Issues

Culture agenda: How Studio Ghibli might inspire urbanists and the revival of a former factory in Ljubljana

Cinema, Japan
Brought to life

Identifying the rustic locations that inspired a Studio Ghibli animation is a game that fans like to play. The picturesque fishing town in Ponyo is based on Tomonoura in Hiroshima prefecture. Meanwhile, the leafy forest in My Neighbour Totoro is modelled on Sayama Hills in Saitama. 

Director Hayao Miyazaki’s urban world is equally thrilling. His extraordinary eye for detail zooms in on the unconscious elements that make Japanese cities so distinctive. It’s less about landmarks than about the sense of scale, street signs or even the railings that skirt the road. 

Many of Miyazaki’s most memorable locations have been figments of his imagination. Films such as Howl’s Moving Castle and Kiki’s Delivery Service occupy a specific part of the Ghibli worldview; their cities are part-European, part-fantasy, and wrought with such precision that viewers could almost believe that they exist. At Ghibli Park, the studio’s theme park in Aichi, buildings from those places have been brought to life. There’s the bakery that Kiki worked in – the architectural details perfectly replicated, the baked goods real – and there’s her little attic room. And over here’s the hat shop from Howl’s Moving Castle, recreated as though Sophie, its heroine, had just stepped away from her work. 

Like any good theme park, Ghibli Park is an escape from the grime of any actual city (less of a contrast in Japan where streets are low on crime and litter). Some consider Miyazaki to be an unsung urban designer, citing examples such as Koriko, the imaginary city in Kiki’s Delivery Service, with its lively streets and old-fashioned low-rise buildings. 

Ghibli Park opened partially in 2022 but Goro Miyazaki, Hayao’s son and the director of the park, opened the final section this spring. Even if you had never seen the films, you can enjoy the experience. Howl’s Castle clanks and steams, Kiki’s washing is hanging on the line. It’s a relaxingly analogue outing and visitors are encouraged to walk between attractions. There are no rides, apart from a merry-go-round where visitors can twirl at a stately pace to a suitably Ghibli-esque tune.

The exoticism and completeness of Miyazaki’s urban vision has long piqued the interest of the Japanese viewer. Perhaps its time that some architects, urbanists and property developers took a closer look for inspiration too?

Read next: AI imitations could never replace the art of Studio Ghibli

Industrial magic

Guy de Launey steps inside a historic former bicycle factory in Ljubljana to explore Center Rog, a new creative hub seeking to democratise a culture of making.

The wheels are turning again at the old Rog bicycle factory in Ljubljana. But this is no longer the facility that provided self-powered mobility to citizens of Tito’s Yugoslavia. Today the new Center Rog is facilitating different forms of production. The city authorities have carried out an extensive and remarkably rapid transformation of the site since they controversially repossessed it in 2021 from the squat that had occupied it for 15 years. The heritage-listed façade of the original 1951 structure remains intact, facing the Ljubljanica river. But the other side is all glass, giving a clear view of the facilities within. 

“It’s a place where we turn ideas into products,” says Center Rog’s director-general, Renata Zamida. “We don’t just facilitate the projects of professional creators and makers. Anyone is welcome to work here, turning their ideas into tangible objects.”

The amenities include “production labs” on the ground floor, work studios on the second and third floors, and artists’ residences on the top level. The first floor houses a branch of Ljubljana’s public library that holds 20,000 items in its almost 300 sq m space; there’s a children’s section, a classroom and a newspaper reading room there too. Zamida says that this encourages people who might be unfamiliar with (or intimidated by) the idea of a “creative hub” to stumble across people and facilities that could help to unlock their creativity.

A standard membership fee of just €15 a year opens the door to Center Rog’s nine production facilities. The FabLab has rows of 3D printers, laser cutters and soldering stations. Adventurous interior designers can “learn how to make furniture from mycelium” at the Green Lab. And the Food Lab’s offer of “experimental research and the conquest of new skills” can be tailored to anyone, from home cooks to professional chefs.

The occupants of the generously sized studios, which are granted rent-free for a period of one to three years to projects deemed worthy, also take full advantage of the labs. They are currently creating everything from sustainable snacks to a high-performance electric boat and Center Rog’s version of vertical integration lets them move quickly from concept to production without so much as leaving the building.

“It’s perfect,” says industrial designer David Tavcar, who is creating a range of furniture from deadstock metal. “I can draw something on a computer and then go down to the workshop, where I can produce my own prototypes. I’m completely hands-on.” So far, more than 1,200 people have become members of Center Rog, well beyond the management’s five-year plan. In the old bike factory, a creative revolution is under way.

What’s on Monocle’s July/August radar: Architect Isay Weinfeld and the Paris Olympics

How to live: making a stand
Read all about it

Barcelona’s News & Coffee kiosk is showing that good newsstands can boost a city’s quality of life.

How did you acquire this magazine? If you’re a subscriber, I hope it arrived at your home or office in a timely manner. If not, did you buy it at the grocery store? Favourite bookshop? If you picked it up at your neighbourhood newsstand, how were the shelves looking? Were there other titles you wanted to buy? Did you come across anything new? Or did you leave thinking that there were too many phone chargers and fridges full of energy drinks?

In many markets, the newsstand has all but vanished. Shop signs that promise news and magazines often lead to shelves stuffed with tat, tourist knick-knacks or novelty items that will soon end up in landfill. Fortunately, some are fighting back.

The rise of the hyper-specialist news and book outlets – such as Lisbon’s Under the Cover, London’s Magculture and Stockholm’s Papercut – is nothing new. But once dependable kiosks that have closed or are bursting with rubbish for football fans and school tours are also finding saviours. On a Tuesday morning in June, the News & Coffee kiosk in the heart of Barcelona is bursting with life: locals stop by for their daily papers, students snap up limited copies of Popeye and others pause for coffee. A few metres away, co-founder Gautier Robial is making a case for more branches. “People want to read things on paper,” he says. And he’s right.

With plans to open in other markets (there are currently outposts Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia and London), cities seeking a boost might want to look Robial up. He can add culture and commerce to street corners in need of activity.

Isay Weinfeld’s recipe for architectural excellence

Are you curious to know the essential ingredients that are required to design a good building? Well, according to award-winning Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld, all one has to do is stop for a bite to eat. “There’s a very traditional diner in São Paulo called Frevo and the perfection of its Beirute sandwich – which is made up of pita bread, lettuce, cheese and roast beef – is what I aim to achieve in architecture,” says Weinfeld when speaking to Monocle for “The View From”.

“It has an impeccable combination of colours, textures, forms, layers, temperature, moistness and crunchiness. The pleasure I have at the first bite is indescribable – and that amount of pleasure is what I wish for people to feel when entering a room I designed.” Weinfeld’s suggestion is a delicious source of inspiration for any architect or designer short on creativity. And it’s also a great local recommendation for anyone feeling peckish in Brazil’s biggest city.

Arnaud Champenois
Senior vice-president, global brand & marketing, Belmond

Arnaud Champenois on getting into the spirit of summer.

What developments are you observing in the travel industry?
Train travel is huge. All of our trains [including the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and the Royal Scotsman] are fully booked this summer. Italy is still a key destination. We’re launching a new property in Sardinia, Romazzino, and a beach club in Sicily at Villa Sant’Andrea. Otherwise, Mexico is booming and so are the Nordics.

And where will you be?
I’m doing a week in Greece for the islands’ raw beauty and then the west coast of France, in Brittany and Biarritz. I like the waves and the wind.

Will you be packing any books?
I just bought a book by young Irish writer Oisín McKenna called Evenings and Weekends. It’s a contemporary portrait of a new generation of Londoners. I’m also into mythology and the Roman empire so I’ll be reading Mémoires d’Hadrien by Marguerite Yourcenar.

Magazines and newspapers?
I’m a magazine obsessive. I love Monocle and especially the summer newspaper, Mediterraneo. I also like Fantastic Man and Cabana Magazine for interior design. For newspapers, The New York Times and Le Monde.

Ultimate summer film?
Call Me by Your Name is like summer on steroids; you can feel the warmth of Italy. I love Éric Rohmer; Pauline à la plage is the iconic summer film. And I’m looking forward to seeing La chimera with Josh O’Connor, set in Tuscany.

News splash

Our updates from the European continent’s coastlines reveal Renzo Piano’s Genovese regeneration, Louis Vuitton’s culinary venture on the Côte d’Azur and a Greek initiative to minimise sand hassles.

genoa
Solid footing

Italian architect Renzo Piano’s Waterfront di Levante renovation project is taking shape, with the seaside walk opening in time for summer. This landmark development for the Ligurian capital should breathe new life into an underutilised area of the city.

st tropez
Riviera touch

French fashion house Louis Vuitton is again opening its summer restaurant in St Tropez. At the White 1921 Hotel, French chef Arnaud Donckele is teaming up with pâtissier Maxime Frédéric to deliver a menu inspired by the distinctive aromas of the Mediterranean.

greece
Line in the sand

Greece is improving its seaside capacity by restricting sunbeds on many public beaches. While this poses a problem for businesses that rent out sunbeds and umbrellas, it ensures that beaches remain clear for all while preserving the wild nature of sunny regions.

Ambassadors at large

To dine and dash is lamentable behaviour. But bolting from a restaurant without settling one’s bill is not usually the stuff of diplomatic spats. It became so last year when footage of Italian tourists scarpering from a diner in Albania went viral and attracted the condemnation of Albanian prime minister Edi Rama. His Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni, hoped to redeem her nation’s honour by covering the €80 tab.

The idea that a national leader is morally on the hook for the conduct of their fellow citizens abroad is an interesting – and potentially expensive – one. In recent times Meloni’s country could have invoiced Switzerland’s president and Germany’s chancellor over vandalism wrought upon the Colosseum by tourists. (“A sign of great incivility,” harrumphed Italian culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano, to which the accused nations seem to have been too ashamed to respond.)

A UK prime minister would have reason to feel anxious about the precedent that Meloni set. Young British men have been the target of advertising from Amsterdam begging them not to come. Spain’s Balearic and Canary Islands are seeing protests against “rowdy” tourists, locally understood as synonymous for “British”.

UK ambassador to Spain, Hugh Elliott, perhaps anticipating a summer answering for his boorish compatriots, has pleaded with holidaymakers to “behave responsibly”, and rightly so: when we travel abroad, we are all ambassadors for our countries.

Hot off the press

It’s officially summer in the northern hemisphere. From the sun-soaked beaches of the Mediterranean to the mountains of Colorado, here’s what’s in our diary for July and August.

First up, Monocle Radio will be setting up a studio éphémère in Paris to report from the summer Olympics. Expect interviews with athletes but also urbanists, designers and Parisians who we think are worth tuning in for.

In the US, our correspondent Greg Scruggs will be covering the inaugural Bloomberg Green Festival in Seattle and meeting environmental and climate luminaries from 10-13 July. Then our LA-based bureau chief Christopher Lord will be at the Aspen Security Forum from 16-19 July to talk to security chiefs, intelligence services and defence ministers about the state of the world.

But it’s not all conferences and no play. Our man in Milan, Ivan Carvalho, will be finding out what’s worth writing home about from the Sicilian seaside town of Ortigia. Happy summer and see you in September, everyone.

Three things you’ll learn

In this issue, Monocle’s correspondents have reported on hospitality, architecture, fashion and more. Here are three takehomes to get you started.

1.
Thailand’s second-largest island is buzzing
Circled by the brilliant waters of the Gulf of Thailand, Koh Samui is gearing up to be Southeast Asia’s hottest destination. Monocle meets the people who have journeyed from all over the world to set up new hotels, bars and restaurants, and add a little vibrancy to the island’s natural beauty.

2.
Olympic projects can be built to last
When Monocle visits Munich’s Olympic Village, we find a thriving community, surrounded by greenery and open space. But when it was completed in time for the 1972 Games, it was never a given that the construction would stand the test of time. We talk to the architects who perfected Bavaria’s Olympic legacy and ask what it takes to design for the future, not just the present.

3.
Changing scene can shake up your style
From the line-up of impressive designers on our fashion pages, it’s clear that there is something special about island life. Finnish-born fashion designer Cecilia Sörensen is certain that relocating to the island of Mallorca has lent a breezy feel to her pieces, while Margaux Varnavidou’s now-signature laidback Smock shirt would never have been possible without a move to Cyprus. Soak up some inspiration for the summer and beyond.

This celebrated Brazilian architect finds inspiration outside of the blueprint

“I don’t find any inspiration in architecture at all,” says Isay Weinfeld, reclining into an armchair with a smile. “It’s something that I’ve been practising for the past 50 years but it’s not the most important thing in my life.”

The ebullient, septuagenarian Brazilian architect is talking to Monocle in London, where he’s working on the renovation of a heritage building for Brazilian hotel group Fasano. But, despite being in town to discuss this work and his approach to architecture, he first wants to talk about his favourite films. “Playtime by Jacques Tati is the best film of all time,” he says, adding that Federico Fellini, Kantemir Balagov and Yorgos Lanthimos are among his favourite directors. “I am a very strong consumer of movies. But music is also a big passion of my life – theatre, dance, art and fashion too. And one of the strongest things about myself is an appreciation of humour.”

For one of Brazil’s most celebrated contemporary architects, whose work includes the Edificio Oito, a verdant residential building in São Paulo, the Jardim on New York’s High Line and Rio de Janeiro’s Havaianas shop, it might come as a surprise to hear that his discipline of choice is not his first love. But he has always had a restless creative instinct. While studying architecture at São Paulo’s Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie in the mid-1970s he began making short films, eventually winning prizes at festivals in Gramado, Brazil and Huelva, Spain. A passion for music has seen him befriend artists such as Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and has resulted in him designing sets for concerts and theatrical performances. More recently he has completed a degree in creative writing and developed a loyal social media following that regularly view his videos, which humorously highlight urban issues in São Paulo.

The diverse set of interests might explain his approach to architecture, which is reflected in a portfolio that includes residences, discothèques, restaurants, hotels, office buildings and cultural centres. It’s a body of work that is as varied in typology and style. “You have to look for new solutions that will surprise you as a designer,” says Weinfeld. “Then you can surprise people.” It’s a refreshing sentiment that’s pertinent given the number of architecture studios that have developed signature styles, which are then rolled out in cities across the globe. “I always want to do something new in my work; I don’t want to have a formula and repeat myself,” he adds before doubling down with, appropriately, a cinematic analogy. “Directors such as Woody Allen, who is one of my favourites, have been doing the same films for their whole life. Then there are the likes of Stanley Kubrick, who has done many genres of film – historical, war, science-fiction – where everything is completely different. I don’t want to compare myself to him but that’s the approach to work that I enjoy.”

When pressed on whether the architecture industry should step out of its comfort zone, Weinfeld is keen to point out that this is simply his personal preference. He is, however, eager to point out that humility still remains an essential architectural building block that should be the foundation of all practice. “Architecture, for me, is about taking out the ego, respecting the clients and the site,” he says. “It’s not about speaking louder to show that you’re important.” He stresses that architecture is a service industry, where practitioners shouldn’t be treated as deities. It’s an outlook that, perhaps, has been cultivated by Weinfeld’s manifold creative endeavours and where a good life is about more than simply making a nice building. “Architecture is a funnel for all my interests,” he says. “I don’t take myself seriously… but I do my work in a very serious way.”

Bratislava looks towards the future as they explore family-friendly urban design

Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, socialist cities in Central and Eastern Europe often saw themselves as places where children – “the living flowers of the earth”, in Maxim Gorky’s famous phrase – would get the best start in life. While socialist regimes were highly adept at building schools and youth clubs, they weren’t overly competent at designing streets or public spaces that were child-friendly; priority was instead given to impossibly huge squares and wide avenues. That’s not to say that their counterparts in the West were any better; during the past few decades, many such cities have become increasingly choked with traffic, leaving little space for young people and their parents.

Still, it’s striking that Start with Children (arguably the first dedicated summit on how to place children’s welfare at the heart of urban thinking) took place in the Slovak capital of Bratislava, a city still recovering from its socialist past. But then, as its mayor, Matúš Vallo, said, with tongue in cheek, “Bratislava must be the best city in Europe in something, so we decided to be the best city for kids.” Across two days at the end of May, Vallo, who is an architect by training as well as a rock musician and a father, joined some delegates to debate what starting with children actually means.

The answers offered at the event, held in Bratislava’s beautiful pre-socialist Old Market Hall in front of an audience of about 600 people, were many. Erion Veliaj, the larger-than-life mayor of Albania’s capital, Tirana, told the story of how, as an experiment, he had let children take over the city’s main Skanderbeg Square for one day. This proved such a success that he decided to make it a car-free and child-centred environment in perpetuity. Xoli Fuyani and Laís Fleury – both women running NGO’s that encourage child activism – put the focus squarely on the need to reconnect gadget-hooked children with nature, be it through planting more trees in school playgrounds or tweaking the curriculum to create more outdoors time. Legendary Danish architect and urbanist Jan Gehl, for his part, called on city builders to downsize residential buildings so that children may feel more grounded. “Anything above the sixth floor belongs to the meteorological department,” he pronounced to much laughter.

Jokes aside, however, there was also recognition of how hard change can be. In a conversation with Monocle, Petra Marko, the newly appointed director of the Metropolitan Institute of Bratislava, said that a wide-ranging shift in behaviour across all levels of society was needed, especially in post-socialist countries such as Slovakia. “We are still a young democracy here in Bratislava and in our region as a whole,” she said. Indeed, discussions of how to bridge political divisions featured prominently at the Start with Children event. Speaker after speaker acknowledged that even if, as a civic leader or activist, you succeed in pushing through change, there is inevitably going to be resentment from what another attendee and urbanism legend Gil Penalosa of urban reform group 8 80 Cities called “Cave” people (citizens against virtually everything). There was also another, more important consensus: that if you do what’s right for children, it will, inevitably, be right for everyone.

Hear our full report from Bratislava’s Start with Children summit on The Urbanist, below:

The personal is political. Here are five mayors who are taking action to improve their cities

1.
The urban planner

Aftab Pureval
Cincinnati

Cincinnati could easily be overlooked as just another Midwestern city. But an enviable stock of historic buildings, a lovely riverfront park and a clutch of downtown cultural institutions are drawing new residents to this affordable alternative to New York and Chicago. As a result, Cincinnati is seeing its population grow for the first time in 70 years.

Its mayor Aftab Pureval’s job is to make sure that this influx is accompanied by more housing. And, particularly, quality housing that isn’t built by bad actors looking to make a quick buck. Pureval is the son of Indian and Tibetan immigrants and, since his election in 2021, has been grappling with an important question: how do you grow after so many decades of decline? The 41-year-old Democrat is unafraid to seek advice. “When I ask mayors from cities I admire, such as Denver and Nashville, what they wish they had done prior to their growth, they say: investment in diverse transportation and zoning,” he says.

To that end, Pureval is working to expand the city’s streetcar network, establish a bike trail connecting all of its 52 neighbourhoods and change zoning rules to allow new types of housing on lots previously restricted to detached houses.

But there is a dark side to Cincinnati’s newfound spotlight. Investors have been buying up housing stock that serves lower-income residents and raising rents without making improvements. But the mayor’s office enforces an aggressive building code and isn’t afraid to take negligent property owners to court. In May it filed its latest lawsuit against an out-of-state property firm whose apartment buildings are plagued with rats and lacked clean water. “These are not developers; these are predatory landlords,” Pureval tells Monocle.

The city also leverages its financial muscle. In 2021 the port authority purchased 194 rental homes for $14.5m (€13.4m), began fixing them up and now sells them to first-time homeowners, many from minority ethnic communities, in partnership with a black-led real estate organisation. “If you are a good-faith investor, we want you here in Cincinnati,” says Pureval. “If you are a bad-faith investor, you are not welcome.”

In May, Cincinnati dazzled 1,400 top attendees at the Congress for the New Urbanism summit. Delegates were surprised to discover the historic Over-the-Rhine district, home to the largest concentration of 19th-century Italianate architecture in the US, and the Zaha Hadid-designed Contemporary Arts Centre. Cincinnati is also home to several headquarters, including consumer products giant Procter & Gamble, conglomerate Kroger and contractor GE Aerospace. Intel is building a $28bn (€25.9bn) semiconductor plant in central Ohio that will keep University of Cincinnati graduates in the state. With that hi-tech manufacturing in mind, Pureval bristles at any mention of “Rust Belt” in the same sentence as his city. “It is an inaccurate, offensive term that has no place in modern Cincinnati,” he says. “We are the very future of this country.”

2.
The people person

Elke Kahr
Graz

Elke Kahr is a busy woman. But once she starts talking to somebody in need of help, any sense of time pressure quickly dissipates. Indeed, help-seekers occupy the bulk of Kahr’s in-tray. At any given moment there are two or three people waiting outside her office on the second floor of Graz’s city hall – a late 19th-century affair consisting of turrets and marble floors. “Hundreds of people call my office every day with all sorts of problems: apartment searches, marriage breakdowns, problems with children,” Kahr tells Monocle from behind her overflowing desk. To her left is a play area for visitors with children; behind her, two tall doors lead onto a balcony that faces Graz’s busy main square. “There are also many people who come simply for my advice because some problem areas lie outside the city government’s authority,” says Kahr.

It is this devotion to her electorate (there is, of course, a German word for this, Bürgernähe, which literally means “citizen closeness”) that won Kahr the 2023 World Mayor Prize from a London-based think-tank called City Mayors. In its award citation, the jury also commended Kahr’s generosity: of her monthly €9,400 after-tax salary she keeps just €2,000, giving almost 80 per cent away to people in need. Kahr recognises how this might seem unusual to some (though many of her city hall colleagues are now doing the same) but for her this sort of top-down wealth redistribution has always been part of her public and moral duty as one of the more prominent members of the Communist Party of Austria, or KPÖ.

Kahr joined as an idealistic student in 1983, at a difficult time for the KPÖ – the world’s third-oldest communist party after those in Russia and Finland. Ronald Reagan had just called the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and any association with communism was highly suspect. “When people did speak to us, they didn’t say very nice things,” says Kahr with a smile. But after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, the KPÖ steadily gained ground, especially in Styria, the southern Austrian province, of which Graz is the capital. In many ways, Kahr’s triumph in the city’s mayoral elections in late 2021 was a natural consequence of this (though this didn’t take away from the sense of excitement, among Kahr and her supporters, that Graz was now the largest EU city to be run by a communist).

The KPÖ’s ascendancy over the past 30 years has been largely due to affable personalities such as Kahr but also to its focus on a particular issue: affordable housing. Kahr’s administration has so far built about 300 council flats and plans to create at least 285 more. The party is now expected to enter Austria’s federal parliament this autumn for the first time since 1959. Kahr says that the “national stage” is not for her, however; she’s happy right where she is. “Questions of foreign policy, social politics, property politics or climate politics need the involvement of the KPÖ on a national level but in my current role I still have a lot to do. This is a gift and a privilege.”

3.
The reluctant reformer

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr
Freetown

“It was in May 2017,” says Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr. “A friend said to me, ‘You really should run for mayor.’ My initial reaction was, ‘Absolutely not, are you joking?’ But the next day, as I drove to work, I kept looking around me and thinking, ‘I fix this, I fix that’. By the time I got to the office, I was like, ‘I’m going to run for mayor.'”

Two years later, in 2018, Aki-Sawyerr won Freetown’s mayoral election, securing 59.9 per cent of the vote. In 2023 she was re-elected. The extent to which she won is disputed, however. Her party, the All People’s Congress (APC), doesn’t see eye to eye with president Julius Maada Bio’s Sierra Leone People’s Party. This has led to the two parties acknowledging different figures. Aki-Sawyerr claims that she received 66 per cent of the vote, while the official results grudgingly credit her with only 51 per cent. Many independent observers have condemned how the election was conducted and the counting procedures that were in place. It was also marred by violence: in one bizarre incident, a campaign volunteer was killed when police and presidential guards fired at the APC Freetown headquarters while Aki-Sawyerr was present.

“I don’t want to be in a state of disagreement with the national government,” she says. “I’m trying very hard to ensure that there is effective collaboration. I have a very good relationship with the minister of local government in this administration. We started off by saying, ‘Let’s work together in the interests of the people.’ And we’re sticking to that.”

For all the difficulties and dangers of her role, Aki-Sawyerr clearly remains excited by the big changes that can be instigated by initiatives that require relatively little investment. This is an important consideration: without the international funding that Aki-Sawyerr solicits on her frequent travels, her annual budget would be €1.6m (approximately €1.50 per Freetowner). Aki-Sawyerr’s signature policy is a tree-planting programme, which has already furnished Freetown with more than 600,000 trees. There are hopes that, by 2030, five million more will have been planted. She also enthuses about Freetown’s first wastewater treatment plant, which turns the sludge that used to be dumped out in the open into compost and cooking briquettes.

And while she understands that Freetown is not a name that immediately springs to mind as a holiday destination, Aki-Sawyerr thinks that could, and should, change. “I’ve been to many cities,” she says. “We do not have the best infrastructure. We do not have the best roads. But we have beautiful beaches, beautiful people and sunsets like you have never seen before.”

4.
The change maker

Rafał Trzaskowski
Warsaw

“Running a city is a very hands-on job and you can immediately see the results of your actions,” Rafał Trzaskowski tells Monocle. “The real challenge, after I got elected, was that I simply didn’t expect so many crises to happen on my watch.” In 2018 the now 52-year-old won a landslide first-round victory, securing 56 per cent of the vote. Poland’s capital has always been a bastion of liberal politics and Trzaskowski’s victory ushered in five more years of progressive rule. But his success had a far greater significance. At the time, the country was profoundly divided. Its populist government, led by the Law and Justice party, was severing ties with Europe and pushing a more conservative political agenda. Against that backdrop, Trzaskowski became a beacon of hope for Poles who were uncomfortable with their domestic political reality and were seeking change.

Trzaskowski is a former government minister and member of the European Parliament. He had no difficulty transitioning to city politics, even though he never really left the national scene. “I know that every mayor of a capital city is a national figure,” he says. “But handling the coronavirus pandemic, co-ordinating the influx of Ukrainian refugees, defending the rule of law and, at the same time, managing one of the most dynamic cities in Europe was a lot to handle at once.”

Nothing defined his first term in office, which ran from 2018 to 2024, more than the Ukrainian refugee crisis. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, more than 1.1 million displaced Ukrainians have passed through Warsaw and, in the first few months of the war, as many as 300,000 were residing in the city. When asked about how their successful integration was achieved, Trzaskowski points to ordinary Varsovians who opened their doors to welcome refugees into their homes. Elsewhere, decisions made by the mayor’s office have led the way for Warsaw to rapidly transform into a model 21st-century metropolis. Under Trzaskowski’s stewardship the city has inaugurated 11 metro stations, new tram lines that connect the rapidly expanding south with downtown, a new footbridge over the Vistula, more than a dozen schools and a free public kindergarten programme. The goodwill this generated directly contributed to his re-election in April with 57 per cent of the vote.

“We shouldn’t have a complex,” says Trzaskowski, sitting in front of his office’s giant bookshelves. “We are experiencing the best moment of our history. Warsaw is almost as rich as Vienna and Berlin. We might not have the recognition of the Western capitals but we are not set in our ways. The sky truly is the limit.” It might be an apt metaphor for his own political ambitions, as he is widely rumoured to be the frontrunner in next year’s presidential election. When asked about his plans, he gives the consummate politician’s answer. “I want to focus on delivering on my promises to the people of Warsaw. There is a lot here that I’ve begun and I would like to finish it. Then we will see what happens.”

5.
The forward thinker

Belit Onay
Hanover

It was a simple promise that got Belit Onay elected in 2019: make Hanover’s city centre car-free by 2030. Onay is the son of Turkish immigrants and, as a Green Party politician, becoming the city’s mayor was no mean feat. Since the Second World War all of the city’s mayors had been from the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Hanover is also the capital of Lower Saxony – a state that is home to a number of automotive giants, including Volkswagen and Continental. “That influenced the city’s postwar reconstruction,” says Onay as he welcomes Monocle to his office in Hanover’s New Town Hall.

The grand Wilhelminian building dates from 1913 and sits on the edge of a sprawling park, just off the town’s central ring road. “The city planning officer was inspired by the wide motorway lanes of places such as Detroit,” says Onay. “That was the zeitgeist. But today it’s becoming a real burden.”

Under Onay’s plans, parking within the ring road will be largely eliminated. “We’re not closing streets; we’re opening them up for different uses,” says the mayor. Taxis and delivery vans will still be able to get through, and parking facilities for the disabled will be improved. Hanover’s public transport provision is already the best in Germany, according to some surveys, but Onay’s plans will expand it further. Most traffic lights will be removed to avoid any disruption to pedestrian and cycle routes. “For many people, it’s still a car issue. But we are focusing on another question: what do we do with the space? How can we use it to improve life in the city?”

Onay’s infrastructure shake-up is likely to attract attention, and opprobrium, from far beyond the region but mobility isn’t the only issue that he’s tackling. The mayor has filled a funding gap in the state’s housing programme to support mid-range rents. He has accelerated decarbonisation programmes by aiming to phase out coal by 2026 and plans to supply most of the city with district heating. All of these efforts have been introduced to improve the quality of life in Hanover, a city that is a byword in Germany for the drab and joyless. But, as elsewhere, political polarisation makes his job harder. “People are much more short-tempered than they were a few years ago,” says Onay. “But we still have to push on with major changes to the way we live.” He calls the 2020s “the decade of transformation” and wants to see better equipped municipalities. “Climate, social and mobility issues will not be decided at federal level. It’s important that local authorities get the chance to take more things into their own hands.”

But even at the municipal level, policies can get waylaid. Last November, Onay’s coalition partner, the SPD, brought down the administration, citing “difficulties in co-operation”. It is argued by some that the party wants to deny the mayor his flagship car-free project at all costs. Onay remains undeterred and is determined to avoid inertia. “Hanover’s society is much more progressive than some council politicians.”

Key highlights to expect at Art Basel 2024

Art Basel
Blast off

Venice aside, the year’s biggest art deal (pun intended) is Art Basel. With the Swiss firm’s Miami and Hong Kong fairs long bedded in and the new Paris1 event in October circled on every collector’s calendar, Basel’s Messeplatz mothership has become an awesome arrangement of the very best there is to buy (unless it’s artefacts you’re after, in which case, see you at Maastricht’s Tefaf next March), supported by a formidable array of additional programming. It might seem like an exaggeration to regard Art Basel as mad, bad and dangerous to know, but there does seem to be a profound loosening of the tie in the expansive, enjoyable and canny curatorial extensions that bless Basel this summer.

There’s a new director in town too: Maike Cruse, who, as a former head of Gallery Weekend Berlin, is an expert at herding creative cats on a citywide level. So we’ll enjoy a wider extension of the much-admired Parcours programme of public art, this year curated by New York’s Swiss Institute director Stefanie Hessler, who will be sprinkling 20 site-specific installations along Clarastrasse, connecting the fairgrounds to the Rhine (fairgrounds!). The tour, if you do it as one, will showcase work in shops, bars, a hotel and a brewery. Meanwhile, there’s a brand-new round-the-clock art space in town, the Merian, situated next to the Middle Bridge on the Rhine. Popping up throughout the Old Town, the fair will spring to life thanks to a list of vibey curators who, it appears, won’t be kicking you out at 22.00 – instead they’ll be turning up the music (or, your loss, starting on a symposium).

Back in the Messeplatz, Basel welcome Agnes Denes, the Hungarian-born 93-year-old doyenne of environmental land art. She will present “Honouring Wheatfield – a Confrontation”, which will stay in situ until it’s harvested (the point presumably being that it very much depends upon the weather). In the halls, which will host 286 galleries this year, the fair welcomes 22 newbies, five of which are zinging straight into the main selection, including spaces from the US, Taiwan, China and Spain. Wow, no wonder gallerists started wearing trainers with their smart clothes. It should be a lot of legwork and a welcome blast of – what’s that? – Basel fun!

Hauser & Wirth Basel
In the frame

It might come as a surprise that Hauser & Wirth has never had a permanent space in Basel – until now. The Swiss art giant has unveiled a spot on the ground floor of a 19th-century former ribbon factory in the Old Town. It was previously occupied by Galerie Knoell, whose name-above-the-door director, Carlo Knoell, has now assumed the mantle at the new venue.

Why are Galerie Knoell and Hauser & Wirth a good fit? “We’ve always had a mutual interest in artists such as Méret Oppenheim, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Georges Vantongerloo,” says Knoell. “So, though I call it contemporary art, my focus has always been historical and the secondary market.” Now all that mutual expertise is set to be pooled. “Hauser & Wirth is strong in contemporary and 20th-century art,” adds Knoell. “But it was really about this desire to enforce the historical and secondary market side – and doing this with shows, publications and projects.”

The Basel space will be Hauser & Wirth’s most petite; “intimate and not at all showy”, as Knoell says. An elegant squeeze.

Fondation Beyeler
Mix and match

The Fondation Beyeler has been showing world-best exhibitions in its glass-and-brick Renzo Piano galleries for 26 years – and this year it seems that even these stately walls have caught the 2024 Basel Fun Bug too. For the first time in the institution’s history, it’s being taken over. A roster of 30 contemporary artists will stage an experimental show celebrating “the complexities and uncertainties involved in bringing artists together”. That’s according to Philippe Parreno and Precious Okoyomon, two of the show’s creators, who will also display their own work.

Expect to see pieces by artists such as Kenyan-British poet of figurative paint Michael Armitage, artist and guitarist Joshua Chuquimia Crampton of the American Pakajaqi nation of Aymara people, and Japanese sculptor Fujiko Nakaya. The Beyeler, rather than stuff its wonderful permanent collection in the attic, will allow these artists to interact with works by the likes of Monet, Van Gogh and Bourgeois. Call it a mash-up and they surely won’t throw you out. What’s certain is that it’s going to be busy.

Q&A: Jaqueline Martins and Maria Montero
São Paulo’s new gallery

Brazilian dealers Jaqueline Martins and Maria Montero have teamed up to create Martins & Montero. The gallery will focus on Brazilian art’s historical trailblazers as well as its new voices. “Together, we can expand horizons and offer artists endless possibilities,” the duo tells Monocle. Artists who have piqued the gallery’s interest include figurative painter Lia D Castro, installation artist Lydia Okumura and pop-art-inspired João Loureiro.

Why is this a good match? This merger combines our shared dedication to celebrating Brazilian art’s historic pioneers and nurturing emerging talents. Fortunately, we’ve also built a lasting friendship, which helps to enrich collaboration and strengthen our role in the Brazilian and international art markets.

How large is your team now? We have 14 people in the galleries between São Paulo and Brussels, where Yuri Olivera came with Jaqueline and will lead operations in Europe. Together we look after 32 artists.

What does the new space in São Paulo look like?
It’s a big, beautiful house built in the late 1950s in the Jardins district – a lush, green neighbourhood. The space can be adapted to host any kind of exposition and all the rooms [there are a lot of them!] have a welcoming ambience. The house is surrounded by a beautiful garden where people can hang out too.

What does Martins & Montero have planned for the summer?
In Brussels, we’ll be showing Rebecca Sharp, a fantastic surrealist painter. In Brazil, we’ll show a retrospective of Lydia Okumura, a historical conceptual artist.

What are you looking forward to outside your own shows?
Lygia Clark at Pinacoteca de São Paulo is a must; Corpo/Casa at Pivo Art & Research creates a dialogue between Carolee Schneemann, Diego Bianchi and Márcia Falcão; the Carmela Gross retrospective at Sesc is wonderful; Celeida Tostes at Superfície Gallery; and finally, at Masp, Lia D Castro is definitely in the diary for July.

Interview: Alain Villard, CEO of Swatch

Alain Villard is the charismatic CEO behind Swatch, the Swiss watchmaker known for its brightly hued timepieces that are often associated with our childhoods. But under Villard, Swatch, whose battery-powered watches are frequently credited with saving the Swiss watch industry following the quartz crisis of the 1970s, has succeeded in tuning back into the cultural zeitgeist and attracting the attention of grown-up watch collectors. This is partly thanks to a series of outside-the-box partnerships, including two sell-out collaborations with the Swatch Group’s premium sister brands, Omega and Blancpain. The MoonSwatch – a spin-off of Omega’s popular Speedmaster line, worn on the moon by Buzz Aldrin in 1969 – elicited long queues around the world, with some shops having to close their doors within 30 minutes of the release due to unexpected demand. The excitement remained just as high during the more recent launch of a collaboration with Blancpain, a playful take on its Fifty Fathoms diving watch. Villard is also behind the latest releases in the brand’s long-running Swatch Art Journey collection, which sees the work of famous artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Jean-Michel Basquiat transformed into wrist-ready masterpieces.

Having grown up in the canton of Bern in Switzerland’s “Watch Valley”, Villard understood the culture of watchmaking from a young age. He began his tenure at Swatch in 2002 at the company’s shop in Biel, home to the Swatch HQ. He quickly rose through the ranks thanks to his zeal for the brand, becoming retail manager for the Swiss market, then brand manager for Swatch Switzerland. He was named CEO in 2022. Here, he talks to Monocle about Swatch’s success, art-world collaborations and future ambitions. 

What is Swatch’s position in today’s horology market?
Since the brand was founded more than 40 years ago, our aim has been to satisfy a wide audience with our offering. At the same time, we have always taken risks, which have been key to the success of Swatch today. We have a lot of competition in the watch market now, so it’s important to stay faithful to our identity as the world’s favourite “second watch”. The footfall in our shops and the reception of our projects around the world show that Swatch is still a coveted brand. We want to maintain that momentum and keep introducing innovative products.

Why did you decide to collaborate with Omega and Blancpain, which operate in a more premium space?
By bringing together iconic brands under the Swatch Group umbrella, we were able to really get it right. I was lucky to be part of the task force working on these projects. We could tell that something exciting was happening. We examined every design detail and used the element of surprise to our advantage. These collaborations remain ongoing; we’re constantly developing new ideas and concepts.

Were you surprised by the reaction?
I wasn’t entirely expecting the reception that we received. We had about 5,000 people waiting outside our shop in Melbourne just before the inaugural launch of the MoonSwatch. And there was the same pattern worldwide; the reception at our Carnaby Street shop in London was equally amazing. I still get goose bumps when I think about it. What’s also impressive is that Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch sales have increased by more than 50 per cent since the launch of the MoonSwatch collection.

What was the idea behind your latest Swatch Art Journey collection?
We have collaborated with the art world since 1984, the year after the brand was founded. There has always been a lot of consideration from the artists who we partner with, so our design-inspired collections have always been successful. Keith Haring and Kiki Picasso worked with us at the start and we have since collaborated with creatives such as Damien Hirst, José Carlos Casado, Vivienne Westwood, Renzo Piano and Annie Leibovitz, who are true leaders in their respective fields. Artistic flair has always been part of our brand DNA and identity. The latest additions to the Swatch Art Journey collection are exclusive collaborations with major museums and organisations around the world. We wanted to create watches that paid tribute to iconic artworks from different continents, including those in the collections of the Moma in New York, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Le Gallerie degli Uffizi in Florence and the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

What does the future hold for Swatch?
We haven’t made a smartwatch, though I respect brands that have. I’m not saying that we will never make one but it’s important that Swatch timepieces remain coveted fashion items above all else. We want to set trends and create pieces that customers can switch around according to their outfits. Even though I always wear one or, sometimes, even two watches, I can’t recall ever checking the time or longing for the weekend [while at work]. We want our timepieces to be functional but fun too.

Second thoughts
A collaboration fatigue had taken hold of the watch market over recent years, as every watchmaker tried to partner with designers, architects or sportsmen on limited-edition designs. On paper such tie-ins look compelling, yet so many lack substance and fail to resonate: slapping joint logos on a dial can only take you so far.

But this year we’ve seen a stronger play for creativity. The latest slew of collaborations has felt more grown-up, with watch firms allowing partners to put a genuine stamp on the watches that they co-design.

The Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon, designed by couturier Tamara Ralph for Audemars Piguet, and Victoria Beckham’s sleek collection for Breitling – both unveiled in early 2024 – are examples of how to marry a fashion designer’s sensibility with watchmaking. Meanwhile, Italian-Swiss label Panerai has partnered with cultural institutions, the America’s Cup and even the military to offer collectors once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Those buying its limited-edition diving watches, for example, have found themselves visiting the Vatican out-of-hours, or participating in intense US Navy Seal training.

Watchmakers should take note: take bigger chances and think about the value of collaboration beyond the end product.

On the scent: Five brands to look out for this June

Le Labo Fragrances
Japan

Kyoto’s historic wooden machiya townhouses are not always treated with the respect they deserve. But this hasn’t been the case for a 150-year-old, family-owned former saké brewery by the Kamo river, which has been turned into a new home for New York-based fragrance brand Le Labo Fragrances.

The atmospheric old building has been renovated with a light touch: door frames and walls have been left in a comfortably worn state and nothing feels overly restored. “It was about finding the right balance between preserving the past and bringing in new life,” says Deborah Royer, Le Labo Fragrances’s president and chief creative officer. The courtyard garden has been revived, while the old kura storehouse at the back has been turned into a small coffee stand. A tatami-mat room upstairs hosted a Kyoto calligrapher for the opening and will be used to welcome other craftsmen in the future. “We always try to connect with local artisans,” adds Royer, who tends to opt out of releasing traditional ad campaigns. “We don’t overdo the explanations; we try to [focus] everything around the fragrances.”

Royer, who grew up on a farm in France, has long had a soft spot for Japan and its wabi sabi aesthetic. “We only use high-quality ingredients and work with small businesses and family-owned farms.” Ingredients come from all over the world, including cardamom from Guatemala, roses from Grasse, bergamot from Italy and sandalwood from a farm in Australia. “There are many similar products in the world, so if we’re going to offer something, it has to be different and resonate with us,” adds Royer, who can spend more than three years developing a fragrance.

Le Labo Fragrances was bought by Estée Lauder in 2014 but Royer is confident that she can retain the brand’s identity. “I feel good about respecting the original intention and focusing on our craft.”
lelabofragrances.com

Santoni
Italy

Italian footwear and accessories label Santoni is going full steam ahead with its expansion plans. After setting up shop in London’s Harrods in 2023, executive president Giuseppe Santoni is now plotting openings in Paris, Zürich and Dallas later this year. “We want to better understand our customers’ needs and offer them the best service available,” says Santoni. “That’s part of the luxury experience. Having this physical touchpoint is the best way to get closer to your consumer.”

The brand is best known for its smart leather loafers, which are crafted in its own manufacturing facility in Italy’s Marche region. The shoes stand out for their rounded-toe silhouettes, buckle embellishments and nature-inspired colour palettes, and have been enjoying a resurgence as fashion returns to formality. “The younger generation seem to be drawn to them,” adds Santoni. “Trainers are part of everyday life but we can offer more formal shoes that are equally as comfortable by blending craft with innovation.”

Santoni has also been working on expanding its men’s offering, as well as bolstering its women’s and leather-goods ranges. These unisex leather slides, featuring double-buckle straps, make for an elegant off-duty staple.
santonishoes.com

Dior Men’s
France

Accessories have always been a focus for Dior, one of the largest businesses in the LVMH portfolio, with menswear artistic director Kim Jones creating hits including smart shoulder bags for work and modern-day iterations of the Saddle bag. The new Dior Gravity capsule extends to travel-friendly styles and introduces a new type of grained leather, featuring the house’s signature Oblique motif. The material has been used across backpacks, messenger bags and leather goods in a palette of blacks, beiges and khakis. We have our eye on the weekender tote – ideal for short getaways.
dior.com

Avart
Lugano

Alma Veragouth had been dreaming of opening a menswear shop for some time. She had been running Avart, her Lugano-based womenswear boutique for more than a decade when the opportunity to expand came up. It was too good to ignore. “It was difficult to get the space; there were seven other candidates,” says Veragouth. But she prevailed and Avart’s new menswear shop opened its doors earlier this year after six months of renovation work.

It is housed in an elegant building with huge, curved windows and continues Veragouth’s work of bringing niche, high-end brands to the Italian-speaking Swiss city. Veragouth, who worked in fashion in her native Kazakhstan before moving to Switzerland, picked labels such as Nigel Cabourn, RRL, Studio Nicholson and Salvatore Piccolo for the new boutique. She recently returned from a trip to Japan – part-holiday, part-research mission – and spoke of her deep affinity for Japanese and American brands, pointing to her selection of favourites, including Orslow and Engineered Garments.

She is equally fond of refined interiors and hired renowned designer Bruno Keller to work on the shop’s refit. Keller created a warm space, which includes a mezzanine with wooden accents and recessed neon lighting from Italy’s Viabizzuno. Look out for the area featuring shoes, bags and accessories, and the cosy corner where you can kick back on an Eames lounger with a magazine or book from the shop’s selection. “The idea is to create a multicultural, intellectual space,” says Veragouth.
avart-shop.com

Hermès
France

French luxury house Hermès is delving deeper into the world of beauty, with a growing perfume-and-cosmetics line. It has quickly gained the approval of connoisseurs thanks to its best-in-class formulas, playful colour palettes and pristine packaging. The label recently released Herbes Vives, the third instalment in its H24 perfume line. The scent, created by Swiss perfumer Christine Nagel, evokes the fresh, earthy aromas of the natural world following heavy rainfall. The fragrance blends notes of sorrel, hemp and parsley with pear granita and fresh mint. The perfume’s light-green and refillable glass bottle is also striking.
hermes.com

How Canadian art patron Bruce Bailey is uplifting next-generation talents

Bruce Bailey cuts a striking figure in front of the Chiesa di San Samuele on the opening day of his new exhibition, Beati pacifici: The Disasters of War and the Hope for International Peace, which runs at the same time as this year’s Venice Biennale. Wearing a red suit and vintage Saint Laurent silver loafers, the Toronto-based collector and philanthropist is unafraid to stand out. Though his attire is conspicuous, Bailey has been quietly working to support the Canadian cultural scene and revive the lost practice of the art salon over the past few decades. 

The 200 works inside the church are from Bailey’s personal collection, which is usually housed in Ontario, and are illustrative of his wide-ranging taste. The exhibition’s focus on war art was not only intended to document the dark side of human nature. “I want to show that we must take the responsibility to stand up to evil and oppression,” says Bailey. The curation begins with a series of chilling 17th-century etchings by Jacques Callot based on the Thirty Years’ War. “There weren’t any war correspondents in those days,” he adds. “Callot went to the source to depict brutality. He also wrote text below his works, so they’re almost like early versions of comic books.”

From here, Bailey’s selection travels forward in time, passing by some of the greatest envoys armed with paint and a brush, including Francisco Goya and Otto Dix. Visitors are then brought up to the present with Peter Doig’s depiction of Toronto’s famous Rainbow Tunnel and a work by Tyler Bright Hilton, a Canadian artist who Bailey has been supporting. 

Art didn’t feature in Bailey’s upbringing. His life changed when he went on a school trip to Europe as a teenager. “I was transfixed when I saw Théodore Géricault’s ‘The Raft of the Medusa’ at the Louvre,” says Bailey. “I didn’t see any other artwork that day.” It was not until he was studying to become a lawyer at university that a small scholarship enabled him to make his first foray into collecting. “I bought three prints by Eric Fischl, Michael Snow and Christopher Pratt for a total of CA$5,000,” he says. “I framed them and put them in my student house. I felt terribly sophisticated.” During his subsequent careers as a lawyer and an investment banker, Bailey was able to add to his collection. It now includes everything from sculpture and film to photography and painting. Ever since his first purchase, however, he has maintained a particular fondness for prints and their collectors. “I find that print buyers are more passionate than other people at art fairs, who are often only there in order to buy trophy pieces by established names.”

Bailey believes that it is important for all budding collectors to look at as much art as possible. “I poke my head into contemporary art galleries no matter where I am in the world,” he says. “For me, the process is not to listen with my ears but to look with my eyes and my heart.” He tries to make decisions about a piece before learning about the artist. By acting on this impulse and buying from artists’ first shows, Bailey was able to become an early collector of work by Thomas Demand, Kiki Smith and Marlene Dumas. “It wasn’t that I was smarter than anyone else,” he says. “I could only afford to buy from artists before they became more well-known and, thankfully, I was able to do this before the game changed.” Bailey laments the recent rise in intermediaries who create a distance between the buyer and an artwork. 

These frustrations led Bailey to invest more time into his philanthropic endeavours, including the financial support of the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts and creation of his own arts incubator. The programme champions lesser-known Canadian artists by giving them their first show and pushing them to receive commercial gallery representation. Bailey credits this work with helping to launch the career of Canadian First Nations painter and performance artist Kent Monkman.

Bailey also believes in the power of art to forge connections and aid dialogue between nations. In 2011, the National Gallery of Canada became the official commissioner of the country’s pavilion in Venice. “This shows that the state uses art and music as forms of diplomacy,” he says. While his collection might have started as a group of artworks that captured his imagination, it has evolved to become a gathering point for the community. His art-salon summer garden parties, or fêtes champêtres, aim to build bridges between English- and French-speaking parts of Canada through a shared experience of culture and nature. “It’s a neutral ground where people can enter into conversation and discuss their personal history,” he says. 

These interactions help assuage Bailey’s worries about his legacy and the as-yet-unknown future destination of his art. He is reassured by how the collection has brought people together in Canada – and elsewhere in the world. “We all want to seek meaning in our lives,” he says. “Being a collector is not only a question of accumulating art but also how you can then use it to create a better society.” In a similar vein, Bailey believes that you can give people who you pass on the street a “visual treat” by way of a thoughtful or surprising outfit. With his opening dinner at the Venice Biennale approaching, Bailey gets up to return to his hotel. He has, of course, a dramatic costume change to make.

‘Beati pacifici: The Disasters of War and the Hope for International Peace’ runs at Chiesa di San Samuele in Venice until 29 September.

What to expect from Milan Design Week 2024 and beyond

The annual Salone del Mobile is the centre­piece of Milan Design Week and the global industry’s largest and most important trade fair. It’s an event that brings together the biggest names in the sector while also providing a platform for lesser-known voices.

As well as being a launchpad for new product releases, the gathering serves as a bellwether for the evolving priorities of the design and architecture industries. It’s also a vital source of inspiration for practitioners. Here, we speak to some of the movers and shakers who showed their work this year in Milan to find out about their projects and big ideas for 2024 and beyond.

The Creative Director
Samuel Ross
UK

After studying graphic design and illustration – and a stint as Virgil Abloh’s design assistant – Samuel Ross founded sportswear brand A-Cold-Wall* in 2014 and design studio SR_A SR_A in 2019. Over the past 10 years, the British-Caribbean artist and designer has collaborated with industry leaders such as Nike and Apple (who he continues to work with), showcased work at galleries including White Cube in London and New York’s Friedman Benda, and been awarded an mbe for services to fashion. Here, he tells us about his designs for US bathroom brand Kohler, including an aqueduct-inspired installation in a palazzo courtyard during Milan Design Week.

You describe yourself as an artist and designer. Is this distinction between the disciplines important?
If you have decided to dedicate yourself to the creative arts, you need to have different levers that you can pull. Some of those fall under the remit of service design and commercial work. Others are about the desire to contribute to the future index of the history of the arts. It’s like church and state: we have the arts as a complete expression of the self and design as the gift of servitude.

You have worked on everything from watches for Hublot to footwear for Nike. How did your collaboration with Kohler come about?
Our studio’s philosophy is to work with market leaders. When it comes to engineering and the movement of water, which sounds very poetic, the incumbent in North America is Kohler. There’s also something quite special about the fact that the company is now more than 150 years old and has had four generations of independent leadership. Kohler also has a certain elasticity when it comes to how it engages with creativity. This enabled us to have radical conversations around what is often seen as common design.

How did that attitude translate to your work for the brand at Milan Design Week?
I have always been fascinated by the feats of engineering that are hidden within centuries-old aqueducts in places such as Milan and Venice. Through the Kohler partnership, I wanted to explore ideas such as the movement of water and create tension between sculpture and design. That involved taking a step back before going into the design process and asking ourselves, “How do we make this a bigger story than simply designing a toilet, a sink and a faucet?”

Why is it important to have that kind of story?
Designers have an unspoken obligation to break new ground. And while the idea of service isn’t forgotten in any of the decisions that we make, a well-versed, nuanced audience is ultimately looking for a product or object that will elicit a response or evoke an emotion. My duty as an artist and a designer is to put new concepts out there, which comes with a certain level of risk. I also feel a personal obligation to work with these market leaders and try to push concepts through commercial practice. In design, you have to engage in servitude, questioning and inquiry. It’s less about good or bad than about the idea of pulling apart what we know in the hope of moving things forward into a new design moment.

The Astrophysicist
Ersilia Vaudo
Italy

You might not expect to find an astrophysicist hard at work at Milan Design Week but Ersilia Vaudo bucks the trend. For this year’s event, the chief diversity officer of the European Space Agency (ESA) teamed up with architect Benedetta Tagliabue to create the Lune d’acqua lamp for Italian lighting manufacturer Artemide, inspired by the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

How did the lamp project come about?
My background is in space exploration. I have worked for the ESA for 33 years, shuttling between Paris and the US, where I collaborate with Nasa. A few years ago, Stefano Boeri, the president of the Triennale Milano design museum, asked me to be the main curator of its 23rd international exhibition because I like to talk about science and the inspiration that it gives to people in many other fields. The theme of the exhibition was “Unknown unknowns” – the idea that we don’t know what we don’t know. The show encompassed the disciplines of architecture, art, design and science. That’s where I met architect Benedetta Tagliabue and Carlotta de Bevilacqua, the president and CEO of Artemide. The notion of creating a lamp together evolved from there.

Your lamp is called the Lune d’acqua, Italian for ‘water moons’. Can you tell us what inspired it?
Everything that orbits around a planet is called a moon. Jupiter has 91 of them and three are made from water. These moons are oceans trapped in shallow ice with a metallic core and a lot of hydrothermal activity. Significantly, they are perfect places for life to exist because they have the same sort of conditions that we had at the bottom of our oceans when life started here on our planet. Part of my job at the esa involves studies to uncover the mysteries of these moons. They are magical places where you see this beautiful process of material transformation, in which water goes from solid to liquid states. They’re round too. In space, almost everything is that shape because gravity is the greatest designer and it likes spherical perfection. That was the starting point for the design, which is defined by a central glowing sphere suspended by two rings, which allow it to spin and rotate. It’s about drawing on elements of cosmic design.

What expertise did Artemide bring to the table when it comes to turning this idea from concept into reality?
What is fantastic about the lamp is that we were able to create an effect in which the light that’s emitted appears to bend through space and time. This is thanks to Artemide’s patented fabric-like net of material that has led lights embedded in it. This sits at the centre of the sphere.

Is this project about bringing some of the principles of space exploration into our homes?
We wanted to evoke the sense of belonging to something bigger than us. But we are still human beings living in a complex world and lucky to be part of this planet. Earth is the only home that we have. We hope that this light is not just a design object but a reminder of the privilege and vulnerability of being human.

The Architect
Andrea Caputo
Italy

Just north of Milano Centrale station in 30 tunnels leased from the rail yard, you’ll find Dropcity: an as-yet-incomplete architecture and design centre that will ultimately house exhibition areas, libraries, workshops, machinery labs and co-working spaces. Run by architect Andrea Caputo, Dropcity put on 15 exhibitions during Milan Design Week, including a display of 3,000 photos of 20th-century architecture curated by Adam Stech and an installation by Milan’s 6:AM Glassworks. “We want to work with brands but this isn’t a location rental,” says Caputo. Instead, the centre’s civic mission includes sharing ideas and finding better ways for creatives to work together.

How is the transformation of the archways going?
Since January we have been in construction, renewing the tunnels and the space. That’s why we called our showcase during this year’s Milan Design Week In Progress. We were revealing the interior works as they are developing. Some of the spaces have been partially completed and others are going to be finished soon.

What’s your long-term plan?
Dropcity has both a social and a commercial programme. The latter is more about co-working, while the libraries and exhibition spaces are part of the social side. The first phase opens in October. We will have tunnels dedicated to 3D and robotic prototyping for millwork-machinery workshops, with equipment including cnc laser cutters and all kinds of manual tools. We want to create a multifaceted facility: one side will work on things that are related to automation, while another will focus on craftsmanship and materiality. On top of that, we will have an exhibition space that will initially feature Paris-based architecture studio Bruther’s first large-scale retrospective in Italy. The second phase is planned for spring 2025. We will have more laboratories, a materials library and a civic library. We hope to have completed 18 tunnels by then. We have yet to define what the final phase will be but it should be finished in 2026.

What will Dropcity do for the city? Is your aim to reach as many people as possible?
Yes, that’s exactly the point. There’s a neighbourhood scale, a city scale and an international scale. At the neighbourhood scale, we would like to work with local associations and become a library, a small civic space where people can come every day. At the city scale, we want to cater to architects, designers and students so that they can have an accessible space.

Is the plan to use a membership model?
Today, if you’re a designer or an architect and want to produce a large 3D print, you go to a company, you send the file, you pay and then you receive the object. The difference at Dropcity is that we run courses on 3D printing to teach people how to use these machines themselves. You don’t have to do the course to use the printer but you have to show that you’re able to 3D-print with this machinery. It’s about “access to tools”, a mantra from the 1960s that is highly relevant here. Dropcity will be accessible to anyone. It’s just a matter of being willing to be part of it and use the facilities.

The Industrial Designer
Sabine Marcelis
The Netherlands

Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis works across scales and media, from civic installations in London to furniture for Danish brand Hem. Last year she was on the selection committee of Design Space Al-Ula’s first residency. The programme invited both Saudi and international creatives, such as France-based Leo Orta and Hall Haus, to make new pieces inspired by the ancient city’s architecture and landscape. With her partner, Paul Cournet, the founder of Rotterdam-based architectural practice Cloud, Marcelis co-curated an exhibition that presented the resulting works at this year’s Milan Design Week.

Why did you bring Al-Ula to Milan?
There are amazing rock formations at a Unesco heritage site called Hegra, near Al-Ula. We wanted to bring the essence of this landscape to Milan so we created a rock-like installation that pulls you into a sort of oasis in an old library. Inside, you’ll find the designs, with a large sofa by Hall Haus as a focal point. The concept was stargazing, inspired by the lack of light pollution in Al-Ula. We couldn’t recreate that in Milan; instead, with the team at Cloud, we made a big light box to sit above the sofa, so that you could enjoy a similar experience.

Does that cross-pollination of culture and design highlight the importance of residencies?
That’s the point of doing a residency: you create pieces that are linked to the setting. For the Al-Ula one, we selected designers who we thought would get involved in the Saudi scene. France-based artist and designer Leo Orta is an excellent example of this: he was in Saudi Arabia for a few months and became good friends with some of the country’s makers, who helped him to create furniture with earth and wax that captured the materiality of Al-Ula.

Why is it important to create place-based works?
We’re at a sad moment when everything is starting to look like everything else. If you go to a hotel in Barcelona, there’s a good chance that it’ll be furnished in the same way as another in New York. But there’s something special about being very specific to a place in terms of aesthetic and materiality. There’s plenty to be gained by everyone: designers learn a lot from the residents of a place, who, in turn, learn from the designers. The Al-Ula project is about cultivating a long-term dialogue, not just placing alien pieces in the desert.

Is a residency ultimately more about the making process than the end product?
Yes. I hope that people think carefully about how production is linked to design. I have noticed that there’s a tendency today for creatives to envision designs that are completely removed from how it will ultimately be made. It’s important to stay close to the production process and consider the materials that we use because there are so many new ones being developed. It’s exciting to be able to work with these. Past generations didn’t have access to all the new material science that we have. There should be a reason why things are designed in the way that they are. That involves a deep consideration of production and materials.

The Furniture Designer
Keiji Takeuchi
Japan & Italy

Born in Japan and raised in New Zealand, furniture designer Keiji Takeuchi is now based in Italy, where he runs his namesake studio from Milan. Before establishing his firm in 2015, he studied in Auckland and Paris, and worked in Tokyo for designer Naoto Fukasawa. Takeuchi has designed furniture and products for international brands including Italian furniture giant De Padova, Herman Miller in the US and Portuguese cork specialists Amorim.

Tell us about your approach to design. What is your starting point?
My approach is organic and always adapting but there are a few core principles. I think a lot about materiality and production techniques, which change based on what the brand that I’m working with is capable of and what it needs. But my primary focus is on how people want to use a product and I consider the atmospheric effect that a piece can have on a space.

How do you ensure that your designs take into account your customers’ needs?
We continually ask ourselves how we can make things more intentional and try to figure out the exact purpose of a particular product. Take a chair, for example. When the cantilevered version without four legs was first conceived at the Bauhaus, it explored the idea of emptiness and how to reduce the feeling of clutter that chairs sometimes create. It was about the atmosphere; the technical execution came afterwards. First, you need to know what you want to achieve and make it purposeful, ideally with a little twist or sense of humour.

For this year’s Milan Design Week, you curated an exhibition showcasing walking sticks and canes designed by 18 international designers. What drew you to this subject?
I have been thinking about designing walking canes for years. There are a lot of elderly people in Japan and Italy, and I often see them struggling to get up and down steps. In both countries, they use sticks that look and feel quite medical, which I have long felt is horrible. The purpose of a walking stick is to make its user want to walk. It’s not just about physically supporting them. If it’s embarrassing to hold, people won’t want to be seen with it. So they end up not walking, getting weaker and weaker as a result. They lose muscle strength, as well as their appetite for going outside. All of this inspired me to do a show for which designers would create walking sticks and canes that people could take pride in and would be happy to use. I started to talk about the idea with some of my friends, such as Hugo Passos, Jasper Morrison and Julie Richoz, who all agreed that it would be an interesting subject to explore. That’s how they ended up designing canes for the exhibition.

What were you hoping the show would achieve?
It was a great opportunity to send out the message that designers don’t always need to change big things. We can encourage people to see things differently and push boundaries – and maybe create something amazing.

Rising talents

Established by design luminary Marva Griffin Wilshire in 1998, Salone Satellite is a section of Salone del Mobile that is dedicated to promoting the work of emerging creatives. Since its inception, it has helped to launch the careers of luminaries including Felicia Arvid, Sebastian Herkner and Nendo’s Oki Sato. Here, we pick six of our favourites from this year’s crop.

The Design Duo
KT&FS
Japan

Kobe-based furniture designers Kotaro Tominaga and Futo Sakurai debuted at Salone Satellite this year with Made in Your Habits, a collection of five pieces exploring the interplay between design and everyday rituals. The line-up, featuring a dining chair, a contoured shelf, an angled footrest and more, transforms routine acts into effortlessly ergonomic experiences.

What inspired the Made in Your Habits collection?
The five furniture prototypes are based on routine acts of everyday life, such as sitting and resting. We carefully observed these habits. If the pieces ever find their way into people’s homes, we hope that they will support better habits and behaviours among those who incorporate them into their lives.

What’s your studio’s ethos?
We want to make products that are firmly rooted in reality. To achieve this, we spend a lot of time studying different cultures, customs and production methods. We also value working with our hands: we build all of our prototypes ourselves. It’s part of our philosophy to test the products personally to ensure that they’re right for the user. We like including little surprises in our work too. And we believe that comfort is important if it makes life more satisfying. A piece doesn’t have to be world-changing. There should be a charm that people notice when they use a product.

The Leading Light
Jos van Roosmalen
The Netherlands

An industrial designer by trade, Jos van Roosmalen runs his namesake studio from Rotterdam, where he focuses on lighting, consumer electronics and furniture. At Salone Satellite, he presented work at a collective stand titled Pathways, alongside a host of other Dutch designers. Its aim? To highlight the diversity and quality of the country’s emerging practices.

What did you show at Salone Satellite?
It was a series of lighting and furniture pieces. The highlight was the Radial Light, which was designed to have a calming, Zen-like effect. I wanted it to be mesmerising. So I passed light through an acrylic sheet, which resulted in a glow that reminds me of a solar eclipse. And I lifted this light effect off the ground using a frame similar to a painter’s easel.

How would you describe your approach to design?
I like to observe natural light effects that occur during the day, then think about how they can be translated into light fixtures. The concept of domesticating natural light in this way drives my designs. I have worked in-house for large technology companies so have been inspired by industrial design work too. It’s about a sense of refinement and finding new ways to create beautiful results within the constraints of mass-production techniques.

The Playful Perfectionist
Ryan Twardzik
USA

Ryan Twardzik is the founder of Pennsylvania-based design practice Unform Studio, which is known for furniture that is riotous in both colour and form. Its pieces have a sculptural sensibility but are always comfortable and built to last. Here, Twardzik tells us why a designer’s goal should be to create products that become part of the fabric of their owners’ lives.

What sets your design apart?
My work is playful but production-ready. I have an industrial design background so I’m always thinking, “How will this get made?” and “How can this be reproduced at scale?” It’s also about treating form and function with the same respect during the design process. That allows me to make work that is visually striking and pushes the boundaries of form but is still useful as furniture.

Is there a particular issue that you want to address in your work?
When I was in design school, so many of the projects being made by students had to connect to your phone or an app to be usable. But what happens when that technology becomes obsolete in a few years? A chair might go out of style but it won’t go out of use. That’s a commentary on disposable design. You can really love and live with a piece if it has a beautiful form and offers a tactile experience. You’ll keep it for a long time.

The University Students
Cedim
Mexico

The Centro de Estudios Superiores de Diseño de Monterrey (Cedim) is a leading design and innovation university in Mexico. Its showcase at Salone Satellite, Aluminium in Harmony, presented a wide range of “Made in Mexico” homeware created by its students including Eugenia Gutierrez, Sofía Guerra and Paul Peschard (pictured). The show was organised by Miguel Zertuche, the university’s industrial design and product development co-ordinator, with Andrés Lhima acting as director.

Tell us about the showcase.
We asked our students to use aluminium to develop everyday objects that still have an industrial essence. This involved considering environmental themes and the use of materials, as well as Monterrey’s industrial and natural contexts.

How did you want people to feel when they encountered the students’ pieces?
We hoped that they would find the pieces meaningful, whether or not they were from Monterrey. We wanted the work to reflect our city’s industrial environment, landscapes and architecture. Though the pieces were created by more than 20 students, they all conveyed the essence of the project’s concept when viewed together. We wanted viewers to feel inspired by the fusion of industrial and natural elements, and to see the connection between the design of the pieces and Monterrey’s unique context.

The Post-Postmodernist
Edvin Klasson
Norway

Since establishing his namesake studio in 2016, Oslo-based designer Edvin Klasson has collaborated with both industrial-scale manufacturers and small workshops. At Salone Satellite, he presented four pieces of furniture: a stackable bar stool called Tropo; lounge chair Arp (pictured); side table Passaic; and Python, a compact table lamp that doubles as a cork board.

Could you tell us a little about your approach to design?
My work explores symbolism, history and cultural heritage. It can be viewed as an extension of postmodernism. I usually play on personal or collective memories in my work. People are also often surprised by the ergonomic considerations, hidden solutions and double meanings in my designs. My goal is to create products that connect with their users on an emotional level and evoke personal associations rooted in their own experiences. It’s also important to me that they can easily be repaired or disassembled. These priorities are related, as both deal with questions of consumer behaviour and product longevity.

What are the main issues that you want to address with your work?
I’m trying to challenge the concept of Scandinavian design, specifically Norwegian design. I want the industry to move beyond the stereotypical aesthetics of its postwar heyday.

The Cultural Mixer
Selma Lazrak
Morocco & Germany

Moroccan designer Selma Lazrak is based in Munich, where she infuses her furniture and product designs with the symbols and architectural silhouettes of her home country. At this year’s Salone Satellite, she presented three sculptural pieces crafted from natural materials including walnut and travertine.

How was your experience at this year’s Salone?
Participating in the fair put me in direct contact with the public and allowed me to explore new avenues, especially in terms of working on scenography, lighting and graphics. As an architect, I found it fulfilling to have a hand in shaping the overall project.

How does your heritage influence you?
It’s a wellspring of inspiration. My current collection draws from Morocco’s rich art and architectural history. It’s also inspired by the materiality and simplicity of its Mediterranean landscapes, particularly its coastlines, mountains and deserts. The aim was to encapsulate the essence of this heritage and land in a unique form. By harmonising angles and curves, solid and empty spaces, and creating an interplay of light and shadows, I brought the intricately carved surfaces to life. The designs are also symmetrical, which heightens the sculptural effect and pays homage to the traditions of Moroccan and Andalusian art, with their arches, columns and precise geometry.