

No doubt destined to be a Vitra centre piece in Milan in April, the intrinsic goodness of Vegetal, I think, makes it a very suitable new chair for such troubled times as ours…

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Categories decoration, design, design stories, exteriors, furniture, garden, interior design, materials, new technology

Night vision

March 5, 2009 //
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Really intelligent, sophisticated design for children – like Kvadrat’s range of glow-in-the-dark fabrics – is a rare treat.  The leading Danish textile house has come up with an especially winning combination with the charming Village.  A bit like a very early Brugel really, and guaranteed to cajole even the most reluctant young sleeper come bedtime.

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Categories decoration, design, interior design

Silver Linings over London

March 1, 2009 //
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I am liking what Italian designer Rodolfo Dordoni has say about the impact of the global economic downturn on design.  In a chat with Wallpaper on the occasion of the opening last month of the new Minotti flagship store in London (Dordoni is creative director), the Milanese architect was upbeat, – and apparently in no mood to mince words either – insisting the financial crunch can only have a positive impact.

“We have gone too far towards show and a type of vulgarity”, he says. “People have been too weak and spoiled and failed to develop their own style, and instead everything and everyone looks the same”. Dordoni is now looking forward to a move towards something more ‘discreet’ and ‘sobre’.  ”A change in priorities should result in something less exhibitionist, more sane and tasteful’, he says.  

And with all eyes starting to focus on what should be a more streamlined Milan design week in April, it’ll be interesting to see how many of Dordoni’s look-a-likes decide to stay home. 

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Categories design, design stories, furniture, interior design, Italy, products