The Monocle Minute
On Design

How does a would-be client find an architect to reimagine their apartment, add an extension or even build them a new house from scratch? And how does a young architecture practice not lose endless days fielding enquiries from people who have little understanding of what any of the above might entail? The spot between hesitant client and overworked architect is where friends and now side-hustle colleagues Dean McCauley-Bové and Christopher Moore are building a consultancy that aims to ease the stresses for all involved.

McCauley-Bové, a communications consultant for architecture businesses, and Moore, an architectural writer and built-environment specialist, founded We Design Homes in September 2020. Their website and Instagram account present project portfolios from practices that they like in the UK and Ireland. The site’s founders have a distinctive and demanding eye. The projects showcased tend to feature simple materials used well, clean lines, a contemporary outlook – it’s all very tight. The architects on the site are from what McCauley-Bové describes as “design-led practices”. Currently there are about 150 represented: some fledgling, others well established.

While the site is fun for just checking out what people are building, the two men want to do something more by encouraging would-be commissioners who like what they see to contact them rather than bombarding the companies that they are championing. “This way we can help the client develop a proper brief and then contact the best architects for their job,” says McCauley-Bové. “This takes time but it means that they come across as serious clients and it also separates the initial interaction from small practices.”

And it has been working very well, with clients and architects happily matched and McCauley-Bové and Moore making sure that expectations are managed throughout. Both agree that one of the biggest problems is clients who underestimate how much it will cost to build their dream home.

The duo are not alone in promising to match clients with architects. In the UK, Riba, which represents architects, will give you contacts for firms in your area, for example, and there are also sites that seem to chuck out potential jobs to everyone on their database and hope that something sticks. But the hand-holding part is special to We Design Homes.

Yet there is one small issue that I hope they will settle very soon. We Design Homes is currently offering its services for free to both client and practice. They really need to start charging for the value they can bring to a project. Personally, as a champion of the soothing agent and the seasoned middleman (or woman), I’d hire a business like this in a shot.

Christmas festivities are already in full swing at Isetan Shinjuku. And if you’re after ideas for presents, look no further than the department store’s new exhibition, “Eames Office: 80 Years of Design”, which celebrates the work of revered US designers Charles and Ray Eames.

The pieces on view – mostly limited editions and Isetan exclusives – are for sale. Among the works on offer are prints, books and photographs, as well as an Isetan edition of the classic Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman in natural leather and oak veneer. There’s also a one-off 1:12 scale model, by Japanese model-maker Hiroshi Kimura, of the designers’ iconic California home, Eames House, which was completed in 1949.

Top of our Christmas list, however, is an exclusive dark palisander edition of a rare plywood sculpture from 1943. The Eameses only made two experimental prototypes of this beautifully organic sculpture, which has been painstakingly recreated by German moulded-wood specialist Becker Brakel; 12 pieces are available to museums and collectors. Charles and Ray Eames had long-standing links with Japan and it was a sister company of Isetan that first brought the couple’s work to the Japanese market. Now you have a chance to bring it into your home.
cp.mistore.jp

If you’re curious about how a city can rapidly grow a design community, look to Dubai. Home to an embryonic design scene just a decade ago, the Emirati metropolis is now the region’s leading creative hub. This is thanks in no small part to Dubai Design Week, the seventh iteration of which runs until Saturday. “Our aim is to grow the overall design ecosystem through different initiatives year-round,” says the event’s director, Mette Degn-Christensen. “The festival is basically the physical manifestation of that work.”

Much of this work is now on show in the city’s dedicated design district, D3, with Downtown Design, a trade show featuring more than 130 brands and designers, and the annual Abwab pavilion commission setting up shop for the week. Nearby you’ll also find The Marketplace, where a curated selection of wares from the area’s artisans is available for purchase. Many of these makers also run workshops for residents to try their hand at different crafts, such as pottery and paper-making.

“All of this generates more and more opportunities and raises awareness about the city’s creative sector,” says Degn-Christensen. The hope? That more people in Dubai will consider a career in the creative industries. Judging by the increasing number of design studios setting up in the city, it’s having a considerable effect.
dubaidesignweek.ae

Architects Patricia Viel and Antonio Citterio (pictured in their Milanese studio, Viel on left) are the founders of celebrated architecture practice ACPV. Though best known for their fine buildings and interiors, they recently made a foray into movies at October’s Milano Design Film Festival with The Importance of Being an Architect. Produced by Giorgio Ferrero and Federico Biasin, the documentary investigates the role and responsibility of architects in building the societies of tomorrow. We spoke to the designers in this week’s episode of Monocle on Design and asked Viel how the project came about and what issues it touches on.

Tell us how the project started.
We started thinking about the film after being pushed by someone else. Last year, Antonio celebrated 50 years of his own practice – he was very young when he started – and together we also celebrated 20 years of our company. We started thinking about a book, which is now in production, but also began looking for a new way to communicate the complexity of our office, our practice and our methods. The initial idea was to make a simple documentary but then we started working on it with more ambition and it became what it is today.

Music is a very big part of the film, with many different musicians playing outside different buildings. Was this a way of tying art to architecture?
I don’t think so. We don’t really believe that architecture is art; it’s something completely different. Architecture is somehow very human and humankind really needs intimacy with rhythm and time. And for people who are not architects, music says a lot about rhythm, time and coherence. The original music composed for the film grows with the film’s storytelling, making the architecture very easy to understand.

A lot of issues were raised in the film about the future of architecture and building better with nature. How important will this be in the years to come?
The city environment is the ideal “nature” for human beings. So it is very important for architects to build up a natural environment that is acceptable. But this is extremely subjective. Architecture is distinct from art because it’s social, it’s related to the environment and it has a responsibility in terms of economy and cultural meanings.

For more from Patricia Viel and Antonio Citterio, listen to this week’s episode of ‘Monocle on Design’

Honda recently filed a trademark application with the US Patent Office for the name “Motocompacto”. The news sparked considerable excitement among vintage moped enthusiasts because it bolstered rumours that the Japanese car-maker plans to reissue an electric version of the Motocompo, its foldable scooter from the 1980s. The minibike was only in production for two years but has garnered cult status – and it’s easy to see why.

The Motocompo, which is roughly the size of a suitcase, was designed to fit perfectly into the trunk of the Honda City (a compact hatchback tailored for city streets), which launched at the same time in 1981. Once lifted out of the car’s boot, all that had to be done to the Motocompo was to snap out the steering stem and seat – and then set off. Although the design wasn’t particularly commercially successful, Honda was clearly ahead of its time. And in contrast to the e-scooters, one-person cars and foldable bikes that pack city streets today, the Motocompo – and, hopefully, Motocompacto – makes the morning commute seem seriously cool.

With a smart triangular frame, square legs and leather seat, German designer Mark Braun’s new bar stool, made by Norwegian brand Northern, strikes the perfect balance between beauty and utility. Lightweight and portable, it can be easily moved between spaces, making it a flexible addition to any home. It sits perfectly under a high-top bench in a kitchen and can add height to seating options in a living room. Its sturdy powder-coated steel frame also means that it is suitable for commercial and hospitality settings too, from hotel bars to high-end restaurants.

“The core idea behind this piece was to provide convenient seating wherever it is needed,” says Braun. And with six colour combinations to choose from, including a natural light oiled oak seat with steel legs and a darker finish, you can be sure it will be a convenient aesthetic fit in any interior environment.
northern.no

For green-fingered enthusiasts seeking advice on how to look after their leafy companions, there are plenty of titles on hand to guide them through plant parenthood. None of them, however, resemble Vanlige Potteplanter (Common Houseplants), a new title from Oslo-based publisher Ljå Forlag with unconventional plant portraiture from photographer Thomas Ekström.

Its pages are filled with advice on how to care for 24 of the most common houseplants, accompanied by Ekström’s shots of everything from a red-flowering hibiscus perched on top of a lavatory to a jungly mass of greenery tumbling out of a car window. “We wanted to create something that was a mix between an art book and a cookbook for plants,” says Ekström.

The book was designed by Jørn Aagaard, a frequent Ljå Forlag collaborator. “He’s a good friend of ours and we pretty much gave him free reign to design it as he liked,” says Ivar Kvaal, one half of the duo behind Ljå Forlag. “We wanted the book to appeal to a slightly different group than those who might normally buy a book about plants,” says Kvaal. “So we took the visual language of an artist to create a non-fiction book.”

The result? A title that’s perfect for leafing through. Just remember to wash the potting mix off your hands before you crack the spine.
ljaforlag.no