Innehållsförteckning för Issue 5 från Design Anthology, Asia Pacific Edition

Summer is finally here. Some of us crave it as soon as it ends — the feel of the sun on bare skin, absorbing much-needed vitamin D, can be addictive. Not to mention the downtime that (hopefully) comes with it, the fragrance of the ocean or some other far-flung locale. It’s a time that evokes unwinding, unplugging and relaxing — this issue of Design Anthology is dedicated to such leisurely pursuits. We’ve had a great time finding five homes around the world that create the mix we hope to be known for, all with some of that beautiful summer ambience. First cab off the rank is a chic beach shack in the Australian coastal town of Mullumbimby, designed by Hong Kong-based style maven Debra Little. From there we travel to…

Brick by William Hall, with an introductory essay by Dan Cruickshank (Phaidon) Brick has seen a renaissance of late. The world’s oldest man-made material is suddenly back in vogue as the preferred medium among a niche group of architects who have found new expression in its simple composition. So it’s no surprise that Phaidon is publishing a book entirely devoted to the theme. Divided into eight sub-studies — mass, form, texture, juxtaposition, landscape, light, presence and scale — Brick takes an in-depth look at this most humble of materials throughout construction history. It begins with the 4,000-year-old Ziggurat of Ur and traces the evolution of brick-making through kiln-fired technology under the Romans to brick expressionism of the 1920s and more contemporary examples of aesthetic refinement. The book includes full-format photos…

The C in the Mosqueda family genetic code stands conspicuously, not for cytosine, but culture. Following the opening last fall of her brother’s avant-garde, cross-disciplinary New York design gallery Chamber, creative director Guadalupe Garcia Mosqueda opened the doors of Casa Cavia in the siblings’home town of Buenos Aires this March. Like Chamber, Casa Cavia is a cultural catch-all, housing a restaurant, patisserie, bar, bookshop and publishing house, florist and perfumery. We say ‘houses’ as in provides a home: Cavia is not a luxury retail concept disguised as a residence. It is a residence — for a family of creative explorations — disguised as a retail concept. Cavia is the product of prolonged, serial collaborations that reach back to the design of the Palermo Chico neighbourhood that surrounds it. Its tree-shaded,…

CITY The high-end shopping and cultural outpost of Ginza, Tokyo is the site for the Millennium Mitsui Garden Hotel, the company’s first location in Japan. Award-winning Hong Kong firm CL3 achieved a modern minimalist interior style to infuse the space with contemporary sophistication, while the building’s elaborate woven overlay exterior is the work of Japanese designer Masahide Ishikawa. The hotel features two concept suites, a Pearl Room designed with Mikimoto Cosmetics and a Hakuza Gold Leaf Room, in which guests can indulge in a range of complimentary cosmetics and a gourmet restaurant featuring fresh seasonal vegetables and fish. The hotel can also arrange tickets for the world-famous Kabukiza Theatre located just across the street. A new breed of concept hotel has opened in East Los Angeles’ up-and-coming Los Feliz neighbourhood…

This March saw the launch of Art Central, a new art fair in Hong Kong, which included a noteworthy collaboration between luxury crystal company Swarovski and homegrown talent Joyce Wang on the Oculus. Design Anthology spoke with Wang and Annmarie Harris of Swarovski about the collaboration. Design Anthology: How did the collaboration with Swarovski come about? Joyce Wang: Well, it all just sort of exploded after Annmarie and I met, less than a year ago. May last year. In fact it was six months, from designing until now. It’s been a solid six months — design and fabrication. The Oculus just arrived, hot out of the oven. Annmarie Harris: It hadn’t been put together until it was installed. It was a little nerve-wracking. What was your initial reaction when Swarovski…

FAMED ARCHITECT VANISHES — New York Post, August 23, 1993. Early on the morning of August 19, 1993, Norman Jaffe drove down Ocean Road and turned into the cul-de-sac development called Sam’s Creek, one of the architect’s most critically acclaimed projects, a cluster of houses with hovering roofs set between undulating earthen berms. Jaffe parked his beaten-up Mercedes Benz in the driveway of a friend’s house and walked the short distance to the beach. He left his clothes in a little pile and ran into the surf as he did almost every morning. This time, however, he never came back. Friends called mutual friends and wondered what might have happened. Others gathered and organised search parties. Police crews combed the beach from Westhampton to Montauk, but found nothing. A helicopter…

It began before we even reached Malacca; we were confronted on approach by enormous billboards brandishing the local tourism tagline: Don’t Mess with Melaka! A flagrant abuse of the Texas slogan, this was only a harbinger of what lay in store at the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Making our way along Jonker Street, the main thoroughfare, Coca Cola-branded signboards defaced the otherwise statuesque beams of old shophouses which now brimmed with ‘Made in China’ trinkets and generic kitsch. One self-proclaimed ‘traditional teahouse’ (spoiler: it wasn’t) appropriated imagery from Macau to promote a nightly water spectacle in its humble courtyard, while outside an endless parade of trikshaws (tricycle rickshaws) blasted thumping Eurobeats via subwoofers crudely strapped to their hubs. Once a form of traditional transport, these rickshaws have undergone an utter…

Molteni&C, Singapore & Tokyo Molteni&C continues its wave of expansion throughout Asia with two new stores. An 800-square-metre monobrand store in Singapore spread over two floors showcases a selection of furnishings from the Molteni, Dada and ArmaniDada brands. A 300-square-metre store in Tokyo (pictured), designed by Patricia Urquiola, is set within the gardens of the Kengo Kuma-designed Nezu Museum and houses collections by many of the brand’s long-time collaborators, including Urquiola. molteni.it Alan Chan’s ‘Home Away from Home’, Shanghai Hong Kong-based designer and artist Alan Chan has extended the life of his concept pop-up store at the Tony Chi-designed Park Hyatt Shanghai until the end of 2015. The 150-square-metre space, situated on the 86th floor, showcases a curated selection of Chan’s favourite objects ranging from antique and vintage furniture to…

When it comes to sourcing well-designed contemporary furniture that is both luxurious and original, China is rarely the obvious destination of choice. Shanghai-based Stellar Works is determined to change this mindset. A joint venture between Japanese company Fusion Trading and French luxury furniture maker Laval, the company may be an industry newbie but has already racked up an impressive portfolio of clients. Since its launch in September 2011, bold-faced names like Soho House, Baccarat, Noma’s René Redzepi, Fairmont Raffles and Starwood have all come calling, each attracted by the firm’s savvy combination of design, quality and price. Certainly, the company is ambitious. Its creative horizon stretches beyond being ‘merely’ a furniture-making factory to being what Shell Xu, the firm’s effusive brand director, calls ‘the brand that delivers fine-quality furniture that…

Historical preservation isn’t one of Hong Kong’s strong suits. Rather, you can take the pulse of this city on any given day through the sounds of the jack hammers, wrecking balls and pile drivers that permeate the airspace. We demolish and raze without a second thought, then erect higher, sleeker and more efficient structures under dizzying timeframes. It’s part of a mantra of economies that drives everything in this city: economies of scale, time, space, you name it. So anything re-purposed is already an immediately unusual and intriguing proposition. Now add to that proposition a keen interest in upholding local handicraft and elevating it to a level of contemporary sophistication that places heritage and design on equal planes. Enter Tribute, Hong Kong’s newest concept hotel. Located in the Yau Ma…

Jim Olivier travels a great deal for business and leisure, and divides much of his time between Hong Kong and Australia. In 2011 he purchased a property in Mullumbimby, a town in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, as a holiday shack to keep his surfing gear, do some gardening or just tinker in his downtime. Sitting on a rock plateau under a 300-metre cliff face, with ocean views to the east and northeast and mountain views to the north and northwest, the shack is protected from the region’s powerful winds and storms by the cliff face, which also absorbs much heat from the sun, creating the perfect micro-climate for gardening. The property also enjoys an almost poetic quality of light, which changes throughout the day. Olivier had…

It’s difficult to use too many superlatives when talking about architect Thomas Heatherwick, whose studio is credited with some of today’s most forward-thinking design. But while his studio receives lavish praise, Heatherwick himself is the antithesis of divadom. Design Anthology had the extreme pleasure of speaking with him this spring to discuss his studio’s latest project and first major new building here in Asia. One thing that often surprises people about Heatherwick is that he’s not a trained architect. This explains a lot when considering his highly original buildings, which can evoke a certain materiality, or handmade quality. Growing up, Heatherwick explains, his most formative childhood memories revolved around hours spent in his mother’s bead shop, where he developed an innate appreciation of and fascination with tacit craft. ‘When I…

Zaha Hadid. Frank Gehry. Herzog & de Meuron. IM Pei. Norman Foster. All are Pritzker Prize recipients; all are household names in Hong Kong. These marquee headlining starchitects have been winning projects in ‘Asia’s World City’ for some of its most prestigious cultural and institutional projects, funded mostly by taxpayers’ money. But in a city with two well-established schools of architecture and plenty of prolific firms, are they taking work away from competent locals or does the city really need foreign talent and expertise to maintain its world-class city status? It may be argued that architecture is a relatively new introduction to a city that began as a British colony. ‘Architecture as a discipline is a Western invention,’ says Aric Chen, curator of design and architecture at local visual culture…

Even the tiniest swatch of fabric can tell a story. A small square of Lamai silk from Jim Thompson’s new Forbidden Colours collection embodies the sumptuous decadence of silk. It recalls the exotic images and colours of the 1956 film The King and I, which famously introduced Jim Thompson silks to the world. Its ancient Thai name, which means ‘delicately sweet as a soft smile’, reminds us of a time when such luxurious fabrics, hues and prints were forbidden to most and reserved for nobles of the Siamese court by strict royal edict. The swatch also represents an exciting departure for the company, presenting completely new interpretations of traditional Thai textiles. Lamai silk is more supple, soft and matte than previous two-ply silks, Lamiad blends rayon with silk for unprecedented…

Fast facts Country: Vietnam / Region: North Vietnam / Airport: Hanoi Airport / Noi Bai International Airport (HAN) Time: GMT +7 time zone / Currency: Dong ( d / VND) / Population: 7 million Country Code: +84 / Area code: 4 / Official language: Vietnamese / Power: 220V, plug types A, C and G About Formerly the imperial capital (before being overtaken by Hue) and the administrative centre of French Indochina, Hanoi remains the political capital of modern Vietnam. It’s not the largest city, but what it lacks in size it certainly makes up for in substance. Most consider it to be the cultural capital, and quite possibly the creative capital too. Hanoians are proud people, and they have plenty of reasons to be. The French influence can still be…

When the inimitable Shanghai-based gallerist Pearl Lam launched her second eponymous space in Hong Kong, she dedicated the inaugural exhibition— timed to coincide with the biggest art event of the year, Art Basel Hong Kong — to a young up-and-coming Chinese beekeeper. The works by Beijing-based artist Ren Ri form an innovative three-part series investigating the complex interaction between humans and bees. The exhibition, titled Yuansu Projects (in reference to the Chinese word for ‘element’), includes 40 previously unseen works such as 3D organic sculptural installations housed in contemporary transparent plastic polyhedrons on the ground floor of the gallery, along with a rather alarming performance installation video showing the artist lying on the ground while hundreds of bees swarm over his body. On the second floor there is a collection…