Innehållsförteckning för #27 från Design Anthology, Asia Pacific Edition

Over the course of this year and since COVID-19 was officially labelled a pandemic, I’ve overheard and taken part in several conversations about what this period means for humanity, our planet and the future of cities, what we can learn and how or where to find silver linings. None of these conversations were as interesting as one I recently watched (and which we subsequently republished on our website): the second in the Bengal Institute’s BI Between series, which aims to explore the critical spaces between architecture, landscape and city. In this conversation, the institute’s director general, Bangladeshi architect and urbanist Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, spoke with architect, urban designer and conservationist Rahul Mehrotra of RMA Architects about the impact of COVID-19 and the future of cities in South Asia. I thought…

In the wake of Salone del Mobile’s cancellation earlier this year, Italian leather furniture producer Baxter has conceptualised Baxter Worldwide 2020 as an alternative platform to share its new collections, an initiative involving a series of international launch events that all took place on the same day in October. According to Baxter CEO Paolo Bestetti, the project is the result of asking, ‘If they can’t come to us, why don’t we go to them?’ The new collection has been designed with a sense of comfort and security in mind, with shapes and forms that embrace and reassure. As always, colour is an important factor, and this year three palettes have been presented: the first is a combination of warm chocolates and camel tones combined with a hint of blueberry, the…

Dreams are often associated with imagery of clouds, an idea the founders of Kumulo Creative Compound had in mind when they named the newly developed enclave in Jakarta. The visual imagery of a pillowy, heaped cumulus in the vast blue sky was both the inspiration behind the compound’s name and the perfect illustration for their core vision — a cluster of dreams realised together in the spirit of collaboration. Founded by Askar and Scarlete Moniaga of lifestyle brand kokken+ and creative entrepreneurs Paulus Susanto and Natasha Natalia, the space is an initiative to support local artisans and creatives, and acts as an incubator for its residents to explore and grow creatively. Designed by award-winning local firm DUA and constructed by Accossa Lab, Kumulo is spread over a once-vacant 4,200-square-metre plot…

Ritsue Mishima,born in Japan but Venetian by adoption (having moved there in the late 1980s), was immediately attracted to the medium of glass, instantly captivated by the thrill of the flames, the incandescent paste and the way bubbles of molten sand could be moulded into shapes. Mishima started out as a stylist in advertising but had always nurtured a great love for flowers and for the objects that contain them. ‘It was purely by chance that I started working with glass,’ she says. ‘I was already living in Venice and I wanted to buy a flower vase for my home, but couldn’t find anything I liked. So, I decided that I’d make the vase I had in mind myself. That’s how I got into the world of glass, and then…

‘When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it,’ Khánh Nhã Võ says, quoting her favourite author, Paulo Coelho, to describe how her apartment came to be. Just a few steps away from her children’s school in a new building overlooking the Saigon River is the home Võ’s family realised in partnership with Sarah Nguy ễ n and Arturo Moreno of local architecture and interiors firm StudioDuo. ‘I knew right away that I wanted to have skilled hands and minds to turn this apartment into a real home,’ she says. ‘It was really lucky that I came across Sarah Nguy ễ n’s work on Instagram, fell in love with it, and discovered that she has her own firm here in Ho Chi Minh City!’ StudioDuo’s…

HOUSE OF WANG Beijing A restored hutong in Beijing’s historical heart is now home to multi-brand design company HOUSE OF WANG. Founded by Ruby Ren and Eric Wang, two business leaders in China’s design scene, HOUSE OF WANG is the sole distributor of a selection of internationally renowned lifestyle brands in the Chinese mainland, including Alexa Lixfeld, Apparatus, Bethan Gray, Calico Wallpaper, Lee Broom, Nada Debs, Ochre, Omar Khan Rugs, Paola C., Sé Collections and 1882 Ltd. houseofwang.com…

Cities of Silence: Extraordinary Views of a Shutdown World (teNeues) Humans have long held a fascination with abandoned places; while this arguably reflects deeper feelings about the ephemerality of our own existence, the publishers of Cities of Silence find images of COVID-19 lockdown-affected urban environments calming and meditative. In either case, the imagery of cities with nary a soul in sight is surreal and compelling (and represents quite a feat in the speed at which this volume was compiled). Photographers both amateur and professional contribute to the work, which shows the effects of the pandemic in more than 60 cities across multiple continents. As the introduction notes, however, complete silence does not reign everywhere (indeed, it will surprise nobody to see a few people milling around Shibuya Crossing). Breakout sections…

Sean Zhang’s interest in design goes back a long time. ‘When I was about fifteen, I started to become deeply interested in the objects around me: a water bottle, shoes, an eraser,’ he recalls. ‘I began asking myself why they all looked the same and how I would want them to look instead. I started to draw all over my books, creating my own wonderland.’ He enrolled in high-school craft classes, which finally convinced him that he had found his lifetime passion: design. Born in Beijing — where he returns every year to visit his parents, who still live in their family home — Zhang felt the need to discover new horizons, an urge that led him to study in Italy and the United States and then work in Japan,…

The remote two-island nation of São Tomé and Principe off the coast of Gabon in Central Africa is as close as any of us will ever get to The Lost World — without, of course, the prehistoric animals and vicious apes. The landscapes are dramatic, almost untouched and boast enough endemic species to earn the pair of volcanic islands the moniker ‘the African Galapagos’. But there’s another association with the sciences: Principe Island’s link to Albert Einstein is largely unknown, but an experiment conducted on the island by British astronomers during the 1919 solar eclipse served to confirm the physicist’s theory of general relativity. While Einstein and his theories went on to achieve global fame, Principe Island retreated into obscurity. In 2011, South African tech billionaire Mark Shuttleworth visited Principe…

Karyn Lim Singaporean industrial designer Karyn Lim was prematurely repatriated during her postgraduate studies in Switzerland due to the pandemic. Back home and without access to the school’s facilities and prototyping equipment, and conscious of minimising noise so as not to disturb her neighbours during Singapore’s lockdown, Lim had to be resourceful during the design development and prototyping of her master’s project. The resulting Cloud collection comprises a coffee table and side tables or stools that are essentially functional blocks — generic geometric volumes made from printed birch plywood, but with softer edges that reveal the layers of the material. All of the pieces in the collection are available in custom sizes and colours. karynlim.com Caran d’Ache × Kengo Kuma Revered Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has teamed up with Swiss…

Since its founding almost 40 years ago, Kukje Gallery has been a tastemaker in the global arts industry, representing significant Korean and international artists such as Park Seo-Bo, Lee Ufan, Louise Bourgeois, Anish Kapoor, Haegue Yang and Jenny Holzer. Its three spaces (K1, K2 and K3) are located near Gyeongbok Palace in the historic Jongno district, a neighbourhood dotted with cafes, boutiques and cultural institutions including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and The Blue House, the official presidential residence. Now, after almost three years of planning, design and construction, the gallery has relaunched its three-storey K1 building with an updated cafe, restaurant and bar, in addition to a wellness and yoga centre and the gallery. While architect Sooran Kim of OURStudio is behind the building’s design and…

Morning As Ladies & Gentlemen Studio, Dylan Davis and Jean Lee have been making lighting, furniture and accessories in their Brooklyn studio since 2010, but they’ve been partners for even longer — long enough to navigate different habits and routines. Davis is the early riser. He gets up around seven and if the surf is good, he heads to the beach. ‘I try to use the morning to be meditative, so I enjoy surfing or jogging,’ he says. Lee is only half awake when Davis leaves. ‘I’m the type of person who needs coffee in the morning,’ she says. Midday & Afternoon The design workday often begins over homemade lunch, where Lee and Davis share thoughts and ideas that may lead to a brainstorming session. Davis describes their creative process…

Progressive yet nostalgic, stark yet emotionally charged — fashion designer Carl Jan Cruz’s aesthetic is more than a look, it’s a feeling. A soulful, tactile, ‘virtual autobiography’ of what it means to be a modern Filipino, to be precise. And just five years after establishing his eponymous line,this rising star is helping shape the world’s nebulous conception of contemporary Philippine fashion. ‘It’s always been interesting to define my aesthetic because it’s about building on references that are familiar, yet aren’t as available in the mainstream,’ says Cruz, who studied at the London College of Fashion and interned at several fashion houses including CELINE (circa Phoebe Philo) before returning to Manila to establish his eponymous brand. Cruz quickly began to turn heads with a conceptual approach that involves distilling vibrant local…

There are three things that Chicago-born, Milan-based designer Eric Egan believes characterise his work: the celebration of artisanal craft, comfort, and the creation of a space for people and their things that feels like their own. ‘When you look at some houses, it looks like the decorator was there and the client wasn’t. In my work, I try to make a space look like the client’s house and not like my house that they get to live in,’ says Egan, who is the founder of interior design firm L’Artigianato. An art collection can play an important part in this, and Egan often works with collectors, creating spaces that allow their collections as well as their personalities to shine. The characteristics that unite Egan’s oeuvre are clear in this five-bedroom home…