Tabla de contenidos para Issue 11 en Design Anthology, Asia Pacific Edition

In this 11th edition of Design Anthology we present our signature mix of fascinating projects and journeys from around the world. While we don’t typically showcase retail or workplace interiors, we felt that the bijou Hong Kong office of Peter Cheung by LI&Co. and the new co-working space The Work Project by Hong Kong studio Bean Buro offered the perfect opportunities to break with tradition. Similarly, the Sulwhasoo flagship retail project in Seoul by Shanghai-based duo Neri&Hu is a visual delight. Product and furniture design is one of our many passions, so we’re excited to share the stories of the new Hong Kong studio Lim + Lu and the first ever China-based furniture brand, ZaoZuo. We hope the stories behind these emerging talents provide inspiration to other aspiring young designers…

Samuel Chan: Design Purity + Craft Principles by Charlotte and Peter Fiell (Laurence King Publishing) Channels, the furniture label led by Hong Kong-born, UK-trained furniture designer and maker Samuel Chan, celebrates its 21st birthday this year. To mark the occasion, respected design authors Charlotte and Peter Fiell have penned the first ever monograph on Chan’s work, which they’ve followed from its early beginnings. Chan is a rare breed in the furniture world, as his talent for design is equal to the skill of his craft. The prolificity of his career thus far is astounding given how difficult many of his pieces are to produce despite their deceptively simple look. For a glimpse into his genius, this book traces Chan’s early years and most formative experiences. Chan grew up in a…

Why has the world of the office taken so long to change? Over the past few decades, the interiors of homes, shops and hotels have literally been transformed to meet changing lifestyles and technological advancements, but across the city, even the offices of creative businesses have often remained an uninspiring wasteland of cubicles and soulless conference rooms. It was the frustration of continually moving offices and trying to squeeze his staff into anonymous spaces that didn’t fit that first got Junny Lee, the founder of a new 3,000-square-metre co-working space in Causeway Bay called The Work Project, thinking of how to create a more flexible shared-space alternative for small or start-up businesses. To help deliver his idea he turned to Hong Kong-based architects Bean Buro, whose co-founder Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui recently…

When it comes to lifestyle businesses, Beijing still has some distance to go compared to other first-tier Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou. But this also implies that the potential is huge and the market is still young enough to welcome new creative offerings. With its soft opening in August this year, CHAO is ready to be one of the first to push things forward in the capital city. It is one of the first hospitality and lifestyle brands rooted in the country, if not the first.The brainchild of hoteliers Ivy Fei and Ming Li and brand strategist Maurice Li, the Beijing CHAO Hotel & Clubhouse is the brand’s flagship outlet targeted at ‘an emerging new tribe of people in the city who are redefining what it means to…

CITY The new Stonehill & Taylor-designed boutique Axiom Hotel in San Francisco’s Union Square pays homage to the innovative spirit and history of the city. Steel cables (think the Golden Gate Bridge), cable cars and today’s tech-forward start-up culture are the starting points for a design theme centred around connectivity. The property’s 152 rooms are subdued for a restful night with powder-blue walls and minimalist modern furniture. A number of social spaces for coming together round out the offerings. A historic double-gallery antebellum mansion house with Corinthian columns in the Garden District of New Orleans was a good starting point for the Henry Howard Hotel, so named for its respected Deep South architect. Interiors by Hunter Mabry Design draw out the nuanced colours and flavours of the city through a…

The art scene in Indonesia may be as effusive as it is variegated. Historically lacking infrastructure and governmental support, national artists have nonetheless turned these weaknesses to their advantage through a wide range of self-organising art initiatives, commercial and non-commercial hybrid galleries and some enthusiastic artist-run spaces. Collectively these artistic endeavours conspire to create an artistic landscape of constant flux and creativity. Private non-profits in Indonesia act as micro-institutions. In Yogyakarta (‘Jogja’ to locals), hundreds of groups use art for social activism and self-expression. MES 56, established in the late 1990s, is a veteran on the scene and went from candidly advocating for contemporary photography as a recognised medium to today representing the country’s genre. A more recent addition is Ace House Collective, who favour the street-art and graffiti aesthetic.…

Despite a name that pays tribute to a British king, Avenue George V is one of the most French streets in Paris and one of three that form the city’s ‘golden triangle’ in the eighth arrondissement. Aristocratic families have made their homes here, well-known couturiers have chosen the avenue to open their maisons (like Hubert de Givenchy in the 1950s), embassies and five-star hotels dot its length. This is the scene outside a space that was once a dusty office, but is now a chic apartment belonging to artist and interior designer My-Hanh Bello. The transformation was the work of many hands, two of which belonged to the owner. Not for the first time, Bello collaborated with Hauvette & Madani, a studio launched in 2010 and today one of…

On September 8 2014, the Mandarin Manila on the corner of Paseo de Roxas and Makati Avenue received its final guests. After almost 40 years of operations, the building was slated for demotion to make way for a taller, sleeker structure. Constructed in the aftermath of the Second World War, during which Manila had been almost entirely levelled (only Warsaw saw worse devastation of Allied capitals), the hotel was viewed as a beacon of progress as the city fought and struggled its way back. One of a number of structures by architect Leandro V Locsin, the Mandarin had served to shape Manila’s new skyline and architectural landscape in the postwar period, and in 1990, Locsin was conferred the title of National Artist by then-President Corazon Aquino for his ‘significant contributions…

I had read long ago that Surabaya, East Java’s provincial capital, was crowded, polluted and no place to linger. On arrival, it was all untested as I went straight from Surabaya’s airport to the bus station. I wanted to take a train from Surabaya to Yogyakarta, but the trains and my flight’s arrival did not coincide. Instead, I opted for an overnight bus and an earlier arrival for the Yogyakarta Bienniale, the focus of my week in Indonesia. Once on the road, I sagely observed the many roadside police checkpoints, skull-and-crossbones warning signs and abandoned car wrecks along the roadside, which culminated in a mass of car debris mounted on a tall plinth. This was no avant-garde sculpture, but a dire warning of the single carriageway running between the two…

Our picks from Maison&Objet Paris September 2016…

Sometimes it takes a bit of creative friction to make a partnership work. Last year, architects Vincent Lim and Elaine Lu launched Lim + Lu, a new design practice that works on interiors, furniture and products. The pair met while studying at Cornell University, where a romantic relationship blossomed into something more. Though the two studied architecture at the same time, they didn’t share any studios, so didn’t have much sense for how the other approached design until they began working together. ‘We agree on a lot of things but we do have small disagreements,’ says Lu. ‘That’s when we have to solve problems,’ adds Lim. A perfect example is the couple’s 120-square-metre flat in Hong Kong’s Happy Valley, which they recently transformed into a cheerful and versatile space. ‘Vince’s…

When you’re in the luxury goods and fashion business, it helps to have an office that reflects the sentiment, says HongKong architect Johnny Li of his studio’s recently completed office design for Peter Cheung Asia, a strategic consultancy specialising in luxury lifestyle, fashion, haute jewellery and watches. ‘It was important for the office to have a physical manifestation of the client’s own brand identity and strong vision,’ says Li, whose previous project for Cheung — the first pop-up by Van Cleef & Arpels at Hong Kong’s PMQ in 2014 — won a Best of Asia Pacific Design Award by the International Interior Design Association. The brief for the 190-square-metre office located in a 1970s building on Queen’s Road East called for a functional and inspirational workspace, flexible enough to adapt…

Less than 20 months since its launch in April 2015, furniture start-up ZaoZuo has already reached its first targets: it has introduced an international designer brand from China to the domestic market and expanded from an online business to one with a physical presence by opening stores in Beijing and Shanghai. The company, whose name translates to ‘design and production’, was founded by Chinese entrepreneur Shu Wei with a strong creative department headed by the highly sought-after Italian designer Luca Nichetto. Until now, China has been known for its cheap exports and ultra-luxury crafts; what has been missing is good-quality, affordable items for the nation’s rapidly growing middle classes. The standard for manufacturing has been there for years, but ZaoZuo is among the first forward-thinking businesses to take advantage of…

In a Vientiane workshop set amidst a lush green compound filled with birdsong, there are weavers, spinners, dyers and a designer hard at work. Working with Thai filament silk, hemp from China, bouclé and noil silks from Italy, and artisan-spun cotton from Laos and Vietnam, the weavers of Soie de Lune create sumptuous textiles, patternless nubby fabrics and featherweight rice-paper silks. ‘This is not a me business; this is an us business,’ says managing director Daniel Marcus, who founded the company in 2004. ‘When I enter the workshop, I feel at peace. Walking around, I look at the orders on the looms and touch the yarns to feel the softness of the fabric and I marvel at their skills.’ A former London-based sales executive, Marcus made a career about-face at…

Once the cradle of human civilisation, India boasts an exemplary art history. Whether it’s the painted Ajanta Caves, the carved-stone temple ruins of Hampi or the intricate sculptural forms of the Hill Forts of Rajasthan, the subcontinent is a land full of discoveries. Previously an integral part of the common person’s ecosystem, these everyday art forms are now mere vestiges of the past. Today’s average Indian is far removed from the artistic expressions that once flourished, and even worse, the overwhelming focus by the modern state on global economic integration has translated into neglect for the country’s art and cultural institutions. It’s a sorry state of affairs; thus, when the Cultural Affairs Department in the southern state of Kerala first approached artist Bose Krishnamachari in 2002 with a plea to…

‘Sydney is full of light and views, and everyone wants to capture both,’ says interior designer Jo Lawless, director at Australian studio Lawless & Meyerson. Located in an eastern suburb and overlooking Sydney Harbour, this 800-square-metre house divided between four levels is testament to just this, and offers a spectacular panorama to its happy homeowners. For Lawless, whose projects have come to define casual luxury, the most important thing to keep in mind when designing a home is to get to know who will live there and how they want to live. In this case, ‘The client had a strong sense of style, which resonated with us immediately, making the design process enjoyable and efficient,’ she says. ‘It was a true collaboration between the owners, architectural firm MHN Design…