The Monocle Minute
On Design

We head to an art nouveau members’ club in Stockholm and visit the headquarters of a leading Catalonian urban design brand (pictured) to gain some outside perspective in this week’s dispatch. Plus: a festival in the Alps provides us with some creative inspiration, while a trampoline-inspired chair puts a spring in our step. But first, Mae-Li Evans hones in on the importance of keeping craft alive.

Stockholm-based members’ club A House is intent on making the Swedish capital the city with the coolest meatpacking district. After renovating the former Stockholm School of Architecture – once voted as “Sweden’s ugliest building” – into offices and recording studios, it decided to transform this old Börshuset slaughterhouse into a hub for design agencies, clothing brands and restaurants.

Under the watchful eye of designer Linnéa Salmén, Stockholm-based Bofink Design Studio carefully renovated the 1912 building to accommodate team meetings and work spaces while preserving many of architect Gustav Wickman’s original details. The main Börssalen hall, previously used to trade cattle, has been refitted with moulded plywood panels and a floor level has been removed to increase the ceiling height, creating a welcoming space for members to meet and relax. The tiled floors and existing murals have been paired with vintage chairs and leather sofas to evoke the building’s Jugend-style art nouveau charm. This renovation is part of A House’s larger vision to bring neglected brutalist spaces back to life and make room for the businesses of the future. bofinkdesignstudio.com; ahouse.se

From water fountains and bike racks to lamps and benches, Catalan design firm Urbidermis creates everything that a city needs to furnish its streets. Its purview includes lighting, urban furniture (such as tables, planters and benches), micro-architecture (including shade structures) and plants. Its wide-ranging remit has led the company, which was originally founded in 1992 as Santa & Cole’s urban division, to not only develop new lighting technology at its headquarters near Barcelona but to cultivate plants on its adjoining 30-hectare tree farm.

Despite its roots as part of Santa & Cole – one of Spain’s foremost design companies – Urbidermis is keen to continually expand and develop its own range. “We are focused on helping cities become better connected and more functional,” says Josep Maria Serra, the firm’s editor and vice-president. A big part of this involves working with specialist engineers to create “smart” wares. The company has introduced digital elements to its products that can be remotely controlled through its bespoke Urbidata platform, including planters that monitor the status of shrubs and dispense water from a built-in tank. These innovations not only save resources but result in more efficient maintenance and healthier plants. “We’re developing products that can be used to help better manage a city,” says Serra.
urbidermis.com

For more on the work of Urbidermis, pick up a copy ofMonocle’s July/August issue, which is on newsstands now.

Are Switzerland’s Alps the perfect setting for creativity? The team behind the country’s recent Makers and Shakers festival in St Moritz were certainly keen to prove that they are. Visitors and residents alike participated in a host of workshops, talks and presentations celebrating alpine design, craft and ingenuity. Among them was Swiss jewellery designer Angelo de Luca, who joined Monocle Radio’s pop-up studio in St Moritz, which broadcast live from the event.

When did your passion for jewellery begin?
I have always felt very connected to jewellery-making. I was born with this passion but it intensified when I was at university in Rimini, Italy, studying literature and philosophy. I was talking about jewels and gemstones all the time. One day a friend of mine said, “If you like jewels so much, why don’t you become a designer?” I was surprised by this. But it was then that I decided to change my life and study jewellery.

What sort of pieces do you usually make?
My high-jewellery collection is inspired by the Swiss Alps. The mountain ring, for example, has white diamonds on top to emulate snow and is surrounded by purple tanzanite, black diamonds, spinels and dark-green tourmalines to recreate the colours of the night. I also make bespoke pieces. I ask clients a simple question: “What do you want the jewellery to communicate to the recipient?” Once I know this, I have a better understanding of who will wear the piece and I can start to transform the information into a design.

Who do you work with to bring your visions to life?
I work with artisans from all over Switzerland, including those in the St Moritz area. All of the pieces are handmade; I always make an effort to find the best craftspeople to create them. The artisans are nice people and they have a lot of love and passion for what they do. This is important to me because they make the jewels so beautiful. This network of craftspeople allows me to create pieces that are completely unique.

For more design inspiration and insights, tune in to‘Monocle on Design’.

The Trampolin chair proves that office seats don’t have to be sober or monochrome. Created in 1984 by Pepe Cortès and Javier Mariscal for Spain’s Akaba, this postmodern perch owes its name to the metal spring that supports its backrest. But the chair is not only about aesthetics. The Spanish duo also kept functional aspects in mind: the wooden seat was carved into a comfortable shape for the sitter, while the base was designed to hide the castor wheels.

Cortès and Mariscal collaborated in the 1980s on several irreverent pieces of furniture for forward-thinking manufacturers, including Italian collective Memphis. Today, Akaba produces more traditional furniture and no longer has the Trampolin in its catalogue. But as task chairs become more hi-tech and ergonomic, Cortès and Mariscal’s design is a reminder that looks are important too. Returning to work after the summer holidays would be a far more pleasant prospect if this cheerful chair were waiting at your desk.

Maltese designer Gordon Guillaumier has partnered with Ethimo on the Italian design brand’s first pieces of outdoor utility equipment. The result is Phil, a compact alfresco-cooking collection that includes a grill, an induction hob and a kitchen sink. All three of these technical components are separately housed in metal drums set on castor wheels, allowing them to be easily manoeuvred into position in the garden or on the patio.

At the top of each drum, a hinged modular disc, which protects the grill, hob or sink when closed, opens to become a chopping board, creating a compact kitchen-like environment outdoors. Its aims are similar to those of Italian designer Joe Colombo’s Minikitchen from 1963 but sleekly reimagined for the modern image. Available in black or matte olive green and complemented by subtle teak handles, the Phil collection will inspire its owners to keep the barbecue season going well into autumn.
ethimo.com

Copenhagen-based designer Daniel Schofield and creative director Rhys Kearns’ Sketches of Seating, published by Days Press, has a simple brief: to place the preliminary sketches of a chair by its designer next to an image of the finished product. “No matter how abstract or far removed it is from the finished thing, the immediacy of a quick sketch can often give more of an insight,” writes Schofield in the book’s foreword. The juxtaposition has a profound effect, opening a Pandora’s Box of creative questions. How important is an initial idea? What is detail? And is there such a thing as a bad sketch?

Across the work of 32 designers – whose sketches range from pencil drawings on a napkin or felt-tipped jottings in a notebook to dimensional diagrams – a mosaic of artistic approaches takes shape. The images reproduced here include John Tree’s initial contours for the HD Chair produced by VG&P (pictured) and the neat lines of the Anza bench, a collaboration between Portuguese designer Rui Pereira and Ryosuke Fukusada from Japan. Sketches of Seating sings the praises of one of humanity’s most prominent inventions (you’re probably sitting on one now) but it also serves as an encouragement for putting pen to paper, by whatever means available.
daniel-schofield.com