Innholdsfortegnelse for March/April 2020 i AZURE

More commonly associated with shipping boxes and protective packaging, corrugated cardboard seems an unlikely source of inspiration. But for surface designer Giles Miller, this humble material was the impetus of his career: “I ended up developing surfaces through an interest in the materials themselves.” During his bachelor’s degree studies in furniture design at Britain’s Loughborough University, Miller had a self-described “eureka moment” after discovering that manipulating angles in the cardboard created different tones. What followed was a series of buzzed-about cardboard furniture — and the interest of fashion powerhouse Stella McCartney: In 2009, as he was finishing a master’s degree in design products at London’s Royal College of Art, Miller was commissioned by her brand to create a large-scale mural for a retail store in Paris. His fluting process was…

How does a great idea — and a great design — become a great space? While the vision of a designer and his or her client sparks the creative process, turning that vision into a reality is another story. Construction is a complex undertaking — one that involves a multitude of tradespeople, engineers and stakeholders. For designers and end users alike, shepherding a design through to completion can be a daunting task, especially given that negotiating this process can make or break the project. Enter Alliance Construction. Drawing on extensive experience, the Toronto-based company specializes in the construction process — from conception to completion and every stage in between. Showcasing the expertise of the construction industry’s biggest players combined with the personal touch of a boutique firm, Alliance Construction’s diverse…

Q+A Ask the most discerning of jet-setters which hotel brand holds their loyalty and you might discover that they swear by the names of two interior designers — George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg — instead. Whichever of a city’s five-star properties their eponymous firm has worked on, that’s the one worth checking into. It’s no wonder, then, that seasoned travellers have started looking to bring the elegant YP experience back home with them. Over the past decade, a small catalogue of domestic furnishings introduced through luxury furniture retailer Avenue Road — including the laser-cut steel Park Place counter stool — offered them a few options. (Those designs are now among the pieces on offer from Man of Parts, a furniture brand recently launched by Avenue Road owner Stephan Weishaupt.) Then,…

Simulated Surfaces 1 Smooth Moves Tarkett’s vinyl iQ Surface is versatile in nature, moulding into crisp edges and smooth curvatures for floors, walls and even furniture. Developed with Note Design Studio, this fully recyclable, terrazzo-look product in 27 designs and five colourways is currently only available in Europe. tarkett.com, notedesignstudio.se 2 Sealed Tight Moisture-resistant AQUApro features a self-sealing joint system that locks into place at installation. The scratch-, shock- and stain-resistant veneered HDF planks in a range of seemingly natural finishes (including Supreme, shown here) offer the warmth of wood with-out the risk of water damage. kaindl.com 3 Contrasted Finish Eight polished and eight rustic wood effects make up the Large & Local resilient tile collection. With matte surfaces that range from minimal graining to coarse circle-sawn markings, these ultra-wide…

Both sport and subculture, skateboarding occupies the liminal spaces between rebellious adolescent pastime, legitimate game of immense skill (think Tony Hawk and Leticia Bufoni), spatial art form and method of transportation. “It’s seen as a child’s play activity,” says architecture historian Iain Borden, “but for many practitioners it involves nothing less than a complete and alternate way of life.” In 1970s Santa Monica, the pioneering group Z-Boys brought surfing techniques to dry land, riding low on Los Angeles’s concrete roads, curbs and empty pools as if they were waves, running their hands along the ground as if it were mercury. With the rise of purpose-built parks soon after, many skaters similarly took to the streets (and continue to do so), recasting ideas of public space, community-building and mobility along the…

In October 2019, additive-manufacturing veterans Andrew Jeffery (of the ceramics-focused printing start-up Figulo) and Virginia San Fratello and Ronald Rael (of the “make-tank” Emerging Objects) founded Forust to, in Jeffery’s words, “change the way we manufacture with wood by using methods that are non-destructive to our planet’s ecology.” California-based Forust’s architectural tiles, panels and blocks have a grain that seems almost — but not quite — natural. Their wooden wall elements are not hewn from solid lumber but are instead created by 3D printing with sawdust, salvaging scraps from the decidedly subtractive timber industry (which would otherwise be incinerated or put into landfills) and recycling them into new forms. “We feel really confident in taking lots of things, making them into powder and printing them,” Rael jokes of the trio’s…

In 2012, the City of Edmonton put out a request for proposals for a new building at the South Haven Cemetery, southeast of downtown. That same year, Dwayne Smyth, a partner at the Vancouver firm Shape Architecture, lost his grandmother and found himself reflecting on mourning and transience. The resulting project — the South Haven Centre for Remembrance, a 650-square-metre structure completed in collaboration with Group2 and Pechet Studio — comprises offices, family rooms, meeting rooms and a field-services yard and garage where workers mix concrete, set gravestones and repair damaged plaques. The architecture is sensitive in every sense of the word: to place, to purpose and to the unique needs of the many people who visit the site. Smyth grew up in Red Deer, Alberta, so the project offered…

1 SQUARE A new 3D texture in the Dimension Walls collection, Square takes on a different profile depending on which angle it’s approached from. The thermoplastic cladding —in sheets 122 by 244 or 305 centimetres —comes in a range of metallic finishes, from red and silver to the Burnished Brushstroke shown. mdcwall.com 2 ATMOS Under Pure+FreeForm’s new Interiors umbrella, this series of painted aluminum sheets is offered in a standard size (122 by 450 centimetres) or formed into panel systems for both wall and ceiling applications. Custom shapes are also offered, like the rest of the product line, in more than 20 finishes. purefreeform.com 3 NUBILA Part of Paola Lenti’s foray into wallcoverings, these single-faced wood fibre panels are clad in a close weave fabric coated in copper that has…

When Milan-based Rossana Orlandi launched the inaugural Ro Plastic Prize last year, she challenged the design community to rethink its relationship with plastic. The renowned Italian gallerist was seeking innovations that would transform what has become a persistent pollutant into a guiltless material — plastic that would keep on giving even after the end product no longer serves a function. Orlandi wanted nothing short of a revolution that cast designers as a part of the solution: Their recycled-plastic pieces would themselves be recyclable, keeping a non-renewable and non-degrading material in a closed loop, away from parks, forests and oceans. The Substantial collection, Alexander Schul’s winning entry in the design category, comprises a chair, lamp and table made of recycled polystyrene, demonstrating a new use for a type of plastic that is…

Just after he’d joined the family business, Martin Halle, a former professional soccer player, found himself wandering the halls of a furniture trade fair and thinking that the displays could be instantly rearranged without anyone noticing the difference. Just take one chair from one stand and swap it in for a chair at another stand. Even though it was manufacturing upholstered contract seating of high, made-in-Denmark quality, his family’s brand, Globe Zero 4, also felt generic to him. “I really couldn’t see the point of doing what everyone else was doing, both in terms of the actual products that came out but also in terms of the process on the way to them,” Halle explains. He wanted to create exciting, of-the-moment collections engaged with the needs of ever-evolving office culture…

LOWER LEVEL FLOOR PLAN 1. Utility room 2. Corner bench (Eckbank) 3. Staircase 4. Kitchen 5. Living area 6. Outdoor terrace In Austrian homes, the kitchen is king, its eckbank — or corner bench — an essential element. “It often feels,” says Danish architect Sigurd Larsen, “as if guests never really make it further” than this room. With the Mountain House, Larsen’s inaugural project in Austria and his first in an Alpine setting, he and his team tried to emphasize the centrality of this social hub, situating it where the cantilevering house meets the slope of the hillside plot. “We really wanted [the homeowners] to be able to experience the slope from inside the house as well,” says Larsen, whose practice, Sigurd Larsen Design & Architecture, is located in Berlin.…

When it comes to the world’s planned cities, most have a checkered history, even if some of them have been touched by architectural greatness. In this latter camp, there’s Brasília, of course. And Australia’s capital, Canberra, has an interesting layout centred on axes aligned with topographical landmarks. Which brings us to Russia’s Naberezhnye Chelny, a lesser-known planned city built in the 1970s around the legendary Kamaz truck factory. Its main square, Azatlyk, was likewise designed around a formal central axis intended to link two landmarks: Naberezhnye Chelny’s city hall and a proposed Lenin museum. The cultural facility, however, was never constructed, making the axis meaningless and the square itself an instant relic. Enter Rotterdam-based architecture and design firm DROM, which, in collaboration with Russian consultancy Strelka KB, not only reimagined…

Conference rooms are evolving. No longer staid and single-purpose — existing solely to host formal meetings — today’s spaces have transformed into much more flexible environments that foster every-thing from traditional team gatherings to spirited brainstorming sessions, collaborative charettes and quiet, personal moments of respite. Along the way, Keilhauer has stayed a step ahead of the trend, with the company’s new conference chairs continuing to drive improved workplace well-being. Throughout its almost 40 years of innovation, Keilhauer has created award-winning office solutions that are both comfortable and easily customizable. Dubbed Filo, Simple and Vanilla, Keilhauer’s contemporary classics epitomize the human-centric approach to design taken by the company. Take the elegant and versatile Filo mesh chair, which moves naturally with the sitter, thanks to its flexing arms. The aptly named Simple…

1 CEREUS One of 25 patterns in the Inediti Series 01 Cruise collection, Cereus brings a lush desert landscape to life. Depicting the night-blooming cactus, the watercolour-like motif is digitally printed on vinyl wallpaper backed by a non-woven fibre, with custom sizing available.  inkiostrobianco.com 2 LAUREL LAPIS The hand-drawn illustrations depicted in Laurel Lapis were influenced by such urban vignettes as vines climbing concrete and potted plants on windowsills. It’s one of seven colourways in the collection, which also includes coordinating throw pillows and tea towels.  studiocope.com 3 BIRD OF PARADISE Australian surface-pattern designer Kelly Kratzing uses pen, coloured pencil and watercolour to craft her intricate, nature-inspired motifs. Comprising seven designs, the collection of made-to-measure murals is offered in peel-and-stick or pasteable applications.  wallsauce.com 4 LOTUS IN METALLIC Farrow &…

Soft Seating 1 Organix Lounge Defined by its curvaceous kidney shapes, this collection includes eight frames, eight seat cushions and three back cushions, which can be fixed at any point along the base for custom configurations. Materials Black powder-coated aluminum, multiple upholstery fabrics Manufacturer Royal Botania, royalbotania.com 2 New Joint The two- and three-seater sofas, daybeds, armchairs and coffee tables that make up this series by designer Riccardo Giovanetti can be arranged independently or attached together with unobtrusive connectors. Materials Lacquered die-cast aluminum, polyurethane foam, multiple upholstery fabrics Colourways Multiple frame and upholstery options Manufacturer Fast, fastspa.com 3 Tape Cord Outdoor For the outdoor version of this collection by Nendo, the distinctive back is wrapped in a braided wicker-look cord, while the seat proportions are larger and deeper but still…