Table of contents for December 2019 in Wallpaper

Ample communal areas for socialising, outdoor space for everyone, and private quarters for rest and contemplation are all conditions that could easily define contemporary co-housing of the highest design quality; yet it was a different type of resident that Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and his team had in mind when they used the same principles on a recent project. Built for the Casa Wabi Foundation, a non-profit art and community organisation based on Mexico’s Oaxacan Coast, this is a chicken coop like no other. Working with a grid and lattice-type walls, the architects used the design to distribute structural loads across the building, keeping the aesthetic pure and simple. This modular approach helped define different types of spaces within, including sheltered areas for the general activities of the coop and…

01 Not with a bang but a whimper Over the top New Year’s Eve events leave Picky Nicky pained For the past 16 years, my husband and I have spent the festive holidays somewhere warm, and that means New Year’s Eve typically spent in a resort. The first was in Jamaica, where we holidayed with old friends and met new ones, Tina Lutz and Justin Morris of Lutz Morris (W*246). In 2004, we went to the Chedi Muscat hotel and were invited, or let’s say instructed, to participate in (pay for) a gala dinner. Tables were for set for six or eight, and we nervously sat at one, chancing our luck with the other hotel guests. As it happened, we did well: we shared the table with Michael and Carolin…

MIAMI PREVIEW 2019 Designed in the late 1930s at the behest of Benito Mussolini, the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana is viewed by many as Rome’s most recognisable 20th-century landmark. Home to the fashion house Fendi since 2015, the iconic palazzo (W*201) will be celebrated in an exhibition at this year’s Design Miami, where Fendi has invited Swiss studio Kueng Caputo to create a family of objects referencing the HQ’s architecture, as part of an ongoing programme promoting emerging design talent at the fair. Sarah Kueng and Lovis Caputo developed a simple visual language of planes and arches to evoke the superposed loggias of Fendi’s travertine-clad ‘Square Colosseum’. The Zurich-based designers, who are known for their experimental process and playful use of materials, gathered further inspiration during a research trip to…

Newsstand cover Photography: Virginie Khateeb Fashion: Isabelle Kountoure Jacket, £1,615; skirt, £3,965, both by Salvatore Ferragamo. Boots, £719, by Zeus + Dione. Ear cuff, £54, by Faris. Rings, €458 for set of three, by Charlotte Chesnais. Photographed at Berlin’s James-Simon-Galerie, designed by David Chipperfield Architects, see page 158 Welcome to our December issue, which, with the festive period soon upon us, is dedicated to entertaining. First, we feature the best new houses for happy gatherings: a brutalist den in eastern Mexico, by Ludwig Godefroy; a pared-back perch overlooking a northern Italian town, by Federico Delrosso; and a party pad by William Smalley, newly installed within a 17th-century French château. We also exclusively preview Dior’s new tableware collection – which brings the art to ‘les arts de la table’ – inspired…

Cordelia de Castellane has been busy since her appointment as creative director of Dior Maison in 2017. The Paris-based clothing designer had already been overseeing Baby Dior for six years when she took on the new role, and she has since launched tableware collections inspired by a Greek island, a star sign and an Asian plant. Her latest collection, Marrakech, was inspired by a dinner in April held at the El Badi Palace in Marrakech during Dior’s Cruise 2020 show, and was later previewed to couture clients at the temporary Villa Dior in Paris in June. Art naif patterns, painted by ceramist Anne Agbadou-Masson, cover faïence earthenware, linens and glassware, which also incorporate Dior motifs like the wind rose and its house signature. Pieces come in a range of designs,…

MIAMI PREVIEW 2019 For this year’s Design Miami fair, Kris Van Assche, creative director of the luxury leather brand Berluti, and François Laffanour, founder of Paris’ Laffanour Galerie Downtown, have joined forces to present a collection of original Pierre Jeanneret furniture pieces, restored by Laffanour and upholstered with Berluti’s emblematic Venezia leather. The series consists of 17 pieces, all created by the Swiss architect in the 1950s to furnish the administrative buildings of Chandigarh’s Capitol Complex, the vast compound masterplanned by his cousin and long-term collaborator Le Corbusier (see W*147). Included are a ‘Base Building’ desk, an ‘Easy’ armchair, a pair of ‘Cinéma’ armchairs, a ‘Judge’ armchair, a folding screen and a writing chair. The furniture is a reflection of Jeanneret’s ethos: solidly constructed, designed along rudimentary principles, and capitalising…

As a child growing up in the countryside outside Paris, Yorgo Tloupas assumed everyone lived in a house like his. ‘It seemed normal,’ he recalls, strolling through his family home. ‘Then I went to a friend’s house, it was so weird! “Why do you have carpet and curtains? And why does your house look the same as the neighbour’s?”’ Tloupas’ house was unique because it was designed and built by his father, the Greek sculptor Philolaos Tloupas, known simply as Philolaos. Not only the walls, but practically every object came from the sculptor’s own hand, starting with the huge statue of former president Georges Pompidou that greets visitors at the gate. The place is a veritable museum (and a model of self-sufficiency), filled with Philolaos’ sculptures and paintings, his moulded…

Entertaining spaces FRANCE Games den This lofty space is tucked away within the steep roofs of a modest château in France’s Haute-Savoie. Bought by London-based clients as a ski retreat and hiking base, the 17th-century building occupies a prominent spot in a small town centre. The first stage of its renovation is this generous entertaining space, designed by William Smalley, who worked with the owners on a previous project. Future plans include a guest house (also by Smalley) and landscaping by Kim Wilkie. ‘The château is basically a stone box with a roof on top,’ Smalley explains from his London studio, pointing out that the original roof structure, such that remained, was simple and rustic and effectively open to the elements, with unglazed dormer windows. A thorough survey of the patched up…

We inhabit a rapidly evolving world, where conventional codes for living have been shattered. We are working remotely, conversing digitally and living itinerantly. And the clothes and shoes we choose to wear are evolving at the same time, called on to pack a peripatetic and flexible punch. Sartorial categories and codes are in flux. Sportswear, tailoring and casualwear must meet in the middle, and artisanal craftsmanship is being combined with innovative technology to forge new hybrids. Enter Tod’s ‘No_Code 03’. The third design in the Italian luxury label’s experimental No_Code series sees South Korean fashion and industrial designer Yong Bae Seok engineer a part-shoe, part-sneaker. The hybrid footwear boasts a lightweight, high-tech construction, an easy, slip-on form, and performance-focused neoprene and leather detailing. Nodding to Tod’s driving-shoe heritage, the sole…

MIAMI PREVIEW 2019 At this year’s Design Miami, Porky Hefer plans to give us all a science lesson. Taking his playful vision to a microscopic level, the designer will craft inhabitable sculptures in the form of molecular structures for Southern Guild gallery, using bright leathers corresponding to atomic colour codes. While known for his fantastical, animalistic creations, this new collection has seen the Cape Town-based designer create giant, spherical seating pods made up of differently hued sections, each representing a different element. For example, in his ‘Water’ pod, two white atoms of hydrogen and one red atom of oxygen have been brought together to form a cosy fur-lined nook. Coincidently, Hefer’s ode to H2O also fits in with the theme for 2019, set by Design Miami’s curatorial director Aric Chen.…

Entertaining spaces MEXICO Ascetic retreat ‘Casa Mérida is not a house with a garden. It is a garden with a house’ The first thing that stands out about Casa Mérida is its unashamed brutalism, defined by raw and omnipresent concrete, all hard edges and rough surfaces under the strong Mexican sun. The second is that most of the building seems to be open to the outdoors, with few fully enclosed spaces. The project’s defining feature, though, is that it is 80m long but just 8m wide. While this odd stretch would be considered unusual in most places, in Mérida, capital of the Mexican state of Yucatán, it’s fairly common, explains the house’s architect, French-born, Mexico City-based Ludwig Godefroy: ‘This type of lot is everywhere in the historic centre of Mérida…

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