The Monocle Minute
On Design

This week, Nic Monisse kicks things off by speaking with a Finnish furniture brand on the importance of quality design. We also discuss David Chipperfield’s new Doha hotel (pictured), an English skatepark on the rise, the return of 1960s Italian lighting and a Copenhagen studio breaking boundaries.

The F51 building in the English seaside town of Folkestone was originally going to be a car park. But the plan soon evolved to include skateboarding facilities – and then the parking component was scrapped altogether. The result? The world’s first multistorey skatepark. Designed by UK practice Hollaway Studio, it recently picked up the Building of the Year prize at the Riba South East Award ceremony. F51 is an impressive feat of architecture and engineering, with huge concrete skate bowls suspended from its first floor and a rounded, tapered form that makes the interiors feel roomier.

Commissioned by philanthropist Roger De Haan, the building has three floors for skating, a climbing wall and bouldering area, a boxing ring, a training room and a public café. For local schoolchildren, membership costs just £1 a month. De Haan wanted to provide an appealing place for young people (particularly teenagers) to gather and spend time in – something that’s lacking in many cities. “We wanted to create a building that would be inspirational to young people,” says Guy Hollaway, principal partner of Hollaway Studio. “This was not just in terms of its architecture but also through the skate and adrenalin sports on offer, building confidence and a sense of belonging in their local area.”
hollawaystudio.co.uk

Pritzker Architecture Prize-winner David Chipperfield’s Berlin studio has finished a major renovation of Qatar’s former Ministry of Interior, turning the 1970s government building into The Ned Doha. The hotel now offers jet setters a place to rest their heads while also preserving Qatar’s architectural and urban heritage. Designed by Lebanese architect William Sednaoui, the brutalist structure is one of the oldest buildings in Doha, sitting in stark contrast to the city’s new, glassy high-rise skyline. “Ensuring continuity and diversity in the built environment is fundamental to our sense of place, identity and quality of life,” says Chipperfield.

The four-storey, reinforced-concrete structure was refurbished and extended over a two-year period. Its original geometric façade and concrete waffle ceilings were restored as part of interior renovations in partnership with Soho House Design. The ground floor’s footprint has increased thanks to a new podium housing verdant gardens, pools and pavilions. An additional floor also offers views over the Arabian Gulf and the city skyline. “We are excited to see how our project demonstrates the value of reuse in Doha,” says Chipperfield. davidchipperfield.com

Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh’s portfolio includes the striking Stone Garden apartment complex in Beirut, the Estonian National Museum and the recently completed Hermès workshop in Normandy. It’s an impressive list that is complemented by her design for this year’s Serpentine Pavilion (pictured). On display in London’s Hyde Park until October, the circular structure is called À table. The title references the French call to sit together for a meal and draws inspiration from togunas: buildings that are found in Mali and are traditionally used for community gatherings. To find out more about the design, we caught up with Ghotmeh at the pavilion.

Tell us about the building's form and your inspiration for it.
The pavilion is in dialogue with the existing Serpentine Gallery building, which hovers above it. The pavilion’s pleated roof reflects the sun and changes both its colour and shade throughout the day. Its shape echoes the overarching canopies of the trees surrounding it. As you approach the structure, an open colonnade makes it appear like a gallery. Once you’re inside, the interior is more intimate. The intention of the building is to create an emotional experience; traversing beams hold up the roof and mirror the structure of veins in a leaf. The pavilion is a reminder of the ingenuity of nature and how much we can learn from it. Humans need nature to survive.

You talked about people having an emotional experience in the space. How does the pavilion create this effect?
The project was born of a lot of research and makes references to other stories and forms. In a way, it connects people to their imagination and memories. I love it when people come and say, “This pavilion is like a carousel,” or, “It looks like a mushroom.” The building is intended for sitting together and meeting other people but beyond that, it’s about enjoying the space and opening up to different activities.

It can host everything from yoga classes to dinners. How important is it for your work with the pavilion and beyond to be flexible in terms of programming?
It’s important that buildings are able to serve multiple functions because we are evolving so quickly as a society. We might do things one way now and then in another way tomorrow. Our house might be both our office and a place for craft. Allowing spaces to be adaptable or transformable is important. This pavilion will be used in London for the summer and then disassembled and rebuilt elsewhere; it will continue to be used in a different way and respond to a new environment in the future.

For more from Ghotmeh at the Serpentine Pavilion, tune in to this week’s edition of ‘Monocle on Design’.

Italian lighting brand Artemide, founded in 1960, has a seemingly bottomless trove of designs in its archives, including well-known classics and hidden gems by less-established names. The Buco light, designed by Claudio Dini in the 1970s, is an example of the latter. This light comes in an array of bright colours and is made to be placed either on a table or fixed to a wall. The lamp’s name comes from the small hole – buco in Italian – in the centre of the shade, which lets through a beam of light.

The Buco bears a slight resemblance to one of Artemide’s earlier and more famous products: Vico Magistretti’s Eclisse, which is also made up of a singular bulb on a spherical base but instead comes with a moveable shade. Given the popularity of the Eclisse, which is still in production, there would surely be demand for a more minimal design that provides a different, diffused light. If the Buco were to be remade, we would suggest that Artemide borrow an idea from the lamp’s elder brother and make it possible to rotate the visor – and so the direction of the light – even when mounted on the wall.

Archival Studies is a Copenhagen-based studio renowned for its cross-disciplinary practice, which ranges from furniture to interior design. Its new partnership with Danish fashion label Artikel Købehavn adds another string to its bow, with the two creative practices teaming up for a handsome collection of three functional workwear jackets. Crafted from sturdy Scottish waxed cotton by the Artikel team at the back of its shop in Copenhagen, the pieces are waterproof and can withstand high temperatures. “We work with lots of metal and wood,” says Emil Roman Frøge, co-founder and creative director at Archival Studies. “It’s important that the jackets can survive a busy workshop. Like Artikel, we make everything we design ourselves.”

The jackets, which were designed specifically for the Archival Studies team and will soon go into wider production, are now on show at Artikel København’s Copenhagen shop. They have been paired smartly with the studio’s other wares; the clothing has been draped over a number of Archival Studies’ chairs, including the all-aluminium Alu 01, which can be seen through the street-front window. The result? A reminder of the studio’s ability to design everything from outstanding interiors to seats and garments – pieces that are well worth adding to your living room or wardrobe. archivalstudies.net; artikelkbh.com

Gardeners might not become household names but Piet Oudolf – best known for helping to transform an abandoned New York railway track into The High Line and designing landscapes for the likes of Vitra and Hauser & Wirth – has come closer than most. A new book by Phaidon, Piet Oudolf at Work, explores his creative process through a series of photographs, essays and sketches, many of which have never been published before.

The book is a testament to the power of experimentation. In his decades-long career, the garden designer has never shied away from working with new plants and trying out ideas. There are plenty of lessons here for other garden designers, whether they’re just starting out or have been working in the field for years. Oudolf’s creative process proves that there is always room to grow.

For more on Oudolf, read our interview with him in the July/August issue of Monocle, which is on newsstands tomorrow.