The Spirited Workshop - Anish Kapoor

Elle Decor Italia
by Paolo Campostrini
photos by Vincent Mercier

Located in an old building in London is the studio of Anish Kapoor. Where things are cut, welded, ground and polished. All focused on the Absolute.

In his workshop, where almost impossible solid engineering takes shape, Anish Kapoor searches for unexplored spaces between matter and light; those metaphysical flashes which emerge from steel when it is polished so rigorously that it seems like liquid mercury and becomes a misshapen mirror (the Cloud Gate in Chicago), where onlookers can discover the face they never knew they had. It is a workshop of solid people run by Kapoor; 15 post-conceptual art labourers who work with him in a large industrial warehouse south of London. "I want them to be agile, in their heads and in their legs," says the Anglo-Indian sculptor of anti-matter. "An idea is worth nothing in itself but only makes sense as the conclusion of a journey of experimentation and work".

After spending just a couple of hours in the workshop, it becomes clear that art, in order to become a spiritual adventure, must first involve the body. Kapoor and his workers use masks because it is dangerous to bring out the soul of matter: splinters, smoke, chemical emissions, acids which peel away even the more resistant surfaces. It is a veritable Vulcan hothouse which supports a construction madness that is attempting to overcome the borders between solids and gases.

In 2012, we will see the highest installation ever constructed: a spiral (the Orbit) which will rise above Olympic London for 115 meters. It is a tower of Babel which, for some, is an anthem for the useless and, for others, is the unexplored, the latest among many works to challenge the static. Works which reveal his obsessions: for red (My red Homeland at Besana, in wax) or for the dragon (The Leviathan for Monumenta 2011, at Grand Palais, in PVC). We, too, have our obsessions, but by getting into his works, we can at least learn to recognize them.

Chalet Béranger by Noé Duchaufour Lawrance

Elle Decor Italia
by Jeremy Callaghan
photos by Gaelle Le Boulicaut

A collector of designer pieces entrusts the renovation of his Savoy home to Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance. The result: a creative, modern version of the classic Alpine chalet.

The owner of this house describes himself as a collector and art and design enthusiast, with a particular interest for the French designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance. When he later purchased this chalet, a former restaurant with an adjoining farm, where the three valleys of the French Alps cross each other, he entrusted the renovation of the property to the designer. Duchaufour-Lawrance accepted only on the condition that the owner would give him carte blanche and reinterpreted the external landscape of the interior design with a constant reference to the natural Alpine architecture.

Surrounded by the immensity of nature, the strong symmetrical geometry of the traditional chalet was abandoned in favor of the organic curves that are so characteristic of this designer. Soft, organic and fluid, a strip of wood used as seating, walls and ceiling, emphasised by the tradition of wooden slats, expresses the double passion of Duchaufour-Lawrance for materials and for shapes. The concrete flooring is transformed into a raised surface in Corian for sharing meals. A white monolith by Boffi hides all the elements of the kitchen. The designer has infused great lightness into the materials, more traditionally associated with a rustic presence.

Conservatorium Hotel Amsterdam

Salvatori, partner of the Amsterdam Conservatorium Hotel Salvatori, outstanding supplier for the newest and exclusive luxury hotel in The Netherlands, renovated and re-styling by architect and interior designer Piero Lissoni.

More than 800 mq of Lithoverde – 100% recycled stone eco-sustainable here proposed in Piombo stone – have been used for the floor of the hall and other public spaces of the hotel to respect and to harmonize with Amsterdam's former Sweelinck Music Conservatorium, originally built at the end of the 19th Century.

An important provision for the hotel placed in the historical and cultural heart of the city, comprised of 129 rooms and suites, suitable for a worldwide tourism found of a new concept of lifestyle hotel.

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Bivouac, Centre Pompidou - Metz

by Centre Pompidou-Metz

Photographs by Tahon & Bouroullec

A fabulous Bivouac, staged across 1,000 square metres in Galerie 3 of the Centre Pompidou-Metz, this exhibition of works by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec sets out the result of almost fifteen years of mutual collaboration.

Their first major solo show in France, Bivouac highlights an exceptional international career, during which the two brothers have worked with some of the greatest names in design, been crowned by numerous awards and the presence of their work in public collections.

Imagined as a temporary encampment - hence its name - Bivouac is deliberately divested of scenographic elements other than the Bouroullecs' work. Movement is imparted by contrasting scales, transparency and superpositions.

 

Visitors are invited to wander around the gallery, moving between prototypes and finished objects, mass-produced and hand-crafted works.

Bivouac highlights the immense diversity of these creations and economies achieved in production. It also addresses key concepts in the Bouroullecs' research: objects which are nomadic, ephemeral, modular, organic, flexible.

The exhibition is neither an inventory nor a retrospective of their work. Rather, it illustrates the current state of their designs and research, in constant evolution.

This first solo show at the Centre Pompidou-Metz gives pride of place to design as a fundamental and prolific discipline in contemporary creation, and an open field for research at the junction of experimentation and daily life. In keeping with the Centre Pompidou, it emphasises a determination to embrace "art in all its forms" so that visitors might discover a wide spectrum of creation.

10 Questions with Todd Bracher

Source: DesignWire Daily
by Andrew Stone, Tuesday, February 14, 2012


Todd Bracher sat down with us to talk Danish design identity, family influences, and working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

ID: What were some of the earliest instances when you found yourself engaged by good design?

TB: [My father] was a carpenter who ran an architectural woodworking factory in Brooklyn for most of his life. I remember going to the workshops as a kid and seeing amazing executive offices before they shipped, and my father showing me how all of the drawers across the enormous pieces would lock simultaneously with one single key. That was really beautiful. Simple and elegant solutions, designed to take the experience of the piece higher for the customer.

ID: You hail from New York, and you’ve lived in some of the most stylish cities across the globe. What would you say is the most design-forward city in the world?

TB: For me, it’s Copenhagen. There’s a clear balance between design for use and design for life, and there they bring both together better than anywhere else I have been. There are subtle things… embracing their traditions in a modern, refreshing way, always with respect for the user and their experience paramount. They elegantly solve most problems of daily life directly around their culture and how they live. They accomplish this with a national design identity.

ID: What do you feel is your responsibility as a designer, with the industry’s eye trained upon you?

TB: There are the built-in, obvious aspects such as sustainability and ethics… This goes without saying. For me, probably the single most important responsibility is to show a client gracefully the way forward towards increased revenue. Design should be done strategically and with swift and precise intent in order to advance a brand towards not only capturing market share but also capturing the attention with appreciation from their customers. Design is far more than beauty… It’s about intelligence and soul, combined with market solutions.

Tod table designed in 2005 for Zanotta


ID: Are there any widely accepted rules that you love to dispense with?

TB: That’s a tough one. I don’t think too much about rules. I believe that you carve out your own rules when you collaborate with a brand… You don’t need to be predefined by predecessors or rumors. I am a certain believer in business that we can “be the change,” and no need to accept the status quo.

ID: What are some of spaces that have always visually inspired you, and continue to stand out for you today?

TB: Theater continues to do so. Spaces that are surreal and with specific purpose. I am constantly energized by the Museum of Natural History in New York as well as the National Air and Space Museum in DC. The spaces are a vehicle to communicate and share experiences that are beyond imagination. Almost 10 years later, I still daydream about Zumthor’s Vals Therme Baths in Switzerland. For me, this is the perfect balance between the surreal and design for specific purpose. Nothing could be more natural for me.

ID: How have your aesthetic choices changed since you began your career?

TB: No, for me aesthetic choices are not driven by my eye… They’re driven by my version of mathematics. I work to drive my solutions down a path of evolution so that they resolve themselves on their own… not controlled by my opinion. I like to think that very little can be changed visually and still get the same result for function-emotion-beauty-production-market. This is my work’s ecosystem.

Slim bookcase designed in 2003 for Zanotta 


ID: What qualities do you like to be present in your own residence?

TB: Light… I feel that light drives most every decision in my home. I literally let the light carve my space as it travels throughout the day. I try to plan in moments where the space interplays with the moving sun, allowing unique moments of discovery.

ID: What is it about your work that speaks to so many impressive commercial clients?

TB: We work hard to deliver a consistent message to my clients and their customers. Honestly. I want to connect to a user that step one finds the object or interior beautiful, however then there is the next step where they discover—perhaps subconsciously, and more importantly—that the design makes sense and connects to them emotionally. There are universal human conditions that appeal to us all and I work to connect to that.

ID: How is it working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard?

TB: Working in the Navy Yard is wonderful, as if working on a sailboat… Only the Hudson River between my desk and Manhattan. I appreciate its “void of civilization.” There’s something really beautiful to be in some ways at “the center of the known universe” and it be completely silent and non-invasive to the clean slate I prefer to work within. It’s an unusual paradox, being there.

ID: What are the most exciting projects on your plate these days?

TB: We are teaming up with some heavyweights in technology manufacturing and several influential brands. For me, 2012 is really about bringing it all together in a way where we’re fully interfacing with serious businesses and guiding them to their next steps… all while sharing, learning, and having fun. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Flos Lighting: Piero Gandini presents Wall Rupture at DZINE

Flos CEO and Chairman, Piero Gandini presents the Wall Rupture here at DZINE during the launch of our Flos shop-in-shop.


from DZINE store on Vimeo.

Armani Hotel Milano in Elle Decor

Elle Decor features an article on Armani Hotel in Milan – with the mention of Silk Georgette, the prime stone materials supplied by Salvatori for interiors. Silk Georgette was chosen as it is considered as the perfect finishing for elegant settings and meticulous designs. Outstanding by an unusual vein pattern, Silk Georgette, in shades of grey, bears a strong resemblance to the allure of the delicate fabric. The prestigious partnership between Salvatori and Armani - dated back with the Hotel in Dubai - is a validation, for the Tuscany brand, of its attention and investment in terms of research and innovation aimed at identifying with the needs of a new luxury contract.

Elle Decor Italia & Living Divani

Living Divani furniture display in the window of La Rinascente in Milano. 

Window display features Piero Lissoni's new design (1) Cabrio, monoblock armchair introduced at the Salone del Mobile 2011 and Nathan Yong's (2) Bolle side table designed in 2009.

Cabrio in bright colors for high urban definition armchairs.

Bolle side tables and small stools.



Grown-Up Man Cave

By Beth Hughes
Special to the Chronicle

In December, San Francisco interior designer Kendall Wilkinson participated in the Maison de Luxe show home at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills.

Her South of Market artisans built everything in the room before packing and shipping it south to the national historic landmark, where they assembled the room for a three-week display in the benefit for the Friends of Greystone, a nonprofit devoted to the preservation and promotion of the 46,000-square-foot limestone mansion built in 1927.

Now she's reassembled much of the room designed for the Luxe magazine event in her Sacramento Street shop, filling the windows and the store itself with a must-see example of a designer working to please only her imagination.

"You could do whatever you wanted" for the show house, said Wilkinson, a veteran of such projects, including the 2010 Elle magazine project in St. Francis Wood and many San Francisco Decorator Showcases.

So Wilkinson did exactly that. She faced a 13-by-14 foot room with a great view and a wonderful light, and imagined it as boy's room transformed into a sophisticated space for a 20- to 30-year-old "night crawler."

She designed a pergola to create a room within a room that is sensual, luxurious and very, very grown-up with a hint of the libertine in the Phillip Jeffries gold-leaf paper covering the ceiling juxtaposed with a natural sisal floor covering from Stark Carpets. At the same time, the room suggests gatherings of good friends and good conversation, either before or after a night on the town, or collaborators hammering out a deal in Silicon Valley. It's masculine without the reek of big-screen, master-blaster testosterone.

"We wanted it to be a little edgy," Wilkinson said. "A lot edgy, actually, and I wanted an indoor-outdoor feeling" that maximized the view beyond a welcoming window seat.

Constructing the pergola, with its corner guards of brass with a soft patina, pushed her team. "At every stage of the game, we asked, 'Can you do this?'" she said. "We did a lot of tweaking to it. We had to figure out how to have electrical lights but without seeing the wires" to the Sonora suspension lamp by Vico Magistretti.

A huge iron foundation, hidden by the rug, anchors the structure. Wilkinson kept accessories and other decorative touches to a minimum. She paired vintage sconces with black crystal and cut glass with the Fog lamp from the Morosini Collection. She used photographs by Mark Shaw and Solve Sundsbo, both known for their fashion images.

Two striking elements dominate the Twilight Room: upholstered benches that appear to float in the pergola, their backs made from Victorian chairs, and an infinity mirror.

"The benches didn't look good without backs, and I didn't want to put typical backs on them," said Wilkinson. "I had the chairs...They were waiting to happen, but I didn't know how they were going to happen. I thought, 'here's a way to add a back without blocking the view.'"

The chair backs, lacquered in Benjamin Moore's Evening Dove, provided her signature, a classical element in even the most modern of rooms.

The wall-to-wall infinity mirror, designed so the images can be changed out, increased the room's already high wow factor. It reflects Diane James Home's handmade silk cherry blossoms without end. They're sandwiched between panels of mirror, and that's all Wilkinson will say about it, other than other images or things can be reflected.

"I can't tell you how it works, that's why I'm trademarking the whole thing and patenting it," she said. "It's smoke and mirrors - it's magic."

While Wilkinson said the bench "may be a one of a kind," or one with just a few iterations, Piece, the infinity mirror, which can be adapted to suit traditional as well as modern rooms, will be available as a custom order but without much of a wait. "Fabrications will take just a few weeks," she said, with quick delivery because "it's made in San Francisco."

Tokujin Yoshioka's Water Block benches at Musee d'Orsay - Paris

Photographs courtesy of Tokujin Yoshioka

Musee d'Orsay, Paris, reopened its renovated spaces on October 20th 2011.

Tokujin Yoshioka was invited to participate in the renovation project of the Impressionist gallery in the Musée d’Orsay.

In the rooms on the 5th floor, together with master works of Manet, Degas, Monet, Cézanne, and Renoir,
the seats provided for the visitors are also works of art: the Water Block benches, created by Japanese artist/designer Tokujin Yoshioka.
His Water Block is designed as a block of water, a genuine sculpture that takes its dynamic form from nature itself. The delicate rippling of the surface and its transparency create a poetic atmosphere, similar to that created by the play of light on water.