Hasta La Ideas

Designed by Splitstudio takes shape and inspiration from the idea of the trip, as well as the lights accompanying travelers nights.The line remembers ..

Swiss designers Julie Richoz and Nicolas Le Moigne have used their residency at Casa Wabi in Mexico to produce a series of woven lighting and furniture pieces with the help of local artisans.

Richoz and Le Moigne spent five weeks at the Tadao Ando-designed coastal artists’ retreat in Puerto Escondido, in the southern state of Oaxaca. During their stay, they worked with craftspeople based in a nearby village to adapt their palm-weaving skills for contemporary pieces.

The results are a collection of screens by Richoz and a range of lamps by Le Moigne, all featuring surfaces with decorative patterns formed by weaving the dried leaves around frames.

“We both decided to do quite large pieces, because the technique is quite rough – which is part of the beauty of it,” said Richoz. “To have large objects, it goes well with the dimensions of the details of the palm.”

The process involves drying the leaves, then removing certain parts before turning the fibres into rope.

Although the artisans are used to working with wood, the Swiss duo opted to use metal frames for a more contemporary look. These were made in a workshop next door to the weavers’ workspaces. Le Moigne also designed one floor lamp in wood for variety.

The residency was intended to be educational as well as productive, and Richoz shared what she learnt through taking part.

“One thing that I discovered there is the way that the people are using craft in a different way than I know from Europe,” she said. “There’s a very direct relationship between the people that want to buy the furniture, and the people who are making it.”

The designer also spoke about the challenges of working in a remote part of a foreign country. “The [weaver] that Nicolas worked with doesn’t speak Spanish, he speaks a local language: Mixtec,” said Richoz. “So it was difficult to communicate, but that was also part of what made it interesting.”

The duo’s designs were presented at Casa Wabi‘s space in Mexico City – a characterful restored house in Santa María – during this year’s Design Week Mexico. Switzerland was this year’s guest country for the design week, so collaborative projects between the two countries were highlighted as part of the programme.

Casa Wabi residencies are usually reserved for fine artists, but through a partnership with the Swiss embassy in Mexico, Richoz and Le Moigne were invited to become the first industrial designers to participate.

Design Week Mexico took place from 11 to 15 October 2017, a week later than planned after a deadly earthquake hit the city in September.

Exhibitions and installations put on across the city included a pavilion that cast shadow patterns across itself, a series of wooden houses that punish their occupants, and a display of work by emerging designers and studios.

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This new building added to a school in the English town of Beaconsfield by London architecture office DSDHA flanks a tree-lined playground and is clad in waney-edged timber to give it a natural appearance.

DSDHA was invited to oversee the final phase of a 20-year masterplan at Davenies School, which was established in 1940 and provides education for boys ranging in age from four to 13.

The school originally occupied an old farmhouse and had spread to include a collection of historic and modern buildings, positioned around formal gardens and a wooded area where children can play outside.

The new project initiated in 2012 involved removing some outdated buildings to make way for a new library, a hall and ten classrooms that seek to fufil the school’s objective of promoting engagement with the natural world.

Basing the design on the agricultural heritage of the original building, DSDHA created a series of connected structures that utilise traditional materials to blend in with their natural setting and historic context.

“Our intervention – with its unusual external black waney-edged timber finish and neutral interiors – allows the sense of the architecture to recede,” the studio explained, “shifting the focus on the children’s pedagogical activities and their connection to the mature landscape outside.”

“This process of visual editing applied to the building and the landscape aims at stimulating the children to establish a stronger and intimate relationship with nature, something increasingly at risk of being lost in our contemporary urban environments.”

The main addition is a new teaching wing that extends along the edge of the dell and accommodates a hall below. A smaller adjacent reception and teaching area provides a more intimate setting for younger children.

The new wing is connected to the existing school by a glazed link that rests lightly against the heritage-listed building. Folding glass doors on either side of the link can be opened to create a covered walkway linking the dell with the main historic garden.

The wooded play area’s position at the rear of the site shelters it from a nearby road and ensures it feels private and secure. A hall used for indoor play is lined with glazed walls that create a visual connection between the dell and activities inside the building.

“While the previous buildings on the site turned their backs on the dell, we made it a key element of our design,” DSDHA added, “with its topography and existing trees determining the form and arrangement of the two wings of our building.”

The site’s sloping topography allowed the architects to slot in spaces such as the glass-lined play room. Terraces connecting the different wings at ground level provide additional outdoor learning areas, and a stair descending into the dell can also be used as an auditorium.

The building is constructed from cross-laminated timber panels that provide the necessary support and thermal efficiency, as well as being quick and easy to erect.

The structure is clad in waney-edge boards, which are cut with a layer of residual bark left on one edge to provide a rustic detail that reflects local architectural traditions and helps the building sit comfortably in its natural context.

Internally, the timber panelling is left exposed to enhance the building’s natural appearance and allow pupils to see how the school was constructed. Green-painted window reveals further enhance the connection to the verdant setting.

DSDHA is a London-based practice founded in 1998 by Deborah Saunt and David Hills, who live together in a house featuring underground rooms and mirrors that help it to appear smaller than it really is.

The firm’s previous projects include an apartment block in north London with a pair of faceted glass volumes perched on its roof, and a studio and gallery for ceramic artist Edmund de Waal that occupies a former munitions warehouse.

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“Sheer simplicity, sheer beauty” would be the words I’d use to describe Anicorn’s Hidden Time watch. Designed in collaboration with designer Jiwoong Jung, the Hidden Time watch captured Jung’s visual interpretation on how one should focus on the time at hand… literally. Using focus as the visual key, the design plays with gradients that help bring numbers to focus when they’re relevant. A gradiented disc rotates, creating contrasts against the white numerals on a transparent level above the disc, allowing you to see numbers at the darkest points i.e., where the contrast is the highest.

Hidden Time is a part of Anicorn’s TTT Project (Trio of Time). They plan on collaborating with three designers from around the world with different interpretations of time, to create three, beautifully designed watches. Hidden Time was the first, and it’s no surprise that the watch sold out almost instantly. I remain to see who Anicorn collaborates with next! I’ll be sure to report my findings to you!

Designer: Jiwoong Jung for Anicorn Watch Co.

by Adam Robb

While the sight of toiling nomadic harvesters plucking stems of robust Pinot Meunier grapes in the autumn sun may be an eternal Champagne landscape, newly refurbished interiors of the 200-year-old Maison Perrier-Jouët in Epernay blend……

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