09.15.22

Sighted

Sarah Ellison’s Float Sofa — In a New Luscious, Chocolatey Brown — Forms the Perfect ’70s Conversation Pit

There’s no escaping the influence of the '70s on today’s interiors and now, at long last, we get something from that era that's long overdue for a renaissance: the return of the conversation pit. Australian designer Sarah Ellison has long been influenced by the '70s and '80s, so when it came to designing her latest sofa series, the idea for a modular piece quickly developed into a system that could be implemented as a giant sunken area for large homes or hospitality spaces.

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09.14.22

Travel

Berlin Startup Raus Is Building Designer Cabins in the Woods that Let Tired City-Dwellers Become One With Nature

With its 170 square-foot bookable designer cabins, German startup Raus lets its guests leave the craziness of the city behind to experience being separated from endless trees and sky by a mere sliver of glass (without giving up the comforts of a proper mattress and shower). Its founders created the first few cabins themselves, negotiating deals with farmers outside Berlin to park the off-the-grid structures on their land, then commissioned architect Sigurd Larsen to envision model 2.0, which debuted this past spring.

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09.10.22

Saturday Selects

Week of September 5, 2022

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a posh, velvet-filled, Boston-adjacent restaurant, an exhibition in a handmade home in New Jersey, and a new showroom that shows off its Hamptons location to a T.

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09.09.22

Up and Coming

“Am I Just Making the Trash of the Future?” And Other Philosophical Questions With Designer Drew Abrahamson

“I always want my work to be fun, not taken too seriously, a point of conversation,” says Australian artist and designer Drew Abrahamson. And while it definitely is, it’s thoughtful, too, and even veers, in a light-hearted way, toward the kinds of philosophical questions anyone who puts anything out into the world ought to probably ask themselves: “Am I just making the trash of the future?” Abrahamson’s answer, in his recent series “We Are All Garbage,” is pretty much yes, but concedes that there’s freedom and liberation in the act of creation, especially when it isn’t so tightly tied to the constraints of marketability. 

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09.08.22

Up and Coming

This Cross-Cultural Couple is Carving Out a Space for Contemplation — And Furniture Production — in San Miguel de Allende

Part of what motivates designers Giulia Zink and Mat Trumbull of OHLA Studio is a question: “How do we build within the traditions of the past as new challenges loom?” The answer for OHLA, based in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and Los Angeles, is to balance a contemporary aesthetic with a respect for the region’s vernacular design and historic motifs, while turning to local and not-too-far-away artisans and resources to realize their projects.

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06.01.21

Up and Coming

A New Lighting Collection Inspired By the 1960s Modernism of Fire Island Pines

“Growing up, I always love stained glass,” recalls Peter B. Staples, discussing the early design experiments that would eventually lead to the launch of his lighting brand Blue Green Works. “I grew up in a Craftsman-style home, and one summer, my dad and I found the plans for the original stained glass lanterns. We taught ourselves how to fix and recreate them. I was probably 12 at the time and that experience really stayed with me.” But while the exercise was clearly formative, Staples would have to take a circuitous path through the New York design scene before returning to lighting. Having previously worked at The Future Perfect and Apparatus, Blue Green Works marks the first time Staples has designed a collection himself — which you would never guess just by looking at it.

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09.06.22

Sighted

These Modular, Recycled Paper Pulp Lamps are a Mashup of Modernism and Arts & Crafts

It’s not much of a surprise that Palefire Studio’s U/V collection of lighting includes designs comprising modules with U and V shapes. What is surprising, however, is the variety of configurations produced by these basic volumes, resulting in an incredibly diverse yet extremely cohesive set of silhouettes that can be applied anywhere in the home.

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08.20.22

Saturday Selects

Week of August 15, 2022

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a Swedish restaurant in a giant greenhouse, nostalgic items as sculptural miniature candles, and a very wiggly chair.

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08.18.22

Interiors

This Agnes Martin–Inspired Boutique Takes Nude Tones to New Levels

“A performance by Vanessa Beecroft or a painting by Agnes Martin” are comparisons that Studiopepe founders Ariana Lelli Mami and Chiara Di Pinto make to their boutique for fashion curator Avart — by which they mean it’s calming and welcoming, but with a strong, proud presence. Located under the arcade of Lugano’s Via Canova, the interior takes nude tones to new levels through micro-sand surfaces that blanket the walls, floors, ceiling, and a helical staircase that provides a sculptural focal point for the store.

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08.16.22

Excerpt: Exhibition

A Traveling Gallery Show in Belgium Offers a Renewed Sense of Discovery

This summer, the galleries Barbé Urbain and Atelier Ecru, located in Ghent, Belgium, have teamed up to present a temporary exhibition of collectible design and contemporary art outside of their dedicated spaces. Named to evoke a sense of discovery, the Magellan show brings together works by a host of artists and designers in the De Beir residence, an iconic early Modernist building designed by Belgian architect Huib Hoste in 1924.

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08.15.22

Fair Report

A Favorite French Design Festival Returns With a Crop of Fresh Talent

If you assumed earlier this year, based on a barrage of dreamy, sun-drenched Instagram posts, that all your favorite French designers — India Mahdavi, Pierre Yovanovitch, Dorothée Meilichzon  — seemed to be vacationing in the same idyllic beach town in the French Riviera, you would be almost correct. Actually, they were attending the 16th edition of Design Parade, the French design festival that has become a go-to for spotting new trends and discovering the next wave of buzzy young designers.

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08.11.22

Sighted

Raf Simons Just Dropped a 16-Piece Shaker-Inspired Accessory Collection for Kvadrat

Over the course of nine years, the ongoing collaboration between Raf Simons and Kvadrat has brought us bold textiles attuned to color, texture, and proportion. Their latest project, the Shaker System, is no exception, while also being a bit of a departure. It’s a storage and accessories collection that fuses a precise simplicity with the comfort and ease of home.

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08.10.22

Sighted

In Lisbon, a Theater-Restaurant Revives the Former Stables of an 18th-Century Palace

To set the scene for this all-day, every-day artistic production, designed by French architect Julien Labrousse, the historic building was left largely untouched. Exposed ceiling trusses, crumbling plasterwork, and ornate doorways all add to the mystery and allure of the space, in which audience members interact with the costumed staff-slash-entertainers.

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