Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2013 i Dwell

This issue celebrates people making a go at modern life in cities all over the world. How we choose to live in a metropolis is dictated by many variables, from the money in our pockets to the streets at our feet, but no one person owns the experience of a city. In the pages that follow we explore this idea through a variety of projects and players, from an Italian expat in Shanghai who lives in the thick of his new community to a young family seeking a respite from the pulsating streets of São Paulo. We travel to Paris to visit an architect who is also the steward of a classic 1930s apartment, and stop by a family home that rises six stories above Tel Aviv. Our cover story…

—Myrah Torres-Moran, posted to Facebook I am continually impressed with Dwell and I cannot imagine all of the coordination that a magazine like yours takes. Thanks for always being a publication I want to open up. Have you covered the histories of individual modernist architects like Richard Neutra? Ronald Smith Pasadena, California Editor’s Note: Thanks for your readership! We often profile notable contemporary and historic architects and designers, Neutra included. Visit dwell.com/neutra for a collection of stories featuring his work and dwell.com/profiles for other, similar stories. I remember seeing Ligne Roset’s Togo sofa in a magazine in the 1980s (“Sofa Guide,” June 2013). I was nine or ten years old and thought it was out there—like Salvador Dalí out there. Polo Hipolito Medrano Posted to Facebook I like the Dolomitenblick…

“I begin to know a city through its fragments, walking below tall buildings, along facades of signs, doors, and windows, crossing without knowing from one district to the next, down busy streets and empty ones—some more interesting than others, but all part of this thing we call the city,” writes Irish illustrator Nigel Peake in his new book, In the City (Princeton Architectural Press). Peake’s prismatic watercolor and ink drawings document and deconstruct the artist’s observations of metropolises like Shanghai, New York, London, and Paris. In this image, Peake deciphers skyscrapers as an amalgam of “tall glass and steel and neon.”…

A. Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec In 2012, the brothers Bouroullec collaborated with Danish company Hay on wooden furniture for the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Copenhagen. Inspired by a Bernt Petersen–designed trestle chair that they saw at the university, the updated seat design—in which two halves meet at an exaggerated, elegant seam—is fittingly reminiscent of an open book. Both chair and table are available in soaptreated beech and stained or lacquered oak. B. Fritz Flötotto The Formsitz chair, developed by the company Flötotto for German schools in 1956, features a patented seat made of “pagwood”: beech veneers soaked in resins and treated to develop characteristics of plastic. (A contemporary polypropylene version of Fritz Flötotto’s original chair was designed for the company in 2012 by Konstantin Grcic.) For efficient…

What do you think are the biggest innovations for urban cars? The number one trend is downsizing: Urban cars are lighter and have higher fuel efficiency, and a smaller footprint means it’s easier to park. Number two is a smaller engine. With a lighter vehicle, you can have a smaller engine (and higher fuel efficiency). In the past, smaller vehicles tended to be spare by nature. Today they are very different: higher quality, more stylish, and packed with electronics. Can you name a few examples of cars that typify the future of urban driving? If you’re just going around town, there are lots of vehicles that fill that need, vehicles like the Honda Fit—models that are smaller, with very high fuel efficiency and a lot of functionality. And just because…

Le Corbusier commenced work on the master plan of Chandigarh, India, in 1951. The city was intended to serve both as the administrative seat of the newly partitioned state of Punjab and as an architectural symbol of Jawaharlal Nehru’s nascent democracy, writ in the future-facing language of European modernism. Yet, decades later, his city plan remains unfinished: buildings like the High Court, Palace of Assembly, and Secrétariat need refurbishment, and some question whether the complex doesn’t work better as an architectural statement than as a functioning set of government buildings. Architect Linda Taalman reflects on Chandigarh, its future, and why, some 60 years later, it can feel like a ruin. It’s not easy to get into the capitol at Chandigarh. How did you manage it? The complex is manned by…

A Pillow by Joel Karlsson and Krook&Tjäder for Karl Andersson & Söner $255 each Acoustic wall tiles, made of recycled fabric and PET bottles and covered in wool, are available in eight different colors, with or without a button. morlensinoway.com B Asterisk rug by Jennifer Morla for The Workshop Residence $300–$600 Designer Jennifer Morla applied abstracted typefaces to cut and layered industrial felt for these made-to-order rugs that soak up sound. theworkshopresidence.com CFold by Nendo for Conde House $7,500 Oki Sato’s geometric white oak screen sports interlocking sections to improve visual privacy from any angle. nendo.jp D Ruotami umbrella stand by Ilaria Petreni for Made It $2,360 One way to avoid peeping colleagues: Open this wallmounted mirror and your neighbor will see his or her own face, not your workspace.…

Long before he moved into the historic building, Dutch architect Felix Claus admired 51 rue Raynouard, an apartment block in the Passy district of Paris designed and built in 1932 by Auguste Perret. One of the seminal architects of the 20th century, Perret is renowned for high-profile commissions like the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and the post–Second World War rebuild of Le Havre, and for his pioneering use of reinforced concrete. He constructed 51 rue Raynouard to house the design firm he ran with his two brothers and created a 1,830-square-foot apartment on the seventh floor for himself and his wife. Here, the apartment’s balcony offers an impressive view of rue Raynouard. In 2006, Claus—director of Claus en Kaan Architecten, one of the Netherlands’ top architectural practices—finally got inside…

Geraldine and Kit Laybourne watched with fascination as HL23, a building unlike any other in New York City, began to take shape. Architect Neil Denari of Los Angeles uses the word prism to describe his glass-and-stainless-steel condominium that rises, with a quite unexpected profile, right over the High Line in Chelsea. He explains, “It’s an object sculpted by the forces of the site.” Graphic at a distance and geometric up close, HL23 is creative, daring, and at once fully serious and a bit playful—making it pitch-perfect for a couple who are likewise creative, daring, serious, and playful. The Laybournes called upon Sandra Chamberlin, a former next-door neighbor and a sculptor with an astute eye for interior architecture and design, who at times also functions as a contractor, to help them…

What do you consider to be the top criteria for an appliance purchase? When helping my clients select appliances, my top considerations are the features, functionality and design of the appliance. It’s important that they match the demands of the household. For instance, a family-size refrigerator should hold a gallon of milk in the door and a full-size dishwasher should offer the flexibility of rinse and hold versus running a complete cycle. Equally important is the design of the appliance; it needs to be striking, easy to clean and uncomplicated. When it comes to choosing appliances, I prefer working with well-established companies with a proven track record. GE Monogram’s warranty and service back up the products, which for most people, is a major investment. How do you stay up-to-date with…

This is how I want to live (“It’s a Family Affair,” July/August 2013). Love this space. Love the car. Love the furnishings. Beautiful! Tim Harrington Posted to Facebook My wife and I have always loved the style achieved through minimal and modern design that fills the pages of your magazine. Do you have any suggestions for builders of affordable prefab? We are currently in Florida but not sure where we’ll end up in the USA. Eager to start designing our own modest modern abode—a small dwelling on a chunk of land with a great view! Ryan Sturgis Posted to Facebook Editor’s Note: Cost will depend on a variety of factors, including site restrictions and prefab methodology. We suggest directly contacting several firms to discuss budget and details. Our Prefab Sourcebook…

Project: Park Hill Architects: Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith Location: Sheffield, England In 1961, architects Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith built Park Hill, a 32-acre, Corbusian working-class apartment complex with 995 flats, plus pubs and shops. But by the 1980s, Park Hill had become dangerous and crime-ridden. Little changed until 2004, when design studio Urban Splash and architecture firm Hawkins/Brown (in collaboration with Studio Egret West) began to resurrect the mixed-use buildings. “The original designers got it right on so many levels,” says Hawkins/Brown partner David Bickle. Innovative elevated walkways, dubbed “streets in the sky,” allowed residents to easily move from building to building. Each apartment was oriented for maximum sunlight (a boon in the cool climate), and many had two stories. “The existing configuration was smart and flexible; we…

For one Toronto family, when the sun goes down, the stars come out twice: in the sky and also on their garage door. A perforated pattern depicting the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpio is the masterstroke on an addition by LGA Architectural Partners. The focus was on the outdoors, says firm principal Janna Levitt, who worked with landscape architect Scott Torrance to create a series of garden rooms. Levitt laser-cut the astral pattern into panels of Eternit fiber-cement board; she then installed LED lights behind the surface in a four-inch-deep cavity. The design—a nod to Le Corbusier’s depiction of Orion at the Saint-Pierre de Firminy church in France—acts as a moment of cosmic contemplation for the residents. While lounging in the garden, which is planted with native species, they can glance…

Project: Carnegie Hill House Garden Designer: Nelson Byrd Woltz, nbwla.com Location: New York, New York Delving into the ecological habitats of New York City while weaving together urban and green spaces, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects has created a thoughtful garden space spread over six floors of an 1899 Carnegie Hill town house. We asked Elizabeth Meyer—a leading landscape architecture academic who contributed to Princeton Architectural Press’s recently released Nelson Byrd Woltz: Garden, Park, Community, Farm—to pose a few questions to lead architect and firm partner Thomas Woltz. Elizabeth Meyer: How is this project, despite its small scale, representative of your attitude toward design, both public and private? Thomas Woltz: Our process looks back over time, through layers of history. We had great clients who described to us how they…

With surveillance as the word of the day, thanks to the recent NSA intelligence scandal and even Congress’s skepticism of Google Glass’s intrusive properties, privacy is rapidly becoming the 21st century’s greatest quandary. Not as in, How do we protect it? But rather: Do we even know what it is anymore? The ubiquity of online socializing, new technologies, and mobile devices—with their heavy trade in personal information—has erased the old lines between public and private. For anyone sitting in a public hotspot, smartphones, tablets, and laptops can be private islands in the stream, one’s only chance for isolation and, paradoxically, one’s best chance at active community. But what of the physical world? As virtual technology redefines what it means to be alone or together—or to be alone, together (the new…

A Nomad System by Jaime Salm and Roger C. Allen for Mio $56 per 24-pack A modular system made from recycled (and recyclable) double-walled cardboard in ten Pantone colors can be arranged into freestanding, temporary partitions without hardware or damage to existing structures. mioculture.com B Elbac by Anne Kyyrö Quinn $120 per square foot Quinn’s bespoke soundabsorbing wall panels combine natural wool felt with three-dimensional patterning, which engenders greater surface area and flow resistance to reduce ambient noise levels. annekyyroquinn.com C Windowseat chair and ottoman by Mike and Maaike for Haworth Collection $4,950; $1,475 The Californian-Dutch duo treated their new lounge chair as a piece of architecture. Its walls and ceiling form a refuge from bustling open environments. haworthcollection.com D Ready Made Curtain by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Kvadrat…

Downtown Tel Aviv won’t come as a surprise to students of modern design. But for those for whom a mention of Israeli architecture conjures images of the Wailing Wall or some far-flung kibbutz, the density, urbanity, and bracing modernity of the city—founded only in 1909, unlike nearby Jaff a, which is over 3,000 years old—are a shock. Sporting, perhaps, the greatest collection of Bauhaus architecture in the world, the Tel Aviv–Jaff a metropolis is also incredibly dense, with around 40 percent of Israel’s population and some 18,500 people per square mile. As a point of comparison, that’s denser than the São Paulo, Shanghai, and New York metro areas. Interwar modernist architects who immigrated to British-controlled Palestine are responsible for the city’s unique architectural character. But those designers of the 1930s,…

For the past eight years, Edoardo Allegranti has worked in the shipping business in Shanghai. Until recently, the young Italian executive lived in a high-rise building reserved for foreigners—just like the majority of international expats working in China today. Apartments in these buildings are typically identical to one another and come fully furnished. Residents take the elevator down to the basement garage, the gym, or the supermarket, where they can buy food from their home countries. Allegranti sought a less cloistered life. “I wanted to get back in touch with real life, to no longer feel so isolated,” he says. He dreamed of living among locals in the center of the city, of strolling through streets buzzing with activity, and of shopping in tiny neighborhood stores. But what he missed…

As Dwell enters its 14th year this October, we will be celebrating our anniversary with a new launch, and a significant leap forward, for this iconic modern design brand. I am proud to announce that this fall we will be introducing the Dwell Store which has been long desired by our loyal community, and is finally a reality. There you will discover a well-curated gallery of products hand-selected with a keen eye for authentic modern design by our team of merchants and buyers. The Dwell Store, under Dwell Media, will be the go-to place for everything you need this holiday season and beyond from classic modern to innovative new design—the guiding principle remains the same as always, authenticity. Recently, several companies, both domestic and abroad, have used the Dwell name…

Beth Dunlop Architecture critic Beth Dunlop lives in Miami Beach, Florida. She is editor of the quarterly MODERN Magazine and the author of numerous books, most recently The Tropical Cottage! (Rizzoli, 2013). “I visited the Laybourne apartment (“Eye in the Sky,” p. 114) on a beautiful Sunday,” she says. “As much as I wanted to look at the furniture and art, I found myself transfixed by the passing parade of the High Line below—I’d guess about 5,000 people in an hour.” Andrew Hetherington Known for his quirky sense of humor and wandering photographic eye, Andrew Hetherington has shot for Travel + Leisure, GQ, Details, Golf Digest, and the New York Times Magazine. In his first assignment for Dwell, he photographed Brad Ascalon at his studio (In the Modern World, p.…

These days, eclecticism as a design motif is easily produced, thanks to today’s global market and the trailblazing work of mid-century pioneers like Alexander Girard, Ben Thompson of Design Research, and a certain Seattleborn weaver named Jack Lenor Larsen. So how did one textile artist help further the movement toward internationally inspired, richly patterned furnishings with a modern bent? Larsen grew up surrounded by nature, the son of a contractor; studied architecture in the sublime but restrained Northwest style; learned to weave with California bohemians; and then attended Cranbrook alongside America’s most rigorously trained mid-century designers. He went on to establish a hugely influential design studio—working with the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, Alexander Girard, and Florence Knoll—while traveling the world to unearth new fabrics, inspiration, and techniques. At 85,…

For the first time in a century, American cities are growing faster than the suburbs surrounding them. For Sheryl Connelly, a trend forecaster at Ford, the shift foreshadows the auto industry’s future. She largely credits “young people and their appetite for an urban lifestyle” for the migration into cities. It takes about three years for a car to go from concept to production, so consultants like Connelly, who try to predict the preferences of future car buyers, are steeped in research about the millennials—individuals born sometime between the mid-1980s and the early 2000s. “Millennials would rather lose their wallets than their cell phones,” says Connelly, who sees technology gaining increasing importance to drivers. “In the past, a car had appeal because of horsepower, torque, and engine size. Today, cars have…

Brad Ascalon has had a productive year. In April, the 36-year-old industrial designer launched a glass-and-brass table lamp for Gaia&Gino; in May, it was both the Peasant table, for the nascent New York label Juniper, and the oak veneer and powder-coated steel Darwin table, Ascalon’s first self-produced piece. In June, at NeoCon, he previewed his new Nestle contract seating collection—done in conjunction with Stylex—which will be available in 2014. And this October, with San Francisco gallery NWBLK, the New York–based designer debuts Rely—a trio of single-legged oculi that overlap to form a three-legged end table. Rely, it turns out, was the product of disarray: It came to Ascalon one night while he was tidying disheveled stacks of playing cards and poker chips after a game. “I wanted to translate that…

To further explore privacy in the modern world, we present three common problems—from noise to peeping neighbors—and a fleet of products to solve your woes. Q: I live on a busy street in an urban area. The cacophony is deafening. I love the view but hate the noise! What can I do? Acoustic wall panels are often used in public spaces to muffle din. These recycled polyester-fiber tiles from Offecct are cozy enough to hang at home. $150 offecct.se Indow Windows manufactures thermal inserts that convert a normal frame into a doublepaned super-window. They’ll also help save on your energy bill. From $100 per window indowwindows.com Textiles help minimize sound both inside and out; consider wall-to-wall carpeting fit for a rental, like Flor’s tiled rugs. From $8 per square flor.com…

Sou Fujimoto’s career may have gotten of to a slow start, but these days he is a hard guy to catch. With multiple projects in Japan and commissioned work around the globe, the architect’s practice has moved into high gear. And it doesn’t show any signs of losing speed. During a recent pit stop at his Tokyo office, Fujimoto took time out to talk about his career and where it is headed. When not on an airplane, Fujimoto presides over his 30-person firm, occupying the top floor of an old printing company in central Tokyo. An airy, loftlike studio, it holds a maze of desks, punctuated with large study models. Though he has a private office, Fujimoto rarely uses it. Instead he prefers a large rectangular conference table, out in…

As you enter the front gate and push through dense, dripping foliage, you may wonder if you’ve made a wrong turn. Then, through the thick leaves, you catch a reassuring glimpse of a neat garden and, just beyond it, a long, columned terrace. A latemorning downpour seems to have spent itself and at the end of this unexpected patch of jungle, you’re confronted all at once with a staggering view of São Paulo, slashed now with sunshine. The entire scene is framed, as if within a 70mm movie lens, by the Strozenberg family’s long, low-slung, light-filled living room. “The cinema is without a doubt one of the strongest influences in my life,” says architect Isay Weinfeld, who designed Alan and Ticiana Strozenberg’s home and gardens. And these filmic tendencies are…

Like many low-density cities, Fargo, North Dakota (population 107,000), is a victim of sprawl. To combat his hometown’s swelling city limits, developer Doug Burgum applied the infill and adaptive reuse lessons he gleaned while living in San Francisco and Chicago. “You can’t have a healthy community without a healthy core,” he says. “And people want to live in a vibrant core, whether it’s in Fargo or in California.” Burgum’s company, the Kilbourne Group, is hard at work developing downtown Fargo properties, like the Lofts on Roberts—a former office and warehouse that lay vacant for 26 years. Today its residential units are 100 percent occupied. Burgum lives in one of Fargo native son Doug Burgum stands on his rooftop deck located adjacent to the Fargo Theatre (bottom). Landscape architect Brian Reinarts…