Tabla de contenidos para Issue 31 en Design Anthology, Asia Pacific Edition

Spanish poet and philosopher George Santayana famously said ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ These words ring as true today as when they were written in 1905.While there’s a long list of drawbacks and heartaches associated with the current global pandemic — not least for many, a lingering sense of doom and increased anxiety (and possibly even more serious mental health ramifications) — the last two years have also brought an opportunity to reassess everything that we hold close and thought to be true. I have no time or space in my life for regret, but these last two and a half years — you may remember that the pandemic was preceded by six months of political unrest in Hong Kong — have definitely made…

Louis Vuitton × Studio Adjective Hong Kong-based STUDIO ADJECTIVE has designed Louis Vuitton’s latest mah-jong set, a custom-made iteration of the traditional game created for the French fashion house’s Vanity Mahjong collection. As an architectural design firm, ADJECTIVE infused the mah-jong set with architectural elements, settling on the concept of ‘table architecture’ based on the stackable quality and geometry of the tiles. Made of ivory composite stone, American walnut and brass, the tiles and tile bars feature Louis Vuitton’s iconic four-petal flower logo, subtly incorporated into the design of the game. louisvuitton.com / adj.com.hk Mario Tsai Titled Origin, Hangzhou-based designer Mario Tsai’s new collection is a reflection on the decay of human instincts induced by modern technology. The collection’s six pieces — stools, benches and a floor lamp — were…

MORNING ‘I usually start my day at eight, eating breakfast and replying to emails from website visitors or interior designers regarding custom commissions,’ says artist Cindy Hsu Zell, who lives in a small 1930s Craftsman-style house in Los Angeles with her husband and their cat. Having studied sculpture and animation in college before working as a display artist for a retail corporation, Zell decided to pursue her art practice full-time six years ago. ‘I’ve always enjoyed making things,’ she says. ‘My great uncle was a wonderful artist and my grandmother, who moved from China to the US in the seventies, and many other family members were creative.’ Growing up, Zell received handmade gifts from family when she visited China, which instilled an appreciation of the love and care that goes…

In the past, bankers have communicated with their clients in private booths or behind closed doors, where conversations are conducted in hushed secrecy. Now, however, banks have entered a new phase of mobile and Internet connectivity, forcing the physical outposts of banks to come up with a new identity. This paradigm shift is what prompted major Korean financial institution Hana Bank to commission a state-of-the-art private banking lounge, in a break from the old generations of both service and design. The result is Hana Gold Club, located in Yeouido, Seoul’s main finance and investment banking district. The company tapped local architectural design consultancy intg. to devise a new retail experience for the ‘bank of the future’. Studio principals Daniel Song and Kate Cho sought to create a transformational environment, one…

There’s an ‘aha moment’ when you learn that product designer Panisa Khunprasert grew up in a toy factory just outside Bangkok. Suddenly, her chunky handbags and puzzle-like homewares start to make sense. Characterised by their vibrant colour palettes and playful shapes, Khunprasert’s totemic candleholders, beaded bags and interconnecting wooden containers invite touch and play. In essence, they’re like the wooden children’s toys her family’s factory has been producing since 1989.‘I didn’t even realise they were toy-like until people started pointing it out to me,’ Khunprasert says of her collection, which she named PANISA. ‘I was just having fun designing bubble bags and clutches in weird shapes.’ She began experimenting with the machines at her family’s factory to blow off creative steam while studying industrial design at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. Even…

‘There’s a waiting list to get in,’ jokes interior designer Francine Denise about Indonesian gallerists Inge Santoso and Tommy Sutomo’s stylish North Jakarta home. Whether it’s lingering around their kitchen island during a casual dinner, uncorking a bottle in the wine cellar or gathering in their gallery space, the couple loves to entertain. Brimming with art, the four-floor home they share with their two children embodies the couple’s warm personalities and quietly eccentric style. Founders of CAN’s Gallery, a leading contemporary art space in Jakarta, the two have been passionate collectors of Indonesian art since the early 2000s. Over the years, they’ve also amassed prominent works from other parts of Asia, Europe and the United States. The thoughtfully curated foyer sets the tone for the 785-square-metre home. Clad in an…

In early 2021, as their studio’s ten-year anniversary drew close, Jacqueline Chak and Genevieve Chew of Hong Kong architecture firm EDITECTURE carefully considered how to mark the milestone. After all the support they’d received over the years, their instinct was to find a way to give back and work on a project close to their hearts. Through their Edit Academy summer camp, which taught children about sustainability and ethical design practices, Chak and Chew focused on developing a project for an often-forgotten population — Hong Kong’s homeless. Their solution, HOMEDIT, is a home edited down to its essentials. The mobile structure, which contains a foldable bed, cooking area, storage space and a compact garden, was developed using recycled materials. The children in Edit Academy used fabric waste to create bricks…

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The Making of M+ (Thames & Hudson) The recent opening of M+ in Hong Kong was a landmark occasion for a variety of reasons. More than a decade in the making, the museum presents an innovative approach in its aim to catalogue visual culture. This means that in addition to a variety of artwork throughout its many galleries, it can showcase essentially anything that can be seen, including built exhibits such as a 1988 Tokyo sushi bar by Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata. Designed by Seoul creative team Sulki & Min, this 720-page work is — appropriately — almost entirely visual, with 360 colour photographs taking a spread each. This storytelling includes images of news articles, site planning, the consultation process, building, artists, exhibits, staff and the occasional natural disaster. Captions…

Kar Studio’s pieces are not so much organic as they are human, with each bearing impressions — and expressions — of the hand. The hand in question belongs to Guangdong-based Steven Yeung, who studied interior design at the University of South Wales but decided against pursuing a career in spatial design. ‘Furniture design is a way to seek and express myself,’ he says. ‘I’m not good at communicating with people, which is a very important part of the interior design industry. Furniture design makes me more relaxed.’ Kar debuted in 2020 with a collection titled notby-intention. Creations start taking shape in Yeung’s hands as he kneads clay without specific aims or direction. ‘My thoughts and senses at that moment, either of joy or of sorrow, affect the pressure and traces…

Thai woodworker Charnon Nakornsang has turned his Bangkok home into a space where craft can thrive, with his atelier only steps away from a clean-cut family lounge that doubles as a showroom for his furniture designs. His practice is centred on functionality and permeated by a profound reverence for wood as a raw material. From studying the life work of seminal furniture makers George Nakashima and James Krenov, Nakornsang developed an appreciation for traditional tools and joinery methods, and a passion for making furniture by hand. But his work also evokes Thai woodworking heritage. Until not so long ago, wooden houses, furniture and tools were the norm in Thailand; Nakornsang’s fascination with these objects extends beyond their aesthetics, and lies in the inherent honesty they bear in both purpose and…

01 The Architect Betty Ng Ham Tin Beach, Sai Kung Ham Tin beach transports me to ‘nowhere’. You have to hike for an hour to get to the beach, so there’s something to look forward to after the hard work — it’s like a reward. I enjoy being there with friends, sharing chats and intimate moments together. The quietness really allows me to focus on and enjoy whoever I’m there with. Aside from the lack of noise, the absence of built objects makes me feel almost pinned down by that ‘nothingness’, with only the mountain as the backdrop, the white sand as a cushion and the sea as the horizon. Such stillness allows me to think and genuinely enjoy a sense of relief, away from the sensory overload of life.…

Beneath a thick layer of bamboo, tucked into a slope and almost invisible beneath layers of tropical plants, lies a delicate glass and concrete structure. The realisation of a long-held dream, the three-storey 300-square-metre structure in San Pablo City, in the Philippine province of Laguna, is the brainchild of neurologist and artist Dr Joel Paraiso. As a child, Paraiso dreamed of becoming an architect and designing his own home. However, he was advised by his father, a doctor, to pursue medicine, and his architectural ambitions were put on the back-burner. ‘You can always hire an architect to draw your plans — your personality is best suited to medicine,’ he recalls being told. Paraiso dutifully followed. Decades later, Paraiso has found a balance between practising neurology and finding creative expression through…

For Aki and Arnaud Cooren, launching their eponymous design studio in 1999 was a natural progression from working on projects together as students at École Camondo in Paris. ‘We each have a certain energy, so we’re really lucky to have met each other. We enjoy playing together,’ says Arnaud. Perhaps it’s this playfulness that makes the A+A Cooren style rather difficult to define. Although the couple favours a minimalist aesthetic, one of their collections can appear strikingly different to the next, as they use each as an opportunity to explore new materials, techniques and ideas. It’s their shared ethos and energy that is the constant link between each piece. ‘For us, design is about sharing ideas with people to understand who we’re making an object for,’ says Aki. ‘It’s this…

In 2015, Danish designer Øivind Slaatto created the first Patera pendant for Danish lighting manufacturer Louis Poulsen — a delicate, circular lamp made of small diamond-shaped PVC cells assembled entirely by hand. Now, six years later, Slaatto has conceived a new oval iteration of the monochrome pendant. Following the same Fibonacci structure as the original Patera, the new Patera Oval lamp provides a range of new applications thanks to its slimmer ellipsoid shape. ‘The new version is designed to hang above tables in urban apartments, where the ceiling might not be as high. I wanted to design a pendant that requires less space, but still provides full light on the table,’ explained Slaatto. The handcrafted Patera Oval emits a natural, even glow, with 360-degree illumination thanks to the perforated structure.…

Tucked away in the cosmopolitan neigh-bourhood of Hiroo, AMOMA Hiroo, a new development by Fuin, is a rarity in Tokyo. One of very few gated communities, it lies completely hidden from view, with only the bold lines of the patinated bronze framework on its white outer wall hinting at the luxury within. Beyond the lobby entrance, seven two-storey homes — originally built in 2001 and refurbished and designed by Tokyo-based Wonder-wall — line a stone-stepped pathway flanked by greenery. At the heart of each unit is a private courtyard enclosed by spacious open-plan living areas that welcome daylight via floor-to-ceiling glass walls and sliding doors. While elements of the homes echo traditional Japanese architecture, with engawa-like verandas, tsubo-niwa courtyards, interior sliding doors and white shikkui plaster walls, Wonderwall founder Masamichi…