Tabla de contenidos para June - July 2019 en Urbis

At Salone del Mobile, remasterings of shape, form, function and light introduce themselves to the world from the design capital. While, this year, some spoke softly, many were loud and fantastical, showing undeniable curl personae: from subtle bends to sinuous loops bordering on the recalcitrant. Organic silhouettes mirroring the geometries of the natural world were also at play, full of important narratives about creating designs with environmentally and ethically minded consciences. The finalists for the inaugural Ro Plastic Prize, whose entries – including an infinitely recyclable chair – were presented at design doyenne and gallerist Rossana Orlandi’s exhibition, pushed these critical conversations further. Elsewhere, strong graphic elements, almost illustration-like in form, made for striking installations, showing that a winning design formula might just be rooted in arts and crafts –…

 THERMOSTATS WITH MASTER’S DEGREES When connected to your heating or HVAC system, these smart thermostats can help you save money on your electricity bill. They also have nifty tricks like programmable daily heating and cooling schedules, and integration with home assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant. For smaller spaces, we like the Nest Learning Thermostat 3 – it has a smaller form-factor and the ability to run on battery power for a simpler installation. The ecobee4 is also an excellent option and one of its party pieces is that it has Amazon Alexa built in. This is appealing for anyone who doesn’t already own a smart speaker. Both thermostats have the ability to connect to additional sensors throughout the house, and precisely control temperatures in different rooms, but the ecobee4…

I GREW UP IN NEW ZEALAND in the 1980s and ’90s, when space was never an issue. Okay, my siblings and I did fight over territory within our shared bedrooms but only before fleeing the confines of the house for the big backyard beyond. When I moved to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in the late 2000s, I realised just how little living space I actually need. That said, a reduced residential footprint requires a different mentality. Kiwis are much too accustomed to the notion of large, empty spaces. Every time I return to New Zealand, the next person is discussing their plans for ‘building on’. But, as the Auckland housing crisis continues and New Zealand’s population swells, smart small living could provide at least part of the solution. Jack Chen moved…

WHEN RENOVATING MANHATTAN APARTMENTS, most designers are confronted with the challenge of space: how to squeeze every square inch out of minuscule floor plans. Not so when Michael K Chen Architecture (MKCA) was enlisted by a young New York family for its pre-war apartment on Park Avenue. Built in an era associated with high ceilings, wide hallways and spacious foyers, the 260m2 space is almost four times the size of the average Manhattan apartment (around 68m2). The residence is home to the Schwalbe family – Laura Farrell Schwalbe and Jason Schwalbe, and their two small children – whose main concerns, says Chen, were “addressing the lack of natural light in an intelligent way, creating a powder room, and ensuring that openness and a touch of formality were retained throughout”. To…

 GAME-CHANGING QUALITY: Lexus UX250h A latecomer to the busy premium crossover scene, the new UX stands out with its ‘cuts and creases’ design, sumptuous cabin and pleasing tactility of controls. It’s a true cross between a five-door hatchback and a compact SUV, with 4WD as an option. The profile is unusually sleek and you sit upfront in a semi-command position with good outward visibility for petite drivers and excellent headroom for the tallest. The centre of gravity is set low for car-like handling and a tight turning circle assists in city manoeuvres. Road manners and general ease of use are exemplary, especially with a plethora of driver assistance systems on board and a brilliant 360-degree camera always on the lookout. You don’t have to search hard for exterior highlights. How…

“Modern informality; comfortable rustic elegance; sustainability; sense of permanence; textural warmth and richness; low maintenance; bespoke.” It’s not often that an architect is given such an eloquent and compact brief from a client but these are the words that were delivered to Team Green Architects as a starting point for the design of this Queenstown home. The site is on the side of a steep hill in a rural subdivision in Dalefield, with stunning views that include Coronet Peak in one direction and The Remarkables in the other. A six-metre height limit meant architects Sian Taylor and Mark Read had to look at the design creatively in order to fulfil the home-owners’ wishes for a master bedroom suite with some separation from the rest of the home. A retaining wall,…

KARINA AND MARCUS MENCKE VAGNBY, who designed this house in the trees, admit to some nervousness when the copper cladding they used on the double-storeyed living volume was first installed. “We had to be patient as the façade started off a dazzling rose-gold and, for a couple of months, its shine was quite extreme,” says Karina. The small town of Søllerød, 20 kilometres north of the Danish capital, Copenhagen, is steeped in a fairy-tale landscape of lakes and forests. The two industrial designers, both of whom studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, have their own eponymously named business. They had previously renovated the ground floor of a charming villa on the fringe of the city but its large rooms and high stucco ceilings could not make up…

 OTTO JAKOB: RIPE FRUIT edited by Angelika Taschen, Hatje Cantz, $97 Postmodern painter turned goldsmith Otto Jakob has many interests and his jewellery designs – like his house, which is filled with artworks by Georg Baselitz and Andy Warhol, Gandhara heads, agate stones and insects cased in glass – are informed by many of them. With a fixed gaze on Jakob’s work and these multitudinous inspirations, Ripe Fruit is a monograph that peels back the layers of what seems like unbridled passion, only to reveal a fastidious and disciplined work ethic at play. Complete with an introduction by jewellery historian Vivienne Becker, it becomes, albeit unintentionally, an elaborate example of the nature of creativity. Every tiny, amuletic design in this book swings from the beautiful to the educational and then…

ADELE MCNAB MOVED FROM Auckland to Sydney in 2011 to pursue her architecture career. This shift has, by now, led her to establish her own practice and will, if all goes to plan, see her build her own house. But first things first. McNab’s interest in architecture began when she was a child, growing up in Auckland where her parents renovated their family homes. During that same period, she spent weekends with her father, a panel beater, in his workshop and paint shop, learning how materials go together and how they are formed into spaces. She became familiar with tools and learned how to mix colours for tints. During her final year at Unitec’s School of Architecture, McNab participated in a summer school programme in Sydney under the tutelage of…

EACH DAY IN BARCELONA’S Eixample district, the tourist throng goes to gaze at Antoni Gaudí’s famously ambitious church, Sagrada Familia. They know that there’s enough genius in this masterpiece in which to bathe themselves. Italian architect Andrea Serboli, like all denizens of the area, is also privy to this knowledge. Walk just metres down a quiet passageway beside the church and you’ll find his apartment, magnetic and resplendent, perched on an upper floor. Last year, the private space was purchased by Serboli and underwent a complete refurbishment with the help of his friend and colleague Matteo Colombo. Though many of the original fittings were irreversibly damaged after severe neglect, the architects, who co-founded Colombo and Serboli Architecture (CaSA), saw the opportunity to turn the flat into a wunderkammer: a cabinet…

Located on the edge of Lake Lugano, a glacier-fed lake that borders Italy and Switzerland, this apartment by Milan-based design firm Dimore Studio features clean lines and a balance of colours and materials, which result in a refreshing-yet-warm interior experience. The apartment is spread over two levels in a recently built apartment building, which was designed by Milan architecture practice Archea Associati. Comprising just 16 apartments, the building is supported solely by two stairwells, which connect the floors of the dwellings. This removes the need for pillars inside the rooms, leaving the interior spaces open and flexible. The design also includes a curved wall that adds a sense of organic movement in each of the apartments. In this apartment, known as the Lugano apartment, the living space is contained on…