The Monocle Minute
On Design

This week, we take in the architectural wonders of a 1970s sports complex in Paris that has been resurrected as a cultural spot (pictured), refresh ourselves at a new watering hole in Amsterdam giving the Dutch bruin café tradition a new spin, meet the founders of a Portuguese design collective and plenty more. First, here’s Nic Monisse on capturing the essence of a city.

Ten years after closing to the public after falling into disrepair, this 20th-century architectural gem is once again welcoming visitors, just in time for the Olympics. Designed in 1971 by architects Anatole Kopp, Lucien Metrich and Pierre Chazanoff, the Grande Nef de l’Île-des-Vannes was part of a larger sports complex in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine. The venue has not only hosted athletes but also rock concerts and political congresses. Its curved roof and translucent side-panelling earned the building its “Historic Monument” status in 2007.

In 2022, Franco-Swiss studio Chatillon Architects began restoring the building and adapting its interiors for contemporary use. The firm fitted the space with acoustic wood panelling, a state-of-the-art sports floor, LED lighting and yellow seats in a nod to the bright colour palettes of the 1970s. Over the coming weeks, the complex will serve as a training ground for Olympic and Paralympic athletes, before returning to its original role as a cultural gathering spot for the people of Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine.
chatillonarchitectes.com

Familie Goudvisch, a group of bars and restaurants in Amsterdam, has welcomed a new member: Leo. Designed by Studio Modijefsky, the bar in Beukenplein square is a contemporary take on the bruin café (brown café), a traditional Dutch neighbourhood hangout. “The building was already fitted with big windows,” says Esther Stam, the founder of Studio Modijefsky. “That gave us the freedom to use a bruin café’s dark colours without overwhelming the space.”

Oak furniture on the main floor and a textured marble bar on the raised mezzanine bring a sense of warmth, while mirrors and 1970s-inspired light fixtures cast a glow on pojagi curtains (traditional Korean patchwork window coverings). “Craftsmanship is an important part of our approach,” says Stam. If there’s a lesson to be learnt from Studio Modijefsky’s design for Leo, it is that respecting the architectural traditions of a building’s environment can help to bring it back to life.
studiomodijefsky.nl

Maria Bruun is a Copenhagen-based product and exhibition designer. Her work builds on that of Danish greats such as Børge Mogensen and Fredericia, a family-owned furniture company established in 1911. Bruun and Fredericia began collaborating in 2020, creating pieces such as the Pioneer stool. Here, she tells us about the link between Danish design heritage and craftsmanship.

How has Fredericia’s heritage informed your work with the brand?
I worked on an exhibition for the company at this year’s 3 Days of Design festival, where its mid-century pieces were on show alongside its current collection. It was important to have my projects, such as the Pioneer collection, on show at the event because they are interpretations of Fredericia’s previous work and showcase the brand’s ambition today.

How did the exhibition reflect the value of Danish craftsmanship?
I believe in working with your hands. It’s a democratic process because it makes craft accessible to anyone – you don’t need machinery. In Denmark, we are surrounded by design, whether it’s in the form of bike lanes, signage or infrastructure. Some people believe that design and architecture can solve fundamental problems within society, as they are both ways of enhancing people’s quality of life.

How important is the work of homegrown designers in preserving a country’s design legacy?
There is so much talent that goes into creating products. For many, “Made in Denmark” is not just a marketing gimmick: it is the essence of a brand.

For more on the Danish design scene, pick up a copy of Monocle’sJuly/August issue, which features a special report on the Scandinavian creative powerhouse.

In the early 1970s, Sydney-based artist and designer Paul Cockburn was struggling to fix up his Jaguar E-Type in the dark when inspiration struck. He came up with the idea of a torch that was slightly angled so that it could light up the underside of a car when it was placed on the floor or illuminate a path when pointed straight ahead. The design, Cockburn decided, should be deliberately “ugly” because it would help to convince people of its ruggedness and reliability. He applied his ideas to US company Eveready’s Dolphin torch and his version quickly became one of Australia’s most beloved items of industrial design. It spent more than 10 years as the world’s best-selling torch. Just about every Australian remembers one rolling around in the boot of their parents’ car and coming to the rescue during camping trips and late-night excursions.

Eveready, now owned by US-based Energizer Holdings, has kept the Dolphin in production. The waterproof torch’s sales have been buoyed by adverts showing it going down torrents and frolicking with dolphins. The current iteration has smoothed out some of the “ugly” edges, with subtle curves for a slicker look. While we’re partial to well-considered design improvements, sometimes it’s best to leave an original unaltered. We’re sure that Cockburn would agree.

Lisbon’s Luso Collective is a new design group that’s committed to celebrating fresh Portuguese talent. Its name is a reference to the ancient Lusitanians, an Iberian people who lived in what is now Portugal and were known for their craftsmanship. It’s an appropriate term for a group that champions the use of traditional techniques to create modern pieces, including clay tables crafted by design duo Garcé & Dimofski and hand-woven bulrush chairs by Lisbon studio Macheia.

The Luso Collective was founded by Natasza Grzeskiewicz and Tomás Fernandes, the couple behind design practice Ther, and Zuzanna Gasior, co-founder of Thisispaper magazine and studio. “The Portuguese design scene is rarely shown as a collective force on the global stage,” says Grzeskiewicz. “Luso developed from a need to connect with other creative minds.” The collective’s work also offers opportunities for makers and buyers to explore the country’s craft heritage in contemporary contexts.
luso.works

Glass Houses, published by Phaidon, celebrates architectural marvels featuring glass as their primary material. The book explores 50 such houses across the globe, including those designed by Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao and Japan’s Hiroshi Nakamura. Its pages are filled with stunning photography showing the vistas that lie beyond the walls (US architect Philip Johnson, whose work features in the book, once quipped that his glass house had “expensive wallpaper”).

In his introduction, New York-based architect Andrew Heid writes that using glass “allows architecture to almost disappear”. Perhaps the message of the book is that the material’s real value lies in its ability to shield us from the elements while comfortably bringing the outside into our homes.
phaidon.com