Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2023 i Wallpaper

Marking the beginning of spring in the Japanese calendar, cherry blossom season, and in particular, hana-ikada, when the blossoms are scattered by the wind and come to rest on the surface of a river, is a particularly glorious spectacle. This fleeting moment is given a horological spin by Grand Seiko in the Elegance SBGY026G watch, which reinterprets the classic aesthetic established by the Japanese watch brand in 1967. This new timepiece stays faithful to the design codes that have come to epitomise the Grand Seiko style after a chief designer noticed the watches that stood out most in a Tokyo mall store were imbued with an extra brilliance. To create this, he emphasised shadow as much as light, noting that the gradients between black and white brought a richness to…

Founded by Summer Islam, Paloma Gormley and George Massoud in 2019, London-based architecture studio Material Cultures is intent on making meaningful progress towards a postcarbon built environment. ‘Current housing models depend on large amounts of high-energy materials, mass-manufactured overseas, with short lifespans,’ say the team. ‘If we are to halt the progress of ecological breakdown, we need to radically rethink the logic of current construction methods, the materials we use, and our approach to growth.’ The trio’s newest venture is a series of workshops (some on weekdays, some on weekends, for maximum flexibility) that challenge existing construction practices. Taking place at the HG Matthews Brickworks in Buckinghamshire, the workshops will be taught by experts (50 per cent of which are women), encompass live-build elements on a structure constructed in 2019…

The inaugural venture of new creative platform AMO, launched by Ambra Medda and Veronica Sommaruga, is informed by the teachings of Josef and Anni Albers. ‘Teatro Albers’, on display at Milan Design Week, will showcase the work of master weaver Laura de Cesare and London-based Italian designer Marco Campardo, the recent winner of the Design Museum’s Ralph Saltzman Prize. ‘Marco is a very conscientious designer, but there’s a playfulness that shines through, too,’ say Medda and Sommaruga. ‘That combination of serious, academic thinking, along with a freewheeling, almost mad scientist side, is what we felt was really powerful.’ For the exhibition, Campardo created ‘Tutti Frutti Megalith’, a collection of resin stools, using a cardboard mould to shape the objects, which are then painted in irregular patterns. The colour combinations take…

Where are you as we speak? What can you see from your window? I’m flying over the Tasman Sea, which separates New Zealand and Australia. I can only see some scrappy cloud – there has been flooding and intemperate weather. Can you tell us about your greenhouse project and how you are using it? Some friends of mine bought possibly the oldest orchid business in the world, McBean’s Orchids, founded in 1879. It has many empty industrial greenhouses. At the beginning of Covid, I was going mad in lockdown, but you could still work in horticulture and agriculture, so I invited myself in and planted some tomatoes, made some sculptures and products from discarded bamboo sticks and broken glass, bought a kiln and dug up some clay and, as the…

Porro is a brand that has been ingrained in the Italian design industry for nearly a century. Founded in 1925 by Giulio Porro in Brianza, the company has since been passed down through generations, always keeping its focus on innovation and craftsmanship. Giulio’s great-granddaughter, Maria Porro, is now its marketing and communications director, leading the company into the future with a bold vision for design and sustainability. In 2021, Porro was also appointed president of Salone del Mobile, a historic moment as she became the first woman to hold this position at the Milanese fair, a place she used to visit as a child. As a pioneering figure, she embodies a new wave of design industry leaders dedicated to promoting values of diversity, inclusiveness and sustainability. Under Maria Porro’s leadership,…

To celebrate Dom Pérignon unveiling its 2013 vintage, Lady Gaga is starring in a new campaign that portrays the synergies between a champagne vintage’s maturation and an artist moving through the creative process. Directed and scored by Woodkid (Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui oversaw choreography and Nicola Formichetti styled the costumes, including a bodice made by Gaga’s sister, Natali Germanotta), the film was shot partly in Hautvillers Abbey, once home to innovative winemaking Benedictine monk Dom Pierre Pérignon. Vincent Chaperon, the champagne house’s chef de cave (cellar master), sees champagne as a philosophy. He speaks with the considered tone of a refined craftsperson, respectful of the nearly four centuries of expertise guiding him as he explains how it takes a decade to produce relatively small quantities and how one is at the…

For stockists, see page 265 Model: Anass Bouazzaoui at The Claw Models Special thanks to Riad Jardin Secret, riadjardinsecret.com…

‘To-Tie’ lamps by Guglielmo Poletti, for Flos Guglielmo Poletti developed his ingenious design for ‘To-Tie’ from a series of elemental objects: a hand-finished borosilicate glass cylinder, a fabric-covered electrical cable and the multifunctional anodised aluminium rod that serves as the lamp’s LED light source, switch and handle. Developed as a trio, with the aluminium rod available in black or silver, the lamps combine Poletti’s talent for framing the space and Flos’ enthusiasm for lighting innovation.  ‘To-Tie’ lamps, from £395, by Guglielmo Poletti, for Flos, from The Conran Shop, conranshop.co.uk Available at WallpaperSTORE* wallpaper.com…

Welcome to the May issue, where we celebrate the return of Salone del Mobile to its traditional April position as the focal point of the global design calendar – back in full force for spring to showcase the very best in international design. The fair is celebrating 61 years, and is destined to be the epic comeback we have anticipated. We are delighted to mark the occasion with our cover featuring a joyful offering of Colomba and Sottsass coffee. The issue is a bountiful 268 pages and includes a design icon feature with the ever brilliant Gaetano Pesce in his NYC studio, celebrating his ongoing collaboration with Bottega Veneta, plus there’s an exclusive look at his new bag design. We take a tour of Edoardo Gellner’s Villaggio Eni, a visionary…

A new capsule collection from Pleats Please Issey Miyake celebrates three decades of the innovative Japanese label, which sees archetypal garments reimagined in the designer’s pioneering knife-edge pleated polyester. The vivid 30th-anniversary pieces – comprising cropped trousers, flared sleeveless top and shift dress in two colourways – feature the recognisable Pleats Please logo reinterpreted as a bold, abstract print. Its design is meant to appear like the various letters are ‘moving freely’ across the fabric’s surface, symbolic of the way the brand’s dynamic collections are created with an emphasis on the body in movement. First launched as part of the Issey Miyake mainline collection in 1988, Pleats Please became a standalone brand in 1993, speaking to Miyake’s longtime maxim that ‘design is not for philosophy – it’s for life’.…

Post-war Italian artist Nanda Vigo, the doyenne of daring design, conceived the ‘Due Più’ chair, an unconventional seat made of two detached, independent rollers covered in Mongolian fur (later synthetic), back in 1971. Now ‘Due Più’, which has never been mass produced in the past, is making a poignant return, thanks to Italian furniture brand Acerbis. Showing at Salone del Mobile, the new edition, with its stainless-steel structure and fur recovered from food industry waste, takes a more sustainable approach to design manufacturing. The chair will be accompanied by two pieces by Claudio Salocchi: one from his ‘Free System’ furnishing series and ‘Napoleone’, a table characterised by a classic 1970s mirrored top. Founded in 1870, Acerbis has produced work by some of Italy’s most pioneering designers, including Massimo and Lella…

Letting go of our souvenirs – even if it is to make way for more mementos – is never an easy task. Yet it is exactly what Milan-based design doyenne Paola Navone has set out to do in her upcoming show ‘Take it or Leave it’, for which she will be parting ways with some of her worldly treasures. ‘I like to give these objects a second or third life, but I also like to have a new empty space around me to plan new adventures,’ says Navone. Giving them away is an occasion to revel in the beauty of the present and to connect with those who will decide to take or leave the object behind. Curated with Daniel Rozensztroch, the artistic director of Parisian concept store Merci, in…

The 55th floor of One Vanderbilt, a soaring 93-storey skyscraper on the corner of 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, is now home to Centurion New York, a new space for American Express, offering a discreet place to work, relax, eat and drink, conceived for holders of its Centurion ‘black card’. One Vanderbilt itself was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and completed in 2020. Amex brought on board Yabu Pushelberg to further craft and outfit its space, right down to its curtains and cutlery. The international design practice was an intelligent choice, considering its extensive portfolio that blends hospitality (Miami Beach and London Editions, The Londoner, and Park Hyatt Shenzhen) with retail (it was involved in the much lauded overhaul of La Samaritaine in Paris), as well as many high-net-worth homes.…

British department store Liberty may be known for its heritage floral textiles, but for its latest interiors and fashion fabrics collection, a more geometric aesthetic has been embraced. The FuturLiberty range, launching at Milan Design Week, draws heavily on Futurism and Vorticism, the early 20th-century art movements that celebrated the powerful dynamism of rapidly evolving modern life. The creative steer for FuturLiberty came from nonagenarian Italian designer Federico Forquet, who met Andrea Petochi, Liberty Fabrics’ managing director, as the world was emerging from the Covid pandemic, and was invited to collaborate on a collection. As Petochi recounts: ‘Federico said, I love Liberty, but I can’t help you with classic flowers, because there have been better masters before me. But maybe you can think about how avant-garde artists have reacted to…

Ann Veronica Janssens has built a career out of thin air. Mist and light are to the Brussels-based artist what stone and marble were to Rodin: raw materials to be sculpted and perfected. ‘I’ve tried to give materiality to certain phenomena that, at first sight, may not seem to have any,’ she tells me over a Zoom call from Milan’s Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, a 15,000 sq m tyre factory-turned-art foundation where she’s installing her largest show to date. Titled ‘Grand Bal’, the exhibition spans four decades of experiments with the sensory and performative nature of space, including a rectangular concave sculpture evoking infinitude, site-specific brick constructions, dizzying optical glass pieces and her celebrated immersive fog installation. ‘It’s the first time I’ll show these works together,’ she says. ‘It’s this exchange…

To subscribe, visit wallpaper.com/sub23 A Wallpaper* subscription ensures: * Collectable, artist-designed covers * 12 issues a year for £100/$140/€157 * Delivery every month Our limited-edition covers, available only to subscribers, are created by a leading artist, designer or architect each month. Past contributors range from Jony Ive to Jenny Holzer, Yayoi Kusama to Tom Sachs, Isaac Julien to Karl Lagerfeld. See just a few of our favourites here, and subscribe for many more unique artworks to come. Offer closes CREDITS 3o June 2023. For full terms and conditions, visit magazinesdirect.com/terms…

Elevating the catwalk at Hermès’S/S23 womenswear show in Paris were these gravity-scorning sandals. Defying their seemingly vertiginous form, the fastidious construction ensures these are as much of a pleasure to wear as they are to behold, and they come in a variety of hues that coordinate with the wider offering designed by Hermès’ head of womenswear Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski. Described as ‘a rave in the desert’, the collection celebrates lightness and liberation, with design references such as tents, mosquito nets and hammocks, reimagined in luxurious style. This is a collection made for getting outside, letting loose and, as Vanhee-Cybulski noted post-show, dancing all night.…

Gel manicures can be beautiful and long-lasting, but they can also do untold damage to nails, including thinning, peeling, cracking and brittleness. This drove Copenhagen-based beauty brand Alûstre to seek an innovative alternative to gel manicures, creating nail polishes from the world’s strongest natural material – diamonds. The polishes are made using the brand’s patented ‘DiamondInfused’ technology, which harnesses the strength of diamond particles to create exceptional gloss, durability and chip resistance in a collection that encompasses 41 colours, ranging from classic nudes and reds to punchier shades like metallic green and electric blue, as well as a base and top coat. To ensure the diamond particles have been ethically sourced, the brand has partnered with a 120-year-old supplier that adheres to the Kimberley Process and Global Compact initiative. Founded…

Ronan Bouroullec says he has been drawing since his childhood in Brittany. ‘I grew up in the countryside, far from my friends. My brother was much younger. We had no TV. I played football alone, against a wall. Drawing became a necessity, it filled the void.’ He still feels the need to draw every day, and keeps a personal studio – a large, light-filled apartment in Paris’ 9th arrondissement – for that purpose. On the day I visit, many years’ worth of drawings are spread out over the floor, being narrowed down to a few hundred for an upcoming museum show in Toulon. Among them sit a box of fabric samples, a new collection inspired by Bouroullec’s drawings, freshly arrived from Denmark. Their producer, textile company Kvadrat (with whom he…

Hélène Binet is best known as a photographer of architecture, but she could also be described as a philosopher of light. A new exhibition at Euroluce celebrates the return of the world’s largest fair dedicated to the design of natural and artificial light. It is the chance to see photographs from Binet’s remarkable career, as well as a series of new images that mark a turn towards a freer and more playful way of working with light. Since the 1980s, Binet has captured some of the most iconic images of architecture. Imposing strict limits on her approach by working in black and white, and only using analogue techniques, her images heightened the drama and power of buildings that defined the late 20th century. Her career developed in parallel to that…

Gérald Charles Genta, the 20th century’s foremost watch designer, was known simply as the maestro. A master of Swiss-made timepiece architecture, design and movement, Genta’s wristwatches were at the cutting edge of ergonomics, and his output is revered by horologists and design aficionados alike. Now, more than a decade since his passing in 2011, the Gerald Charles marque continues Genta’s legacy, taking his ‘artistic creativity and technical mastery’ into the future. For 2023, Gerald Charles unveils a new timepiece, the Maestro 9.0 Tourbillon, one of the most technically and aesthetically advanced pieces ever conceived by the family-owned maison. The new watch echoes the original Maestro flying tourbillon designed in 2005 by Genta, following its familiar form in the playfully asymmetric case, rippled bezel and six o’clock smile. Designed in collaboration…

Adidas adidas.com B&B Italia bebitalia.com Baxter baxter.it Brioni brioni.com Cassina cassina.com Dedon dedon.de Dior dior.com Ethimo ethimo.com Expormim expormim.com Falke falke.com Fendi fendi.com Ferragamo ferragamo.com Giorgio Armani armani.com Hermès hermes.com Kettal kettal.com Lacoste lacoste.com Living Divani livingdivani.it Louis Vuitton louisvuitton.com Minotti minotti.com Molly Goddard mollygoddard.com Molteni molteni.it Prada prada.com Tectona tectona.net Undercover undercoverism.com Visionnaire visionnaire-home.com Wales Bonner walesbonner.com Zegna zegna.com…