The Monocle Minute
On Design

This week we bounce between the design fairs taking place in the French and Finnish capitals. We visit Marimekko’s lively pop-up bar in Helsinki and swing past a showcase of fine French furniture made from plane trees. Plus, a colourful preview of Hall Haus’s exhibition at Lafayette Anticipations and a visit to the Habitare trade hall with Nikari. All of that and more – but first, here’s Nic Monisse on how the best design taps into its wider culture.

Marimekko debuted its Bar Unikko concept at Milan Design Week earlier this year, when it transformed a café into a drinking hole decked out in the Finnish fashion house’s prints and patterns. It’s now bringing the idea home for Helsinki Design Week, reimagining the Bar Unikko concept as a laid-back after-work bar, inspired by one of the heritage brand’s most loved patterns, designed in 1964 by Maija Isola. “Marimekko’s founder, Armi Ratia, famously stated that Marimekko could have equally taken the form of an ice-cream parlour, a flower shop or even modern jazz, as long as it would bring joy to people’s everyday lives,” says its creative director, Rebekka Bay. “Bar Unikko brings this philosophy to life and allows us to make design available to all.”

The bar, which occupies an old bank hall from 1981, was curated in partnership with publisher Apartamento. It features Marimekko’s pre-spring 2024 home collection, which plays with different sizes of Unikko patterns in dark-blue shades. “We couldn’t resist including Unikko-shaped denim cushions to celebrate last month’s launch of Marimekko Maridenim,” says Bay. Bar Unikko also highlights classic and contemporary Finnish design brands – another reason for visitors to drop in during Helsinki Design Week.
marimekko.com

Visit Bar Unikko at Paasivuorenkatu 3 in Hakaniemi, until 15 September 2024.

French furniture brand Mono Editions produces collections made by designers from a single material. “When I launched Mono in 2021, I was thinking about ways to contribute to the circular economy,” says its founder, Laetitia Ventura. “One way to do this was to use one material and one architect to make a collection.” The latest iteration of this idea, unveiled during Paris Design Week, is Platane by Corpus Studio.

The new collection includes tables, chairs, desks and lamps made entirely from plane trees, a species that Napoleon mass-planted in the 19th century and is today found across France. “Plane trees are everywhere but not many people know that its wood has this beautiful, graphic character,” says Corpus Studio’s co-founder, Ronan le Grand. “It feels as though you’re entering a dream when you look at the furniture.”
corpus.studio

To arrange a viewing of Platane, contact Mono Editions in Paris.

Paris-based designer Sammy Bernoussi co-founded Hall Haus with Abdoulaye Niang, Teddy Sanches and Zakari Boukhari in 2020. The quartet met while studying at France’s École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle. Since setting up their operation in 2020, they have worked with high-end fashion labels such as Jacquemus and the likes of Ikea across product, furniture and fashion design, as well as scenography. As part of this year’s Paris Design Week, the Hall Haus team is presenting an exhibition at Lafayette Anticipations that explores everything from furniture to sound design.

Tell us your plans for Paris Design Week.
We’re taking over Lafayette Anticipations, the art foundation of Galeries Lafayette, with three showcases spread across four floors. We collaborated with Design Space Alula on the main floor installation, which features a couch that it worked on earlier this year for Milan Design Week. To give the piece a new look and feel, we asked Paris-based craftsmen to reupholster it in French fabrics for Paris Design Week. We also invited other Design Space Alula residents to participate in the showcase, including Leo Orta, who created an organic chair and bench, and Leen Ajlan, who made a Saudi-inspired game. Seeingsounds, an artistic performance inspired by synaesthesia, will take place on the second and third floors. On the top floor is our collaboration with Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, One 4 Hall.

What does your partnership with Jean-Charles de Castelbajac entail?
It’s about the transmission of identity across generations and how we can show this through design. To do this, De Castelbajac reworked the look of our classic Dakar chair. The silhouette of a face has been cut into the steel frame, with every profile able to slot into that of another chair, creating a bench. This chain represents the passing down of knowledge.

How did you come to work with De Castelbajac?
We met him at Maison&Objet a few years ago. He is an avant-garde artist and has taken a lot of risks over the course of his career, making things with energy and an open mind. It’s not easy to find an established designer who is willing to help the younger generation. He supported us and talked about our work with other people in the field.

Visit Hall Haus at Lafayette Anticipations at 9 rue du Plâtre during Paris Design Week, which runs until 13 September 2024.

Finland’s Nikari has launched its latest product at Habitare, an extendable addition to its classic Basic table series. Originally designed in 2020 by creative director Jenni Roininen, this new option features the brand’s trademark elegant joinery (pictured), which disguises one (or two) hidden leaves that slide out to extend the table.

It can now accommodate parties of as many as 12 people, making it ideal for hosting friends, family or conducting team meetings in style. Available in various finishes, including ash, oak and smoked-oak stain, it can slot seamlessly into any interior.
nikari.fi

Visit Nikari at booth 6b2 Naapurit during Habitare, which runs until 15 September 2024.

As part of Paris Design Week, Garnier & Linker has unveiled Tara, the French design agency’s first chair produced entirely from cast aluminium. The perch, which was released alongside a line of stools, stands at nearly a metre tall and features a pivoting seat that has been moulded into a curved, comfortable form. It’s available in three finishes, including a traditional brushed metal, a clear, mirror-like polish and raw aluminium.

This focus on products made from a single material shouldn’t come as a surprise for admirers of the Paris-based studio: Guillaume Garnier and Florent Linker took their first steps into the industry by producing small-batch, art deco-inspired aluminium lighting fixtures. Tara is an evolution of this approach, taking cues from sculpture and decorative arts. We expect to find the seats in hip bars near Canal Saint Martin, right by Garnier & Linker’s studio.
garnieretlinker.com

Visit Garnier & Linker at 22 rue de l'Échiquier until 14 September 2024.

Design enthusiasts winging their way to the Finnish capital for Habitare will be steered through Helsinki-Vantaa by clear signage that has been refreshed as part of the airport’s 10-year development plan. “People are now not only guided through the airport by signs but also by the architecture of the terminal and its colours,” says Hanna Hämäläinen, Helsinki-Vantaa’s head of passenger services and development. In the departures terminal, the undulating spruce-wood roof naturally leads passengers towards security. Various colours are used on the signage: a dark-blue-and-white combination marks travel-related functions such as gates, while light blue indicates the presence of shops and restaurants.

Given that 50,000 passengers pass through Helsinki airport each day, creating universally understandable signage was a priority of the refresh. “To achieve this, we use pictograms instead of text as much as possible,” says Hämäläinen. The signs are only used when absolutely necessary and their height and placement are continuously adjusted based on customer feedback. “Less is more. We wanted to have as few visual cues as possible to avoid overwhelming passengers.”
finavia.fi