The Monocle Minute
On Design

As Milan Design Week approaches, this week’s dispatch highlights some of the best in show. We bask in the glow of South Korea-based ILKW’s Snowman series, touch base with in-demand designer Faye Toogood and preview DesignCouncil Singapore’s showcase of new talent with designer Hunn Wai. Then: Aussie-accented chairs from the archives and a book seeking to preserve Dakar’s architectural soul. Diving in first is Konfekt’s editor, Sophie Grove.

I was diving off a raft in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in the Basque province of Labourd in southwestern France, when I first noticed the work of Robert Mallet-Stevens. In 1928 the architect and designer constructed La Pergola, the impressive pavilion on the beachfront of the medieval town, to house shops, a casino, a movie theatre and a hotel. Best viewed from the water, it dominates the landscape like a vast ocean liner that will never depart – a geometric, modernist experiment. A year later, Mallet-Stevens became the founding leader of the Union des Artistes Modernes, a hugely influential modernist group.

I became a fan. I sought out his cubist villa in Paris’s 16th arrondissement and made the trip to Château de Mézy, another maritime-inspired wonder built for a couturier, Paul Poiret. Mallet-Stevens’ work is full of narrative and his buildings have a drama that reflects the patrons for whom he built. He also designed tourism posters, retail spaces, furniture and sets for cinema, working on films such as Marcel L’Herbier’s L’Inhumaine.

It was inevitable that his work would appear on the pages of Konfekt, Monocle’s sister publication, before too long. This spring’s design-themed issue was the perfect fit: stylist Daphné Hézard led the charge, shooting a fashion story in his Villa Noailles on the French Riviera, where the fresh, sculptural looks of the season were set against the clean lines of the house. The new issue’s cover image was shot in the garden landscaped by cubist designer Gabriel Guevrekian, where sempervivum plants sprout from white, angular concrete beds.

Built as a summer residence for Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles between 1924 and 1932, the villa was once filled with furnishings by the likes of Eileen Gray and Theo van Doesburg. It was the setting for the Noailles’ legendary parties, at which artists, designers and bons vivants of the era came together. The building featured in Man Ray’s film Les Mystères du Château du Dé.

Konfekt’s spring issue features some beautiful interiors and a rundown of some of the most interesting emerging names crafting and making in the industry. The themes of design and architecture filter through the entire magazine. Our Drinking & Dining section, for instance, features a roundtable discussion on acoustics and sound in architecture. Our Regimes section opens with a story following Danish glass designer and colourist Helle Mardahl as she cycles around Copenhagen while reflecting on her health, fitness and creative approach.

It’s only fitting that dapper polymath Mallet-Stevens found a place among them. His approach is a reminder that design touches every part of our lives and shouldn’t be consigned to a silo – or, indeed, a magazine section.

Sophie Grove is Monocle’s executive editor and the editor of ‘Konfekt’. For more, subscribe to ‘Konfekt’ today.

Established in 1962, South Korea’s ILKW is a brand that combines the efficiency of LED lighting with the beauty of incandescent light. In 1998 second-generation owner Kim Hong-do inherited the family company and embarked on a mission to establish ILKW as a globally competitive brand. At the time it was dedicated exclusively to the latter light source but the rise of LED technology and the imperative of sustainability demanded a strategic re-evaluation. “I took a transformative journey, traversing the vibrant creative milieu of New York and the artistic lineage of Aix-en-Provence, yielding pivotal insights,” says Kim.

LED lighting was still in its infancy when South Korean designer Kwon Sun-man came on board as ILKW’s creative director in 2014. But when Kim’s son, Si-yeon, joined the enterprise in 2021, the move towards LEDs started to gain momentum in earnest. Under his watch, the brand launched its Snowman series, which delivers an exquisite LED light. The Snowman series will be on show next week as part of Euroluce, Salone del Mobile’s biennial lighting showcase.

Pick up a copy of Monocle’s ‘Salone del Mobile’ special newspaper when it hits the newsstands in Milan next week. You can also find us in Milan by visiting monocle.com/events.

If you have been on the design-fair circuit over the past 12 months, there’s a strong chance that you have encountered the work of Faye Toogood. The UK designer has, of late, been almost inescapable. She was a guest of honour at the Stockholm Furniture Fair and named Designer of the Year at Paris’s Maison & Objet trade fair; she has been working with Italian manufacturers including CC-Tapis, Tacchini and Poltrona Frau; she collaborated on an installation for Danish brand Frama’s Copenhagen flagship – all while crafting the Toogood fashion line with her sister, Erica. “Sorry about that,” Toogood tells The Monocle Minute on Design when we meet her at her canalside headquarters in London, where she heads up a team of 25 employees. “Something seems to have clicked and it’s amazing to be riding that wave.”

At Milan Design Week, Toogood will be presenting a limited collection of hand-painted pots called Rose, made in partnership with Japanese ceramics manufacturer Noritake. After the success of 2024’s Cosmic collection – consisting of a sofa, shelves, mirrors and pendant lights – she’ll be returning to Milan to launch her second line of furniture with Brianza-based manufacturer Tacchini. Titled Bread and Butter, the collaboration revolves around a modular sofa rendered in soft, light-yellow leather. “I look to food for inspiration,” says Toogood. “It’s a smack of reality.”

To hear more from designers such as Toogood, tune in to ‘Monocle on Design’ on Monocle Radio.

At its best, Milan Design Week serves as a forum for championing the world’s top design. A case in point is Future Impact 3: Design Nation, backed by the DesignSingapore Council, which showcases works by Singaporean designers who have dreamt up solutions to pressing global challenges. Designer Hunn Wai of Lanzavecchia + Wai is one of the co-curators of this year’s exhibition, which takes place in Milan from 8 to 13 April. Here, he tells us more.

How does it feel to be Future Impact’s first Singaporean co-curator?
Twenty years ago I was among the first batch of designers to be awarded an overseas scholarship by the DesignSingapore Council, which enabled me to pursue a master’s degree at Design Academy Eindhoven. Having established a career between Singapore and Milan, this is my opportunity to present the Lion City’s brilliance to the world – not just as an observer of how its design has evolved but as an active contributor. It’s a profound, full-circle moment for me.

The exhibition consists of two complementary showcases. Why?
Both speak of design as a force of transformation, a chance to shape the world. “Little Island of Brave Ideas” shows how design has played a crucial role in the tiny country and “Virtuoso Visionaries” gives an international stage to young design graduates. While Singapore has tended towards practical solutions, today’s rising designers are exploring notions of post-pragmatic design.

Why is Milan Design Week important to Singapore?
It has expanded beyond a commercial fair and become an epicentre where global design conversations happen. It’s both a stage and a testing ground for Singapore, where we get a chance to tell others about our distinct design voice but also stand up to the scrutiny of the world’s most discerning audience. While Singaporean design might not have a recognisable style, like Japanese or Scandinavian work, our next wave of practitioners are hyper-connected talents who embrace complexity and aren’t afraid to challenge conventions. We’re entering an era when Singaporean design isn’t just functional but thoughtful, poetic and global in outlook.

Monocle has partnered with DesignSingapore Council at its ‘Future Impact 3: Design Nation’ exhibition during Milan Design Week. Join us for live radio broadcasts and cocktails on Wednesday 9 April.

Designers often complain about being given impossible commissions but few can top what Australian designers Grant and Mary Featherston were tasked with in 1966. Curator Robin Boyd came to the couple with an idea: he wanted to furnish the Australian pavilion at Montréal’s Expo 67 with “talking chairs”. So the designers came up with the Expo Mark II, a high-backed, cocoon-like chair with speakers embedded into the headrest. When someone took a seat, it would automatically start to play tape recordings of famous Australians talking about life Down Under. The technology burnt through 2,000 cassette tapes during the six-month fair.

Having enjoyed great success in Montréal, the chairs were adapted for the Australian market and manufactured by Aristoc from 1967 to 1970. The technology, however, never really took off; it’s easy to imagine that this sound-system-for-one wasn’t exactly conducive to domestic harmony. Still, the Featherstons had proved their competence as designers and went on to have long and productive careers, and in 1996 the pair became the first inductees of the Design Institute of Australia Hall of Fame.

Louis Poulsen’s chief design officer, Monique Faber, once told Monocle that the AJ lamp by Danish mid-century architect Arne Jacobsen was particularly sought after by architects. We can see why. The lamp is a masterclass in restraint, equal parts austerity and sophistication. Designed in 1957, the AJ featured throughout Copenhagen’s SAS Royal Hotel (now the Radisson Collective Royal Hotel) as part of Jacobsen’s “total design” vision for the hotel – one that included furniture, cutlery, fabrics, wallpaper illustrations and more.

This spring the AJ lamp family is being expanded with black and warm grey iterations featuring polished brass details, adding a touch of luxury to the otherwise pared-back design. The new colourways will be available in the table, standing and wall-mounted versions of the AJ. We can picture these monochromatic lamps adorning design studios, home offices and the desks of aspiring architects in cities from Copenhagen to Chicago.
louispoulsen.com

All cities must change if they want to avoid becoming static mausoleums – but what’s at risk when that transformation happens too quickly or almost indiscriminately? Authors Carole Diop and Xavier Ricou are worried that part of their hometown, Dakar, is losing its architectural soul in the process of relentless modernisation. So they have put together a book called Dakar, Métamorphoses d’une Capitale. It’s half a portrait of the city, half a manifesto for sensitive preservation and wholly a case study for urban planning across Africa.

From its beginnings as a series of fishing villages inhabited by the Lebu people through to its official founding as a city in 1857, the colonial era and post-independence expansion, each of the Senegalese capital’s historical chapters is explored with illuminating photography and cartographic evidence that unearths traces of the past in the present. Published by Éditions de l’Aube, it’s an ambitious, impassioned and necessary work. It’s also a rare opportunity to admire pictures of Dakar’s modernist, neo-Sudanese and art deco treasures, as well as the masterpieces of asymmetrical parallelism that shaped its visual identity. All 450 buildings are neatly laid out in the book’s closing inventory, an impressive catalogue of a heritage under threat.
editionsdelaube.fr