| | Ellie Stathaki, architecture & environment director At the Vitra Campus’s Doshi Retreat launch a few days ago in Weil am Rhein, Germany, many conversations centred on ideas of transition. The project itself, a wonderfully sculptural and experiential space conceptualised by the late Indian modernist Balkrishna Doshi, fondly known as ‘Doshi’; his granddaughter Khushnu Panthaki Hoof; and her partner Sönke Hoof, nods to this theme on multiple levels. ‘It exists somewhere between thinking and feeling. It is a place of gentle transition,’ Panthaki Hoof said in her heartfelt speech at the opening dinner. The Retreat is also in constant dialogue with its surroundings, offering at once connection and separation within its star-studded neighbourhoud. It echoes Vitra chairman emeritus Rolf Fehlbaum’s vision for the campus, which he described as a place where ‘all the buildings speak to each other.’ |
 |
 |
|
The notion of transition is in the air in more ways than one at this time of the year, as, here at Wallpaper* HQ, we take our cosy winter coats out for their first seasonal spin. Not that they’re needed at one of the most spectacular homes we toured this past week — a Malibu beach house by California designer Pamela Shamshiri where Lina Bo Bardi’s Brazilian modernism meets James Bond. Elsewhere, this newsletter brings you a look at Art Deco’s enduring influence in France (just in time for the movement’s centennial); a deep dive into the posters and graphics used in Yorgos Lanthimos' latest work, Bugonia; and a meal at a London restaurant where you’re encouraged to scribble outside the lines. It’s all plenty to read and ponder on as nights draw longer and we get comfortable in the liminal pause before end-of-year celebrations kick in next month and we erupt, party-ready, from our autumnal cocoon.
|
A grand celebration of Art Deco is on view in Paris |
A hundred years ago, Paris hosted the World’s Fair of Decorative and Modern Industrial Arts. Held over 23 hectares between Concorde and Invalides, it attracted 15 million visitors and was what Musée des Arts Décoratifs curator Anne Monier Vanryb calls the Art Deco movement’s 'apogee, its official consecration'. To celebrate the centenary, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris is holding a retrospective that includes furniture, tableware, clothing, jewellery and objets d’art. The idea for the 1925 fair actually came in 1911 as a way to bring France back as a leader in design. 'For centuries, France has imposed its taste on the world,' Société des Artistes Décorateurs president René Guilleré wrote in 1915. 'Today, we no longer know that we have the glory of talent of our ancestors.' At the same time, the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements were developing; France needed to stamp its own mark. Contributor Brian Ng explores how. |
Bond meets Bo Bardi in this stylish Malibu residence |
|
For about as long as there’s been Hollywood, there’s been Malibu. A century ago, along an exclusive stretch of sand known as the Malibu Colony, you might have chanced upon Gloria Swanson and Charlie Chaplin engaged in a lively game of table tennis; these days, you might bump into Tom Hanks or Flea. Interior designer Pamela Shamshiri had two very different stars in mind, however, for her recent reimagining of a family house: Lina Bo Bardi and James Bond. ‘We wanted it to be Malibu at its most glamorous,’ she says. Luckily, the property itself was not short of cinematic charisma. The narrow, half-acre plot featured three structures, built in the late 1990s, that bookended a garden and a pool. These included a pair of two-storey volumes containing a 5,000 sq ft primary residence and guest suites. From the beach-facing main house, with its broad expanses of windows and low-slung profile, it felt like you could almost touch the Pacific Ocean. For the property’s owner Jana Bezdek, co-founder of production company FourthWall Theatrical, the home fulfilled a lifelong yearning to be on the water. To realise her vision, Bezdek tapped Shamshiri, who had previously designed her family’s main residence in LA, as well as her New York pied-à-terre. ‘She was the only person I could imagine working with,’ Bezdek says. US editor, Anna Fixsen, drops by for the blockbuster reveal. |
|
How Vasilis Marmatakis' graphics helped shape Bugonia's weirdness |
|
Yorgos Lanthimos' latest work, Bugonia, tells the story of two conspiracy-obsessed cousins (played by Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis) who kidnap a high-powered CEO (Emma Stone), convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth. The name Bugonia signifies an ancient Greek belief that explains the birth of bees from dead cows, and it is the title chosen by Lanthimos for this psychological thriller that deals with modern climate anxiety, conspiracy and paranoia. Long-term Lanthimos collaborator, Athens-based graphic designer Vasilis Marmatakis, has worked with the director since his 2009 debut with Dogtooth, crafting memorable designs for movies including The Lobster and Poor Things, and he was once again tasked with creating the posters and graphics for this latest film. Before working on a poster design, Marmatakis explores a movie's universe, from the script to the costumes to the aesthetics, going on set and then retreating to develop the ideas. 'I work to visually to reflect the film,' he tells Wallpaper* global design director Rosa Bertoli. 'And design different to reflect different aspects of the story.' |
|
|
| |
