Innholdsfortegnelse for October - November 2019 i Urbis

EVENTS VOGEL STREET PARTY 12 October / Dunedin After a year’s postponement, this buzzy South Island street party in the ever-so-promising Warehouse Precinct is back with a new theme – Dunedin Icons – and a fresh selection of events, activities, entertainment and feel-good food to reignite its former flame. vogelstparty.nz JAPANESE FILM FESTIVAL 11 October–22 November / Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Christchurch Enjoy Japanese cinema with free-admission screenings of Keigo Higashino’s detective novels-turned-Fukuzawa-thriller The Crimes That Bind, Masaaki Yuasa’s animated adventure fantasy Lu Over the Wall, Takahisa Zeze’s teary romance The 8-year Engagement, Toshiyuki Teruya’s bone-centred Born Bone Born (image 3), Kenji Katagiri’s ghostly Room Laundering and Katsuhide Motoki’s corporate drama Recall. bit.ly/2m5H1sG HOBBITON BEER FESTIVAL 26 October and 2 November / Matamata The idea of partying like a Hobbit…

Kohler Numi 2.0 Intelligent Toilet Kohler promises that its new toilet is a ‘fully immersive experience’. And, whilst that might be more than you think you need from a techno-bowl, this intelligent toilet will certainly keep you entertained as you go about your daily business. The Numi 2.0 has ambient mood lighting and surround-sound speakers. It’s even equipped with Amazon Alexa voice controls – so, in theory, you can have a conversation with it. Add to this Kohler’s PureWarmth toilet seat and you have a throne fit for a king. Its streamlined, one-piece design is rather pleasing, as toilets go. The Numi 2.0 even keeps itself tidy, thanks to a built-in self-cleaning wand, precision air dryer and deodorising filter. And, yes, you can wave your hands at it, like some…

The cylinder has recently strolled into kitchens with the kind of ease one might expect from the circle’s tall cousin. While these rooms may not be characterised strictly by pillar-like forms, they are swimming in subtle curves and lines, more bent than straight. Sydney-based design collective Amber Road created an island-meets-sculpture (facing page, below) that effortlessly belies the size constraints of this moody ‘gentleman’s residence in the sky’. The bench, which loosely resembles Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands hotel, has a simple, two-pronged base that reaps the benefits of free shape, appearing as though it is floating against a backdrop of ochre and black. For the owner – a self-professed art collector-entertainer, whose pink glasses are said to have inspired the choice of blush-like terrazzo in another room – it facilitates…

Win a stunning Fisher & Paykel Quad Door Fridge Freezer + a six-month, Treat Yourself WineFriend subscription. Triple your chance of winning. Subscribe to Urbis and include your subscriber number when entering* to receive three times the number of entries. This offer is also open to existing subscribers. Total prize pack valued at over $7,000 Quad Door Fridge Freezer Designed for storage flexibility, Fisher & Paykel’s Quad Door Fridge Freezer has a Variable Temperature Zone (lower-right quadrant), which, at the touch of a button, can easily be converted to suit both everyday needs and special occasions, as well as different food types. Choose from Freezer, Soft Freeze, Chill or Fridge modes. 905mm, 605L, Ice & Water (RRP $6,399). fisherpaykel.com WineFriend subscription WineFriend is a bit like a wine matchmaking service,…

“When we first spoke to the clients, we met in their kitchen – it was the heart of their home,” says Rachel Nolan, founding director of Melbourne-based firm Kennedy Nolan. “The house itself was a typical double-fronted Victorian but it was all centralised around spending time in the kitchen. They’re very hospitable people so it was nice to start with an important space in the house: a space that was really going to be used.” This idea of the centrality of the kitchen as a hub for family life structured the design of a new addition at the rear of the original Victorian – a two-storeyed volume that captures the rigorous space-planning and material invention that have come to characterise the practice’s work. The front of the house retains the…

FLAGSHIP FLIES AGAIN: Toyota GR Supra The Supra for the 21st century follows four models produced between the 1970s and the 1990s, and is the first car to be developed by Toyota’s in-house performance division, Gazoo Racing: hence, the GR initials in the full model name. The initials BMW also feature in the full background story because Toyota and BMW have shared resources to good effect in creating the brawny new Supra and new Z4 Roadster respectively. Beneath the Toyota bonnet badge sits a Munich-sourced straight-six, tuned for both high performance and a unique character. The single-turbo 3.0-litre makes the Supra big on outright acceleration and complements the old-school driving charm of a potent front-engined, rear-driven two-door with a shortish wheelbase and wide track. The mandatory eight-speed ZF auto makes…

The store’s façade – composed of rhythmic, highly textured, vertical grooves, bush-hammered into granite – is imposing and restrained in equal measure. Set amongst the glass-clad, mannequin-dotted frontages of Australia’s busiest retail street, Pitt Street Mall, Aēsop’s latest branch stands out through grey-covered subtlety and a permanence that is refreshing in its context. “Coming to Pitt Street for the first time… understanding its demographic, and constant motion and rush of people, led us to counteract that,” says Peter Girgis, senior interior architect at Snøhetta, the Norwegian firm tasked with the design of this 250m2 store. “How do you suggest something physically and conceptually to stop somebody?” he asks, referring to techniques aimed at grabbing the attention of the more than 30,000 pedestrians who are said to walk through Pitt Street…

The no-frills approach to design has experienced a continued resurgence, morphing through various guises over the course of its austere trajectory. Of late, laid-back untroubledness is in vogue. This is about spending time away from the decoration menagerie but with a holiday-mode attitude: dialled-down intensity and an appreciation for quiet moments. Pastel-pink paint on laser-cut steel brings a touch of bubble-gum fun into this Footscray kitchen (left and facing page, above right and below) by BoardGrove Architects. A solid Corian bench, concealed Asko appliances and Inax Japanese tiles make up the rest of this sweet, muted symphony. Despite its almost cartoon-like look, calling it cartoonish feels slanderous in the face of such undeniable elegance. Lithuanian firm Aketuri Architektai had a vision of creating a space that was “calm, pure and…

Exposed plumbing has the cool indifference of a polished, urban persona. To achieve this, it milks its strength: the surety that it’s not trying to be something it isn’t. To milk this, too, embrace its varying degrees. Accentuate the bathroom’s many working cogs with a maze-like fitting, or attenuate them by way of hero brassware. The ‘bare-all’ aesthetic – industrial, if a little shabby chic – needn’t necessarily bare all. Design studio Estúdio Penha has a penchant for networks of pipes and bulkhead lights. Perhaps nowhere is this style more perceptible than in its Quinta da Baroneza House (above), located in São Paulo. Combined with Ladrilar tiles in mint green, the result of its coiling copper is antiquarian and slightly serpentine. Another example is this bathroom in Redfern (left). More…

The Queenstown neighbourhood of Jack’s Point is spoiled when it comes to views. The Remarkables show the full reason for their name: postcard face to the east, and other peaks and hills in all the glorious shades of Otago can be seen in every direction. Designed by Hyndman Taylor Architects, this Jack’s Point house is crouched low on its site in order to maintain privacy from its neighbours, and shaped to capture as many different views as possible, both from indoors and from the outdoor rooms that adjoin the living space. Vistas of The Remarkables are a given here but this home also provides low-angle glimpses of the alpine vegetation that grows in the area, as well as long-range views across the lake of mountains such as the majestic Bayonet…

Apparent even in the smallest stitch, a tradition of well-honed craftsmanship cannot be imitated or rushed. GET THE LOOK ON YOUR WALLS Colours from The Range fashion colours fandeck, only from www.resene.co.nz 0800 RESENE (737 363)…

A Work in Progress: A Journal by René Redzepi, Phaidon, $50 The candour in René Redzepi’s journal-writing seems rare for a celebrity once called “the greatest chef on earth”. There’s no reticence; there are no rehearsed answers, no censored words. Instead, A Work in Progress reads as Redzepi’s way of tapping directly into the seasonal whirlpool of soul-stirring high points, anxieties and creative outputs that come with being the founder and head chef of Copenhagen restaurant Noma (four-time winner of the World’s Best Restaurant title), and processing them as he goes. The cumulative power of reading this – structured as a ‘year in the life’ – is the sense that you’ve stepped into a buzzy and surprisingly self-aware odyssey, and accrued a new kind of enthusiasm for food along the…

The kitchen is the focal point for this house, located in the Auckland suburb of Parnell. Blackened steel with highlights of brass and a backdrop of granite have been used, and there is a sense of permanence in the design, which is part of a renovation carried out by Bureaux architecture and interior design studio. “The brief was chic,” says architect Jessica Barter. “We were wanting something elegant and sophisticated that wasn’t going to date. The focus was on the black steel kitchen. It requires a labour-intensive process to produce the beautiful, specialised finish, which won’t mark with fingerprints or rust; this is important when using metal in a kitchen.” The details are what make the design flourish. Brass elements, such as a custom-made napkin holder and the cast brass…

Mimicking the proportions and stylistic cues of this Arts & Crafts home that spans a corner block in Auckland’s Remuera was the architectural approach in this project by Crosson Architects. But it was not a legally required one. That’s surprising because the home, designed in the 1910s, has presence and poise, and is an exquisite exemplar of the period. The original architects, Bamford and Pierce, have become known for buildings in the English tradition: those like Neligan House (the diocesan office for the Anglican Church) and the Tea Kiosk in The Domain, which is a perennial backdrop for families enjoying tea and ice cream in the gardens overlooking the duck pond. Although the home was not a listed building, the owners, who had three children, asked for a considered restoration…