Innehållsförteckning för #23 från Design Anthology, Asia Pacific Edition

Melbourne inner suburb St Kilda has always had a Miami-like allure. Tucked behind the grand palm tree-lined esplanade that winds its way from Port Melbourne, the neighbourhood is home to exemplary pastel-hued Art Deco architecture, some of the city’s best bars, restaurants and live music venues, and just enough grit and character to remind us of its former life as the red-light district. Located a short walk from the waterfront on one of the precinct’s most famous streets is a recently revitalised icon. The Prince Hotel, formerly known as The Prince of Wales, dates back to 1863, making it one of Melbourne’s first guest houses, and was rebuilt in 1936 by Robert H McIntyre — founder of one of the country’s longest-standing architectural practices — in the modern Art Deco…

To build a community, it takes a kind of community — one of like-minded collaborators from architects and designers to builders and residents. This is a concept at the core of young Melbourne developer Volume Projects. ‘To us, architects are sculptors,’ says Bao Nguyen, who founded the company in 2016. ‘They draw the shape of the communities we build, and we see the result as a meeting of minds, rather than just another building.’ The company’s youth is evident in its approach, which brings a sense of freshness to its three boutique residential properties. Island House, a penthouse-focused development on a crest at the western end of Bridge Road in Richmond, is a case in point. The site is formed on its own ‘island’, set slightly back and elevated to…

In 2010,Tsuyoshi Tane stood in front of a line of 99 framed clock prints inside a warehouse gallery in Tokyo. Despite the occasion being the young architect’s first solo exhibition in Japan, he chose to title this installation Pasts, and in it presented memories from growing up in Tokyo through to the process of winning his first international competition in 2006, for his design of the Estonian National Museum with Dan Dorell and Lina Ghotmeh. Tane, Dorell and Ghotmeh’s winning proposal involved moving the construction site to a nearby Soviet-era military base, and features an archive room where the climate is controlled purely by the design, needing no special system fitted to preserve the delicate objects within. Naturally, this radical proposal tempted many to label the architect with buzzwords like…

‘I f there’s one word I want you to know while you’re here,’ my guide advised when we met in the hotel lobby, ‘it’s shalom. It’s how we say hello and goodbye, but its literal translation is peace.’ Peace isn’t the first thing I associated with Israel — but as it turns out,Tel Aviv is full of surprises. When I imagined the city, I envisioned street after street of worn, faded facades and quiet locals in modest dress. Instead, I discovered people lounging beachside and soaking up the sun, warmly greeting friends for a relaxed al fresco lunch at the latest cafe, or partying with fervour well into the night. Despite my naive, narrow view of this part of the world, everyone insisted Tel Aviv is a modern city. And…

What might possess someone to incinerate their carefully crafted timber work? It’s a question that Makiko Ryujin, the rogue craftswoman becoming known for her prowess with a blowtorch, is uniquely placed to answer. Born and raised in Japan, Ryujin spent a year in Indonesia before moving to Melbourne to complete high school. On finishing a photography degree at RMIT University, she sought a more hands-on pursuit, which led to a woodwork course at the Victorian Woodworkers Association in 2016. There, she discovered a fascination for woodturning, mesmerised by its immediacy. ‘I couldn’t believe how quickly it could happen,’ she recalls. ‘You take a rough block and suddenly, you have something you can use. It was like a magic trick.’ Even if woodturning itself provides almost instant gratification, the full undertaking…

Barely 20 years ago, the Mergui Archipelago was hidden from the world, its 800 or so tropical islands off the coast of southern Myanmar uninhabited by humans, except for small populations of Moken, also known as ‘sea gypsies’, taking shelter during the monsoon months before returning to their nomadic life on the water. Since then, intrepid travellers have slowly begun to trickle in, mostly on sailing and diving charters, though even today most people would struggle to pinpoint the enclave on a map. In 2018, however, two resorts opened in the archipelago — Wa Ale and Awei Pila — each on its own private island, introducing a type of wild luxury not previously seen in these parts. Imagine Bali, but with whiter sand; or a jungle-covered Maldives; or Phuket, its…

The Standard — London A 1974 Brutalist structure is now home to The Standard’s first outpost outside the US. Designed with long-time collaborator Shawn Hausman and interior architect Archer Humphryes, The Standard draws inspiration from its cool Camden surroundings and the historic Kings Cross neighbourhood. The hotel’s own Sounds Studio, which acts as a platform and incubator for London’s musical community, and the library lounge (with in-house librarian) both reflect the neighbourhood’s connection to punk, politics and intellectual thought. Il Palazzo Experimentale — Venice The Experimental Group’s latest property, in Venice’s Dorsoduro neighbourhood, offers proximity to cultural attractions like the Guggenheim Collection and Galleria dell’Accademia, but also a quiet canal served by the hotel’s own pontoon, an intimate rooftop terrace and the Experimental Cocktail Club, designed by Milan-based Cristina Celestino,…

‘W e didn’t use a designer,’ Janis Provisor, co-founder of hand-knotted carpet producer Fort Street Studio, tells me when I arrive at the Tribeca loft she shares with her husband and business partner Brad Davis. This much seems clear — the space is too layered with whimsical ceramics, one-off art pieces, vintage furnishings and inventive reupholstery to be the work of a disinterested professional. ‘We wanted to create the feeling of a vestibule here at the entrance, even though it’s a big, open space,’ says Davis, gesturing to a sculptural glass and bronze wall light by Venetian designer Angelo Brotto hanging above a Carlo Hauner-designed sideboard from Brazil. On the adjacent windowsill, a ceramic creature — half mermaid, half penguin — by Swedish artist Klara Kristalova presides over the loft,…

Approaching St. George’s Mansions, the latest residential development on Hong Kong’s sought-after Kadoorie Avenue by developers Sino Land and CLP group, it’s immediately apparent that you’re moving into a luxurious private world. Screen walls hint at what’s beyond, but when the sound under the car’s tyres changes as the road becomes cobblestoned, the doors open to the soothing sound of water and you step onto the richly patterned paving of the motor court, you know you’ve arrived somewhere special. An abundance of Gascogne cream limestone, so soft in tone that it almost glows with warmth, is reminiscent of the off-white walls of the original Kadoorie Estate villas that surround the new property. Punched windows add to an aesthetic that takes inspiration from the past. Situated within the serene oasis that…

Over tea at New York’s Baccarat Hotel, James Wei Ke, design principal at Chiasmus Partners, shows me photos of his firm’s latest project, a village in Zhejiang province that resembles a scene from a traditional Chinese ink wash painting. Flanked by limestone cliffs and lush tea plantations, Chayuan Village dates to the Qing dynasty, but like many rural towns, it fell into disrepair as local populations, struggling to transition to the new economy, left to find work in larger cities. ‘Many of the village houses were in very poor and sometimes precarious condition,’ Wei Ke recalls of his initial site visit. Over the last four years he’s worked to restore the homes, adding thermal insulation and modern sanitation and turning them into a destination for what he calls ‘slow tourism’.…

In the popular imagination, Thailand is a spectral land where ghosts coexist with the living. This holds true architecturally as well as spiritually: the country’s urban and periurban areas are peppered with structures that are neither fully present nor entirely absent, haunted by the past and unable to reconcile with the future. The most famous of these abandoned buildings, Bangkok’s Ghost Tower — a half-built skyscraper thwarted by the 1997 Asian financial crisis — has never truly lived. However, the very opposite is true of the palatial Art Deco and severe mid-century structures that fill the pages of Thailand’s Movie Theatres: Relics, Ruins and the Romance of Escape. ‘In the days before most houses had electricity, the local movie theatre was where everybody came together, irrespective of class or occupation,’…

Antoine Meinnel never planned to open his own architecture firm in Cambodia, but a trip in 2015, when his parents asked him to fly over from France to visit a heritage property they’d bought in the seaside town of Kampot, set in motion a series of events that eventually resulted in Bloom Architecture. ‘When I saw the beauty of this old, neglected colonial shophouse, I decided to quit my job and focus on helping them find a solution to preserve the envelope while modernising and adapting the inside. I only intended to be here for a few months, but during the renovations I started Bloom and ended up staying,’ he says. In just a few years, the firm’s work has gained increasing recognition, from concept plans for downtown parks to…

For a textbook example of Mother Nature’s unrivalled design, one needn’t look further than New Zealand, a nation where the outdoors is as great as the idiom suggests. This country of almost five million people has lovingly maintained its rolling countryside, sultry beaches, volcanic lakes and alpine peaks. It’s also home to properties meticulously attuned to their environment, none more so than the Luxury Lodges of New Zealand. A loose amalgam of 31 boutique hotels and resorts spread across the North and South islands, these lodges are unified by their exceptional comfort, fine local food and wine, warm hospitality and design that reflects and celebrates their sublime settings, whether waterside, on a mountain or next to a vineyard. Three properties in particular, each a bucket-list destination in its own right,…

A pair of eyes darts back and forth, peering out curiously from a red mailbox slot. Below, an envelope to Ray Tomlinson (the first person to send an email) is visible with a handwritten address that reads ‘Anywhere you are’. Titled Telepresence, the animated sculpture by Indonesian artist Bandu Darmawan explores the transformation of technology and how, thanks to the Internet, we can now transport ourselves anywhere. This playfully insightful work is characteristic of a new generation of young artists from Indonesia. ‘They have a witty tendency to read what seems to be usual as extraordinary, which makes their work outstanding,’ says Alia Swastika, curator and director of Jogja Biennale Foundation. ‘They challenge the audience to look at issues from different perspectives.’ Bandung-based Darmawan was among several new talents who…

As an internationally renowned industrial designer, Michael Young spends a lot of his time trotting around the globe. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that his loft in Brussels includes a tent. More than just a cheeky acknowledgement that he belongs to a tribe of global nomads, it also serves a practical purpose for when Young’s Hong Kong-based team members need to travel to Europe. ‘There was one year in Milan when I decided we should go to Belgium for the month and stay there,’ he says. He was already geared up to hike Mount Everest, so he pitched tents for his staff to sleep in, one of which remains in place today, sitting beneath a row of Tibetan prayer flags strung across the back of the room. It’s hardly roughing it…

When Bangkok- and Singapore-based interior designer Albano Daminato first visited Villa Peduzzi, an abandoned hilltop home on the edge of Lake Como, it was almost as if the owners had just left. Furniture was piled up everywhere, but the pots and pans were still in place, and crockery and cutlery lay in the kitchen sink. ‘The mood was solemn, rich and cinematically romantic,’ says Daminato, creative director of his eponymous studio. ‘This feeling really stayed with me, and it was important to me that the villa didn’t lose these qualities.’ Perched almost a kilometre above sea level, the villa was designed by its Italian owner Rocco Peduzzi and built in 1909. Rumoured to have been inherited by his nephew in the 1960s, the mansion was left mostly vacant and little…

It’s the antithesis of a hard-edged skyscraper: wrapped in greenery, it rolls, drapes and undulates, rising 40 metres before flowing underground, with homes, shops, a school and even a temple lying among its curves. The ‘it’ in question is an innovative, organic structure designed by British architect Thomas Heatherwick for the Toranomon-Azabudai Project, an urban regeneration development in Tokyo masterminded by Mori Building. ‘It’s almost like a latticed tablecloth,’ says the designer. ‘It drapes across the site, with work and living spaces underneath the lattice, but it also rolls down to make a six-thousand-square-metre public open space in the middle, with sakura trees. Imagine pushing down on a tablecloth and its edges rolling up.’ Construction work has just begun on the project, one of the city’s most ambitious urban developments…