Hasta La Ideas

Rebecca Louise Law est une artiste britannique connue pour ses installations artistiques à travers le monde, crées à base de plantes et matériaux d’origine naturelle. Elle appuie son travail sur le lien entre l’homme et la nature, et est passionnée par la préservation de cette dernière. Son travail évolue au fur et à mesure des changements naturels, constituant ainsi un concept singulier et novateur. Souhaitant partager la beauté de la nature avec le plus grand nombre, l’artiste nous invite, grâce à ses oeuvres, à une célébration perpétuelle de la Terre.

Récemment, l’artiste a réalisé une toute nouvelle installation intitulée « Community », exposée au Toledo Museum of Art, et constituée de plus de 500.000 plantes indigènes issues du paysage local. Pour cette oeuvre magistrale, la plus grande qu’elle ait jamais réalisée, il aura fallu 1800 heures de travail pour les nombreux bénévoles présents, et le fruit de leur travail est tout simplement merveilleux.

A high-end furniture store has been transformed into an eco-friendly home full of sustainable Scandinavian products for London Design Festival.

Skandium Townhouse, a concept store housed inside a four-storey house in Brompton, is currently calling itself Eco Townhouse.

Danish brands Montana and Skagerat have furnished the property, using only pieces from brands that have a strong ethical commitment and social responsibility initiatives, and that make products from sustainably sourced materials with ethical manufacturing techniques.

The project forms part of the Brompton Design District, whose theme for 2018 is Material Consequences.

“We were keen to throw ourselves fully into the theme,” explained Skandium, a London-based retail brand that specialises in Scandinavian design.

“Scandinavian suppliers stand head and shoulders above the rest of the world when it comes to mitigating the environmental and even social impact of their products, and as such, Skandium is already populated with superlative examples of sustainable, responsible design.”

Both Montana and Skagerat believe that the word “sustainability” has become overused and is starting to lose its impact. Both interpret the idea of “consequences” as an emphasis on making quality products that last through generations.

“Our principles as a company are based on simple lessons my mother taught me,” said Skagerat CEO Jesper Panduro. “Always be a decent person, always take responsibility, always be respectful. It’s not the most profitable way of thinking, but it is the only way to think if you are business.”

Both brands feature modular furniture systems made to suit a generation of buyers who own less and want to be mobile. The designers at Montana explained that their customers want to curate their homes to display their personalities rather than their possessions.

“We create modular systems so that people can make room for personality in their homes. The Montana system has 36 modules, four depths and 42 colours – so you can imagine the different combinations,” said Annette Spanggaard from Montana.

All of the Montana furniture pieces are created with wood from local suppliers that reforest as they harvest. Montana also employs refugees in its factories and helps integrate them into the local communities.

Skagerat populated the garden of the house with signature pieces from its outdoor range. These include the Overlap table and bench designed by Swedish architecture studio Taf, the Reform table and bench by Louise Hederström, and the classic Lise sun chair that was designed 25 years ago by Isbrand.

All of the items are designed to be easy to move around so that users can reconfigure the space.

Inside, Skagerat products also offer flexibility in the home: for example the mattress of the Reykjavik Daybed by design studio Included Middle can be flipped to change the colour balance. The palette and materials are inspired by Iceland.

“The items all have beauty in common,” said Panduro, “although the functions are all different. The shelving is like music – we have composed a shelving system, with different colours and sizes. And the reversible Reykjavik Daybed will transport you to Iceland.”

As well as the designs by Montana and Skagerat, the exhibition also contains the Alphabet Sofa designed by Piero Lissoni for Fritz Hansen, which is upholstered with Kvadrat wool and manufactured in Norway.

There is also the Noguchi Coffee Table, created by Anton Björsing for Vitra, and the CH88 Chair, designed by Hans J Wegner and manufactured using hardwood from Danish forests.

Skandium is owned by Magnus Englund, Chrystina Schmidt and Christopher Seidenfaden. The Skandium Townhouse was established in South Kensington by these three London-based Scandinavians and is aimed at being a home for Scandinavian design in the city.

It launched during the design festival last year, with an exhibition by lighting brand Louis Poulsen.

Eco Townhouse has been on show throughout London Design Festival, which ran from 15 to 23 September.

Related URL: 1089918

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Joyce Wang Studio has created a range of limited-edition furniture and homeware to prove there is more to terrazzo than kitchen and bathroom surfaces.

On show for London Design Festival, Flint is a collection of nine terrazzo objects that aim to showcase the diverse potential of the material.

The collection includes three tables, a vase, two bowls, a small dish, an hourglass and an ornamental sphere. They are available in three colours: charcoal, rose or sage.

“We wanted to really showcase the elegance of terrazzo and push the boundaries of the material and the fabrication,” said Joyce Wang, who is shortlisted for emerging interior designer of the year at Dezeen Awards.

“The aim is to bring out the more precious qualities of terrazzo, elevating it from a surface material into a collection of furniture, lighting and objects that accentuate its multi-faceted character,” she added.

This was achieved by refining the material to include bevelled edging and tapered elements. These features are accentuated by solid brass detailing with stroke, cross and ring motifs.

“We have given terrazzo a new identity by adding these metal details, highlighting the terrazzo, capturing a moment in time. There’s a special, timeless beauty in using an old material, in a new way,” said the studio.

“The metal coordinates add an element of luxury into the pieces themselves, and also accentuates the terrazzo being archaeology itself, because its been sanded, polished and the metal reveals itself along with the terrazzo together.”

The pieces were created in collaboration with a third-generation terrazzo manufacturer in Italy.

Custom blocks of terrazzo were cut into slabs and then stencil-cut into the desired shapes, before being bevelled and polished to reveal the metal elements beneath the surface.

“When we did our research into existing terrazzo furniture and terrazzo accessories in the market there was a lot of slab format, primitive forms out there,” added Wang.

“When we were looking at where to fabricate this, we wanted the absolute best, we wanted the utmost luxury, the most sculpted forms and there was no place that could do that other than Italy.”

Joyce Wang now has studios in London and Hong Kong. She is showcasing Flint in her London office throughout London Design Festival, which continues until 23 September.

Other projects on display during the festival include health-focused furniture by Another Country and jesmonite furniture by Malgorzata Bany.

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Looking at the E-Legend right beside its visual ancestor, the 504, you’d say that there’s no doubt that both of them belong to the same family. They both manifest the ‘pony car’ aesthetic too well, and there are undeniable similarities in the silhouette, the color, and in the nature of the headlights an taillights… but the E-Legend undeniably manages to look like the 504 stayed the same, yet got a distinctly modern touch.

The E-Legend concept from French automotive company Peugeot is an exercise in what we call Retrofuturism. The car looks strangely antiquated yet contemporary both at the same time… which is a good look to embody, just because it satisfies both purists and neophiles.

The concept car comes with headlights that almost rip your soul apart (I detect a Mustang vibe), and an electric build that’s capable of 456 horsepower and a head-spinning 590 foot-pounds of torque. The car can pull off a 0 to62 in under 4 seconds, with a top speed of 137mph. Peugeot also boasts of a 373 mile range on the battery, with a whopping 311 miles with just a 25-minute charge. Needless to say, with that performance and those looks, I’m VERY pleased.

Designer: Peugeot

An old brick carriage house sits at the heart of this newly built Brooklyn hotel, part of a chain with roots in Europe, which features interiors by Ennismore Design Studio.

The latest outpost of The Hoxton, an enterprise that started in London’s Shoreditch in 2006, opens this month in the Williamsburg neighbourhood of the New York borough.

It takes over the site formerly occupied by the Rosenwach Water Tower Factory, which built the thousands of water towers that dot the New York skyline there from 1924 to 2009, when Rosenwach sold the site after a fire.

A historic brick structure that formed part of the industrial complex was incorporated into the new building. The shell, punctured with arched window openings and a large doorway, provides both a focal point in the tall lobby and an enclosure for the main restaurant kitchen.

“The main restaurant, Klein’s, offers Americana-inspired classics throughout the lobby and brasserie-style restaurant from morning until late,” said a statement from Ennismore, which developed and operates the 175-room hotel.

“A stunning Klein-blue French Molteni cooking suite and wood-fired grill situated inside a recreation of the original brick carriage house that anchored the site of the Rosenwach Water Tower Factory add impact to the space as a central feature in the open-plan restaurant.”

Ennismore’s in-house design team was responsible for the interiors of the 175-room hotel, and worked with hospitality group Soho House on the public spaces.

In the lobby, the mid-toned parquet floor is scattered with light-coloured furniture. Huge steel columns and beams are painted black to contrast, and other features include a wall of white tiles and dark wood shelving partitions.

The second of three restaurants, Backyard, occupies an outdoor mezzanine where guests can relax on sun loungers or play ping pong.

Finally, the Summerly eatery can be found on the roof. Glass walls fold up to open the indoor bar to the terrace, which acts as a dining area, and “offers unbeatable views of the Manhattan skyline and brings East Coast summer vibes to the middle of New York City”.

Ennismore Design Studio also completed the guest rooms, split into three categories named Cosy, Cosy with a View, and Roomy. All with king-sized beds, the rooms include brass fixtures and details, raw concrete ceilings, and mohair headboards in sage green, port and navy.

The hotel also has a private events space called The Apartment, which includes several different-sized spaces that can be hired for meetings and presentations, or parties. All have access to a communal kitchen.

As well as its original location in East London, The Hoxton has properties in the Holborn area of the UK capital, Amsterdam, and Paris. The company also plans to open in Portland, Oregon; Downtown Los Angeles; and Chicago as part of a major US expansion.

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