Table of contents for April 2020 in Wallpaper

JOHANN CLAUSEN Photographer This month, we asked Johann Clausen to apply his precise visual approach to a selection of the latest and greatest German cars (page 160). ‘I had the freedom to look at the cars from a purely aesthetic point of view and to fully devote myself to the nuances of forms, lines and materials,’ says the Berlin-based Clausen, who is currently collaborating with a Swiss designer on a multimedia project exploring the language of tech packaging. HUGH HAYDEN Artist A rising star of contemporary sculpture, Hugh Hayden recently presented an installation at New York’s The Shed featuring an archetypal suburban home with protruding branches, mirrored to form an infinite, barren hedgerow. His exploration of the American dream and its limitations continues this month at London’s Lisson Gallery, where…

A trip to the dentist becomes a fun experience at this Barcelona dental clinic. Created by local architect Raúl Sanchez for healthcare brand Impress, the space was conceived to address the needs and expectations of a younger audience, putting the emphasis on new technologies and a fresh design approach. Moving away from the white, sterile and austere environment usually associated with dental practice interiors, Sanchez opted for bright colours and playful geometries. The architect took advantage of the ground level property’s double-height ceilings to install tall, pine partitions whose strong shapes draw on the brand’s smile-shaped logo, while helping to maintain patient privacy. Examination rooms are placed on the ground and mezzanine level, while a triple-height void at the rear brings natural light into the basement that houses storage and…

Copenhagen wants to be the world’s first carbon-neutral city in 2025, but Melbourne, Reykjavik or The Hague might get there first. They are among 14 cities that have vowed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and on the list of the 43 cities granted ‘A-list’ status by CDP, a not-for-profit ‘global disclosure’ charity. Labelling cities like refrigerators is a brilliantly simple way to influence behaviour and strengthen city brands. The most sustainable vacation is a staycation, but if you must travel, heading to one of these 43 cities is a good plan B. When you’re there, don’t forget to thank the locals for eating less meat, swapping liquid shampoo for bar soap, and biking more. In this game, there are no losers, but the smart money is on Copenhagen to…

Brazilian architect Gustavo Neves always struggled to find pieces that reflected his ambition and aesthetics, where materials are left in their raw state and their wild nature respected and enhanced. He started designing bespoke objects, featuring raw natural materials alongside manmade elements, for private clients, and these now form part of a capsule launched by The Invisible Collection. ‘Gustavo’s designs are powerful and raw, aesthetically compelling and utterly uncommon,’ say the brand’s co-founders Anna Zaoui and Isabelle Dubern. As well as launching the best pieces from his vast interiors archive, Neves has also designed a collection of lamps, tables and accessories in bronze and white selenite. In this collection, entitled Enso, two distinct aesthetics come together to create a tension between the rugged and the polished, a balance which he…

BabyArk, an all-new child-safety car seat concept designed by Frank Stephenson, uses cutting edge materials, new technology and an organic simplicity. To automotive aficionados, Stephenson’s name is associated with BMW’s new Mini, the revived Fiat 500, and high-profile work for Ferrari, Maserati and McLaren. BabyArk is a new departure. The child-safety car seat market is relatively routine, with a plethora of products differing only in colour and trim. BabyArk combines natural forms with high-tech materials and techniques, such as seamless docking, lightweight plastics and 3D-printed carbon fibre. Everything on the seat can be recycled and reused, including the core technology, an impact-absorbing spiral tube that adds a hidden layer of protection. frankstephenson.com…

User movement, context and the site’s harsh climate were key drivers in the design development of the Audemars Piguet museum. By placing the new building as a separate – but visually linked – entity among the watchmaker’s existing campus, the architects were able to work with a spiral, low-profile form, which encourages a particular route through the museum, while also allowing for flexible, lateral movement, and referencing the hairspring – the coil that delivers constant energy – in mechanical watches. ‘Both with watchmaking and architecture, the form is the content,’ says Bjarke Ingels. ‘There is no separation between ‘software’ and ‘hardware’; that’s what makes them both intriguing. We are also both seeking to get the maximum amount of impact with the minimum amount of material.’ The façade’s carefully designed curvature…

‘UNIT’ DESK by Aesthek Aesthek’s new ‘Unit’ desk is a modern update of the secretary desk, a traditional staple of the early home office and study. The Cologne-based company has covered all bases with its reinterpretation, creating a desk that works in any space, office or domestic, while also serving as a room divider, or as part of a modular kit. Designers Sebastian Netz and Jochen Ruderer used power-coated or galvanised steel for the frame, wrapping the end result in a heavy-duty Kvadrat fabric for almost infinite customisation. The first five examples of ‘Unit’ (as pictured here) were developed in collaboration with the Berlin-based artist Michaela Zimmer. Limited-edition ‘Unit’ desk, €1,800, aesthek.com ‘EDITION 2020’ PLATES by New Tendency KPM Berlin is a porcelain manufacturer with centuries of history and a…

Sissel Tolaas sniffs where others fear to tread. ‘When other people start throwing up,’ she says, ‘that’s when I start to work.’ The self-professed scientist of smell has created cheese from David Beckham’s sweat and finds the odour of ordure far more fascinating than what she calls ‘cover-up perfumes’. But she has also recreated the scent of extinct flowers and encapsulated the life story of a Douglas fir tree in a Dinesen plank. Though she’s long been based in Berlin, Tolaas was born on the west coast of Norway, where, she recalls, ‘we always looked west, to America’. The young Tolaas, by contrast, looked east. At 17 she left squeaky-clean Scandinavia, first for Poland and then for Russia, to study organic chemistry and linguistics. ‘I need to be somewhere I…

China Canada Australia Finland Colombia Scotland…

Just above a beautiful little palm-fringed surfers’ beach on Sri Lanka’s southern coast, Mond (German for moon) is a new four-room hotel with real pull. Masterminded by Jessica Fernando and Renato Kümin, who upped sticks from Zürich to be closer to the ocean and to pursue a more socially and ecologically sustainable lifestyle, the property is, says Fernando, ‘a place for people to connect, experience and co-create. It is not an ordinary hotel.’ With that in mind, the duo tasked Zürich-based architects Daniel Abraha and Stephan Achermann to create a building that aligned with both their principles and their needs. The result is an interesting contemporary take on the Tropical Modernism style of legendary Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa. The challenge, say the architects, has been to ‘create an architecture…

Fantasy island ANANTARA KIHAVAH, MALDIVES For the past decade or so, Anantara has been luring sunseekers to its Maldivian property on Kihavah, a tiny speck of an island ringed by palm-fringed beaches and a sweep of turquoise-blue waters. Now, the property’s four Beach Pool Residences have just emerged from an update that firmly puts the resort back at the top of the game. Bangkok-based studio Soda has dressed the light-drenched rooms in natural materials and rich textures, from solid teak to woven rattan, alongside stone-cut tiles that line each of the infinity edge pools. With its own villa host, private chef and wine guru on tap, you might find it hard to leave, but if you do, the resort’s plethora of offerings includes an underwater restaurant, a dreamy spa, and…

&Tradition Tel: 45.39 20 02 33 (Denmark) andtradition.com A Acne Studios acnestudios.com Aeyde aeyde.com Akris akris.com Alexandra Jefford alexandrajefford.com Amly amlybotanicals.co.uk Another Country Tel: 44.20 7486 3251 (UK) anothercountry.com Ara Vartanian Tel: 55.11 3815 0200 (Brazil) aravartanian.com Arte Tel: 44.800 500 3335 (UK) arte-international.com Artemide artemide.com Atelier de Troupe Tel: 1.323 870 5303 (US) atelierdetroupe.com Atlein atlein.com Audio-Technica audio-technica.com B Bang & Olufsen Tel: 44.20 3936 1483 (UK) bang-olufsen.com B&B Italia Tel: 44.20 7591 8111 (UK) bebitalia.com Balenciaga Tel: 33.1 56 52 17 17 (France) balenciaga.com Bernardaud Tel: 33.1 47 42 82 66 (France) bernardaud.com Bisque Tel: 44.20 7328 2225 (UK) bisque.co.uk Boghossian Tel: 44.20 7495 0885 (UK) boghossianjewels.com Boss Tel: 44.20 7734 7919 (UK) hugoboss.com Boucheron Tel: 44.20 3936 9090 (UK) boucheron.com Brintons Tel: 44.800 505055 (UK) brintons.co.uk Brunello…

Hugh Hayden’s first show in London, at Lisson Gallery, is an ode to Southern food: invented on plantations and intertwined with the history of slavery. The Texan sculptor’s meditation on identity and diaspora includes cast iron skillets overlaid with African masks, and a video piece showing him cooking and eating bacon. For our recipe series, he offers a twist on his mother’s quintessentially Southern cornbread, refined through months of ‘internet sleuthing and weekly recipe trials. I call it a pudding because it’s thick and moist, yet doesn’t need a spoon.’ ‘American Food’, 12 March–2 May, lissongallery.com. For Hayden’s recipe, see Wallpaper.com…

Gabrielle Chanel’s style legacy owes as much to her cultured eclecticism as it does to her powerful reputation as a designer. So distinct were her likes and loves, from pearls and lions to Boy Capel and the Ballets Russes, that the brand she created is never short of inspiration. And so it is to the designer’s love of Scotland that Chanel Fine Jewellery has turned for its latest collection, Tweed de Chanel. The rough, woollen fabric, traditionally associated with rugged pursuits and appropriated for womenswear by Chanel in the 1920s, makes for a convincing high jewellery design blueprint. There’s the obvious graphic potential, but also the muted tones that reflect Tweed’s Highland provenance – much of the collection is created using coloured gemstones to depict the distinctive criss-cross. However, it…

BB: Do you drink coffee? CS: Yes. Were you a creative child? At school I was never part of any cliques. I wanted to be independent and not follow anyone else. I was terrible at art! I had a very structured Germanic upbringing, so the idea of ‘letting go’ was more difficult. When I started working with Rafael Viñoly in the US, that was a complete game changer for me as I was suddenly working on these enormous projects with a lot of responsibility. Who are your biggest influences? When I was studying architecture at Columbia, Kazuyo Sejima gave a lecture. She had very strong architectural ideas. Her projects weren’t trying to be beautiful, they just were. I also saw a lecture by Viñoly. I thought his work was fascinating.…

Dense rows of fir trees punctured by frozen lakes and oxblood red cabins; children in snow boots navigating icy pavements; crystal-tipped grass that crunches underfoot. The journey to the studio of Yrjö Kukkapuro on the outskirts of Helsinki is fittingly Finnish. But once inside, all Nordic clichés end. Rows of chairs with colourful legs and graffti-splattered backs are stacked in seemingly random groups; books, paintbrushes, sketches and models occupy every surface; sunlit walls are crowded with images and cuttings, and in the middle of it all sits 86-year-old Kukkapuro in his canary yellow cap. If anyone has a design back catalogue that sums up the artistic movements and global economic shifts of the past century, it is Kukkapuro. He qualified as an industrial designer in the 1950s, a golden age…

As career changes go, a move from architecture to jewellery design is not as incongruous as it may first appear; and for Antonia Frey and Simon Vorhammer of Sian Design, it was a natural progression. Both disciplines are inextricably concerned with space and light, geometry and texture, and these are just as carefully considered in miniature as they are on a large scale. A move from Sydney, where they worked as architects, back home to Munich, where their jewellery is now crafted, sparked a desire to create on a smaller scale. ‘Complex geometries and structures are so much easier to implement in jewellery than in architecture,’ Frey and Vorhammer agree. ‘Also, there is no direct client. We can very much do what we are interested in.’ The pair’s architectural skills…

Model: Martina Boaretto at Viva London Casting director: David Steven Wilton at East Hair: Cathy Ennis using Bumble and Bumble Make-up: Mirijana Vasovic using YSL Beauty Set designer: David De Quevedo at Bryant Artists Interiors: Jacqui Scalamera Photography assistant: Joseph Conway Fashion assistants: Marianne Kakko, Josefin Forsberg, Aylin Bayhan Set design assistants: Aaron Vernon, Lauren McDonald Interiors assistant: Melissanthe Panagiotopoulou…

We all hope our house guests have a memorable stay, but the owner of a home on the outskirts of Ghent took the concept one step further by commissioning a bespoke folly in the back garden just for visitors. The architects, Ghent-based Atelier Vens Vanbelle, headed up by Dries Vens and Maarten Vanbelle, worked closely with their client, a film producer, to create the sculptural extension, which serves as part-guest house, part-screening room and part-lookout tower. ‘The only criterion was that the guests had to remember their stay forever,’ say the architects. The team describes a walk through the addition as a ‘cinematic experience’. The standalone structure, which is clad in profiled Corten steel, is constructed in laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and was designed as a single piece of furniture.…

Taking inspiration from the Surrealist parlour game cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse), where a collection of words or images is collectively assembled, Sydney-based industrial designer Adam Goodrum and French straw marquetry artisan Arthur Seigneur collaborated to create three whimsical pieces. A tallboy, credenza and console, which have been three years in the making, will debut in their ‘Exquisite Corpse’ exhibition at Melbourne’s Tolarno Galleries during Melbourne Design Week. ‘We like to think of the new works as functional art pieces. The Surrealist reference relates to our working process,’ says Goodrum, who co-founded Adam & Arthur with Seigneur in 2015. ‘I come up with the shapes and surface patterns while Arthur applies their finish.’ Seigneur sources and hand-dyes rye straw from Burgundy, then flattens and deftly splices each stem, affixing the strands…

Danish furniture brand Brdr Krüger is launching a previously unreleased work by Nanna Ditzel, who died in 2005. This new addition to Brdr Krüger’s collection, the ‘Arkade’ chair, was originally designed in 1983 during a decade-long collaboration between the company and Ditzel. The pioneering furniture designer’s commitment to traditional craftsmanship and new materials and techniques made her a perfect match with the furniture brand, originally founded as a woodturning workshop in 1886 and devoted to reinterpreting midcentury Danish aesthetics for a contemporary audience. Ditzel’s fondness for soft shapes and circular forms are expressed through her signature postmodern, elegant geometries in works like her ‘Hanging Egg’ chair, and the combination of materials and techniques in the ‘Arkade’ chair (woodturning, steam-bent wood, metal and upholstery) articulate the designer’s love for decoration and…

All jewellery pieces are price on request unless stated. For stockists, see page 240 Model: Madeleine Blomberg at Established Models Casting director: David Steven Wilton at East Hair: Cathy Ennis using Bumble and Bumble Make-up: Mirijana Vasovic using Armani Beauty Manicure: Saffron Goddard at Saint Luke using Chanel Le Vernis Sargasso and La Crème Main Interiors: Olly Mason Photography assistants: Andreas Klassen, Louise Oates Fashion assistants: Aylin Bayhan, Kris Bergfeldt Production assistant: Josefin Forsberg Special thanks to Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London SW13, sarahmyerscough.com…

PORSCHE TAYCAN 4S The Taycan is a concept come to life, a pure electric sports car that’s probably the most significant statement of intent ever made by a traditional car company. Every manufacturer is feeling threatened by EV upstarts, most notably Tesla, whose market valuation recently exceeded even that of Volkswagen’s, at $100bn. Thus far, only Porsche has been able to muster the (significant) resources to create a credible challenger, one that doesn’t dilute any of the qualities that the sports car maker is famed for. The Taycan is an elegant four-door saloon that began life as the 2015 Mission E concept (even more kudos for Porsche for not taking the ‘easy’ route and creating an electric SUV). In production form it’s lost none of its svelte futurism and, most…