Table of contents for April - May 2020 in Urbis

Many of the conversations we have with architects and designers often lead to discussions about influences and inspirations that, most of the time, have little to do with the world of design itself. Visual arts, music, dance, literature and the like are often quoted as catalysts for some of the most inspiring spaces, and, in this issue, we sought to explore those connections and the nebulous middle ground where they coincide. In our Shorts section, we preview two homes that act as public urban sculptures (one in Wanaka, another one in Auckland) and chat to an artist with a penchant for surrealism who has become a homewares designer with a passion for minimalism. For our cover story, we step into the artful living quarters of two industrial designers. We explore…

Phase One IQ4 The Phase One IQ4 stills camera has more pixels than does any consumer model by far: 150 megapixels, to be precise. In addition to chomping through the memory cards, this camera delivers a stunning medium-format image and includes a standard 80mm lens. All this tech comes in a reassuringly old-school package – basically, a brick with four buttons on it – and weighs more than 2kg. It’s a lot to hold in one hand and, of course, megapixels = megabucks.You can pick up a Phase One IQ4 for around $70,000 at phaseone.com Soda Lyfe Planter If you’re looking for a little fresh air after that onslaught, then consider the Soda Lyfe Planter. Yeah, that little plant pot is floating above its base – thanks to magnetic levitation.…

Sand is fickle; it moves, adjusts. A house is more constant; there’s a groundedness to its bearing. How these two work together is not an art so much as a balance between opposites and elements. In Tairua, hugging a dune reserve on the Coromandel, Gavin Donaldson’s recently finished coastal project has this sense of equilibrium. A picturesque beachscape washes into the lounge, cloaking it in a dreamy haze of seashore beige and sand-binding grasses. The residence appears as if it’s content to fall into its environment, to flow with the site typography and its gentle slope upwards from the street, and connect to the beach. At a glance, the dunes and home are a perfect pairing: mutable and solid, and in touch with one another. This was what Donaldson wanted…

Trust is design’s great intangible. Once it is implicit, the project has the best possible chance of ending up beyond the client’s wildest dreams. It also ensures that the process is a joy every step of the way. With this Brazil-based couple, trust existed before the start, thanks to a shared connection with a one-time GRADE colleague. The confidence it engendered became the catalyst for every decision in the couple’s art-filled pied-à-terre in Sir Norman Foster’s tower in far-west Chelsea, practically on the Hudson River. For art lovers as passionate as these two, no other building and no other neighbourhood made sense. With interior and exterior architecture as distinctive as Foster’s, it is natural to take advantage of the design cues and opportunities they provide. The sweep of the living…

The gallery Extended photographic coverage of the stories in this magazine gives you more interiors, architecture, people, art and beyond! Digital edition Browse Urbis magazine on your tablet or smartphone; it’s available on the Zinio app. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for the latest design news. More information is at urbismagazine.com Interviews Access extended interviews with the minds behind some of the homes and events within this issue, such as interior designers from Grade New York, Apparatus, authors coming to the Auckland Writers Festival plus others.…

The Artist 24 March–11 April / Wellington Thom Monckton’s The Artist, a solo-physical comedy on the obstacles of creativity and the chaos that ensues for Monckton’s painter-character, is coming to Circa Theatre. circa.co.nz Ocean Film Festival World Tour 25 March–2 May / Various locations Over two hours of six short films by independent film-makers on ocean exploration, marine life, sports and more will be on screens in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, Tauranga and Wellington. oceanfilmfestivalworldtour.com/new-zealand Transmission: Kereama Taepa Until 3 May / Auckland Using a combination of virtual reality, 3D-printing techniques and whakairo (carving), Kereama Taepa brings his innovative edge to te ao Māori in this exciting exhibition curated by Ane Tonga. objectspace.org.nz Auckland Art Fair 29 April–3 May / Auckland With its 2019 iteration resulting in the sale of…

Dan Brunn has taken the idea of home entertaining to the next level. While it’s common to see a project description include the various suppliers involved – a kitchen by X, bathrooms by Y and, perhaps, flooring by Z – the Tel Aviv native’s Los Angeles Bridge House rattles off a list of sponsors. More surprising among the group is BMW. What does the car brand have to do with a home in the residential neighbourhood of Hancock Park? Principal of his eponymous architecture studio, Brunn wanted to use the home – whose name derives from the fact that it physically bridges a natural stream – as a “demonstration of innovative systems and forward-thinking processes”. Presenting a new way to think about residential development, he wanted to create a space…

If The Scrap Yard had its own aphorism, it would be that rebirth is a commonly rewarding business. Its born-again story began in 2018 when it was still a demolition and salvage yard on Grey Lynn’s unassuming Westmoreland Street. In that year, it was purchased by Henla Limited, the company behind Auckland developments such as City Works Depot, Osborne Lane and Ponsonby Fire Station, mixed-use establishments that each seem like the building equivalent of a power suit: steely, sharp, confident on a molecular level. An extensive renovation later and the site – its name a nod to its past life – emerged as a modish precinct, sharing the anatomy of these forebears. Now, it, too, is a possessor of brick and concrete and muscular angles, of an industrial-chic style that…

Your ordinary brick is a ubiquitous building material that’s been used in architecture since ancient times: functional, cost-effective, commonplace. However, the architectural and spatial effects created with brick can be anything but ordinary. Australian architecture studio Benn+Penna used the humble brick for this rear addition to a bungalow on Sydney’s Lower North Shore. The studio designed three interlocking brick pavilions with carved-out spaces, creating a composition of solid, monolithic volumes and transparent, skeletal forms. “We talked about the building looking almost like a ruin,” says Andrew Benn, director of Benn+Penna. “The brick has a stone-like quality so the buildings appear to emerge out of the ground; and the emphasis on negative space makes the structure look quite ruinous.” The clients are parents of two teenaged children. Their existing brick bungalow…

The House of Glam Gestalten, approx. $150 Too much, even as the vaguest of quantities, seems as if it does not exist in this book. Yet there is something measured, even precise, in the interiors it contains. From a library with a gold-leaf ceiling to an apartment with a style dubbed ‘exotic futurable’, they have all required a well of wit, in the sense of imaginative thinking and shrewd intelligence. The pocket of young designers pushing this maximalism forward has, in turn, found ingenious ways to make rooms feel like more than rooms, as if the spaces were, instead, identities or extensions of identities. The House of Glam is a rip-roaring ride into an assortment of visual feasts from homes around the world, serving insights on expressive decoration from some…

From a lamp 3D-printed in sand to colourful armchairs that play between harsh and soft materials: youthfulness and an intrinsic joie de vivre abound.…

BMW X3 M Competition BMW’s in-house tuner is in overdrive, applying full-on M magic to a host of new models. At the heart of the action is the X3 M Competition, the practical and nicely proportioned mid-sized SUV transformed into an authentic M-division flyer. It’s partnered in the range by the X4 M, which exhibits even more flair with its swept-back roof line and wider rear track. Both have cockpits that treat drivers to the customary cocooning and trappings of a top-drawer BMW M sports saloon but with the benefit of an elevated ride height. A comprehensive aero package and special 21-inch alloys immediately set the X3 M apart. And serious sporting intent is confirmed upon start-up of the most advanced development to date of BMW’s twin-turbo straight-six. Consider it…

Part of what the Flatiron space needed, according to the duo, was luxuriance. To what was essentially a blank slate, a big white box, they added “lushness”. Moving cities or starting a business: these are two pretty major events in anyone’s life. But how about doing both in very close succession? Such was the case for Gabriel Hendifar and Jeremy Anderson, who co-founded New York City-based design studio Apparatus in 2012. The pair met in Los Angeles – Hendifar was working in womenswear and Anderson in PR – before the latter’s job took them to the Big Apple. “Surrounding the move, a lot of questions came up about what the next chapter would be like, what kind of life we wanted,” says Hendifar. “After moving in together in Los Angeles,…

… the main reason for such minimalist, neutral design is to provide the perfect backdrop for the owner’s art collection, all of which is on display, carefully curated throughout. When Moisés Micha came across an abandoned four-storeyed townhouse in Mexico City’s affluent Chapultepec district, he purchased it without a second thought. The 1970s’ brutalist building may be startlingly oversized for a bachelor pad, but the co-founder of boutique hotel brand Grupo Habita saw its potential as an urban sanctuary and the perfect home to accommodate his extensive (and ever-growing) art collection. There was considerable work involved to get it to a liveable state, though, especially since the interior had previously undergone a shoddy renovation, which divided it into poky apartments. So, Micha engaged Belgian architect Nicolas Schuybroek, who collaborated with…