The Monocle Minute
On Design

This week’s dispatch has a distinctive Turkish flavour, courtesy of The Monocle Quality of Life Conference in Istanbul this week. We’ve combed both sides of the Bosphorus and found a city as fluid as it is fertile, visiting a playful design studio working with local craft masters and a firm that builds identity into its designs. Elsewhere, we pop our heads into Pad London and take a perch on Hans Kaufeld’s leather rocking chair. Starting us off, Grace Charlton examines Istanbul’s do-it-all mindset.

Ahead of The Monocle Quality of Life Conference, which takes place in Istanbul this week, I travelled to the city to meet some of the design studios that are enmeshed with their environment. As I explored the neighbourhoods of Beyoglu, Sisli and Maslak, it was clear that the city’s status as a crossroads of cultures, customs and continents means that Istanbulites are adept at going with the flow.

A considerable amount of ink has already been spilt on this topic, so let’s get the clichés out of the way: it’s a city where Asia meets Europe, religion meets secularism and past meets present. But clichés often hold some truth and the chaos of Istanbul demands a can-do, do-it-all mentality that is particularly apparent in its design scene. Seamlessly shapeshifting between architecture, product design, print, consulting and more, creatives here are not afraid of donning multiple hats.

“You become a kind of MacGyver character because the profession is so vast,” says Inanc Eray, founder of Sour, an Istanbul- and New York-based design studio. “In the morning you’re creating a design; at lunchtime it’s the budgets; and then you’re dealing with a water leak.” This sentiment became the recurring theme of my trip, echoed by studios such as Autoban, Superpool, Sanayi313 and Studio Yellowdot. “Istanbul is a very fluid place; whatever you put in needs to adapt and change,” says Selva Gurdogan, co-founder of Istanbul- and Copenhagen-based Superpool. “It forces you to be multidisciplinary as you work with the flows of the city. It’s not perfect and that’s the beauty of it. You can always imagine ways to transform it.”

The success of these studios, both as leaders within the Turkish design scene and winners of significant commissions abroad, is built off the back of these dynamic practices – showing that chaos should, sometimes, be embraced. Shying away from complexity, trying to streamline design processes, pigeonholing disciplines and being too rigid in one’s worldview can stifle creativity. For those who live in more ordered cities, Istanbul’s thriving design scene shows that the best tool to keep up your sleeve is an agile mind. If you’re open to any eventuality, who knows what it might yield?

Grace Charlton is Monocle’s associate editor. You can keep up with The Monocle Quality of Life Conference by tuning in to Monocle Radio from tomorrow.

After meeting at Milan’s prestigious Istituto Europeo di Design, Turkish artist and designer Dilara Kan and American-Chinese industrial engineer Bodin Hon founded Studio Yellowdot. They now split their time between Istanbul and Hong Kong but Turkey is where much of the product development takes place in dialogue with ustalar (the masters at Istanbul’s craft workshops), from upholstered cabinets in a traditional Ottoman fabric to sculptural brass chandeliers for holding eggs (yes, you read that right). “We work with ustalar to better understand the design process in lighting, woodworking, marble and upholstering,” says Kan with a smile. “They give us a lot of feedback and we produce everything with their direction.”

As an emerging company, Studio Yellowdot is gaining traction thanks to its exuberant eye and its appearances on the design-fair circuit of Maison & Objet in Paris, Dubai Design Week and Milan’s Salone del Mobile. Being partly based in Istanbul might not always be straightforward for young creatives due to fluctuating financial and bureaucratic realities but the city’s multifaceted history provides ample inspiration. “We’re playful in our designs because Istanbul is already extremely chaotic,” adds Kan. “We have to flow around it. We find our way through playfulness and humour.”
studioyellowdot.com

For more on Istanbul’s multi-disciplinary design studios, pick up a copy of Monocle’sOctober issue, which is on newsstands now and features a full report on creatives in the city.

It’s that time of the year again: London’s Berkeley Square has been transformed into a lively fairground for the 16th edition of the Pavilion of Art & Design, better known as Pad London. Dedicated to 20th-century and contemporary furniture and artwork, the fair plays host to 62 exhibitors and acts as an international meeting point for fine-art connoisseurs and design enthusiasts.

Among this year’s most talked-about booths is Milanese art dealer Nina Yashar’s Nilufar Gallery. Here, you’ll find a curation of works by innovative designers, including London-based Michael Anastassiades’s Bellagio floor lamp and Israeli artist Shlomo Harush’s copper chairs (pictured top). Other highlights include Italian designer Roberta Verteramo’s Selene collection of bronze pieces with 88 Gallery London. Pad London runs until Sunday. It’s well worth a visit if you’re looking for opulence done right.
padesignart.com

Autoban is an Istanbul-based multidisciplinary studio that has forged a reputation for thoughtfulness, experimentation and craftsmanship. As the founding partner and head of design at the firm, Seyhan Özdemir Sarper has overseen the completion of hundreds of projects, covering everything from architecture and interiors to products and experiences. Flagship designs include “Aquarius”, an award-winning 45-metre luxury yacht, Estée Lauder’s Turkish headquarters and Galataport, Istanbul’s cruise terminal – a sleek, cavernous and highly functional space that can accommodate 15,000 daily passengers, crew and staff.

Tell us about Autoban’s ambition.
My business partner, Sefer Çağlar, and I met at university. I was studying architecture and he was studying interior design but we found that our passions were very similar. Architecture creates a lifestyle for people and how they might live in the future. When you go back to the most famous modernist architects, such as Le Corbusier or Frank Lloyd Wright, their mission was to create a new life for people – our ambition is similar. This means that we’re not only shaping a building or its interiors but supporting a whole life, thinking about how people touch, interact and feel.

Is there a unifying design ethos that guides your work?
We are working in a multidisciplinary field, with projects spanning from architecture to interior and product design. We believe in creating a new DNA by identifying a lifestyle for each project. It’s about the full package, from small-sized objects up to the building itself, including furniture – everything can support the creation of a strong project identity.

How does this translate to a project like Galataport, Istanbul’s underground cruise terminal, which you completed in 2020?
With all of our projects, we try to create a new story, using the history of the place and tapping into its soul. Istanbul has a historic network of underground systems, which date from the Romans through to the Ottomans. So we decided to create our own underground system for this modern cruise terminal. The result is a project with a story that connects to Istanbul’s history.

For more from designers such as Sarper, tune in to‘Monocle On Design’.

Stilnovo was an icon of the dopoguerra, or postwar Italy’s economic boom. Established in Milan in 1946, the lighting company’s innovative designs reflected the positivity of the era. Today its lamps from the 1950s and 1960s remain in high demand on vintage circuits. During its peak years, Stilnovo worked with acclaimed designers such as the Castiglioni brothers and Ettore Sottsass. The brand later fell out of favour, closing in the 1980s, but was reborn in 2019 when it was bought by Linea Line Group.

The look and feel of the lamps these days is more pared back but the desire to work with top talent remains. Enter its latest release: the sleek Torino reading light by Japanese designer Shigeaki Asahara. The aluminium lamp, which will be available later this month, has an adjustable arm and comes in six colours. Its design is inspired by Piazza Vittorio Veneto in Turin’s historic centre. Even as a new incarnation, Stilnovo continues to light the way.
stilnovo.com

For some, childhood memories might include nearly tipping over in their grandparents’ rocking chair. Come adulthood, though, most people think that living-room seating needs four legs. Yet there’s no reason why the far more fun alternative of a rocking chair should be monopolised by seniors. That is, at least, what German manufacturer Hans Kaufeld must have thought when, in the 1970s, it released this leather rocking chair. With a crescent of soft cushions perched on a pair of aluminium ovals, it has all the comfort of grandma’s lounger without sacrificing any of the era’s cool.

Bielefeld-based Hans Kaufeld was an important maker of upscale furniture that worked with designers such as Robert Haussmann and Geoffrey Harcourt, as well as supplying armchairs for the office of the German chancellor. Though the factory has long since closed, this rocking chair (whose designer remains anonymous) is today one of the company’s most sought-after pieces on the vintage market. Somebody should consider putting it back into production — and not just for the sake of style-conscious grandparents.

South Bank: Architecture & Design is the first in-depth overview of one of London’s most dynamic cultural hubs. Home to the Royal Festival Hall, the Hayward Gallery, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room, the BFI Southbank and the National Theatre, the South Bank was propelled to prominence in 1951 as the focal point for the Festival of Britain, which was conceived to raise the spirits of a nation after the Second World War. With the help of visionary architects and designers such as Norman Engleback and Leslie Martin, the South Bank was envisioned to look to the future.

The title, which is published by London-based Batsford Books, explores both the South Bank’s architectural heritage and its social standing. Journalist and architecture specialist Dominic Bradbury contributes passionate writing, while the photographs taken by British interiors and architectural photographer Rachael Smith illustrate the area’s distinctive approach. South Bank is an essential read for anyone interested in this artistic neighbourhood, which helped to revive postwar London and has remained vibrant and active ever since. batsfordbooks.com