The Monocle Minute
On Design

This week we head to Paris for the Maison & Objet furniture fair, where we get switched on to Garnier & Linker’s glass lighting and meet a design studio whose latest exhibition celebrates the art of imperfection. Plus: we dream of the return of an Egyptian-inspired day bed. But first, Nic Monisse prepares for the trade-fair floor…

To coincide with the opening of biannual trade fair Maison & Objet, De La Espada, known for its Portuguese-made furniture, is presenting its latest collaboration with French designer Anthony Guerrée at Amelie Maison d’Art gallery in Paris. The works on show are influenced by Guerrée’s recurring dream of spending a night under the stars in California’s Joshua Tree Park. The result? Bold, sculptural pieces that celebrate the beauty and tactility of wood.

The collection, which includes the Hadar Lounge Chair (named after a star in the southern constellation of Centaurus) and the sleek Orion Table, is being presented alongside Amelie Maison d’Art’s selection of abstract art, with the furniture referencing the works on show. “Curating a furniture exhibition here is significant as it blurs the boundaries between creative disciplines,” says Guerrée. “Every piece becomes a functional work of art, seamlessly merging aesthetics and utility.” Those who want to see the collection in person – and take a little dip on one of the constellation-inspired chairs – can visit the showcase in the French capital until Sunday 18 March.
delaespada.com; anthony-guerree.com

Visit Amelie Maison d’Art during Maison & Objet at 18 rue Séguier, Paris.

In the gallery of French furniture specialists Invisible Collection is a showcase by design studio Garcé & Dimofski that celebrates imperfection. Be it a scratch on a piece of hand-carved wood or a dent on a ceramic mirror frame, the items selected by the co-founders of the Lisbon-based studio, Olivier Garcé and Clio Dimofski, challenge perceptions about material value and aesthetic sensibilities. “Craftsmanship is a traditional know-how, forged by years of dedication,” says Garcé. “Everything here is shaped by hand and is the result of meticulous work.” Sometimes, though, happy accidents occur that enhance the character of a piece.

Alongside their own work, Garcé and Dimofski selected pieces by fellow designers for an exhibition called Joyful Imperfections, which is open to the public during Maison & Objet. All of the works on show are available to buy through Invisible Collection. Chairs by New York-based Korean designer Minjae Kim sit alongside pieces created by Chanel Métiers d’art ateliers, including goldsmiths Goossens and embroiderers from Lesage. With such an enticing line-up, this show is perfectly, well, imperfect.
garce-dimofski.com; theinvisiblecollection.com

Visit Invisible Collection during Maison & Objet at 20 rue Amélie, Paris.

South African-born Jacu Strauss is the creative director of London-based hospitality firm Lore Group. As a founding member, Strauss has overseen the design and launch of hotels such as One Hundred Shoreditch and the award-winning Pulitzer Amsterdam. Here, he tells us about the importance of storytelling and explains what it takes to create an inviting hotel.

You were a senior designer at Tom Dixon before you joined Lore Group. What did that experience teach you that your education at the Bartlett School of Architecture didn’t?
Architecture is a broad field and you have to make your own path as you go along. I wanted to influence people’s experiences through a mixture of architecture, furniture, accessories – anything that they can touch around them. My time at Tom Dixon taught me the importance of storytelling, which has really shaped my thinking. What is the story of a place? How and why are we telling it? I learned from him that design is about people, not things.

What role does storytelling play in a project such as Pulitzer Amsterdam?
It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to renovate a historic hotel and a labour of love. It was founded in the 1970s and is made up of 25 interconnected canal houses. There are 225 rooms, most of which are hundreds of years old, and no room in the building is exactly the same. No one else wanted to renovate it because of the amount of work required. But we were immediately fascinated by its history, especially because it was in the Dutch capital, a city that is so rich with culture and hidden stories. The hotel was created by Peter Pulitzer – the grandson of Joseph Pulitzer, who started the Pulitzer Prize. We wanted to highlight the stories of the former residents who lived in the building. This informed our furniture choices, especially as we inherited lots of antiques. We created an eclectic mix of old and new.

What’s next for Lore Group?
For the first time in 10 years, we can look back at all of our hotels and decide what their next metamorphosis will be. Their stories will remain the same but they need to be tweaked to adapt to the changing world. Hotels, of course, are never finished. We have ambitions to take on more projects but it takes a lot of time and effort because we’re a tiny team. It has to be the right building, the right city and the right context.

For more from Jacu Strauss, tune in to ‘Monocle on Design’ on Monocle Radio.

In 1953, Dutch manufacturer Auping commissioned designer Dick Cordemeijer to simply “create something beautiful”. The result was this day bed. The Deventer-based family business, which had been producing beds since 1888, wanted a fresh product that would suit the modern, minimalist households of the postwar period. Cordemeijer came up with the Cleopatra, with its upturned sides and removable headrest. It turned out that the Dutch enjoyed lounging like pharaohs: Auping sold more than 700,000 models of the Cleopatra over a period of almost 30 years.

Though easy and quick to produce, the Cleopatra, which rests on a simple steel frame with a mesh base featuring wooden pieces for decoration at each end, felt sumptuous. It was the first bed that Auping could manufacture on an industrial scale. The company, which would probably not have come up with the idea of an Egyptian-inspired bed without Cordemeijer, proved that trusting designers with an open brief can pay off. The Cleopatra looks just as inviting today and we can only wonder why it was discontinued.

French designers Guillaume Garnier and Florent Linker developed a taste for artisanal savoir-faire and mixing artistic disciplines while studying at the École Camondo, a famed Parisian institution for product design and interior architecture. Based in Paris, the duo now run their namesake design studio, which uses French craftsmanship to create handmade sculptural pieces that seamlessly blend into modern interiors. During Maison & Objet, they will be presenting their colourful new lighting collections, Fovea and Itys, at their gallery (by appointment).

To make the pieces, the duo created wax moulds in their atelier before sending them to a glass workshop, where they were blown into solid pieces. Each of these unique structures was then completed with an aluminium frame. The result of artisanal expertise and daring experimentation with materials, the Fovea and Itys lamps will create a warm, relaxing atmosphere in any room.
garnieretlinker.com

Visit Garnier & Linker by appointment during Maison & Objet at 22 rue de l’Échiquier, Paris.

Now for something that will bring a burst of colour to your coffee table: Arent & Pyke: Interiors Beyond the Primary Palette, a new book celebrating 15 years of collaboration between Australian designers Juliette Arent and Sarah-Jane Pyke. Published by Thames & Hudson, it chronicles 18 of their favourite projects, from vibrant city dwellings to light-flooded beach houses. The duo met while working at a Sydney design practice and bonded over their shared love of vivid colours and varied textures – a world away from the white and beige boxes of contemporary minimalism.

Projects such as Under The Tree, a three-bedroom family cottage, draw inspiration from nature, with palettes of greens and greys, while La Casa Rosa features warm washes of pink and orange. For every finished commission, Arent and Pyke highlight the number of colours that they used. The aim, they explain, is to create joyful homes that “nourish the soul” of their clients. This book will bring a touch of sunny Australian design to your living room, wherever that might be.
thamesandhudson.com