Philippe Starck, iconic designer and sole juror of the first

148
Frame Moooi Award
Philippe Starck
The Right
Philippe Starck, iconic
designer and sole juror
of the first Frame Moooi
Award, on the winning
entry, the end of trend
and saving lives.
Words Robert Thiemann
‘Design
has become
fashion’
‘We can begin.’ Philippe Starck indicates
that he’s ready to talk. For the past ten minutes
he’s been concentrating on the list of questions
I mailed him earlier and on the ten winners he
selected for the Frame Moooi Award. We’re in
the interview room of his Paris office, not far
from the Eiffel Tower. It’s seven thirty in the
evening. Starck has already been through a
couple of interviews and a photo shoot.
Between the acts, he pauses to discuss work
with his designers. He doesn’t know who I am
or why I’m there. But after those ten minutes
of intense concentration, a wonder occurs.
He’s all ears and answers my questions
without hesitation. Seriously and in detail.
Starck doesn’t know that he’s chosen a
design by Bertjan Pot as winner of the first
Frame Moooi Award, since he received a sheaf
of ‘anonymous’ entries to the competition.
He doesn’t recognize Pot’s name and is
surprised to hear that he works for Moooi. But
he’s not surprised when I tell him that Moooi’s
bestselling Random Light was designed by the
Dutchman. ‘When people are good, they are
good.’ And ‘good’ is Starck’s opinion of Bertjan
Pot’s Stairway to Heaven, a hanging lamp
based on a stepladder – and the winner of the
Frame Moooi Award 2012.
The Frame Moooi Award rewards
furniture and lamps custom-designed
for a specific interior. We believe these
‘contextual’ products satisfy an
architectural need, respond to a new
function or address a particular problem.
Especially from a functional perspective,
they’re potentially more innovative than
‘non-contextual’ products, most of which
address the desire for mass reproduction.
Do you agree?
Nothing is black or white. Creating a product
for a specific place can bring fresh ideas,
because this place will bring a new mood, open
a new universe. That’s interesting, since it can
breathe fresh air into the design market.
Another advantage is that people coming from
almost nowhere can show their know-how.
Architects and interior designers who have
never created a product can suddenly create
something interesting. Because they need
noitceriD
café], the product is smart and affordable. But
to sell it on the mass market would be
ridiculous, because it’s not designed to be
shipped in a box and the price would be
extremely high. Even thinking about
manufacturing it is silly, because it must be
made by hand.
This shows the huge gap between the
worlds of the custom-made product and design
for the market. You cannot say one is better
than the other. Each has its own logic, its own
price, its own destination.
What can you say about the general level
of the entries we sent you?
I’m often invited to judge competitions. I’m
happy to say that the level of this one is clearly
higher than average, a very nice surprise. I find
in the entries what interests me. They are
poetic, political, economic, tricky, humoristic
and smart. Moreover, they are mainly based on
the elegance of less and on economy with a
big E. Some projects are beautiful but clearly
very costly. To do that now is a little obsolete.
I don’t say it’s bad; it simply doesn’t fit into my
perspective. In general, the design direction
taken feels right to me – but I’m not God.
Okay, there is nothing clearly ecological here.
So what? There are others who do that.
You say you’re not God, but for this
competition you are God. We have only
one juror. Do you like that idea?
I think it’s very good. I was part of many juries
and have often witnessed the jury syndrome:
to reward the worst project. In a jury there
are always two or three tribes with different
likes. In the end you are obliged to choose a
project that hasn’t been chosen by any of these
tribes – to make everybody happy. I’ve seen
disasters happening this way, especially in big
architecture competitions. Everything which
becomes political like that is bad. I know my
job. I take my responsibility. I said clearly it’s
my choice; that doesn’t mean it’s the choice.
But it’s clear there’s no compromise; no one
forces me to choose a specific project. It can
look unjust, but finally it’s not. If you always
take one juror for this competition, in five or
six years you’ll have a complete landscape
of opinions.
……
149
So you don't think Bertjan Pot’s Stairway
to Heaven can be developed into a
product for the market?
No. Or only as an elitist product – a lot more
expensive than other good suspension lights.
So it will mainly be sold in one of the design
art galleries, and we cannot call that serious
production. This kind of design – though
I hope I’m mistaken – can’t be sold in batches
of more than 200 pieces, and that would be
a miracle. When we’re speaking of design
[for the market], on the other hand, we’re
talking about millions of pieces. It’s not the
same game.
Photo Florence Maeght
Frame Moooi Award
perhaps a thousand pieces for a hotel, they
create an order big enough to start production.
But I don’t think this kind of product is
better than a design for the market. It will
not be sold. To arrive at the price of a design
for a hotel or another specific project, the
multiplication factor is only one or two.
To estimate the price of a product designed for
the market, you have to multiply the costs by
a factor between four and six. The designer has
to preview this margin. If he doesn’t and
follows the same logic as when designing for
a project, the production costs have to be
multiplied by five. This means that the product
will become impossibly expensive for the
general public. So if you want to make a
product for the market, the way to make this
product is part of the design. That is, if you are
a designer like me and you care about the final
price for the customer.
Also, the manufacturing technologies
are not the same. When you design something
for a project and need only 12, 50 or even 200
pieces – the thousand I mentioned would be a
miracle – you can’t do serious research and
development. Nor can you invest in tooling.
That means the manufacturing technology
always has to remain simple. That’s why
products for a project usually cost more; you
cannot divide the cost of production by the
number of pieces. So there is almost no
relation between a product designed to be sold
in a shop and one created for a project. It’s
absolutely not the same logic. You cannot
compare them.
Now let’s have a look at the winner and
his very funny ladder – and I love it; that’s why
I chose him. For this specific project [a theatre
Philippe Starck
‘We
speak a lot about
creativity, while
in fact there
is but little
of it’
Philippe Starck
‘Forget furniture;
let’s use our
fantastic
creativity
to save life’
150
Frame Moooi Award
… What’s important for the next juror?
The next one should not be like me, because
my choice clearly shows a political and
philosophical direction. A small part of each of
these finalists lies within my way of working.
You always choose something that surprises
you but that is also part of yourself. All these
projects are in my world. But there are
different worlds.
You say these entries surprised you, but
do they also reveal new design directions?
No. The directions taken are what I’ve
expected for years. I’m not a design historian.
I haven’t got enough culture; I’m not interested
enough in design. Every job, every action,
deserves to exist. Everything can be useful,
and there are many ways to be useful. But in
the past 20 years I haven’t seen many things
that express the idea of usefulness. Design has
become fashion. Designers have become
fashion designers. I’ve seen too many trends. They can be fun and even bring new ideas, as
long as they’re not retro-oriented. But it’s a
disaster when a trend stays around too long.
In the past 20 years I’ve seen only retro trends.
We had the ’30s, the ’50s, the ’60s, the ’70s,
the ’80s. Now we turn back to minimalism,
which is just an English trend of the ’70s.
There was almost nothing new. It was really
fashion. It’s sad when design falls into the trap
of fashion, especially since fashion – the real
fashion, with clothes – will partly die because
of its way of thinking. Fashion as we know it is
dead. The other part will evolve towards
design; it will address other values. People
today don’t understand that part of fashion.
The ones who do understand future values will
definitely be closer to the way product
designers think.
What is the difference between fashion
designers and product designers?
The difference is huge. It’s a pity to see
journalists trying to create a mix of fashion –
clothes – and design, because they are not the
same thing. The ways of producing and the
reasons for production differ greatly. A fashion
designer can create a new piece in 48 hours
and have it shown on the catwalk within three
months. A copy can be made in 24 hours.
Fashion designers are owned by companies
that want money, big money. And they push
their designers to produce, and produce, and
produce. When I was young, there were two
collections a year: autumn/winter and spring/
summer. Now we have at least six collections
a year. The terrible thing is that these big
fashion companies are the largest buyers of
magazine advertising and therefore drive
communication. They drive magazines.
And they push people in a very cynical way
to buy, and buy, and buy.
The fashion industry has become
impossible and not respectful. First of all,
people in the occident can’t continue their
lifestyle, because they won’t have enough
money. It’s economically impossible. Secondly,
it isn’t acceptable from a philosophical
perspective. Take fur. Ten years ago there was
a big thing about it: don’t wear it; don’t kill
animals. [His tone becomes cynical.] Good,
wow, they’ve become smart. The following
year the same models and the same companies
had fur everywhere. I don’t know if you can
continue to lie to people, to not respect them.
Perhaps we can react against it. We are not
obliged to accept it.
When a girl is manipulated by the
marketing and communication department
[of a fashion house] and, finally, by a small red
dress, she wears it between two and six
months. Then it ends up on the garbage heap.
I won’t even speak about the ecological
disaster when hundreds of millions of people
behave like this. Let’s talk about this girl,
especially where she will find the money. If she
works, she will spend all her money, her life,
her time, her sweat, her blood to pay for that
small red dress. If she doesn’t have the money
for it, she’ll prostitute herself or simply steal.
Fashion is a Machiavellian machine which
is no longer acceptable.
Now for another, more structural
difference between fashion and design. A dress
can be made in one day. A smart injectionmoulded chair needs between two and five
years to be manufactured. Louis Ghost
[a design by Starck for Kartell], which is
perhaps the world’s bestselling chair, took five
years and an investment of more than a million
euros to make. Today it’s easier, but even now
a period of two or three years is the average for
a chair to come to the market. One day to make
a dress, three years to make a chair. You see,
it’s not the same logic.
You can push a fashion designer to make
a new collection. It can come out badly, but you
can always show it. It takes time for a designer
to have a smart idea for a chair and to develop
it. In the fashion business, they’re obliged to
create a new collection every two months,
whereas we designers are obliged by nothing.
We can produce when we have an idea. There’s
a huge difference. Today we are still free.
Because the companies behind us are not
so big and rich, and not so involved in
compromising communication, we are still
in a luxury position.
You haven’t seen any new designs
because product designers behave like
fashion designers?
Yes, and I see it as an easy way. I’m sorry;
I don’t want to sound like a dinosaur. But when
we started with design, it was really hard.
Nobody wanted a new product. The industry
hardly existed. There were a few good, old
Italian designers and a few equally old Italian
manufacturers. That was all. To be a designer
meant to be Italian.
Now, imagine a French designer trying
to get in. In the beginning I had nothing to eat.
I started making a living from my work as a
designer some 30 years later, when I was
almost 45. Having nothing to eat makes you
smarter and more rigorous. Since nobody
wanted a new product, you were obliged to
think twice before you presented a new design,
hoping that someone wanted to manufacture
it. Now it’s really easy, because the press
continually wants – as in the fashion industry
– a new design, a new star. A designer is
something that can be consumed by the press;
he’s like a Kleenex to the editors. Three years
is the life span of an average designer now.
In the time of Achille Castiglioni, Enzo Mari
and Alberto Meda, it was 50 years.
That’s why I’m very happy to see that the
young designers whose work I’ve been judging
for this competition don’t fall into the trap
of easy design.
What is easy design?
Trendy design. There is a new trend every five
years, maximum. Making ‘easy design’ is
designing like the others do. Today’s trend of
minimalism has stayed for ten years. Longer
than others, because it contains the word
‘minimal’. It means nothing, because it is this
’70s English retro-trend coming from St
Martin’s Lane. But the name is magic, because
it makes people think: Oh, it’s logical, since we
first had minimal art and ‘minimal’ is always
the end; you cannot reduce it further. It was a
big trick, a big cheat. Now I see all these young
people [in this competition] not working
within the trend. You can perhaps say that this
is a trend. If that’s the case, it’s really good,
because it’s difficult to categorize.
What are you working on to save life?
Sadly enough, I’ve realized I cannot. I simply
don’t have a bright idea to save life. I can help.
All my work about organic food, the Good
Goods catalogue, my prefabricated house, the
work we do with ecological high-tech – our
windmill, solar panels, transportation vehicles
– all very smart, but useless. We’ll perhaps
save a little, produce a little energy, but we’ll
never produce more than 7 per cent of global
needs. The only question is how to reach
positive degrowth. I see the problem, but
I have absolutely no answer. It’s in the nature
of human beings to grow. We love growth. But
now someone has to tell us to stop producing,
to stop growing. Forever? I don’t know. For the
next 20 to 30 years? I have no idea. Nor do I
have answers to the question of how to stop
producing. My only contribution – and it will
never be at the level of saving life, because I
cannot – is fundamental research on
creativity, which has never been done before.
We try to understand why and how we are
creative. We speak a lot about creativity, while
in fact there is but little of it.
Will you still design chairs?
Yes, I will, because I’m human. I need to eat
and to feed my family. For me, it’s technically
impossible to stop. I design to serve my society.
A long time ago, I stopped doing so. The
Spanish company Disform was the first
company to work with me. Very nice people.
They asked me for some new designs, and I
never had the time to answer. I had just started
to work with the Italians, you see. One day I
met the director, Carlos Riera, and asked:
‘How are you? How is your company?’ He said:
‘We’re bankrupt. We don’t have any employees
or a factory any more.’ I asked what happened.
He replied: ‘I’m sorry, Philippe, we asked you
to show us some new designs, but in two years’
time you never answered.’ I’m very ashamed of
that. These people were good, but they could
no longer feed their families because of me.
Since then, I know I have my responsibilities.
I’m free for a person in my position, but a
young guy is really free. He doesn’t yet have
responsibilities. He has to face our problems
and take the right direction.
_
151
‘I see the
end of
trend’
What A joint venture of design
label Moooi and Frame magazine,
the Frame Moooi Award targets
interior designers and architects
who have custom-designed a piece
of furniture or a lamp for a
specific interior. This award is
Frame and Moooi’s attempt to
raise the design of furniture and
interiors to an even higher level
When The international prize was
awarded for the first time at the
Salone del Mobile 2012 in Milan
Jury The jury consists of one
person only
Entries After reviewing 891
anonymous entries, Philippe
Starck – Frame Moooi Award’s
first juror – selected a winner and
nine finalists
Prize The winner of the award
receives a grand prize of €25,000
Frame Moooi Award
So we’re looking at the end of trend. What
should design be about in 2012?
The only challenge you have is to save life. I’m
not comfortable wasting my time speaking
about the beauty of a chair any longer.
Humanity is at a very important point, because
we are at the end of civilization. Occidental
civilization is finished. Intelligence has moved.
We were once master of the universe; now we
shall be the maid. This can be understood as a
disaster by people with a short-term view. But
if you understand the new situation as an
incredible new territory, a new field of
creativity in which to reinvent ourselves, to
reinvent our new poverty, our dignity . . . mixed
with all the political and ecological challenges,
it’s fantastic.
You know, there is a good example
featuring the worst people: the banking
traders. They make money when the stock
exchange goes up, but they sometimes make
even more money when it comes down. For us
designers, the same is true. We will have more
opportunities to create interesting things as
we go down. We have to understand that we’re
But how can a chair save life?
It’s time to take a break and return to our
priorities. During this interview, some people
will die because they have nothing to eat,
others because they have no water, bad water,
no more ground under their feet because
there’s too much water. Meanwhile we, in
a comfortable room, are speaking about the
latest creation of a designer. That’s a bit
absurd. If I was 18 today and smart enough
to understand our real problems, I would say:
Forget furniture; let’s use our fantastic
creativity to save life. If we work well,
perhaps in 15 or 20 years’ time we will have
the opportunity to discuss the beauty of a
lamp. But I hope not, because in fact it’s
a bit ridiculous.
891 Entries
Philippe Starck
What trend do you see today?
I see the end of trend. It started to notice that
about five years ago. When Alchimia and
Postmodernism were the trend, everything
was the same. Copy machine, copy machine,
copy machine. And now minimalism: just look
at the sofa catalogues today, and you’ll see that
they’re all the same. Here on this table in front
of me [looks at the ten finalists’ work], not all
designs are the same. It’s individuality. Fifty
years ago design was individuality. Now I see
the creativity of individuals coming back. Design used to be exclusively Italian; now it’s
this guy who happens to be Dutch, or French,
or Italian. It’s not the same thing. The more
confusing, the better, because it’s more
complicated for the press to understand. It’s
easier to make a guerrilla action with these
people in front of me than when everybody
wears the same uniform.
in another place, that we’ll be poor. Perhaps in
the next 20 or 30 years, when the new masters
have a faster cycle, we will recognize their
situation and see that their problems are the
same ones we once had. If we work well, we
might come back on the stage with new
solutions. If we don’t, we will be the next
Incas or Romans, an old civilization that died.
Game over. That can be a drama for us, but
not for global civilization. The world will
continue to turn.
The only sad thing is – we were not
so bad. We had some good ideas. That’s why
it would be a pity to lose us. So, we have a
philosophical and political eldorado in
front of us.
One of the big challenges now is to
save life. I’ve never seen design do that.
Stairway to Heaven
Winner and Finalists
Winner
‘It all started with a new safety
ladder we ordered for the
studio and carnival lights we
used for a different project.
Suddenly it seemed like the
perfect illogical combination . . .
rawness and glitter,’ is Bertjan
Pot’s explanation of Stairway
to Heaven, a lamp that his
studio designed for Grand Café
Wennekerpand in Schiedam,
the Netherlands. Located in a
former distillery, the café has
an industrial vibe enhanced by
a dazzling row of Stairway to
Heaven pendants. Bertjan Pot
turned his light-studded
ladders upside down and hung
them from the ceiling above
two of the café’s long wooden
picnic tables.
152
Frame Moooi Award
bertjanpot.nl
‘It’s smart, because it’s a good example of the right
way of thinking. It immediately gives a surrealistic
feeling, which is very fertile and easy to understand,
even for people without culture. Surrealism is timeless;
it’s a universal way of communication. It’s an icon,
and there are few strong icons in our society. When
you play with such an icon, you play with collective
memory. You start to be part of the subconsciousness
of society, which is what I like best’
Philippe Starck
Words Inês Revés
‘Incredibly smart. With just a sheet
of acrylic between two panes of
glass, they made something magic’
Finalist
Philippe Starck
Mist of Arch
Winner and Finalists
Photos Takumi Ota
Diagonally placing a sheet of
white acrylic resin with a
metallic core between two
translucent panes of glass,
Keiko+Manabu produces a
dramatic effect at rest-room
entrances in a Tokyo
department store. The duo’s
Mist of Arch wall features LED
lights that form glowing points
of illumination within the
space. Patterns on the wall are
different for rest rooms used
by men and by women.
‘We strongly feel that a
cheerful and welcoming public
space can help give energy to
people,’ says Keiko Uchiyama
of Keiko+Manabu.
keikomanabu.com
Frame Moooi Award
Finalist
Kroon
zmik.ch
‘I like Kroon very
much. Very smart,
because it’s made of
very cheap lights used
by car mechanics.
This one has the look
of a winner’
Philippe Starck
153
A large chandelier brightens
the entrance hall of a
residential and office building
in Basel, Switzerland. ‘Kroon
combines the elegance of an
Art Deco chandelier with a
smart contemporary design,’
says Mattias Mohr of ZMIK.
The pendant consists of
standard workshop lights, a
star-shaped element of
polished chrome and a metal
ring. A contrast between
high-end materials and cheap
industrial products gives the
object a particular charm.
ZMIK used LED strips, which
are reflected in the polished
star and, says Mohr, ‘refine the
design while creating a more
brilliant expression’.
‘Very interesting, because it gives
a shop with a limited budget the
opportunity to have some sort of
art piece made of metal tubing that
works with and without clothes’
Winner and Finalists
Philippe Starck
Sketch
Like a doodle scrawled in
midair, Ypsilon Tasarım
Studio’s striking yellow display
unit draws the attention of all
who enter the Bilstore Tünel
shop in Istanbul. Yeşim
Bakırküre of Ypsilon Tasarım,
who headed the project, calls
the concept that led to Sketch
‘a linear search’ that began
and ended with ‘the function of
a clothes hanger’. Made from
powder-coated steel tubing
with a high-gloss finish and
available in various models,
Sketch aims to engage the
shopper, who, says Bakırküre,
‘gets involved in the creative
process’ while browsing
for clothes.
Frame Moooi Award
ypsilontasarim.com
154
Finalist
‘This project interests me a lot, because
it shows that with a half-millimetre-thin
sheet of plastic and glue you can change the
mood of a place completely. The locker room
suddenly becomes human and fun. This type
of thing can add life to an interior’
Philippe Starck
Finalist
‘This table becomes a
chalkboard and can be
stored in a smart way’
Philippe Starck
Education Trestles
and Easels
Winner and Finalists
For the educational space at
the Boijmans Van Beuningen
Museum in Rotterdam, Studio
Makkink & Bey came up with
Education Trestles and Easels.
‘The design was developed
from the form of a basic trestle
and is wide enough to be a
table,’ says Rianne Makkink
of a versatile product that
fulfils multiple functions.
‘Two trestle tables can be
joined with a larger tabletop
to form a longer table,’ says
Makkink’s partner, Jurgen Bey,
‘and the same tabletop can be
used, vertically or horizontally,
as an easel.’ Table and legs
are made of high pressure
laminate; metal connectors can
hold pencils or pointers.
Frame Moooi Award
studiomakkinkbey.nl
Finalist
What’s in Your
Locker?
lab3.nl
155
Dutch design studio Lab3
jazzed up a high-school
hallway in Baarn, the
Netherlands, by covering
the doors of 499 lockers
– on opposite sides of the
50-m-long corridor – with
graphic prints of the typical
contents of a teenager’s school
locker. ‘What’s in Your Locker?’
is part of Lab3’s larger
contribution of visuals to the
Baarnsch Lyceum complex, a
venerable school in a brandnew building. ‘We came up
with seven prints showing
what students might stash
in their lockers,’ says Lab3’s
Anne Blussé van Oud-Alblas,
‘including books, an artificial
ear, bananas, a bottle of glue
– then added some empty
lockers.’ The result is casual,
innovative and sustainable.
‘Very elegant way to present shoes, which is
not so easy. The idea of using a number that
is also a light is smart, because you don’t
have to approach the salesperson except to
say, “I want this one in 36,” and it’s done’
Philippe Starck
Winner and Finalists
Shoe Box
Facet Studio designed its
modular Shoe Box for
Sneakerology, a store in
Sydney, Australia, with a name
that reveals the merchandise
within: sneakers. The walls
display 281 Shoe Boxes that
give each model the status of
a museum artefact; a
corresponding number
facilitates interaction among
client, internet and staff.
Translucent resin panels with
built-in lighting accompany the
plywood boxes, providing
enough illumination for the
entire shop. Facet Studio
credits repetition for the
‘euphoric effect’ that allows
shoppers ‘to experience an
amplified emotion’.
Frame Moooi Award
Finalist
facetstudio.com.au
156
Ray
For the headquarters of
mechanical systems global
manufacturer Danfoss in
Nordborg, Denmark, SHL
Design created Ray, an
extremely minimalist lamp
made to be used in
combination with a lamella
ceiling. ‘When the light is off,
the fitting appears to have the
same colour as the lamellae,
leaving the lamp almost
invisible against the ceiling’s
visually clean, uninterrupted
surface,’ says head designer
Lars Vejen of SHL. When the
light is on, Ray’s rhythmic
geometry emphasizes the
three-dimensionality of
the space.
‘I love it, because it’s minimal and
very smart. I’m working on something
similar. It’s what we need sometimes:
absolute invisibility’
Philippe Starck
Finalist
shldesign.dk
Photo Adam Mørk
Finalist
Caelum
pablomartinezdiez.com
Winner and Finalists
‘Minimal poetry,
which is always good’
Providing illumination in the
basement café of renowned
Barcelona sweet-and-pastry
shop Caelum is Pablo Martínez
Díez’s lamp of the same name.
Sparkling in the dimly lit
interior, where guests partake
of artisanal delicacies made
in Spanish monasteries, are
what the designer calls ‘little
points of cool light’ above the
presentation of mouthwatering
treats. Each lamp consists of
a flexible rod equipped with
an LED. Several prototypes
preceded the definitive
Caelum, which had to be small
and emit a minimum of heat.
Philippe Starck
Frame Moooi Award
‘This is perhaps one of the weaker
entries, because it’s not true. You cannot
make it with a real bottle. It’s a little
costly, and we know the concept, but it’s
poetic and charming’
Philippe Starck
Decanterlight
leebroom.com
157
Lee Broom uses vintage crystal
decanters as lampshades and
breathes new life into a
forgotten product. ‘The
Decanterlight was designed as
an alternative to the traditional
chandelier,’ says Broom.
Grouped in clusters, the lamps
become ‘an eye-catching
centrepiece wherever they are
hung’. Purpose-designed for
Coquine, a bar in London, the
Decanterlight relies on found
objects, making each piece
unique. Lamps come in clear
crystal or with a metallized
gold finish and are available in
two shapes: bell and square.
Finalist
Moon Jelly
evandouglis.com
Other Entries
A random
selection of other
entries to the
Frame Moooi
Award 2012
The handcrafted chandelier
that Evan Douglis Studio
designed for a restaurant in
Brooklyn, New York, is a
sculptural fantasy of
45 mouth-blown, bubbleshaped components.
Macro
Frame Moooi Award
Freeform
Using only black electrical
cables and bare bulbs,
Romanian outfit Square One
came up with a lighting
scheme that evokes trees
branches, an ideal complement
to the allegorical world of
Entrance, a concept store
in Bucharest.
158
squareone.ro
M-Furniture
For a concert hall in Eindhoven,
the Netherlands, Van Eijk &
Van der Lubbe designed the
M-Furniture, a modular
furniture system comprising
six pieces.
ons-adres.nl
In the rest room at Rome's
Macro Museum, visitors
washing their hands in ODBC’s
novel sinks are surprised when
an embedded light turns the
translucent material of the
basin from white to red as
water flows from the tap.
odbc-paris.com
Other Entries
Table
A table in the luxurious interior
of Fabergé Salon, a jewellery
store in Geneva, Switzerland,
is the work of Jaime Hayon,
who framed the matte-lacquered
white tabletop in a rich
mahogany border.
hayonstudio.com
Helix Shelf Series
guise.se
Mountain Curve
Frame Moooi Award
Guise’s freestanding black
sheet-metal displays at Fifth
Avenue Shoe Repair, a
boutique in Stockholm,
Sweden, look like helix-shaped
stairs that spiral from floor
to ceiling.
Inspired by the undulating
contours of surrounding
mountains, Nader Interior
designed wood seating
pods for a cable-car waiting
area at Valley Station in
Laax, Switzerland.
nader-interior.ch
159
Photo Stéphane Chalmeau
Lighting
The team at h2o realized an
irregularly staggered ‘coffered’
ceiling in the press room of the
French Ministry of Agriculture
in Paris. Made of koto wood,
each light box has a uniquely
perforated design.
h2oarchitectes.com