Issues

How Tokyo’s Teddy Brown elevates the humble hamburger

How can you improve the humble hamburger? Few have answered this question as convincingly as Teddy Brown in Tokyo’s Hiroo district. But before you marvel at the menu, take a moment to appreciate owner Takahiro Oya’s choice of oak furniture, marble tabletops, psychedelic glass lampshades and exposed pebble araidashi-poured floor.

Oya and his team make their 160g patties daily with kuroge Wagyu (Japanese black) beef shank and belly. The buns – whose resemblance to brown teddy bears inspired the shop’s name – contain mashed potatoes, a little organic cane sugar from the island of Tanegashima and are topped with onions that take hours to caramelise. Cheddar and Grana Padano bring the cheese factor, the bacon is home-smoked and the fries are cut, steamed and twice-cooked in rice oil.

Serving burgers with sauces that contain no additives or preservatives is a top priority for Oya, which is why the staff spend hours making every condiment from scratch, including the ketchup, mayonnaise, teriyaki sauce, “bacon jam” and sauce aurore (bechamel and tomatoes). “I’ve eaten at a lot of burger shops for research and often felt heavy afterwards,” says Oya. “Using better sauces and condiments can make a big difference.” Being a stickler for ingredients is also a savvy strategy for surviving in Tokyo’s hypercompetitive market of more than 1,400 shops, diners, bistros and fast-food restaurants serving burgers. 

Before opening Teddy Brown last April, Oya spent 18 years launching and overseeing 20 restaurants and learning how to draw out the best qualities of Wagyu. But he’s still refining his recipe and not averse to temporarily removing burgers from the menu that he feels could use adjustments or improvements. “Wagyu has a distinctive sweetness and aroma, and a lot of moisture. You have to remove the excess moisture,” he says. “Making a tasty burger takes effort. You can’t just fry it and add cheese like you would do with US-raised beef.”
5-1-18 Hiroo, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

‘Architecture should be equally functional and beautiful’: Matt Goodman’s thoughtful approach to beachside builds

Like doctors, lawyers and teachers, the best architects have strong principles and a sense of integrity. That’s exactly what imbues the work of Matt Goodman (and why he’s being commissioned by those in the know across Australia). With work that spans offices to apartments, the Melbourne-based architect’s ethos – one that’s about respecting existing conditions, context and craftsmanship – is consistent across his portfolio. “As a studio, we care about context and enjoy the process of crafting buildings,” says Goodman. “It’s about being collaborative and solving design problems. We bring simplicity to complex briefs. Wherever possible we use natural materials and a limited palette to create refined designs.”

It’s an approach that’s best imbued in his residential work, which frequently draws upon cultural traditions and the landscapes in which it is embedded. “For the house at Anglesea we kept the soul of its mid-century origins intact,” says Goodman of the beach house that he renovated on Australia’s south coast. The home was sensitively rebuilt, maintaining the original L-shaped layout, allowing the living space to flow into the garden where existing native trees connect the space with the verdant landscape beyond. Brick rendered in an earthy colour and blackbutt-timber ceilings further enhance this natural atmosphere. “Every decision respected its character, while bringing it up to modern standards,” he adds.

A similar approach can also be found in Goodman’s work on the Olive Street Cabin in the coastal town of Separation Creek. The project is a contemporary take on 1950s and 1960s Australian beach cabins, which populated the country’s coastlines following the Second World War. An iconic but increasingly rare form of architecture, such structures hold a place in the national consciousness: the skillion roofs, pared-back fibre-cement façades and simple floor plans represented the bare-boned nature of coastal life.

“The project started with the idea of doing something simple, marrying the character of Separation Creek,” says Goodman. “It’s true to the area’s history.” And, true to his word, Goodman’s design blurs the indoors and outdoors, encouraging easy beachside living. Its compact layout feels generous, with external spaces flowing easily into the living area and kitchen, which is connected to the dining space by a custom stepped bench. Residents are also invited to connect with the environment beyond thanks to large windows with frameless details that make the glass appear to float, dissolving the barrier between home and landscape.

Far from being stuck in the past, however, Goodman has introduced architectural innovations that respond to the changing climate. “It’s robust and bushfire-safe,” he says, explaining that sliding corrugated-aluminium doors ensure it shuts up tightly, protecting it from the elements. This means that its owners can be assured of security when they aren’t holidaying in the residence – representative of Goodman’s ethos, one that balances aesthetics and operation. “Architecture,” he adds, “should be equally functional and beautiful.”
mgao.com.au

Helsinki’s urban oasis: Iittala Brings the Finnish sauna into the city at Bob W Kamppi

What should a traditional Finnish sauna look like in an urban context, where it serves as a city sanctuary rather than a lakeside escape? That’s the question that Iittala is exploring with its new lounge on the top floor of Bob W Kamppi, a 1970s Helsinki office-building-turned-hotel. The heritage brand worked with Helsinki-based studio Koko3 to transform the space into a contemporary wellness hub. 

Called Iittala Sauna Lounge, it pays tribute to the building’s original structure and is characterised by bare concrete walls, tiles and copper, typical of late-modernist design. “We wanted to keep that brutalist roughness and strong character visible,” says Koko3’s Mari Relander. “The question was what to pair it with – something equally grounded in Finnish design but with a new voice and warmth.” The answer came in the form of solid pine furniture from local brand Vaarnii, whose heavy timber chairs and tables are designed to patina gently with use – a practical consideration, Relander notes, since guests move through the lounge fresh out of the sauna. “It’s meant to be a lived-in space,” she says. “People come in hot, barefoot, carrying water. The materials need to handle that. They’ll only get better over time.”

Relander and her team added warmth to the space with additional furnishings: a soft, textured Koti sofa by Stockholm-based brand Hem, handwoven Finnish wool rugs by Woven Works and classic Paavo Tynell lamps, which were originally designed for holiday resort Aulanko and have now been reissued by Danish firm Gubi. These subdued elements are meant to ease the transition from the heat of the sauna to the calm of the lounge. The adjoining terrace acts as a modern equivalent of the lakeside deck, offering a place to cool off. “The cooling space is always part of the sauna ritual,” says Relander. “Here it just happens to be in the city, not by a lake.”

Throughout the lounge, Iittala’s glassware and ceramics play a starring role, from Alvar Aalto classics and Tapio Wirkkala’s iconic Ultima Thule collection to new Solare vases. The collaboration signals a shift for the design house, which wants its pieces to be used beyond the domestic sphere. “This was a perfect fit for our mission, which is to inspire creativity and community by connecting people to innovative, purposeful and iconic designs in every room of the house,” says Iittala’s vice-president, Tove Westermarck.

True to its setting in a city-centre hotel, the Iittala Sauna Lounge embraces its inherent dualities: it is both raw and refined, communal and private, and nostalgic yet forward-looking. It’s not about replicating the forest sauna experience; it’s about extending the rhythms of Finnish tradition and social life into the fabric of the city. And perhaps that’s the point. Unlike what some locals believe, the urban sauna isn’t a contradiction but an evolution – a reminder that even in the heart of a busy capital, Helsinki’s people still find a way to pause, sweat and reflect.
iittala.com; bobw.co

Aerotim’s design-led hangar in Kyiv is an example of industrial architecture that soars

Specialised industrial facilities, from mechanics workshops to aircraft maintenance sheds, often have soulless interiors constructed to deliver efficiency. But Dan Vakhrameyev has shown that such spaces can be inviting too. The co-founder of Kyiv-based creative studio and lighting brand +Kouple has designed a new hangar and living area for Aerotim, a stunt-plane collective led by champion pilot Tim Fatkullin.

Built in a classified location in Ukraine, the structure serves as Aerotim’s base of operations – a meeting place for its pilots, drone operators, cameramen, skydivers and videographers. Split over two levels, the building combines repair and maintenance areas with storage and crew facilities. Despite the temptation to respond to the high-octane, high-risk nature of the work, the interiors are decidedly muted. “The overall design language is deliberately restrained,” says Vakhrameyev. “We relied on exposed surfaces, honest materials and precise detailing to create a mature, disciplined environment suited to pre- and post-flight routines.”

The structure’s defining exterior features are raw zinc doors that open to allow for light aircraft to taxi in and out of the hangar. Inside, the structure is fully exposed with steel trusses and technical air-duct engineering systems emphasising the functional nature of the building. That quality is enhanced by cement-bonded particle boards that clad the walls – a design choice that allows for easy repairs – and visible joints reference rivet-fasting techniques. Spot-accent lighting highlights sleek aluminium fuselages of the aircraft that it hosts.

On the mezzanine level, a crew station is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling glass windows that overlook the ground-floor. Linear LED lighting provides a consistent glow, while the semi-transparent polycarbonate exterior cladding allows natural light to flow in. Amenities for the crew are organised around a central area (ideal for flight task briefings and meetings) with space for leisure, an office, sleeping, changing rooms and showers, and a kitchen. Natural-wood cabinets, sofas by Ukrainian furniture firm Propro and vintage chairs soften the area. It’s a base where both pilots and planes feel at home. 
pluskouple.com

A perfect joint: Another Country and Goldfinger aim to grow without compromising quality

London-based Another Country’s acquisition of fellow furniture maker Goldfinger late last year made perfect sense to those who know both firms. While their values are aligned like a tongue-and-groove joint, each has different strengths: the former is known for peerless service and timeless designs, while the latter’s sustainable credentials and bespoke work stand out.

In an age where mass production and a constant eye on company scalability is an unfortunate norm, it’s increasingly rare to find acquisitions that aren’t part of a larger plot to cut corners. But Another Country and Goldfinger’s pairing is refreshing, precisely because the two companies are explicit in their desires to grow without compromising quality. “We have always kept an eye on complementary businesses that we could collaborate with,” says Another Country’s founder, Paul de Zwart. “Then we came across Goldfinger – a beautiful little jewel of a company that has had such a fantastic impact.”

De Zwart characterises the development as a partnership rather than a takeover. When it comes to finding companies to link arms with, there’s no detail too small. “I recently spoke to a very well-known maker in the industry,” he says. “I asked him whether he knew who his electricity provider was. He was surprised – but when you’re a brand that is truly concerned about sustainability, these kinds of credentials are so important. It’s how we should all be thinking.”

The partnership also goes beyond the showrooms and workshop floor, with Another Country stepping in to support Goldfinger’s ongoing Young Makers programme – a fully funded, week-long social-impact initiative for London’s disadvantaged youth. “It’s an extension of the care we have for nature,” says De Zwart. “In our mind, we’re helping communities and training future makers, preparing them for life.” They also provide field trips to clients they’re engaging with to better demonstrate the enormity of the sustainability efforts being made. “We expose them to the world of nature recovery and offer an insight into the challenges caused by global warming and biodiversity crises. It’s directly tied to what we do and our clients appreciate the insight.”

Uniquely, the partnership between the two brands means that each is staying independent while sharing information and methodology across everything from marketing to design. One such tenet is Goldfinger’s Tree Cycling principle: the process of sourcing material from trees that have been felled due to disease, weather or lost to urban planning. The infrastructure and operational power of Another Country, widening its scope to include Goldfinger’s prioritisation of renewability, bodes well for both businesses’ growth. “We see it as expanding our expertise across the board,” adds De Zwart. “Whether it’s off-the-shelf collections or fully bespoke, we have made ourselves more appealing to the market.”

‘I’m obsessed with feeling cosy at night’: Willo Perron on designing Knoll’s Bun lounge chair

The Bun lounge chair defies easy categorisation – a sofa and armchair in one. Created by Willo Perron for US furniture firm Knoll, it’s inspired by a chair that the French-Canadian designer found at a California thrift shop. The Los Angeles-based creative has worked on everything from bespoke retail spaces and runway shows for high-end fashion brands to productions for global musical talent; his portfolio features an eclectic and unconventional mix that is also reflected in his furniture design. 

“Certain elements stayed from the original but I just kept working on its structure,” Perron tells Monocle. That structure centres on a thick, bao bun-type mass landing gently on stilt-like legs, which disappear beneath it, giving the whole piece a feeling of weightlessness. Sitting in the chair, its gentle curve invites an abundance of reclined positions, while its round form allows it to sit appropriately in any space. Here, Perron chats to us about his design intent and ambition for the piece.

Where did the initial inspiration for the Bun lounge chair come from?
I found a chair at a thrift shop and thought ‘this needs work’. I kept trying to improve and work around the original structure, developing it to find the right balance. There are probably about 10 different versions of it in my studio. I eventually brought it to Knoll as an almost finished piece and they used their expertise to finalise the ergonomics and the structural components.

How did you envisage the piece?
The initial ambition was [to find a way] to make something that’s quite heavy feel like it’s floating by placing all of that volume on tiny legs. That’s also true for the final version, especially with its chrome legs that reflect the environment. It feels like a big, fun, floaty cloud.

Does the piece respond to broader trends in the design industry?
We can lose the plot a little bit as designers when form proceeds function. You can make a really beautiful chair out of a rock but you wouldn’t want to spend any time in it. These are the kinds of things I want to address – making objects that are meant to be lived with. One of my main concerns is comfort and I’m obsessed with feeling cosy at night. The Bun responds to that by balancing a bit of indulgence.

How does this reflect your design ethos?
There are two distinct areas in my practice. There is the studio, which has a client base, and then there is a more personal part. This part involves me finding chairs at thrift shops and playing around with them until they become something like the Bun. I’m really curious and attracted by everything from the hyper contemporary to antiques. I don’t think I have a fixed aesthetic, which means there’s a playful, casual and unstructured approach to my work.
knoll.com

DNCO rebrands Amsterdam’s business district as an urban village

The best branding exercises can transform your perception of a place – and that’s exactly what DNCO has achieved with its work in Amsterdam’s Zuidas neighbourhood. Here the London- and New York-based agency worked in partnership with property specialists Victory Group to challenge local perceptions of the precinct. The area, which is dominated by the former headquarters of the ABN AMRO bank, is now being transformed into a collection of new homes, workspaces and neighbourhood gardens.

“A big project such as this one needed to have immediate punch to communicate its bold vision, as well as have long-term impact as the vision comes to life,” says Simon Yewdall, strategy director at DNCO. “The aim for this branding exercise is to help transform Zuidas from a typical monocultural business district into somewhere that’s as varied and human as the rest of this city.”

To deliver on this vision, the DNCO team renamed the area “Zudo” – a neat portmanteau of Zuidas and the Dutch word for village, dorp. The firm worked with local type foundry Bold Decisions to create bespoke serif and sans-serif typefaces. The bold, stencil-like font emphasises the contrast between a corporate legacy and community-minded future in Zudo.

Tokyo-based illustrator Luis Mendo was employed to create imagery for everything from coasters to tote bags, revealing how the neighbourhood could look. “The illustrations show the layers and life of a village and how it can grow over time. We also developed a logo, which references how one monumental site is being opened up and turned into streets and squares,” says DNCO’s design director Katy Angus. “From a brand-design perspective, it needs to flex for different audiences to last and feel fresh over time. Our work needed to feel personable and capture the warm associations that Dutch people have with the idea of a village.” The result? A vision for a brighter future for Zuidas, something that all Amsterdammers can buy into.
dnco.com

In praise of Sara Wheeler, a clear-sighted laureate of the world’s frozen regions

In this age of head-mounted HD cameras and space tourism, the role of the travel writer seems unclear. Brave and erudite souls such as Robert Byron and Bruce Chatwin once bestrode the culture, taking readers to places of which they could only dream (or, indeed, read), teaching them about those far-off lands but also what it means to be alive anywhere. Though visiting much of the world no longer requires intrepid travel, there are still places that remain terra incognita in the popular imagination. These are the ones that Sara Wheeler likes to visit.

The writer’s work, which is mostly dedicated to Earth’s polar regions, has a frosty sheen. Her book about the Arctic, The Magnetic North, is essential for understanding a part of the world whose significance has grown since Donald Trump’s threats against Greenland. In a dazzling tour d’horizon, Wheeler lays out why the region has so beguiled those from lands further south, while also detailing what life is like for the Arctic’s people and what it takes to survive (and thrive) in such challenging terrain. Its introduction includes the line: “The survival of civilisation as we know it hangs on what happens in the Arctic.” But the book is not simply a climate-change jeremiad. It is a story about people that achieves the universal, providing a torch for our collective humanity to warm and light the road ahead, however icy it might be.

Why Fuglen chose Kyoto’s Shichiku neighbourhood for its newest Japanese space

On a sunny morning in Kyoto’s Shichiku neighbourhood, there’s a lively crowd at Fuglen coffee shop’s latest opening. Dog owners sit out front, an older gentleman thumbs a book and friends natter. The Oslo-based company established its first overseas outpost in Japan in 2012; it also has branches in Tokyo and Fukuoka.

“We had been dreaming about an outpost in Kyoto for years,” says Keiya Takahashi, who runs its Japan operation. “The city has a strong coffee culture and we wanted to be here – but not right in the centre.” Luckily, Takahashi and Fuglen’s founder, Einar Kleppe Holthe, were introduced to designer Shin Mononobe and his jewellery-maker wife, Ami Masamitsu, who were renovating a 58-year-old shop connected to a small factory: just what Fuglen was looking for.

Today, Mononobe’s studio and Masamitsu’s jewellery workshop are hidden away at the back of the café; the latter’s shop, Ausome, which sells a mix of contemporary and vintage jewellery, is in the basement, while the pair live upstairs in a refurbished apartment with their young daughter. The spacious rooftop reveals open vistas of the city and the hills beyond. The building – which has already become a magnet for Kyoto’s creatives – has been refreshed without its past life being erased. 

The Kamo river is close by; so too is a local shopping street and 1000-year-old Imamiya Shrine. Coffee shops (kissaten) have been at the heart of city neighbourhoods across Japan for decades but Takahashi says Fuglen Kyoto was inspired by the spirit rather than the aesthetic of those old-school institutions. “We aren’t trying to do something ‘retro’,” he says. “A kissaten has to be authentic, with a real community.” 

In a city getting a bad name for overtourism, this friendly neighbourhood feels detached from the frenzy. Mononobe and Masamitsu – neither of whom hails from Kyoto – have been welcomed with open arms. “Kyoto is often seen as a difficult city to settle in but we found the opposite,” says Masamitsu. “People were really interested in what we were doing – they wanted to celebrate with us.” Opening from 7.00 to 18.00 allows Fuglen’s rhythm to shift with the time of day and the café has quickly inserted itself into the daily life of Shichiku. Takahashi says Fuglen is looking to open another shop in Kyoto, probably somewhere more central. It will be hard to improve on the current set-up. 
fuglen.no

Read next:
Monocle’s full city guide to Kyoto

A walk through Beymen’s stunning OMA-designed flagship in Tersane

When Elif Capci, the CEO of Turkish luxury retail brand Beymen, took charge of the company 17 years ago, she didn’t imagine that she would be opening a flagship shop on the Golden Horn. The tributary cuts through Istanbul’s oldest districts but, for decades, the waterfront was dilapidated and the surrounding neighbourhoods were neglected. Today, Capci is showing Monocle around Beymen’s new concept shop in Tersane, a 600-year-old military shipyard that has been reimagined as a leisure and hospitality area.

The shop is set within the remains of one of the original 15th-century shipyard buildings, a huge stone hangar by the waterside. The ruins have been filled with complementary modern brickwork, while metal and exposed wooden beams tie the old masonry into the newer structures. The original industrial proportions have been kept; the ceiling soars up to its original height, with a second floor housing private fitting rooms on a floating mezzanine. The entrance ways that once accommodated ships have been turned into huge arched windows looking onto the water.

“It is a very special location – we got the jewel in the crown,” says Capci. “It is not just a shop. This was a lot of responsibility on our shoulders. Our first question was to pick the right architects.”

Beymen commissioned the international collective Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) to transform the site. The design team broke up its vast footprint of 12,000 sq m into eight long parallel galleries, each ending in a window. At the other end, a newly built ninth gallery connects them and hosts the main entrance lobby. Each gallery uses different colours and materials, and is decorated with pieces from Beymen’s art collection. Walking through them is as relaxing as browsing a museum; there’s “a common DNA – they all speak one language”, says Capci.

Established as a fabric store in Istanbul’s Sisli district in 1971, Beymen is today Turkey’s answer to Bloomingdale’s or Selfridges, stocking more than 900 international luxury brands as well as its own ranges. And while 30 per cent of its revenues come from online sales, it is in the physical space that Beymen excels.

Capci has stayed ahead of the competition by turning the shop into an experience rather than a simple retail space, ensuring that she still meets customers. “This isn’t just a shop; it’s a lifestyle destination,” she says. “We host events, pop-ups and talks. The bond that we build with our customers is different. We know what they want and that has worked well for us.”
beymen.com