Table of contents for URBIS_90_201602 in Urbis

WELCOME TO THIS, our leafy, light-filled issue exploring the delicious connection between interiors and the nature that surrounds them. In it, we tackle that perennial question: how do we make our living quarters porous to the beauty of nature, but hermetically sealed to its most uncomfortable, and sometimes dangerous, whims. Incorporating glass and indoor plants are the obvious answers. Sites well-chosen by architects with an affinity for landscape painting and its compositional skills tends to do the trick. Interior schemes comprising organic materials and homewares that echo the home’s surroundings… the list is endless! For this issue, we scouted homes – in locations as varied as Beverly Hills, Kuala Lumpur, Paris and Foxton – that approach nature in interesting ways. Sure, it is hard to think of a house better…

BREE CLAFFEY: I have read that part of your brief to Robin Boyd was for a house based around ‘living in a courtyard’. Why was that idea important to you both? MARY FEATHERSTON: Our brief was for a ‘shed-like’ building incorporating a garden. Robin’s own house in South Yarra [now home to the Robin Boyd Foundation] is built around a courtyard and one could enjoy this open green space from all living areas in the house. We also wanted adaptable, interlinked spaces that would accommodate a wide variety of domestic and professional settings. BC: The garden is planted alongside carpet and furnishings. Is it difficult to maintain a garden indoors? MF: Prior to building the house we sought expert advice – to be told that the idea was unworkable. Plants…

PARIS-BASED RODOLPHE PARENTE, the designer of this 350m² apartment in – possibly – the most photographed area in the world (it is sandwiched between the Seine river, the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe), has been responsible for the interior fit-out of various retail spaces for the likes of Dior, Oscar Ono, and Armani. Much of his work references art deco, re-imagining the style away from its heavy and imposing 1920s’ airport feel and into somewhere between bohemian Paris and the photogenic Aesop store aesthetic. For this apartment, the much-sought-after interior designer continued his theme with added subtlety imposed on him by his client’s requirements and the heritage structure in which this home resides. Parente was commissioned by a couple in their 30s, who, along with their three children…

Jeffrey recommends: • Check out the wet markets for a taste of “a true KL community, such as Padu Market, near Bukit Bitang, which is a daily night market, which are known locally as ‘pasar malam’.” • Do some night cycling and discover the city during the cooler part of the day. • Hire a bike and cycle through Bukit Tunku, which is a beautiful, hilly residential neighbourhood of KL. JEFFREY LIM IS a real dynamo. He is a talented graphic designer and artist with his own brand, Studio 25, but he is particularly interested in applying his communication skills “to other things”. So it makes perfect sense that Lim has merged this talent with his passion for cycling – and bicycles in particular. “As a kid, I discovered a…

Karl and Shawn recommend: • Eat at Jalan Alor in Bukit Bintang, which is a one-stop shop for trying the best of Malaysian food. • Visit the Twin Towers once in the morning and once again at night. • Dine at Fuego at the Troika building for Spanish/South American-influenced tapas. “It is very good and it has a view of the Twin Towers.” OMAKASE + APPRECIATE can be found underneath an office building on Jalan Ampang, behind a tatty door that tells you ‘no admittance’. While it’s not a particularly inviting entrance, this is what you’d expect from a speakeasy cocktail bar. Enter into a tiny, intimate space which has four tables, a small L-shaped bar and a handful of stools, and caters to a devoted clientele of cocktail aficionados.…

SAROSH MULLA Architectural designer Sarosh Mulla examines a large, contemporary house in Beverly Hills. See page 64. What’s a great way to bring the outside indoors? I have always liked spaces between the inside and outside, like deep verandahs or bay windows. Filling areas like this with pot plants can be a great way of bringing the outside in. Are there any New Zealand buildings with a great connection between nature and the ‘built environment’? There are lots of great houses around New Zealand that do this, but it’s harder to find in civic buildings. The Auckland Art Gallery is a favourite of mine in this way. The way the building sits amongst the trees is really lovely. What is your most favourite summertime memory? Walking on Wainui beach with…

LETTING THE STREET IN Andrew J Steel has ventured out as a solo artist after the split of street-art collective BMD (part of Urbis Designday 2015). While he still undertakes large-scale outdoor works, he has been creating his quirky, linear works on residential and commercial interior walls. You have done some interior artworks as private commissions. Do you find your style translates well into interior spaces? I’m really fortunate to have a style that carries through to interiors as well as big outdoor works. In a home environment, a private space, you need something lasting. It’s like a little black dress for a girl – it’s going to be timeless, whereas if she buys a different kind of dress that is in fashion right then, it’s probably not going to…

“MY FIRST MEMORIES OF THE HOSPITALITY WORLD WERE RUNNING AROUND BRIBING THE CHEFS TO MAKE ME CHICKEN CHIPS AND BORROWING 50¢ COINS TO PLAY SWEET TUNES ON THE JUKEBOX!” THERE WAS BARELY any question Mimi Gilmour would end up in the restaurant business. She and her sister Sophie were raised in the fast-paced, foodie atmosphere surrounding their mother Emerald’s ventures, the most famous of which was the French bistro Clichy. A hot spot in the 1970s, Clichy was located in the Kiwi Tavern building in Britomart and offered a sophisticated atmosphere that Aucklanders were crying out for at the time. Emerald followed this up with Tatler, a restaurant where Mimi and Sophie spent a lot of time as children. “My first memories of the hospitality world were running around Tatler…

A VISUAL AND PHYSICAL relationship between indoor and outdoor spaces is frequently a design-driver, especially when building in a picturesque coastal location. But it’s not always a straightforward proposition. After years spent holidaying at their bach in Foxton, these homeowners decided to make the move to full-time seaside living, and hired Patterson Associates to design a new home. Foxton’s location on the west coast of the North Island make wind and sand an ever-present consideration. But in this case, Patterson explains, the potential impact of climate change was the primary concern. “Much of Foxton has been designated a flood zone, due to rising sea levels, so dealing with that – more than the sand and wind – was the biggest challenge to the site. The site itself is on the…

Alun recommends: • Go and see the fireflies in Kuala Selangor, which is about one hour out of KL along a river. “You can see all the fireflies from the restaurant/diner and it’s really pretty.” • Have a drink at sunset at the Heli Lounge, which “is high and a bit scary but has nice views around the city”. • Spend a few hours trekking an urban sub-tropical jungle like Bukit Gasing Forest Park, which is between Selangor and KL. THIS KIWI ABROAD pretty much fell into being a coffee entrepreneur. “It was not my original intention,” explains Evans, who is based in KL. “But eventually [having worked in cafés and supplied coffee to hotels and restaurants] I realised that I wanted to work with farmers in Indonesia and to…

HELIUM LEVITATE Bluetooth speakers have gone from wondrous novelty to ubiquitous accessory in just a few years, but the Helium Levitate brings a bit of wow-factor back as you wirelessly impose your musical tastes on others. You see, the Helium Levitate lives up to its name by floating magically in mid-air. Well, we say float, but actually it uses opposing magnetic fields to hover and spin above its base station. The powerful magnet comes in handy in other ways too, allowing you to attach it to anything metal – like the front of the fridge. It’s not super-loud, but it is pretty neat. The Helium Levitate will run for about five hours before it needs a charge up. $125; red5.co.uk PHUNKEE DUCK SCOOTER Phunkee Duck is one of those two-wheeled…

URBIS: Your career has really taken off – you have kept up a role in Belgium, New Zealand and now a project in Italy. Are you surprised, shell-shocked, going with the flow or did you expect this to happen? RUFUS: A combination of all those things. It was an incredible opportunity and learning experience to work with Vincent Van Duysen in Antwerp, and it was great to have a growing level of enquiry for my projects in New Zealand, although at times it felt like I couldn’t give either the commitment they deserved. My time with Fearon Hay was the best foundation for managing the increased expectations and having the confidence to manage projects in New Zealand. But now, having spent time with Van Duysen and his team, and having…

“RULES ARE FOR OTHER PEOPLE – WE WANTED TO MAKE SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL” FIVE MINUTES’ WALK from the chic suburb of Grünerløkka in Oslo, a late 19th-century apartment has undergone a moody and minimalist reinvention. But when Oslo-based Nikki Butenschøn of Haptic Architects explains the design parameters of creating such unique architecture within a tight 125m² historically listed dwelling, he laughs: “Rules are for other people – we wanted to make something beautiful.” Breaking rules is always more fun when your best friend of 15 years is your accomplice. The owners, former Norwegian hip-hop star Thomas Gullestad and his wife, were only too happy to have their tired and tight one-floor apartment reinvented by Butenschøn. The usual suspects – space, light and storage – needed to be captured in the new…

Farah and Adela recommend: • Research and eat street food all over Kuala Lumpur. • Catch a show or a drink or three at the jazz club No Black Tie. • Take a morning run in the Lake Gardens (Perdana Botanical Garden). FARAH AZIZAN AND Adela Askander met while studying architecture in the United Kingdom. Years later, the duo returned home to Kuala Lumpur and started Studio Bikin. According to Azizan: “We saw an opportunity to build and realise our projects and not to be stuck in an office in the UK being paper architects and never building anything.” Since Studio Bikin began in 2012, it has gone from strength to strength in a short time: they now have seven staff members and a variety of small-to-medium projects under their…

Justin recommends: • Hike up Bukit Tabur, a limestone ridge located in Taman Melawati, to majestic views of the Klang Gates Dam, Melawati hills and the KL skyline. • Go to Restoran Sek Yuen on Jalan Pudu, which serves delicious Cantonese fare from a kitchen fired by wood blocks. “The restaurant is steeped in history and nostalgia, with much of its ambience still intact from the era of pre-independence.” • Go to the night markets around the city. Try the local fare at the Bangsar pasar malam, located off Jalan Maarof, on a Sunday evening. ARTIST JUSTIN LIM is primarily a painter who uses his art to explore local traditions and issues affecting Malaysian culture. Social commentary or “what is happening around us” is the role of art, he suggests.…

The sun paid a visit to the inside of Design Miami in December, but it was all dazzle without the heat. This 1:1 billion-scale model of the sun was the result of a collaboration between Mexico City architecture and design firm Fernando Romero Enterprise and Swarovski to explore our relationship with the sun. The vast structure features a cut-out internal framework holding together a jigsaw of four types of specially developed precision-cut crystals. Inside, a pool of LED lights reflects and refracts off the crystals. The geometric patterns reference ancient Aztec construction techniques. designmiami.com…