Innehållsförteckning för May 2024 från Wallpaper

NUOVA Since 2018, the Californian design studio Nuova has been working behind closed doors for some of the biggest names in luxury and tech. With their upcoming Milan Design Week exhibition, founders Rodrigo Caula and Enrico Pietra plan to make their public debut — and take visitors on a journey back to 1971. ‘We want to bring time travel to the world,’ announces Rodrigo Caula, who alongside Enrico Pietra makes up Venice Beach-based design studio Nuova. It’s a bold statement, but according to Caula, the pair claim to have some experience with the phenomenon: a residency at artist Andrea Zittel’s A-Z West in Joshua Tree transported them back to the 1970s. ‘It’s an alignment of every sense in one moment,’ Caula clarifies. ‘If you can curate everything to be period-correct…

For more than half a century, the Fornasetti brand has embodied artistic brilliance, seamlessly fusing its distinct visuals with boundless creativity. Gracing furniture, plates, candles and carpets, the instantly recognisable Fornasetti style eschews frivolity while maintaining both a distinctive decorative aesthetic and a sense of humour. ‘Imagination, fantasy and creativity are perpetual sources of nourishment for the soul and the spirit. It is a responsibility for those endowed with these gifts to share them generously,’ once said Piero Fornasetti, who founded the brand in 1940. His legacy is now carried on by his son Barnaba, the company’s artistic director since 1988. The brand’s philosophy, which centres on merging functionality with artistic flair, finds embodiment in Casa Fornasetti, a historic 19th-century home in Milan’s Città Studi quarter. It’s a location the…

Marrying traditional techniques with a rainbow of bold colours and fluid forms, Cindy Chao draws on her family’s architectural and artistic backgrounds to imbue her jewellery with a vibrant sculptural sensibility. ‘I have always seen jewellery as miniature pieces of architecture and sculpture,’ says the Taiwanese designer. ‘Organic structures, lighting, space and engineering all work together to bring out a unique vitality for each piece. They can be appreciated from different angles with infinite delight.’ Chao pays tribute to the work of her sculptor father with the naturalistic nature of her jewels. His philosophy – to bring a vivacity and realism to materials – is reflected in her undulating forms, in the leaves appearing to tremble on the vine and in carefully considered colours. ‘I am particularly sensitive and specific…

WallpaperSTORE* brings you the best design, lifestyle products and tech, all chosen by the Wallpaper* team of editors and tastemakers from the most exciting creatives and brands. Visit Wallpaper.com to access the best objects that money can buy ‘Yoruba Rose’ lamp by Ingo Maurer This month, we celebrate the lighting design icon that is Ingo Maurer (see page 158), whose love for experimentation and exploration resulted in a portfolio of poetic, whimsical, even funny creations that have stood the test of time. Maurer died in 2019, but his legacy lives on as the brand has since been acquired by Foscarini, meaning that weird and wonderful creations like the ‘Yoruba Rose’ lamp are still available to purchase. Featuring a lampshade made from Japanese paper specially treated to give it the consistency…

A new age of design Welcome to Wallpaper* issue 301. Our tricentenary successfully navigated, it feels a no less auspicious moment to be ushering in a new age of design – just in time to celebrate Salone del Mobile. Why a new age? Because a younger generation at the apex of forward-thinking furniture companies – Giulia Molteni and Maria Porro, for instance, or Carola Bestetti at Living Divani and Eleonore Cavalli at Visionnaire – has resulted in a broader scope being offered to designers commissioned to create work for the leading brands. With this deeper pool of references comes a slew of fresh ideas on how to live, work and play that reflect a wide spectrum of cultural, societal and environmental shifts. In the same questing spirit, we profile a…

Born as a symbolic manifestation of its users’ world and values, Monospinal, the HQ of a successful Japanese gaming company, was conceived by Tokyo-based studio Makoto Yamaguchi Design to house the firm’s core creative hub in the Japanese capital’s Taito-ku ward. The building’s distinctive vertical sawtooth outline, which gives it its striking spine-like appearance, makes a bold visual statement that sits well with Japan’s renowned animation aesthetics, but it gives little away of its internal goings-on. It was Yamaguchi’s blend of conceptual and practical architectural thinking that led to this final form. ‘The diagonal walls are designed to deflect noise from the elevated train tracks nearby and to softly invite light and wind into the building,’ he says. ‘That, and the fact that each layer is separated by a horizontal…

Gothenburg is Volvo Town. The Swedish manufacturer was founded here in 1927 to build cars and trucks. The latter business was hived off at the turn of the century, with the car-making division passing through Ford ownership to eventually arrive in the portfolio of Chinese conglomerate Geely. This history was once found at the Volvo Museum, a glassy box located 10km outside Gothenburg on Hisingen Island. That closed last December in preparation for the opening of World of Volvo, designed by Danish firm Henning Larsen. A circular building covering 22,000 sq m, World of Volvo is highly visible from the E6 highway that runs north-south through Sweden and Norway. Intended as a focal point for conferences, exhibitions and performances, as well as a place to house the company’s collection of…

‘I think I make all my work from a place of love, joy, leisure and celebration, and a desire to see positive images’ American artist Mickalene Thomas sensually subverts Black female representation throughout history in works that draw on an eclectic roster of references. Now, her major new touring exhibition, ‘Mickalene Thomas: All About Love’, featuring more than 80 works created over the last 20 years, nods to Thomas’ desire to imbue the sensual and sensitive figures she portrays with a joyful positivity, with a title referencing feminist author bell hooks’ canonic text of the same title. ‘I am constantly drawing inspiration from representations of intergenerational female empowerment, autobiography, memory and the tenets of Black feminist theoretical writings,’ says Thomas. ‘Authors and academics such as Kimberlé Crenshaw and Patricia Hill…

The Swiss architect Albert Frey spent 64 years in Palm Springs, helping to transform a desert retreat for movie stars into an expansive city that preserves its rich legacy of midcentury modernism. He designed the airport, city hall, stations for ski lifts, housing and much else. The second of the houses he built for himself is perched on a mountainside and now overlooks his first American work: the Aluminaire show house, newly transported from New York to a site adjoining the Palm Springs Art Museum. A gleaming cube of ribbed aluminium, Aluminaire House was designed in 1931 for the Architectural League of New York’s annual exhibition. Frey’s partner, A Lawrence Kocher, was editor of Architectural Record magazine and used his influence to secure donations of materials. Erected in ten days, Aluminaire…

SHEER GENIUS Hermès’ diaphanous attire for S/S24 is a clear winner for sultry summer days Hot and heady summer days inspired Véronique Nichanian’s latest Hermès menswear collection, which was infused with a mood of languid sensuality, as if her man for the season was traipsing back home after a day on the beach. When she first presented the collection on a fittingly sweltering Paris day last June, its gossamer layers – gauzy tailoring, sheer chequered shirting and scoop-neck vest tops – almost appeared misted from ocean spray. Nichanian’s design philosophy centres on a desire to make clothes that are as much a pleasure to wear as they are to look at, and she describes this season’s offering as ‘soft and sweet as a summer breeze’, making for a seductive array…

The skin and the brain have a constant dialogue through our nervous system. Based on this, Christine and Philippe d’Ornano (the brother and sister duo at the helm of Parisian beauty house Sisley) have been working on a secret project for just over ten years. And, this month, the results of their work have been revealed with the launch of Neuraé, a new skincare brand backed by neuroscience. ‘We became interested in the relationship between neuroscience and skincare when our scientists at Sisley suggested researching how the brain communicates with the skin,’ says Christine d’Ornano. ‘Being sad, tired, tense or stressed affects our skin, having an impact on wrinkles, firmness and radiance.’ Neuraé products have thus been developed to harness the power of inner emotions and improve well-being – which,…

Faye Toogood’s first visit to Poltrona Frau’s HQ in Tolentino left a lasting impression on the British designer, not only for the company’s rigorous approach to craftsmanship, but also for its incredible history. ‘They have this beautiful museum, where they keep an archive of the heritage pieces,’ she says. ‘I was blown away by some of the 1970s designs, which were really courageous in their form, approach and attitude.’ The Italian furniture brand will unveil a new collaboration with Toogood during this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan. Comprising furniture and interior accessories, the collaboration is part of Poltrona Frau’s Imagine collection, and marks Toogood’s debut in leather and upholstered forms. ‘We’ve dedicated this collection to the concept of imagination, a notion close to our hearts,’ says Poltrona Frau CEO,…

Hailing from Emilia-Romagna, a corner of Italy devoted to the fabled director Federico Fellini, Alberto Biagetti and Laura Baldassari, of Atelier Biagetti, understand the seriousness of irony. During this year’s Salone del Mobile, they will prove this with their Wearable Casa Collection for luxury label MCM, curated by Maria Cristina Didero, and on view in the 17th-century Palazzo Cusani. The brand, explains Sung-Joo Kim, MCM’s chairman and chief visionary officer, decided to take part in Milan Design Week for the first time, and not solely because it’s the most cutting-edge design event in the world and a real indicator of emerging consumer lifestyle. The reason, she adds, also has to do with MCM’s origins. ‘It’s a German-born luxury fashion brand founded in 1976, when Munich was a global cultural and…

Known for his use of light, material and geometric shapes, the work of Estonian-born American architect Louis Kahn was little recognised through much of his early career, but would become much-admired later in life and after his death in 1974. It resulted in a rare, for its time, global output and a series of acclaimed masterpieces, such as the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Kimbell Art Museum, National Assembly in Bangladesh, Phillips Exeter Academy library and dining hall, and Yale University Art Gallery. Kahn deftly combined modernity with monumentality, taking inspiration from the centuries-old structures of Greece and Egypt. His skilful use of concrete, wood, steel and glass drew on the natural imperfections and idiosyncrasies of each material, and he created a dazzling choreography between light and shadow within his…

Ten years after the Aman Group’s first urban resort opened in Tokyo in 2014, the city has welcomed the inaugural hotel of the group’s new standalone brand Janu. ‘It has been a decade since we opened Aman Tokyo, so launching the first Janu hotel in the same city is a full circle moment,’ says Vladislav Doronin, the group’s chairman and CEO. He is a big fan of the city. ‘Tokyo holds a special place in my heart – its incredible cuisine, attentive service and culture make it one of the best cities in the world.’ With inbound visitor numbers back to pre-Covid levels and a loyal local Aman following, it makes sense that the group has chosen to unveil a new direction in Japan’s capital. But how are the two…

High jewellery, undercut with a rich heritage, is given a modern twist when styled with denim. Here, Van Cleef & Arpels jewels, both archival and current, ably demonstrate the timeless outcome in a marriage of the old and new. It is a coupling that Van Cleef & Arpels cultivates with its Heritage collection. Composed of almost 200 pieces that have been sourced at auctions or through private collectors, the pieces, dating from between 1920-1990, are meticulously examined and authenticated before being accepted. The Van Cleef & Arpels team, meanwhile, constantly on the lookout for archival pieces to join the collection, frequent trade fairs and auctions in an ongoing bid to find historical jewels that offer a taste of the stylistic codes of every decade, from the striking lines of the…