The Monocle Minute
On Design

The first half of 2024 promises to be chock-a-block with must-visit design events. The Monocle team will be bringing you all of the latest news and views from as far afield as Maison & Objet in Paris and Orgatec Tokyo in Japan. Scroll down for some bright ideas from Lebanese lighting brand PSLab, find out how the next generation of architects is learning to combat climate change and consider the thought that went into Finn Juhl’s eight-year-long design of his teak writing desk. Plus: a few words with Lagos-born, Zürich-based architect and product designer Charles O Job.

On a leafy street in west Berlin, lighting brand PSLab’s new shopfront appears to be a bare room with untinted plaster walls. But with the door shut and the space darkened, the minimalist rationale becomes clear: what is being sold is not an object but rather golden beams of light. This showcase, which the Lebanese brand readily puts on for its customers, suggests that the future will not be bright in the literal sense – it will be low-lit, warm and flattering. “People think of light as an object,” says Mario Weck, managing partner of PSLab in Germany. “That’s the biggest mistake in the world.”

The Beirut-based company has no readymade product offering but instead works with architects and interior designers to create bespoke lighting systems. This degree of customisation is possible because all of the components that it uses, including shades and fixtures, are manufactured in PSLab’s factory in northern Lebanon. The Berlin outpost, designed by Antwerp-based architects B-bis, is the most scaled-back of the brand’s studios, which can also be found in Beirut, Stuttgart, London, Antwerp, Bologna and Dubai, with spaces in Paris and Amsterdam under construction.
pslab.lighting

Founded in 1926 as Italy’s second public architecture school, Venice’s IUAV has emerged as an attractive place for architects who are keen to learn in – and from – a city on the front lines of issues related to climate change, mass tourism and cultural conservation. The Lagoon City has always had to find a balance between the urban and natural worlds but scientists now predict that it could be underwater in less than a century. Add to this the need to design buildings that are in tune with the environment and it’s understandable why the idea of living and studying here is increasingly appealing. “Venice’s peculiarities make it representative of many coastal cities,” says Francesco Musco, who teaches a master’s in urban planning. Courses in architecture are taught alongside design, fashion and theatre, promoting a design-oriented approach that sets IUAV apart from other schools.

As well as confronting the city’s environmental challenges, the university is also helping it to address the longstanding problem of overtourism. A project called Venezia Città Campus will expand accommodation for students to allow more of them to live on the island. “We need to show ourselves to the world not just as a mythical place to visit but also as a tangible possibility for residency and work,” said Venice’s mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, at an event presenting the project in early 2023. IUAV and its students will be playing a crucial role in building the Venice of the future.

For more on design education, pick up a copy of Monocle’s ‘The Forecast’ today.

Charles O Job is a Lagos-born, Zürich-based architect and product designer. His portfolio includes the utilitarian Flip Desk, created with Dutch design brand Vij5, and a playful plywood armchair, Sketch, which is part of the permanent collection at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein in Germany. Job also lectures in architecture and design theory at the Bern University of Applied Sciences.

What design-world trends are you noticing and appreciating?
When I was a child in Lagos, we made our own toys from items that we found in the streets. We took tin cans and transformed them. These days it’s called recycling or upcycling and it’s everywhere. Sustainability has become a trend but we grew up doing that.

How does this apply to your work?
What I do now is produce products minimally. For example, the idea for Sketch was to see how I could develop the simplest product. When you make bent-plywood chairs, the most expensive part of production is the mould so I conceived a way to make a chair of this kind using one mould for all the components. It means that the seat is the same shape as the armrests, which are the same shape as the backrest. I cut the pieces to make them fit together like a puzzle.

How does Zürich inspire you?
Nigeria and Switzerland are very different. But when I started designing in Zürich, I found that there was a similarity in that people still make products here. If you’re a designer and you’re looking for somebody to make your chair, there are many workshops to choose from. It’s actually quite close to what I grew up with in Lagos. I have friends in London who come to Switzerland because there’s know-how here, people value details and everything’s fantastically made. They pay craftspeople living wages too. While it costs more than elsewhere in Europe, you get value for your money.

For more from Charles O Job, pick up a copy of Monocle’s seasonal newspaper, ‘Alpino’, today.

Collectors and enthusiasts often speak of the specific year in which a piece of furniture was designed – but reality is rarely so clear cut. Take, for example, this desk, which took eight years to achieve its final form. Danish architect and designer Finn Juhl created the first iteration in 1945 to furnish his office in the Nyhavn district of Copenhagen. That basic design with a steel frame and teak top was tweaked over the years; the version pictured, which boasts colour-coded drawers and a flip-down leaf, was completed in about 1953. The cross-supports of the legs were not Juhl’s idea. According to Hans Henrik Sørensen, co-founder of House of Finn Juhl, an employee once called his boss to complain about the work desks, which he felt were wobbly. “Juhl just told him, ‘Fix it then!’,” says Sørensen. So he did.

House of Finn Juhl, which owns the production rights to the designer’s furniture, now manufactures the Nyhavn desk in two colours. With all of its functional features, it’s a good option for those who want to get off to a productive start this year. Juhl’s archives show that good ideas don’t necessarily take shape overnight and that everyone deserves a break. “For some reason, Juhl designed so many pieces in 1953,” says Sørensen. “Then, from 1954, there’s very little.”

Merano-based lighting company Flos has joined forces with British-Canadian designer Philippe Malouin for their latest release: a table lamp inspired by le bilboquet, a 16th-century French cup-and-ball game. This compact and colourful light is made of two cylinders connected by a magnetic spherical joint. It’s a clever structural decision that allows the LED bulb to slide along the magnet and direct its beams wherever the user wishes.

The body of the lamp is made from pigmented polycarbonate, derived from a byproduct of paper production. It’s long-lasting, eco-friendly and easy to maintain. Available in linen, sage or tomato hues that offset the industrial look of the silver magnetic joint, this playful piece is perfect for setting the mood at your next dinner party.
flos.com; philippemalouin.com

Courtenay Smith and Sean Topham believe that our domestic environments could make a powerful positive impact on our lives if we approached building them differently. Published by Thames & Hudson, Houses That Can Save the World chronicles some 150 homes that challenge our assumptions of how people can occupy space, from an off-grid cave home in Menorca by Spanish architects Ensamble Studio to 3D-printed homes by Texas-based firm Icon. Presented in 20 chapters that tackle different topics, from preservation to assimilation, every example expresses the book’s theme of building homes that are in harmony with nature.

“Every mini-chapter explores people’s different responses to particular problems” says Topham. “How do you build a home when all you have is dirt? Or how do you build a house that is as much a home for nature as it is for a family? What we found is that we’re in the midst of a global design revolution, in which inventive people from around the world are changing the way that they build their homes to help forge a brighter future.” Now there’s a New Year’s resolution for 2024.
thamesandhudson.com