Table of contents for Urbis Apr/May 2018 in Urbis

High on our list of favourite interiors are those that take art as a starting point for their design ethos and, in this issue, we are lucky enough to focus on such abodes. We look at homes that use art pieces literally and mine them for colour, forms or other motifs that are then replicated in furniture or object selection. There are others (like the Christchurch home on p. 114) where the architecture itself behaves like a commissioned artwork: combining narratives from the owners’ own lives and turning those into liveable spaces. We also tour others that find or create art and beauty in unexpected ways: from the meticulously crafted rammed-earth walls of our cover story, through to a photographer’s home in Japan, which uses shadows as its main interior…

In this period of rampant urban construction, there are too few exciting departures from the generic human ‘shoeboxes’ stacked over car parks – with too many bathrooms – in various shades of beige… Ask most architects how to provide affordable, sustainable, quality inner-city housing and they can talk for hours about models, concepts and approaches that could be taken, if only it weren’t for the restrictions of ‘the market’. Set against this, stands the Nightingale Housing Model – a not-for-profit social enterprise that exists to support, promote and advocate for high-quality housing that is ecologically, socially and financially sustainable – and the latest completed project, Nightingale 1. Here, the architects are “not just talking, we are fucking delivering!” as simply stated by Breathe Architecture’s founding director, Jeremy McLeod. And he…

Reputed to be the capital’s seediest strip (it has long been best known as the stomping ground of Wellington’s sex workers), Marion Street lies smack-bang in the beating heart of Wellington. Nestled between Cuba Street, Hannah’s Laneway and Courtenay Place, its prime location places it proximate to some of the best food, wine and shopping in the city, including Noble Rot wine bar, Customs by Coffee Supreme and Deadly Ponies. Yet, until last year, its daytime offerings were limited to home-renovation showrooms and the Wellington Design Library. Now, Marion Street is undergoing some sort of renaissance. Young-and-hungry businesses looking to expand their inner-city offerings have noticed its semi-industrial large spaces and its foot traffic from Cuba Street and the Victoria University School of Design; Marion Street is shaking off her…

DION HORSTMANS’ MULTI-DIMENSIONAL SCULPTURES EMBODY HIS LARGER-THAN-LIFE PERSONA. SO, TOO, DO THE OBJECTS HE LOVES. DION HORSTMANS IS HEADING back from the beach when I meet him at his art deco apartment in Bondi, Sydney. The beach is a big reason Dion lives here and has done for 20 years. “The ocean is pretty wild and rugged and is constantly changing,” he says. Growing up between New Zealand and the Cook Islands, he has never been far from the water and he moved to Australia when he was 19. He now lives with his wife, Grace, and daughter Zaza. Dion creates large, dynamic sculptures, much like his presence and personality. He always wanted to be an artist and drew as a child. “My drawings were very figurative, organic and abstract;…

IT IS ALMOST EVERY creative’s dream to be ‘discovered’, to have all those hours spent toiling over your work in solitude finally amount to something tangible. Social media is making these kinds of opportunities more common, and the trajectory into the big time (or thereabouts) can be sudden and can come from unexpected corners of the world. Such is the story of Susan Christie of Formantics, who was diligently creating her ceramic works and posting them on her Instagram page when one of her works was re-posted by an author from popular design blog Design Milk. Almost overnight, Christie had a few hundred more followers, including some from European design companies. Things escalated from there and, a couple of months later, Meet my Project approached Christie with an invitation to…

AN EARLY-MODERNIST STRUCTURE, built in 1927 and wedged between two taller, narrower and more-traditional Belgian buildings, has proved to be the perfect home for Xavier Lust, in terms of both his work and his domestic life. The designer lives on the upper floors with his family, while the lower floors serve as showroom and studio space. “Modernist architecture is interesting and creates an interesting dialogue with my pieces, which, generally, have curves and dynamic movement. This is a nice contrast with the angular modernist architecture,” says Lust. Lust took more than two years to restore the building, which includes a large terrace on the second floor where the designer hosts events for his clients. This previously unusable space features skylights on the floor, which have been insulated, and a non-slip…

PETER DAVIES Peter is a Melbourne-based freelance writer. He visited a stunning renovation at St Vincent Place (page 60) where both the architect and the owner curated an incredible art collection as part of the project. Which piece most impressed you in the St Vincent Place house’s art collection? One of the most intriguing is the Christian Capurro piece in the basement, Slave 2. It’s a video recording of an original art installation by US minimalist Dan Flavin, filmed on an iPhone and projected through a glass door. It shows a flickering assembly of fluorescent tubes – it’s beautifully lo-fi and very meta. And, in terms of the architecture, which feature was the most memorable/interesting? I loved the imagination in this project. As little of the original fabric of the…

Leisure and APO 6 April / Auckland Kiwi music collective Leisure will combine its RnB, soul and pop blend with the symphonic forces of the APO in the first of its Session Series. The night will kick off with a DJ set and include some of Leisure’s hits, plus new songs re-imagined by the orchestra. apo.co.nz/whats-on/leisure-and-apo Here & Now Festival 20 – 23 April / Auckland The next generation of theatre talent is set to take over ASB Waterfront Theatre, with three new shows, a workshop event (held at AUT) and a presentation of works in progress by fresh new voices in the theatre scene. atc.co.nz/creative-learning/here-now-festival Celebrate Art! 26 – 29 April / Northland and Auckland This three-day event begins with VIP talks and tours at leading Auckland galleries, followed…

DESIGN DRIVEN: Alfa Romeo Giulia QV The Giulia has had a remarkably long gestation period and our patience has been rewarded by the no-expense-spared Quadrifoglio. The recipe for the brand’s first rear-wheel-drive car since the 1980s is a goodie with Ferrari engineering influence in the flagship car’s lithe chassis and scintillating twin-turbo V6. Priorities for this high-energy Italian are driver appeal and more driver appeal. Torque of 600Nm from 2500rpm translates into scorching acceleration and the generous use of aluminium and carbon fibre helps keep strength up and weight at bay. The roof might be painted but the polished underside of the carbon bonnet is an emphatic statement, and the rear spoiler and active front also flaunt the carbon theme. Overall, the Giulia’s appearance has the right balance of aggression…

IT SHOULD COME AS no surprise that clients of Rodolphe Parente are lovers of design and these ones wanted their apartment in the heart of Paris to reflect this. The thirty-something couple’s brief called for an efficient, timeless and sophisticated abode and, to this end, Parente has created a home that not only shows off their exquisite furniture and art collection, but is also comfortable and relaxed. His response was an uncomplicated one and it works especially well in a space measuring only 80m2. “We wanted to fill the apartment with material and colour contrasts that form a dialogue based on strong opposition,” the Paris-based interior designer explains. Working with the concept of shadow and light, Parente finished the living area’s walls in white and the bedroom’s in black, creating…

TO SURVIVE IN THE cut-throat London art world, gallerists need to be tenacious as well as talented. The understated Kiwi duo of Phillida Reid and David Southard have both worked for some of the most successful artists and galleries in the UK, including Hauser & Wirth and artist/musician Martin Creed among others. They ventured forth with their own Soho gallery, Southard Reid, in 2010; today, it represents contemporary artists like Celia Hempton and Prem Sahib. You two were friends before you started a business together. What made you team up professionally? David Southard (DS): Because we were friends there was a trust there; that also probably tied in with the New Zealand connection although we didn’t know each other in New Zealand. We were both in the art world so…

FRIENDLY LITTLE THING Roy Emery’s golden animal is an approachable, hairy artwork made of polyurethane and polyester tassels. Emery is one of the artists expected to attend the Auckland Art Fair this May. For this and more inspiring art, turn to page 17. A HOME FOR ART Te Papa is home to New Zealand’s national art collection – and a new gallery, recently opened at the museum, is set to make sure more of these works come out of the archives. Part of a major renewal of Te Papa’s exhibition spaces, Toi Art is a purpose-built art gallery spanning two levels of the museum. Made up of two galleries, the Boulevard and the Threshold, Toi Art is designed to be malleable. “We wanted diversity of spaces because art is sometimes…

One of the most ideas-filled, yearly events on the Auckland calendar – Auckland Writers Festival – is back from 15 – 20 May. Here are our picks: Alex Ross and Stroma New York music critic and author of The Rest Is Noise, Alex Ross, presents a live, companion soundtrack to his book on stage with mezzo-soprano Bianca Andrew and New Zealand modern chamber ensemble Stroma. The concert will feature some of the most beautiful and intriguing compositions of the last 100 years. Mining a Life Bengali-Canadian essayist Durga Chew-Bose, Norwegian auto-fiction star Karl Ove Knausgård (pictured above), award-winning local author Catherine Chidgey and poet Anna Livesey will each share a 10-minute reading from a piece of their work which takes as its source material their own domestic life. Call on…

MORE COMFORTABLE SCREEN VIEWING In a lot of ways, TVs and fireplaces make the perfect pairing. When placed on the same wall together, they create an instant focal point. But often the ideal TV position is compromised by fireplace heat and installation restrictions. Until now, that is. Escea’s new DS series allows the TV to be placed closer to the fireplace than ever before, without sacrificing heat or efficiency. The clearance height is 200mm from the top of the firebox, and that’s without the need for a mantle. “Most people want to have the TV as low as possible for more comfortable TV viewing. Escea gas fireplaces are all about design flexibility so we were driven to lowering the TV clearance to help achieve the perfect room layout for our…

MATTHEW VON STURMER and his business partner Carmen Sosich run BlackSand Bronze, which makes bronze hardware, and, concurrently, MvS Studio, which has a wider reach in terms of crafted and sculpted metals. We caught up with Matthew to learn how his early training in jewellery-making has led to a career in larger-scale metal objects and sculpture. How did you begin working with bronze? My jewellery quickly grew in scale to become furniture, using a range of materials and processes. Bronze appealed for its durability. When we moved to Waiheke, we decided to stop all the processes we didn’t like, such as polishing and electroplating, and this has left us with a true material and a natural finish. What is your creative process when designing and making a piece? We sketch…