Icon - August 2016

Lifestyle Architecture Design
Olympic legacy
Will architecture win in Rio?
PLUS
BIGs sinuous
Serpentine
Pavilion
Schumacher
slams the Venice
Biennale
158
ISSUE 158
AUGUST
2016
AUGUST 2016
UK 5.00
EUR 9.99
USA $15.99
Googles Project
Ara finally
arrives
Hippy hi-tech:
Fosters new
Maggies
Centre
00 - COVER-Aug-FINAL2-AW.indd 2
Ilse Crawford:
the power of
the individual
BD Barcelonas
bold past and
bright future
16/06/2016 17:45
e
v
a
S
58%
Get 12 issues of
Icon for only 24.99
Find inspiration from the objects and architecture
of everyday life with a subscription to Icon.
From innovative tech and fashion, to cities
pushing up beautiful skylines, Icon gives you
design worth knowing in every issue.
To subscribe visit:
iconsubscriptions.com/augad16
or call 01293 312156 quoting code augad16
Overseas prices:
Europe 96; rest of world 143
ICONEYE.COM
158-ICON HOUSE ADVERT.indd 26
16/06/2016 16:58
subscribe
Exclusive interviews, reports from

around the world, and objects of desire
158-ICON HOUSE ADVERT.indd 27
16/06/2016 16:58
FRONT
Contents
LIFE
STYLE
CLERKENWELL DESIGN
WEEK A watch inspired
by Issey Miyake, Benjamin
Huberts wheelchair, Bolons
couture line and a driverless
car, without the car all
launched at the central
London festival in May
28
KIT Googles long-awaited

modular smartphone finally
makes it to the developers
35
DESTINATION BIGs pixelly

Serpentine Pavilion launches
36
RESTAURANT An inside-out
eatery in west London
41
HOTEL Patricia Urquiolas

energetic offering in Milan
42
RETAIL A science-fiction
interior for Istanbuls
fashionistas
45
NEIGHBOURHOOD The
impact of a design island on
Nantes creative industries
46
AUGUST 2016
00-Contents-AW_DR.indd 19
ARCHI
TECTURE
DESIGN
FEATURE The Rio Olympics
is an opportunity wasted,
argues Will Henley
54
RESIDENTIAL A Parisian
social housing block with an
elegant Venetian facade
62
OFFICE Spatial alchemy

in aid of innovation at
Londons Here East
64
PUBLIC Norman Fosters

intimate Maggies Centre in
Manchester echoes the early
days of his career
70
PUBLIC Alvaro Sizas refined

red brick theatre in Catalonia
proves his mastery once again
FEATURE Forty years of

avant-garde design at
BD Barcelona
88
LIGHTING Foscarinis
eclectic offering
97
KITCHEN AND BATHROOM

Behind the scenes at the
Caesarstone factory
100
75
FURNITURE Konstantin Grcic

hacks at Vitras refined image
105
109
ICON Joo Batista Vilanovas

modernist architecture school
in So Paulo was designed
toshock
78
ICON Graphic designer Aloisio

Magalhes defined Rios
1960s cultural identity
Q&A Ilse Crawford: from
interiors to product design
110
Q&A Rio de Janeiros mayor

on securing an Olympic legacy
for the famous city
80
REVIEW Patrik Schumacher

slams this Venice Biennale
126
IDEAS Might designers

one day be extinct?
128
RETHINK Rome has been

resting on its laurels
129
OBSESSION Two writers on

their bittersweet love affair
130
019
16/06/2016 17:07
FRONT
Leader
editorial
advertising
editor
commercial manager
James McLachlan
Tim Price
deputy editor
display sales executive
John Jervis
Michael Yap
senior editor
italian office
Debika Ray
Claudia Micheloni
+39 (0)342 730 3513
michelonic@gmail.com
junior editor
Peter Smisek
architecture correspondent
Douglas Murphy
general
contributing editors
publishing director
Anna Bates
Crystal Bennes
Daniel Charny
Edwin Heathcote
Sam Jacob
Will Wiles
Julian Worrall
Liam Young
Justin Levett
publishing & events director
Daren Newton
directors
Richard Morey, Mike Dynan

Lee Newton
publishing assistant
product editor
Chloe Wilson
Zara White
circulation & marketing

manager
sub editor
Nick Jones
design
art director
Anja Wohlstrm
designer
Simon Khn
Eye
chief operating officer
James McLachlan
Editor
Mark Kenton
senior marketing manager
Sarah Potter
senior marketing executive
Filiz Dede
marketing executive
Rebecca Roe
contact
production
production manager
Nicola Merry
production assistant
Diane Allitt
design + production
Charlotte Monnoyer
Jess Jilka
Chris Jennings
Charlie Prentice
Giada Peri
Christian Muhika
Justin Clarke
studio manager
IMAGE: VIEW PICTURES
Elliott Prentice
production director
Icon is published monthly by

Media 10 Limited
Crown House
151 High Road
Loughton
IG10 4LF
United Kingdom
phone: +44 20 3225 5200
fax: +44 20 3225 5201
sales@icon-magazine.co.uk
subscriptions@icon-magazine.co.uk
iconeye.com
@iconeye
facebook.com/iconeye
Tim Garwood
studio director
Lee Moore
syndication manager
Professional Publishers
Association
james.mclachlan@icon-magazine.co.uk
Kerry Garwood
AUGUST 2016
00-Leader-AW.indd 21
ince the 2004 Athens Olympics, the

fundamental question hanging over any
Games concerns legacy. With its crumbling
white-elephant stadiums and weed-strewn
concrete, the Greek city has become shorthand for
lack of forethought and waste. Similarly, Beijings
astonishing Birds Nest stadium lies empty. Given
these gloomy precedents its little wonder Londons
austerity Olympics was all but defined by legacyrelated handwringing. And, despite delivering less
housing than initially promised, it looks the most
assured of recent times. Soon the world will focus
on Rio de Janeiros Olympics. Mayor Eduardo Paes,
interviewed on page 80, is upbeat about hosting
the greatest show on earth, but no amount of tubthumping can drown out the background noise of
political scandal, tragic accidents and health scares.
This months cover story suggests opportunities
are being lost. The much-heralded metro system
extension feels like the proverbial finger in the
dam when you consider Rios traffic ranks among
the worst in the world. Furthermore, most of the
investment seems destined to entrench social
divisions in an already fractured society. Rios
immediate hope lies in the Olympics adaptive
architecture the handball arena, which will
transform into four schools, being a prime example.
But if the Olympic dream means anything beyond
athletics, the future frameworks on which bids
are judged must push harder for visionary urban
thinking. Otherwise the parade of white elephants
will continue to grow.
021
16/06/2016 14:54
FRONT
Friends
5
4
WILLIAM HENLEY (1) from Metro

Arquitetos, designers of a pavilion for this
years Olympics, explores what all this new
infrastructure means for Rio de Janeiro.
BORJA BONAQUE (2) pulled off an
Olympian feat, making our beautiful cover
on a tight deadline: I found it attractive to
make a Brazilian composition, the greens
and yellows, its not a palette I use often.
For our interviews, we asked LAUREN
CROW (3) to illustrate Rios mayor and
Ilse Crawford. Eduardo Paess personality,
notoriety and optimism appear to be almost
as big as the Olympic project itself, she adds.

Closer to home, photographer
CAMILLE DRONNE (4) joined Icons John
Jervis to discover why her hometown is one
of the most dynamic in France, recalling
the strangest thing was a when a young
waitress fainted behind us during lunch.
To top it all off, PATRIK SCHUMACHER
(5), head of Zaha Hadid Architects, shares
his thoughts on this years Venice Biennale.
Did anyone expect him to be impressed?
022
00-FRONT-FRIENDS_SK_JJ.indd 22
ON THE COVER
Artwork by
Borja Bonaque
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 17:07
FRONT
Scene
PARIS UGLY AS LONDON
Pariss mayor Anne Hidalgo
unveiled a redesign of the
citys 1860s Hausmannian
kiosks, hoping the new
practical and comfortable
stands would win over the
citys aesthetes. The locals,
however, want little to do
with the sardine cans and
recycling bins, some accusing
the mayor of attempting to
make their city as ugly as
London. After the furore, the
mayors deputy Bruno Julliard
announced the designs are
not definitive. The citys
makeover of its 360 kiosks is
budgeted at 50 million.
LAGOS COLLAPSE The

photogenic Silver Lionwinning Makoko floating
school in Lagos by Koolhaas
alumnus Kunl Adeyemi has
collapsed after heavy rain.
Adeyemis firm NL insists
the building had already been
decommissioned after three
years of intensive use. The
schools principal countered
that he only used the facility
for a few months before
deciding it was unsafe. While
some architects wondered if
theyd been taken in by savvy
PR, Adeyemi claims a stronger
version of the floating school
is currently in the works.
IKEA BAG Ikeas iconic
yellow and blue Frakta bag
has been redesigned by Rolf
and Mette Hay. The Hay bag
will feature white and green
woven fabric and dark-green
straps. Hay has also designed
a range of other products
for the Swedish company,
including a table, a desk, a
table lamp, a bench and a
chair all should be released
between now and 2017. Other
designers launching new
products at Ikea next year
include Piet Hein Eek and
Tom Dixon.
SWEDEN KINGS SPEECH

The 70-year-old king of
Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf,
whose palace stands across
from the site of the proposed
Nobel Institute by David
Chipperfield, complained that
the new building needent
have this huge bulk. Since the
design was first revealed in
2014, its height has already
been reduced by 4.5m.
Despite his best efforts,
Carl XVI Gustafs comments
fall short of the monstrous
carbuncle standard set by the
UKs Prince Charles in 1984.
LDF NO GOLF The crazed
plan to build a crazy mini-golf
course on Trafalgar Square for
the London Design Festival,
designed by a creative cohort
led by Paul Smith, will not
go ahead. The bold initiative
fell almost 100,000 short
of its 120,000 Kickstarter
goal. Always popular, LDF
installations on Trafalgar
Square have usually been
financed by corporate
sponsors, begging the
question as to why the
design establishment opted
for le dernier cri in financial
models this time round, rather
sticking to what they know.
024
00-SCENE-AUG_NJ.indd 24
PLAGIARISM BUSY Aldi

angered purists after a pair
of Eiffel chairs, suspiciously
similar to the 340 DSW
Eames Plastic Chair, went on
sale for 39.99. Meanwhile,
Ikea and Emeco reached an
out-of-court settlement over
an alleged copy of the latters
20-06 chair by Norman
Foster. Finally, Alejandro
Zaera-Polo, the former head
of Princetons architecture
school, made redundant
after not fully referencing a
polemical essay for the 2014
Venice Architecture Biennale,
is now suing the university for
libel and breach of contract.
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 09:50
IMAGE: IWAN BAAN
LIFE
STYLE
Kit Home Travel
Summer has arrived in London in the shape of Bjarke Ingelss SERPENTINE PAVILION
(page 36), a sinuous stack of hollow prisms twisting harmoniously towards the sky. We
also look at some of CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEKS best offerings (pages 2832)
AUGUST 2016
00-Openers.indd 27
027
16/06/2016 15:51
CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK / WATCH
Hach
watch
Clerkenwell Design Week saw the launch of Objests
first watch, which combines a minimalist form with an
intricate hatched dial inspired by Issey Miyake
Hach is defined by its

rounded metal case,
numberless dial and
patterned face
FOUNDED IN 2014, London-based

design studio Objest is a relative
newcomer, but one that has already
collaborated with clients ranging from
Panasonic to Conran. Now, the designers
have launched their latest product, a
minimalist watch named Hach.
We work a lot in other sectors, says
Objests Jared Mankelow, explaining
that the studios experience in colours,
materials, finishes and storytelling
informed Hachs design. We often look
at architecture, along with the folding,
scoring and pleating structures of Issey
Miyake, as sources of inspiration.
The result is a unisex watch with a
rounded metal case, internally concealed
lugs and a numberless dial. We wanted

to add structure, but also tell a story
of where the 12 numbers would lie,
Mankelow says. Another unique feature
is Objests reinterpretation of the classic
proportions of the hands. According to
Mankelow, The hour hand is two-thirds
the length of the minute hand. Weve
taken this one step further by making
the tail of the second hand one third the
length of the minute hand.
The colour schemes are fairly neutral
but nevertheless fashionable think
gold and off-white, for instance, or the
architects classic black-on-black. All in
all, a watch well designed.
objest.com
028
01-LIFESTYLE-Watch-AW_NJ.indd 28
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 13:48
CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK / FLOORING
Bolon By You
Swedish manufacturer Bolons latest line of
woven vinyl tiles allows designers to stamp their
own identity on flooring
LEFT The Dot

pattern with black
warp (vertical) and
Peacock Green weft
(horizontal)
RIGHT The Stripe
pattern with black
warp and Peach
Orange weft
AUGUST 2016
01-LIFESTYLE-BOLON_NJ.indd 29
ITS HARD TO believe that anyone

could create an aspirational lifestyle
brand out of something as prosaic as
flooring, but Marie and Annica Eklund,
the third generation to run Swedish
company Bolon, have done just that. The
sisters, whose grandfather founded the
company in 1949, took over the business
in 2003, when its primary output was
camping mats. Using their experience
and interest in the fashion industry, they
have rebranded its woven vinyl flooring
tiles as high-end design products,
collaborating with such big names as
Giorgio Armani, Jaime Hayon, Tom
Dixon, Jean Nouvel and Giulio Cappellini.
The latest collection, Bolon By You
shown at the firms London showroom
during Clerkenwell Design Week is
its couture line. Four warp and 12
weft colours can be woven together
in six different patterns, inspired by

lace, Mediterranean tiles and more,
creating a vast range of made-to-order
designs. Investment in new machinery
has ensured quicker, more flexible
turnaround times. We wanted to
offer many more designs and colours
so architects and designers would be
able to add their own identity to their
projects, Annica says.
A branding and photography
campaign by London-based designers
Doshi Levien demonstrates the
products potential as a sculptural,
spatial material, with different
incarnations that can be mixed and
matched: Its opened up a lot of
inspiration for designers and architects
to put Bolon in places they couldnt see
it in before, says Marie.
bolon.com
029
16/06/2016 09:51
CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK / WHEELCHAIR

LEFT The seat and
foot bay are both
customisable
BELOW The seat
is 3D-printed from
thermoplastic
polyurethane
GO wheelchair
Benjamin Hubert combines his expertise as a furniture
designer with 3D-printing technology to produce
the first mass-customisable wheelchair
WE WORK WITH big brands such as
Samsung or Braun, but we also design
furniture, so we always look at how we
can combine these skills, and at what
problems we could tackle, explains
Benjamin Hubert as he discusses the
GO wheelchair, launched at Clerkenwell
Design Week. Its the first time that
emergent technology such as 3D printing
has been used for this purpose, he adds.
The two-year-long process included
an initial six months of exploration
that brought together and consulted a
number of wheelchair users and NHS
healthcare professionals in order to
find out about the various pain points
of current models. The wheelchair is
actually an extension of the human body
rather than a vehicle, Hubert points out.
With this in mind, comfort and individual
adaptability became a major driver of
the design.
Despite the project still being in
prototype stage, the hope is that GO
could become largely mass-produced
the seat and the footrest are the only
elements for which customisation is
required. For now, Hubert intends to
focus his energy on a high-performance
manual model. The process now is
largely out of our hands, but it would be
good to see if even some elements of our
research were taken up more widely.
layerdesign.com
AUGUST 2016
01-LIFESTYLE-Wheelchair-AW_NJ.indd 31
031
15/06/2016 17:39
CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK / TRANSPORT
Renault Oura
concept car
Central Saint Martins students
have designed a driverless car that
ditches most of the car altogether
IN YEARS TO come, people may look
back at this era of motorised transport
with the same horror as we do medicinal
leeches. In an increasingly automated
world, placing humans in sole control of
over three tonnes of steel seems grossly
irresponsible. Eliminating the people
from the equation is not only sensible
but inevitable. The promise of accidentfree motoring means car designers are
presented with a unique opportunity to
reinvent, if not the wheel, then the form
it propels.
This was the challenge laid down
by Renault to the industrial design
masters students of Central Saint
Martins. Nine teams were invited to
design a driverless car for the French
automotive giant, with the winner
announced at Clerkenwell Design
Week. The winning entry, Renault
Oura, designed by Lily Saporta Tagiuri,
Evgeniya Chernykh and Zhenyou Gao,
jettisons the traditional car form in
favour of a vehicular suit.
According to the students, Oura
was inspired by the image of a ballet
dancer lifting their partner, with the
rider supported by a steel, carbon fibre
and silicon structure. Instead of wheels,
the rider zooms through the city on
light-emitting orbs. Navigation, in-suit
entertainment and sound system are
incorporated into a Jetson-style VR
helmet. The projects irony is that in
removing the barrier between human
and road, the students have created
the ultimate drivers car.
group.renault.com
LEFT The rider is
supported by a
structure made from
steel, carbon fibre
and silicon that is
propelled by lightemitting orbs
032
01-LIFESTYLE-TRANSPORT-RENAULT-AW_NJ.indd 32
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 13:50
LIFESTYLE / TECH
TOP Different
modules proposed
for Project Ara
BELOW A possible
result of the mobiles
customisation
Project Ara
Three years after it was first announced,
Googles modular smartphone is set to be
released to developers
GOOGLES ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
and Projects group (ATAP) is the
companys in-house incubator for
some of the companys most exciting
ventures, including gesture-recognition
software and smart textiles. At the end
of May, after a year of delay, the tech
giant finally announced that working
prototypes of another ATAP project,
the long-awaited Ara modular mobile
phone, will be available to developers
this autumn.
The project was first announced in
2013 and promised customisation to
the phones users as well as reducing
e-waste the average smartphone has
an expected lifespan of only 4.6 years.
AUGUST 2016
01-LIFESTYLE-Google project-SK_NJ.indd 35
Similarly, the phone was meant to be

available to a wider range of consumers,
with the basic version costing around
$50. But whether Ara will become
another plaything for the relatively
well-off remains to be seen.
On the modularity front, San Francisco
design studio Branch, who worked on
Ara alongside NewDealDesign, insist
that this is the first of its kind to deliver
on its promise. Heres hoping that a truly
open ecosystem, with a multitude of
different modules cameras, batteries,
memory, sensors and so on, not just
different colours will be allowed to
thrive under Googles watchful eye.
projectara.com
035
16/06/2016 16:34
LIFESTYLE / DESTINATION
Serpentine Pavilion
THE MORNING SUN, unexpected but

undoubtedly welcome, merely added
to the elegiac atmosphere surrounding
the opening of BIGs twisting, boxy
Serpentine Pavilion in Londons Hyde
Park. Squatting on pristine turf with
one side bulging like a portly banker who
had finally exhaled, it is the 16th and the
last to be commissioned by Serpentine
Gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones.
Stepping down after 25 years, she paid
tribute to Zaha Hadid, who she credited
with helping get the whole project off
the ground. Without Zaha there would
be no Serpentine Pavilion. End of an era
overstates it somewhat, but amid the
general frivolity it is easy to overlook just
how embedded in the design calendar
the pavilions have become. For her
swansong, Peyton-Jones expanded the
blueprint by adding a strange collection
of summer houses set opposite Queen
Carolines Temple. It proves a misstep.
Despite the array of talent on display
Asif Khan, Kunl Adeyemi, Frank
Barkow, Regine Leibinger and Yona
Friedman all had a go the appendage
feels ungainly. As Khan admitted on the
day, William Kents enigmatic classical
building doesnt offer much to go on.
The British architect created an ethereal
arrangement of white staves and
mirrored steel platforms in response.
Friedmans wiry Space Chain, however,
feels like it belongs in a white-walled
gallery and is lost against the leafy
backdrop. It is Adeyemis effort an
inverse replica made from sandstone
that offers the strongest answer.
But it is BIGs unzipped wall
(trousers, surely) that owns the show.
The pixelly structure, comprising a
series of hollow fibreglass boxes bolted
together with rudimentary vigour,
appears almost ecclesiastical when
approached from the main entrance. The
effect is heightened once inside, with
the structure tapering to a point that
frames the cupola of the Serpentine
Gallery. At the opening, Bjarke Ingels
IMAGE: IWAAN BAAN
Bjarke Ingels finds an rigorous solution

to the annual commission by unzipping
the humble brick wall
036
01-LIFESTYLE-Serpentine_DR_NJ.indd 36
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 09:58
AUGUST 2016
037
16/06/2016 09:58
IMAGES: IWAAN BAAN
LIFESTYLE / DESTINATION
said he was interested in creating

complexity using simple, repeating
forms, and the pavilions steady
transition from opaque to transparent is
indeed a clever visual trick. Rather selfconsciously, the diminutive Dane listed
the lowly brick wall and modular shelving
as inspirations and has extracted some
drama from these prosaic vessels.
An almost pathological fear of
indifference led previous practices to
weird out, as with Smiljan Radis beanon-stilts, or to take the entertainment
factor too seriously, such as SelgasCano
with its leaky psychedelic caterpillar.
Sadly, Ingelss sense of adventure,
namely allowing visitors to climb the
exterior walls, was swiftly squashed by
the powers that be, who insisted a silver
cord (the architectural equivalent of
the velvet rope) be installed to prevent
people from scaling the summit. Still,
there is enough intrigue in the form
and materials to supply Instagram,
Facebook et al with a summer of likes.
The less social media-minded will find it
a pleasant place to have a coffee.
serpentinegalleries.org
AUGUST 2016
TOP The pavilion

frames the cupola
of the Serpentine
Gallery
CLOCKWISE FROM
MIDDLE LEFT
A misstep the four
summer houses, by
Asif Khan, Barkow

Leibinger, Kunle
Adeyemi and Yona
Friedman
039
16/06/2016 09:59
LIFESTYLE / RESTAURANT
Ours,
London
Just opened in upmarket Kensington, Ours is the latest
incarnation of an old warehouse, and comes complete with
a Norman Foster catwalk
IMAGES: GARY ESPRIT
KENSINGTON EATERY OURS is the

latest offering from Noma alumnus
Tom Sellers. Its space was formerly
occupied by another restaurant, The
Collection a place to see and be seen
among Londons fashionistas that
came complete with a Norman Fosterdesigned glass catwalk, and a Tom Dixon
interior. For this new incarnation, design
studio Edwards McCoy has given the
space a more relaxed, down-to earth
feel. The brief was to create space
that gave the feeling of dining outside,
a space that wasnt too formal, says
designer Sally Anne McCoy. Its more
of a backdrop for the inspirational food
thats being served.
The retained catwalk, which serves

as an entrance to the restaurant, is
somewhat jarring call it a palate
cleanser but does contribute a sense
of occasion. Inside, the dining area stays
faithful to the brief. Three trees have
been brought in and walls are covered
in trailing plants, while the former
warehouses large windows flood the
double-height space with light. The
colour scheme consists of subdued
earthy tones, while polished brass
accents and velvet upholstering add a
touch of glamour, without distracting
from the casual atmosphere no mean
feat in this part of the city.
restaurant-ours.com
Trees and trailing

plants help to
give the feeling of
outdoor dining
AUGUST 2016
01-LIFESTYLE-Restaurant-SK_JJ_NJ.indd 41
041
15/06/2016 17:40
LIFESTYLE / HOTEL
Room Mate Giulia
IMAGES: CREDIT CREDIT
Patricia Urquiolas Milan hotel combines

the citys typical rigour with a relaxed and
fun atmosphere
042
01-LIFESTYLE-HOTEL-URQUIOLA-SK_NJ.indd 42
ICONEYE.COM
15/06/2016 17:42
MILANS LATEST DESIGN hotel, Room

Mate Giulia, is discreetly tucked behind
the citys Piazza del Duomo in one of
the blocks that comprises the famed
Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle II. Yet,
unlike these landmarks, the hotels
atmosphere is anything but formal.
Instead it tries to capture the citys
energy and identity without becoming
too serious.
Owing to the buildings former
function as bank offices, the rooms
did not have standard dimensions or
layouts. We took advantage of this to
create different atmospheres, explains
designer Patricia Urquiola, noting the
variation in colour schemes used for
different types of room. Each time a
dooropens its a surprise.
And a pleasant surprise it is. Our aim

was to make guests feel at home, says
the Spanish-born designer. The lobby is
just spacious enough, asymmetrical, and
the furnishings, from patterned rugs
to comfortable armchairs and sofas,
exude an informal domestic charm, held
together by Urquiolas command of
forms, colour and texture.
Throughout the building, photographs,
watercolours and illustrations by
Milanese artists (either by birth of
adoption, as the designer notes)
channel the citys spirit. Milans design
scene has always thrived on cacophony,
but rarely has it been so effortlessly
orchestrated into something so fun.
room-matehotels.com
patriciaurquiola.com
LEFT The boldly

coloured rooms
include a bespoke
metal clothing
system rather than a
traditional wardrobe
RIGHT A grid motif
is a recurring theme
throughout the hotel
AUGUST 2016
01-LIFESTYLE-HOTEL-URQUIOLA-SK_NJ.indd 43
043
15/06/2016 17:42
LIFESTYLE / RETAIL
LEFT AND BELOW

The cocoon-like space
is left bare apart
from a few select
pieces of furniture
IMAGE: MOVIE POSTER IMAGE ART
BOTTOM The clinical

interiors of 2001: A
Space Odyssey were
a key inspiration
Viyolet showroom,
Istanbul
Turkish studio Ofist isolates a high-end fashion
showroom from its messy urban surroundings by
wrapping the interior in continuous white bands
LOCATED IN NIANTAI, a north
Istanbul neighbourhood dedicated
to fashion wholesale, the Viyolet
showroom provides a discreet retail
space for Turkeys premier readyto-wear brand. Like many of the
surrounding retailers, Viyolets space is
sited above the busy, narrow streets.
Unlike them, however, the floor-to-ceiling
windows are left free of mannequins
sporting the latest collection.
Instead, Yasemin Arpa and
Sabahattin Emir of architecture studio
Ofist have wrapped the interior in
abstract white bands. The duo have
integrated the storage and service
spaces outside this inverted cocoon,
leaving the interior space bare save for
AUGUST 2016
01-LIFESTYLE-Retail-AW._NJ.indd 45
a few select pieces of furniture: bold

pendant lights, a Piero Lissoni seat and
Philippe Starck office chair, both by
Kartell, and a coffee table and clothes
rack designed by themselves.
A prime inspiration was the clinical,
otherworldly interiors of the spaceships
in Stanley Kubricks 2001: A Space
Odyssey. When we showed the sketch
proposal to the client, they were
excited but they had initial doubts, the
architects admit. Viyolets showroom
stands disconnected from its context:
it cleverly absorbs all the necessary
functions within its walls, while creating
a space in which the fashion can become
the sole focus.
ofist.com
045
16/06/2016 12:50
LIFESTYLE / DESIGN NEIGHBOURHOOD
Lle de Nantes
A former wasteland in the middle of the Loire river is
now central to the Breton citys creative reputation.
Words by John Jervis. Photography by Camille Dronne
AT FIRST SIGHT, Nantes has it all the
third fastest growing economy in France,
multiple awards for sustainability,
innovation and livability, and a beautiful
centre on the north bank of the
Loire little scarred by war, roads or
megaprojects. Its just two hours from
Paris by TGV; its airport serves around
90 destinations. And, to cap it all, the
Breton city has its own elegant version
of Le Corbusiers Unit dHabitation.
The ports and shipyards suffered

a precipitous decline in the 1970s,
but this particular tale of industrial
malaise comes with a twist. Nantes, a
notoriously conservative city since its
days as the centre of Frances slave
trade, has now been firmly under
socialist control for almost 30 years,
during which time its fortunes have
risen from the rust. Thanks to political
stability and astute investment, it is
046
01-LIFESTYLE-Nantes-AW_JJ_DR_NJ.indd 46
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 13:55
NANTES
Palais
de justice
Lo
i
re
QUARTIER DE
LA CREATION
Les Machines
de lle
Hangar
bananes
le de Nantes
Solilab
CLOCKWISE FROM
OPPOSITE Daniel
Burens Rings (2007)
on the Quai des
Antilles; fish being
fabricated for
the launch of the
Voyages Nantes
in Hangar 32; chairs
being readied for an
event atSolilab
firmly re-established as a leading centre

for service and manufacturing industries
Airbus is justone star player.
And there has been sustained
financing for culture, making Nantes
an attractive place for inhabitants
and visitors alike. In 1990, the Allumes
festival launched under Jean Blaise, then
Le Lieu Unique, an arts centre, club and
hammam in the old Lu biscuit factory,
in 2000. An arts programme, Estuaire,
followed in 2007, with artists, including
Daniel Burin and Huang Yong-Ping,
commissioned to create installations
following the Loire down to Saint-Nazaire.
Finally, in 2012, the annual Voyage
AUGUST 2016
Nantes festival was devised to provide a

focus for cultural tourism. This explosion
of activity kicks off for two months
every July, with events and interventions
scattered around a painted green line
weaving along the citys pavements.
Yet an enormous challenge still
awaits. Facing the city centre, in the
middle of the Loire, is the 337-hectare
le de Nantes, home to the citys old
shipyards, ports, warehousing, rail freight
and industry. The east of the island was
intelligently developed in the 1970s,
following neighbourhood models of the
time: slab housing, schools, offices, a
shopping mall. Much of the western end,
however, remains an enticing wasteland

of decaying structures, from empty
wholesale markets to discarded railway
infrastructure. Exploited wisely, there
is a real possibility that Nantes can be
more than just another competitor: the
ambition is to make the city a European
leader in tech and design.
Progress is gradual and reactive
the word organic comes up more than
once allowing financial or political
storms to be weathered, but the plan
is to double the islands population to
40,000, generating 15,000 jobs. To
this end, new roads and tram routes
will punch through the swaths of
047
16/06/2016 13:55
abandoned rail embankments down to

the old port and industrial areas on the
south bank, where the citys hospitals
will be relocated in parkland. Numerous
offices and apartment developments
are complete in the centre Jean
Nouvels grand, low-slung Palais de
Justice opened in 2000 yet it is the
creative industries that are seen as vital
in engineering both identity and growth.
Among the earliest interventions
was the unlikely Machines de lle: the
renovation of a shipbuilding workshop in
2007 to accommodate the construction
of a giant 48-tonne mechanical elephant
inspired by Jules Verne. Now housed
under the workshops eaves, it can take
50 people on walks round the island, and
occasionally beyond, spraying water as it
goes. An outsized carousel followed, and
a treetop walkway is under construction,
its final location yet to be decided.
The Machines are effective as
both tourist draw and calling card
for Nantes, but the landscaping of
the embankments has proved equally
important. A new pedestrian bridge
draws crowds at weekends and evenings
to relax in gardens layered around the
old launching ramps. Tracks have been
left in situ, embedded in walkways as
industrial remnants, while two massive,
squat cranes, one painted yellow,
tower overhead there has been no
attempt to over-sanitise. One of the

most expressive installations from the
Estuaire project, Daniel Burens Rings, is
spread out along the embankment, each
ring framing a view across the Loire.
And, every summer during the Voyage
festival, La Cantine pops up, a huge,
open bar with 300 seats, ptanque,
table football and a skatepark, with
a 900sq m organic garden alongside
providing all the necessary salad.
But the aspiration is not to create
a holiday camp; the attitude to the
creative industries is hard-edged.
Smaller studios have been allocated a
cluster of warehouses on the western tip
of the island. One, Karting, is a series of
40 transportable boxes, each rented at a
subsidised rate, located within a massive
hangar that once housed a karting track.
Alongside is Solilab, a series of spaces
048
hosting offices or workshops for social

enterprises, many involved in recycling
and upcycling. These interventions are
not eye-candy for passing hipsters: there
are security keypads on entrances, and
few artisans or artists in evidence. The
aim is to exploit the temporary surplus of
brownfield sites on the island to nurture
firms that may expand and occupy
permanent developments in future.
Higher education is also key. The
School of Architecture relocated to a
new Quartier de la Creation back in
2009, emphasising accessibility in its
assertive concrete home: polycarbonate
walls roll back to reveal a triple-height
space that is open to the public, as
is a sloping ramp leading to the roof.
Construction is underway to transform
the nearby Alstom warehouses into an
cole des Beaux Arts, retaining frames
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 13:55
The attitude to the creative industries is hard-edged
but replacing walls with transparent

cladding to ensure permeability.
Traditional crafts do have a foothold.
A one-storey brick building houses
the workshop of Patrice Blanc, one of
Nantes premier guitar-makers, while
fish statues are being carved for this
years Voyage as we pass attractively
dishevelled warehouses on an adjoining
embankment. Sadly, the huge 8,000sqm
Hangar Bananes next door, with its
smart 1940s typography, is dominated
by mediocre bars, clubs, restaurants and
a somewhat soulless art space. Artisans
and artists are largely left to fend for
themselves in this top-down world.
Among those lost along the way has
been Mtalobil, design engineers who
were among the first to squat Blockhaus
DY10, a German bunker, back in the days
of punks and dogs in the 1990s. The
AUGUST 2016
firm has outgrown these surroundings,

moving to an industrial park out of town
with room for fabrication and storage,
but the vibe in the bunkers concrete
studios has shifted from underground
to alternative, with designers, architects
and jewellers in situ. Another nearby
bunker was cleaned up in 2011, perhaps
a little too vigorously, and converted into
Fabrique, a cafe and performance space
with a metal tower of recording studios
above and a gleaming, faceted 1,200seat concert venue next door.
Its not all plain sailing. Despite
protracted efforts, its still not possible
to walk round the entirety of the islands
embankments, while the long-awaited
development of an old sugar-processing
facility is stuck in limbo. The failure to
create a bar quarter, particularly given
the concentration of students, is a
OPPOSITE Machines
de lles 48-tonne
mechanical elephant;
preparing for an
event at Solilab; the
cafe and recording
studios at Fabrique
ABOVE Organic
garden for the La
Cantine bar
BELOW Karting, a
former race track
and warehouse
049
16/06/2016 13:55
One lighting designer cites a

collaborative spirit that stands in
direct contrast to Parisian rivalries
disappointment, but rival attractions

in the city centre exert a strong pull.
Further out, fractious disputes around
the relocation of the airport are a
running sore piles of tyres are dumped
on roundabouts in protest when I visit
and population pressures are growing.
Yet, talking to leading studios in the
city, the island is universally described
as a hugely attractive (though not
necessarily cheap) option. Lighting
designer Structures, which moves there in
a couple of months, cites a collaborative
spirit that stands in direct contrast to
Parisian rivalries. This becomes such a
common trope that I begin to suspect a
conspiracy, yet the results, and the upbeat
atmosphere, speak for themselves.
Walking around the le de Nantes,
its hard not to cherish the crumbling
industrial heritage the custom houses,
railway carriages, submarine workshops
but one can only marvel at what has
been achieved and the possibilities that
remain. I hope to come back in 20 years
and see how it all turns out.
ABOVE La Cantine
opens for the Voyage
Nantes festival
each summer
LEFT Patrice Blancs
guitar workshop
BELOW Student
projects on a terrace
at the School of
Architecture
NEXT ISSUE We visit Tel Aviv to explore

the emerging creative district Noga
AUGUST 2016
051
16/06/2016 13:55
IMAGE: IWAN BAAN
ARCHI
TECTURE
Buildings Landscape Interiors
Architects Laetitia Antonini and Tom Darmon have designed stunning social housing
inBOULOGNE (page 62), and we examine the legacy of the upcoming RIO OLYMPICS
(page 54), talking to MAYOR EDUARDO PAES (page 80) about the lessons being learned
AUGUST 2016
00-Openers.indd 53
053
16/06/2016 14:50
ARCHITECTURE / FEATURE
The
lost
IMAGE: CHRISTOPHE LAUNAY
legacy
Rios Olympics is an opportunity wasted.
Any lasting impact will be to tourism and
gentrification rather than the impoverished favelas
BY WILL HENLEY
054
02-ARCHITECTURE-Olympics-AW_NJ.indd 54
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 12:01
The Barra Olympic

zone, which will
eventually become a
tourist resort
AUGUST 2016
055
16/06/2016 12:01
IMAGE: MATTHEW STOCKMAN
n 5 August Michel Temer

will declare the 2016
Olympic Games officially
open. He is Brazils acting
president and reportedly
behind an impeachment
process that saw elected president Dilma
Rousseff removed from office in April.
Temer represents the return to power
of an old elite who have capitalised on
an economic recession and a corruption
scandal at state oil giant Petrobras. Amid
this turmoil, and with just weeks until
the opening ceremony, venues are
unfinished, Guanabara Bay remains
too polluted to host its proposed sailing
events, and the Zika virus threatens to
keep athletes away altogether. Just when
it seemed that things couldnt get worse,
on the day the Olympic Torch was lit, a
recently inaugurated 8 million cycle path

collapsed into the sea, killing two.
This must be a bad omen for an
event that will be judged on the lasting
impacts of its architectural and urban
legacy. The Olympics is just the latest
in a series of mega events in the cidade
maravilhosa, following the 2007 Pan
American Games and the 2014 FIFA World
Cup. Despite the array of transformations,
notable improvements in transport
and some innovative architecture, the
broader picture is of an opportunity
wasted to redefine a unique city in which
dramatic topography allows luxury
condominiums and favelas to exist side
by side, but where integration remains
all too distant.
Rio has adopted a dispersed model in
which four development zones are linked
056
BRAZIL
Deodoro
Maracan
Guanabara
Bay
RIO DE JANEIRO
Barra
Copacabana
Atlantic Ocean
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 12:01
IMAGES: METTHEW STOCKMAN. LEONARDO FINOTTI
by a series of new highways, named the

Bus Rapid Transit system. In addition, an
extension to Rios paltry metro network
takes visitors from the tourist hubs of
Ipanema and Copacabana to the main
site to the west of the city. In theory, this
strategy should improve access and spread
advantages across the city, softening Rios
pronounced inequalities. However, the vast
majority of investment has been poured
into a greenfield site west of the centre in
Barra da Tijuca where the principle venues
and athletes village follow a masterplan
by UK giant Aecom. Hugely wealthy
developer Carlos Caravalho is behind a real
estate development that caters only to Rios
elite. This will eventually be marketed
as a tourist resort named Ilha Pura (the
Pure Island) a name which boasts of its
isolation from the complex reality of a
divided society.
Luiz Fernando Janot, professor of
architecture at Rios Federal University,
has criticised a confidential tendering
process that led to this proposal at an early
stage. He adds that this search for a new El
Dorado west of the city turns its back on
an increasingly impoverished commercial
centre yet to recover from the removal of
state functions to Brasilia. This situation
has been intensified by the present
economic crisis.
AUGUST 2016
OPPOSITE Christ the

Redeemer overlooks
Guanabara Bay
CLOCKWISE FROM
TOP LEFT The Youth
Arena by Vigliecca
& Associates; the
Bhering factory in
Porto Maravilha,
now home to artist

collectives; the
polluted waters
of Guanabara
Bay; Santiago
Calatravas Museum
of Tomorrow, a
central element of
the Porto Maravilha
regeneration
057
16/06/2016 12:01
IMAGES: BUDA MENDES. LEONARDO FINOTTI
The principal central site, characterised

by historic factory buildings has been
dubbed Porto Maravilha (the Marvellous
Port). A motorway flyover has been
removed to encourage the regenerative
scheme, which includes the construction
of Santiago Calatravas Museum of
Tomorrow, as well as another museum.
These institutions add to the areas
existing cultural activity, kickstarted by
the occupation of the Bhering chocalate
factory by artist collectives. This semiderelict complex is now alive at weekends
with street food and impromptu music
an atmosphere surely the envy of the now
polished warehouses in Shoreditch.
But as with east London, the likely
rise in property values that is bound to
follow the areas designation as a creative
district must be managed to incubate
these activities. Mayor Eduardo Paess
purchase of the Behring factory in 2013
was a promising sign. Yet, the surrounding
historic buildings are crumbling, and will
need further preservation if the area is to
deliver on its promise.
Morar Carioca was perhaps the most
exciting of the pledges that won Rio the
contract. This ambitious proposal promised
to deliver essential infrastructure to 260
favelas by 2020. Yet the project has stalled,
meaning the plans to sanitise the waters
feeding into Guanabara Bay, many of
which pass through favelas, have failed.
The spectacular bay may be home to the
photogenic Sugar Loaf Mountain, but its
sewage-filled waters make it a poor host to
sailing and open-water swimming.
The 2.5 million sq m Deodoro site is
the largest Olympic zone and has been
sensitively placed in Rios poorer Zona
Norte another world from the citys
glamorous beaches. It hosts a range of
events whose venues have been integrated
into an existing site built for the 2007 Pan
American Games. After the games it will
become a public park.
The project is masterplanned by So
Paulo based Vigliecca & Associates, which
recently gained international acclaim for
a social housing complex in Santo Amaro.
The high point is its Miesian Youth Arena,
which will host the womens basketball;
the legacy proposal removes internal
seating to create a multi-use sports venue.
This sensible investment caters to the
nearby military base, whose occupants
were responsible for 48 per cent of Brazils
medals at the 2015 Pan American Games.
AUGUST 2016
Carla Juaabas
temporary Pavilion
of Humanity, built
in 2012
Guanabara Bays sewage-filled waters make it

a poor host to sailing and open-water swimming
Arena Carioca 3
and the Olympic
Velodrome at Barra
059
16/06/2016 12:02
IMAGE: LEONARDO FINOTTI
Vigliecca &
Associates hockey
arena at Deodoro
has 2,500 permanent
and 5,300 temporary
seats
The IOCs selection criteria contain no specific references to urban design
However, the most sophisticated legacy

idea comes from the handball arena on
the Barra site. The venue has a lightweight
steel structure, and is clad in a delicate
recycled timber screen. These elements are
almost entirely demountable and destined
as the basis for four municipal schools.
This transitory and mutant architecture,
says Gustavo Martins, principal of designer
Oficina de Arquitetos, was a feature of the
competition brief and the delivery of the
schools forms part of the construction
contract. However, the school sites are yet
to be confirmed and this latter stage is
vital for the project to succeed.
If the fate of Londons Olympic stadium
is anything to go by, this is unlikely to
be straightforward. Efforts to reinvent
Londons centrepiece were hampered by a
protracted bidding process for use of the
venue, resulting in costly design changes.
But this growing trend for adaptive
solutions represents an alternative to
AUGUST 2016
the short-termism of recent high-end

architecture demanded by Olympic
committees think of the Birds Nest now
lying empty in Beijing or the disaster of
Athens abandoned Olympic park. Perhaps
equally disappointing was the treatment
of Rios once legendary Maracan stadium
by FIFA. Here, exacting design standards
stripped the venue of its history and
significantly raised ticket prices.
A more radical architectural approach
can be found within another of Rios
recent mega-events. The Pavilion of
Humanity, designed by Carla Juaaba and
Bia Lessa for the 2012 UN Conference on
Sustainable Development, was a temporary
structure in place for just 15 days. The
dramatic 40m-long pavilion, suspended
above Copacabanas fort, shows that
such structures need not compromise on
inspirational design quality.
This focus on venue strategy must
not deter us from thinking about the
wider implications of mega events. The

widespread failure to deliver urban
improvements to Rio must surely make
our patience with the Olympic excuse
increasingly short; the ideal of smooth
completion must no longer disguise
the transfer of public wealth to private
construction companies.
The onus must now be on the
International Olympic Committee
to respond and adapt its processes,
particularly when dealing with countries
with a history of corruption. A look at
the preparations for the 2024 Summer
Games shows the clear importance of
venue legacy in the IOCs selection criteria
for host nations. By contrast, there are
no specific references to urban design.
Rectifying these priorities would be a step
towards the rehabilitation of perceptions.
NEXT ISSUE Exploring the epic legacy of
Argentine futurist Francisco Salamone
061
16/06/2016 12:02
IMAGE: ANTONINI DARMON
ARCHITECTURE / RESIDENTIAL
062
03-Architecture-Residential-SK_NJ.indd 62
ICONEYE.COM
15/06/2016 17:44
Arches Boulogne,
Paris
Antonini Darmon shows that what works in a
Venetian piazza also has a place on a social housing
block in the Paris suburbs
BY ANDREW AYERS
The rhythm of the

arcades speeds up
and slows down at
different points on
each floor
AUGUST 2016
03-Architecture-Residential-SK_NJ.indd 63
espite Jean Nouvels

high-profile 1999 media
campaign to save it as
a monument to French
industrial history, the
giant Renault factory in
Boulogne-Billancourt on the outskirts
of Paris is no more, having been
completely demolished for redevelopment.
While the much-coveted flagship section
of the site the 11.4-hectare island known
as the le Seguin is still essentially
empty, thanks to residents opposition
to every single rebuilding proposal, the
37.5-hectare mainland section, known
as the Trapze, has been reconfigured
as an entirely new neighbourhood, with
352,300sq m of housing and 242,600sq m
of office space situated around a central
park. And its in one of the very last parts
of the Trapze to be developed, lot B5, that
Paris-based architect Antonini Darmon
recently completed this block of 33 socialsector flats.
In France its very difficult to innovate
when designing apartment buildings,
says the architect, a partnership between
Corsican Laetitia Antonini and the FrancoEnglish Tom Darmon. What the rules and
regulations dont already prescribe for you
will be determined by the developers cost
margins. The one bit of latitude you do
have is in the facades.
And, as it turned out, the facades in this
project were crucial, since not only did
they have to express the buildings visual
identity, they also had to afford residents
a modicum of privacy on an island site in
the centre of a city block, surrounded on
all four sides by other structures. Antonini
Darmon consequently wrapped the sevenstorey stack of one- to four-bedroom flats
with loggia-style balconies, the arched

openings of which elegantly cadence the
elevations.
Quite willing to acknowledge the
obvious references Romes Palazzo della
Civilt Italiana, or, further back in time,
Venices Piazza San Marco or Fondaco
dei Tedeschi the architects say they
imagined the city block as a cloister, but
with arcades at the centre instead of
round the edges. Prefabricated in white
concrete (a material stipulated by the
developer for all the buildings on the
block, and thus a bulk-buy that helped
to keep costs down), the arcades rhythm
speeds up or slows down on each floor
depending where you stand, thereby
introducing visual variety. The buildings
envelope is further enriched by the
taller ground and final floors (the latter
achieved by constructing a parapet to
hide all of the roof equipment), and by
setbacks and cantilevers. Most of these
were achieved by varying the depth of the
loggias wider on the southern side for
sun protection, and narrower on the
north to allow maximum light through.
One of the cantilevers provides a handy
entrance canopy, while the arches
sensuality is a welcome contrast to the
surrounding orthogonality.
By skewing the setbacks and cantilevers,
Antonini Darmon managed to ensure
that the facades mostly present an oblique
view to neighbouring buildings, with the
result that the arcades columns provide
a moir effect of screening in what the
architect describes as a strategy of mise
distance. All of which goes to show that,
when it comes to apartment buildings,
perhaps you can sometimes judge them
by their cover.
063
15/06/2016 17:44
IMAGES: MAXWELL ANDERSON
ARCHITECTURE / OFFICE
064
02-ARCHITECTURE-Office-Here East_NJ.indd 64
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 14:42
Here East,
London
The massive Olympic media complex is being redeveloped
as an innovation district, using every spatial trick going
to encourage wealth creation
BY TIM ABRAHAMS
t is easier to describe what Here East

used to be than what it is going to
be. It is a conversion of the former
International Broadcast Centre and
Press Centre on the north-western
corner of the Olympic Park in
London. But what it is being converted into
is slightly harder. You could just give the
real estate description of 1.2 million sq ft
of office space aimed at the creative and
digital industries, a joint venture between
investor Delancey and data centre operator
Infinity SDC, but that doesnt quite do
it justice. Roger Hawkins, partner at
Hawkins\Brown, which is designing the
conversion, says: The strapline that Here
East has been given is that it is Londons
home for making. Im a bit concerned
that people dont know what making is.
It conjures up images of workshops, and
thats just part of it.
Adapting the term used by the
academic Bruce Katz to describe compact,
walkable bits of cities that combine
entrepreneurship and education, Hawkins
calls Here East an innovation district in
an old building. Innovation districts in
Katzs description are a model of compact
spatial relationships between academia,
entrepreneurs, retail and housing, all in
close proximity.
It is also a model to which it is easy
to append a social vision. Director of
Here East Gavin Poole is former private
secretary to the Minister for Defence.
From 2010 to 2012, he was director of the
Centre for Social Justice, set up by Iain
Duncan Smith in 2004. In that time, I saw
a lot of interesting things going on around
the country and a lot of opportunities to
go into different cities and regions and
take a private sector mentality and try
to reverse decline, he says. Poole is Here
Easts animating figure, bringing together
academic institutions, some public money,
big and small businesses into an ad hoc
AUGUST 2016
065
16/06/2016 14:42
BELOW Bold graphic

treatments on the
glazing help to break
down the monolithic
structure
which will also improve the offerings of

other office developments in the area.
These big tenants though are building
blocks for something else. Here East is
being subjected to the full range of spatial
alchemy, in order to make entrepreneurs
from base metal. Next to be announced
is the partner in the innovations centre,
which is a section of the building where
small start-ups can take a desk. Also,
larger companies can take their own
innovation teams and put them in the
innovation centre for three months and
work on specific projects, says Poole. The
centre has lots of great kit but the real
selling point will be the swift interchange
between ideas and investment.
Nor is it solely a case of getting
the right balance between research,
entrepreneurship and investment.
Delancey has been pursuing and signing
up the right tech businesses, but it has
also given Poole free rein to ensure that
the other components of Here East fit.
ABOVE Hawkins\
Brown has
introduced atriums
with pendulous
meeting-room pods
version of Palo Alto in a defunct industrial

shed the length of four jumbo jets in the
corner of a London park named after the
reining monarch.
Here East already has some key anchor
tenants, such as BT Sport, which has been
in the building for over a year now. It could
easily chase after other corporate clients
like this, but there is a clear agenda to
create something different to the range
of offices in areas such as Holborn that
Delancey also manages. University College
London will open a new research centre,
which boasts an incredible robotics
facility. Loughborough University is
opening a postgraduate research institute
focusing on digital technology and
manufacturing, design, media and sport.
It will provide apprenticeship schemes in
co-operation with Hackney Community
College. In addition, thanks in part to the
digital infrastructure that serviced the
IBC, Here East has a massive data centre
provided by one of its consortium partners,
AUGUST 2016
067
16/06/2016 14:42
TOP Local bars and

stores have been
encouraged to open
outlets in the building
ABOVE The original

windowless
facade has been
replaced
AUGUST 2016
Earlier this month a series of retail outlets

opened up along the River Lea, with craftbeer bars, bike shops and restaurants
rolled out from hipster hang-outs on
nearby Chatsworth Road. All are local
outlets rather than chains, if you are
willing to accept the term local as being
simply a geographical term rather than a
historical one.
Here East boasts an almost ridiculously
extensive drop-down menu of all the
spatial tricks for encouraging wealth
creation: specialist prototyping facilities
and conference suites; proximity to flat
whites and gin made by local distillers;
the provision of artist/maker studio spaces
on the eastern gantry of the building. The
landscaping has been brought down to the
River Leas edge and the project reaches
out to the artistic community across in
Hackney Wick.
As to the design, it is a pretty vigorous
overhaul to break down the monolithic
structure. There are dazzle patterns on
the glazing and a bold graphic treatment
on the facade, but more fundamentally
Hawkins\Browns design for Laing
ORourke allows holes to be punched into
the building to break up the frontage and
create atriums. These are dominated by

pendulous meeting-room pods that seat
25. So big is the building that the pods
are legible from a distance as slightly
oversized light fittings. In addition they
have broken down the mighty floor-toceiling heights by introducing mezzanines,
thereby creating a variety of space. It is
like a colourful, Shoreditch warehouse
conversion but on a massive scale.
There is no certainty that throwing
every trick in the incubator book at the
building will work, of course. On one level,
however, it is already doing an important
job. The London Olympics was conceived in
the shadow of Athens, and the desire that
the Olympic Park feels busy drives much of
the legacy plan. Many of the key decisions
on the site have been made with this in
mind (West Hams bargain of the century
at the Olympic Stadium was made with the
desire to ensure it was occupied). At Here
East though, this urgency and business
has a real purpose: an intensity of
interchange. Of course, some of the
tactics will work better than others, but
as much as it is a laboratory for specific
technologies, it is also a place to test an
idea about society.
069
16/06/2016 14:43
ARCHITECTURE / PUBLIC
Maggies Centre by
Foster + Partners
The architect takes an uncharacteristically
intimate approach to the cancer charitys latest
centre in his home town of Manchester
BY DOUGLAS MURPHY
070
02-ARCHITECTURE-Fosters Maggie_NJ.indd 70
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 17:33
The glue-laminated
timber structure is
visible throughout
the centre
AUGUST 2016
he largest Maggies cancer

care centre to date, designed
by Foster + Partners, recently
opened at the Christie
hospital in Manchester. And
while it continues to evolve
Fosters long enthusiasm for structural
efficiency and rational design, it also
echoes the earliest days of his career,
half a century ago. The centre is nestled
at the edge of the hospital, reached along
a street of large villas. From the main road,
a pathway, described by Foster partner
Darron Haylock as a woodland walk,
prepares the patient and their loved ones
for the tranquil experience that Maggies
provides from the moment they leave
their vehicle.
The nearby hospital buildings and car
parks arent particularly soothing, so
the building is surrounded by a few
metres of planted garden within a
high wall to the edge of the site. At the
entrance, as in all Maggies, chairs are
set next to the door, so users can take a
moment to compose themselves before
entering. The building has a spine
organisation, oriented against the road.
The spine is defined by the structure,
which is made up of an array of timber
trusses forming a W shape. These divide
the building longitudinally into three,
with the outer wings of greater width
than the middle. The wing that the user
enters first is open along its whole length,
but is gently divided into various zones
of activity the primary space is the
kitchen, with its large table where users
can be made to feel at home.
Its important to create a domestic
feeling, says Haylock, explaining the
different clusters of activity throughout
the building at some points, fireplaces
hang down, surrounded by deep sofas,
while other areas are more desk-like
and semi-formal. It is has to be homely,
but its not like home. Across the spine,
more closed-off spaces house the more
difficult and fraught activities. Various
consultation rooms face out into the
garden in such a way that provides calm
privacy, with the option to open up
to the outside. Throughout, rooflights
bring daylight into even the more
closed-off areas. All the public spaces
of the building are on ground level,
while the professional staff, none of
whom are permanently located in the
Maggies, can make use of an office
071
16/06/2016 17:33
BELOW The gardens
have been designed
by landscape
architect Dan
Pearson
IMAGES: PHOTOGRAPHY BY NIGEL YOUNG / FOSTER + PARTNERS
BOTTOM Rooflights
draw light in to all
the interior spaces
space that runs along the upper part of

the structure.
The most notable part of the project
is in the use of timber. The primary
structure, made of glue-laminated timber
that is then CNC-milled into trusses, is
constantly visible. The ribs of the truss
vary in their density based upon the
stresses that are occurring in the beam at
that point advanced digital form-finding
that nonetheless maintains a relaxed
feeling. Elsewhere, balustrades, furniture
and other details make much use of tactile
wooden surfaces. This emphasis on timber
has to be understood in conjunction with
the wide use of plants both potted within
the centre itself and the deep planting that
surrounds the building. At the far end of
the centre are some large raised beds for
crop growing, and perhaps the showpiece
of the project is a winter garden, separate
from the main interior but accessible
under cover.
The overall feeling of the building is
perhaps just a little bit groovy: by that,
I mean that the timber space frame, the
green-fingered ambience of the building,
and the lovely greenhouse at the end all
feel as though theyre harking back to a
countercultural time when high-tech and
hippyish could go together. In a way, this
makes sense for Foster, who worked with
Buckminster Fuller after all, but even the
interiors of the building, with their soft
curtains and classic modern furniture,
look back to early Team Four projects.

Perhaps this is because we so rarely
see Foster + Partners working at such
a domestic scale. And this is whats so
strange about a Maggies Centre even
when they become larger buildings, they
still have to be as intimate as possible, and
the trick lies in how that is resolved back
into a functioning building with staff and
a large numbers of users. But beyond that,
the people using the building are in an
extremely trying situation. The building
not only has to respond to the mental
strain that the users are under, but also to
the ways in which their bodies and senses
are altered.
The Maggies Centre commission has
brought out new angles from all manner
of architects, and that is perhaps its
paradoxical strength that Maggies
founder Charles Jencks invites famous
architects to complete a signature building
that also requires a concerted suppression
of their egos. Many of the architects
over the years have opted for the organic
pleasures of timber, with its connections
to life cycles, to growth and death. Foster
+ Partners hasnt exactly dropped its
technological methodology, but its been
interestingly brought together with a
warmth that you might not associate with
its larger work.
NEXT ISSUE Christ & Gantenbeins
precise Kunstmuseum Basel extension
An angular winter
garden is located on
the south-facing end
of the building
AUGUST 2016
073
16/06/2016 17:34
Alvaro Siza
in Catalonia
The 82-year-old Pritzker winner remains
at the peak of his powers with a
monumental theatre in a Spanish village
IMAGES: JOO MORGADO
BY DOUGLAS MURPHY
A
ABOVE The
auditoriums fly
tower rises above
the other volumes
RIGHT The building is
clad in red bricks of
Roman dimensions
AUGUST 2016
02-ARCHITECTURE-PUBLIC-SIZA_NJ.indd 75
s architectural legends go,

Alvaro Siza has been one of
our most dependable. Its
never easy running a small,
high-quality practice, even at
the best of times, but in the
post-crash years it has become especially
hard for Spanish and Portuguese architects
to get by. At 82 and still based in Porto,
Siza has recently been building across the
world, including in the Far East, with a
number of Korean and Chinese projects
now under his belt. But hes also been
designing and building in Europe, often in
collaboration with a number of associated
practices, and with little of the decline
that some other late-career architects tend
to demonstrate.
About 40km north-east of Barcelona,
just off the main highway, is Llinars del
Valls, a quintessential dormitory village,
home to around 10,000 people. It has
recently opened anew cultural centre,
designed by Siza, and its a refined and
classy demonstration of his undiminished
architectural powers.
The building sits on the outskirts of the
village, in a lightly forested area. The
075
15/06/2016 17:50
IMAGES: JOO MORGADO
primary programme is a small auditorium

with a capacity of roughly 300, fully
kitted out with a fly tower for theatrical
performances. Siza has chosen to have all
the other functions spinning out from the
stage, which he describes as the heart
of the building. Public spaces, such as
the cafe and foyers, are situated to one
side, while a separate set of offices and
administrative spaces is accessed from the
far side of the building.
These different functions are arranged
irregularly, with open spaces occasionally
reaching in between them. But Siza has
retained the open areas behind low walls,
thereby completing the site as a regular
rectangle and creating a sense of spatial
order across the different volumes. To the
street, a small open square, on a plinth,
faces the auditorium directly, while the
fly tower anchors the entire ensemble.
The facade of the auditorium slopes gently
backwards, adding just a subtle curve to
what is quite a rigid composition.
For a building with such an open
public function, the auditorium is
AUGUST 2016
02-ARCHITECTURE-PUBLIC-SIZA_NJ.indd 77
oddly imposing. On its stone plinth, the

structure has been clad in a red brick
(of Roman dimensions) that runs
across most of the surfaces of the nearwindowless exterior. The blankness of
each of the volumes that rise up out of
the podium creates a very sculptural
silhouette, with a strong monumentality
that could be a little overwhelming on a
larger building.
The interior continues in a typically
calm Siza fashion. White painted walls
and ceilings are balanced against a
pale polished limestone dado and floor,
with some crisp detailing at staircases
and other junctions. Inside the calm
and unprepossessing auditorium,
a suspended plaster ceiling curves
underneath the lights, the form hinting
at Sizas famous draped structure from
Expo 98 inLisbon.
Siza is currently working on a
residential building in New York, and on
renovations to the Alhambra in Granada,
and weve every reason to hope theres
plenty more to come.
TOP The rectilinear

volumes are set back
to create small roof
terraces
ABOVE A curved
plaster ceiling is
suspended beneath
the auditorium lights
077
15/06/2016 17:50
078
03-Architecture-ICON-SK_NJ.indd 78
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 09:01
ARCHITECTURE / ICON
FAU-USP
Joo Batista Vilanova Artigass architecture school is
Brazilian modernism at its most theatrical: tough,
uncompromising and flirting with structural disaster
BY RICHARD J WILLIAMS
IMAGE: LEONARDO FINOTTI
he Faculty of Architecture
and Urbanism (FAU-USP)
by Joo Batista Vilanova
Artigas, completed in 1969
for the University of So
Paulo, is one of the most
uncompromising concrete buildings in
a city full of uncompromising concrete
buildings. I spent a lot of time there in the
mid-2000s and marvelled at its openness
and the quality of its facilities, as well as
the way in which it created a new kind of
urban landscape. Located in the middle of
So Paulos University City, FAU-USP is easy
to miss, thanks to the sprawling nature
of the campus, and the fact that it is low
and screened by trees. Itis huge, however:
a rectangular pavilion measuring over a
100m on its longer sides, eight storeys high
and nearly 20,000sq m in area.
Artigas (191585) was a contemporary
of Oscar Niemeyer, another of the many
Brazilian architects who grabbed the
international spotlight from the midcentury on. Like Niemeyer, his work made
a feature of structural daring, but unlike
him, Artigas favoured a tough materiality
of approach. The king of cast concrete,
he revealed rather than concealed the
building process Niemeyer had little
interest in building, per se.
At FAU-USP, three aspects of the
design stand out: first, a central void that
creates something like a public space
in a city that has very few, traditionally
defined. Overlooked by the functions of
the building the studios, administrative
offices, the restaurant and library it is
a de facto piazza, and the place where
FAU-USP declares what it is. Second is
the reverse ziggurat form: its enormous
AUGUST 2016
03-Architecture-ICON-SK_NJ.indd 79
volume is broken horizontally into three

progressively more massive slabs, the
heaviest at the top. And the third aspect is
the form of the columns, each resembling
two slim, inverted pyramids joined at the
apex. The whole effect is of a structure that
is in no way equipped to support itself.
Artigas wrote of this apparent
contradiction that he wanted to shock
the viewer, making him or her think
that the whole thing was about to
collapse, a metaphor for Brazils perpetual
underdevelopment. Whatever the truth
of this, it is a building that gives little
quarter. In image it is ready to crash to
theground, an impression underlined
by the precariousness of the buildings
current physical state. Inside, I was once
drenched during a tropical downpour
when the roof barely seemed to function
as a roof, and also deafened by the
drumming of the rain, amplified by the
central void. It was impossible to work
during these periods, but the noise and the
wet were thrilling, and it is still hard for
me to recall a building with quite such a
physical effect, in some ways more theatre
than architecture.
But it is also among the most generous
of buildings. You can enter and exit more
or less where you wish, for the ground
floor is largely open. Its rough finishes
and sheer space allow the imagination
free rein. Visiting the FAU-USP, you
are transported to somewhere that is
simultaneously of the distant past, and
in a yet-to-be-determined future. It is
simultaneously archaic and modern;
sophisticated and very crude. Above all
then, it is a building that, like Brazil, holds
contradictions in play.
079
16/06/2016 09:02
ARCHITECTURE / Q&A
Eduardo Paes
Mayor of Rio de Janeiro
We are not leaving any
white elephants behind
INTERVIEW BY TIM ABRAHAMS
ILLUSTRATION BY LAUREN CROW
lthough it was his

predecessor as mayor
of Rio de Janeiro, Csar
Maia, who organised
the Olympic bid, it has
been the young Eduardo
Paes who has delivered the event. The
46-year-old won an election against the
former guerrilla Fernando Gabeira and
while now a member of the Brazilian
Democratic Movement party, he began
his political journey in the Green party,
winning an election as sub-prefect for the
Barra da Tijuca district where many of the
Olympic events will be held. Following
his last election victory in 2012, he spent
two months in London studying how
the event was hosted. On the eve of the
Olympics, Icon asked Paes about legacy and
what Rios unique spirit will bring to the
greatest show on Earth.
ICON What do you understand by the

word legacy?
EDUARDO PAES I see the word legacy
as heritage. A positive heritage, a
consequence of a lot of commitment and
hard work. This is common sense, and,
it should be said, the IOC values that
hosting the Olympics and Paralympics is
only worthwhile for a city if, along with
the event, it promotes transformations
that will benefit the citys inhabitants.
With all the problems we had at the
time we entered the bid, we made it clear
that Rio would benefit more than the
other metropolitan centres in hosting the
Games. The Games are an opportunity, a
catalyst, to solve questions that had been
compromising the quality of life for our
citizens for decades. The actualisation
of Rio 2016 is definitely allowing for the
construction of a noticeable legacy and
080
02-ARCHITECTURE-q&a-AW_NJ.indd 80
part of it has already became reality,

part of the life and routine of the Caricoa
[inhabitant of Rio]. We like to say that the
Games in Rio 2016 are the Games that
make savings to the public coffers. At the
same time, we are meeting deadlines and
we are not leaving any white elephants
behind. Most importantly, however, it is
the Games with a legacy.
ICON Which examples from the history
of the Olympics did you look at when
preparing the bid and creating your plan?
EP Barcelona 1992 is often talked about as
the best example of a city making the most
of the Games and, for us, Barcelona was
the largest inspiration. I always paraphrase
Barcelonas mayor at the time, Pasqual
Maragall: The Games should serve the
city, and not use it. That is the spirit! If
we do a comparison between Barcelona
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 10:02
AUGUST 2016
081
16/06/2016 10:02
IMAGES: YASUYOSHI CHIBA. LEONARDO FINOTTI
ARCHITECTURE / Q&A
1992 Rio 2016, we would see that in Spain

there was a huge revitalisation in the port
area. In Brazil, we are doing something
similar with the Porto Maravilha project,
recovering a 5,000,000sq m area that is
of the utmost economic and historical
relevance to the city.
ICON How did you use temporary
structures, and did you adapt existing ones?
EP The use of temporary venues was
planned in such a way as to allow re-use
after the Games, maximising the legacy
and avoiding waste of money. While
planning the Games, City Hall created
the concept of nomadic architecture,
consisting of Lego-like structures in the
arenas. The best examples are the Arena of
the Future and the Aquatics Stadium, both
at the Olympic Park in Barra da Tijuca.
The first arena will be dismantled
and transformed into four 500-student
municipal schools; for it to happen, the
project had to be thought through with
this objective in mind from its inception.
The specifications were determined
from the point of choosing the company
responsible for the project; the ramps
and pre-cast staircases will be re-used for
the access and circulation areas of the
schools. The ceiling is made of metallic
AUGUST 2016
beams and standard-sized tiles for the

perfect fit after 2016. The internal and
facade panels are also standardised for
the same reason.
When it comes to the Aquatics
Stadium, it will be transformed into
two aquatics centres; one with an indoor
Olympic-sized (50m) pool and capacity
for 6,000 spectators, and the other with
an Olympic-sized pool and capacity for
3,000 spectators.
ICON What did you want the Games to
do for the city of Rio?
EP Our vision is that hosting the Games
would only make sense if it brought a
group of long-term measures to improve
the citys infrastructure, the life of
its citizens and the tourists. For that
reason, we planned, apart from the
Responsibility Matrix, the Public Policies
Plan, gathering projects that are not
directly linked to the Games. As for City
Hall, there are 12 initiatives in sectors
such as transportation, infrastructure,
environment and education.
The event made it possible for us to
build a Light Rail Transit system downtown;
four Bus Rapid Transit lines going all
over the city; the duplication of the Jo
neighbourhoods elevated highway
TOP AND MIDDLE

The Arena of the
Future, which will
be rebuilt as four
schools
BOTTOM Vehicles on
Light Tracks (VLTs)
will move visitors
between venues and
transport hubs
083
16/06/2016 10:02
ARCHITECTURE / Q&A
IMAGE: BUDA MENDES
The Aquatics
Stadium will be
converted into two
aquatics centres
after the Games
For us, Barcelona was the

largest inspiration
(thus increasing the traffic capacity
between the south and west zones by
35 per cent); and the construction of four
new public schools (with the material
coming from the Arena of the Future),
just to name a few.
ICON How will these Games be different
to others that have gone before?
EP In three basic ways. The first is the
massive use of private resources we tried
to establish unique partnership models
with private companies in order to avoid
as much as possible using public funds. As
a result, 57 per cent of Rio 2016s budget
comes from private funds. If we think only
about the budget on the Responsibility
Matrix those schemes aimed at the
construction of sports venues the
number rises to 60 per cent. We do not
know of any previous host city that saved
AUGUST 2016
as much public funds. The International

Broadcast Centre, a high-complexity
building due to the broadcasting
specifications, was totally funded by
private money. In addition, its use after the
Games a hard match as it has a unique
architecture and huge dimensions will
be managed by a private company. The
Olympic Park, where the IBC is located,
was made possible thanks to a publicprivate partnership that helped us to save
a lot of public funds.
Another aspect that will certainly make
Rio 2016 different from previous editions
is the hospitality and the enthusiasm
of the Carioca and the Brazilians as a
whole. We are known the world over for
our welcoming character, our happiness
and expertise in organising great parties.
Moreover, the Games are about a great
party, the largest sports party in the world.
The World Cup in 2014 was marked by

the joyful spirit of the Brazilians, as we
are very good hosts. Not even the not-sospectacular performance of our national
team in the competition was able to
change this innate characteristic.
ICON How will the Games show a
continuity from previous Olympics?
EP The similarity with other editions will
remain in the spirit of reconciling and
gathering people, which is a characteristic
of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Carioca love sports; a stroll on the
waterfront is enough to see people
involved in different activities on the
beach, running or walking. In fact, Rio
de Janeiro will not only have similarities
with the cities that previously hosted the
Games, but will do better, when it comes
to celebrating sports.
085
16/06/2016 10:04
IMAGES: COURTESY BD BARCELONA; SALVADOR DAL, FUNDACI GALA-SALVADOR DAL, BARCELONA, 2016
DESIGN
Things Room by Room People
BD BARCELONA (page 88) is setting up shop in London with its Dal designs, so Icon
speaks to its creative director about the evolution of its weird and wonderful portfolio,
while ILSE CRAWFORD (page 110) talks about how personal points of view shape design
AUGUST 2016
00-Openers.indd 87
087
16/06/2016 15:52
DESIGN / FEATURE
SO CRAZY,
088
02-DESIGN-FEATURE-BD Barcelona2_JJ_NJ.indd 88
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 14:02
DESIGN / FEATURE
SO YOUNG
BD Barcelona burst out of Francos Spain with an

exuberance matched by their avant-garde designs. Forty years
on, theyre still drawn to the bold and experimental
BY JOHN JERVIS
AUGUST 2016
089
16/06/2016 14:02
DESIGN / FEATURE
were energetic young architects Pep

Bonet, Cristian Cirici, Llus Clotet and
Oscar Tusquets all practised in Barcelona
as Studio Per joined by interior designer
Mireia Riera. While working on bold shop
interiors and enthusiastic and risky
housing projects with a touch of critical
regionalism, they imagined the products
with which they would like to fill them
the avant-garde fixtures, fittings and
furniture that Francos Spain failed to
provide. Tusquets recalls: Wed meet up
every night [and] tell each other the ideas
we were hatching; when one of us got
excited, we started developing it.
Their aesthetic and academic urges lay
with the architect-designers of Milan, such
as Franco Albini, Vico Magistretti and, of
course, Achille Castiglione, with whom
they established contacts and friendships.
So, in 1972, they launched Boccaccio Design,
named after the nightclub patronised by
the Gauche Divine, Barcelonas left-wing
intelligentsia. Its owner, Oriol Regs,
was their original backer, financing both
a small shop in upmarket Sarri-Sant
Gervasi and their early products. These
were astonishing and eccentric, mostly
designed in-house, and touched on any
PREVIOUS SPREAD
The Shiva vase by
Ettore Sottsass
(1973) with Xavier
Susts cardboard
bedhead opposite
BELOW LEFT The
Dalilips sofa first
created with Dal
in 1972, it finally
reached massproduction in 2004
BELOW Oscar
Tusquets, Llus
Clotet and designer
Anna Bohigas
demonstrating the
plexiglas Campana
extraction unit
in 1973
IMAGES: COURTESY BD BARCELONA; SALVADOR DAL, FUNDACI GALA-SALVADOR DAL, BARCELONA, 2016
he 43-year-old Catalan firm

BD Barcelona finally opened
a London showroom in
Clerkenwell this May. On
display were a number of
designs inspired by Dal
paintings the brass Leda armchair with
its stilettoed legs, a taxidermied lamb with
a small drawer and golden acanthus-leaf
feet, and the striking Invisible Personage
armchair, imprinted with the form of an
absent sitter.
There was also a scattering of other
recent products, from the radical sewing
of the Couture armchair by Swedish studio
Frg & Blanche, to the Aqurio cabinet,
a luminous combination of ash and glass
by the Campana brothers. And, on the
pavement outside, stood the famous
Dalilips sofa, with Design Week revellers
sitting to take selfies against its glistening
red plastic. Yet the exhibit that best
encapsulated the firm was a small, pink,
penis-shaped vase: the Shiva by Ettore
Sottsass, first produced in 1973.
On first glance, BD might seem like
one more firm buddying up with galleries
and auctioneers to push design as the
new art. Yet back in the 1970s its founders
090
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 14:02
Wed meet up every

night and tell each
other the ideas we
were hatching
ABOVE Javier
Mariscals Dplex
stool, first created
for a Valencian bar in
1981, and produced
by BD Barcelona
since 1983
AUGUST 2016
number of global design trends. The

cautious modernism of the Franco regime
was absent, replaced by the pluralistic
approach of Archizoom or Superstudio.
But there was also a degree of humour
rare in Milan incipient postmodernism
alongside Pop flare and a concern with
self-production and artisanship, reacting
against the mass-production of the
consumerist Spanish miracle.
The designs that resulted were often
rudimentary and occasionally risqu,
with nods to both past and future, from
waterbeds and huge wedge-shaped
cushions to cardboard cut-outs of ornate
bedheads and chimneypieces all very
crazy, very us, very young, as Tusquets
puts it. The Jipi lamp was intended to
recreate the intimate moment of draping
a silk handkerchief over a bedside light
before sex. The blocky, rearrangeable
Negro sofas and Chinese Nest tables by
Xavier Sust could have come straight from
a Milanese studio Cassina, Zanotta, Alesi
and Driade were particular favourites. The
alluringly flexible, worm-like Lampara
Cuc in translucent plastic was intended for

outside use but, with little allowance made
for safety, production was soon abandoned.
The range and its graphics were
stamped with the sensibilities of the time,
but some products proved more durable
in both physical and aesthetic terms. The
group exploited contacts in Spain and
beyond vigorously: Vittorio Gregotti was
a prolific contributor, Ettore Sottsass was
on board straight away with his Mettsass
table. The greatest immediate success,
however, was lvaro Siza Vieiras Flamingo
lamp. A lightweight structure with a
prototypical high-tech character at odds
with much of the firms catalogue, it has
been in production ever since.
Another string to the firms bow was
reissues. Gerrit Reitvelds famed Red and
Blue chair (chosen because it was easy to
make) received a first ever reissue in 1972,
alongside furniture by Mackintosh and a
limited, somewhat perishable, edition of
the Dalilips sofa the Salivasof a result
of Tusquets close friendship with Dal and
their collaboration on creating a room at
091
16/06/2016 14:02
Tusquets jokes, Later on, we saw sense.

The famous Catalano outdoor bench,
with its innovative steel mesh and high
back, pushed the firm into town squares
across Spain, while a much-copied vertical
mailbox ensured its presence in the
countrys offices and hallways.
Reissues continued apace, including a
hugely successful series of brass fixtures
and fittings by Gaud. Yet the triumph
of postmodernism did not go unnoticed
Javier Mariscals Dplex stool was
an undisputed and early classic, while
Tusquets hugely successful Varius chair
proved that it was possible to introduce
postmodernism to the workspace.
In 1979, BD Ediciones started hosting
exhibitions in an expanded space in
the eye-catching Casa Thomas it was
undoubtedly the Spanish firm with the
highest profile in the 1980s but a certain
complacency crept in. Catalogues boasted
a few too many slim light fittings in a thin
postmodernist style, failing to capture
the exuberance of Memphis, or of their
own youth. Self-congratulatory manifestos
flourished, describing the firms style as
one that is shared with architectonic
composition, genius and invention, and
BELOW LEFT The

Gaulino chair by
Oscar Tusquets,
originally released
in 1987
BELOW Eduard
Samss Mirallmar
mirror, designed
in 1991 for the
Barcelona Olympics
RIGHT A selection
from the 1991
collection of Dals
designs, including
the Leda chair,
the Bracelli and
Cajones lamps, the
Rinocerntico door
handle and the Vis-Vis sofa
IMAGES: COURTESY BD BARCELONA; SNCHEZ Y MONTORO
the Dal Museum, Figueres, based on the

artists 1935 painting, The Face of Mae West.
Such ambition led to financial trouble
and a buyout by the founders within the
year, but a slight easing of the frenetic
pace didnt alter the eclecticism. The key
concept was that, without the burden of a
factory, the newly renamed BD Ediciones
de Diseo could act as a publisher rather
than manufacturer of design. It could
search out the most suitable factory for any
product, without constraints of material or
technique, of style, or even of period, yet
retain an unusual degree of control from
idea right through to distribution.
Given the founders architectural
backgrounds, an increasing number of
fixtures, fittings and accessories began to
appear in the catalogue: hooks, handles,
bins, television trolleys, umbrella stands
and bike racks. There was even a transparent
plexiglas extraction unit, the Campana,
to be placed at a low height to increase
performance while maintaining visibility.
Much of the firms work in the 1970s,
such as the classic Hialina and Hypstila
shelves in extruded aluminium, was
designed in-house, and adopted a sparser
style than their first offerings as
092
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 14:02
DESIGN / FEATURE
cultural and historic references BD

has been the elite of Spanish design.
An awareness of their limitations lead
to an increasing number of collaborations
with Spanish designers, but the best
designs were often initiated elsewhere:
the Olvidada lamp by Pepe Corts, released
in 1984, had been designed back in 1976;
Eduard Samss Mirallmar mirror was
created for the Barcelona Olympics. Despite
successes such as Tusquets own Gaulino
chair his first project in wood, inspired
by Gaud and Carlo Mollino the confidence
of previous decades had ebbed away.
The challenge presented by the
maximalism of the new Italian and Dutch
design in the late 1990s of Capellini,
Moroso, Kartell, Cassina and Droog was
AUGUST 2016
first confronted with real guts in 2000

with the arrival of Ramn beda as
artistic director, who recalls the sensation
of vertigo when I was appointed: it was
clear that the design scene was changing
and there was a need to look beyond.
The launch of Ross Lovegroves futuristic,
biomorphic BDLove collection, as well as
Argentinian designer Alfredo Hberlis
Happy Hour bar furniture, were vital
in this regard, although both were met
with incomprehension from many in the
Spanish design community at the time.
The real breakthrough came in 2006,
however, with bedas patronage of an
exciting new talent from Madrid, Jaime
Hayon. His Showtime collection was
bold and unexpected, placing outdoor
techniques inside while mixing the

industrial with the handmade. It helped to
launch Hayon on the international scene,
and ensured that the newly renamed BD
Barcelona was again perceived as a vital
player by designers and audiences. Since
then, work with Konstantin Grcic, Doshi
Levien, Mart Guix, Neri & Hu and the
Campanas has flowed, an impressive roster
for any design firm.
Perhaps the real challenge will be
to ensure a USP for BD Barcelona that
separates it from competitors employing
the same designers. All collaborators are
certainly given a singular freedom to
experiment in materials and techniques,
investing results with an emotional and
artistic component, as beda puts it.
093
16/06/2016 14:02
DESIGN / FEATURE
IMAGES: COURTESY BD BARCELONA
We try to work using reason,

though at times the heart wins
That is in our DNA
ABOVE The chrome

BDLove 2.0 bench
(2010) by Ross
Lovegrove, created
eight years after
the original BDLove
series
TOP The 2016
iteration of the
Showtime armchair,
sofa and Poltrona
hooded chair, created
for the collections
tenth anniversary
AUGUST 2016
Art has proved one fruitful avenue, dating

right back to the raunchy Hermaphrodite
cushion of 1972 by Catalan contemporaries
Eduardo Arranz-Bravo and Rafael Bartolozzi.
This approach really took off in 1991
with a collection of the most viable and
commercially appealing of Dalis furniture
designs, such as the Leda chair and the
Vis--Vis sofa. At the time, Tusquets wrote
of these works, drawn from Dals paintings
and sketches, that we kept reminding
ourselves that we were producing furniture
and not pieces for the art market.
Today, such qualms have been pushed
aside by commercial realities. Limited
editions have become the norm as the Dal
offerings become more esoteric, and have
proved a powerful tool in boosting sales and
visibility in the new markets of the Gulf and
China. This approach goes hand in hand

with selling such projects as exemplifying
artisanal skill. Tusquets regretfully
admits that we have lost the fight over
mass production. Image has replaced
functionality or ease of production as the
primary concern, and even such classics as
his Hypstila shelving fail to find export
markets, lacking the required ostentation.
But one hopes that BD Barcelona does
not end up, of necessity, specialising just
in design art, abandoning a more freewheeling past when it experimented with
the possibilities of domestic space and
invented new typologies in industrial
production. Standing on the margins of
European design and politics long gave
BD Barcelona a curious freedom, ensuring
a remarkable diversity and vigour over
four decades, which ranged across
markets, materials, styles and periods.
Pressures, whether from Ikea, design
rivals or architectural suppliers, may
have constrained their exuberance, but
as beda puts it, We try to work using
reason, though at times the heart wins,
overcoming the risks. That is in our DNA.
With this ambition, and their astonishing
back catalogue, BD Barcelona should
flourish in years to come.
095
16/06/2016 14:03
DESIGN / LIGHTING
Foscarini
At 35, the Venetian lighting
design house continues to
embrace the eclectic and
continues to thrive
BY PETER SMISEK
Foscarinis stand
at the Stockholm
Furniture Fair
AUGUST 2016
02-DESIGN-Lighting-AW_NJ.indd 97
oscarini is doing well. This

year alone, the Venetian
lighting brand celebrated
its 35th anniversary, along
with the 25th anniversary of
one of its most iconic lamps,
the Rodolfo Dordoni-designed Lumiere.
In February, the brand debuted at the
Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair, and
brought home the best stand award. In
2013, it opened a headquarters and a
showroom in New York, and just recently
began its expansion to Japan. Pretty
successful for a company that relies on a
traditional model of manufacturing, sales
and distribution.
The company was founded in 1981, and
first specialised in delivering large-scale,
custom-designed chandeliers in blown
Murano glass. After three years, it started
designing its own collection. Much has
changed since then the material palette
expanded and external designers were
commissioned, but the company still
relies on sourcing separate components
from specialised manufacturers within
the Veneto region for its highly eclectic

collections. Whenever we need a
special component, we can always find a
specialised workshop that can produce
just that, says Foscarini co-founder and
artistic director Carlo Urbinati. As long
as firms like his are doing good business,
these vital, but vulnerable, suppliers will
survive as well.
If traditional production methods still
rule at Foscarini, the approach to building
up its collection is an altogether more
intuitive process. When you choose a
designer, you choose a signature, says
Urbinati. You know what youre getting.
Instead, the products are developed based
on a mutual understanding and affinity
between the two partners. Ideas can be
much stronger than shapes, lines and
materials. Without ideas, were talking
about style I either like it or I dont like
it not design, Urbinati explains. How
this translates into a coherent strategy
or artistic direction is not exactly clear:
Foscarinis current line-up encompasses all
materials, finishes, typologies and styles,
097
16/06/2016 10:05
DESIGN / LIGHTING
BELOW The Lumiere
table lamp by
Rodolfo Dordoni,
now celebrating its
25th anniversary
LEFT Tartan by
Lodovica and
Roberto Palomba
was launched in
Milan this year
from minimalist (Ludovica and Roberto

Palombas asymmetrical blobby pendant
Gregg) to retro-nostalgic (Dordonis
aforementioned Lumiere table lamp) to
decadent (Patricia Urquiola and Eliana
Gerottos studded glass Caboche). This
years releases in Milan were no less
varied, and included a revamp of Dordonis
mushroom-like Buds light, and the brandnew Palomba-designed Tartan, a hanging
pendant with a gridded, moulded surface.
It would seem that the only discernable
common denominator, at least to a
casual observer, is a pursuit of quality of
AUGUST 2016
02-DESIGN-Lighting-AW_NJ.indd 99
design, and, lately, special attention being

lavished on the technical performance
of the products. Throughout the years
we worked with all the light sources and
until LED came, all the previous ones
had standardised sizes and fittings, says
Urbinati. You could always find a bulb
you needed, with consistent light quality,
no matter the brand. We were living in a
paradise where we were able to develop
designs without caring too much about
this component, because they were always
consistent and readily available. Now,
weve essentially been forced to be an LED
manufacturer for some of our best-selling

lights. Its been revolutionary for us, he
adds. Now we can get exactly what we
want out of technology.
And while the company has celebrated
35 years in business, it still seems like a
relative upstart compared with its closest
Italian competitors, Flos and Artemide,
both founded in the early 1960s. It is for
this reason that it has not, at least yet,
relaunched any of its products, though
it is happy to update colour palettes and
tweak the additions as necessary. And now,
for the first time in its history, a relaunch
is in the works. One of our products was
discontinued earlier in the decade, because
of some issues with fluorescent lights,
but we decided to redevelop it with LED,
Urbinati reveals, but insists well have
to wait and see at next years edition of
Euroluce in Milan.
But my ultimate dream is to develop
a new type of light, he continues. Arco
came up with the arch first, and then
we developed our version, Twiggy. Were
aiming to find new typologies for the
new technologies. The Danish masters
in the 1920s said that every big change
can only be caused by new technology,
and at the time, they had to design and
reshape everything to accommodate the
traditional bulbs. New technologies, new
opportunities, new needs can bring about
a new typology and we would like to be
the first ones to work on it. With a proven
track record in design and manufacturing,
and an eager embrace of the latest
developments, Foscarini is well placed
to be at the forefront of lightings next
design revolution.
099
16/06/2016 10:05
CLOCKWISE
FROM FAR LEFT
Caesarstone slabs in
their standard size in
the factory; natural
white quartz powder,
Caesarstones chief
component; displays
of Caesarstone slabs;
exterior and interior
views of the factory
100
02-DESIGN-Kitchen Bathroom-AW_DR_NJ.indd 100
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 14:07
DESIGN / KITCHEN & BATHROOM
Caesarstones
empire
The engineered-quartz company has collaborated with
some of the biggest names in design. But its products
always begin their journey in an ancient town in Israel
BY DOMINIC LUTYENS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SIVAN ASKAYO
AUGUST 2016
ounded in 1987, Israeli brand

Caesarstone prides itself on
the eponymous, state-of-theart quartz surface it invented.
And, since 2013, in a bid to be
perceived as design-focused,
it has collaborated with cutting-edge
designers including Oki Sato of Nendo,
Raw Edges and, most recently, Tom Dixon.
But its factory, near Caesarea 30 miles
south of Tel Aviv and part of the Sdot Yam
kibbutz stands in rugged countryside
steeped in history. Herod the Great built
the original coastal town around 25BC,
and today its ancient ruins, vast moat,
minareted mosque and amphitheatre
are vestiges of Roman, Arab and
Crusader occupations. More recently, the
Rothschilds set up a charitable foundation
here and the stratospherically rich are
colonising pockets of it, lending this rather
primeval setting a slightly unreal air.
101
16/06/2016 14:07
DESIGN / KITCHEN & BATHROOM
Resembling marble, stone or concrete,

and sometimes flecked with metallic
particles or featuring bas-relief patterns,
Caesarstones engineered quartz used
for kitchen worktops, bathrooms and
flooring is inordinately strong and heat-,
scratch- and stain-resistant. Its factory
is gargantuan and mainly automated.
New ideas for its designs are generated
in its comparatively small research and
development department, whose team is
inspired by anything from internet images
of the moons surface to colours gleaned
from Li Edelkoort, trend forecaster and
consultant to the company.
The manufacturing process begins
when white quartz powder chiefly
imported from India and Turkey, and
Caesarstones main ingredient is sucked
up chutes from a silo and deposited on
a platform. Resins and pigments in an
unpromisingly murky shade of brown
cascade from a conveyor belt onto the
powder and are blended with it.
The resulting mixture is poured into
moulds lined with paper and pressed to
create slabs measuring 3.05m x 1.44m and

weighing about 300kg each. The tops of
the slabs are also covered in heatproof
paper this prevents them from sticking
to the kilns where they are later placed
for 45 minutes and compacted using
a vacuum and vibration mechanism and
100-tonne weights. At this point, the
material solidifies, then hardens once in
the kilns (heated to approximately 80C).
When fired, the true colours of the
various versions of Caesarstone appear.
The slabs are then polished by tools
incorporating diamonds.
The final stage takes place in the
quality assurance room, where an
employee inspects the slabs to ensure
they contain no imperfections. Details of
the slabs exact composition (including
the batch of quartz powder used) are also
logged on a database, so defects that come
to light later can be traced back to earlier
stages of the manufacturing process.
The finished slabs are then packed up
and stored in racks, soon to set off on their
journeys worldwide.
102
ABOVE The factory,

which includes
areas where the
Caesarstone is
pressed and kilns
where it is fired
BELOW Caesarstone
slabs illustrating the
materials varied
spectrum of patterns
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 14:07
CLOCKWISE
FROM TOP LEFT
Slabs stored for
delivery, having been
transported to the
storage area by
fork-lift truck; a slice
of Caesarstone with
a quartz pattern;
pigments in the R&D
department; gas
containers and a
bike at the factory
entrance
AUGUST 2016
103
16/06/2016 14:08
DESIGN / FURNITURE
Hack by Vitra
Konstantin Grcic brings a raw glamour to the
workplace with a flexible, functional and
somewhat pricey office system
I
The core of each
Hack unit is
composed of four
pieces of oriented
strand board
AUGUST 2016
02-DESIGN-Furniture-Vitra hack_NJ.indd 105
BY JOHN JERVIS
ts been a long time coming

previews happened a couple of years
back but Vitras Hack office system
is finally with us. This long gestation
has been promoted as beta testing,
but has the prolonged tweaking
actually worked? At first glance, the
resulting product remains raw: four pieces
of oriented strand board arranged at right
angles. The aesthetic seems perfect for the
open-plan industrial spaces that designer
Konstantin Grcic encountered on his
extended research trip to both the giants
and start-ups of Silicon Valley.
But tech offices exist in constant flux,
demanding flexibility, affordability and
even disposability not generally Vitras
strongest suits. Hack tackles the first of
these requirements with aplomb. Behind
the rough facade is a complex beast. A

version with a recessed grip can be raised
up to 125cm, acting as a standing worktop,
meeting area or coffee bar. A version
with a recessed crank handle is even
more adaptable, and can also be lowered
smoothly right down to 30cm, allowing
a cushion set to be slid into place for the
construction of a sofa enclosure.
Hack, as Grcic says, ensures a built
space inside these democratic offices.
Instead of fortresses of monitors and books,
you have a tabletop with three walls that
create a personal space that can be adjusted
without neighbours being affected.
More, the worktop can be tilted and the
walls folded inwards, making a box to be
mounted on elegant wheeled cradles for
ease of movement and storage a boon
105
16/06/2016 10:11
DESIGN / FURNITURE
TOP A crank
handle can raise
or lower the surface
to act as either
standing desk or
sofa base
ABOVE The version
with a recessed
grip can be raised
up to 125cm high
AUGUST 2016
02-DESIGN-Furniture-Vitra hack_NJ.indd 107
for multifunctional office environments

or when coping with fluctuating staff
numbers. Having visited Silicon Valley,
Ithink there are real issues in how these
offices are used and what people expect of
them. Hack is not a solution for everything,
but it is one proposal that could work in
a cluster, creating one environment for
those doing a certain kind of work.
Up close, Hack is glamorous. Its smooth
extruded aluminium corners and raw
die-cast aluminium components are solid

and precise. Holes in the lacquered OSB
for cabling and handling are beautifully
finished; accessories slot neatly into place.
A genuine hack of this piece drilling an
extra hole for a favourite coffee cup or
adding a jacket hook would feel criminal.
The upshot of this perfection is a price
point that, for the time-being at least, is
double that of the other sit-stand workstation
on Vitras books: the Bouroullecs polished
(and electric) Tyde. The wheeled storage
cradles require a similar investment.
Its clear that Grcic would have preferred
a pared-back and possibly cheaper product:
To be honest, I feel they should have been
much simpler: theyve become a bit overengineered, but thats a Vitra disease. And,
despite the title, this is a product created
on traditional lines. Hacks functionality is
based around the intelligent prediction of
users needs rather than post-production
adaptability. It will be interesting to see if
the undeniable strengths of both concept
and aesthetic are enough to overcome the
substantial cost some traditional Vitra
customers may find Hacks vibe sufficiently
alluring; start-ups will probably continue
to knock out their own.
107
16/06/2016 10:11
DESIGN / ICON
Aloisio
Magalhes
The graphic artist and
educator who gave an
identity to 1960s Rio
BY FELIPE TABORDA
loisio Magalhes is
probably the most
important person in the
history of Brazilian graphic
design. Born in 1927 in
Recife, he studied in Paris
before returning to his hometown to
found O Grfico Amador, hand-printing
experimental books with artists and
poets. In 1960, he moved to Rio de Janeiro,
launching an industrial design and visual
communication studio that soon became
the most prominent in Brazil, employing a
host of creative, dynamic designers.
The country was bursting with
creativity at the time, in architecture,
music and fine arts, but it was a unique
period for graphic arts, too. Design was
added to the subjects on offer at the
Faculty of Architecture and Urban Studies
at the University of So Paulo, and the ESDI
(Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial)
opened in Rio in 1963. Established by
Magalhes, among others, this was the
first design school in Latin America.
This was a period when the media
started to talk about this new thing
design and the clarity and simplicity of
Magalhess work gave it popular appeal.
His logo celebrating the 400th anniversary
of Rio in 1965 was one of the most
successful, and could be found virtually
everywhere at the time, whether as a
graphic on walls or as part of street signs.
In its golden period, his studio was
working for all the main Brazilian
companies, such as Petrobras, Light and
Unibanco, producing logos and corporate
identities that remain contemporary today.
His very personal approach, explaining his
aesthetic point of view directly to clients,
helped establish his reputation. Back
then, designers could still talk to company
directors without interference and, in
the case of Petrobras, Magalhes simply
called the president and told him that he
AUGUST 2016
03-Design-ICON-SK_JJ_NJ.indd 109
could see the firms headquarters, with its

ugly logo, from his window, and that he
proposed to change it.
Magalhess knowledge of design, music
and arts was extensive. He was influenced
by Max Bense, MC Escher and Max Bill,
as well as by designers such as Paul Rand,
Ivan Chermayeff and Bruno Munari, but
developed his own elegant style. He also
encouraged team work, listening to ideas
from any source, picking the best and
developing them.
A long-standing involvement with
politics led him to become culture
secretary in 1981, five years after creating
the National Center for Cultural Reference
in Brasilia to explore the origins of popular
art and design, documenting its processes
to preserve cultural continuity.
Magalhes died suddenly in Italy in 1982
while presiding over a Unesco meeting on
the preservation of cities and monuments.
Thanks to his enduring efforts, he left
Brazil more aware of its traditions, its
cultural identity and its heritage.
TOP Aloisio
Magalhes in his
Riostudio in 1966
ABOVE Spread
from Improvisao
Grfica (Graphic
Improvisation),
a handmade
book published
by OGrfico
Amador in1958
109
16/06/2016 14:04
110
02-DESIGN-Q&A_Ilse Crawford_DR_NJ.indd 110
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 14:29
DESIGN / Q&A
Ilse Crawford
Designer
You need to drill into
the life of a building
INTERVIEW BY DEBIKA RAY
ILLUSTRATION BY LAUREN CROW
lse Crawford has built her reputation

on designing interior spaces that
prioritise comfort over ostentation
an approach that she teaches as part
of her role as the head of Man and
Well-Being at Design Academy
Eindhoven. She established her Londonbased practice Studioilse back in 2001,
bringing her distinctive conception of
warm, understated luxury to hotels,
restaurants, retail spaces, airports and
private homes. Icon met her as she
prepared to expand her studios work
in product and furniture design.
ILSE CRAWFORD Maison & Object

wanted to rethink how a fair could be
valuable to people who go there. It was
interested in projects such as our Cathay
Pacific airport lounges, Ett Hem in
Stockholm and Soho House, which blur the
boundaries between public and private,
work, home and play. Weve designed the
space as somewhere that reflects different
psychosocial needs: there are places to
relax, recharge, work, learn, collapse.
The aim is to make those experiences
pleasurable: not just address functions,
but create spaces people feel good in.
ICON Congratulations on being named

the Designer of the Year for the September
edition of Maison & Objet in Paris. Ibelieve
youll be the first award-winner to also
design the networking and working space
at the fair. So, how did this come about?
ICON I would ask about the challenges of

designing in a non-space like an exhibition
hall, but it sounds like your inspiration
comes from users more than context.
IC Exactly thats always the case.
Individuals have huge power in the social
AUGUST 2016
context, and the combination of the two

fascinates me. Someone recently asked
me if I have social anthropologists or
behavioural psychologists on my team. Im
interested in those fields, but I think our
strength as a studio is creating a balance
between the cool head and warm heart
the measurable and immeasurable.
The individual truth often gets lost in
the measurable world. When we did the
Cathay Pacific lounges there was lots of
data, but none of it said, tired, jetlagged,
late or hungry. The problem with the
measurable is it can be generic: you end
up with a median that doesnt represent
anybody. Individual experiences give you
the insight to build something bigger.
ICON You seem to see your role as about
much more that just physical objects. Do
you call yourself an interior designer?
111
16/06/2016 14:29
DESIGN / Q&A
IC Im a designer I like straightforward

words. For us, the interior is the expression
of a life, a world, a system, a reality. We
execute the interiors side of a project
its one of the tactics as part of a wider
strategy. Ultimately, furniture and interior
environments are channels for life its so
much more than just furniture.
ICON But why do you think critics dont
take interiors as seriously as architecture?
IC I think architecture did a good job
of giving itself professional credentials,
and in creating a kind of moral high
ground. Its also about the system: to build
something you need planning permission,
so the architect tends to get in first, even
though theyre only a part of the package.
Typically, interiors people end up at the
end of the chain, often left with the
budget for a few chairs.
It doesnt make sense for

design to be done in silos
IMAGES: ETT HEM, PHOTOGRAPHED BY MAGNUS MARDING
Really, they should be included at

the beginning, when youre trying to
understand the purpose of a building and
the life that will be lived in it. In many
cases, that bit of the job is abdicated. With
some of the great utopian buildings of the
1920s and 30s, like the Pioneer Centre in
Peckham, the idea was of a building that
could give cues for healthy living they
really thought about it as a whole. The
time is right for that sort of thinking in
buildings again.
ICON Would you consider working on that
larger scale then, doing architecture?
IC Im not an architect I dont lay claim
to that; I love architecture and I love
working with architects. We make them
look better and vice versa, so the more
architects and designers work together
from the beginning the better. It doesnt
make sense for design to be done in silos.
You never know where in a circle the real
insight will come from.
I also think more buildings should be
designed from the bottom up rather than
the top down. Just filling an envelope
is not the right approach you need to
drill into the life of a building. It would
be interesting to do a project where
you start from the personal, then move
AUGUST 2016
outwards to the universal, rather than the

other way round, which is typically what
architecture does.
ICON On the opposite end of the scale,
youve decided to expand your practices
work in product and furniture design. How
might your approach to design evolve?
IC The simple answer is, it wont it
will always start from our interest in
use. For example, our Together table has
dimensions based around conversation
making friends, squeezing in accidental
arrivals. To date, weve mostly designed
products because there was something we
needed on a project and, over time, weve
accumulated a back catalogue of several
hundred. Then we heard that Sinnerlig,
our range for Ikea, was performing 200
per cent over target in Europe, and it made
us realise there was more of a point in us
doing product design than Id thought.
[My husband] Oscar [Pea] has joined
the studio to be in charge of that side
of the practice. Hes a product and
industrial designer by training, so he can
really own it. Its an area were going to
develop, but were still considering how
to do so. To date, weve only worked with
smallish companies that have the systems,
production and ethics we value, and Id
TOP Design for the

networking and
working space at
Maison & Objet,
Paris, 2016
ABOVE Ett
Hem hotel, a
converted Arts &
Crafts building in
Stockholm, 2012
113
16/06/2016 14:29
DESIGN / Q&A
IMAGE: SINNERLIG COLLECTION PHOTOGRAPHED BY FELIX ODELL
Product design is an area

were going to develop
like to continue that. But whether we

retail our own things Its an interesting
question because the context in which
products are sold and seen is a big part of
how they turn out.
ICON W hat sets you apart from other
product designers?
IC We have 15 years of experience in
designing interiors and seeing how they
are used. That would be our perspective
using that intelligence to make products
that make sense in an environment.
When you design interiors, there are
objects you just cant find and those you
want to use over and over again. We share
knowledge from our projects: what cant
we find, whats missing, what you need an
alternative to, what you use too much.
ABOVE Pieces
from the Sinnerlig
collection for
Ikea, 2015
ABOVE RIGHT Brass
cabinet, handcrafted
by Jack Trench, 2014
AUGUST 2016
ICON Do you also envisage taking on

projects proposed by manufacturers?
IC Weve been doing that increasingly. At
the moment, were working with Zanat,
a Bosnian company that makes wooden
furniture using a carving technique
thats on the Unesco World Heritage list.
Its aim is to preserve this skill and make
it relevant and profitable. Were doing
benches for them it had to be a product
that uses carving not as decoration, but to
add functionality and quality.
ICON Nurturing an industry and

technique thats an interesting secondary
role that design can have.
ICDesign is always doing that maybe
not consciously. When you design,
youre not just affecting the user, youre
creating a chain of reactions the other
way. Everything that you do has a positive
or negative effect. With Sinnerlig, for
example, it was a conscious choice to
use cork, a material with sustainable
credentials that is also very important for
jobs because of the recent drop in sales to
the wine industry [with the rise in screwtop bottles].
ICON How do you think your approach to
design has changed over your career?
IC I think Im getting better! Or at least I
hope so. I met a developer once who said
he only employed older interior designers.
I think theres some truth in that:
learning about life and how spaces work in
different situations, with different people
you develop that over time. Designing
individual items is something that you
absolutely need a talent for, but once you
start to integrate these into a system, you
probably also need a longer perspective.
NEXT ISSUE We talk to Oki Sato about
his new show at Design Museum Holon
115
16/06/2016 13:39
PRODUCTS
PRODUCTS
August 2016
The following pages feature a selection
of products that are currently available
across the design market, from large-scale
commercial brands to smaller independent
studios and individual designers
Our Product of the Month is the Big Pascha pendant lamp
by Fraumaier found on page 119
All of the items featured

on these pages can also
be found in the Products
section on our website,
iconeye.com
Antron carpet fibre
Astro Lighting
CMD
Antron carpet fibre, working

with colour consultant Colour
Hive, is set to launch four trend
themes that refocus palettes
around the concept of
exploration. In Aquatic Voyage,
oceanic blues and greens
alongside dark depths and
luminescent accents capture
the complexity of the ocean.
The Infinite Shadow theme
presents a cool palette of
intense contrasts, focusing
on form and core structure.
Classic Allure is an elegant and
organic palette that is
atmospheric and rich. The
fourth theme is Coded Canvas,
both playful and energetic amid
saturated bright colours.
antron.eu
With an ultra-slim profile,

Mondrian from Astro is
designed to enhance artworks
without causing distraction. Its
energy-efficient LED light
source provides a CRI of 80+
and zero UV for faithful
rendering of colours. There is a
choice of bronze or matt nickel
finishes and options for
mounting above or behind the
picture. The head is adjustable
and a choice of drivers
accommodates a variety of
dimming protocols.
astrolighting.co.uk
CMDs New Inca power and USB

charging module has been
designed specifically for
communal areas and meeting
rooms.This stylish charging
module is available in black,
grey and white and has four
faces that can be configured in
a variety of ways to provide the
perfect power and charging
solution for any working
environment.
cmd-ltd.com
116
06-PRODUCT-AUGUST_NJ.indd 116
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 13:06
PRODUCTS
Domus
Eric Slayton
Herman Miller
Junckers
Domus launches Rombini, a

new porcelain tile collection
from Mutina. Exclusive to
Domus in the UK, Rombini was
created by Ronan and Erwan
Bouroullec. With an exciting
exploration of colour and a
sense of vibration at its heart,
Rombini uses squares, triangles
and diamonds in a palette of
white, grey, blue, green and
red. The geometry is
interpreted in a 3D format to
create plays of light and
shadow. The pieces, available in
small and large, create a 3D
corrugated wall covering when
placed alongside each other,
with alternating ridges and
grooves.
domusgroup.com
The Cast Aluminium Console

table from Eric Slayton has a
pared-down material palette of
two-to-one compared to the
standard three-to-one seen in
Slaytons other collections.
Sand-cast plates of recycled
aluminium, each with the
qualities and variations Slayton
searches for, are welded
together and then polished to a
mirrored finish. Air pockets,
which are a natural aspect of
the casting process, are
highlighted, resulting in a
beautiful example of wabi-sabi.
ericslayton.com
Herman Millers Keyn Chair

Group is a new range of
meeting and side chairs that
offers responsive movement
and immediate comfort for
collaborative spaces. Available
with three base options (fourleg, cantilever and four-star),
Keyn can be transformed
through colour, material and
finish choices to create a variety
of styles for any space. Combine
a clean white finish with fresh
bright colours for a casual area.
Choose a polished base and
fully upholstered leather for an
executive feel.
hermanmiller.co.uk
Harraby Community Campus

has 700sq m of Junckers solid
hardwood floor installed in its
main hall, small hall and
community theatre. Junckers
22mm Sylva Sport Premium is
made in solid beech and has
proved a popular choice for
educational projects. It provides
safe high-quality flooring,
suitable for multi-use purposes.
It can be sanded, refinished up
to nine times and ensures
virtually unbeatable life-cycle
costs.
junckers.co.uk
AUGUST 2016
117
16/06/2016 13:06
PRODUCTS
Product
of the
Month
Marzorati Ronchetti
Material Lust
Roca
Fraumaier
Marzorati Ronchetti introduces

its latest design: a sheet of brass
ingeniously transformed into a
sculptural object. Founded in
1922 in Cant, northern Italy,
the firm boasts 94 years of
research and a solid artisan
tradition in the artistic
processing of metal. Available
in a limited edition in silk satin
or burnished brass, Oudjat
merges two objects a seat and
a console. Skilfully cut, shaped
and welded by master forgers,
the sheet is transformed into a
medley of gentle curves that
develop freely in space. With its
equilibrium of form, as well as
remarkable lightness and
rigidity, Oudjat is ideal for
exclusive surroundings.
marzoratironchetti.it
The brass Crepuscule floor lamp

is part of Material Lusts
Geometry is God collection. It is
driven by a fascination with
pagan and alchemical
symbolism and ancient
geometries. With this series,
Material Lust has attempted to
reinterpret these markings
without losing the potency of
their primary aesthetic. The
Crepuscule floor lamp also
comes in blackened brass with
a brushed brass interior. The
lamps are made to order, with
each piece being meticulously
handmade by a family of
master artisans in Florence,
Italy and New York. Material
Lust was founded by Lauren
Larson and ChristianSwafford.
material-lust.com
Roca has launched Inspira, a

versatile vitreous china and
furniture collection with three
design lines Round, Soft and
Square resulting in multiple
design combinations. The
collection features basins with
FINECERAMIC, a new highquality material that is lighter
and more resistant than
conventional basins. Basins are
available as over-countertop,
in-countertop and wall-hung
options and a range of furniture
is available in gloss white, city
oak, and city oak with dark
mirror finishes. The wall-hung
Inspira WCs are available with
rimless technology, compatible
with all Roca concealed
cisterns.
uk.roca.com
Fraumaiers Big Pascha is the

largest member of the Pascha
pendant family, with a diameter
of 74cm and a height of only
29cm. The supporting structure
is made of aluminium covered
in various layers of filaments
while an acrylic glass blend
shade covers the three
exchangeable bulb fittings.
Big Pascha has three standard
colours but can be finished in
up to 40 colours. To create a
more vivid and striking
impression, even solid colours
consist of filament
combinations of different tones.
fraumaier.com
AUGUST 2016
119
16/06/2016 13:07
PRODUCTS
Khrs
Johnson Tiles
Junckers
modulyss
Khrs Oak Sparuto has been

specified at Pho Grand Central
a new Vietnamese street food
eatery at Birmingham Grand
Central. Khrs design-treated
wood floor complements Phos
raw, urban design and eclectic
mix of materials, from steel to
bamboo. Part of the Da Capo
collection, Oak Sparuto joins
Khrs dark-toned colour
spectrum and features a tactile
brushed and hand-scraped
finish, giving an aged and
organic impression. The timber
is smoked and oiled to deepen
its tone and each board is
bevelled to accentuate the
one-strip plank format.
kahrs.com
Leading UK manufacturer
Johnson Tiles has reinforced its
Absolute collection to offer the
architecture and design
community unlimited mix-andmatch opportunities with their
new designs Baseline, District
and Palladium. Palladium is
elegantly simple in its design
and is available in large-format
sizes with two metallic finishes
the shades of Light and Dark
work to create contrasting yet
complementary schemes. Two
contemporary sizing options of
1,200 x 600mm and 900 x
450mm are available in either a
Natural or Grip finish.
johnson-tiles.com
Some 600sq m of Junckers

solid oak flooring adorns the
bright, lively heart of the new
building of the multi awardwinning Lairdsland Primary
School, adding natural warmth
to the space. Junckers prefinished solid hardwood floors
are ideal for use with underfloor heating, as they are
naturally stable with low
moisture content. Committed
to sustainable forestry and
certified by PEFC and FSC,
Junckers solid hardwood floors
are hardwearing and easy to
care for, adding an elegant
backdrop to any interior.
junckers.co.uk
modulyss provides specifiers

and designers with a solution to
a common problem in
commercial interiors the
dBack equipped carpet tiles
reduce noise by up to 50 per
cent, showing a 15 per cent
improvement in absorption of
impact sound. Specifying
modulyss carpet tiles with
dBack is an efficient way to
solve the problem without
resorting to complex and
expensive acoustic underlays.
Featuring 70 per cent recycled
content and dense recycled
polyester, dBack can be
specified as an option on the
entire modulyss carpet
collection.
modulyss.com
AUGUST 2016
121
16/06/2016 14:47
PRODUCTS
HI-MACS
Hitch Mylius
Moduleo
Karcher
Aran Cucine presents the new,

refined version of its Volare
Kitchen in HI-MACS Midnight
Grey. HI-MACS shapes the
elegant curves of Volare thanks
to its thermoformable
properties and invisible joints,
creating extreme, continuous
and uniform design. The
rounded base of the sink
integrates perfectly with the
rest of the acrylic stone counter
top. In distinctive Midnight
Grey, the kitchen merges
harmoniously with the rest of
the space, giving it a metallic
and modern finish.
himacs.eu
The hm102 seating system by

Massimo Mariani offers an
exciting new level of creativity
and flexibility. Mariani
developed a simple system
made up of a backrest, seat and
single armrest, to build up a
family of modules. The range
consists of proportioned
building blocks to generate all
kinds of seating. The
upholstered platforms appear
to float on the base frame,
while the armrest and backrest
offer comfort and provide
another working surface. The
system was launched at
Clerkenwell Design Week 2016.
hitchmylius.co.uk
The boutique fitness centre,

Bluestone Fitness, has opted for
Scarlet Oak from Moduleos
popular Impress collection for a
recent refurbishment. Selected
for its outstanding features
including slip, scratch and scuff
resistance, the luxury vinyl
flooring makes a stylish yet safe
addition. Moduleos Impress
collection boasts a wide variety
of realistic wood-effect designs
featuring a registered emboss
texture.
moduleo.co.uk
Karchers Flush EPL Plate

creates a personal space for the
companys lever handles,
allowing customers to mount
every Karcher handle to the
flush-mounted plate
particularly its rectangular
lever handles. Karchers brand
new door handle with inlay, the
Torino R53, adapts perfectly to
the satin stainless steel finished
plate, creating a contemporary
and unique look for each room.
karcher-design.co.uk
122
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 14:47
PRODUCTS
Morgan
RAK
Red Source Interiors
Sottini
As part of the contemporary

Manhattan Collection, Morgan
has launched the new
Manhattan Nap Booth.
Designed by Katerina
Zachariades, the Nap Booth is
available with or without
fretwork screens and features
an air-charge unit that enables
you to set your phone alarm for
a 15-minute power nap. With
longer workdays and busier
schedules, the Nap Booth offers
a haven of comfort and calm to
reinvigorate and motivate its
users.
morganfurniture.co.uk
A new stone-effect tile range

has joined RAKs porcelain
collection. Coheba includes four
stylish base tiles and a
contemporary mixed-mosaic
design. All surfaces have a
Lappatto finish and offer huge
design scope for commercial
and residential application. All
tiles measure 40 x 40cm with
single shades including beige,
ivory, brown and anthracite and
the urban-style mosaic design
repeating four shades
throughout two columns.
Coheba provides exceptional
durability with water and stain
resistance while boasting a
stunning, natural aesthetic.
rakceramics.co.uk
Metalmobil introduces Flint, a

highly contemporary and
advanced armchair. The
combination of its parts, the
steel back and frame, and
polypropylene seat are
produced using a fine-tuned
assembly system. Chrome,
burnished chrome and brass
finishes are now available with
a wood or upholstered seat,
giving the Flint armchair a
versatile elegant finish,
whether being used indoors or
outdoors.It is showcased at Red
Source Interiors online
specialist resource for choosing,
specifying and buying
furnishings.
contractfurniturestore.co.uk
Sottinis range of freestanding

bathtubs embodies modern
luxury and elegance, with
flowing curves and refined
edges, exemplified in its classic
slipper-style bathtub. Sottini
washbasins are inspired by
nature, with innovative
functional features and the
flexibility necessary for modern
life. The recently launched
Mavone and Isarca bathroom
collections reflect exceptional
adaptability for even the
smallest bathrooms, with their
modern and minimalistic
designs.
sottini.co.uk
AUGUST 2016
125
16/06/2016 13:07
OPINION
Where is the
architecture?
Instead of debating their own work at this years Venice
Biennale, architects are dabbling in serious issues they know
nothing about. This is not our mission, says Patrik Schumacher
THE VENICE BIENNALE is meant to be

a global architectural forum for internal
discourse about contemporary architecture
as well as a forum to test the publics
reaction to contemporary design.
How can this happen without
architectural designs on display? Where
is the work of the architects? Why should
architects become amateur documentary
artists and amateur politicians?
Of course there are exceptions to
this overall verdict, but this Biennale
fails once more to display and discuss
world architectures most advanced and
ambitious current works. In turn, it fails to
critique architectures real responsibility
to world society by abandoning
architectures real, specific, manifest
agendas and substituting for them vague
allusions to topical issues such as the
refugee crisis and perennial issues like
underdevelopment and poverty.
At the very moment when we should
step up into a public arena to present,
defend and debate our work, we are asked
to abandon our professional competency
and responsibility, and revert to dabbling
in serious issues we know nothing about.
This self-appointment is preposterous
and signals confusion about our genuine
societal task.
Alejandro Aravena and many national
curators (for example, the German and
the Austrian pavilions) are pandering
to perceived pressures on architects to
signal awareness of urgent social issues
and to gesture concern. This accomplishes
nothing, except perhaps the alleviation
of bad conscience or the vague feeling of
being relevant, for a few days. Then we
all must go back to our real work without
using our gathering in Venice to debate,
critique and advance our work.
The result is our most precious
communicative spaces the Arsenale,
the International Pavilion, as well as
most of the national pavilions are being
squandered in pursuit of the vague artistic
documentation of above-mentioned social,

economic and political problems.
We should be confident about the
societal relevance of our discipline and our
real work and resist the temptation to bow
to the pressure of topical issues, no matter
how urgent these issues are. These are not
our issues.
We must think in terms of long-term
technological and socio-economic trends
and opportunities. The Biennale is meant
to showcase progressive (built and unbuilt)
design projects that explore the most
advanced high-density, high-productivity,
high-value arenas of world civilisation.
This calls for path-breaking creativity and
superior sophistication rather than the
emergency provisions for self-build huts.
It is with the former rather than with
the latter task that we can add serious
value and effectively contribute to world
prosperity. My stance is thus as much
motivated by promoting architectures
mission to progress society as is Aravenas.
In order to demonstrate my constructive
spirit, I would like to posit here how I
would curate the Venice Biennale. For a
thoroughly inclusive global gathering of
all striving architects and their works, I
would allocate the Arsenale to an unbiased
survey of architects/works on the basis of
architectural media citations, with space
being allocated in proportion to citations.
The Biennale must be the architects
and architectures Biennale. Therefore
my brief to the national pavilions would
be to address all topics and themes via
actual projects.
A strong Biennale should posit a
strong thesis to galvanise a frank and
focused debate that can help to forge the
disciplines convergence towards a shared
paradigm. Therefore I would dedicate the
International Pavilion to a highly selective,
strong, programmatic show that would
confidently and self-critically present
the most accomplished protagonists
ofparametricism.
126
04-IDEAS-Schumacher_NJ.indd 126
TOP Incidental
Space, Sandra Oehy
and Christian Kerezs
project for the
SwissPavilion
BELOW LEFT
The Irish Pavilion,
featuring Nall
McLaughlin
and Yeoryia
Manolopoulous
Losing Myself
BELOW RIGHT
Lightscape by
Louvre Abu Dhabi
consultants
Transsolar in
theArsenale
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 15:29
AUGUST 2016
04-IDEAS-Schumacher_NJ.indd 127
127
16/06/2016 15:29
IDEAS
Unplanned design
The precious autonomy of the designer is under threat from an army of
robots, joggers, snakes and multicellular slime-mould. Julius Ingemann
Breitenstein explains all. Illustrated by Alessandro Apai
Darwinian design
Desire paths
Animals and microbes
Can evolutional algorithms

make furniture?
Because designers dont always

know the best route
Introducing the first inter-species

collaborations
AS PART OF its new Design and Make

masters course, the Architectural
Assocation is employing evolutional
algorithms to find the optimum
organisation of timber structural supports
that have been robotically cut from trees.
Testing hundreds of options, they have
bred together the most successful ones
to form a new generation. Over many
generations, an optimised and stable
structure can be achieved.
Evolutional algorithms attempt to
emulate the unplanned yet functional
outcomes created through natural
selection rather than using set rules to
reach a solution. By relinquishing control
in this manner, Dutch designer Joris
Laarman has created amazingly organic
furniture and architectural pieces such
as the Bone chair, with branching forms
that would have been impossible to create
through a standard design process.
Algorithms have the potential to reach
entirely new design solutions, but it would
be interesting to see more designers
question and evaluate the output rather
than accepting it as a final outcome. The
next step should be finding a balance where
algorithms become tools within a process,
rather than encompassing its entirety.
TAKE A STROLL through any park and

you will almost inevitably come across
a desire path, the worn-down earthy
line gouged out by park goers repeatedly
ignoring the paths set in stone (or usually
concrete) by the parks designer.
Unplanned and uncontrolled, desire
paths are the physical manifestation of
differences between a designers personal
vision and the real world. There is often
something humorous to the juxtaposition
between the winding, flneur-centric
paths created by designers, and the matterof-fact way in which they are ignored.
On the surface, desire paths may seem
like a route of least resistance, getting a
commuter from point A to point B, but
there are diverse systems that can cause
their creation, such as joggers running
alongside the roads to preserve their joints
from repetitive impact. Even in the natural
world, multicellular slime-mould can
find impressively perceptive routes when
placed in complex mazes.
It may be difficult for designers to
predict how their work will be used, yet
they should not shy away from this realworld reception. They should swallow their
pride, and make desire paths a concrete
element of design.
NEVER WORK WITH children or

animals is a longstanding prohibition,
yet, at least as far as animals and their
microbial cousins are concerned, this
guidance is increasingly being spurned
by designers and architects alike. There
are those who treat microbes purely as
materials, such as the Mycelium Project
by Amsterdam-based studio Officina
Corpuscoli, using them as a component of
the manufacturing process, but with no
influence over final designs.
However, there are signs that less
controlling relationships are emerging.
The Design by Animals project by Swedish
duo Front explores cross-taxonomical
collaboration in a light-hearted manner.
From snake-designed hangers created from
constricted clay, to intricate details created
by insects eating away at tables, each
animal has its own design traits.
Back in the microbial sphere, Dutch
designer Erik Klarenbeek subverts the
use of mycelium spores as structural
components, allowing living fungus to
branch outside of 3D-printed structures.
The potential of animals as designers
remains curiously underutilised, yet they
have proved successful in their own spheres.
Perhaps it is time for another look?
128
04-IDEAS-SK_JJ_NJ.indd 128
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 10:58
RETHINK
RIGHT The new

identity wil help
visitors to navigate
Romes sights
BELOW The
distinctive
typography can be
used across a range
of applications
The Museum of Ahhh!

The eternal city is resting on its laurels,
writes Vilnius-based studio New! Its time
to give it a little more direction
HOW IS IT that one of the most
breathtaking cities in the world has a
rather sad visual identity? Weve heard
that Rome crushes designers ambitions
there is so much beauty around that its
almost useless to try and create something
new. We dare to disagree a strong
identity could help us to enjoy the city
with a new perspective. In addition, Rome
is a hugely popular place for a city break.
Even if locals shrug at our ideas, this work
is aimed at people coming to the city:
curious visitors, wanderers and explorers.
Rome is an open-air museum. The air is
thick with history even the shabbiest
churches or most desolate monuments
would be welcomed by most places as the
most beautiful objects in their city.
AUGUST 2016
06-Rethink-AW_JJ._NJ.indd 129
Everywhere you turn, there is something

to make you give a sigh of pleasure:
Ahhh! Every church you enter is grande;
every fountain your eyes rest on is
bellissimo. There are so many ahhhs
that we decided to rename Rome the
Museum of Ahhh! Its a slogan, but also a
metaphor for a game you can play in the
city: behind every corner theres
something waiting to be discovered.
Weve chosen a contemporary serif font,
Eksell Display Large, for the wordmark. It
blends modernity with hints of ancient
letterforms. This reflects Rome itself: rich
in history but always moving forward to
match contemporary lifestyles. The new
wordmark is often displayed alongside an
arrow symbol containing the slogan
Museum of Ahhh!, to be used coherently

across applications. This arrow highlights
the directional aspect of the identity we
aim to make Rome more accessible to
tourists, enabling them to discover secrets
hidden across this legendary city.
Weve chosen Ahhh! as the slogan to
communicate the joy of wandering and
discovering. In addition, the concept of an
interjection becomes a useful tool to
highlight the expressiveness of Italian
culture emotional, passionate and always
charming. After all, you are visiting a city
where relaxed lunches turn into evening
feasts, where history decorates every
corner, where a delicious gelato has to be
eaten fast before its consumed by the
summer heat.
129
16/06/2016 11:56
OBSESSION
The Negroni
IT STARTED SOME years ago in a bar in Formentera.
Intrigued by a mysterious red cocktail, we asked the
bartender for its name. The Negroni, he said, as we
watched him combine sweet vermouth, bitters and gin
over ice, adding a wedge of orange. We instantly fell for
the first challenging note, then the bittersweet balance.
Back at home, we began researching the Negroni and
found it was far more just than a drink. It expresses a
time in history a story of architecture, design, art,
fashion, passion and free spirits. To start, it has a duo
of impressive origin stories: the more cited involves an
Italian count exiled to New York in the golden age of
cocktails; the other has Corsican aristocrats, a general
decorated by Napoleon and the threat of a duel.
Then theres its close relationship to art and design.
Campari, almost always the bitter, and vermouth-maker
Martini & Rossi were patrons of the arts, working with
avant-garde designers on their advertising. Fortunato
Deperos design for the single-dose Campari Soda bottle

remains today. (Futurists like Depero were drawn to the
seemingly scientific process of mixology.) The Martini
Terrazza bars, where Negronis flowed, were among
Martini & Rossis branding endeavours. In 1960, Fellini
premiered La Dolce Vita at Terrazza Milano, paving
the way for more venues worldwide their modernist
designs and urban vistas attracting creatives of the day.
Credited with bringing cocktails to the regular
Milanese, Bar Basso, a hub of activity during the Salone
del Mobile, still champions the Negroni, while a rooftop
bar in trendy Peckham has helped popularise it in
London. With its balance of flavours, and just enough
alcohol to whet the appetite, a Negroni is the ideal
aperitif to mark the end of work and start of play. For
us, it represents a surrender to the love of living.
The Life Negroni, a book by Leigh and Nargess Banks, is
available from Spinach Publishing at thelifenegroni.com
130
04-OBSESSION-Negroni_DR_NJ.indd 130
IMAGE: FORTUNATO DEPERO, CAMPARI, THE LIFE NEGRONI, SPINACH PUBLISHING
A heady mix of Jazz Age New York, Napoleonic duels and Italian
futurism not forgetting the wedge of orange Nargess and
Leigh Banks recount how they fell in love with a cocktail
ICONEYE.COM
16/06/2016 14:22

Icon - August 2016

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Icon - August 2016

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Lifestyle Architecture Design

Exclusive interviews, reports from

KIT Googles long-awaited

DESTINATION BIGs pixelly

HOTEL Patricia Urquiolas

OFFICE Spatial alchemy

PUBLIC Norman Fosters

PUBLIC Alvaro Sizas refined

FEATURE Forty years of

KITCHEN AND BATHROOM

FURNITURE Konstantin Grcic

ICON Joo Batista Vilanovas

ICON Graphic designer Aloisio

Q&A Rio de Janeiros mayor

REVIEW Patrik Schumacher

IDEAS Might designers

RETHINK Rome has been

OBSESSION Two writers on

display sales executive

Richard Morey, Mike Dynan

circulation & marketing

chief operating officer

Icon is published monthly by

ince the 2004 Athens Olympics, the

WILLIAM HENLEY (1) from Metro

LAGOS COLLAPSE The

SWEDEN KINGS SPEECH

PLAGIARISM BUSY Aldi

IMAGE: IWAN BAAN

Kit Home Travel

CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK / WATCH

Hach is defined by its

FOUNDED IN 2014, London-based

lugs and a numberless dial. We wanted

CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK / FLOORING

LEFT The Dot

ITS HARD TO believe that anyone

in six different patterns, inspired by

CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK / WHEELCHAIR

CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK / TRANSPORT

Similarly, the phone was meant to be

THE MORNING SUN, unexpected but

IMAGE: IWAAN BAAN

Bjarke Ingels finds an rigorous solution

IMAGES: IWAAN BAAN

said he was interested in creating

TOP The pavilion

Asif Khan, Barkow

IMAGES: GARY ESPRIT

KENSINGTON EATERY OURS is the

The retained catwalk, which serves

Trees and trailing

Room Mate Giulia

IMAGES: CREDIT CREDIT

Patricia Urquiolas Milan hotel combines

MILANS LATEST DESIGN hotel, Room

And a pleasant surprise it is. Our aim

LEFT The boldly

LEFT AND BELOW

IMAGE: MOVIE POSTER IMAGE ART

BOTTOM The clinical

a few select pieces of furniture: bold

LIFESTYLE / DESIGN NEIGHBOURHOOD

The ports and shipyards suffered