Tabla de contenidos para Issue 29 en Design Anthology, Asia Pacific Edition

Not long before I wrote this issue’s letter, director Chloé Zhao made history as the first Asian woman, and only the second woman ever, to win one of the Academy’s highest accolades — the Oscar for best director — for Nomadland. In 2020, we saw South Korean director Bong Joon-ho sweep up a long list of awards for his black comedy-thriller Parasite, including Oscars for best director and best picture, the latter marking a first for any non-English language film.Why is this so significant? Because stories are important, and diversity in stories and storytelling even more so. Storytelling is a cultural tradition as old as humankind. We tell stories to learn from one another, with facts, legends and myths passed down from generation to generation. If we’re lucky, we see…

Bespoke luxury carpet manufacturer Tai Ping has opened a new showroom in the French capital’s first arrondissement. Designed by French-American architect and interior decorator Elliott Barnes, the new 500-squaremetre space is spread over two floors. ‘The starting point of this project was to give an artistic view to the famous know-how of Tai Ping,’ says Barnes. The voluminous space features high ceilings and generous windows that overlook the Place des Victoires and its bronze statue of Louis XIV. The space also introduces Tai Ping’s new ready-to-purchase rugs for retail customers, available in standard sizes and designs, but all made in the same noble material as any Tai Ping custom product. What’s more, the space is conveniently located in a neighbourhood already known for its wide range of textile trade showrooms.…

How do the things we make reflect our values? Are some stories better told through objects? What will our design legacy look like? Such questions fuelled conversations at Melbourne Design Week 2021, the city’s first major design event after a stringent 2020 lockdown. The topical theme, Design the World You Want, sparked a programme of activations across town, including a series of group exhibitions interrogating the status quo through artful and impactful objects. ‘Melbourne Design Week has become a platform for ideas that weren’t so publicly accessible before,’ says furniture designer Dale Hardiman. ‘As designers doing mostly commercial work, it frees us up to address things we’re all thinking about.’ The Dowel Jones co-founder collaborates with Tom Skeehan and others on Friends & Associates, a project encouraging creatives to reflect…

MORNING The day starts at six a.m. for Yumiko Sekine, who lives with architect Wataru Ohashi in a home they designed in Tokyo’s Shimokitazawa neighbourhood. Morning rituals are a no-work zone: first a bath, scented by rose geranium grown on her rooftop, followed by breakfast (yoghurt with summer fruits like strawberries and peaches, and roasted hōjicha tea) then watering the plants and doing a Radio Taiso workout. It’s not until eight a.m., just before she leaves for work, that she checks her messages. ‘Mornings are for relaxation. I like to keep my mind clear for the day ahead,’ she says. MID-MORNING It’s a ten-minute walk to work through Shimokitazawa. After arriving at the store, Sekine changes the ground-floor display and waters the plants before settling down to emails. While most…

seminal Danish designer and architect Verner Panton realised the first Panthella floor and table lamps for lighting manufacturer Louis Poulsen in 1971, he pioneered a piece that embodied his unique sense of shape, colour, light and space. With the Panthella, ‘Panton was trying to push the boundaries of the conventional lifestyle, and this led to his truly innovative and experimental designs,’ says Louis Poulsen’s decorative product and design director, Monique Faber. ‘His designs became successful because he really mastered combining his fascination for innovation with usability and functionality.’ The original lamp’s graphic, figurative form and sculptural quality reflected the bold use of colour, form and material for which Panton became renowned. Since Panthella’s launch five decades ago, the product family has expanded to include the MINI and Portable versions in…

Scrolling through the Instagram account of Hanoi-based fashion label Kilomet109 reveals image upon image of indigo garments. But this is not the usual synthetic dye — rather, it’s the result of a process rooted in traditional techniques shared across generations of ethnic minorities in Vietnam.‘It was a eureka moment when I laid eyes on them twelve years ago’, says Thảo Vũ, founder and head designer of Kilomet109, of her first encounter with the traditional indigo costumes of the Nùng An ethnic group. ‘At the time, I was reading a book on the history of indigo in Southeast Asia, as well as doing my research on natural dyeing techniques,’ she says. ‘And so, to encounter this colour, extraordinarily muted with an understated depth, was a lucky coincidence. My heart was truly…

When the design planets align, the extraordinary becomes possible. In the heart of Bangkok, a unique space, a discerning client and a designer with a formidable eye for detail came together to breathe life into a bare concrete shell, transforming it into a quietly sophisticated private home. The duplex is housed within Windshell Naradhiwas, the first residential concept of its kind in Thailand and a project aimed at providing contemporary tropical living. From the building’s form, designed to harness precious high-level wind flow, to the use of heat-repelling concrete, the 28-storey tower’s design is sensitive to environmental considerations. Designer-architect Albano Daminato, founder of Studio Daminato, is the energy behind this apartment designed for a furniture dealer and art collector. Known for his ability to bridge modernity, familiarity and relevance with…

Text Aaina Bhargava, Uracha Chaiyapinunt, Jennifer Choo, Danielle Demetriou, Yen Kien Hang, Jennifer Henricus, Quyên Hoàng, Luo Jingmei, Julia Nebrija, Tomás Pinheiro, Chris Schalkx, Sandra Tan Images Francis Amiand, RR Barretto, Ameen Deen, Daniel Kai Hirao, Neulhae Jo, Stephen Kent Johnson, Yoonsung Kwon, Lê Nguyên Nhật, Kitmin Lee, Jovian Lim, Michel Lunardelli, Ankush Maria, Fabian Ong, Kristoffer Paulsen, Benjamin Reich, Chris Schalkx, Nao Shimizu, Anson Smart, Alberto Strada, Studio Matsutani, Studio Oh-Kyeong, Pichan Sujaritsatit, Lillie Thompson, Thilina Wijesiri, Nicholas Wilkins, Ketsiree Wongwan, Xi Wenlei Illustration Alejandro Viñuela Agra, Teng Yu…

Korean designer Jeongseob Kim gained wide recognition in 2016 with his Time for Universe collection, for which he worked with lacquer artisan Namgwon Lyu to experiment with applying a traditional urushi lacquer over basalt. Combining this material with simple geometric shapes, the resulting stools and benches reveal the possibilities of this new technique, which involves lacquering slabs of the stone and then sanding them to reveal mesmerising patterns. In Compositional Copper, Kim’s most recent collection, he pairs the lacquered basalt — he has since learnt to produce it himself — with the collection’s namesake material. ‘I was attracted to copper’s cold and warm characteristics,’ he says. Compositional Copper launched in 2020; Kim’s network in Seoul includes technicians and craftspeople he frequently calls on, so even during the pandemic he was…

Somethirty minutes north of Hat Yai, wedged between Songkhla Lake and the Gulf of Thailand, lies Songkhla’s Old Town. Its three main streets, stitched together by a network of narrow alleys, deliver a smorgasbord of terrazzo-floored restaurants dishing out vinegary pork noodles, ice cream with egg yolk and rare Chinese-Thai specialties from century-old kitchens. Like Penang and Phuket Town, the old town was once a cog in a thriving network of Chinese merchant settlements (and like them, the weathered walls of its historic townhouses now also wear murals by local artists). Here, South Chinese-style godowns with terracotta roofs and louvred window shutters stand next to ornamental Sino-European townhouses in pastel pinks and yellows. Tiny shrines, with their sweet smells of incense, alternate with curvy mid-century homes and ramshackle teak workshops.…

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A Tale of Warp and Weft: Fort Street Studio by Brad Davis & Janis Provisor (Rizzoli) Fort Street Studio was established by artists Janis Provisor and Brad Davis in 1996, after an earlier trip to China inspired them to return and begin creating luxurious silk rugs; their work marked the beginning of the painterly style in rug production and counts not only as a major innovation but as the genesis of some of the most finely crafted and beautiful rugs in the world. This book is a fitting marker of more than three decades of accomplishment. And while the large format gives appropriate weight to imagery, text is not neglected. The first section is given to four recent and archival essays (one by Davis) and an interview by Design Anthology…

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