Why Finns do design better

While Palm Springs, California has no shortage of marvellous midcentury architecture, not all of these historic homes were created equal. The vast residence at 650 E Tachevah Drive – completed by architectural designer Howard Lapham in 1966 and spanning 9,445 sq ft – is one of the largest and most impressive properties from the era within the city limits. A real estate developer bought it and, along with his girlfriend, hired Los Angeles-based interior designer Jessica Ayromloo to reanimate its capacious entertaining spaces and 12 bedrooms. ‘They were looking for somebody who could re-envision it, but still keep the original aesthetic and bones,’ Ayromloo tells Dan Howarth.

While retaining the classic midcentury features, Ayromloo dialled up the drama a few notches to live up to the ‘party house feel’. Located in Palm Springs’ Movie Colony neighbourhood, the home lent itself to her cinematic references, from Barbarella to The Jetsons. Step into the resulting sci-fi fantasy.

A visit to Helsinki Design Week should be prescribed to anyone feeling bleak about the future of humanity. Each autumn, as the light and leaves begin to turn, the Finnish capital reminds its population, and a growing number of design advocates from elsewhere, how design makes life better.

As with any design week, there are requisite furniture launches here too. But the real strength of Helsinki Design Week is its confident and relaxed demonstration of how design spills into everyday life; how it makes for a better urban habitat; how good design improves with age and use; how technology can hold hands with craft; and how long- and short-term thinking work together to implement strategy into action.

Every year we return from Helsinki feeling existentially optimistic and wondering if a life among the berries and mushrooms, sauna and salmiakki, might in fact be the answer. Here, Hugo Macdonald shares 12 new Finnish design reasons to be cheerful.

Think you know the work of Geoffrey Bawa (1919-2003)? A visit to the Vitra Design Museum’s new show is certain to offer fresh insights into the lauded Sri Lankan architect’s projects. ‘Geoffrey Bawa: Architecture for the Senses’, open till the end of February 2027, takes a deep dive into his life and oeuvre, speaking to timeless qualities and an ever-relevant approach to design and architecture that resonates the world around.

Setting up a studio in his home country in 1957, Bawa worked on some 200 projects during his career, largely in Sri Lanka, India and Southeast Asia. Many people will know him for his own houses, including a countryside base at the Lunuganga Estate in Bentota, now run by the Teardrop hotel group – but the architect’s legacy is so much more than that, as this exhibition sets out to showcase.

‘We think Bawa shows how the International Style or modernist architecture connected with local traditional, and even colonial influences; of course, he is not the only one to do this, but Bawa is probably one of the most influential examples,’ Vitra Design Museum director Mateo Kries told Ellie Stathaki at the opening. Join her for a walk through an ‘intense and immersive’ show.

Striking an elegant note this week is Louis Poulsen’s reissue of Poul Henningsen’s 1931 piano lamp. Its swirling, clef-inspired stem all but steals the show from Henningsen’s signature tiered glass shade. Scaled down and refined for contemporary versatility, the reissue makes an unusual table lamp – or the perfect accompaniment to your playing. Available for a limited time only.