The Monocle Minute
On Design

This week we visit an urban regeneration project in Copenhagen that’s hitting all the right notes and head to a geometric gallery in Porto changing the shape of the city’s architectural scene. Plus: we celebrate grown-up models of childhood chairs and learn how technology is affecting the design of hospitality spaces. But first, Nic Monisse has a few lessons from the floor of Pad Paris.

Copenhagen’s waterfront has undergone an impressive redevelopment in recent decades. A host of cultural institutions and recreational hot spots have been built on the harbour, transforming a polluted industrial port into one of the Danish capital’s most popular destinations. The latest addition to this ever-evolving urban landscape is Opera Park, courtesy of architecture studio Cobe. Commissioned to design a parking facility for the Opera House, it added a lush, green space on top.

“The unused plot was meant for housing but the client scrapped the plan,” says Cobe architect Alexander Ejsing. “Instead, we created a new recreational spot for everyone to use.” The park features paths that wind across six gardens with plants from around the world, inspired by the area’s history as an international trade hub. At its heart is a glass pavilion that offers expansive views of the surroundings. Inside, you’ll find a restaurant and a café offering seasonal dishes, while a garden of tropical vegetation, including a 12-metre-tall tree, leads to the underground car park. As well as being a spot to refuel with food and drink, the pavilion plays a crucial role in making the green space a year-round destination. “Winters are long here so we didn’t want the park to be desolate for half of the year,” says Ejsing. “It’s important that we make good use of it.”
cobe.dk

For more on Cobe’s work in Copenhagen, pick up a copy of Monocle’s April issue, which is on newsstands now.

The Porto School design movement is synonymous with the city’s contemporary architectural vernacular. Likewise, the Serralves cultural campus has come to define Porto’s art scene. Now these two symbols of Portugal’s second city have come together in a new space with the completion of the Serralves Museum’s Álvaro Siza Wing, designed by its namesake architect. While the first exhibitions hosted in the structure will celebrate Siza’s work, this isn’t the first time that the Pritzker Prize winner has left his imprint on the estate. The nonagenarian architect designed several of the buildings adjacent to the original art deco Serralves villa.

The 4,200 sq m wing has corners that protrude into the sky and geometric cutouts that open up views of the surrounding Serralves Park. Spread across three floors, its halls will host exhibitions dedicated to art and architecture. “Álvaro Siza is one of the greatest names in the history of architecture,” says Ana Pinho, CEO of the Serralves Foundation. “Here the Serralves Collection will be on permanent exhibition and we will have dedicated spaces for architecture programmes.”
serralves.pt

Joyce Wang is the founder and principal of her eponymous interior-design practice, based in Hong Kong and London. Her portfolio includes restaurants, such as The Magistracy and Mott 32 in Hong Kong, and hotels, including London’s Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park and The Hollywood Roosevelt in Los Angeles. Wang recently joined Monocle on Design for a live recording in Hong Kong to discuss timelessness in design.

How would you define a timeless interior?
A great interior is like a great film: you want to return to it and rewatch it again and again. And every time you revisit it, there’s something different that grabs your attention. It brings me a lot of joy when people discuss something in my designs that I might not have anticipated. These conversations extend beyond the space. The aesthetic of an interior can be designed to be timeless to a certain extent but some things, such as the lease on a space or the permanence of an establishment, are beyond our control. Understanding these constraints helps us to design better.

How is technology affecting the design of hospitality spaces?
Designing for hospitality is completely different to residential design. Clients can be much more specific about their preferences when it comes to their homes – the temperature of the lighting, say, or even the position of the drapery that can be controlled from an iPad. Hospitality design, on the other hand, is focused on design that everyone should be able to use as soon as they enter a room. Once, we worked on a hotel project that we initially thought would incorporate hi-tech programmable devices into the rooms but, in the end, we decided to go with traditional on-off switches. Instead of overcomplicating things, we went with something that people are familiar with and intuitively understand how to use.

How does your choice of materials contribute to a project’s sense of timelessness?
I named my daughter after architect Christopher Wren, who once had the foresight to plant a tree next to the cathedral that he was building. The beams of the cathedral were huge and [the wood needed for them] wasn’t something that you could easily find. So he planted the tree ahead of time to ensure that it would be ready and large enough when it became necessary to change the beams. It’s this sort of foresight that I strive to incorporate into my work and, as such, materials and where they come from are a huge factor in our designs. We like to consider the durability of materials and embrace how they will change. There’s a beauty to things that are used over time, such as scratches on a doorknob.

For more live Monocle on Design recordings, join us in Paris and Berlin next week.

Many countries have a classic chair that entire generations spent much of their childhood sitting on. Finns have the Artek Stool 60; in the UK, it’s the PEL classroom chair. For Germans, it’s the Formsitz by Flötotto. In 1952 the Gütersloh-based company patented a design for an ergonomic seat made from thin moulded plywood. It was hard-wearing and stackable, and Flötotto even invented a wagon with which you could move piles of the chairs around. There were various iterations of the Formsitz, such as this S23 model from 1970, and the company sold more than 21 million of them.

Flötotto remains a family-owned company and offers an updated version of the Formsitz as part of the Pro series of plastic seats designed by Konstantin Grcic. While this version is ideal for schools, the old wooden design, available from vintage retailers, remains in demand. Flötotto would be wise to reissue this pressed-plywood model as a more sophisticated option for the dining table or conference room. Some of today’s businesspeople might enjoy having meetings on a chair that they grew up sitting on.

Founded by David Giroire and Jérôme Bazzocchi in 2019, Paris-based design company Theoreme Editions champions emerging French designers through collaborations on collectable furniture and homeware. This week it will showcase this work in its debut appearance at Pad Paris design fair, as well as in its gallery on Jardin du Palais Royal (pictured). Both spaces will spotlight works by French artist Daniel Buren, with the Palais Royal space featuring his pre-1964 paintings. “Many of these artworks are from before he began working with the stripe motif that is now synonymous with his practice,” says Lucy Keohane, director of Theoreme Editions. “The works exhibited range in materials from marble to cloth and traverse decades of his distinguished career, including his later mirrored works.”

Until May 11, Buren’s works will be shown in the gallery alongside Theoreme Editions pieces, including Pool’s modular Sistema sofa and Adrien Messié’s Fibonacci Table with a lacquer tabletop and Constantin Bench in a teal resin. This thoughtful juxtaposition will help to define the space – and demonstrate how art and design can complement each other.
theoremeeditions.com

A quick flick through UK interior designer Sophie Ashby’s new book, Studio Ashby: Home, Art, Soul, will reveal her love of bold colours, playful shapes and eccentric textures. Published by Rizzoli, with a layout designed by London-based Studio Small, the book is a celebration of the practice’s 10th anniversary. “We wanted to do something lasting to commemorate our first decade,” says Ashby. “It’s really important to take stock, rather than let these milestones pass you by.”

The book features 12 projects that reflect the studio’s central themes of art and soul, including a Grade II-listed Edwardian villa that was once owned by Peter Pan author JM Barrie and an equestrian-inspired apartment near the Longchamp Racecourse in Paris. The aim, says Ashby, is to present readers with a selection of the studio’s key projects, while highlighting some that they might not have seen before. With a thoughtful foreword and offering plenty of insight into one of the UK’s most popular interior-design studios, Studio Ashby’s print debut provides a compelling glimpse into its whimsical world.
studioashby.com