AZURE October 2018

Many architects and designers like to think of themselves as lone wolves, operating according to their own creative impulses. But the fact is, no one works in a vacuum, especially in today’s super-connected world. Whether historic or contemporary, influences are rife, filtering through far-flung furniture fairs, arresting global projects and media of all types into the minds and the work of creatives everywhere, even if only subliminally. To consciously ignore what’s going on in the industry and in the zeitgeist is to be willfully blind to prevailing trends both good and bad. The inherent value of identifying and interpreting trends is why Azure dedicates at least one issue annually to the looks, materials, processes and themes that promise to influence design professionals in the year ahead. Whether you consequently love…

What current trend are you most excited about? JOE SILVEIRA Azure’s new art director I’m loving the trend of merging art and furniture design. The Sam Stewart exhibition Cryptid, launched earlier this year by the Fort Gansevoort gallery in New York City, is an example that caught my eye recently. The exhibition’s venue – an empty townhouse next to the gallery proper – is zoned for residential use, so it has to maintain the elements of a home, with a working kitchen, a place to sleep, a shower. Stewart created a series of sculptural objects (as pictured) to furnish the space for a “mythical occupant,” using forms and materials inspired by folklore and science fiction. The merging of function and fantasy was amazing and something I’d love to see more…

Remnants Clamp Architects and designers often recycle offcuts from stone, tile or timber into new works. Now, Melbourne’s Josh Carmody has introduced a simple tool that makes it easy for fellow creatives to repurpose material otherwise destined for landfill, specifically surfacing samples. The Remnants Clamp – a circular piece of hardware equipped with key-headed thumbscrews and a slim white-oak or walnut leg – can grip any slab up to 30 millimetres thick, turning it into an elegant piece of furniture. It’s available in two lengths – 50 or 75 centimetres – that form coffee- or console-height tables, respectively. The metal component comes in brass (pictured) or aluminum. A two-sided model joins two slabs, of the same or varying thicknesses, to create a single surface. joshcarmody.com.au…

SwissHouse Rossa Davide Macullo Architects collaborated with French artist Daniel Buren to add a peppermint twist to the facade of this curvy-walled house in Graubünden, Switzerland. Macullo, who is also the owner, brought in Buren – known for architectural interventions that often involve adding bold, contrasting stripes to historic spaces and buildings – to paint a linear pattern of red and green onto the timber cladding. A cheerful surprise in a rural setting, the house sits in an idyllic valley, between a rocky riverbed and a forest-covered mountain. Against a backdrop of traditional structures, it feels like a castle dropped in from the pages of a pop art fairytale. macullo.com, danielburen.com Filigrana lamps The whimsical candy-cane pattern that adorns this collection of Venetian-glass suspension lamps is created using the filigrana…

Rubbery pendants resembling milky balloons, table lamps that look like cinched chewing-gum bubbles, pliable vases with intersecting chambers: If these forms sound unconventional, it’s because they’re shaped by an unconventional process. Liquid to Air is a collaboration between Swiss designer Christophe Guberan and MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab, which explores transformable objects and programmable materials. The team’s starting point for this line of lamps and vessels was the untapped potential of their new Rapid Liquid Printing (RLP) technology. “The dream that everyone talks about with 3D printing – it hasn’t been realized,” says Skylar Tibbits, the lab’s co-director. “Printing is generally too slow, the material properties aren’t very good and the objects you can fabricate are really small.” Unlike most 3D printing techniques – which build objects from the bottom up, one…

Exuberantly whimsical and deeply polarizing, Dutch designer Marcel Wanders knows no creative bounds. In addition to being the co-founder and art director of Moooi, he designs for a range of other brands, from Cappellini (for which he produced a vase collection called Airborne Snotty, modelled on flying mucus) to Alessi (maker of a colourful accessories line inspired by circuses). His latest furniture range, recalling adventurers of decades past, is the Globe Trotter collection for Roche Bobois. Azure spoke to Wanders in New York, where he offered his views on what design should offer people – and on the key to doing it well. 1 Functionality is overrated. Functionality is important for things you don’t care about – like your vacuum cleaner. The better it functions, the less you have to…