The Monocle Minute
On Design

This week we visit a renovated residence in Japan that captures its owners’ unique characters and browse the wares of a new interiors shop in Los Angeles. We also hear from US landscape architect Sara Zewde on building less and pack our bags with a 1960s suitcase from Cini Boeri. But first, Nic Monisse considers the best design schools, starting with Auburn University in Alabama (pictured).

When it comes to renovation, restoration and repair projects, Yoshihiro Yamamoto and his Nara and Osaka-based firm Yoshihiro Yamamoto Architects Atelier (YYAA) believe in the value of not heavily imposing themselves on the design. Rather, the architect develops uniqueness by listening to the client’s needs and finding optimal solutions. A case in point is his work on Mederu House, home to the Kimura family for more than 30 years. As Noriko and husband Keisuke Kimura approached retirement, they enlisted YYAA to revise their beloved residence.

The couple’s affection for their home drew Yamamoto’s focus toward improvements in their quality of life. The first step was a reconfiguration that saw the dining room relocated so that it became adjacent to the kitchen and living room. This latter space was redesigned to bring more light into the preparation and enjoyment of food via garden views and the addition of two skylights. The architect also countered a lack of storage by creating built-in shelves that are being used for the display of art and antiques dating back to the eighth century AD. “I spent time showing Yamamoto-san every single piece I wanted to have on show,” says Noriko when Monocle visits. The project is a reminder for designers everywhere that curiosity about the end user and listening to the client can lead to distinctive projects.

For more on the Mederu House, pick up a copy ofMonocle’s September issue, which is on newsstands now.

There’s a rich tradition in Los Angeles of interior-design agencies opening retail shops to sell furniture. These spaces provide somewhere to welcome clients, reveal the inspiration behind the design practice and, ideally, sell a few chairs as well. “We were in an office space here for a long time but having a physical location means that I can display what I like as a designer – without going through the filter of a client,” says Stephan Jones, founder of interiors firm Stock Studio, which recently turned an ageing West Hollywood hair salon into a bright and breezy space that showcases his collection of mid-century, mostly European one-off pieces. “I ended up filling two containers [on my last trip to] Europe,” says Jones.

Period pieces by Maison Regain caught our eye as well as a grand and elaborately carved table that evokes the etched-column façade of the Saline royale d’Arc-et-Senans (Royal Salt Works). There’s also a piece by desert-modernism architect Charles du Bois, who is best known for his work in Palm Springs. Jones is currently working with a home in the coveted 1960s-era Sierra Towers and says that the shop has helped clients to see his work with fresh eyes. “We talk about narrative, we talk about story. I feel as though this space offers that.”
stock.studio

New York-based landscape architect Sara Zewde founded her namesake studio in 2018. The young designer is earmarked as a generational talent thanks to work merging social and environmental causes, including projects such as the installation of temporary public spaces in Seattle and a winning commission to shape the gardens of the Dia Art Foundation’s gallery in Beacon, upstate New York. Here she tells Monocle about the importance of one of design’s lesser-heralded fields.

How did you arrive at the decision to practise landscape architecture?
Architects often say, “I started drawing houses when I was five.” But landscape architects typically don’t have a straight career trajectory. I initially studied sociology, statistics and urban planning but landscape architecture emerged, for me, as a discipline that could take on some of the major challenges of our society and engage culture at the same time.

What can the discipline do better?
Historically, landscape architecture hasn’t necessarily been practised to its full potential. It has been seen as a sub-discipline, as a new field relative to architecture. But people have been shaping land for all of history. There’s a lot of latent genius in indigenous histories of land management and design from across the globe that could lend itself to contemporary landscape architecture.

Tell us about your planned work on the Dia Art Foundation’s Dia Beacon site and why the arts organisation approached you to redesign its grounds.
Dia Beacon is in the town of Beacon on the Hudson river. At the moment, visitors can’t access the eight acres of land to the south of the gallery buildings, where there’s a flat lawn ringed by trees and a railway running past. This landscape needed to be addressed after the site flooded when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012. Nothing disastrous happened to the collection but it showed just how vulnerable it is to climate change. Before the railway was built, separating the site from the river, this property was part of the floodplain. That’s why there was flooding – and will be again in the future.

To read more about Sara Zewde’s work, subscribe to Monocle today.

Covent Garden-based design retailer Aram is presenting two new chairs by Japanese furniture makers Miyazaki Chair Factory as part of the London Design Festival, which runs from 14 to 22 September. The DC11 dining chair and the three-legged Tsumuji side chair (pictured) were created by a team of Japanese craftspeople, which works on a made-to-order basis and refines its handmade designs to precise specifications. Both chairs feature handsomely proportioned measurements that evoke a mid-century Danish sensibility mixed with Japanese expertise through their organic, sculptural forms.

Aram will also be showing an installation at the festival that celebrates Miyazaki’s contributions to the canon of chairs since the company was established in Tokushima in 1969. Viewers to the installation, called The Art of Seating: Miyazaki Chair, can expect ergonomic frames made from oak or walnut and seats rendered in paper cord, velvet, cane or leather by names such as Danish designer Kai Kristiansen.
aram.co.uk, miyazakichair.com

Founded in 1864, leather-goods company, Franzi is one of the oldest of its kind in Italy. The Milanese workshop started out crafting wardrobe-sized leather trunks that accompanied aristocratic travellers on their Grand Tours. In the 20th century Franzi pivoted to more practical luggage and briefcases in step with the times, including a 1966 design by Milanese architect Cini Boeri. She deftly proposed a rolling suitcase called the Partner that flipped the luxury element inside out: crafting an outer shell from ABS resin (a predecessor to today’s polycarbonate) while only the inside is upholstered with Franzi’s supple leather.

Boeri’s angular design was one of the first suitcases made in plastic and the choice has proved prescient. Today most travellers wheel around their belongings in polymer cases. But many modern suitcases have lost the tactile feeling of luxury that the Partner, with its metal lock and leather interior, still provides. At a time when it can seem as though only one company is making quality luggage – Rimowa, of course – a reissue of Boeri’s design could serve as a niche alternative.

September often invites a renewed sense of studiousness. For inspiration, London’s Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA) has published its annual book showcasing the work of students and professors. The 2024 edition comes in a box filled with prints, pamphlets, postcards and pages that set the tone for the coming academic year. With an introductory note from the AA’s director Ingrid Schroder, the title’s diverse approaches, images and voices are intended to engage readers and encourage them to assemble their own mosaics of ideas.

Edited by the school’s own Ryan Dillon and Anna Lisa Reynolds, the unconventional book presents design projects that range from reimagining forgotten spaces in suburbia to exploring the concept of buildings as creatures. The publication also highlights the AA’s annual public programme of lectures, exhibitions, symposia, workshops and book launches. AA Book 2024 is ultimately an ode to the necessity of questioning the discipline of design, it’s made for curious minds hoping to go about their own architectural endeavours or in search of continued learning.
aaschool.ac.uk