City of Mod

The mayor of Colombia’s second city is forging ahead with plans to fight inequality and cut the murder rate. His success may hinge on the creation of new jobs and an influx of foreign business.
Desert Operation

It’s twice as big in area as Tel Aviv but it has only 200,000 residents – and a reputation for being dusty and dreary. Be’er-Sheva’s mayor, however, plans to change that. But the makeover leaves little space for the local bedouins.
Bienvenue en Inde

Nestled in a corner of India is a town of pétanque and pâtisseries: Pondicherry is home to 7,000 French expats. It’s a microcosm of the flourishing business ties between France and India, but is it ready for major economic growth?
Woolly Wonkas

From hi-tech US military labs to the traditional textile mills of northern Italy, wool pioneers are forging new fabrics that could change the procurement practices of the world’s frontline forces. We investigate how a natural wonder came back into fashion and what it means for the industry.
Comeback Kids

What do a textiles business in Japan, a UK shoemaker, a fashion firm in Italy and a publishing company in Lebanon have in common? They are all examples of brands whose obituaries had been written until new life was breathed into them – and, of course, they are all featured here. Monocle discovers the unique challenges of heading back to the drawing board.
Rise and Shine

As Australia wakes up, journalists, producers and media executives in its most cosmopolitan city prepare for another day fighting for ratings and readers in a fast-changing business. And it’s here, across the breakfast tables, that the battle will be won or lost.
Part of the furniture

Architect and designer Luigi Caccia Dominioni will turn 100 at the end of this year, having plied his trade in Milan since the 1940s. He works from outside to in, as famous for his exteriors as he is for his interior furnishings company, Azucena.
Case study

German luggage maker Rimowa broke into the tough North American luxury market with working practices and corporate ethics transplanted from its Köln home. As it grows its business, the company is confounding those who said it couldn’t make a buck without diluting its brand.
Rummage sale

Shinji Kitada’s trade show, Jumble, is an intimate affair – by expo standards – that favours small and medium-sized fashion labels but which has an impressively global roster to match its international ambitions.
Taps and tales

From toilets and baths to energy-efficient heating systems, the world’s biggest sanitation trade fair is where you’ll first see the technology that eventually makes it into our bathrooms. Monocle pays a visit.

Denmark / Copenhagen

A great Dane

Photographer Thomas Ibsen’s house, a classic of the post-war ‘funkis’ style characterised by simple lines and clever use of light, is filled with design treasures and new pieces that he’s created.

Writer: Michael Booth

Photography: Mikkel Rahr Mortensen

“After years working as a photographer [of furniture and interiors] I realised that, actually, I could use that experience for something else,” Thomas Ibsen says as Monocle tours his home in the prosperous Copenhagen suburb of Gentofte. As a result, he has recently started his own furniture brand, with a showroom in central Copenhagen. Several of the company’s pieces can be found in Ibsen’s 1952 home alongside an eclectic but carefully selected collection of mostly post-war, mostly Danish, art and furniture.

*Print:* by contemporary Danish artist Michael Kvium. “I really like the universe Kvium creates around the personalities who appear in his pictures.”

*Red perspex piece:* by Copenhagen artist, Ebbe Stub Wittrup.

*Painting:* by Kai Führer. “My ex-wife gave this to me on our wedding day. He was a modernist, active in the 1950s and ’60s.” — *Red perspex piece:* by Copenhagen artist, Ebbe Stub Wittrup. *Painting:* by Kai Führer. “My ex-wife gave this to me on our wedding day. He was a modernist, active in the 1950s and ’60s.”

*Table and chairs:* by Ibsen’s brand, Please Wait To Be Seated. “The table frame and chairs are a 1950s design by [German Functionalist architect] Egon Eiermann. I made the Oregon pine top myself.”

*Upstairs music room:* “I play drums, my son plays guitar; the mixing desk is his.”

*Artwork:* by Ebbe Stub Wittrup. “It’s made from a photograph of a fjord he found in a junk shop, blown up and manipulated.”

*Mobile:* by Ib Geertsen. “I lost lots of money in literally one day in the crash. — *Artwork:* by Ebbe Stub Wittrup. “It’s made from a photograph of a fjord he found in a junk shop, blown up and manipulated.” *Mobile:* by Ib Geertsen. “I lost lots of money in literally one day in the crash.

*Concertina art work:* “That’s by my ex-wife, Mette Kjær.”

*Chair:* by Egon Eiermann.

*Oxidised mirror:* by Dutch artists Lex Pott and David Derksen. “I met them years ago. We now sell these Transience mirrors via our company.” — *Concertina art work:* “That’s by my ex-wife, Mette Kjær.” *Chair:* by Egon Eiermann. *Oxidised mirror:* by Dutch artists Lex Pott and David Derksen. “I met them years ago. We now sell these Transience mirrors via our company.”

*Wall system:* by Hans J Wegner. “I bought it through [Danish online auctioneers] *Lauritz.com*. I still use the Polaroid camera occasionally.”

*Vintage B&O sound system:* “I passed the shop where this Beocom 5500 in white was in the window — *Wall system:* by Hans J Wegner. “I bought it through [Danish online auctioneers] *Lauritz.com*. I still use the Polaroid camera occasionally.” *Vintage B&O sound system:* “I passed the shop where this Beocom 5500 in white was in the window

*Drawers:* “I painted the drawers black; the plan is to change the work surfaces to black too.”

*Bas relief:* by Edith Willumsen. “That came with the house.” Hanging from the relief is a poseable *wooden monkey*, a Danish design icon made by Kaj Bojesen. — *Drawers:* “I painted the drawers black; the plan is to change the work surfaces to black too.” *Bas relief:* by Edith Willumsen. “That came with the house.” Hanging from the relief is a poseable *wooden monkey*, a Danish design icon made by Kaj Bojesen.

*‘Hunting Chair’:* by Børge Mogensen. “I shot Mogensen’s house 10 years ago; this chair ended up as the focus of the shoot and the furniture company, Fredericia, put it back into production. I like to think I had a small part in reviving a classic.”

Ibsen lives here with his children, 11-year-old Hannah and August, 14, plus chickens in the back garden. “We’re right next to the kids’ school, so there are children running through constantly,” he says. “The house is very lived in. Perhaps a bit messy but that’s OK.” He has adapted the interior space to suit the family’s needs, adding walls to make a galley office and two extra downstairs bedrooms.

Though he rejects the “collector” label, Ibsen has a canny eye. “I try not to buy stuff that will lose money but I’m not buying to invest. I’m interested in why some designs stick around and some don’t, even though they are well designed. I like trying to spot which items will have long-life potential.”
www.pleasewaittobeseated.dk

Design of the Times

City of Mod

Desert Operation

Bienvenue en Inde

Woolly Wonkas

Comeback Kids

Rise and Shine

Part of the furniture

Case study

Rummage sale

Taps and tales

Europe Briefing

Asia Briefing

Americas briefing

Africa/Middle East Briefing

Oceania briefing

Defence Briefing

Diplomacy Briefing

Business Briefing

Media Briefing

Art Market Briefing

Culture Briefing

Fashion briefing

Food briefing

Man on a Mission

Focus on the Future

Behind the Camera

MIPIM and Cruise Shipping

Top twenty five

Five studios

Three design stores

Book credits

Our home

Settee slicker

Samba style

Camera obscurer

A great Dane

Know your options

Inventory no. 63

Their bright materials

Swiss precision

Caffeine high

Puerto Varas

Post Taste

Chef Kittichai

Expo 63: Heads above water

Observation

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