The tapestry, conceived as a practical object to warm floors, structure rooms, or insulate walls, has for centuries transcended its seemingly everyday purpose, assuming a second existence as a work of art. Within it, craftsmanship, visual language, and cultural memory condense into a compositional unity that extends far beyond its utilitarian function.
In the work of Jean Lurçat, the most influential textile artist of the 20th century, the tapestry likewise exceeds its original role: at once material and metaphor, surface and narrative space—a textile image poised between utility and aesthetic significance. In this dual role—as both handcrafted object and medium of symbolic imagination—lies the foundation upon which Lurçat built his radical renewal of tapestry.

Born in Bruyères in 1892 and deceased in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in 1966, Jean Lurçat was active during his lifetime as a painter, ceramist, and tapestry weaver, among other things. Before dedicating himself entirely to art, he actually studied medicine at the Université de Nancy. However, after barely three years, he transferred to Victor Prouvé’s studio, also in Nancy, and subsequently continued his artistic education at the Académie Colarossi in Paris. From 1919 onwards, Lurçat increasingly emerged as an independent artist and began to establish himself as a painter and graphic artist in the French art scene.
Influenced by the decorative practices of the École de Nancy and his teacher Victor Prouvé, father of Jean Prouvé and a leading figure of this collective art movement, Lurçat came into early contact with the central principle of Art Nouveau, that art and craft are inextricably linked. However, his inclination towards the textile medium did not arise solely from this environment but was also—as many biographies emphasize—shaped by a personal experience: in 1917, his mother embroidered a small Gobelin tapestry based on one of his designs.

While works such as »Filles Vertes« (»Green Girls«, 1917) and »Soirée dans Grenade« (»Evening in Granada«, 1917), and later »Le Cirque« (»The Circus«, approx. 1922) and »Les Arbres« (»The Trees«, approx. 1924), demonstrate that he designed small-format, sometimes decorative tapestries early on and continuously created experimental textile works in parallel with his painting, which were executed in weaving and embroidery workshops, it was not until the 1930s that he primarily dedicated himself to tapestry weaving.
In the 1920s and early 1930s, Lurçat initially worked primarily as a painter, maintained a lively social life, and moved in circles of important personalities of his time, including Rainer Maria Rilke, Hermann Hesse, and Ferruccio Busoni. In the early 1920s, he met the French gallerist, collector, and art patron Marie Cuttoli, through whose initiative and support several small-format tapestries were already created based on his designs. Driven by the idea of dissolving the boundaries between fine and applied arts, Cuttoli presented innovative textile works alongside fine art in her gallery Myrbor in Paris. In line with her ambition to transfer modern art into textiles, she commissioned contemporary artists, including Picasso, Braque, Le Corbusier, and Léger, with designs that were subsequently realized as tapestries. As part of this project, in 1933, a tapestry based on a Lurçat design was produced for the first time in Aubusson, the traditional center of French tapestry weaving—the tapestry titled »L’Orage« (»The Storm«, 1933).
The execution of the work was still based on classical, painterly cartoons and without the new structure he later developed, but it marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with the traditional workshops in Aubusson—a collaboration that became the decisive prerequisite for the precise implementation of his conceptual and technical innovations in the following years.

IMMANENT SPARK

A first milestone on his now unstoppable path to becoming a central representative of modern tapestry art was his first major commission, »Illusions d’Icare« (»The Illusions of Icarus«, 1936), in 1936. The large-format work was commissioned by the French state and subsequently woven at the Manufacture des Gobelins, which has served as a state manufactory for the execution of tapestries for public buildings, museums, and state collections since the 17th century.
However, the decisive change of course in his work, which ultimately led to the revival and redefinition of tapestry as an independent, contemporary art form, was his encounter with the »Apocalypse of Angers« at the Château d’Angers in 1937, a 14th-century tapestry described on the official museum website of the Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine as »déterminante« for his later textile work.
While tapestry had, for centuries since the Renaissance and Baroque, become a woven painting—characterized by designs in the form of illusionistic, painterly executed cartoons and nuanced color transitions—the textile clarity of the Middle Ages had largely been forgotten. With its clear contours, reduced colors, and great symbolic directness, Lurçat recognized in the medieval »Apocalypse of Angers« that tapestry does not have to be a painterly imitation, but can be an independent medium with a visual language developed from weaving techniques.

From this realization, that tapestry possesses its true strength in a visual language developed from weaving techniques, Lurçat derived his conceptual and technical reorientation: the radical reduction of the color palette, a numbered color code, and the abandonment of painterly designs in favor of strictly structured black-and-white cartoons, which gave clear instructions to the executing weavers and at the same time allowed him more control over the result. Thus, for the first time, tapestries were created that were no longer designed from the logic of painting, but again from their textile logic. Lurçat’s newly understood, profound view of textile material is described by Martine Mathias in the catalog for the exhibition Jean Lurçat — Master of French Modernism (Kunsthalle Talstraße, Halle/Saale, 2016) with the statement that it is above all the »intelligence of matter« that makes it possible to understand the quality of Lurçat’s tapestry weaving.

His artistic attitude, shaped by this idea of intelligent matter—a kind of energetic signature expressed in structures, rhythms, and forms—is based on the recognition and respect for the inherent life of the material, which he does not bypass but consciously reveals. This perspective, as Mathias notes, is rooted in his comprehensive humanistic education and his familiarity with ancient writings such as those of the Roman philosopher and poet Lucretius, whose De rerum natura (»On the Nature of Things«, 1st century BC) describes matter as a living reality permeated by inner forces. Mathias underscores this assumption with a quote that aptly summarizes Lurçat’s attitude: »Anyone who tries to subjugate the spirit of matter in wall tapestries behaves like a child.«
Following the inner logic of textiles, the tapestry thus becomes not merely a carrier of an image, but an organic medium in which this hidden energy becomes visible. For Lurçat, the threads form a poetic fabric in which the »spiritual« dimension of the world materializes. Already in the 1940s, works such as »La Grande Menace« (»The Great Threat«, 1940) and the eight-part, most symbolically dense group of works from the war years, »Constellations« (»Constellations«, approx. 1940-1945), make matter visually tangible as an energetic field, combining natural forms, signs, and rhythms into a metaphysical pictorial world.

DISSOLUTION OF THE WORLD

With the outbreak of the Second World War, global reality entered a phase of devastating political, social, and cultural upheavals, accompanied by the decomposition of all morality. Jean Lurçat, who had experienced the First World War as a soldier and survived it severely wounded, developed a lifelong sensitivity to the destructive forces of war. In the Second World War, in the Lot department—a region in southwestern France strongly influenced by the Resistance, where many intellectuals found refuge—he joined the circle of Resistance-affiliated artists such as Louis Aragon, Elsa Triolet, Jean Cassou, and Pierre Seghers, who opposed the Vichy regime and the occupation.
His tapestries from these years—such as »Les Vapeurs« (»The Vapors«, 1943), »Les Eaux« (»The Waters«, 1943), or »De natura solari rerum« (»On the Solar Nature of Things«, 1943), and later also »Liberté« (»Freedom«, 1945), »Avec la France dans les Bras« (»With France in its Arms«, 1945) and »La Naissance du Lansquenet« (»The Birth of the Landsknecht«, 1944)—process these experiences as moral-cosmic statements: powerful, often subversive depictions that accuse war, oppression, and collaboration, while also formulating a vision of human dignity, spiritual freedom, and renewal. In these works, man usually appears as a vulnerable but conscious being, embedded in a web of natural forces, cosmic signs, and political threat—a fragile figure exposed to the violence of war and yet remaining a bearer of human dignity and inner freedom.

As Martine Mathias emphasizes in the exhibition catalog Jean Lurçat — Master of French Modernism (Kunsthalle Talstraße, Halle/Saale, 2016), this depiction fundamentally shifts during this period, which shaped him both personally and artistically: the human figure gradually recedes until it completely disappears in many of his later works. Its place is taken by cosmic rhythms, plants, animals, stars, fire, and light—symbols of a broader world structure that increasingly interested Lurçat. This slow disappearance of the explicit human form from his works does not indicate indifference, but a shift in perspective. Man becomes a small part of a larger, energetic context, in which nature and cosmos themselves become the actual visual language.

A POETIC UNIVERSE

In Lurçat’s work, a development now becomes increasingly clear, culminating in an ethereal dimension. His modern interpretation of the aether—that fifth element quinta essentia postulated by Aristotle, whose physical reality has long been disproven, but whose poetic power endures—understands it as an immanent spark connecting nature, man, and cosmos.
A symbolic language used in this sense, Mathias writes, appears from the mid-1950s onwards, for example, in the use of zodiac signs, which he integrated into his visual world as a metaphorical principle. Stars and constellations appear not as astronomical facts, but as signs of a deeper connection, as luminous nodes of a living structure useful for practical guidance and emotional orientation for humanity. As an example, she describes the ninth scene, »Poésie« (»Poetry«, 1961), from his monumental cycle »Chant du Monde« (»Song of the World«, 1957—1966), in which Lurçat depicts an archer, accompanied by the retinue of zodiac signs and a sun symbol with a human face—an ancient but still fruitful poetic method of shaping space and time through celestial signs.
In the first eight tapestries of the cycle, the cycle unfolds a narrative movement ranging from the primordial forces of the world to its threats: »Le Feu« (»The Fire«, 1957), »L’Eau« (»The Water«, 1958), »Les Arbres« (»The Trees«, 1958), and »Les Grands Champs« (»The Great Fields«, 1959) form the prelude to an elemental natural order, while »La Grande Menace« (»The Great Threat«, design 1940 / revised version 1959), »Les Illusions d’Icare« (»The Illusions of Icarus«, 1960), »La Conquête l’Espace« (»The Conquest of Space«, 1961), and »La Fin de Tout« (»The End of Everything«, 1962) illustrate the tensions, dangers, and upheavals of this world.

Lurçat calls the cycle, as Mathias notes, »table des matières d’une existence« (table of contents of an existence), and this, according to her, connects to his explicit will to »intellectually grasp the world and human destiny.« Created over a tireless creative period spanning almost a decade and woven in the traditional workshops of Aubusson, »Chant du Monde« is considered his magnum opus and comprises ten monumental tapestries with a total area of approximately 500 square meters, which are now preserved in the Musée Jean Lurçat et de la Tapisserie Contemporaine in Angers. His monumental masterpiece tells a modern, cosmic creation story in which the cosmos appears as a living organism permeated by inner forces—a universe of stars, plants, animals, radiations, and energy fields that, despite being threatened by war and destruction, still understands humanity as part of a larger, luminous order.
The tenth scene, »Ornamentos Sagrados« (»Sacred Ornaments«, 1966), was completed after his death, and what remains is the epochal (life’s) work of an exceptional artist, in which Jean Lurçat’s inner worldview, his tireless creative spirit, and his identity as an artist and human being of his time are not merely laid over the fabric, but inscribed into the intelligence of the fiber of his matter.

FIRST PUBLISHED IN CHAPTER №XIII »IDENTITY« — WINTER 2025/26

Jil Sander is considered one of the most visionary designers of our time. However, a truly comprehensive understanding of her work only emerges when one considers her creative attitude in its entirety, which seems to stem from a profound understanding of cultural multidimensionality: the interplay of ideal, formal, and social dimensions, the ability to grasp intermedial relations, and an agile approach to perspectives. As a consequence of this understanding, she dynamically translated her design attitude to fashion, graphic and product design, as well as to architecture, garden and landscape architecture—to name just a few disciplines.

Authenticity part of one’s personality, something innate that we should preserve, Jil Sander emphasizes right at the beginning of our conversation. An attribute that has fundamentally shaped the designer, born in 1943, and her work for almost six decades. She explains why some people find it easier to access this inherent human authenticity than others by saying that it manifests itself early in childhood but can be suppressed by education. She herself was fortunate that her parents allowed her to pursue her determined ideas.
And indeed, Heidemarie Jiline Sander, which is her birth name, seemed very determined in her ideas about life even at a young age. »Doubts only came to me during my school days, which were marked by strict teachers. But then it was already too late to deter me,« she tells us. In 1964, after graduating from the Textilingenieurschule Krefeld, she went to Los Angeles as an exchange student. At that time, this was an undoubtedly a self-confident decision, which—made by a 21-year-old woman—would have been considered unconventional. It is reasonable to assume that such steadfastness later also found expression in the integrity of her creative signature.
After returning to Hamburg, she initially worked as a fashion editor for various women’s magazines. This experience sharpened her visual sensitivity, but what she encountered »aligned with neither her understanding of proportion and material nor her idea of femininity, or her intuition for the seismographic shifts in the aesthetic needs of a rapidly changing society,« as stated in the catalogue for Sander’s first solo exhibition worldwide »Jil Sander. Present« in the MAK – Museum für Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt (2017/18). In 1968, she decided to open her first boutique in the Pöseldorf district of Hamburg. She initially sells selected ready-to-wear—a then new concept that democratized fashion with a strong design focus, away from the exclusivity of haute couture. But Sander decides early on to expand the offering with her own collection in a limited capacity. She probably did not yet suspect that her personal vision of a new way of dressing would set new standards.

MODERNITY AS AN ATTITUDE

When we ask her about the origin of her creative drive and the moment when she realized that she herself had become a formative force in the cultural landscape, both her sense of culture-shaping tendencies and her capacity for self-reflection become clear: »I was not alone in my ideas, I only applied the modern vision that prevailed in contemporary architecture and product design to fashion,« Sander clarifies, initially situating temporality and her own role within a broader context, as if she wanted to pay tribute to those who came before her. If one wants to understand this statement as an expression of modesty, then this does not indicate a failure to recognize one’s own influence, but rather a matter of proper perspective. According to the designer, the driving force of modernization was palpable everywhere, pointing to the omnipresent atmosphere of optimism of the 1960s. She drew not only inspiration for her own work from this, but also a strong awareness of material, sculptural design and the need to develop innovative fabrics. »In my hometown of Hamburg, the British tailoring tradition was still very present, so I was familiar with outstanding fabric and craftsmanship. I simply modernized them to achieve interesting new effects,« explains Sander.

Left: The Paris flagship store on Avenue Montaigne, designed in close collaboration between architect Michael Gabellini and Jil Sander, closely reflected her aesthetic vision and set new standards for the relationship between fashion and space—for instance through a spiral staircase inspired by the Bauhaus; Right: The importance the designer places on technology, proportion, and the creative use of three-dimensionality also initially led her toward architecture; Showroom San Francisco.

It is precisely this idea of modernization that has always driven Sander. But a focus on the future and a positive engagement with modernity are no longer highly valued, says Sander, and explains:

»I am an advocate of modernity, an attitude that is rarely discussed today. By that I don’t mean a fixed style, but the need to optimize things according to the state of the art and a contemporary aesthetic.«

This personal drive for continuous development already shaped her vision as a young fashion designer. While in the Paris of the 1960s the classic, ladylike image of women in Parisian couture still dominated, Sander preferred to look forward. With her designs, she sought to spare women from having a traditional idea of femininity imposed on them. According to Sander, it was always about a commitment to the present and an understatement that creates attention and respect. The personality, she emphasizes, must not be overshadowed by clothing and she adds personally: »As a businesswoman, I was my own test case, it was important to me that I be taken seriously as a negotiating partner.« And she was: The fact that in 1989 she was the first woman to take her own company public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is certainly a demonstration of this conviction.
A clear sense of direction also determined the strategic decisions she made over the course of her career. In 1999, she enters into a joint venture with Prada, but leaves the company she founded shortly thereafter. In the following years, she returns several times to reassume creative leadership before finally retiring in 2013 for private reasons. Since 2021, the »Jil Sander« brand has been owned by the Italian fashion group OTB after several changes of ownership.

PERSPECTIVE IN A NEW CONTEXT

Regardless of the development of the eponymous company over the decades, Jil Sander’s own attitude to design remained uncompromising. Her vision of clothing as an expression of personality and a focus on the present is reflected in her fundamental rejection of the routine and the predictable. As an advocate of a new approach to the familiar, it becomes clear why Sander vehemently rejects everything that is predictable and formulaic. »My design has no formula,« she clarifies. Calculability is even a particularly sensitive issue to which she reacts strongly. »When things become too familiar and predictable, they are overdue for a revision in the spirit of the times. I am very sensitive to that. Design is also the risk of trying out something uncertain. Collections are suggestions, they have to dare to be relevant. For me, it was a great appeal to clear the table in the studio four times a year and start from scratch.« For Sander, design work is always an exploration of possibilities that have not yet been explored. »This bet on the future requires alert, attentive senses, a quality that no artificial intelligence can replace,« she adds.
With this last remark, Sander touches on the fundamental difference between lifeless formulas and the pulsating intuition in the creative process. »Formulas belong to the what has been exhausted, which fashion and design must go beyond. I am far too closely engaged, very tactile and equipped with an ultra-critical eye,« she emphasizes and also refers to a philosophical reading:

»You only need to read Karl Popper to understand that truths and formulas are always provisional.«

One believes her when she says: »I have a strong educational instinct, I never dictate, but try to convince.« Through personal persuasion, she has gathered a team around her that understands and embodies her idea. »This requires ongoing dialogue and a shared understanding of quality criteria,« she elaborates the continuous exchange that ensures that Sander’s artistic expression is preserved in the execution, whether in campaign photography or in the design of her now-iconic perfume bottles.

A masterpiece of craftsmanship: the flacon for her fragrances Woman Pure and Man Pure from 1979, designed in collaboration with Peter Schmidt, follows a formal language inspired by modern architecture and art. Weeks of experimentation in Italian glassblowing workshops were required to render the sharp edges of the double cube unbreakable.

Her uncompromising commitment to preserving her own integrity is likely one of the reasons for Sander’s continued relevance as a designer. Integrity, she emphasizes, is all that designers, artists, and architects truly possess. She equates the loss of one’s own signature with a loss of meaning—a statement that reflects respect for cultural heritage and a deep understanding of its continuation. When asked about the relationship between artistic expression and personal growth, Sander responds: »Many find it difficult, in the face of the great, often depressing challenges, to maintain the initiative and engage their creative imagination. But we need visions to convey confidence,« Sander moves away from the actual question in her answer, but the message remains unmistakable.

A SENSUAL EXPERIENCE

When speaking of Jil Sander’s work, following a linear chronology does not seem especially fitting. This is largely because everything she creates centers on a conceptual core with a claim of timeless relevance. The urge to categorize her work is nevertheless difficult to shake off—which raises the question of whether she believes that her vision of modernity demands more explanation today than it once did?

»Explanations alone are not enough. People have to try on my designs to understand what I’m getting at. Because sensual experience is a powerful argument,« she responds matter-of-factly.

According to Sander, the aesthetic instinct is also shaped through sensory experience. A culturally stimulating environment can play a significant role in the early development of taste, she says, at the same time, she cautions against defining the concept of »good taste« too rigidly—because an overly fixed understanding can either dull the senses and intuition or sharpen them.

»Explanations achieve nothing—sensual experience is a powerful argument,« says Sander; Campaign image, 1998.

What the senses first absorb is later shaped by experience. Taste is not something rigid, but unfolds and changes with experience—if this process fails to unfold, one easily loses touch with the present. »I’m not saying that the spirit of the times is always right. Beyond formulas, there exists a sensitivity to proportions, material innovation, fresh harmonies and balances that characterizes successful design and creates new classics,« she adds critically.

REFINING CLASSICS

The designer’s most recent collaboration with the heritage brand Thonet also resonates with this sensibility—a company whose role in furniture design of the 19th and 20th centuries continues to have an impact to this day through figures such as Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe or Marcel Breuer. A cornerstone of design culture which Sander encountered as early as her school years: »The aesthetics of the Bauhaus in architecture, in objects, in graphics were very present in my youth and had a profound influence on me.«

New interpretation of Marcel Breuer’s cantilever model S 64, shot at the Jil Sander showroom in Hamburg.

In Breuer’s late-1920s tubular steel classic, she finds her own design principles in a new form and on a new scale: harmonious proportions, thoughtful three-dimensionality, understatement, and dynamic elegance. It therefore comes as little surprise that the new interpretation for the JS. THONET Signature Collection seems more like a visually contemporary homage to Breuer’s iconic design. »His construction and basic structure are convincing and deserve a contemporary appreciation,« says Sander. Following the principle »why fix something when it’s not broken,« she focuses on subtle refinement. The cantilever chair looks as if it has only been thoroughly polished, says Sander—despite the redesign, it is immediately recognizable. Jil Sander references the lacquer of Steinway grand pianos, the leather upholstery of elegant English cars and the matte nickel silver of architectural elements—a metal alloy she had previously used in the interior design of her flagship stores—as sources of inspiration for her new interpretation of the S 64 model.

ON A LARGE SCALE

The importance Sander places on technology, proportion and the creative use of three-dimensionality not only informs this collaboration, but also initially drew her to architecture. For the design of her first flagship store at 50 Avenue Montaigne in Paris in 1993, she commissioned the American architect Michael Gabellini. The concept, developed in close collaboration with Sander, precisely reflected her ideas on light, proportion, and materiality and set new standards for the relationship between fashion and space.

The Jil Sander flagship store in London.

In the exhibition catalogue »Jil Sander. Present«, curated by Matthias Werner K, it reads: »When designing the interior, Jil Sander resists the temptation to completely dissolve emptiness.« In this context, we ask about the importance she places on the purely visual experience of a space:

»I have great respect for spaces experienced primarily through their visual presence in a memorable way and that you don’t forget. They intensify our sense of being alive and make architecture an art form in its own right.«

She sees emptiness in the room as an opportunity—and one senses the fearlessness with which Sander has consistently approached new possibilities—as a space for self-assured individuality. A defining feature of the interior design are the »flying walls« and the atmospheric lighting inspired by the work of the artist James Turrell, resulting in a floating, almost immaterial spatial effect. Matthias Werner K remarks: »For Jil Sander, shaping the walls through varying degrees of brightness is more fascinating than an expressive play of light and shadow.« He views the gentleness of light as a medium of light as ideally suited to conveying the designer’s intentions.

ABSENCE AS A MESSAGE

The idea of structuring through light also arises in our interview—but in connection with art. One of the earliest lasting impressions on her came from the work of the painter Robert Ryman (1930 – 2019), says Sander. He is best known for his largely monochrome, restrained paintings, which vary subtly in texture, technique and support material and create structured surfaces through the irregular application of paint, making the presence of light tangible. »His white paintings confirmed my skepticism about strong colors. He has shown that you can also paint white on white without being boring.« She understands that effect does not require a pronounced graphic rhythm.

A video installation created for the exhibition »Jil Sander. Present« at the Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt (2017/18), offers a poetic glimpse behind the private garden walls of Jil Sander’s home on Lake Plön, not far from her hometown. Here, nature is presented as an intuitive space that renders the present moment—so central to the designer—more tangible.

It is the interplay of light and shadow that makes a space compelling for Sander—she even draws parallels between successful spaces and a garden. »Even in inspiring spaces, nature can be felt through its sense of proportion and, not least, through the direction of light and shadow,« she observes. Sander’s private garden on Lake Plön in northern Germany can be seen as a contemporary interpretation of the traditional English garden of Sissinghurst Castle in Kent—the historic garden created from 1930 onward by writer Vita Sackville-West. A video installation created for the exhibition »Jil Sander. Present« at the MAK – Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, offers a poetic glimpse behind the garden walls. Here, nature appears as an intuitive space that renders the present moment—so central to Sander—more tangible.

For Sander, the interplay of light and shadow gives a space its appeal, and she draws parallels between successful spaces and gardens, where nature becomes tangible through proportion and the use of light. Her private garden can be read as a contemporary interpretation of the garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent.

The exhibition catalogue accompanying the show contains the following description: »In an English-style landscape, there are four square rooms, framed by hedges. One is dedicated to roses, one to an apple orchard, the next to berry bushes, plants for cutting, and a kitchen garden. But the fourth room remained empty: a square lawn—Jil Sander’s homage to the cultivation of emptiness in East Asian traditions, which finds its most pronounced expression in Zen temple gardens. These austere, spiritual spaces made of rough stones, gravel, and moss are dedicated to meditation. Far removed from Western notions of paradise, they are intended to foster an acclimatization to nothingness.« Against this backdrop, it may be surprising when she explains in our conversation that any worldview is, by definition, a limitation—and she is therefore reluctant to commit to it. She qualifies this idea with a personal distinction:

»When I sometimes recognize aspects of myself in Zen thought or even in astrological ideas, it is something playful, and I forget it immediately. But I subscribe to the gentleness valued across many spiritual traditions.«

PRESENT

Jil Sander’s »worldview« seems to have always aligned with an open system of possibilities—worldviews are provisional, certainties fleeting, and theories vulnerable. Her work, often described as timeless, as it moves within her and works through her—reflected, present, open to the new. To engage with this work meaningfully, it requires intellectual flexibility—the willingness to make conceptual and mental leaps through times, contexts, and meanings; after all, we have encountered her work in its numerous aspects for almost six decades, again and again on new levels—always on equal terms with the present. At the end of our interview, she briefly engages in a thought experiment, which she frames as a playful possibility rather than a certainty:

»Perhaps time does not move linearly or in circles, but as a spiral. We do not know where it leads.«

COVERSTORY CHAPTER №XII »SIMPLICITY« — SUMMER 2025

While brands used to define themselves primarily through technical features, function, or price, strategic differentiation is now increasingly shifting to the design level. Design has increasingly become the decisive factor in identity formation in recent decades. That’s precisely why Chapter XIII, under the issue title »Identity«, focuses on those elements that shape identity — and on the areas of tension that can arise in the process. Contributions from Automotive, Yacht, and Interior Design, from Haute Horlogerie, Architecture, and Art show how diverse questions of identity and design can be addressed.

There are moments you’d like to experience as a silent observer. For example, that moment when the board, marketing, technology, and design discuss the future of a brand. Three of them surprisingly quickly agree—namely, that the designer’s drafts can’t work that way: too daring for the market and target group, too expensive to implement, too far removed from the established brand identity. And, as always, the engineer objects that the whole thing is neither technically nor physically sensible or feasible anyway. Four disciplines, four realities, one common product. But if it succeeds in intelligently combining those different perspectives—preferably by trusting the design perspective more than usual—that’s exactly where that clear brand identity emerges that consumers later take for granted.

Of course, this picture is greatly simplified, but it refers to a development that has fundamentally changed the relationship between strategy, technology, and design in many industries—and sometimes harbors potential for conflict. While brand identity used to be defined primarily by technical features, function, or price, the strategy is now shifting much more strongly to the design level. In recent decades, design has increasingly become the decisive factor in the identity formation of brands. And last but not least, that’s why »Identity« is also an extremely exciting issue topic for a design magazine like Chapter.

The fact that design is thus assuming a responsibility that was long not foreseen in classic corporate logics is also taken up by Mobility Design Professor and Chapter author Lutz Fügener in his essay on the »Art of Distinction« (from page 90). Using the example of the automotive industry, he describes how this development can sometimes even trigger »traumatic states« in a CEO with an engineering background: »Decisions worth billions suddenly depend on design concepts that can neither be reliably predicted nor captured in tables.«

Author Sarah Wetzlmayr also addresses areas of tension in automotive design in her article »Trademark « (from page 48), albeit from a different perspective. In conversation with leading designers such as Marek Reichman (Aston Martin) or Domagoj Dukec (Rolls-Royce), she discusses how strongly brands define themselves, for example, through recognizable form codes and what tensions arise when tradition, market logic, and design innovation collide. The central question here is when an element represents an iconic »house constant« and when it becomes a dogma or even a design burden.

A related principle is evident when looking at watch design (from page 74). Here, too, identity is created through an interplay of design details cultivated over decades, technical feasibility, and innovation. The world of haute horlogerie makes it clear how much even the smallest design constants, such as hand shapes, bezel geometries, or screws that once arose for functional reasons, shape brand identities today.

Prof. Dr. Andreas K. Vetter deals with a completely different aspect in the relationship between identity and design in his essay »Effective Spaces« (from page 58). He shows that architecture does not derive its effect exclusively from itself, but only develops identity in the interplay of use, expectation, and interpretation. Spaces have no fixed meaning; they become projection surfaces on which social ideas and personal experiences are inscribed.

An interplay between perception and setting can also be found in our cover story on Colin King (from page 28). One might be tempted to dismiss his work as decorating at a high level, but this impression is surprisingly short-sighted upon closer inspection. Behind King’s internationally sought-after work as an interior stylist are clear conceptual lines and a fine sense of how meaning can be created through minimal shifts. His arrangements show that identity often arises where it seems barely visible: in the detail, in the omission, and in the art of subtly changing spaces.

The museum in progress also changes spaces and contexts: away from the museum, into the public and media space. The artistic interventions (from page 122), which have been an integral part of every Chapter issue since last year, this time show works by Romuald Hazoumè and unpublished works by Marina Faust. Both illuminate identity from an artistic perspective: Hazoumè through his heads formed from »Bidons«, which address migration, globalization, and postcolonial reality. Marina Faust through her portraits, which understand identity as something composite, changeable, and never complete.

And the fact that questions of design and identity can be dealt with from automotive design to interior and watch design to architecture and artistic intervention shows above all one thing: that diverse but clear identity for which Chapter stands.

For over a century, Montblanc has cultivated a clearly defined brand image, closely associated with concepts such as artisanal precision, material quality, and reliability. The manufacturer, founded in Hamburg in 1906 as »Simplo Filler Pen Co. Max Koch«, focused from the outset on the production of high-quality writing instruments, with the fountain pen as its central product. The »Meisterstück« line, introduced in 1924, became particularly influential — to this day the epitome of the highest manufacturing standards and an uncompromising promise of quality. In our »Repro« section, we showcase historical Montblanc advertising motifs that visually articulated this claim early on.

1910

1919

To underscore this claim of the company, which today also offers watches, jewelry, and leather goods, among other things, Montblanc has always relied on the targeted use of symbolism and storytelling. This begins with the choice of brand name and logo: The reference to the highest mountain in the Alps is intended to symbolize the outstanding quality of the products, while the white star emblem refers to the six snow-capped peaks of the Alpine massif. Furthermore, the number 4810, a reminiscence of the officially measured altitude of Mont Blanc, is engraved on every Meisterstück nib. The company’s clear positioning also found expression in its advertising. Already in the early years of the 20th century, initial campaigns helped establish Montblanc as an internationally renowned manufacturer of exclusive writing instruments and as the symbol of cultivated writing culture. However, the writing instruments were not presented as classic luxury objects, but — figuratively and literally — as outstanding utilitarian objects, an attitude that Montblanc continues in its communication to this day.

1925

1935

In the 1920s, the characteristic brand style was particularly shaped by the influential graphic designer Grete Gross, who, as head of the newly established advertising department, fundamentally shaped the brand’s entire visual identity. During her era, a holistic concept for Montblanc’s visual communication was created, which included advertisements, packaging, and store design, among other things. Her style was characterized primarily by stylized forms, dynamic layouts, and bold typography. The advertising motifs designed by Gross emphasized clarity and geometry, combining these with progressive visual ideas for the era: The writing instrument presented as the »King of Fountain Pens« with a crown or diagonally across the image, with a gold-colored ribbon as a »distinction bearer« (»The Quality Fountain Pen«).

1973

1990

In the following decades, the visual language also moved between graphic intensification, functional representation, and occasionally striking typography — yet the tone remained restrained, at times almost documentary. Thus, advertising motifs from some eras, with their reduced design and focus on function, materiality, and artisanal quality, appear almost like non-fiction. For even as Montblanc increasingly established itself as one of the world’s leading luxury brands — the advertising messages formulated no overarching promises and rarely argued about social status. Instead, communication remains close to the product and the underlying highest quality standards to this day. One could attest: What endures needs no effusive narrative.

ARTICLE FIRST PUBLISHED IN CHAPTER №XII »SIMPLICITY« — SUMMER 2025

ORDER NEW ISSUE HERE.

Extensive reports, portraits and essays address, among other things, the question of how contemporary designers master the balancing act between the reduction of the visible and simultaneous accessibility—between creative clarity and hidden complexity; between what we perceive as simple and what it really is. Because what is conceived and advertised as aesthetic reduction often turns out to be mere creative vanity. Because simplicity is not a simple question of leaving things out or making them disappear.

Chapter author Lutz Fügener describes it in his article for this issue as a kind of paradox of our everyday lives: »What is sold as simplification, we often have to buy with increased complexity.« The supposed reduction and promise of simplicity all too often fails in practice—although in this day and age of rapidly advancing technical complexity, it would be more necessary than ever to make technologically sophisticated products in particular appear as clear as possible so that users retain the impression that they have everything under control.

Andreas K. Vetter also approaches this multi-layered issue from a similar perspective: in his essay »Artefakt«, in which he sheds light on historical, artistic and philosophical aspects of »omission«, he shows that reduction does not necessarily lead to lightness. What disappears creates gaps—not only functional, but also cultural, sometimes even emotional ones. Simplification demands our attention anew—and sometimes what remains requires more confrontation than what has been removed.

However, we also draw particular attention to another level of simplicity: design that we experience as successful simplicity is often the result of highly complex systems that are active in the background but intelligently integrated. It is an »art of making things disappear«: technology is concealed until it no longer seems to be there—and this is precisely what makes the feeling of elegance and lightness possible in the first place.

The world of superyachts demonstrates this game very impressively: in the article »Leise Wellen schlagen« (»Quietly making waves«), Chapter author Sarah Wetzlmayr shows the effort that goes into creating visual silence on modern luxury yachts. Doors that blend silently into wall panels, motors that are barely audible, operating elements that dissolve into material surfaces—everything blends into an orchestrated silence. Yet beneath the elegant surfaces and visual lightness lies a highly complex technosphere. Felix Kilbertus, CCO of Pininfarina (and recently a very interesting interviewee in our podcast Chapter Talks) in our interview: for him, the somewhat archaic Italian term »sprezzatura« best describes the idea of that effortless grace—the art of making something difficult look easy or maintaining a nonchalant demeanor when carrying out complex tasks.

The situation is similar in the world of haute horlogerie, where external minimalism and technical complexity are not mutually exclusive. The simply designed watch that appears quietly on the wrist often conceals a highly complicated inner life. Minimalism and maximalism are therefore by no means mutually exclusive in watchmaking, even if the former is currently celebrating a comeback in terms of design, as our author Max Montre attests.

For this issue’s cover story, we have been able to engage a personality whose influence on the understanding of design reduction and contemporary luxury can hardly be overestimated: Jil Sander. As a German pioneer of a minimalist understanding of luxury and an icon of creative reduction, Sander’s work continues to shape the international discourse on reduction, materiality and the beauty of simplicity—far beyond fashion. »Simplicity«, as became clear in the conversation between Chapter Creative Director Dzenana Mujadzic and Jil Sander, is not an aesthetic concept based on a replicable formula, but for her it’s the result of an ever-changing creative courage and the conviction that the essential does not need to be explained—but proves itself in use.

The current issue is available at bookstores and magazine retailers across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and can also be ordered directly from our ONLINE STORE. As always, CHAPTER is also stocked by selected partners in the luxury hospitality sector, airport lounges, galleries and showrooms.

With their design studio EBUR, founded in 2020, Racha Gutierrez and Dahlia Hojeij Deleuze reflect on their creative identity. Growing up in Côte d’Ivoire, their multicultural roots and Parisian education come together to create a multi-faceted style that combines French artistry with oriental craftsmanship, becoming an expression of their cultural journey and very personal design vision.

Chapter The name of your studio, EBUR, means ivory in Latin. Why did you choose this name?

EBUR We both grew up in Côte d’Ivoire and produced our first pieces there. Some of our work is undeniably influenced by them, in terms of shapes, symbols, materials… It was a way for us to pay tribute to the country of our births.

Le Cabanon, 2022
Private residence
Assinie, Côte d’Ivoire

Chapter How do different cultural influences and different eras shape the unique objects and spaces you create at EBUR, and what role does your personal background play in this?

EBUR Growing up in different places, having a multicultural background between the Middle East, West Africa, and Europe, all this mixed with our studies in architecture school in Paris, where we have lived for a long time now, has very organically created our style. EBUR’s DNA also includes many influences from French Decorative Arts, a pronounced taste for the Venetian style of the 17th and 18th centuries, and for Oriental craftsmanship in general… This background also influences the way we work, meaning we are always trying to stay open to new discoveries to bring to our projects and travel in every sense of the word.

Marinella Apartment, 2023
Private residence
Nice, France

Chapter What significance does craftsmanship hold for your overall approach?

EBUR From the beginning, we decided to work with specialized craftsmen, often family-run, taking care to select workshops according to their specialties. We have favored artisanal production over industrial production, accepting the limits of our collaborators and adapting to their way of working and their savoir-faire. We design and do lots of research for the pieces in our collections, but the dialog with the craftsmen is also essential for all our creations.

Marinella Aparment, 2023
Private residence
Nice, France

Chapter Working together as a team, in which areas of collaboration do your individual approaches and tastes come to the fore the most?

EBUR Fortunately, we have a mutual love of materials and ornament, which is always apparent in each project, blending French savoir-faire with Oriental influences and always being on the lookout for new references. Through these blends, we both aim to enrich our creations, giving them a singular dimension. We prefer natural materials, which bring warmth and authenticity to each project, and we also like to play with textures, such as velvet and taffeta, which are at the heart of our shared aesthetic.

FIRST PUBLISHED IN CHAPTER №XI »TASTEMAKERS« — WINTER 2024/25

The term designer is too narrow to do justice to Daniel Simon. As a visionary multi-talent, he not only inspires the shapes of exclusive boutique sports cars, but also Hollywood’s wildest cinematic fantasies. The German moves like a somnambulist between the realms of realism and fiction. He narrates, invents, doubts and dreams. With this free spirit, we talk about the obvious – such as formal language. About the unavoidable—like artificial intelligence. And the surprising—such as time, distinction and longevity.

Daniel Simon is primarily attracted by contrasts. He tracks them down. Not always on purpose, but with absolute accuracy. Then he devotes all his attention to them. And unites what is often mutually exclusive. Past and future, for example. Or function and form. The clever moderation of this dialectic, which creates friction, makes stories exciting and things come alive, is perhaps his greatest talent—alongside his obvious talent for outlining the contours of an entire galaxy with just a few pencil strokes.
He achieved his international breakthrough in 2007 with the overwhelmingly detailed illustrated book Cosmic Motors, after studying transportation design in Pforzheim and designing concept cars for Volkswagen and Bugatti for several years. However, the automotive industry was and is just one of the 47-year-old’s playing fields, and he is passionate about questioning everything. This is how he became Hollywood’s favorite utopian overnight in 2013. Blockbusters such as »Tron: Legacy«, »Oblivion« or »Top Gun: Maverick« visibly benefit from his creativity, which creates more than cinematic superficiality.

Tron: Legacy Hero Light Cycle, 2010

Cosmic Motors already makes this clear. Daniel retreated to Brazil for two years in the mid-2000s to create this utopian work in the spirit of his role model Syd Mead. »Syd or Harley Earl had a big influence on me«, he still says today. The fictional world of Cosmic Motors revolves around vehicles from a fantastic galaxy that are a mixture of de-militarized fighter jets and racing and luxury cars inspired by the breath of the past. But it is not only the content of the book that is remarkable, but also its form. As a reader, you can really feel how the ideas came to paper, from the first draft to the final artwork to the digital rendering. »The play with timelines, i.e. the blending of past, present and future, is totally fascinating for me. What-if mind games are like a drug for me. This creates spaces without rules and alternative worlds that don’t even seem that impossible given the infinity of the cosmos.«

Time, it quickly becomes clear, is a major theme in Daniel’s oeuvre. His second book, The Timeless Racer even has the theme in its title and is dedicated to a time-traveling racing driver who commutes between the years 1916 and 2615. »I am fascinated by the thought of what will become of racing teams or traditional brands in the distant future when they look back not just a few decades, but entire centuries. What would a Porsche collection look like in the year 2600?«

For Daniel, these are not questions driven by materialism. He only asks them because for him they always involve people. He goes to great lengths to create elaborate backstories that inevitably raise the question of how much we as subjects cling to the past. Legacies, according to Daniel, can also be a burden. »References are important. But it does bother me how much history we have to live with. The design library and the amount of unspoken guidelines is enormous. Only a few car manufacturers are exempt from this, Koenigsegg for example.« Mass manufacturers are inevitably more committed to the past. The convinced enthusiast, who sees mobility as an uplifting form of existence, is aware of these constraints, but nevertheless questions every convention: »At a motor show in the 1920s, there was no reference to the past. The question of looking back did not even arise.« Today, the design of major brands always carries the baggage of the past with it, especially in terms of design.

The Timeless Racer Masucci X-7A

The mass market has thus been robbed of a large part of its revolutionary power. As an example, Daniel cites BMW‘s kidney grille, whose actual function as a radiator opening has been obsolete for decades, but is indispensable for the brand’s recognition value. An implicit prevention of radical new beginnings—and an abstraction of the origin, to the point of absurdity. It is clear that creative courage seems rare for designers who think far beyond normal boundaries. »Renault had a progressive design in the early 2000s that I really liked—with Vel Satis or Avantime. Economically, however, it was a disaster; the masses found these cars rather challenging.« You begin to understand why Daniel is not head of design at Volkswagen today, but instead works for Singer, for example, where small series of Porsche cars modified down to the last detail are produced for absolute enthusiasts. But he points out: »Even with such expensive prestige brands, sentimental buyers are the majority. It’s mostly about looking back and longing.« As a result, there is no need to reinvent everything when it comes to restomods. Daniel has therefore found his own personal niche, where he experiences creative freedom in various projects. »Many industrial designers establish themselves in a genre and are constantly looking for new forms of expression. The automotive industry is very receptive to this. I do it the other way around and have found my own individual design language. I then apply this to different genres.«

1990 Porsche 911 restored and modified by Singer Vehicle Design

His recognizable signature is an advantage in our noisy world. But it also comes with the risk of falling victim to an inner coziness or a dangerous, misunderstood sovereignty. »Routine can quickly lead you down a slippery slope.« But Daniel seems far removed from this. He designed a very real, autonomous racing car for Roborace back in 2015. »You can’t download a template. You don’t have a visual library for this product class, you can’t look anywhere to see how others do it. Such projects are the cream of the crop in vehicle design.« His Robocar was a blessing, but also a challenge. Radical design is rarely perfect straight away. »We had to massage the shape for a long time. There are unwritten rules, like a beat. You have to learn them, because the laws of aesthetics cannot simply be overridden.«

Robocar, Roborace

Anyone who creates real racing cars, Formula 1 designs or luxury sports cars, advises Elon Musk’s SpaceX, designs motorcycles for Lotus or airplanes for the movie »Top Gun« needs their own design language. For Daniel, this means: industrial elegance without too much provocation, plus genuine futurism despite tangible timelessness. »This is helpful for my work on the film, because the current zeitgeist has no place in a sci-fi movie like »Oblivion«. You want to create as much distance from the real world as possible.« As a creative craftsman, he always starts from the three-dimensional object and merges simple basic volumes into a complex whole whose original geometric forms remain legible. This creates sovereignty. »I find many other designs too loud, too tinkered with, and therefore tiring after prolonged viewing.« Paradoxically, this makes them uninteresting in the long term, says Daniel. As is so often the case, the great art lies in omission. »With simple designs, everything has to be right: Balance, surface quality, proportion. Nothing should be hidden behind anything else.«

Top Gun: Maverick Darkstar Jet, 2022

The vehicles in Cosmic Motors or The Timeless Racer are up to the task. And they look amazingly functional—just like his movie vehicles. »There’s a reason for that«, says Daniel. A future in which everything is wireless and completely digital would not be visually entertaining. »When it comes to certain fantasy machines, I’m a fan of real switches, screws and rivets.« He gives an example: »The Bubbleship in »Oblivion« stands for a very special feeling in the movie—it has to convey that. If an actor has to flee from a dicey situation and has nothing to do, there’s no drama. That’s why we gave the spaceship classic toggle switches for a key scene—and not a touch screen, which would be closer. That’s a creative decision.«
Director Joseph Kosinski has relied on Daniel’s talents for many years. The current »Top Gun« remake with Tom Cruise at the wheel of the Darkstar Jets was once again an absolute dream job for Daniel. Even if the discourse with a fictional world means hard work and a lot of research in the industry. »It’s the best part of my job, reading into new industries and opening new doors.« Given the many meta-levels in art, it’s surprising how analytical he is, tracing the mechanics of our world. »I love airplanes and their design, but I immediately asked myself: How do we approach this now? The design has to be worthy of a blockbuster, but also impress professionals—and not confuse the average moviegoer. A balancing act.«

Hollywood’s Oblivion Bubbleship, 2013

In the case of »Top Gun: Maverick«, Daniel worked closely with Lockheed’s research department. He took the SR-71 Blackbird as his model—still the fastest airplane in the world today—and then embarked on his typical mental journey through time. What, he asked himself, would the Lockheed engineers from the 1960s be doing today? It’s a role play, very similar to method acting. It is precisely this approach that makes Daniel’s work so authentic, detailed and coherent.

What’s more, even as a boy he scribbled cars on the back of technical drawings. They were the documents of his father, who worked as an engineer. The family lived on the Baltic Sea in the GDR in the 1980s. The icons of those years were Ferrari Testarossa or Lamborghini Countach. But Daniel didn’t paint any specific brands, just »visions of tin cans making noise and thundering off somewhere«. He would certainly have become a brilliant engineer. Today, Daniel lives in Florida with his wife and daughter and designs for international clients, quite a few of whom remain a secret. The fact that he found his dream job is down to chance: As a 15-year-old, he read about the profession of vehicle designer in a car magazine while getting bread rolls. Until then, this world had been completely hidden from him. He still owns the newspaper today, which underlines his romantic inclination, which also flows into his work. He is a sentimental futurist, without a doubt. And he is aware of the privilege of engaging in an activity so well aligned with his talents. Perhaps the involuntary reinvention of his person—largely decoupled from his German origins and his supposed predestination as a car designer—has also helped him to maintain a very special freedom of spirit. Life in the USA is certainly conducive to this. Unlike in Europe, Daniel is not confronted with his past on a daily basis. Instead, he is shaped by unstoppable progress. He grew up without the internet, had his first home computer as a teenager, was studying when Photoshop was released and was working his first jobs while Google Images and YouTube were taking off. He sees this radical change as great, but accidental luck: »As a student, it took me a whole year to find out which pen certain designers were working with. Today, there are 16-year-olds who are super-talented in illustration techniques. The internet and tutorials are changing the way creative minds develop. The discovery process has shrunk from years to minutes. That has consequences.« Daniel leaves it open which ones.

Daniel Simon — a visionary all-rounder

His opinion on the disruptive power of digital technologies and artificial intelligence in particular changes on a weekly basis, he confirms. »Basically, I do have extreme reservations.« He by no means rules out the positive impact of technological progress on our collective society. »However, we are already insidiously yet inexorably dependent on algorithms and are constantly connected to networked devices. The matrix is real!« Nevertheless, Daniel works intensively with AI design software. »Midjourney and Vizcom are unbelievable, they seemed to come out of nowhere. But these are just harmless creative examples. Nobody can imagine where we will be in ten years’ time. Especially as we have great difficulties with exponential growth. People tend to be linear.« He is deeply surprised at how easily people are taken in and distracted by the playful element of artificial intelligence.
Because the extent of the threat is unforeseeable. And already real today. Artists rightly feel threatened by AI. »We believe we can create things that no one has ever seen before. That’s arrogant! Because all forms have actually already been invented. So we are more likely to mix what already exists. Only the possible combinations are infinite. So designers are curators, DJs so to speak. How we design the mixing process is what makes us unique.« Daniel is convinced that the only thing that sets us apart from AI and its brute force design is our inability to achieve astronomical computing power—in other words, a deficit.

DSX Mistral Concept Helicopter

»A computer makes art? How laughable! A computer writes a screenplay? What the hell! What is art?«, he asks. His answer: In art, much cannot be quantified—or judged without bias. In design, it can. That is where the difference lies. »Therefore, it is conceivable that in the future we will prefer to rely on the work of human curators—if we can afford to. However, AI will then flood the market of the lower consumer classes. Which will further separate the elite. This theory can also be applied to car design.«
A world with even more demarcation and even more tensions does not seem to be in his interest. Daniel relies on humanity where he can afford it. It is his commandment of creative existentialism. For him, the creative process has a high quality in its lengthiness, its complexity and the inherent risk of failure. Nevertheless, he knows that AI will revolutionize vehicle design, which is extremely resource-intensive. Car manufacturers would certainly not miss out on this savings potential. The believer in the future sees too much temptation in the sweet fruit of artificial intelligence.
He recently read a comment by author Laura Preston, who described how an AI bot was meant to make her work easier—but instead tempted her to start thinking like a bot herself. The bot started to train her. Daniel sees a familiar and recurring pattern in this feedback loop, which fatally sidelines the human element: »Our efforts to maximize likes mean that virtually all content looks the same. The machine has decided what is cool. And the algorithm lulls us into believing that we are creative. That sums up my concerns about AI very well.«

Sketch Robocar, Roborace

As a true utopian, Daniel therefore takes a decidedly critical view of innovations. In his opinion, many trends are not subjected to sufficient scrutiny. In addition, capitalism has discovered design as a sales tool and is squeezing every last drop out of it. A strong opinion from someone whose business thrives on progress. But someone like Daniel can afford to criticize the system from within. He makes his point: »We don’t really need the amount of new vehicles and extremely short model cycles. That drives me crazy. This inherent obsolescence is ethically indefensible. My work is directed against this wastefulness every second.« But he also knows that our world is complex and his voice is very quiet. As a designer, he nevertheless pleads for more longevity. His simple and smart shapes have a deeper message. »I have long since withdrawn from the vortex of more and more. It’s a hamster wheel that can be very tiring for a creative mind.«

Robocar, Roborace

The examination of Daniel’s design thus reveals a subliminal agenda. It is personal expression, bold speculation and imaginative dreaming. But it is also a reflection on social responsibility. He clearly distances himself from a political interpretation, but admits: »Economy, science and our coexistence do play a role.« The man for whom utopias are part of everyday life is shocked, for example, »by how much dystopias fascinate the masses. The previews at the movies are almost all carnage—with shallow heroes who save the world«. So his job in entertainment is definitely fraught with conflict—philosophically and very practically.
Nevertheless, he has no doubts about his work. He simply sees himself as having a great responsibility. »I do wonder what I will look back on one day. What will people remember about me and my work? A question that AI certainly doesn’t reflect on.«

PUBLISHED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN CHAPTER №IX »WORK In PROGRESS« — WINTER 2023/24

Since its founding in London in 1905 by Hans Wilsdorf and its subsequent establishment in Geneva, Rolex has continuously set the standard for watchmaking by combining technical excellence, masterful precision, and innovative technology. The designs of many models that have become icons—just think of the Datejust or Submariner—have also had a significant and lasting impact on the entire watch industry time and time again. In our »Repro« series, we present some of the most legendary Rolex vintage ads of the last 100 years.

Of course, it is much more than just the outstanding quality of the products that has made Rolex a status symbol, the epitome of prestige, luxury and quite simply a chronometric legend. The almost mystical brand aura is due in particular to the perfectly orchestrated play with desirability, scarcity and an always reserved, strategically meticulous handling of information on internal company matters. Rolex is also less loud but all the more sustainable when it comes to supporting important cultural institutions, events and creative people, particularly in the fields of architecture, film and music. With the Perpetual Arts Initiative, the brand supports leading cultural venues and artists, while the mentoring program promotes up-and-coming talent and is often committed to »passing on knowledge and craftsmanship from one generation to the next« without much media coverage.

1927

In contrast, the Geneva watch manufacturer has always been much more confident and visually assertive in its public advertising—the subjects conveyed strong messages and were very specifically tailored to the zeitgeist, aesthetic trends and social developments of the respective eras. The first widely publicized advertisements of the 1920s, when Rolex launched the first waterproof chronometer, the Oyster, emphasized robustness and reliability, even under extreme conditions. And, of course, the famous example of Mercedes Gleitze, the first British woman to swim across the English Channel in 1927, wearing a Rolex Oyster.

1955

1957

The 1950s saw the launch of the Explorer  campaign, inspired by the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953, during which Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay wore a Rolex. Correspondingly, the brand staged itself as a reliable companion for great adventures, targeting the aspiring bourgeois society that was striving for success, adventure and individualism.

1959

1963

Rolex advertising motifs from the 1960s and 1970s also focused on protagonists from professions that operate with technical excellence and the highest level of professionalism—professional divers, pilots and racing drivers. Iconic motifs of the GMT Master  or Submariner showed the watches in a time of technological progress as precise and powerful tools favored by professionals.

1965

1967

As status symbols became increasingly important in society in the 1980s, Rolex also opted for much more opulent and luxurious motifs that portrayed watches as the insignia of success. The advertising messages emphasized the luxurious character of the watches and Rolex positioned itself as the choice of the elite. In particular, the Rolex Day-Date, also known as the »presidential watch«, took center stage.

1997

2005

To this day, both the highest technical precision, durability and the well-cultivated image as a luxury watch for the elite remain an integral part of the advertising image, but Rolex is increasingly emphasizing its role as a traditional company and highlighting values such as longevity, environmental awareness and its immensely strong links with art and culture. This flexibility and simultaneous steadfastness in communication, as well as the skillful play with discreet restraint and self-confident opulence, continues to be part of the fascination of Rolex—one of the world’s most impressive brands that will surely continue to inspire new generations of watch aficionados.

»REPRO 8 – The most iconic Rolex vintage ads« was FIRST PUBLISHED IN CHAPTER №XI »TASTEMAKERS«—WINTER 2024/25

At first glance, the name of the contemporary design gallery Béton Brut in London gives a static impression, but it actually stands for an imperfect rawness that serves as a symbolic starting point for founder Sophie Pearce, from which she brings spaces into clear form and function with intention and instinct—one of the most important pillars of her approach.

Chapter What are the origins of Béton Brut, and how has the gallery’s philosophy evolved since its founding in 2013?

Sophie Pearce I co-founded Béton Brut in 2013 with a desire to present vintage in a way that felt fresh and intentional. Over a decade ago we were at the peak of midcentury mania—lots of teak and rosewood—and that kind of offering had become intrinsically linked with the image of a »vintage dealer«. Though I also started with modernism, I was trying to buy pieces around its margins—Dutch De Stijl, Finnish modern—and curate them in a unified aesthetic more akin to a fashion brand. As such, as my tastes evolve and the subgenres I collect have changed, the brand remains recognizably »Béton Brut«. So while I now have works of 1930s functionalism and art deco intermixing with 1970s Italian and 1980s French design, there are key aesthetic signatures that endure: Sculptural silhouettes, a balance of rational and organic, with interplays in texture and scale, set in a monochromatic palette.

Chapter In what ways does the name »Béton Brut« reflect its curation and aesthetics?

Sophie Pearce Béton Brut comes from the concrete finish used in modernist architecture. It is left »unfinished« after it’s cast, so there are seams in the surface from the formwork. It feels representative of the collection somehow—rational and honest, with this sense of organicism and past life. We wanted a strong name that gave a nod to the vintage side of the business, but didn’t limit us to it because we are also a contemporary design gallery and offer prop hire. In the broadest sense, our aesthetic will always be informed by the principles of modernism. While I seek patina, I’m fundamentally drawn to clean and streamlined forms, strong geometries, neutral shades and of course function.

Chapter In your opinion, what makes a space interesting?

Sophie Pearce Fundamentally I think it’s about contrast and a curiosity for unexpected combinations. There are so many ways to approach this as a concept. Plays on scale—so thinking about something quite oversized or totemic versus a really precious small piece or a fine detail. You can think about lightness versus darkness, and the way a piece can shift in spirit based on the way it’s lit or what other tones are nearby. Contrasting textures is often a good place to start. There’s so much richness in the juxtaposition of a long-pile mohair with, say, a pale gloss lacquer or paper lamp. Patina is often a shortcut to interest. The accumulated character of a piece over time can act as a wonderful anchor for a scheme or bring another dimension to something that’s otherwise quite muted or rationalist.

Chapter How would you describe your own taste and what role does instinct play in forming such a thing as »personal taste«?

Sophie Pearce In the simplest terms I’m particularly drawn by strong sculptural forms, which are often grounded in minimalism. Though I don’t restrict the collection to modernism as a design movement or fixed era, it’s definitely rooted in those guiding principles. Instinct has always been a key tenet of my approach. Instinct is taste. Generally, I’m an »ask questions later« kind of dealer. If I see something I love, that I would present in my real or imagined home, then my boxes are ticked. I then go down the rabbit hole, finding out everything I can about the piece and designer. I also think instinct comes from accumulation. A steady accumulation of visual references in your mind’s eye over time that drive your autonomic response to a work in the future. Taste is therefore having eyes on things, again and again.

FIRST PUBLISHED IN CHAPTER №XI »TASTEMAKERS« — WINTER 2024/25

The element silicon, indispensable in the manufacture of high-tech components in the computer industry, has also conquered the world of watches in the last twenty years or so. The semi-metal has opened up unimagined possibilities that have taken the mechanical watch to a whole new level and shaken up centuries-old principles.

They were clearly ahead of their time and at the same time heralded a new era: Rolf Schnyder, then owner of the watch brand Ulysse Nardin, and the watchmaker Ludwig Oechslin. In 2001, the ingenious team presented a wild creation in the midst of a conservative watch world full of conventions, one that managed without a dial, hands or crown. It was clear to Schnyder that there was only one name for this creation: Freak. Because the timepiece stood out from the crowd of watches due to its visual and technical characteristics (and still does today)—an iconoclastic act of watchmaking audacity. Its design stems from the idea of a timepiece that is also a kinetic sculpture whose main purpose is to convey an emotional, artistic expression of time.

The Freak went its own way in terms of design: you won’t find conventional hands, dial or crown here.

The watch, whose design seemed to be straight out of a science fiction movie, was groundbreaking in two respects. Firstly, the Freak  was the first watch ever in which the movement rotates to indicate the time. The mainspring barrel, the tank of the watch in which the powerful mainspring is located, turns once every twelve hours. It is connected to a central gear wheel that drives the bridge with the gear train around the circumference of the dial at one revolution per hour—the so-called flying one-hour carousel. The focus was on the completely new escapement invented by Ludwig Oechslin, a double-wheel movement with direct drive, which, like the balance spring and the balance wheel, is attached to the end of the bridge. The system pulsates before the viewer’s eyes like a beating heart.

ANOTHER WORLD PREMIERE

When you look at this heart, you notice that it shimmers blue-violet. Which leads to the second groundbreaking point: For the first time, a material was used that had previously played no role in watchmaking and was known to a wider public at best from computer chip production—silicon. Two pin-sized wheels of the new escapement were made of this material. Rolf Schnyder, who died in 2011, commented: »I needed something that would allow me to outperform the competition and take a leading role in the new technology. When I saw silicon and realized its true potential for watchmaking, I knew that this was our chance.«

The Freak’s work also serves to indicate the time.

What potential are we talking about? As an element of the carbon group, abbreviation Si, atomic number 14, the material is strong yet flexible, light, rust-free, highly durable and resistant to temperature fluctuations, which have a strong influence on the accuracy of the watch. In addition, silicon parts do not require lubrication in order to function smoothly. It is therefore an ideal material, especially when it comes to the modern godsend of watchmaking: magnetism. After all, it is responsible for more than 90 percent of service problems today. If a conventional mechanical watch is exposed to a magnetic source, this changes the rhythm of the movement, the watch goes wrong and has to go to the workshop.

MAKE IT BEAT

Experts and competitors initially reacted rather cautiously to this material innovation. It was only when Ulysse Nardin launched the first silicon balance spring shortly afterwards that things started to move. Major players such as Rolex, Patek Philippe and the Swatch Group quickly set about catching up. But more on that later.

Patek Philippe, Aquanaut Luce Annual Calendar Reference 5261R-001, 2023

First of all, why is so much fuss being made about this tiny component weighing just a few grams? Well, it is the balance spring that makes the heart of the watch beat. It is probably no coincidence that a giant stylized balance spring towers over the entrance to the Patek Philippe headquarters in Geneva. It is the most important part when it comes to improving the precision of mechanical timekeeping. Coiled in a spiral and significantly thinner than a human hair, it is connected to the balance wheel, contracts and expands again. The uniformity of this oscillation, also known as the frequency, ultimately ensures the accuracy of the watch.

INGENIOUS SYSTEM

Its history goes back a long way. At that time, the Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens was working on optimizing the balance-spring system and discovered that it was only possible to keep a steady beat on the timepiece with the help of a flexible spiral spring. This is because it manages to slow down the oscillation of the balance wheel by pulling it back and allowing it to swing out in the opposite direction. It is an ingenious system that the scholar developed, one whose basic principle can still be found in almost every mechanical movement today.

The Aquanaut Luce annual calendar reference 5261R-001 from Patek Philippe is equipped with a new automatic caliber whose balance spring is made of »Spiromax«. The material of choice is silicon.

Since then, many great watchmakers have contributed to the improvement of this essential component. The most famous is Abraham Louis Breguet. In 1796, he succeeded in increasing the precision of the hairspring by bending the outermost winding. The term »Breguet hairspring« can still be found today in many of the relevant technical instruction leaflets for modern watches. A few decades after Breguet, the French mathematician Eduard Philips succeeded in calculating the perfect bend of the hairspring.

PERFECT MATERIAL

The spiral itself performs hard work. It performs several hundred million oscillations a year. That takes its toll. The part is susceptible to wear and sensitive to temperature and magnetism. Despite these various external influences – vibrations and fluctuations in air pressure should also be mentioned—the oscillations of the balance wheel and balance spring should be as uniform as possible, or »isochronous«.

Rolex 1908: »Syloxi«-silicon balance spring

To ensure this, the perfect material was also considered early on. Various metal alloys are usually used today—above all the market-dominating »Nivarox« from Nivarox-FAR, part of the Swatch Group, which has provided the necessary precision and reliability since the 1930s. Albeit with some compromises.

SMOOTHLY BETTER

In principle, the story could have ended here, had it not been for the fact that 70 years after the invention of Nivarox, a small luxury watch manufacturer came around the corner with silicon, heralding a new era in mechanical watchmaking and scaring off the competition. And so the watch giants Rolex, Patek Philippe and the Swatch Group joined forces with the Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM) in Neuchâtel in an unusual alliance to develop a production process for silicon hairsprings. The microtechnologists even managed to solve a problem that even the semi-metal silicon is not immune to—temperature sensitivity. A circumstance that does not necessarily have a positive effect on the filigree structure of a spiral spring. The solution was found in the form of a thin layer of silicon oxide, which ultimately led to a significantly higher temperature resistance of the component.
Patek Philippe forged ahead and in 2006 presented its first functioning series watch with a balance spring made of monocrystalline silicon, the Reference 5350, called »Spiromax«. The manufacture launched the first escape wheel made of Silinvar, a silicon derivative, back in 2005, followed by the »Spiromax« hairspring (2006), the »Pulsomax« escapement (2008), the »Oscillomax« regulating assembly (2011) and a further optimized version of the »Spiromax« hairspring (2017). The company has remained true to the element ever since. For example, the Aquanaut Luce annual calendar reference 5261R-001, the first annual calendar in the Aquanaut collection presented at the 2023 edition of Watches & Wonders, features a new automatic caliber with a balance spring made from »Spiromax«.

1908 – 2023

Rolex also found a catchy name for the researched material, »Syloxi«. Its temperature-compensating and paramagnetic properties are used in the Syloxi hairspring. In addition, Rolex has optimized the isochronism of the hairspring and the regularity of the oscillator vibrations by means of a patented geometry developed in-house. The syloxis hairspring is manufactured entirely in-house at Rolex using a high-precision manufacturing process known as deep reactive ion etching (DRIE), which etches the components out of the silicon wafer. A process that is not only used at Rolex. The Syloxis hairspring was introduced in 2014 with the caliber 2236, the first of a new generation of Rolex movements. This caliber has a paramagnetic escapement wheel in a nickel-phosphorus alloy, which improves its resistance to magnetic fields, and an in-house developed mainspring that allows the power reserve to be increased to around 55 hours and ensures a more constant power supply to the movement.

LITTLE MIRACLE

For the quite new 1908  line, Rolex engineers developed the Calibre 7140, a completely new movement with automatic winding, two hands in the center and small seconds at the 6 o’clock position. Five patent applications were filed for this slim movement, which was developed and manufactured entirely by Rolex. Thanks to the Syloxi hairspring, the Chronergy escapement and the Paraflex anti-shock system, it has a power reserve of approximately 66 hours. It goes without saying that, as is usual with Rolex, this is an extremely precise chronometer of superlatives. The 1908, named after the year in which the brand name was officially registered in Switzerland by founder Hans Wilsdorf, does not necessarily jump out at you. With the numerals 3, 9, 12 and the small seconds at the 6 o’clock position, the 1908  reinterprets the style of the Oyster Perpetual from 1931 and gives it a modern touch. Its design is classically understated.

A completely new line: The 1908 is the first Rolex watch to feature a transparent case back that reveals the movement. This allows you to admire the beauty of the finishing of the movement – and the breathing of the »Syloxi« silicon balance spring.

If you turn the ticker over, however, you will experience a small miracle: Rolex has given the 1908 a transparent sapphire crystal case back, which is very unusual, as the movements are usually well screwed down and hidden behind a cover. But this allows you to admire the beauty of the movement’s finishes—and the breathing of the silicon balance spring.

COMPETITION LEFT BEHIND

The third in the group is still missing: Omega. The Co-Axial escapement, invented by British watchmaker George Daniels and developed by Omega, solved the age-old problem of friction, which can affect long-term accuracy, back in 1999. This special escapement reduces contact surfaces and requires less lubrication. In 2008, the Si14 hairspring for the Co-Axial escapement came into play—with all its positive properties. Further development steps followed until the Spirate system was introduced this year, a new, patent-pending silicon balance spring that enables ultra-fine rate regulation. With this innovative mechanism, Omega can now fulfill an extraordinary promise: certified precision of 0/+2 seconds per day. This puts it ahead of the competition.

THE END?

The Spirate system, part of the Co-Axial Master Chronometer Caliber 9920, can be found in the new Speedmaster Super Racing. The model is a nod to the Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra  from 2013, which impressed with its magnetic resistance of up to 15,000 gauss. In any case, it is also thanks to the market power of the Swatch Group that ordinary earners can also enjoy the benefits of silicon. Components can also be found in watches from Tissot and Mido, among others, brands that are priced in the »entry-level segment«.

Speedmaster Super Racing from Omega: its system, christened »Spirate«, revolves around a new, patent-pending silicon balance spring that enables ultra-fine rate regulation.

If you ask whether the end of the line has finally been reached in this area, the answer is no. In recent years, two brands have shown that it is possible to go one step further with silicon. So far that purists fear that the creations may no longer have anything to do with classic mechanical watches. Silicon components had already been accepted somehow, but the fact that someone could dare to question the system »balance wheel with balance spring and anchor plus escape wheel«—we are thinking of Huygens—as such, made some people gulp.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Take Guy Sémon, for example. The natural scientist approached the subject from a completely new direction and in a completely different way than watchmakers would have done. Sémon quickly realized that simply optimizing the existing basic principle according to Huygens could not be the solution. The technical possibilities of Huygens’ principle had simply been exhausted. He therefore consistently questioned it and found completely new ways to build watches using modern technologies and new materials. Via the research department at TAG Heuer, where he made a name for himself, his path led him to the LVMH Watch Division, where he became CEO of the research institute and presented Zenith’s Defy Lab in September 2017. Like TAG Heuer, the brand is part of the world’s largest luxury group. The Defy Lab’s  innovative rate regulator consists of a single piece of monocrystalline silicon (with parts thinner than a human hair) and replaces the balance wheel, balance spring and anchor in one go.

PERFORMANCE

The Defy Lab  replaces the more than 30 individual parts of the usual regulating organ of a mechanical watch with a single component that is only half a millimeter high. By comparison, the height of a conventional regulating organ is around five millimeters. Mechanical connections between different components are simply eliminated, which completely removes adverse effects such as friction, wear and play between the components, the need for lubrication and complex assembly. The escape wheel is also made of silicon. The new escapement wheel oscillates at a very high frequency of 15 Hertz. The new caliber, called ZO 342, apparently achieves a rate accuracy that has never been seen before in a mechanical watch. Magnetic fields and temperature fluctuations should no longer affect performance.
The second hand of the Defy Lab moves across the dial without jerking, and no ticking can be heard. The equally moderate movement of the balance wheel can no longer be seen; instead, it looks as if the watch as a whole is vibrating. The rate regulator oscillates at a very high frequency of 15 Hertz. That is 108,000 vibrations per hour. If you follow the rule of thumb »the faster, the more precise«, then this is very impressive. One year later, Zenith launched the Defy Inventor  with 18 Hertz, an even faster, more precise watch. Since then, however, it has been rather quiet on the subject.

A MONOLITH

Until Frederique Constant came around the corner with a new development in 2021. The Geneva-based manufacturer, part of the Citizen Group since 2016, presented the Slimline Monolithic Manufacture. An ordinary watch at first glance, its special feature shimmers in the typical blue of silicon. The part is a new type of regulating organ. With the help of specialists in Delft, the Netherlands, Frederique Constant also succeeded in incorporating a silicon oscillator from a single casting, hence the name »monolithic«, into the watch. But unlike its competitor from Le Locle, whose diameter takes up a relatively large amount of space in the movement, the Geneva-based oscillator is so small that it can be implemented in an automatic movement instead of the classic escapement. Its diameter is only 9.8 millimetres with a height of 0.3 millimetres.

Frederique Constant presented 2016 the Slimline Monolithic Manufacture. A new type of regulating organ can be seen at 6 o’clock.

The key figures of the escapement, which took two years of research, are impressive: the heart of the Monolithic Manufacture  oscillates at a frequency of 40 hertz, i.e. 288,000 vibrations per hour. Not bad, but it brought with it a problem: a traditional gear train is not capable of handling the speed of a 40 Hertz regulator. So a new movement was needed, which was named the FC-810 caliber. High-speed cameras capable of recording 250,000 images per second had to be used to measure the rate accuracy. The bottom line is that Frederique Constant is consistently pursuing the path taken by Zenith—and others before it. Apparently with success: the Monolithic models are currently sold out.
The question arises as to what else the Swiss inventors are doing to push the boundaries of what is physically possible. And which element will perhaps one day take over from silicon.

ARTICLE FIRST PUBLISHED IN CHAPTER №VIII »ELEMENTS« — SUMMER 2023

Good design is known to be defined by more than just purely aesthetic aspects; it is a purposefully created experience that connects products or spaces and emotions. British designer Miminat Shodeinde, who founded her London-based studio Miminat Designs back in 2014 when she was still a student, conceives flowing spatial structures that create emotional experiences and explore themes such as gravity and water, as well as influences from her Nigerian roots. With her furniture, which can also be found in museum collections around the world, Miminat Shodeinde aims to create spaces that meet the supposedly banal need of her international clients for beauty and relaxation through interior design.

Chapter  You have worked on projects around the globe, from Ghana, Nigeria, Portugal, and the UK. With regard to this internationality, what do you think is the underlying need and shared vision, your clients have in common? And if so, how do you approach this as a designer?

Miminat Shodeinde  My work is about the way we experience space and about beauty. Wherever I am designing, I want to create spaces that people instantly relax in, and I think that’s a shared vision I have with my clients. Our process is very fluid, but there are common thematics — I like to play with notions like gravity, aeronautics, water, and more, as well as explore my African heritage and the power of the female body.

Private housing project, Cape Coast, Ghana, 2020
Sculpture, privately owned

Chapter  As a creative, you are arguably absorbing inspiration from many sources, but do you remember the first artist or artwork that left an impression on you?

Miminat Shodeinde  I love Käthe Kollwitz. Her work is so deeply expressive and evocative, it really speaks to the soul. On the design side, the work of modernist architects like Oscar Niemeyer and Lina Bo Bardi. Their work and ideas. The poetry of their creations.

Private residential project, Gloucestershire, England, 2022

Sculpture, Alberto Giacometti, from private collection

Armchair, »S33 Chair«, Marcel Breuer

Chapter  How much importance do you attach to the emotional component of design?

Miminat Shodeinde I think I am a naturally empathetic person. I think that design can have the power to move you and to provoke emotions, both positive and negative. I recently designed a collection of vessels inspired by the strength of my mother; it was a cathartic process for me.

Private residential project, Simons Town, near Cape Town, South Africa, 2022

Chapter  Recently, you have also released your debut superyacht concept named M/Y K. Can you tell us a little bit more about what considerations went into the design?

Miminat Shodeinde  I was very much inspired by Japanese design principles when designing the M/Y K yacht, which felt like a natural reference point as I wanted to create a »floating sanctuary« characterized by clean lines, thoughtful wabi-sabi-inspired materials, and a serene color palette which evokes a feeling of quiet sophistication. It was intended as not only a vessel for art but a masterpiece in and of itself. The design had to accommodate five separate rooms: the owner’s suite, VIP cabin, three guest cabins to serve as crew quarters. Standout features we chose to incorporate include the glass-covered atrium to the front of the saloon and the extended beach club with swimming pool to the stern.

M—Y—K Yacht (Yacht design concept), 2024

Concave mirror in red, custom-made for M—Y—K yacht, David Adamo

]]> https://chapter.digital/en/in-residence/ Mon, 03 Feb 2025 16:16:05 +0000 https://chapter.digital/in-residence/ Text Andres DAMM

A home in a luxury hotel can not only be a comfortable place to live, but can also be an interesting investment under certain circumstances. In the last ten years, demand for private residences in five-star deluxe hotels that are integrated into a hotel has risen by almost 250 percent. Mandarin Oriental, Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton—In cities such as New York, London and Dubai, the most illustrious names in the hotel industry are competing for potential real estate investors with purchasing power, while development companies are outdoing each other in terms of furnishings and service standards, thus setting completely new benchmarks.

As with so many innovations, the concept of »private residences was born at the hotel« New York City. In 1927, almost 100 years ago, The Sherry-Netherland on 5th Avenue was the first luxury hotel to offer apartments for sale in addition to regular hotel rooms. All hotel services such as room service, cleaning and concierge were available to the owners. The hotel still exists today in this mixed-use form. Among other things, a 700 square meter apartment with three terraces, 15 rooms and a view of Central Park is currently for sale for 35 million dollars. However, 30 square meter studios, which are located between the regular hotel rooms, are also for sale for half a million dollars.

For more than 70 years, The Sherry-Netherland was unrivaled worldwide. From the end of the last millennium, the exclusive living experience in New York City became more widespread and experienced its first boom—today, countless hotel groups offer apartments for sale in addition to hotel rooms at a daily rate. The concept of private residences was not only integrated directly into the project planning for new projects such as the Four Seasons in the Financial District, but various long-established grandees of the hotel industry also subsequently embraced the trend. In some cases to the annoyance of regular customers: Guests at the Waldorf Astoria were furious about the fact that, following extensive renovation, the top floors of the hotel tower would only be available to buyers and not to travelers—a stone’s throw away, while The Plaza was criticized after the general renovation for the fact that only the owners of the new and extremely successfully marketed private apartments would now be able to enjoy the most beautiful views of Central Park.

A special address — AMAN New York is located in the venerable Crown Building on the corner of 5th Avenue and 57th Street.

The latest addition to New York’s exclusive club of hotel towers, which also offer private residences, is the Aman New York. The venerable Crown Building on the corner of 5th Avenue and 57th Street is one of the city’s most prestigious locations. And as we have come to expect from the highly exclusive hotel group, its second city branch also focuses on superlatives à la Aman, including the residences offered for sale. When the penthouse found its buyer in spring 2022, the highest real estate deal of the year to date was sealed at 75 million dollars. As discretion is part and parcel of doing business in these price spheres, there is usually little information about the buyers or the details of the premises, but the private Aman Penthouse is said to boast a saltwater swimming pool and several open fireplaces.

From custom-made furniture to a virtuoso lighting design and the perfect concierge service—, living in your own four walls is transformed into an enhanced experience at Aman New York.

However, it is not only the luxury facilities, which are certainly also available in this form in other full-service residential towers, that persuade customers to stay permanently at Aman, Mandarin Oriental or Four Seasons. Part of the investment is rather the respective style and atmosphere of the hotel and not least the image of the respective managing hotel group built up over many years, which buyers are happy to pay a premium for. The interior design and services that you acquire at these exclusive addresses can hardly be experienced in an ordinary, nameless New York skyscraper.

In the case of the Aman New York, the residence owners all automatically receive a club membership, which offers access to all of the hotel’s facilities that are otherwise reserved for guests only. »In addition to the two restaurants Arva and Nama, other amenities include the spa, which extends over three floors, and an in-house jazz club—Residence owners benefit from preferential access«, a spokesperson for the group explains. Those who can count themselves among the owners of an Aman New York residence also acquire the freedom of no longer having to choose between a glamorous day and evening program or domesticity—The answers to these and many other time-consuming questions are already deeply embedded in the DNA of the idea behind it and are included in the price.

The Covid pandemic was probably one of the reasons why demand for exclusive properties that combine cocooning and luxury has risen so exponentially, especially in hard-hit cities such as New York. It therefore stands to reason that New York City will not remain the only city in which Aman offers urban oases with its residences; hotels with adjoining luxury apartments will soon be opening in Bangkok and Miami too. The group’s spokesperson emphasizes: »European cities are also a possibility for future projects. For Aman, however, it is essential that the location and type of property provide the opportunity to create a hotel that stands out from all existing hotels and is therefore absolutely unique. In addition, the values and standards of the group must of course be reflected in every future project. Our customers, whether hotel guests or residence owners, are less definable by classic demographic factors such as age or profession. Aman is home to like-minded people who are inspired by travel, prioritize wellbeing and want to experience local heritage and culture while staying in an exceptionally designed environment.«

Dramatic villas built into the cliff at the luxurious One&Only Mandarina resort.

The concept of private residences with hotel service is no longer a purely urban phenomenon. The One&Only Group, for example, offers villas for sale in various of its luxury resorts, including on the Mexican Nayarit coast, an hour north of Puerto Vallarta. Surrounded by lush tropical greenery, the One&Only Mandarina offers affluent customers the opportunity to purchase villas dramatically built into the cliff, which are generously proportioned with four to eight bedrooms. The design of the vacation homes is just as elegant as the hotel in which they are integrated. Infinity pools and sea views come as standard, and each villa is unique thanks to its architecture, which is adapted to the respective location.

»Our Private Homes give us the opportunity to expand the experience of the One&Only brand. An explicit wish of our regular customers to be able to enjoy the atmosphere and design language that was previously only experienced on vacation in a hotel in a much more private setting, their own vacation home«, describes Jonathan Tomlinson, Senior Vice President Private Homes of the Kerzner International Group, which also includes One&Only is the origin of the concept. Accordingly, the typical residence owner is also very similar to the group’s hotel guest. »The desire for tranquillity and closeness to nature without sacrificing all conceivable amenities is what unites all our customers and what we want to offer them. We have customers from all corners of the world, and in many places we have a local clientele as well as international buyers.« We offer One&Only In addition to all the facilities and services that are available to hotel guests, the residence owners are also offered a tailor-made program. There is also a tailor-made program for the exclusive circle of owners, including a global concierge service.

In principle, One&Only Private Homes owners have the choice of whether they want to participate in a rental program or prefer to celebrate maximum privacy, with the majority of owners having their residence rented out by the hotel company at times when they are not on site. The resulting profitability of the investment is a convincing sales argument, especially as One&Only makes the temporary use by third parties as comfortable as possible for the villa owners. The hotel management takes full responsibility for marketing and letting. »Of course, when villa owners rent out their property as part of One&Only, it is important that their property reflects the identity of the resort, but we offer storage facilities for private items that can be safely stowed away during rental periods. This allows owners to ensure maximum personalization of the property without renters feeling that they are not staying at one of our resorts«, explains Tomlinson.

One&Only Private Home owners also have the option of living in their property even when the associated hotel is closed for seasonal reasons. »Even for resorts that are only open seasonally, such as our Greek hotel Kea Island. We provide permanent access to the villas and guarantee that service staff will also be on site in winter to ensure that the expected standard is maintained during your stay in the vacation home.« As a real estate investment is a long-term affair, the group guarantees the owners of the villas long-term contracts with the hotel operating company. This ensures that the services and facilities acquired with the hotel will be available for at least several decades. The property itself, i.e. not only the respective villa but also the defined plot of land, is officially owned by the Private Home owner, which guarantees independence from the hotel business.

The OWO Raffles, London. OWO is short for Old War Office – Winston Churchill once had his office in the building, which was built in 1902 and has now been completely renovated.

While private residences marketed by luxury hotels are still a rarity in continental European cities, competition is already fierce in the UK’s capital, London. The OWO Raffles hotel will open here in spring 2023, and the sales phase for the adjoining private residences has already begun. The investor group is also promising an exclusive and exceptional living experience here and is using the history of the property in particular as a unique selling point. OWO is short for Old War Office; Winston Churchill once had his office in the building, which was built in 1902 and has now been completely renovated. Today, 85 luxurious residences are on offer, while the Raffles Hotel, which is also integrated into the building, is responsible for the service provided to future owners.

The Raffles Hotel, which is also integrated into the hotel, is responsible for the service of the 85 luxurious residences.

Thanks to the architectural style of the Edwardian era with its opulent stucco and various antique architectural details, buyers can be sure that the apartment they purchase is absolutely unique. While the competition offers residence buyers the service and luxury of the adjoining hotel as a selling point, the development of the OWO Residences went one step further and created separate communal facilities that are specifically reserved for residence owners. For example, there are various lounges, a gym and a pool to which the hotel guests next door do not have access, while apartment owners can also switch sides to take a dip in the hotel pool for a change.

With their definition of luxury, which goes beyond the purely material elements, residences attached to hotels really do seem to strike a chord with the times. Living within one’s own four walls is transformed into an extended experience that encompasses everything from custom-made furniture and virtuoso lighting design to perfect concierge service. The most successful hotels are characterized by the fact that they create their very own cosmos. Being able to reside in this cosmos permanently and unite it with one’s own reality of life is understandably in great demand, however comparatively small the target group with the corresponding purchasing power may be.

ARTICLE FIRST PUBLISHED IN CHAPTER №VII »NORMAL THINGS« — WINTER 2022/23

Just-rightness, the noun of the term just-right, is by no means an established, even canonical term – if it exists at all in the field of design science. It appears here and there in texts on the subject of design and in most cases indicates a qualitative value, an adjustment. Just-rightness therefore currently leaves a lot of room for interpretation. One interpretation of the term that crops up from time to time is exciting because it touches on a fundamental question of design in general. It is about dimensional accuracy, about the self-image of design in its position between technology and marketing.

»Good design is as little design as possible«, formulated Dieter Rams––God-Father of late modernism––and thus makes use of a linguistic trick. The point of the sentence results from the different content of the term design in German and English. A translation of the thesis into English therefore also harbors the risk of misinterpretation. Perhaps the more comprehensible, admittedly even more »denglish« formulation »Good design is as little styling as possible« would be the more consistent formulation of the claim, but the linguistic sophistication of the thesis would be lost and it should therefore be rejected from an aesthetic point of view alone.

Oru Kayak — Model Coast XT

But maybe it’s not as simple as that: Ditch the styling and you’ll be well on your way. Times have changed. Design acts as a protagonist in almost universally overcrowded markets and is thus an elementary part of the toolbox for displacing competing products. Today, in a world of too much, there is also too much design. The situation is comparable to that of the press, which also feels increasingly exposed to competition for attention. Attention economy is the new magic word and creates a new, important basic rule: overcome the threshold of perception in order to expose the competition. Press professionals like to describe this process with the phrase »a content steep edge«, which means nothing other than making a mountain out of literally every molehill, increasing the level of excitement and thus attention in order to provoke the click reflex in inclined online consumers of the news site. After all, only clicks are counted and, by converting them into advertising value, put money in the coffers. What the media creator’s click figures are to the retailer’s sales figures. And there are various ways to achieve this––several of them are through design.

Oru Kayak — Inlet model

In the German-speaking world in particular, the term design is narrowly defined because it is always associated with an artistic-creative achievement; as such, it is completely unprotected and can be freely used and misused by anyone. Interested customers should actually know that the use of the word design as a marketing prefix should always give rise to suspicion. Designer glasses, designer lamps, designer furniture or designer kitchens may be reliably priced above average, but they are not necessarily the better products in terms of most of their features. Design often becomes an additive here, an application that can be scaled at will. The customer falls for it a few times, pays the price and learns his lesson.

Oru Kayak — Model Haven Tandem

In diametric contrast to this common perception of design is its self-image in the academic world. In the mission statements of the relevant educational institutions for the training of this profession, nothing less than saving the world appears as a minimum requirement. In any case, the graduates of at least this particular institution always create the solution in their later professional lives and definitely never the problem. The formulated principles often and quite naturally include a paternalistic claim to education, which is often presented to the interested parties as a reassuring tautology of design and working for the good. Of course, it is very practical for one’s own karma alone to pursue a profession that automatically makes any further strenuous analysis of the complex consequences of one’s own actions superfluous. Certainly, one or two sectors such as fashion design or automotive design are somewhat under suspicion here, but the generous use of well-written adjectives such as sustainable at least straightens this out lyrically. Here, too, there is a steep edge, because a high number of applicants ensures quality and resources and, last but not least, the raison d’être. Greenwashing here and there––chercher du marketing!

The legal defencelessness of the concept of design allows it to be bent beyond recognition at its edges. From an ideologized promise of salvation to a pure marketing instrument. This would be less alarming if these extremes did not have a disproportionately large effect on the image of design in their respective areas of perception. And here it is appropriate to bring the concept of just-rightness into play. It is about nothing less than the substance of design, which is always formed in interaction, always dependent on successful cooperation with technology and––if it is a product––with marketing. Dieter Rams’ dictum can also be read as a challenge to design to be as cooperative and minimally invasive as possible in this interaction. The danger of making oneself superfluous as a designer through this demand for reduction seems to have been averted today. Over the decades, design has constantly increased its depth of intervention in these work objects and processes, is increasingly asserting its competence as early as the conception phase, is even in demand as a model for methodology in the solution of complex tasks and is increasingly becoming a hinge at the point where all forces come together. In this position, with a sense of proportion, it can make a significant contribution to ensuring that the things of our everyday lives are neither overloaded with meaning nor with decoration and that we focus on the essentials. What great things are created in this self-image that only reveal their value at second glance, but can last a long time––both technically and ideally. These are the objects that people like to have repaired or buy a second time after losing them––favorite things. They have to work, not be overly fashionable, repairable, adaptable, should not lose (or even gain) in aesthetics through wear and tear and draw their positive image and ultimately the reputation from all these characteristics, which ensures that you feel well-dressed with them, literally or figuratively.

Audi A6, C5 series (1997-2005)

The design of the Audi A6 of the C5 model series (1997 – 2005) by the outstanding German automotive designer Claus Potthoff is one of the cars in recent history that can be measured by such standards––by no means the rule in the eclectic world of automotive design. As such, it is one of those designs that is highly likely to deteriorate as a result of any subsequent intervention. Nothing on the A6 is too much, everything is in its place, proportions and volume are perfect. The original model did not even need the tailpipes of the exhaust system, which are often image-defining in this market segment. All around, inside and out, the design is based on the horizontal, all lines are two-degree (geometrically defined by just three points) and the details are also geometrically derived. There is no icing. It is actually a design with an unlimited shelf life––were it not for the logic of the market and the constant pressure to change––to explicitly avoid the term »Innovation«.

The Japanese company Ryōhin Keikaku is trying to elevate just-rightness to a general, conceptual approach with the products of its MUJI brand. MUJI is the abbreviation of the term mujirushi ryōhin and means something like unbranded quality goods and elevates reduction to the dictum of design. It is hardly surprising that this idea should arise in Japan in particular, as restraint and moderation are deeply rooted in the social norms of Japanese society and are reflected in the principles of life that the majority aspire to, such as ikigai––literally translated, »iki« stands for »life« and »gai« for »value«. Furthermore, space––especially in the country’s large urban centers––is a precious commodity and extensive use is largely impossible because it is extremely expensive.

MUJI, electric kettle MJ-EK5A

As if they were conceived for the MUJI product range, the Californian company Oru Kayak takes just-rightness to the extreme with its products. The Oru designers redefine the outdated term »folding boat« to an unprecedented level. With boats made of translucent polypropylene flat material that are remarkably robust, comfortable, light, quick to assemble and disassemble, can actually be folded to the size of a sports bag for transportation and can be easily transported on the luggage rack of an average bicycle––or even tucked under your arm on the subway. Aesthetically, they can keep up with many a conservative rival product and the combination of transparent lightness and precise origami folding technique gives them an additional wow effect. And all of this is undoubtedly just-right, because there is definitely nothing left out of this product.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, a person in Europe owns around 10,000 things, in the USA three times as many. In 2010, the Japanese Marie Kondō published an internationally acclaimed guide on the subject of »tidying up«, in which she also ascribes a spiritual dimension to the evaluation of objects necessary for sorting them out. From a sober point of view, it is precisely this just-rightness that one grants the object or parts with it. Does this necessarily have to do with design? No, because the individual meaning of an object has different dimensions. Can it have something to do with design? Absolutely. This just-rightness––if you want to stick with the term––is something fundamentally individual, the result of a negotiation between product and user, which can turn out differently and can also take a long time. A product––be it a T-shirt or a car––can actually achieve great environmental friendliness in the course of its history of use simply because this history takes a long time. In other words, the product is not disposed of and replaced by a new one, but rather maintained and repaired and thus becomes an integral and indispensable part of this very life – regardless of whether it was intended by its creators to save the world.

Modern smartphones, such as the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5, also celebrate the disappearance of things: they are no longer just phones, but mobile computers, photo and video cameras, games consoles, navigation devices, wallets, calculators and torches and countless other things – an astonishing efficiency in terms of space and resource requirements.

And in this sense, even our omnipresent smartphones consistently take further steps on the path to reduction. Quite independently of their mostly interchangeable physical appearance, they celebrate the disappearance of things. They are a telephone, computer, photo and video camera, calculator and torch, measuring tape, compass, key, radio, loudspeaker, games console, navigation device, book, clock, calendar, diary and much more all in one. Although they usually can’t do all this as well and rarely better than the dedicated specialists, are always an ergonomic compromise and rarely the choice of professionals, they are catching up surprisingly quickly. Software is easier to modify than hardware. If you dispose of all these items simulated by the smartphone or don’t buy them in the first place, you will achieve astonishing efficiency in terms of space and resource requirements. It’s worth taking a look at which ones are just right. Could the rest possibly go?

Article FIRST PUBLISHED IN CHAPTER №X »STATE OF THE ART« – SUMMER 2023/24

It would actually be much more exciting to deal with what happens than with what is. Because that is immediately recognizable, static, defined. In contrast, our world and things are constantly moving and changing. Ancient Greece called this »metamorphosis« – and that’s what we’re talking about here.

»Lost in Translation«––who hasn’t seen the classic film starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, in which two people who don’t know each other meet by chance in Tokyo, a Japanese megacity that is unfathomable and untranslatable for them, which is presumably why they have sought it out. However, the intense feeling of being lost gives their encounter a common level on which they meet, talk and live as if in an intermediate world––for a few days. Watching the film, you enjoy entering this floating state with the two of them––light, open, liberated. You wish you had the courage or the sovereignty to be in-between, as the foreign metropolis allows the main characters in the film to do. Perhaps because it is something subconsciously important to our existence that we repeatedly suppress out of reason or convenience: an interim state of mind that applies to all people in the most diverse life situations and is typical of processes, evolutions and formations. It is the moment of change––sometimes short-lived, sometimes with a noticeable duration––that is expressed quite well in the concept of hovering. The Swiss artist couple Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger achieved a congenial visualization of such a process with their touching »Giardino calante« installation at the 2003 Venice Biennale: in the nave of the church of San Staë, people move under a three-dimensional sphere of flowers and delicate natural elements that seem to fall down from the vault without reaching you directly. The beauty and vitality of what was otherwise painted on the ceiling as floral decoration in the Baroque period and stands for creation becomes physical and moving. This brings us closer to the miracle of the speaking church interior; we find ourselves, as it were, in the process of creation, from the ideal budding to the fullness of nature.

Gerda Steiner & Jörg Lenzlinger, »Giardino calante« (installation), Church of San Staë, Biennale 2003, Venice

While the flanking states––i.e. the initial situation on the one hand and the new on the other––are tangible for us, as they can be clearly defined and also clearly perceived due to their stability, the in-between is a phenomenon whose nature and form is too fluid to »have a handle on«. Time and again, people are forced to accept this period of transformation, whereby they are confronted with it in the most diverse dimensions of life. Sometimes dreams revolve around those motifs of tense pauses, as we are dealing here with the most intense moments of our experience of the world––perhaps Paul Virilio’s famous formula of »frenzied standstill« fits quite well here? Ultimately, however, nature is behind all movement––from the cosmic to our planet. On the constantly rotating earth, vitality and life are defined by the movement and transformation of states: emergence, growth and decline. Symbols of this are the bud or the larva that develops into a butterfly––and this without being able to see the beautiful final stage of the original form, even if it is already within it. Reflections of this omnipresent metamorphosis, as this phenomenon of shape-shifting was called in ancient Greece, can be found in the culture that humans developed as a living being typical of their species from the earliest epochs of history.

Marina Abramović, »The Artist is Present«, MoMA New York, 2010

So it’s no wonder that, alongside philosophy, art is also interested in those slow-motion tipping points, those short periods of time in which one situation leads to the next. Impressive examples are easy to find: For his Florentine sculpture from the story of David, Michelangelo chooses exactly the minute in which the boy develops the courage to hurl the stone he is weighing in his hand at the giant Goliath; Marina Abramović’s performances lead those present into an uncomfortable situation, forcing them to constantly resist the pressure to avoid the exhausting or upsetting confrontation with the art action––only those who can stand the artist sitting in front of them in silence for hours, for example, will ultimately take part. The South African William Kentridge could also be mentioned with his animated films, mostly drawn in charcoal. When you see them, you can’t take your eyes off them, because unlike conventional films with separate individual images, you experience the process of change and the traces of what has gone before always remain at least briefly present in the current film still. »In this way, each sequence carries the story of its development within it. What the technology itself brings with it is a sense of time«, according to the artist. The cases listed demonstrate the intention of art to really and tangibly bring the recipients into its sphere––by subversively placing them in a precarious situation. A routine or emotionally protective perception is not possible in this way. Instead, one must surrender oneself to the experience of this ambivalent situation.

William Kentridge, »Monument« (Stills), 1990

But why is this so fascinating? Human beings actually strive for order, which in a practical and cognitive sense would only give life a before and after. Immediately before the introduction of change and also in between, there is ambivalence, hesitation and dithering about changing a safe situation, the fear of an uncertain outcome––and that is unpleasant at first. That’s why we analyze and plan wherever possible so that everything runs smoothly and the results don’t come as a surprise or create unforeseeable problems. However, transitions are fundamentally unavoidable in an organic, metabolic system in which we live. The nature of the matter always includes its ability to change, even the certain change of what we are currently experiencing. And humanity has always reacted to this: In archaic societies, for example, initiation and sanctification rituals arose in which a specific period of time, a symbolic act and special objects performatively accompany the transition into a new quality, such as the admission of young men into the circle of adults. The ancient Egyptian cult of the sun god Ra worked with the barque as a real embodiment of his journey across the sky and through the underworld. People celebrated this in processions in which a Nile barge charged with a mystical aura was moved from the water to the holy place. Christian theology also had to grapple with the zone between secular reality and the sacred sphere. It developed the concept of limbo––a non-real waiting room for the souls for the temporally unmeasurable but unimaginable intermediate state until redemption.

Norman Foster, Reichstag Dome Berlin, 1999

In factual life on earth, on the other hand, which is constantly and often inexplicably changing, cultic and individual rituals give people more time and sensory influences to empathize and understand––which is why sacred places such as altars or graves have been circled since time immemorial. Turning around something makes you think, see more sides, experience a small effect of the endless in the circular movement, which is typical of the permanent mobility of the cosmos. In this respect, it is not only children who love walking around in circles, adults also enjoy the formal constraint of a circular path, especially when, as with a spiral, the perspective changes subtly with every step. Norman Foster’s architectural concept, who was commissioned to redesign the dome above the Reichstag in Berlin in 1995, also operates with a complex implementation of this motif. Visitors not only walk upwards in a spiral movement along the edge of the transparent roof structure, where they can look out over the country, which is governed from within the building. They can also look down into the plenary chamber and watch their deputies making their case and taking decisions. The discursive process of the legislature is reflected in the movement of the citizens in the iconically towering dome and thus becomes conscious in the performative movement of all.

Refik Anadol Studio for Bvlgari, Milan: »Serpenti Metamorphosis« (installation), 2021

The project »Serpenti Metamorphosis« by media artist Refik Anadol does not use architecture, but visual effects to address the motif discussed here. The large spatial installation, realized in Milan in 2021, creates wall-filling, constantly reconfiguring surfaces that are composed of 200 million varying images of nature in 3D and are connected to animal protagonists––snakes. These are generated by an immersive computer program: »… as poetic imagery mimicking natural transformations and snakes that seemed to slither and change throughout the installation«. Anadol has a concrete goal: »I welcome the machine as a collaborator, it allows me to make the invisible visible. Metamorphosis is really the perfect symbol to represent overarching ideas of evolution, growth, and precision in the world that surrounds us.« The use of AI also makes it possible, depending on the situation, to emit a fragrance that makes the experience synaesthetic. The phenomenon of permanent change in nature is transformed into an equally volatile visualization, which in turn has an emotional effect and changes through the reactive actions of the audience within it.

Rei Naito, »Matrix«, permanent installation Teshima Art Museum, 2010

While Anadol’s media installation is in principle an artificial setting, in another artistic work nature actually appears as an active player and can thus be experienced in its metabolic movement. The Japanese artist Rei Naito worked on the floor of a specially constructed grotto-like concrete architecture––the Teshima Art Museum––using a special surface shape and punctured holes so that the natural spring water in the area forces its way up onto the artificial surface in small drops, which then move freely: »Following the inclination of the floor they seem to race, overtaking each other and occasionally colliding and combining in larger puddles. Dancing in unexpected patterns, they finally gather and are drained through other holes. This splendid movement makes the water look lively, and not only a source of life but alive itself.« Unlike when looking at a stream or lake, the water is not perceived as an element of the landscape, but as a visible and tangible indicator of the vital force of nature, of pushing and becoming––experiencing the process of life, the seemingly eternal cycle of the creation and decay of natural forms in the forming and draining of these small ponds. »Is there anything more moving than this moment of transformation?«, the artist asks rhetorically.

The young Berlin CGI studio PALAM is also exploring this fascinating phenomenon, skillfully bringing it into the reality-based sphere of the product world alongside artistic aspects. Their immersive installation »Metamorphosis« (from page 80), which took nine months to create, gains its appeal not only through a strong aesthetic characterized by intense orange tones, but also through the visionary power of computer-generated imagery. The magical presence of the automotive object is created in a technoid setting, on an active »stage«, which is geared towards both production and presentation and plays on this with its robotic moves: »The stage becomes a canvas where the fluidity of life is explored, offering an intellectual and sensory journey that captures the essence of transformative beauty.« In terms of product design, it is therefore not about a design as the form generated from a material through a transformation process, regardless of whether this is created in a controlled manner as in an assembly, printing or casting process. Ultimately, this thematizes nothing other than the end product. The virulence of the process, i.e. the transformation process itself, and the fact that this metamorphosis is part of the concept and remains present in the form, is much more interesting than the path and period of production.

After all this, what is the conclusion of these considerations, what is the latent and explicit message of these impressive projects and works of art? At any rate, it is based on the insight that the impression that something is standing still is often based on imagination or misinterpretation––although at the same time it is also a cognitive strategy of our brain, which knows that we need a certain order and structure in our analysis of the environment in order to be able to perceive something in peace. This is perfectly fine as long as we have such talented creatives around us, who––like Rei Naito or Anadol––are able to combine the visual, emotional and ultimately also intellectual floating of changing states into wonderful and enlightening spaces of experience.

ARTICLE FIRST PUBLISHED IN CHAPTER №X »STATE OF THE ART« — SUMMER 2023/24

Gourmet restaurants as aesthetic works of art in which architecture, design and immersive dining experiences play a central role: From the spectacularly designed Iris in the Norwegian fjord to the unique staging at Alchemist in Copenhagen and the almost mystical Ultraviolet in Shanghai—here, every room is a stage, every dish a chapter in a multi-layered narrative. These restaurants are not just culinary experiences, but multifaceted aesthetic experiences that demonstrate the effect that a perfectly curated interplay of staging, space, materiality and taste can have.

The increasing appreciation of indulgence in the form of epicurean experiences has been quite revolutionary over the last two decades—even if some concepts have only had a very short half-life, quite a few food trends have come to stay. And although the term »experiential gastronomy« sometimes still has a bourgeois image—one quickly thinks of mediocre food with a mediocre show—some courageous restaurateurs have elevated the dining experience to a true art form with creatively designed multi-sensory concepts. Here, guests experience a symphony based on the interaction of visual elements, sound, texture and, of course, flavor alongside their meal. From the architectural design of the restaurant to the smallest details.

Chef Anika Madsen’s creations are creative and original, based on her passion for local seafood and her commitment to sustainability.

Two pioneering Nordic establishments, Iris in Norway and Alchemist in Denmark, are regarded as trailblazers for such experiences that go far beyond the plate, as is Ultraviolet, located in a secret location in Shanghai, where top chef Paul Pairet takes his guests on a journey through memories and expectations. When exploring these three unique restaurants, it quickly becomes clear that cooking today is part of an artistic symbiosis in many places. It is enjoyed with all the senses.

BECOMING ONE WITH THE ENVIRONMENT

Nestled in the dramatic landscape of Norway, the restaurant Iris truly sets new standards in top gastronomy with its »Expedition Dining« approach. Architecturally, Iris can already claim to offer something spectacular: A floating metal construction with a dynamic curved shape, in the middle of the Norwegian fjord and only accessible by boat, houses the premises of the luxury restaurant. The impressive architecture and the panoramic view of the rugged Norwegian wilderness quickly give you the feeling that you are dining at the end of the world, which is not entirely wrong, because even from the nearest airport in Bergen, the journey to the restaurant is still a half-day trip. »I wanted to create an experience that allows guests to fully immerse themselves in the beauty of Norwegian nature. Food is a gateway to this. By tasting local ingredients, feeling the sea breeze or seeing the mountains in the distance, all the guests’ senses are engaged. This multi-sensory approach allows us to connect people not only with the flavors, but also with the stories behind each dish, so that a visit to our restaurant is more than just a meal, but an exploration of place, time and culture«, restaurant manager and head chef Anika Madsen describes her not inexpensive concept in an interview with Chapter. The evening at Iris begins for each guest with a boat trip to a jetty on a tiny island, where the first drinks and starters are served to music specially arranged for the evening, before the culinary journey continues to the restaurant itself. You should plan around six hours if you want to embark on this extraordinary experience.

Spectacular in every respect: The restaurant Iris, under the leadership of head chef Anika Madsen and service manager Nico Danielsen, was recently awarded its first Michelin star.

The restaurant is located in the middle of the water—in the Salmon Eye art installation, which opened in 2022 and is a place to explore topics such as sustainable aquaculture. Created by Kvorning Design, the 14-metre-high structure is reminiscent of the eponymous fish eye and appears to float in the middle of the fjord surrounded by spectacular mountains. The 9,275 stainless steel scales that clad the building imitate the shiny, silvery skin of a salmon. The menu at Iris reads like a poetic homage to the rugged beauty of Norway. Wild herbs, foraged mushrooms and freshly caught seafood—Madsen’s main criterion when it comes to deciding which dishes to serve is quite simple. »When it comes to flavors, I end up cooking for myself, if I don’t like it, it doesn’t go on the menu.« Furthermore, Anika Madsen firmly believes in the combination of good craftsmanship, hard work and curiosity. Whereby the latter is not just about a curious and open approach to food and new taste experiences. »I also mean an open attitude towards one’s own environment, nature and people.« However, as an evening at Iris is so much more than just the food served, Madsen also emphasizes the importance of her team for the overall concept: »Each and every member of our team has unique talents. One employee may compose music, while another may have exceptional graphic design skills. We trust each other’s creative vision and this trust allows us to create and constantly develop.« Anika Madsen can therefore largely do without the services of external consultancies or creative agencies, despite the far-reaching, detailed concept, she explains.

However, creativity is not the only factor that matters in her job, the Danish-born chef and former head chef of Copenhagen’s Michelin-starred restaurant Fasangården is convinced. »A strong sense of responsibility is just as important.« She follows up: »As chefs, we not only influence what people eat, but also have an impact on how they think about food, its production and the environment. Iris should not only be a place that takes the restaurant experience itself to a new level, but should also play a pioneering role in terms of responsibility—not only in terms of how we handle food, but also in terms of how we define collaboration. Perhaps we will succeed in inspiring future generations.«

THEATRICAL POETRY OF FOOD

At the Alchemist restaurant in Copenhagen, under the aegis of Rasmus Munk, food becomes a medium for storytelling. The chef’s aim is to make his guests think through a sensory adventure. At Alchemist, every dish is a work of art, every moment in the restaurant is carefully orchestrated and nothing is left to chance. Munk explains that his approach, which he calls »Holistic Dining«, is a fusion of gastronomy, art, science and social responsibility: »Our aim is to create an experience that stimulates the senses and awakens memories.« The Alchemist is therefore not just about satisfying hedonistic cravings, Munk wants to use his platform to express his opinion on socially relevant topics and issues, and also sees provocation as an appropriate means of doing so. A visit to Alchemist should encourage people to think about globally relevant topics such as sustainability, food waste and ethics. »In particular, our mission is to drive change and influence the society in which we live. Artists can provoke, spark debate and raise awareness. Of course, the taste of each dish is always the focus, but our visual and verbal presentations can address subjects such as child labor in the chocolate industry or famine in the Global South«, Rasmus Munk emphasizes in an interview with Chapter.

At the Alchemist restaurant in Copenhagen, under the aegis of Rasmus Munk, food becomes a medium for storytelling.

Architecturally, Alchemist  is a universe in itself. The 50-course menu—no, you haven’t misread—is presented theatrically in the truest sense of the word, in several acts. A dome-shaped ceiling, reminiscent of a planetarium, bathes the room in surreal light, changing colors and various projections are coordinated with each course. Alchemist  was designed by London-based interior design studio Duncalf and is spread over three floors in a labyrinthine fashion, each with a slightly different spatial concept. The majority of the culinary journey takes place directly under the aforementioned dome with a total diameter of 18 meters. Around 200 tons of steel were used. The rooms in which Alchemist is located used to serve as a workshop for the construction of stage sets. To a certain extent, the theatricality of the place is inscribed in it. When he develops a dish, its history and meaning are initially in the foreground. »That is always the first step«, explains Munk and adds: »Of course, it is then also about perfecting the taste. If the taste isn’t what I want it to be, we won’t serve the dish—even if the idea is perfect and it looks exceptionally beautiful. On the other hand, I just love to develop something that has a strong message. So if the message is strong, I will always go to great lengths to bring the dish to that level in terms of taste.«

Rasmus Munk ensures with his Restaurant Alchemist has caused a worldwide sensation. His dishes are spectacular in both taste and appearance and are garnished with strong messages.

With a multidisciplinary team—experts from the fields of gastronomy, science, design, art, technology
and business are involved—Rasmus Munk is also responsible for the visionary Spora Innovation Center.

The fact that Alchemist is more than just a restaurant is also made clear by the composition of the staff. In addition to the gastronomic team, Munk employs three artists who design the special effects for the restaurant’s dome, as well as a composer, a scriptwriter and an industrial designer who creates the restaurant’s crockery and cutlery and various furnishings. But that’s not all: Rasmus Munk is also responsible for the Spora Innovation Centre, which specializes in initiating far-reaching changes in the catering and food industry. The project is managed by a multidisciplinary team—experts from the fields of gastronomy, science, design, art, technology and business are involved. »Spora is the natural evolution of the Alchemist. The creativity and innovative power that characterize our work in the restaurant also play a central role in our research work and contribute to the development of new, sustainable approaches«, explains Munk.

GREAT CINEMA FOR ALL SENSES

A secret place »Somewhere in Shanghai«, ten guests and 20 courses—these are the basic hard facts about Paul Pairet’s top restaurant Ultraviolet. However, on the foundation of these initially sober facts, something outstanding unfolds: an immersive dining experience that appeals to all the senses. At the center of a windowless room is a single table, surrounded by huge HD screens. However, it is not only the visual component that plays an elementary role in Ultraviolet, but also the smell, the music and the sound carpet on which the guests glide through the evening. »Each course is enveloped in an atmosphere that is defined by the projection, the sound and sometimes even the smell«, says Pairet in an interview with CNN. In some cases, the room temperature is also adapted to the atmosphere. A different world opens up with every walk—if you have just been in a place covered in glowing neon graffiti, the next moment you are part of an underground labyrinth.

Born in Perpignan, France, celebrity chef Paul Pairet currently runs four restaurants in Shanghai:
Mr & Mrs Bund, Polux, Charbon and Ultraviolet.

Paul Pairet’s innovative restaurant concept opened in May 2012, and Ultraviolet  was awarded three stars in the Michelin Guide in 2018. At the time of opening, however, the concept had already been in the mind of the French-born top chef for 15 years. In culinary terms, guests can expect an extremely sophisticated play with textures, temperatures and breaking with preconceived expectations. Naturally at the highest level. When Pairet develops new dishes, he is always looking for a connection to his own life—be it trips he has taken, certain memories or episodes from everyday life. Pairet’s aim is to really draw people into the individual courses so that they can fully engage with the experience and immerse themselves in what he understands by »Psycho Taste«: an exploration and questioning of our notions of taste, which are mostly based on memory, experience and culture. »We always hope that we have left a lasting impression on our guests—that our food has awakened and created memories. I don’t believe that something can be beautiful if it doesn’t leave a mark. We can’t control that, but we hope that these lasting impressions are created in the minds of the guests«, says Pairet. (Interview with Four Magazine https://www.four-magazine.com/chefs/paul-pairet-association-of-taste/)

»Psycho taste« is what Paul Pairet calls the multivision concept surrounding his avant-garde fine dining creations.

Iris, Alchemist and Ultraviolet—these gourmet restaurants are world-famous travel destinations in their own right for a reason, culinary experiences have been elevated to multi-sensory works of art. In each of these luxury restaurants, an outstanding dish is not just something you enjoy, but something you live. Architecture and visual design, acoustics, smells and textures become the main protagonists. A dinner at Alchemist, Iris or Ultraviolet may not be for every day, as impressions need to be processed, but by involving all the senses, dining here becomes a truly unforgettable experience and is well worth the trip.

ARTICLE FIRST PUBLISHED IN CHAPTER №XI »TASTEMAKERS« — WINTER 2024/25

Can design today still learn from the Bauhaus? For all other areas of product and industrial design, this question seems rhetorical. In the case of automotive design, however, it is not. With a few exceptions, there is no history worth mentioning in which automotive design and Bauhaus appear in the same sentence. Where does this aversion come from and is it time to give it up?

Although the era of modernism has now been part of cultural history for almost half a century, the ideas and work of the Bauhaus protagonists still have an impact on design practice in the broad fields of architecture and everything that is summarized under the terms industrial and product design. More than 100 years ago, the Bauhaus began to devise creative solutions for the enormous tasks that the project of industrialization presented to the world at that time. As long as this industrialization continues in its evolutionary stages, the Bauhaus approaches are at least worth taking up from time to time in order to test their usefulness in specific cases. The Bauhaus was too early to deal with the demands of digitalization, but even in the digital age, people still live in houses and use physical objects. And as long as this does not change fundamentally, approaches in this regard will lose little of their relevance. The Bauhaus still has the potential to be a guide and quality benchmark for design concepts and achievements and––well––to lend them intellectual brilliance. There is a great temptation to see the strong Bauhaus brand as a stylistically reproducible design and to project the designs of artifacts that still seem modern today onto new products.

Thonet, Tubular steel desk S 285, 1935

In today’s era of marketing primacy, a brand as strong as the Bauhaus is simply too much of a lure. The often invoked Bauhaus style does not exist, but the Bauhaus code certainly does. For some, it is indeed too powerful! The New York architecture critic Mark Wigley even calls for the world to be liberated from the ideas of the Bauhaus. He suspects the representatives of the Bauhaus movement of having aimed for a perfect human being (super human) and believes that we are all still victims of the Bauhaus and its encroaching optimization efforts today. He speaks of the Bauhaus virus––a powerful metaphor in post-corona times. It is therefore all the more astonishing that the supposedly viral Bauhaus code was hardly able to develop any influence in a special design field––that of vehicles. Automotive design and Bauhaus behave like immiscible liquids. Although there are occasional efforts to whisk them together, the separating layer always forms by itself.

Walter and Ise Gropius with their mutual friend Lily Hildebrandt: Photographed by Walter Gropius with a self-timer during a car trip with their new, white Adler Standard 8 in Dessau, 1930.

In order to explain this rejection phenomenon, it is probably necessary to investigate various causes. The first is obvious: Vehicles were not one of the original fields of work of the Bauhaus during its active period between the world wars, nor did any of the former Bauhaus members scattered around the world favor this topic in their active years afterwards. However, as with almost every rule, there are exceptions––albeit few. The first was Walter Gropius’ design work for the Frankfurt automobile brand Adler, which was important before the Second World War. Familiar with each other through Gropius’ design work on the brand’s appearance, the collaboration continued with the design of special bodies for the Standard 6 and 8 models––both luxurious models and thus created more in the spirit of a Wilhelm Wagenfeld than a Hannes Meyer. Gropius certainly created something new in terms of aesthetics and detail. A driver’s door that could be hinged either at the front or rear, as in the Standard 8 convertible, would still be an eye-catcher today, and the idea of reclining seats in the Standard 6 saloon has even become a common feature of the automobile. However, the limits of the framework set by the manufacturer did not allow Gropius to question the structure of the automobile with the radicalism he was familiar with from his work as an architect. Disruptive approaches to the automobile of the future were coming from other directions at the time. Gropius himself was obviously satisfied with the results of this cooperation and drove one of the few vehicles produced––an Adler Standard 8 Cabriolet––as his private car until his emigration in 1932. Unfortunately, none of the few examples sold survived the following world war and it remains questionable whether they would otherwise have been part of the physical, but even more so the mental, history of the Bauhaus today and thus would have claimed the theme of automobile design for it. Probably not.

The Junkers G 38 (1929) was the largest land plane of its time and was considered a marvel of engineering. With a wingspan of around 45 meters and a wing area of almost 300 square meters, the aircraft was far larger than the usual proportions of the time and was only comparable in size to the Dornier Do X seaplane.

Its collaboration with the aircraft manufacturer Hugo Junkers, also based in Dessau, is exciting because it is much more interwoven with the activities and habitus of the Bauhaus. Although this did not focus on the field of mobility, it was thematically influenced by its new requirements. The now world-famous claim »Form Follows Function« resulted not least from precisely this type of networked approach to design and technical development that was implemented here. For its pioneering work in the development of passenger aircraft, Junkers needed innovators who were willing and able to act independently of established conventions. In the 1920s, passenger aviation was naturally elitist and reserved for the luxury-conscious upper class. When designing the interiors of the aircraft, the requirements of the aircraft developers for lightweight construction and stability were diametrically opposed to the usual images of a luxurious interior. The radically new aluminum furniture designed and manufactured at the Bauhaus created a new, modern image of high-quality design with its high-tech design. The congenial collaboration between Junkers and Bauhaus not only had an impact on the furniture industry, but also sowed the seeds for a globally effective counter-image to the opulence of traditional luxury, which was able to establish itself at least as an alternative in almost all fields of design––with the exception of the automobile. To this day, two traditional vectors must be observed in order to exert luxury: Performance and massive ostentation in the broader sense. Often in combination.

One of several Junkers structural steel bridges on the Dessau autobahn world record track, which the racing driver Rudolf Caracciola drove through in a Mercedes W 154 on the day of its inauguration in 1939, setting a new record time.

The second reason is the fundamental contrast between the approaches of the Bauhaus and contemporary automotive design in the mid-twenties of the last century. While concepts of social building, housing and living were put into practice in Dessau, on the other side of the Atlantic the still young discipline of automotive design was subject to the laws of marketing as part of the mass motorization of the USA. After GMC boss Alfred P. Sloan’s simple but effective basic idea for utilizing the possibilities of design had relegated the previously unchallenged market-dominating Henry Ford to the back of the pack in just four years, the design of vehicles seemed solely committed to market success. Although the Bauhaus was also open to cooperation with industry and carried out a large number of small and large projects, it saw itself as an equal partner and never as a means of maximizing profits in a world of products. From today’s perspective, the automotive industry in the USA could be said to have been far ahead of its time. It simply skipped the era of modernity and created the postmodern product half a century earlier than the rest of the world. Automobile design thus became a kind of counter-design to modernism. The rapidly growing influence of the US car industry after the Second World War and the associated export of its ways of thinking and working initiated a competition between design philosophies. And the more saturated the markets became and the more cut-throat competition raged on the markets, the greater the number of defectors became. The transition from the era of modernism to postmodernism can also be understood as a reversal of precisely this relationship in favor of the market-oriented orientation of design à la Sloan.

Fiat Panda, 1980-1984

There are indeed automobiles whose design could have invoked the Bauhaus code in all consistency: The Fiat Panda, designed by Giorgio Giugiaro and released in 1980, would even stand up to the strict, socially minded standards of Hannes Meyer. The constraints for the design of this Italian people’s car were extremely tight––even the number of spot welds to be used in the production of the body was specified and strictly limited. The design is stringent, economical, aesthetically mastered, modern and logical, and as a superlative of automotive design it is certainly to be rated higher than numerous spectacular works à la ISO Grifo or Bugatti EB 112 from the same pen. Of course, Giorgio Giugiaro does not need Bauhaus glamour––after all, his name itself stands for one of the strongest brands in the history of automotive design. It is not known to what extent he was impressed or influenced by the Bauhaus. The design of the Panda, with its offensive pragmatism that seems almost vulgar to the apologists of automotive aesthetics, has many a critic in a quandary. A »household appliance on wheels« or an industrial design are common interpretations for resolving the inner conflict. You simply put the Panda in a different drawer and all is right with the world again.

Exporter 2 – portable radio designed by Otl Aicher for BRAUN, 1956.

The rift also runs through the fronts. In 1984, the important German graphic designer Otl Aicher––himself unquestionably a member of the classic-modern Bauhaus tradition of the Ulm School––published a book entitled »Kritik am Auto. Difficult defense of the automobile against its worshippers«. Today, the book reads at times like self-therapy, which is archetypal for the inner conflict of the protagonists of modernism in design, but also for today’s discourse on the subject of the car. As aptly as one formulated the misguided development of the contemporary automobile as a means of transportation on a rational and analytical level, one had succumbed emotionally to the allure of the subject and had to be counted among the »worshippers«. Aicher celebrates the compact Fiat Uno and––himself an enthusiastic sports car driver––reproaches the Porsche 911 for its »styling«––in modernist circles a fighting term for lack of concept and superficiality. However, from today’s perspective, his equally critical assessment »er fährt auch, wenn er steht«, marks nothing less than an almost self-evident minimum requirement of contemporary automobile design.

There is nothing to be said against a commitment to Bauhaus in automotive design––not as a universal formula, but as a pre-formulated demand for functional innovation and aesthetic clarity. The Bauhaus code, which is sometimes overused elsewhere, could be an inspiration of untouched charm for the automobile of the future. It would be worth a try. Mr. Wigley would probably have to take the train to be spared the Bauhaus virus.

ARTICLE PUBLISHED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN CHAPTER №VIII »ELEMENTS« — SOMMEr 2023

There is something mystical about this design process. At least from the perspective of the design consumer. Given the ubiquitous presence of design in our product-filled environment, the endurance of this mystery is remarkable. After all, all consumer products without exception and most capital goods, which are often undervalued in this respect – from ballpoint pens to computer tomographs – are based on a multitude of design decisions and/or concepts. In quantitative terms, design is therefore anything but rare – which doesn’t really give it a good prerequisite for lasting exoticism and unapproachability.

One might think that it is in the designers’ interest to preserve the aura of genius and therefore incomprehensibility in their work. They would keep themselves and the results of their work free from well-founded criticism and make life easier for themselves. However, this attitude and the resulting layer of protection came at the price of a huge compromise: the discipline of design, which is already almost defenceless against encroachment and protected neither by state qualifications nor by chambers, has finally become a self-service store for amateurs and self-promoters. The relevant news channels are full of success stories of B or C-list celebrities who became designers overnight. A more astonishing metamorphosis is rare in other professions. There is a long list of professions that include jobs that we all do well or badly in our private lives. Hairdressers, drivers, window cleaners, bakers, cooks and so on. Hardly anyone who manages to spoil their guests with a successful meal claims to be classified as a professional chef. It would be seen as presumptuous––and rightly so––because it is by no means enough to simply produce something enjoyable. This threshold is even higher for safety-related professions. Laws restrict the drive of amateur surgeons or autodidacts in the cockpit of an airplane, because overconfidence becomes an acute safety problem here. This does not seem to be the case for design––at least not immediately.

Cadillac Studio, 1960

»Color Room« at General Motors, 1956

DESIGN SHOW INSTEAD OF COOKING SHOW

And just to make it clear––nobody becomes a designer overnight. Behind the amazing stories of enlightenment are professional marketing concepts and a team of experts who then do the actual work. The development of collections for outerwear, shoes, jewelry (to summarize the most common incarnation miracles) requires expertise in materials, cuts, production processes, sustainability, processing techniques, marketing, ergonomics and much more. If a person’s popularity appears to be conducive to marketing, he or she is occasionally granted one or the other, within certain limits, control and freedom of choice in order to make the design story halfway plausible. This is then staged in a visually stunning way and eloquently reported. In most cases, however, the cooperation of the new designers is limited to signing the advertising contract. None of this would work if the design process were as well-known, comprehensible and public as the cooking process. Design show instead of cooking show––why not?

ACTION FRAMEWORK AND SEQUENCES

The vagueness of the public image of these design processes is its problem and its strength. Once the input data and tasks have been formulated, creative, uncritical phases alternate with critical, analytical and selective phases. In the process, the scope of action contracts step by step and the depth of detail increases. Depending on the complexity of the product, sometimes the phases of such a process are not even clearly visible. These sequences are easy to understand in design processes that are worked on by large teams, as all protagonists need to understand the status of the work and therefore need to communicate. An example of this latter case is the automotive industry with its design studios with up to three-digit numbers of people.

Peter Schreyer with a model of the Audi TT.

Audi TT Coupé (sketch)

THREE INGREDIENTS

Three ingredients are necessary for a successful design process: Firstly, the ability to produce an unlimited number of ideas and approaches. This is where the intuitive, the »Surprising yourself« plays a role. This phase probably creates the greatest mystery. But there are techniques for this too. Secondly, the ability to make selections, to recognize good things -indispensable for anyone who leads a design team or even an entire studio. And finally, the ability to implement finished ideas and/or concepts with functional and aesthetic quality––the so-called design craft. An ingredient that is definitely no less important, as it determines the first level of perception for recipients and thus the intuitive classification of good or bad, exciting or uninteresting. Particularly in our environments overcrowded with products and information, aesthetic authentication is the first hurdle to overcome in the race for attention. And here we are again with the most pervasive of all clichés about the tasks of design: aestheticization – in the worst case, decoration.

Audi design team, archive photo

ON A SOCIAL LEVEL

Generalization or specialization––a question that is difficult to answer about the training of designers. Of course, both approaches exist in practice. What is often created in small design offices as a single task or by a single person is distributed in larger structures according to inclination or specialization. In the automotive industry, which is known for the division of labor in its development process, it is still common practice today to link designs or design responsibility for a particular design with the name of a designer. An approach that is certainly justified, as this one person usually stands for the original idea, is responsible for continuing to work on it and/or has been entrusted with orchestrating the design project. However, there are also companies in which the lead designers generally claim the rights to authorship. At first glance, this approach is not completely absurd, as designers and decision-makers are inextricably dependent on each other, as success actually depends on the congeniality of this collaboration. While designers produce design proposals in the non-critical phase, the decision-makers select these works in the critical phase and create the basis for decisions for the next work sequence of the designers. What one person does not design, the other cannot decide on, but the final shape of the design depends largely on the cascade of these decisions. This is where teamwork and in-process communication––explicitly also on a social level between the protagonists––play an important role.

Design sketch Kia, with the characteristic »Tiger Nose« developed by Peter Schreyer.

UNPREDICTABILITY OF THE GENIUS

The potential of design as an important productive force is undisputed. Internationally prominent designers such as Jonathan Ive, who is inextricably linked to the history of the Apple brand, or Peter Schreyer, former chief designer at Audi and highly revered in South Korea in particular thanks to his work for Kia/Hyundai, have significantly increased, doubled or even multiplied their companies’ profits through their work and helped their respective brands to achieve sustainable value. However, from the perspective of the entrepreneurs or CEOs responsible, these grandiose success stories harbor the danger of unpredictability and unrepeatability. It is easy to be catapulted to great heights by the design boost, but dependence on the non-evaluable outpourings of genius creates unrest in management and among shareholders at the latest when the success curve slowly begins to flatten out. In the best-case scenario, these design personalities have managed to implant their way of thinking and working into the internal system, making them resilient to their own loss––or, one could say, making themselves resilient.

Design in progress – analog and digital.

»DESIGN THINKING«

It was not least this need that gave rise to the idea of describing the structure of the supposedly promising design process, stripping it of its mystery and making it reproducible and universally applicable. In the nineties of the last century, the first academic structures emerged that took on precisely this task. The Stanford d.school is regarded as the first institution to set itself the goal of applying the framework of the design process to any other development process. The only prerequisite for the meaningfulness of the application of these processes was that one or more creative decisions were decisive for their success. The idea of »Design Thinking« was in the world and spread quickly. Surprisingly, it also became the buzz word in design education in the early 2000s, which, viewed from a distance, is tantamount to the proverbial »carrying owls to Athens«. Presenting design with its very own way of doing things in new packaging sounds like a bold marketing approach. However, applying this approach to other sectors––from the design department to the insurance company––actually led to new approaches, relevant results and, not least, exciting experiments in the social structures of the respective departments, as new team formations called old structures into question.

THE IRONY OF IT ALL

An exciting aspect of the applied systematization of the design process has recently emerged through the increasing access to artificial intelligence tools. Almost at the same time as text-based applications, their image-based counterparts have become available and have since challenged the academic and professional structures of the design industry to take a stand. Serious observations with a scientific approach and experiments on the practical applicability of AI in the design process are also already available. The dissertation by Steffen Reichert on the application of AI in the automotive design process (Steffen Reichert, COMPUTATIONAL DESIGN METHODS FOR THE DESIGN OF AUTOMOBILES; University of Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-9819457-3-7) deserves special mention here. AI appears to be an effective means of accelerating the process, particularly for the non-critical phases of variant generation later in the project and thus after the original ideas of the design have been defined. When the disruptions that cannot be performed by AI are no longer required and the formal elaboration begins, AI can take over the hard work of the designer, who is only required to a limited extent in terms of craftsmanship, by cleverly defining »sliders« and deliver the results in seconds. And that is just the beginning of the considerations. The automotive industry, challenged by the constant demand for shorter development times, is already in the experimentation and testing phase in various areas. If the problem of confidentiality in the use of online applications can be mastered, these efforts will intensify once again.
However, there is also an irony in this approach. The design process, which is now transparent and recognizable in its structure, would be operated in phases by self-learning computer systems whose decision-making paths are not comprehensible in the specific case. Between the input values and the result lies a land that cannot be entered by the operators. A mystery.

Article first published in CHAPTER №IX »WORK IN PROGRESS« — WINTER 2023/24

In his works, the Vienna-based artist Lukas Gschwandtner deals with the human body in both physical and psychological relation to its surroundings. The almost poetic expression of his extensive studies and precise reflections manifests itself not only in his handling of the chosen materials, but also in his extended, backdrop-like staging of the (exhibition) space.

Chapter         In your ongoing series »Pillow Portraits«, you focus on the human body and its interaction with space, furniture and objects. How did this exploration come about?

Lukas Gschwandtner         The series »Pillow Portraits« is based on my long-standing collection of historical paintings of ladies resting on chaise longues, whose non-self-staged body language I wanted to understand. In most cases, their poses were chosen by male artists who wanted to portray them in a certain body language, surrounded by objects that would define the sitter. But the focus is also on the chaise longue itself. So in my series »Pillow Portraits« I try to create a direct and abstracted translation of the depicted body languages. A portable »canvas volume« that directs the body to lie as the portrayed person does. For me, these are mainly personal studies that help me to understand the physical, aesthetic and sociological dimensions of the painter’s decision – but above all I try to understand the physical dimension for the female models, especially as the result of the poses they assume is usually very uncomfortable and unnatural. It is important to me that »Pillow Portraits« can be worn and understood individually, but at the same time serves as a universal tool to grasp the sometimes problematic themes of historical painting.

Chapter         In your work, for example, you question furniture as a purely functional object. What social dimension do you personally attach to furniture?

Lukas Gschwandtner         What interests me about a piece of furniture is the direct contact with the body in use––a construction that supports and guides the body and at the same time determines its body language. Apart from that, the historical aspect of a piece of furniture is very important to me. The research itself is essential in order to understand the origin of the furniture and to be able to pass it on. In the context of restoration, I find it exciting to be able to reconstruct and deconstruct pieces of furniture.

Chapter         Your exhibition »A Room of Her Own« seems to distil the essence of Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky’s »living room/bedroom furnishings for Mrs. C. Neubacher«. What considerations preceded the realization and how did you approach such a multi-layered, socially charged source work?

Lukas Gschwandtner         Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky’s life story and her work have been with me for a long time and continue to influence me in new ways. The living room and bedroom she designed for Karoline Neubacher (1925) is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna. Over many years I have visited this room and measured the details with my eyes (without forbidden scanning) and found the dialog between upholstery, upholstered furniture and wood construction, their wear and tear, exciting, as well as how all components come together as a unit in the spatial image. In Mexico City, together with the Peana Gallery, I was able to translate Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky’s living room and bedroom. The translated canvas corpus (Canvas Fossil) concentrates on the surface of the room objects, acting almost like their skin. The substructure functions as a skeleton of linear steel elements reminiscent of a drawing. The stone drawings clarify the proportions and volumes of the furniture. These constructs serve as spatial drawings that can be read differently depending on the perspective. In order to transfer the floor plan and proportions of the living room and bedroom, the textile fossils were pressed between glass walls and formatted according to the floor plan of the room. For me, the overall picture of the exhibition with all the fossils floating in glass represents a family portrait of Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky’s designs––details archived by me with historical context.

Chapter         The staging of your works has a stage-set-like effect. What importance do you attach to the atmospheric and purely visual components in your work?

Lukas Gschwandtner         For me, the works stand together with the surrounding space as a whole. Perhaps it can be understood as an unspoken overall picture that I unconsciously try to create. I find it incredibly fun to move from a small scale to the largest areas of the room. This allows me to see and understand every detail. Visually, I like it best when I can document my work with my cell phone, especially because the quality is often so poor that the photo can almost be read as a painting. These cell phone photos often make it easier to recognize volumes and proportions than in fancy pictures. I think it’s important to give space a leading role, even in photos. Not forgetting my obsession with scanning––I would love to scan what I have scanned. A scan has a special two-dimensional, pressed quality that makes me think a lot about archiving––my other obsession.

For three decades now, the museum in progress has made it its mission to make contemporary art more democratic and thus accessible to as broad a public as possible. Through its integrative, low-threshold activities at the highest artistic and operational level, the non-profit art initiative transforms media and public spaces into flexible support structures for its projects away from the metaphorically thick walls of traditional cultural institutions.

»The cause of the museum in progress projects lies in the future (loosely based on Beuys)!«, writes Kaspar Mühlemann Hartl in his introductory text to the anthology »museum in progress. Kunst in öffentlichen und medialen Räumen – DURCH EIN ENDE REIN & DURCH DAS ANDERE DURCH [ & DANN NOCH EINMAL ]«, which provides an overview of the works of the museum in progress art initiative to date. The reference to the initially paradoxical-sounding assertion by the great German artist Joseph Beuys »The cause lies in the future« refers to art’s ability to grasp social trends at an early stage and can plausibly be applied to the founding idea behind the museum in progress. After all, if contemporary art is the mediator of something future, its creation, distribution and consumption away from the classic cultural infrastructure also seems logical. Founded by Kathrin Messner and Josef Ortner in Vienna, the art initiative with the programmatic name museum in progress has been operating beyond traditional forms of presentation for contemporary art since 1990 and uses open spaces as temporary spaces for art interventions, for example on billboards, building facades, in concert halls, on television or even on board airplanes.

Martha Jungwirth, »The Trojan Horse«, 2019, »Iron Curtain«, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2019/2020

Media-specific, context-dependent and temporary – the practice of museum in progress plays above all with the idea that space for art begins in the mind. »From museum in progress I had learned that museums are first and foremost software and not hardware, and this idea is more contemporary and effective than ever today«, Massimiliano Gioni, currently artistic director of the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi in Milan and the New Museum in New York, sums it up and continues: »It is extremely interesting that my encounter with museum in progress coincided with the opening year of the Museo Guggenheim in Bilbao. The Guggenheim in Bilbao may be better known today, but for me museum in progress will always point the way to the future.« The culturally significant position of the progressive art initiative was recognized early on by leading museums such as the MoMA in New York or the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, which already included its works in their collections at the turn of the millennium. Max Hollein, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, describes the project as »… a highly influential, elusive but all the more effective institution since its foundation, always ahead of its time«.
The museum in progress provides a possible answer to the ever-present discourse on the future of museums and classic exhibition spaces in areas such as newspaper art and multiples in magazines. According to the initiative, there is no other institution in the world that has realized groups of works comparable in scope, diversity and quality and furthermore: »It should be emphasized that the diverse works of the international artists were conceived specifically for the media space and do not represent reproductions of artworks, but function as multiples, as independent works in the medium’s circulation. Consequently, the individual newspaper or magazine is an original and collector’s item.«

Anselm Kiefer, »Solaris (for Stanislaw Lem)«, 2023, » Eiserner Vorhang«, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2023/2024

The museum in progress also demonstrates great (socio-political) sensitivity to current events with its exhibition series »Eiserner Vorhang«. Since 1998, this project has transformed the iron curtain of the Vienna State Opera – actually a structural fire protection device designed to protect the stage from spreading to adjacent parts of the building and the auditorium in the event of a fire – into an exhibition space for contemporary art.
The concept of the exhibition series was preceded by the debate surrounding the original iron curtain by the artist Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger. »At the heart of the controversy was an overarching topic that was only discussed in passing in public: the involvement of Austrian artists during the Nazi era and how post-war society dealt with this legacy«, the initiative’s website explains. This means Eisenmenger’s extensive role in the National Socialist regime – he painted propaganda pictures with swastikas and was awarded an honorary professorship by Hitler – the opacity of the awarding of commissions at the time and the bumpy decision-making process by a largely unqualified jury for this purpose. In fact, the controversial curtain hung prominently and largely unquestioned from 1955 to 1995, until opera director Ioan Holender publicly called for Eisenmenger’s work to be removed as a symbolic gesture. As a result, the art initiative museum in progress developed a proposal that prevailed and is still being realized today: Since then, a new work has been designed each year, which can be seen for one season, most recently by Anselm Kiefer with his work »Solaris (for Stanislaw Lem)«. Past artists have included John Baldessari, David Hockney, Cy Twombly, Kara Walker, Franz West, Rosemarie Trockel, Jeff Koons, Tauba Auerbach and Maria Lassnig – names as larger than life as the 176 square meter curtain itself. The applied large-scale images are produced and installed using an innovative process. They are produced on a PVC net, which is fixed to the iron curtain using magnets. This technique means that Eisenmenger’s original iron curtain, which is a listed building in Vienna, remains untouched. Due to the requirements of the Monuments Office, it can be seen for three months at a time during the summer months.

Cao Fei, » The New Angel«, 2022, »Eiserner Vorhang«, museum in progress, Vienna State Opera, 2022/2023

It goes without saying that an equally high-caliber, independent, international jury is responsible for selecting the artists, which – alongside Daniel Birnbaum and Bice Curiger – is also headed by the influential curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist. Long before he became a superstar of the art scene, Obrist curated many projects as a congenial partner of the then still young art initiative – in which he found ideal conditions to realize extraordinary projects – and has remained with it in an advisory capacity to this day. He describes Josef Ortner, with whom he was on friendly terms until his death in 2009, as a »pioneer among the museum founders of the 20th century. His approach was to go beyond the institution as we knew it and to devise new rituals for spaces in which we encounter art.« In his statement on the museum in progress, he also mentions the Internet as an early form of presentation of art of initiative: “The transmediality of the Internet already contains the idea behind an »immaterial« museum, offering more democratic access to art content beyond rigid media boundaries. With the founding of the digital museum in progress – a virtual exhibition space for contemporary digital art – the art initiative aims to keep pace with its progressive aspirations for itself and describes the project, which is still at a very early stage, as a »experience space for new forms of art« and also »platform for artists working with the latest technologies and digital media«. A current example of the museum in progress ‘s cross-media art presentation is the project »raising flags«, which has been realized since 2023 at various locations, in virtual exhibition spaces and in the media spaces of newspapers and magazines, and for which 35 international artists designed flags, including illustrious names such as Thomas Bayrle, Wade Guyton, Martha Jungwirth, Laure Prouvost, Christian Robert-Tissot and Erwin Wurm.

»raising flags«, museum in progress, Ladakh, 2024

Divided into two project phases, the first part, entitled »National Flags of Ideas«, deals with questions of social coexistence in challenging times, while the second part – »The essence of wind and the wind of change« – deals, as the title suggests, with movement in the wind and the wind of change in the figurative sense – to be shown at numerous locations, including Vienna and Ladakh (India) as part of the sā festival (June 2024) and soon at the festival sommer.frische.kunst festival in Bad Gastein (July 2024). The curators Kaspar Mühlemann Hartl and Alois Herrmann are calling for this to be continued: »Institutions, companies, but also private individuals who have the means to display a flag in a publicly visible manner are invited to participate in the project.« Certainly not a coincidental invitation, considering that the museum in progress was understood by its founding members Kathrin Messner and Josef Ortner as a social sculpture (loosely based on Beuys!), whose understanding results from the »expanded concept of art«, which does not limit art to a completed work, but includes the creative thinking and action of the individual, also in its collectivity. A consideration that the unconventional museum has always included in its work.

In the long and incredibly varied history of the wristwatch, there have always been developments that have set new standards in terms of both technology and design. We take a look at some of the most outstanding models and innovations in watch history.

Looking at the development of the wristwatch, the 20th century in particular was a period of dramatic and rapid change, »in which the watch transformed itself into almost every conceivable form«, as Daryn Schnipper, head of the international watch department at the renowned auction house Sotheby’s, points out. An era that brought us a whole series of innovations that are considered state of the art today. In terms of cultural history, the reinterpretation of the wristwatch from feminine to masculine is particularly significant. (Even if these categories are increasingly disappearing again today.) It is important to bear in mind that, firstly, the history of the wristwatch does not begin in the 20th century, but long before, and that, secondly, it was initially conceived for a female clientele. The Queen of Naples, Caroline Murat, was one of the customers of the ingenious watchmaker and inventor Abraham-Louis Breguet. We have him to thank for the tourbillon, among other things. Caroline Murat’s wristwatch is considered to be the first ever documented. The Breguet company archives state: »One of Breguet’s most brilliant and certainly most practical inventions––the wristwatch––was, paradoxically, completely ignored by his contemporaries.« However, documents from this period prove beyond doubt that Breguet was commissioned by the Queen of Naples on June 8, 1810 to design the first known wristwatch, Breguet watch no. 2639.

With the angular form, the wristwatch once emancipated itself from the Pocket watch. Cartier has remained true to this geometry to this day with the Santos de Cartier Dual Time, a new launch at Watches & Wonders 2024.

1810––more than a hundred years before the wristwatch proved its practicality in the trenches of the First World War and found itself on more and more men’s wrists. It was only then that it really broke away from its feminine image and began to challenge the pocket watch for its dominant position. The Santos from Cartier is a pioneering example of these developments. With its square case, it emancipated itself visually from the traditional round shape of the pocket watch. Louis Cartier created it for his friend Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aviation pioneer who was living in Paris at the time. He set a world aviation record in 1906. Two years earlier, Santos-Dumont had already complained to Cartier. The pocket watch was far too impractical and he had to fiddle around in his jacket pocket while flying. Without further ado, Louis Cartier designed the world’s first pilot’s watch for him, even if it was fundamentally different from the timepieces we file away in this category today. Or to take it even further: The Santos was one of the first wristwatches for men.
It later gave rise to the Santos de Cartier collection, which the French watch and jewelry giant continues to update to this day––without, however, changing its iconic basic shape. This also makes it one of the longest-running lines in watchmaking history. Its design was pioneering: a square dial, visible screws and a strap that fits snugly and does not restrict the wrist’s freedom of movement. In 1911, the Santos was also made accessible to a wider, albeit wealthy, public.
It is a child of its time. The square shape can be seen as a reminiscence of the geometric aesthetics popular in Paris at the time. It can be seen as a symbol of the design revolution at the beginning of the 20th century. Cubism, Futurism: after all, aesthetics were also rethought in the fin de siècle.

A timelessly elegant classic: the Oyster Perpetual Datejust from Rolex. It was once the first automatic wristwatch with a date window on the dial.

At around the same time as Santos-Dumont and Cartier were working in Paris, a native of Bavaria named Hans Wilsdorf registered a brand name that is still synonymous with luxury watches today: Rolex. The watch world owes a large number of innovations that are standard today to this name. In 1914, Wilsdorf made a momentous request: »We must find a way to develop a waterproof wristwatch.« It was addressed to the company Aegler in Biel, which would later become Manufacture des Montres Rolex S.A.
Rolex first launched the Submarine, not to be confused with the later Submariner, in 1922. This wristwatch was hinged to a second case whose water-resistance was based on a bezel screwed to the middle section, on which the crystal was mounted. For all operations on the winding crown––to wind the movement or set the time––the outer case had to be opened. The Submarine marked the first step in Hans Wilsdorf’s development work to build a completely waterproof and user-friendly wristwatch case. As a result of this research, the Oyster case was patented four years later in 1926. This case––hermetically sealed thanks to a system of bezel, case back and winding crown screwed to the middle section––now protected the inside of the wristwatch against external influences. Wilsdorf chose the name Oyster for this wristwatch, as well as for its case, as it »can lie in water indefinitely like an oyster without damaging the movement«. A milestone in the history of watchmaking. The following year, the entrepreneur set about advertising the exceptional qualities of the Oyster in an original way. When he learned that Mercedes Gleitze, a young secretary from Brighton, England, wanted to swim across the English Channel and, if successful, would be the first British woman to achieve this feat, he asked her if she would like to wear an Oyster to prove the absolute waterproofness of the watch. After surviving the ordeal in the icy waters of the English Channel, a journalist from the British daily newspaper The Times wrote: »Miss Gleitze was carrying a small gold wristwatch that worked perfectly throughout her time in the water.«

The hermetically sealed Oyster case, patented in 1926, has been a symbol of Rolex wristwatches ever since. As already mentioned, it consists of a bezel, a case back and a winding crown, which are screwed to the middle section. Over the course of time, these components were further developed, one of the aims being to increase the water resistance of the wristwatch and thus respond to the needs of divers, who were able to reach ever greater depths thanks to modern diving equipment and techniques.
In 1931, Rolex developed the automatic winding mechanism that turned the Oyster into an Oyster Perpetual. The self-winding rotor later established itself as the industry standard in the watch sector. On the occasion of the company’s 40th anniversary, Rolex created a new watch that would combine all of the company’s previous successes––Oyster case, automatic rotor and chronometer precision: the Datejust. It was the first automatic wristwatch with a date window on the dial. Ten years later, Rolex introduced another icon: the Submariner, the archetype of the diver’s watch.

Navitimer B12 Chronographe 41 Cosmonaute: The latest version of Breitling’s Navitimer with 24-hour time display, naturally with the iconic slide rule bezel.

Two years before the Submariner, a timepiece saw the light of day that was to join the ranks of watch icons almost immediately: the Navitimer from Breitling. »It’s obvious, isn’t it … navigation and timer, a record of the passage of time … but also a clever choice of name«, judges Michael Balfour in his book Kult-Uhren. From 1952 to the present day, it can look back on an uninterrupted success story.
What makes the chronograph so extraordinary is an additional function that fired the imagination at a time when flying was still a luxury: a rotating bezel that serves as a slide rule. This enabled pilots to carry out all the necessary flight calculations. Ultimately, this feature made the Navitimer unmistakable and unique. The now slightly hackneyed phrase form follows function applies here in the best sense of the word. Speaking of state of the art, function and design: The second pusher, without which no chronograph is complete today, is the work of Longines.
In any case, the Navitimer demonstrates that a »smart« additional function, then as now, does not necessarily have to play a role in the user’s everyday life. And how a »tool watch« conceived as a commodity can become a lifestyle product.

As an affordable homage to the Omega Moonwatch, Swatch launched the Bioceramic MoonSwatch collection in 2022. This was followed in April 2024 by the Bioceramic MoonSwatch Mission to the Moonphase – New Moon with Snoopy on the moon phase.

The Navitimer ‘s fan base grew at the latest when it appeared on the big screen in James Bond’s »Thunderball« in 1965. However, the practical functions were of little interest to them. And even famous aficionados such as jazz legend Miles Davis or chansonnier Serge Gainsbourg probably didn’t use their wristwatch to calculate ascent rates or altitude difference. Current wearers of the pilot’s watch probably don’t either.
Ultimately, it is what the watch stands for. The Moonwatch from Omega is a good example of this. Originally intended as a sports watch, the Speedmaster was the first wristwatch in history to land on the moon in 1969. A coincidence, if you like, and the dream of every marketing department. In recent years and months, the hype surrounding the MoonSwatch has shown just how much the cult of the »Speedy« has blossomed. A quartz chronograph with the typical features of the Speedmaster, the result of a collaboration between Omega and Swatch. Mostly young watch fans around the world queued for hours to get their hands on one of the coveted timepieces. If that isn’t proof of the nimbus that the »Speedy« still has decades after its launch.

Omega’s Speedmaster Moonwatch, one of the most iconic chronographs in history, in its latest edition: this time with a white lacquered dial inspired by space exploration and the collection’s famous heritage.

While the world stared spellbound at the moon, 1969 brought an innovation that was in no way inferior to the moon landing––at least in the watch industry: after seven years of development work, El Primero saw the light of day. It was the first automatic chronograph caliber in history. Several players wanted to claim this success, including Seiko and the Chronomatic Group, which at the time still included such illustrious names as Breitling, Heuer and Dubois Dépraz. Zenith finally made it: El Primero, »the first«, was a masterpiece whose heart beat at 36,000 semi-oscillations and still does today. A high-speed oscillator that was to lead the watch industry into a new era of precise timekeeping. Rolex, for example, also relied on the caliber for its chronographs for a long time.
What Zenith achieved on the technical side, Gérald Genta achieved on the design side: In 1970, the (self-titled) first watch designer in the world created a design that is still causing a sensation today. He designed a completely new, waterproof sports watch for Audemars Piguet. One that would stand out from the crowd of boring gold wristwatches that were always the same. In less than 24 hours, he designed the Royal Oak: corners, polished and patinated edges, the octagonal bezel fastened with visible hexagonal screws, integrated bracelet, no two links alike. What had previously been sealed and hidden suddenly became the focal point of the design, creating an unmistakable, exciting accent. Two years later, the Nautilus followed for Patek Philippe. Also an icon. Then came the »quartz crisis«, which almost brought down the mechanical watch and the entire industry. With the »quartz revolution«, triggered by the Astron 35SQ from Seiko, the timepiece had become a generally affordable commodity. On the positive side, the (electronic) wristwatch was democratized – to put it bluntly, it became a disposable product. And the mechanical wristwatch became a luxury product. Ironically, it was the success of a very inexpensive quartz watch, the Swatch and the group of the same name, that laid the foundation for the renaissance of the analog watch.
Sales of mechanical watches picked up again from the mid-1980s in the middle and upper price segments due to the preference of many for the aesthetic and comprehensible mechanism. »Many watch manufacturers returned to their relevant tradition and triggered an unparalleled boom«, as the internationally renowned watch expert Gisbert L. Brunner sums up. Audemars Piguet, for example, launched the first series-produced tourbillon for the wrist in 1986. The total height of just 4.8 millimetres was achieved by using the case back as the movement plate.

The next chapter in of the history of the Freak: the Freak S Nomad from Ulysse Nardin. With this watch line, silicon made its way into haute horlogerie as a pioneering material.

With the new millennium, new materials found their way into the watchmaking cosmos. While brass, steel and synthetic ruby had dominated the production of mechanical movements for centuries, silicon, the basic material for microchips, became acceptable in 2001. Ulysse Nardin was at the forefront of this development with the Freak, where silicon components were used for the first time. This was followed by Patek Philippe, Rolex, Omega––you name it. Today, the material is practically state of the art, and not just in the high-price segment. Even »entry-level brands« such as Tissot––see Powermatic 80––offer corresponding calibers with components made of the non-magnetic and corrosion-resistant element. As far as design is concerned, there seem to be no limits. Ceramic can be used to conjure up the most beautiful colors on the wrist, while titanium and carbon make the timepiece robust and light as a feather. Microbrands such as MB&F go wild when it comes to watch design. Liquid time displays are also available, see HYT.

Not state of the art, but rather avant-garde: with the Horological Machine Nº11 Architect, the microbrand MB&F shows what is possible in watch design if you are not bound by tradition.

Ultimately, all of this shows that the wristwatch has always moved between different areas of tension: between tradition and innovation, between function and aesthetics, between craftsmanship and high-tech. There is also a dash of emotion. It seems to be a deeply human need to know the time »to own it, to keep it«, as Daryn Schnipper puts it. It is a desire that never grows old. How else can we explain why so many people are so enthusiastic about the good old mechanical watch in the age of the smartwatch and the ubiquitous availability of time information? It is itself state of the art, a cultural asset.

Sophie Buhai, the object designer portrayed in the cover story, can certainly be described as such a style-defining figure, whose designs, which borrow from surrealism and classical modernism, also reinterpret the sometimes dusty perception of classic jewelry. In an interview with Chapter Creative Director Dzenana Mujadzic, Sophie Buhai discusses the omnipresent design aspect and the always artistic view of the jewelry she designs, away from diamonds & co.

The chief designers of the most influential German automotive brands can of course also be described as tastemakers of an entire industry, and in some cases even beyond. In an exclusive interview with Senior Editor Sarah Wetzlmayr, Adrian van Hooydonk (BMW), Gorden Wagener (Mercedes-Benz), Michael Mauer (Porsche) and Massimo Frascella (Audi) are confident that the pioneering role of German automotive design can be successfully defended in the future: With bold concepts and a commitment to reduction and clarity in design, supported by an even stronger emphasis on the respective characteristic, prestigious brand identity.

Author and watch expert Max Monte explores the obvious question of why there are so few well-known watch designers compared to other design-heavy industries and what importance is attached to design in general? We spoke to leading figures from renowned luxury watch manufacturers to find out.

If this issue deals with the current and future role of style-setting pioneers in design, art and culture, then there is of course no way around the currently unavoidable topic of AI. »Do we still need such brilliant individuals«, asks our author Lutz Fügener in his essay and attests that what will count now more than ever is the ability to make judgments based on one’s own feelings, the art of conducting, the visionary and the original.

The renowned design studios Necchi Architecture, Minimal Designs and EBUR as well as the London design gallery Béton Brut, in conversation with and curated by Chapter Creative Director Dzenana Mujadzic, provide possible answers to the eternal question of whether there is such a thing as good taste, and if so, how one would define it.

This and much more now in Chapter XI — »Tastemakers«.

THE CURRENT ISSUE IS AVAILABLE IN GERMANY, AUSTRIA AND SWITZERLAND IN BOOK — AND MAGAZINE STORES AS WELL AS DIRECTLY VIA ORDER IN OUR ONLINESTORE. AS ALWAYS, CHAPTER IS ALSO AVAILABLE AT COUNTLESS DISTRIBUTION PARTNERS FROM THE LUXURY HOTEL INDUSTRY, AIRPORT LOUNGES, GALLERIES AND SHOWROOMS.

What is the connection between a car and the visual arts? A motorized car is auto-mobile and autonomous; it was built to be on the road. The same applies to art: it stems from an inner movement, stands on its own and is constantly seeking new paths. Interesting things have emerged from both encounters.

The beginning. You learn it in creative writing. Presumably. It is recommended to start a speech or an article––preferably with rhetorical finesse––with a joke or at least a bon mot. Here, however, everything starts with an obituary. It just has to be, since he was so important: a brief remembrance of Marcello Gandini, the great Italian designer who left us forever a few months ago. His legacy is motorized and enchanting. Not only car enthusiasts feel that certain something when they stand in front of a Lancia Stratos, a Lamborghini Miura, but above all the Lamborghini Countach, which proves that automotive design of this kind is undoubtedly one of the points of contact with fine art and its sculptural bodies. Leaving aside the pleasure of sitting in these vehicles and being able to drive them, smelling their scent and enjoying their sound, it is their pure form and materiality alone that are so powerful that we are touched aesthetically and sensually. This is why cultural society has long paid homage to the mobile, which the Italian futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti brought into the museum in 1909 with the statement that a car roaring is »more beautiful than the Nike of Samothrace«. At first, it was mainly photography and advertising graphics that took an artistic approach to the then very young technology. Then, in 1951, a museum, the famous MoMA in New York, decided to exhibit eight vehicles of equal value – curated by architect Philip Johnson. When the same institution finally added the first automobile to its collection of art and design 21 years later––an Italian Cisitalia 202 GT––it was finally established as a cultural asset. This is interesting, because Battista »Pinin« Farina, who had created the car in 1946, was not an artist but a designer. Nevertheless, those responsible at the MoMA did not question its inclusion in the fine arts at the time––apparently because the object-related aesthetic quality in form and material created an appropriate effect. Thanks to the simple clarity of its design, the immensely appealing big thing oscillates between toy character and living being thanks to its softly shaped body, the many sympathetic curves and the puppy-like front. This immediately perceived attraction, or rather beauty, caused the red sports car, which was ultimately created as a utility object, to tip into a new dimension: from object status to work of art.

Cisitalia 202 GT (1946), Pininfarina Design Studio, Cambiano, Turin

In this context, it is worth noting that while works of art have existed for tens of thousands of years, the examination of the automobile in art is very recent. However, the first reflections on the then unusually fast-moving and thoroughly technoid vehicle emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, and many an artist such as Pablo Picasso (Facel Vega), the writer Erich Maria Remarque (Bugatti), the musician John Lennon (Rolls-Royce) or the artist Joseph Beuys (Bentley) moved the vehicle, which soon became part of their private living space, with great awareness and pleasure. The 1960s and 70s marked an early high point, when the artistic approach to the automobile also expanded into a contemporary freedom of interaction––through depiction in paintings and photography, in which movement, technology and form are reflected. And today? Seventy years after that boom period, the situation is quite disparate. It seems as if everyone involved in the automotive world is subject to a fundamental uncertainty––the manufacturing companies and associations, the politicians with their different orientations and the extremely heterogeneous clientele in terms of demands and preferences. It is an interplay characterized by the insight into environmental pollution and consumer constraints, but also by the enthusiasm for innovative technologies and materials as well as the will to reform transport intelligently. Not for a long time has there been so many new concepts, technologies and designs to present, learn about, discuss and weigh up. In this respect, it is also up to the art scene to react to this.

But how does art do that? Imagine being an artist yourself, and it wouldn’t be a matter of designing a car, i.e. initiating a complex process and shaping technology, safety, economy and brand language into an overall design. Nor would it be a matter of buying one and getting by with hobbies, everyday pragmatism and a credit line. Rather, there would be absolute freedom of making. On the one hand, you would be standing in a frighteningly empty space, thrown back on your own head, on your own ideas and abilities, and on the other hand, you would be surrounded by countless real vehicles and types that you could deal with, their images, their history and stories, the implications and philosophical aspects of automobile culture. Oh holy Christophorus! If necessary, we could also ask Apollo with his chariot of the sun for inspiration, who, after all, would also be responsible as the god of fine arts. So what to do? What strategies are recommended for an artistic approach to the subject? Well, you could stylize the car and present it in its specific capacity as a design icon, as can be found in museums or in object photography very early on, but also in the hyper-realistic oil paintings of Don Eddy in the 1970s. Art generates a »image of the car«, which is not far removed from myth or fetish. And advertising is only too happy to pick up on this appeal when it comes to marketing this important industrial product: »Unique like a work of art« or »The most beautiful form of technology«, as VW and Alfa Romeo deliberately alluded to in their advertising.

Fabian Oefner, »Disintegrating X – Lamborghini Miura SV (1972)«, 2018

The intellectual, rational path is also conceivable: analysis. Fabian Oefner’s oeuvre is a very impressive example. The Swiss artist, who lives in the USA, developed a very unconventional approach to the automobile through meticulous visual dismantling. For example, he accompanied an Italian restoration team as they carefully dismantled one of the rare cars for maintenance and photographed more than a thousand components of the car’s original technology in individual shots in their workshop. These are then used to create digitally generated compositional views of a vehicle based on the principle of exploded views. Oefner’s aim is to use this analysis to visualize the complex functional structure of such an object and to amaze us with the paradoxical coincidence of design and disintegration, as he calls it: »I want to explore what surrounds us like this and arouse people’s curiosity.« Of course, we are aware that up to 10,000 individual parts normally come together to form a multifunctional module under the bodywork of a standard motor vehicle, behind the dashboard or in the upholstered seats. However, we always forget this. In view of these images, we have to realize for better or worse that the beauty of a Cisitalia 202 GT, as shown in the MoMA, or the silver Lamborghini Miura SV  by Fabian Oefner is de facto not as materially homogeneous as the massive marble sculpture of the Nike of Samothrace in the Louvre. An automobile is a magical work of technology and skill. No wonder the French philosopher and Citroën DS enthusiast Roland Barthes once wrote: »I believe that the automobile today is the fairly exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals. In other words: a great epochal creation designed with passion by unknown artists …« So there we have it again, art. So the automobile itself can be seen as an object of art. However, with its smooth sheet metal, which virtually invites surface design, it can also be a canvas or a picture support. The Paris-based designer Sonia Delaunay, for example, presented her avant-garde fashion in 1925 in a stylistically adapted Citroën, painted in a check design. Pablo Picasso also painted a car in 1958, more precisely the left flank of a car of the same brand, a blue Citroën DS 19. A journalist had visited him in exile in France with this car, and the artist, who was obviously very pleased about this, even signed his secretly painted motif. The most famous series of artistically designed bodies or creatively interpreted vehicles was initiated by the BMW brand in 1975: the BMW Art Car. Up to the current project by Julie Mehretu, which is presented in the cover story of this Chapter №X, titled »STATE OF THE ART«, 20 examples have been created to date on the basis of various BMW models––designed by Calder, Lichtenstein, Warhol or Koons. This strategy of artistic creation could be described as a reaction, as a specific view of an everyday object that is very central to people, whereby it naturally changes significantly and is viewed and treated completely differently after processing.

Asta Gröting, »Goethe’s traveling carriage, Adenauer’s Mercedes and my Smart«, 2012

A fourth approach to art attempts to explore and elaborate on the profound, on hidden qualities. The effect is often a poetic quality that suddenly turns the previously banal into the extraordinary. Such ambiguity is well exemplified in a work by Asta Gröting, whose title actually describes it completely: »Goethe’s traveling carriage, Adenauer’s Mercedes and my Smart«. The artist, who works in Berlin, installed three sub-views of this strange compilation of vehicles, each of which has an inherent importance: the genius writer’s carriage for the world, the Federal Chancellor’s limousine for post-war Germany and finally the knobbly little car for herself. However, you don’t see what is obvious, but what is normally hidden, i.e. the chassis, dampers, etc.––and you are supposed to think for yourself, pondering about mobility itself, about technical diligence, travel, history and the German people. The basis are scans of the originals, the end product is a soft form or thin layer of polyurethane that lies succinctly on the gallery floor.

Erwin Wurm, »UFO«, 2006

Another creative impetus used by art is the strategy of alienation, with which it creates uncertainty in the perception of familiar things and thus hopes to raise awareness. While excessive irritation can sometimes cause aversion, playing with change in a light-hearted way can be quite fun. This is why works such as those by Austrian artist Erwin Wurm, which make use of a humorous deformation that retains a socially critical tenor but is more likely to make you smile. Think of his delivery van, whose rear end bends up against the wall of a house, or the fat cars that have been created since the 2000s. Wurm transforms an existing car with styrofoam, fiberglass and polyurethane so that it is almost crushed by its bulges––an obese body that is more than a reflection of the affluent society. Or he lets it float like a cloud-like blue disc, like a dream vision or a UFO, with the original greenhouse of a Porsche 924 inside. The audience recognizes that it was originally a normal car, but cannot escape the deformation of form and meaning. With a similarly playful irreverence, the Scotsman Chris Labrooy quoted the iconic Palm Springs motifs of mid-century modernist painting, as we know them from David Hockney. However, in his digital painting series »Palm Springs Porsche 911«, Labrooy cheekily replaced the shimmering water of a pool with twelve equally blue Carrera RSs, which bob close together and visually simulate the waves with their typical roofline. A contemporary further development of pop art painting, which even back then liked to devote itself to the car, only the VW Beetle, and not its sporty descendant.

Chris Labrooy, Series »Palm Springs Porsche 911« (Twelve Porsche 911 Carrera RS in a pool), n.d.

The next path that art could take would be that of questioning. By transposing the automobile from its usual position and form into a completely absurd one, viewers experience an irritating sense of uncertainty. Conrad Shawcross does this very skillfully by hanging a Lotus at an angle and upside down. The appearance and functionality, indeed the entire type of vehicle, are thus counteracted: from a desirable sports car, it becomes a huge, useless and helpless thing.

The last of the tactics presented here goes even further––provocation. It is particularly popular with artists who love dramatic and powerful actions. In addition, the public reacts most intensely to this, which is easy to do with the automobile as a workpiece, because in our product world it is not only one of the most expensive, but often also one of the most personally cherished possessions.

Conrad Shawcross, »Golden Lotus (Inverted)«, 2019; installation view Saatchi Gallery, London

It is understandable that a video intervention by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist, in which she smashed the windows of parked cars in Zurich city center with a steel flower while prancing past, was not viewed without emotion. The sculptures by French artist César Baldaccini had a comparably echoey effect. In the context of Nouveau Réalisme, in 1960 he began to press car bodies into so-called Compressions dirigées, so that the public was suddenly not standing in front of a conventional sculpture, but in front of a metal cube that was nothing other than the result of a scrap metal pressing and contained a complete car. The contemporaneous works of the US American John Chamberlain, who assembled individual dented and rusted metal parts of defunct road cruisers into highly decorative sculptures, also became well known. The art world had to react to this provocation––a creative tactic that eventually weakened in its authentic, formal-aesthetic and socio-critical effect, so that conceptual successors such as Kevin Beasley can no longer do justice to it. You always have to be careful that it doesn’t become too banal, as was the case in 2011 when the Karlsruhe Center for Art and Media mounted its exhibition »Car Culture« with numerous deformed vehicles, Beetles placed on top of each other in balls, a Mercedes rolled over by a tank or an SL filled to the brim with oil. HA Schult, who is not exactly sure of his style, was also involved with a car wreck installation »Crying Cars«.

Dirk Skreber, »untitled (Crash 1)«, 2009

What is important is the intense effect due to a new type of work statement that occurs in this thematic field related to the automobile: the decay of the glamorous product, the brutality of deformation or the dangerousness of fast movement. Dirk Skreber achieves this with skill. His everyday vehicles wrapped around steel poles are shocking, as it is impossible to escape the force of the assumed accident and the inevitable lethality of mobility associated with it. Interestingly, this effect of disturbance is mixed with a sense of cruel sculptural beauty. The best way to reassure oneself about a possible good outcome is with Marshall McLuhan’s ambivalent analysis of the times from 1964: »Behind the wheel, we transform ourselves into superhumans.« Nevertheless: the automobile in question … is dead.

The end. And so this text ends as it began––not with a joke, but once again with a memento mori. A remembrance of the many beautiful automotive companions of mankind that have lost their lives through fate––be it an accident, a burst piston, a natural disaster or simply shameful neglect and the associated nasty rust. After all––here, in the protected environment of art, we can be sure of the safety and care of our favorites.

»In French, we say ça a de l’esprit,« says Paris-based interior designer Marie-Anne Derville, referring in our interview to the exciting interaction and invisible sensual component between people, styles, art, objects and places that she tries to make perceptible with her work.

Chapter  You have a very modern approach to setting a room, but it still feels like stepping into another era where everything seemed just a bit more elegant and sophisticated. How much consideration and precision is needed to make your creative work seem so effortless?

Marie-Anne Derville  My work stems directly from my life, where I do things both very precisely and very spontaneously, blending rigor with boheme. In terms of creating interiors, I rely a lot on these very spontaneous acts, my instinctive and direct approach, which might be the effortless vibe you’re referring to. I’d further say, my work brings together very consciously made choices mixed with an almost childlike impulse, something to do with play. In the end, it all comes down to the interaction and tension between objects of different values, origins, periods and styles, it’s what creates the desired feeling embedded in harmony. What interests me is the dimension of intellectual, emotional and visual alliance, even if unconscious. A nice interior is like a person’s character – in the end, it’s all about the individual charm.

Chapter  Working primarily with vintage objects and artworks that are already charged with meaning and tell their own story – some scream, some whisper, but how do you make sure the tune is just right?

Marie-Anne Derville  The search for the right tune is what drives me in my work and my thinking. To me, creating an interior is like writing a score with eighth notes, rests and white notes – it’s about creating tension between moods. In this sense, the true act of creation lies in the subtle art of association. Take Palazzo Cini in Venice, which houses masterpieces by Piero della Francesca and Joseph Beuys under the same roof. That’s the kind of absolute that I am striving for. But how do you create the invisible connection that creates the tangible atmosphere between such opposing masterpieces both speaking their own unique language? To put them in dialogue, it requires you to listen very closely. Harmony works in truly mysterious ways.

Chapter  Some things never get old, so speaking of juxtaposing contemporary designs with antique pieces – what does “State of the Art” mean to you?

Marie-Anne Derville It’s the capacity to bring together both the new and the timeless. “State of the Art” means understanding and embracing different time periods, but also rising above them. This principle – as I understand it – is perfectly embodied in Cy Twombly’s work and world view because it’s radically modern, but also steeped in history. His vision permeated all areas of his life, from art to his interiors and houses, his friends and his lifestyle. It was total. Today, there are many stylistic standards, but to me, it always comes down to one’s unique way of perceiving, which is impossible to copy or reproduce.

Chapter  Over time, the initial design of a residential space tends to adapt more and more to the people who live in it.
At what point does a project feel completed on your part?

Marie-Anne Derville To me, a private interior project can never be totally completed. A space must continue to evolve, live on. In this regard, collectors are fabulous people because they try to enhance the reality of their everyday lives and homes through aesthetic choices. It’s a form of transcendence. It’s the ever-evolving collection that makes for an interesting interior. I hate these interiors that we see so much of today, where everything is perfectly furnished, flattened, frozen. Interiors should be “dream machines”, creating a bubble that is somehow detached from reality while still being part of it. Even though my approach is much more contemporary, I am very much inspired by figures like Emilio Terry, Charles de Beistegui or Madeleine Castaing. It’s all about being close to life, to movements, to impulses.

Whether the Porsche Design Tower, the ICONIC Tower by Pininfarina, Mercedes-Benz Places or real estate projects by Bentley and Aston Martin — more and more automotive brands are deciding to outdo themselves with luxuriously futuristic residential projects, whereby the design principles of the skyscrapers are usually closely linked to the design philosophies of the car manufacturers.

There is hardly a car brand that would not claim to aim high. In the figurative sense, of course. With Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Bentley, Aston Martin and several other luxury car manufacturers, however, there have also been brands for some years now that have literally committed themselves to this — admittedly somewhat hackneyed — phrase. Since Porsche set an (all) outstanding starting point with the Porsche Design Tower in Miami, which was completed in 2017, so-called branded residences, which bear the names of these luxury car manufacturers and were also (co-)developed by them, have been springing up like mushrooms. The two metropolises of Miami and Dubai have emerged as particularly fertile areas in this respect.

Mercedes-Benz’ first real estate project in the USA is being built in Brickell, Miami, and is being developed in cooperation with the real estate development group JDS Development Group.

The German manufacturer Mercedes-Benz has set up shop in both hotspots with its ambitious and unusual Mercedes-Benz Places real estate project. “Both buildings are unmistakably characterized by our design philosophy of “Sensual Purity” and thus the bipolarity of emotion and intelligence. With its unmistakable elliptical shape and flowing lines, Dubai appeals more to the emotion — the heart. Miami stands more for rationality and thus the intelligent pole of our design philosophy. Its simple cubic bodies, artfully linked together, form a striking skyscraper that stands out from Miami’s architectural landscape,” says Gorden Wagener, Chief Designer at Mercedes-Benz, who played a leading role in the design of the two skyscrapers. As a designer, he always strives to create something new and unique, but only time will tell whether the work he and his team have created will one day achieve iconic status, says Wagener. “But icons make the difference, because they define luxury and embody certain characteristics: they are timeless and unmistakable. They are also based on a strong idea that can polarize,” the designer continues. However, the emotional core of every design is clearly beauty. “Everything we do must be aesthetic. What is beautiful fascinates people and exerts a great attraction. But that alone is not enough for us: we also strive to give beauty the brilliance of the extraordinary — be it in a Mercedes-Benz model or a property.”

Mercedes-Benz Places Dubai is a joint project between Mercedes-Benz and Binghatti Developers.

THE NEW STAR ON THE HOUSING MARKET

Attractiveness is a good keyword, because there is not enough interest in the 150 luxury apartments in the 365-metre-high building. Mercedes-Benz skyscraper in Dubai the German car manufacturer can’t complain, says Florian Haffa in Tom Junkersdorf’s “Tomorrow” podcast. As Founder and CEO of Brand Labs International, Haffa builds bridges between brands and real estate. This is also the case with Mercedes-Benz. “Branding gives the properties a form of seal of approval,” says Haffa. However, the high demand is also the result of an undeniable brand fetishism, which, in his opinion, almost all people carry within them. On average, customers are willing to pay 30 percent more for a property from their “love brand”. Around 700 projects of this type have been completed worldwide by 2023, with a further 600 in the pipeline and due to be completed by 2030. In the past ten years, the number of branded residences worldwide has risen by more than 160 percent. While the sector was dominated by luxury hotel chains in the past, there are now more and more lifestyle brands that are shaking up the sector with their projects. In addition to the automotive industry, these are primarily fashion brands and jewelry manufacturers. Although it seems to be a phenomenon that has only really taken off in the last ten years, the beginnings of branded residences date back almost 100 years. The opening of the New York apartment hotel The Sherry Netherland Hotel in 1927 is usually cited as the concrete starting point. The tallest hotel in the city at the time, it was the first property to offer 165 luxury apartments for sale. At the same time, the new owners had all the amenities of a luxury hotel at their disposal.

BEAM ME UP, PORSCHE

The fact that Gorden Wagener, as mentioned at the beginning, was at the forefront of the development of the two Mercedes-Benz skyscrapers says a lot about the role that design plays in transferring the brand identity to the real estate sector. A very big one. It is also fitting that many major automotive brands are increasingly relying on their design departments to help shape the overall brand identity. The term design now means much more than just the design of individual vehicles. “I find it incredibly exciting that we designers are becoming more and more involved in shaping the entire brand image. This has also changed the significance of design as a whole. In management positions, you suddenly become part of the overall corporate strategy,” says Porsche Head of Design Michael Mauer.

One of the highlights of the Porsche Design Tower Miami are the automated car elevators. The technically complex “Dezervator” has made it possible to integrate the car parking space into the living area.

With the Porsche Design Tower Miami, Porsche Design aims to transfer the characteristic attributes of the brand — functional design, technical innovation and pioneering technologies — to a residential real estate project.

In 2017, the manufacturer from Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen set the first standards in an area that had barely been explored with the 60-storey Porsche Design Tower in Miami. At Porsche, too, the design principles that apply to the cars span all areas belonging to the brand, explains Stefan Büscher, Chairman of the Management Board of Porsche LifestyleGmbH Co. GmbH Co KG. Functionality, reduction and timelessness — in conjunction with technical excellence — are at the heart of this. There are some parallels between the world of real estate and that of automotive development, he adds. “Both areas are united by the fact that they are technically very demanding. In addition to the design performance, i.e. the pure appearance, the focus is on the technical-functional aspect. Engineering performance therefore plays a much greater role than in other product categories. In addition, vehicles and even more so buildings have a very long life cycle. In addition to the enormous technical challenges, this also has a considerable influence on the design. This must inevitably be timeless and still up to date decades from now. In product categories with shorter life cycles, on the other hand, you can be more experimental and react more quickly to trends.” A third similarity is the high visibility in the public eye. “Outstanding and striking buildings as well as vehicles have a fundamental impact on the image of modern cities,” he concludes.

For Stefan Büscher, the Porsche Design Tower Miami is not only a symbol of architectural excellence, but also a testimony to the brand’s commitment to offering its customers ultra-exclusive experiences. “The idea of community is also central to this,” Büscher interjects, adding: “In English, they say: ‘It’s not about what you buy but what you buy into. We are very lucky that no automotive brand in the world has gained such a large, loyal and emotional community as Porsche over the decades. As Porsche Design, we take this on board and carry it forward with our products and projects. So it was not just about a technical and architectural achievement that offers dream spaces for its residents, but about a lighthouse and a unique community hub.”

At the design level, the company has remained true to the “form-follows-function” approach. He explains what this means in concrete terms as follows: “In line with our identity, we deliberately decided against design elements that have no function other than pure showmanship. Such an element does have a strong recognition value, but you quickly get tired of it, which clashes with the building’s long life cycle. An additional challenge with a building is that it is located in a public space and therefore has a relationship with its surroundings that we cannot influence, but which we have to take into account.” The highlight of the 60-storey tower is, of course, the patented, revolutionary car elevator system, which takes residents sitting in their vehicle to their luxurious home “in the clouds” — the “Dezervator” developed by Dezer Development. “Dezervator” developed byDezer Development. “The complexity of the system presented the developers and engineers with a number of novel design challenges,” says Büscher.

A DIAMOND FOR BENTLEY FANS

At the English luxury brand Bentley, both vehicles and real estate projects are the result of a deep passion for design, craftsmanship and individualization. Steven de Ploey, Director of Product and Marketing, is convinced that both cars and real estate are about offering customers luxurious moments with the wow factor. Together with Dezer Development and Sieger Suarez Architects, Bentley is currently building a 61-storey skyscraper in Miami, which is due to be completed by 2026. It is obvious that this will be an absolute luxury property. After all, if it says Bentley on it, it contains luxury. But what does luxury actually mean in 2024? “In my opinion, luxury today means that sustainability — coupled with a life in harmony with nature — is not just a trend, but a guiding principle. For us, this applies to all areas, from the car to the sustainable materials we use for the interior design of the Bentley Residences. Surfaces such as wood, leather and glass have been carefully selected to reflect the coastal environment in which the property is located. In addition, we want our clients to feel that their luxury residences are an extension of their personality and that they recognize the values they stand for,” answers Steven de Ploey.

Bentley Residences Miami is a collaboration between Bentley, Sieger Suarez Architects and Dezer Development, a company specializing in luxury real estate, and is scheduled for completion in 2027.

The Bentley Residences Miami will also be home to the innovative, patented “Dezervator” car elevator – just one of the many amenities of the luxury real estate project.

Chris Cooke, Head of Design Collaborations at Bentley, is convinced that the key to success lies in the attention to detail. “There are numerous references to our cars in the property — for example, Bentley’s signature diamond motif is reflected in the diamond-shaped glass façade panels and the diamond-shaped tiles in the lobby. Enthusiasts and connoisseurs will recognize further allusions. And then, of course, there is the patented transparent car elevator (“Dezervator”, note), which makes it possible to literally integrate the cars into the living space.” For Chris Cooke, luxury means, among other things, being prepared to go beyond classic shapes and sculptures and using traditional materials in innovative ways, while maintaining attention to detail and an unconditional commitment to quality.

CREATIVITY MEETS CRAFTSMANSHIP

The Italian design company Pininfarina, which is building a luxury skyscraper comprising 311 residential units in Dubai, is also committed to attention to detail and high quality standards. In addition, as in the automotive sector, the company strives to design buildings that are not only functional but also visually impressive. Among other things, this means integrating state-of-the-art building technologies in such a way that they blend in with the overall aesthetic, says Giovanni de Niederhäusern, Senior Vice President Architecture. Redefining luxury in the real estate sector by committing to an “economy of creativity” is one of the declared goals, he adds. “For us, this concept means moving away from traditional luxury to one that emphasizes the maximization of creative potential and the appreciation of craftsmanship — values that have always been at the heart of Pininfarina’s philosophy.” On a design level, the ICONIC Tower, which already bears the design goal in its name, is characterized by the fact that the residential floors are divided into three blocks. “This breaks up the monotony, makes the structure more dynamic and raises the visual appeal of the building to a new level. It will also reflect the energetic soul of Dubai and its constantly evolving landscape,” says de Niederhäusern, who has declared the real estate sector to be an important cornerstone for the further development of the brand. “Through our multidisciplinary expertise, we will hopefully be able to create not just buildings, but entire environments that reflect our values. Above all, this means positively influencing these environments with the combination of beauty and technology.”

ASTON MARTIN SAILS INTO THE REAL ESTATE BUSINESS

In a duel between Dubai and Miami, British luxury and racing car manufacturer Aston Martin opted for the latter location. A 66-storey skyscraper with a sail-like shape was built there. The glass façade and the curved shape are a reference to the aerodynamics of the vehicles, according to the manufacturer. “We have incorporated the speed, flexibility and feeling of the Aston Martin brand into both the exterior design and the interior design. Even the door handles on the apartments are a tribute to the Aston Martin door handles,” explains lead architect Rodolfo Miani in an interview. In addition to a two-storey fitness center with a view of the Atlantic, there is an art gallery, two cinemas, a virtual golf simulator, a business center and a conference room as well as a spa area, a beauty salon and a hairdressing salon. “This remarkable new project realizes our long-term vision of entering the world of luxury real estate and is the latest expression of Aston Martin’s evolution into an ultra-luxury brand,” Aston Martin said enthusiastically.

The Aston Martin Residences are intended to reflect the development of Aston Martin into an ultra-luxury brand.

Three bespoke interior styles have been created by the Aston Martin design team for the project: The Timeless collection embodies classic Aston Martin design and draws on the heritage of the British luxury brand to create a contemporary style, while the Covert collection is inspired by the interiors of darker vehicle concepts. Residents looking for an extra dose of luxury can opt for the Indulgent collection, which combines natural materials in a softer, calming color palette with a touch of theatricality. A new real estate project from Aston Martin is already in the planning stages and is being built on the man-made Al Marjan archipelago, which belongs to the United Arab Emirates. The project is being implemented in cooperation with the Dubai-based real estate developer DarGlobal. “This is the first time that Aston Martin’s design team has applied its knowledge and reputation to a real estate project in collaboration with the Gulf Cooperation Council and taken responsibility for the interior design,” the company says.

The Aston Martin Residences Miami offer salons and lounges, a state-of-the-art fitness center with spa, an infinity pool on the 55th floor, a private marina and much more.

For more than a century, Aston Martin has stood for outstanding automotive design – now the brand wants to transfer its design expertise to exclusive real estate projects.

The fact that living and driving are growing ever closer together is therefore not only due to the fact that vehicle interiors are being designed to be ever more homely – partly as a result of developments in the field of autonomous driving. Anyone who wants to can now bring the feeling of driving a Bentley or a Porsche into their own four walls. In the truest sense of the word – because with the “Dezervator”, the vehicle lift developed by Dezer Development, you can stay very close to your vehicle even when you are in a luxury apartment above the clouds of Dubai. So one question that will probably be asked more and more frequently in future is: “Are you living or just driving?”, although the use of the adverb “just” in connection with car brands such as Aston Martin, Mercedes-Benz and the like may seem somewhat inappropriate.

In a world where tomorrow is often already yesterday, a return to the original seems to center us for a moment. It is above all naturally created forms that touch us, where artificially created impressions overwhelm us. Japanese-born, Paris-based photographer Michiko Picco takes a similar view. In her series »Botanical Form«, she places a familiar motif at the center of her work and pays tribute to a form (of life) that adapts almost unnoticed but tirelessly—nature as the cradle of all progress.

Chapter The word »form« seems to be able to morph into many different meanings depending on the topic. What does it mean to you in regards to your series »Botanical Form«?

Michiko Picco Semantically speaking, I think it does not simply mean »shape«, but also contains a delicate nuance about it. Form in itself is an inescapable element and the starting point for most of my images, whatever the subject. In particular-attracted by shapes without straight lines or angularities-I found myself looking for them in the botanical world to decipher their intrinsic beauty.

Chapter This series’ images reproduce the beauty of natural shapes and structures. Why did you choose this subject in particular and where does its power lie?

Michiko Picco The world is so digitalized and speedy that people tend to have less time to stop, think and appreciate. But I would like to resist this phenomenon by exploring essential things and creations made in nature that humans have almost forgotten. People arrogantly believe that humans can create and invent anything, but in the process of producing this series, I’ve realized again that it’s impossible for humans to reproduce such refined natural creations. Adopting the botanical form as the center of my work is also a way of paying my respect to the world of nature.

Chapter Being a semi-autodidact, what has drawn you to photography in the first place?

Michiko Picco When I was a university student in Japan, I encountered Man Ray’s works in an art gallery. It was his aesthetic and sometimes complex photographic expression that strongly attracted me and led me to the world of photography.

Chapter Ultimately, what made you stick with photography?

Michiko Picco As time went by, I felt more and more at ease with this medium, which enabled me to express myself better because I’m a reserved person.

With their gallery project Bruises, Florence Provencher-Proulx and Isaac Larose redirect our attention to a playful, spontaneous aesthetic, far removed from the currently stylistically dominant, visually uniform modernity. Their focus is on the craftsmanship and furniture design by artists from their French-influenced home region of Quebec.

Chapter Where did the idea for your gallery project Bruises come from and what’s the creative vision behind it?

Florence Provencher-Proulx During the first pandemic lockdown, Isaac and I started collecting various pieces. With everything closed down, we saw an opportunity to do an exhibition reflecting the current situation by reuniting contemporary artworks with our found objects. The inaugural exhibition, »Une maison sans ami« (a friendless home), took place in an abandoned garage filled with sand to create a surreal atmosphere. Our aim was to delve into the theme of social disconnection, using the allure and amusement of unconventional objects to fill a void.

Chapter Your curation is a mix of found objects and works of contemporary artists bringing forward a »Québécois perspective«. Can you define this particular term and elaborate on it a little bit more?

Florence Provencher-Proulx A main portion of our curation focuses on craftsmanship and furniture design from Québec that are scarcely found elsewhere, combined with works of Québécois contemporary artists. Being French Canadians, we’re deeply inspired by our French heritage and love to include great French designs in our curation such as Yves de La Tour d’Auvergne’s functional sculptures that were showcased in our first show.

Chapter Can you tell us about the process of selecting individual pieces for Bruises and if you happen to know anything about their story and provenance?

Florence Provencher-Proulx I like to create tension with different types of objects that become even more beautiful when combined. It’s an intuitive process. Never knowing what I’ll stumble upon, there’s also a beauty generated from the unexpected. While we may not always have provenance information, we often come across captivating anecdotes from the previous owners. In a similar vein, one of the artists we work with, Sylvie Cauchon, creates ceramic animals. We frequently receive requests from clients who want Sylvie to replicate their beloved pets. They send us various photos and personality descriptions to ensure Sylvie can recreate their pets with her unique renditions.

Chapter You recently started welding metal furniture and you also showed in London at Frieze No.9 Cork Street a fishbone chair you made with salvaged metal. Being a curator and artist as well, what are the all-binding elements of your artistic explorations?

Florence Provencher-Proulx The aim with Bruises has always been to explore the universe we’ve created without limiting it to a traditional gallery path. Creating metal pieces is an exploration that I find is retaining a Bruises footprint while also carving out my own personal identity in the work.

Permanent innovation, finely tuned product perfection and constant design adaptations are essential for companies today in order to remain at the top of the industry league in a turboglobalized world. The tourism industry is no exception here, but rather a spearhead of this development due to its international nature. Particularly in the luxury category of the hotel, aviation and cruise industries, constant further development is therefore part of the everyday life of quality managers and product developers, with factors such as sustainability and diversity playing an increasingly important role in their considerations alongside ongoing product innovation.

INDIVIDUALIZATION AT 10,000 ALTITUDE METERS

Nostalgics like to wax lyrical about the »golden age of flying«. From the sixties and seventies of the last century, when the time high above the clouds was still glamorous and noble. While this is certainly true for the majority of transportation classes, it must be put into perspective, at least for the front rows of long-haul jets: Flying here has never been as comfortable and luxurious as it is today. At the beginning of the millennium, completely flat beds were only occasionally found in First Class on some airlines, but today they are already standard in Business Class. Accordingly, in order to continue to set themselves apart, passengers in First Class on leading airlines today enjoy a truly private jet ambience in the form of luxurious suites. Staying at the forefront of quality, service and convenience is therefore becoming increasingly challenging, and not just because the pace of innovation in the industry is constantly increasing.

Flying private room in First Class: a look at Lufthansa’s latest cabin concept Allegris.

The First– and Business Class in Lufthansa’s latest cabin concept, which is marketed under the name Allegris focuses accordingly on attention to detail and, among other things, on innovations that are not visible at first glance. A truly unique selling point of the new long-haul product Allegris. The impressive variety of seating options on offer should be one of the main reasons for this: »With the Lufthansa Allegris we have developed a completely new cabin concept comprising 14 different seats in four classes, including two different seat types in the First– and seven different seat types in the Business Class«, explains Kai Peters, Head of Experience Design at the Lufthansa Group, in an interview with Chapter. Heterogeneity in cabin design, in other words, with which Lufthansa aims to meet the individually differing needs of passengers traveling in the same class of carriage. After all, passengers may have different requirements, even if they buy the same ticket.

The options in Lufthansa Business Class at Allegris include extra-long beds, a double seat in which two adjacent seats can be combined to form a double bed by means of a retractable center console.

The options in the Business Class belong to Allegris extra-long beds, a double seat in which two adjacent seats can be combined to form a double bed by means of a retractable center console, and in the First Class the particularly generous and private Suite Plus with floor-to-ceiling walls and lockable door, 43-inch screens across the full width of the suite and its own minibar and wardrobe. »Our newly introduced seat heating and cooling in First and Business Class is also a unique innovation in the industry,« explains Peters, but emphasizes that »cabin design at Lufthansa follows a holistic approach, with the same development team responsible for all classes«. This approach should also benefit Economy Class passengers, as various innovations will also be found in the rear section of Lufthansa aircraft. »Our latest in-flight entertainment system with 4K monitors will be available throughout the aircraft, and a newly developed lighting system that will help prevent jet lag and arrive fresher will also be installed throughout the cabin, regardless of class.« From 2024, the Allegris long-haul product will then be introduced with the newly delivered Airbus A350. Among other things, Lufthansa wants to set new standards in comfort and luxury in the highest class with the aforementioned »flying private room«. And the focus on very specific, individual needs in the premium segment also appears to be an exciting new way to further strengthen customer loyalty.

Emirates—traditionally a very innovative airline—is also aware of the fact that constant further development of cabin concepts, especially for the most expensive travel class, is essential in order to remain attractive for the demanding luxury target group. »Emirates has always set the bar for others,« says Abdulla Shams, Vice President Engineering Projects at Emirates, confidently in an interview with Chapter. »We can look back on a number of innovations in our company history: in 2003, we introduced the world’s first private suites on board; in 2008, we were the first airline to introduce an in-flight lounge and spa showers for First Class passengers. In 2007, Emirates was the first airline in the fleet to allow in-flight cell phone use, and in 2011 we were the first in the industry to introduce in-flight Wi-Fi for passengers. Emirates was also the first airline in the world to order the iconic Airbus A380. This has now become the flagship of our fleet and offers exquisite luxury in the air with its on-board lounge and spa showers.«

Private jet ambience: The developers of the recently presented Emirates First Class Private Suite were inspired by the (interior-) design philosophy of Mercedes-Benz.

The development of new First Class products is a lengthy process that can take up to five years from conception to market launch and requires an intensive exchange from the top management level to various interest groups and departments, including a wide range of data analyses and customer feedback. The credo is therefore never to be satisfied with the status quo, but always to plan several steps and many years ahead to ensure that the company continues to succeed as one of the market leaders in the luxury segment.

The iconic Airbus A380 is now considered the flagship of the Emirates fleet:
On-board lounge and spa showers offer exquisite luxury in the air.

At the extraordinary on-board bar in the Emirates Airbus A380, First– and Business Class guests can relax with cocktails and snacks.

With this in mind, Emirates recently presented a new top-of-the-line product in the form of the new First Class Private Suite, for which the developers were also inspired by the (interior-) design philosophy of Mercedes-Benz. The exchange between automotive and aircraft designers makes perfect sense, as both industries face the same challenges when it comes to accommodating luxury and comfort in a limited space in the best possible way and at the same time having to take strict safety requirements into account. »The new Emirates First Class Private Suite was a game changer and has taken the passenger experience to the next level by offering a fully enclosed private space,« explains Abdulla Shams. »An industry first, the private suite features virtual windows for the suites in the middle of the aisle. Room service can be ordered at the seat via video call, and the temperature and mood lighting in the private suite can be individually adjusted.« According to the airline manager, the boundaries of the customer experience have been expanded time and again and Emirates intends to continue to do so in the future.

SUSTAINABLECLOSE TO NATURE

With a completely different focus on innovation, an international hotel group wants to continue to secure its place in the top league and set itself apart from its luxury hotel competitors. With currently only 21 hotels worldwide, Six Senses Hotels is one of the smaller players in the industry, but this is probably an advantage when it comes to giving the individual resorts their very specific character with a very strong connection to the location. This is particularly evident at the Six Senses Svart hotel, which is currently still under construction. The building will not only be the Group’s first climate-neutral, but also climate-autonomous project. In order to achieve this self-imposed standard, which is intended to satisfy the rapidly increasing demand for sustainable travel, the project has to break new ground in various areas. Attention was already paid to a low ecological footprint when selecting the materials. Organic products that guarantee low energy consumption after commissioning were at the forefront of the architectural concept.

The Six Senses Svart, which is due to open in 2024, will be built on stilts, along which mussels will also be grown for the hotel’s own restaurant.

To minimize the ecological footprint on site, the Six Senses Svart stands on stilts over the waters of the Holandsfjord, with the Svartisen glacier stretching out behind it, an impressive backdrop into which the hotel with its 94 rooms blends in as subtly as possible. The boundary between land and fjord seems to blur.

How seriously the Six Senses Group is pursuing the climate neutrality project is not only evident on site in the far north, but also at the company headquarters: »Sustainable hotels require extraordinary creativity and Six Senses Svart takes us to a whole new level when it comes to pushing boundaries. The concept is bigger than the project itself, as it will be a futuristic showcase of what can be achieved in terms of sustainability and energy solutions,« says Neil Jacobs, CEO of Six Senses, explaining the group’s ambitions.

A concept bigger than the project itself: The Six Senses Svart in the north of Norway is pursuing the ambitious goal of being not only climate-neutral, but climate-autonomous.

The north of Norway was not chosen at random, but rather the ideal location for an off-grid destination. During the long Arctic summer days, enough solar energy can be generated to compensate for the energy consumption during the dark Arctic winters. An energy storage system also ensures that every watt of wasted energy can be captured and reused. The hotel will work with sustainable fishing companies and farms in the immediate vicinity for its gastronomy. The idea of growing mussels for the hotel’s own restaurant along the stilts on which the Six Senses Svart stands shows just how innovative, holistic and detailed the concept is planned in this area too. In total, 80 percent of the food will come from within a 50-mile radius, which will already have a huge impact on its carbon footprint. It almost goes without saying that the hotel will be plastic-free and serve guests filtered water in glass bottles, among other things.

TRANSFORMATIVE CRUISE

Despite the Covid-related, brief slump in the cruise boom of past decades, the industry is now flourishing again as ever. New target groups are constantly being developed and even more colossal ships are being built. Bigger, faster, higher has been the credo of recent years—a new superlative boat has constantly been launched. However, the success of the recent past also seems to be partly the curse of the industry. It sounds elitist, but it is not only a marketing challenge to sell an experience as luxury whose name also stands for cheap and mass tourism. Accordingly, if you want to focus on true luxury rather than mass, a comprehensive product strategy of differentiation seems essential.

British designer Martin Francis is responsible for the exterior of the Explora I .

The Explora I, which just set off on its maiden voyage in August of this year, is not a mini boat at just under 250 meters long and 32 meters wide, but it is also far from being in the league of the largest ships. However, this was never the aim, because it is precisely the less enormous dimensions that allow maximum exclusivity on the ship. The sleek exterior of the Explora I, for which British designer Martin Francis was responsible, is more reminiscent of a private superyacht than a traditional cruise ship.

And the aura of the exclusive private ambience can also be experienced inside. Each suite measures at least 35 square meters, a considerable room size even on land; at sea, less exclusive competitors offer cabins that measure just a fifth of that. The slender silhouette of the Explora I not only gives it an elegant silhouette, but also makes it possible to completely dispense with the interior cabins, i.e. rooms without windows, that are otherwise common in the industry.

Thanks to the slender silhouette of the Explora I , it was possible to dispense with the usual inside cabins, i.e. rooms without windows.

The Owner’s Residence, by far the largest suite on board, also has an outdoor terrace that extends across the full width of the ship, including a private whirlpool with a panoramic view of the sea. The furniture here comes from Knoll and Molteni&C, among others—compared to other luxury cruise ships, the Explora I impresses with its sensual, purist modernity rather than its maritime, Art Deco style. From an ecological point of view, cruises are extremely controversial, even an exclusive approach cannot change this. But Explora Journeys is at least trying to find innovative solutions in the area of sustainability and minimize its impact on the marine environment. The Explora I is equipped with the latest environmental and marine technologies, including selective catalytic reduction technology, a shore power connection option, various underwater noise minimization systems to protect marine life, and a comprehensive range of energy-efficient on-board equipment to optimize engine operation and further reduce emissions.

Sensual, purist modernity: The interior fittings of the Explora I come from Knoll and Molteni&C, among others.

During the maiden voyage in August this year, the route also made it clear that Explora I does not want to pay homage to mass tourism, but rather go its own way and swim its own way. Instead of sailing through the Mediterranean in the summer like most of the competition and calling at overcrowded port cities, northern Europe was chosen to allow guests to experience the 500 million Euro ship for the first time. The starting port was Copenhagen, from where a seven-day voyage took the guests through the landscapes of Lerwick on the Shetland Islands and Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands, before heading for Reykjavik. Not only are the destinations of the Explora I special, the ship also deliberately cruises at a slower speed. Slowing down is a concept that allows the impressions gained to be intensified.

»Ocean State of Mind« is how Michael Ungerer, CEO of Explora Journeys, describes this approach quite poetically: »Our aim is to offer transformative journeys that provide an opportunity for inner and outer discovery, inspired by the ocean and with physical, intellectual and spiritual renewal.« A thoroughly ambitious, but also very appealing destination for luxury accommodation on the high seas.

Founded in 1946 by Tadao Kashio as a small electronics company, Casio initially made a name for itself as a manufacturer of calculators and developed, among other things, the first fully electronic compact computer.

Casio was quick to recognize the potential of digital technologies for the art of watchmaking and set an important milestone in watchmaking history as early as 1974 with the Casiotron. The model was the world’s first LCD wristwatch, complete with fully automatic calendar, and became an icon not only among watch aficionados. But it was the decade that followed that decisively shaped the Casio brand, its worldwide fame and its legendary status. The watches that the company produced in the 1980s were far more than just timepieces—they embodied the spirit of this era, which was characterized by technological progress, futurism and, looking back, a very special stylistic charm. The famous Casio G-Shock, launched in 1983, was a pioneering achievement in robustness and functionality, its striking, angular design was an expression of strength and resilience and struck a chord with a generation seeking adventure and self-expression.

The 1980s were also characterized by bold color combinations and futuristic shapes, and Casio knew how to integrate this aesthetic not only into its watch designs, but also into the advertising themes of the time. The campaigns were full of dynamism and energy, communicated with futuristic visuals that staged the watches as innovative trendsetters. The message was always clear: Casio watches are more than just accessories—they are an expression of a lifestyle.

And even today, the aesthetic appeal of Casio watches from this era has by no means faded; in addition to new models from the brand, the Casio Vintage collection in particular enjoys enormous popularity with its unique retro charm.

Image genesis in exchange and with the means of artificial intelligence.

Greta Magnusson Grossman’s footprint in the history of American mid-century design should actually be clearly defined and of impressive depth. It is therefore all the more astonishing that the Swedish-born designer, who emigrated to the USA with her husband in 1940 and caused a sensation there shortly after her arrival, was never really recognized as one of those designers who helped write the design and architectural history of the 20th century with a clear signature. Instead of clear footprints: tiny footnotes. However, if you embark on a search for clues, which is not always easy, you will discover the unique work of a far-sighted pioneer.

In 1906, Greta M. Grossman—then still Greta Magnusson—was born into a family of carpenters in the south of Sweden. The house she grew up in was built by her grandfather himself. Before studying at the renowned design and art academy Konstfack in Stockholm, she tried to continue this tradition and began training as a carpenter. Even decades later, she would always talk about how deeply rooted she felt in the craftsmanship of her parents’ and grandparents’ generation. »I have wood in my soul,« she once said in an interview with the American magazine House & Garden.

At the age of just 27, Grossman was the first woman ever to be awarded the prize for »Good Furniture Design« by the Swedish Society for Industrial Design, and she also decided to study architecture after attending Konstfack. In the meantime, she applied to join the design team of a well-known Swedish department store and was promptly rejected. The reason given was that they had no rooms for women. Grossman’s graduation, a travel scholarship that took her to Vienna, among other places, in 1931, and her start as a professional designer coincided ideally with the growing international interest in Swedish design. »The world will look up to Sweden as the supreme exponent of Modernism which has succeeded in finding its own soul and embellishing itself with a purely mechanistic grace«, declared the journalist and architecture critic Morton Shand on the occasion of the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, which was extremely successful with around four million visitors.

SWEDISH DESIGN IN CALIFORNIA

In 1940, the designer and architect emigrated to the USA with her husband, the jazz musician Billy Grossman. As Billy Grossman was of Jewish origin and Sweden proclaimed neutrality to the outside world but maintained close economic ties with the Third Reich, the couple no longer felt safe in their home country. They traveled by plane and train through the Soviet Union, went by ship to Japan and then by ocean liner to San Francisco, where they arrived on July 27, 1940.

Interior view of Greta M. Grossman’s house on Claircrest Drive in Beverly Hills, 1956-57

She opened her first own store studio shortly after her arrival, where she showed her own designs as well as products by other Scandinavian designers, and set up shop on the world-famous Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. Once she had built up a customer base and felt she had arrived on the Californian design scene, she decided to move her studio from the posh address to a more affordable location on North Highland Avenue in Hollywood. Her statement that she didn’t need much more than »a car and some shorts« for her new start in the USA not only became the title of a comprehensive retrospective in Stockholm (2010), but also allows conclusions to be drawn about her design philosophy. »Filling every inch of the room with furniture may seem to avoid wasted space—until you find much cannot be used anyway«, she explained with her typical clarity of expression in a 1949 interview with the LA Times. In 1945, she summed up her desire for simplicity: »Simplicity must be the keynote today in any development of the pattern of living. We cannot live in the Victorian style of yesteryear and expect to survive the pressures that go with modern life. We need to free ourselves from all décor that may hamper our outlook, if not our actions.«

Her thoughts on contemporary design were always characterized by a strong claim to functionality, which she occasionally added with a wink. In an interview with American Artist magazine, she pointed out the influence of the fact that most homeowners have to get by without employees. »So, the modern architect and designer must provide average modern housekeepers with an environment that can be kept clean without a retinue of butlers and maids… She requires simple, polished surfaces on her tables, chests, etc. No intricate carvings please, says the modern housekeeper who does her own work.« In theory, this left women, who were still much more stuck in the corset of traditional roles than they are today, more time to deal with things that were less about housework and more about self-fulfilment. Today, one could therefore say that this statement already contained a gently flickering feminist train of thought.

Coffee table Ironing Board, manufactured by Glenn of California, 1954

The success of her work was not long in coming, partly because the aesthetics of European modernism were at the top of the popularity scale in the USA at the time. In 1939, a year before her arrival, the Swedish pavilion at the New York World’s Fair had already attracted a great deal of attention. The architecture critic Lewis Mumford described it in the New Yorker as a »miracle of elegant simplicity«. According to the former director of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and the Drawing Center Brett Littman, Grossman’s designs and her studio succeeded in merging Scandinavian Good Design with the American ideal of a Casual Lifestyle. »The Scandinavian Good Design movement really comes out of social thinking, about good design for people—we should make beautiful objects that are affordable, that people can put in their homes,« says Littman and continues: »The American modernist movement also has some of those same ideas, but maybe a little bit less of the kind of social democracy concept behind it.«

Scandinavian Good Design: Grossman’s designs, produced by Glenn of California, 1952

It wasn’t long before artists such as Frank Sinatra, Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, Gracie Allen and Joan Fontaine were coming and going at Greta M. Grossman’s. She also managed to secure deals with well-known furniture companies such as Barker Brothers, Modern Line, Glenn of California and Sherman Bertram. Her work has also been shown in group exhibitions with other sought-after designers. Grossman was also known for her lavish parties and her networking skills.

COBRA AND GRASSHOPPER

During her early years in the USA, Greta M. Grossman initially concentrated on furniture and lighting design. Her designs always corresponded to the modern Scandinavian design language that American design enthusiasts were craving at the time, but at the same time always had a spark of stubbornness. The clearly recognizable influence of Mies van der Rohe and other Bauhaus artists did nothing to change the fundamental independence of her objects, the most famous of which include the two lamps Gräshoppa (1948) and Cobra (1949). The simplicity of her designs was also accompanied by a preference for technical sophistication, which can possibly be traced back to Grossman’s beginnings as a cabinetmaker. Some of their luminaires have flexible necks and swivel ball pins on the lampshades.

Gräshoppa lamp, produced by Ralph O. Smith, 1947-48

Unlike her luminaires, which can be adjusted in various ways, Grossman always remained true to her own stance. She countered the prevailing assumption at the time that women could not be assigned mechanically complex tasks, for example, in the following way: »The old idea that women are not as good as men at mechanical work is stuff and nonsense,« Grossman wrote in an issue of the American Artist Magazine. »The only advantage a man has in furniture designing is his greater physical strength.« The design of the furniture produced to this day Gräshoppa also suggests that Greta M. Grossman approached her profession with a sense of humor.

In 1952, Grossman designed a famous furniture series for Glenn of California, which she called the 62 Series because she was convinced that the series of tables and chests of drawers was easily ten years ahead of its time. The 62 Series is one of the designer and architect’s best-known designs. »What I like about her work is the kind of simplicity of it, the sophistication of the engineering, and aesthetically, sometimes they can kind of just disappear into the landscape of your apartment,« Littman notes. »They don’t necessarily call a lot of attention to themselves, but they’re all very functional and useful.«

Grossman’s architectural designs were mostly realized on structurally complicated hillside plots;

Claircrest Drive, Beverly Hills, 1956-57

At the end of the 1940s, Greta M. Grossman began to devote herself increasingly to architecture. Around 14 small houses were built in and around LA. Many of these houses, which were mostly built on structurally complicated hillside plots and of which only a few remain today, can be seen as harbingers of today’s Tiny House movement, as they were characterized by built-in features, multi-purpose rooms and numerous multifunctional interior and exterior designs. As an architect, she believed that a home should be a place of refuge and happiness, not a place to flee from. At least that’s how she summed it up in an interview with the LA Times.

MARGINAL FIGURE DESPITE REVIVAL

In 1966, Greta M. Grossman moved with her husband to Encinitas near San Diego and thus withdrew from the design scene. While she devoted herself to landscape painting, her work was increasingly forgotten. Even before her move, she repeatedly expressed disillusionment when it came to the world of architecture and furniture and product design. She said: »We have lost our searching for design that fits the time we are living in. And our design does not start from within, it starts from without. Current design is not thought through and it is not original.« Billy Grossman died in 1978, Greta M. Grossman 20 years later.

Today, Grossman’s designs are being reissued by Danish furniture manufacturer GUBI:

Gräshoppa table lamp, 2013
Gräshoppa floor lamps, 2011
62 Chest of drawers from the 62 Series, 2012

In 2012, her work experienced a small renaissance when Danish manufacturer GUBI decided to reissue some of her most iconic designs. These include the aforementioned 62 Series and the two luminaires Cobra and Gräshoppa. In the same year, one of her aluminum and brass lamps was sold at auction for 37,500 pounds. This small wave of attention did not, however, wash Greta Magnusson Grossman back into the design canon. Although she was the only female designer and architect to even run her own architecture and design studio at a time when the design and architecture scene was populated by only a handful of women, she was not declared an icon after her withdrawal from the world of design, but rather marginalized. In an article published in the magazine Art Papers essay published in 2013, author Arianna Schioldager poses the question that naturally arises: »Why has design pioneer Greta Magnusson Grossman so long remained a footnote in the annals of mid-century modern history, even in the midst of her own revival?«

Harriet Harriss & Naomi House: »Greta Magnusson Grossman. Modern Design from Sweden to California«.

Lund Humphries, 2021

In their essay »Greta Magnusson Grossman: Living in a modern way«, Harriet Harriss and Naomi House propose the following explanatory approach, among others: »In its very principles, modernism established a clear distinction between home and work, the private and the public—and so there is palpable discomfort in the non-binary position presented by professional women who occupy both spheres.« In addition, other—usually structurally anchored—factors also played a decisive role in the struggle for visibility, representation and recognition. Greta M. Grossman, who likes to dance at several weddings (and parties) and has already attended the Konstfack experimented with different art styles and materials and then also studied architecture did not seem to fit into the picture at the time, let alone into a fixed framework. One thing is certain in any case: it is worth uncovering their large footprints and not being satisfied with a few small footnotes.

In the hotel industry today, some celebrate a love of detail that goes far beyond the classic characteristics of brand identity building. It is not the large chains that are setting new standards in the perfection of tangible corporate identity. On the contrary, they are often individually run boutique establishments that create their very own, well-curated cosms with a subtly coordinated overall offering that encompasses diverse elements of the guest experience. Also, but not only, in the top luxury category.

DIVING AT THE ATLANTIC

On Portugal’s Atlantic coast, just north of Ericeira, perched on the hills overlooking the sea, accessible only by a small, winding road, is Hotel Immerso. As soon as you arrive, it becomes clear that the name Immerso -– »immersion« – refers both to the guest experience and directly to the architecture. Discreetly, the main and ancillary buildings not only blend into nature, but also seem to merge with it through their arrangement. The declared main goal of the hotel is that the guest then also becomes part of this experience. Immerse yourself in nature, become one with its tranquility, but also its wilderness, when in the evening, as so often in this area, fierce winds rise. No difficult feat in the rooms, which are all open to nature with large glass fronts and restrained inside with subtle earth tones and natural materials to let the view act as the main actor. The landscape in front of you is picturesquely beautiful, but by no means just lovely, which makes the experience of nature almost more real and approachable.

However, creating a unity with nature and the surrounding countryside is by far not only an architectural endeavor, but is celebrated on various levels. The shampoos, creams and soaps in the rooms are from a small, Portuguese organic cosmetics brand, 8950, which works exclusively with local ingredients, especially local essential oils. Conveniently, the sleek packaging of the skincare range is also perfectly in line with the hotel’s aesthetics. Products from the brand Vinoble are used in the spa, which are based on grape residues left overs as a waste product during the production of wine. It goes without saying that this cosmetics line is also certified as 100 percent organic. Closeness to nature without sustainability and without a commitment to regionality is inconceivable at Immerso, which is also reflected in the hotel’s small boutique. Here, various products were selected from different Portuguese manufactures. The result is a perfectly curated mini concept store that offers clothing and local delicacies as well as smaller living accessories. Represented are, among others, wooden sculptures by the local artist Paulo Reis.

It is obvious that with so much attention to detail, nothing is left to chance in terms of gastronomy. Every morning, the chef of the Emme restaurant goes to the fish market to select the local catch of the day on the spot for his guests. Strict attention is also paid to the regional origin of all other ingredients; a large part of the prepared vegetables comes from the in-house garden. The wine list is less rigorous, so that one or the other French vine can be spied, but the focus here is also clearly on Portugal. A special highlight to celebrate all the epicurean regionality not only on the plate, but to be especially close to the landscape that gave you all these ingredients while dining, will offer Emme on Fire starting this year. Here you then sit in nature, at a long table next to a campfire. Fire is then also the main element of preparation in this gastronomic outdoor dependence.

COMMUNITY SPIRIT AS A BUSINESS MODEL

In the heart of Umbria, about halfway between Florence and Rome, lies the small boutique hotel Vocabolo Moscatelli with which Catharina Lütjens and Frederik Kubierschky have fulfilled a lifelong dream. Previously, the two gained hotel industry expertise in various luxury hotels in Zurich, but at some point the desire arose to, as Kubierschky says, »set the rules of the game« themselves. The twelfth-century Umbrian monastery, lying dormant, provided the perfect playing field. There is this tension between form and content, the form was already definitely given in our project by the beautiful monastery, it was important for us to use this plus point and then also pack in quite a lot of content.« He continues by noting: »Especially because we are here in a small, rural local community, it was important to us not to appear as foreign investors who just put a foreign body in the pampas.« Rather, he says, from the beginning they were concerned with resurrecting what existed, which had perhaps fallen into a bit of oblivion. This approach became the guiding principle for the entire renovation and is now omnipresent in day-to-day operations.

»In the construction phase, which fell fully into the Corona pandemic, it helped us extremely in many respects that we worked almost exclusively with craftsmen and manufactures from Tuscany and Umbria, i.e. from the immediate surroundings, since closed borders and the material supply crisis passed us by in a big way«, explain the hoteliers. The schedule was quite tight, the monastery was purchased in November 2019, then had a year and a half for planning and the same period for the historical reconstruction.

Lütjens and Kubierschky emphasize that an important aspect of the overall design from the very beginning was also the idea of becoming a meeting place for the local population. »The idea of community and, above all, the desire to become part of the local community was essential for us«, they say. However, it was clear that this should not be done by pure ingratiation or adaptation. »Especially with the gastronomic concept, it was important to us to also go a bit different ways than those known locally so far. We are in Umbria in the meat chamber of Italy. There is nothing wrong with that in and of itself. But since there are already very good, often very simple restaurants that focus on meat, our idea was to create a place that complements what already exists. The idea of sustainability also plays a role for us.« The result is a menu that is not purely vegetarian, but does offer significantly more meat-free alternatives than is usual in Umbria.

The clear commitment to regionality is definitely a core element in terms of gastronomy but also in the overall concept, but it is not pursued dogmatically. »Umbria is a region of artists and craftsmen. This means that in terms of design and furnishings, we were really able to draw on the full range without going far afield,« says Catharina Lütjens, and you can clearly detect the enthusiasm in her voice. »For the artwork in the rooms, we worked with a curator who is originally from Umbria, and who developed a concept for us in which, although there are local artists, there are also one or two international painters. However, we are particularly proud and happy that we have also discovered artists who come from the immediate neighborhood and whose works are now integrated into our hotel.« Guests seem to sense the coherence of the location, because »for no other works of art do we receive so many compliments and so much encouragement.« The cooperation with the local community offers a great opportunity for the Vocabolo, explains Kubierschky: »Our main goal was always to create a place where you can meet interesting people. The fact that we already involved exciting craftsmen and artists from the area in the development phase led to them making the hotel one of their epicenters after the opening, bringing friends with them and recommending us to others. So this approach has also been extremely helpful in gaining acceptance from the local community.«

MUNICH ECLECTICISM

However, the renowned luxury hotel Bayerischer Hof  in Munich proves that the curated guest experience is not just something that small boutique hotels want to and can offer. With almost 350 rooms and a history rich in tradition, the hotel is a true grand hotel in every sense of the word. However, this does not mean that the institution does not focus on individuality in design. On the contrary, the size of the hotel, both in terms of public areas but also in terms of number of rooms, is used to make the most of it. If boutique hotels were the small, highly specialized niche galleries in the art world, then the Bayerischer Hof, as a counterpart, is the large, epoch-spanning museum that can afford to focus on the various styles without having to cut back on attention to detail, quality and selection. Although this strategy can be used to address various target groups, Philipp Herdeg, the hotel’s PR director, also notes in conversation that renewal and style expansion are always risky undertakings that can irritate or even scare away regular guests. The Bayerische Hof  has floral-opulent Laura Ashley rooms as well as noble-traditional suites and rooms in the style of Count Pilati, and in addition, truly contrasting, various rooms designed by Axel Vervoordt. While the Laura Ashley-loving guest may not care whether someone next door is enjoying Vervoordt’s wabi-sabi aesthetic behind a closed door, this was a real political issue when the Belgian redesigned the Garden Restaurant. Of course, the radical-looking redesign also meant that a certain clientele could not be retained, says Herdeg.

»In the overall context, however, it is important to consider not only Vervoordt’s simple aesthetics but also his approach to creating. As modern and purist as Axel Vervoordt’s designs may seem, his love of the history of materials, the need to create something new from historical elements, is something that is in absolute harmony with the values of Bayerischer Hof .« Overall, the new, purist elements have also been extremely well received. »We actually also have regular guests who enjoy precisely this heterogeneity of our rooms and switch between the different styles during their various stays.« It is also important for Herdeg to emphasize that the different room types at Bayerischer Hof are not categorized differently based on their style. This is done solely on the basis of size. So 50 square meters of Laura Ashley is not superior or inferior to another style, and thus also on a par with 50 square meters of Vervoordt in terms of price. Accordingly, there are also unifying elements that are identical in all rooms, such as towels, hangers and cosmetic products. In order to match a wide range of styles, more neutral elements were chosen here to blend in easily.

Perhaps the Bayerische Hof  not the perfect place for radical representatives of a single style, but to dine in the Wabi-Sabi ambience during a short stay in Munich, to drink another digestif in the Bavarian-baroque Spiegelsaal afterwards and finally to spend the night in the cozy Laura Ashley four-poster bed, all this without going outside the front door, is certainly not a bad selling point to a very large, demanding and yet heterogeneous target group.

With great subtlety, Greek-Australian photographer Annika Kafcaloudis transforms the documentary, raw immediacy of a photograph into painting-like images. We talked to her about the creative process as the real starting point of her art and the poetry of the seemingly mundane.

Chapter Your work goes beyond mere documentation of craftsmanship – how does capturing artists in a lucid state of creation, movement and ritualism influence your own way of working?

Annika Kafcaloudis Having a very minimalistic approach to photography, I use the subjects as a starting point but I transform the images in my edit so much it almost romanticizes the idea of the actual photo. In this sense, I can’t really tell if the subjects I work with influence me in my own way of working. Someone once described my photos more as being the way I look at things rather than being about the actual content of the image which I thought was very interesting. But in saying that, even though my gaze doesn’t feel strong or unique to me I think it stylistically establishes the cohesion in my approach.

Chapter The visual quality of your images gives them a painting-like touch. What has shaped your visual style in particular?

Annika Kafcaloudis I get drawn into the representation of color, the vividness and the flatness of medium format photography which I’ve tried to mimic by eye digitally. My photographs are really only half baked while in camera, the rest of the process happens in my editing suite which completely transforms the rawness. I also shoot very close to my subjects as I love looking closely at things, flatting the space into one slice.

Chapter Oftentimes, capturing the seemingly mundane and letting people in on how you experience a subject in that very moment can quickly turn from being the mere creative process to becoming a very personal matter. Have you ever felt personally exposed by the images you create and the mood they convey?

Annika Kafcaloudis I feel the opposite. My images seem to deflect away from me personally as they’re often dark and abstract. I try not to pre-think what an image could be as I’m always disappointed when the result is different to what I imagined. It’s better to let the image become itself in the creative process rather than try and set out to make something specific. Therefore the mood in my images relates to my editing, rather than being a reflection of myself personally.

Chapter Do you remember what inspired you to pick up a photo camera in the first place?

Annika Kafcaloudis As a child I was given a small Kodak camera as a gift and loved the way I could use it to diarize moments. This developed into a quick method of note taking and helped my memory of things. Now, most of my photography feels like I’m archiving what I see as I like to create a capsule of a moment, creating images that might not feel special at the time but will feel special when they’re looked at in years to come.

The constant search for the perfect and most exclusive ingredients is considered an essential component of outstanding culinary art in top gastronomy. At the same time, the conviction that commodity value and rarity define how noble raw material is currently dominates. However, in addition to caviar, Wagyu fillet and lobster, some of the leading figures in haute cuisine – such as the highly decorated chefs Daniel Humm and Alexis Gauthier – are now raising the often still unrecognized potential of purely plant-based enjoyment to a new level with great finesse and redefining the highest art of cooking with progressive creativity.

When New York’s Eleven Madison Park restaurant at its post-Covid reopening in June 2021 declared that it would offer exclusively vegan dishes from now on, it resembled a thunderbolt. By some of the press, Daniel Humm, Swiss chef and owner of the cult establishment was taken from the Olympus of cooking and put into the lowest spheres of gastronomy. Not least the fact that they dared to charge 335 dollars for a nine- to ten-course menu without meat or fish – today it is even 385 dollars – seemed to upset quite a few critics more than cheap sparkling wine does.

»When we were closed during the pandemic, Miles Davis’ model of endless reinvention was permanently on my mind. I quickly realized that we had to come back from the pandemic closure with something meaningful, just keep doing what we were doing, that wasn’t an option«, is how Daniel Humm describes the process towards vegan Eleven Madison Park in an interview with Chapter. Precisely because the world and its food system are in such a fragile state today, the celebrity chef knew it was his responsibility to use the restaurant’s influence and creativity to redefine luxury with an exclusively plant-based cuisine.

Eleven Madison Park, Citrus Anise Variation, Winter 2023

»So much of what we eat is part of our identity, and I want people to be open to creating new traditions for a better future«, says Humm, describing his approach and also explaining what this has meant explicitly for him and his gastronomic transformation, »Our restaurant was known for its lavender-roasted duck and suckling pig, and at first vegan cooking felt limiting and scary. But over the past two years, we’ve found the opposite – how liberating it can be to cook for a more beautiful, sustainable, healthy and delicious future«, Humm honestly and proudly sums up what has been accomplished.

Impressions of the Eleven Madison Park menu, created by Daniel Humm and his team.

The Swiss gastronomer, who had received every major cooking award in the world to date, including three Michelin stars ten years in a row, took a risk with his radical move. But the new concept was not only met with rejection, despite the many initial criticisms. The Guide Michelin finally claimed in October last year that Eleven Madison Park continues to deserve the highest rating, i.e. three stars, with its purely plant-based cuisine. A novelty, because so far it is worldwide the only vegan restaurant in this illustrious league.

Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture is responsible for the interior of Eleven Madison Park.

Even if Humm is currently the most consistent three-star chef in terms of plant-based cooking, there are certainly other grandees of gastronomy for whom »fruits and vegetables« are far more than just supporting players to fish and meat. In Paris, Alain Passard, who has been consistently awarded three stars since 1996, does not cook purely vegan, but the menu of his restaurant L’Arpège reads like a tribute to the diverse produce from the in-house gardens. Passard speaks quite poetically of »Grands Crus du Potager«, or the great plants from the vegetable gardens, which for him represent the most formative component in his work. His way of cooking changes with the seasons and the ingredients they produce. In addition to the fine menus in his restaurant, Passard also offers baskets to order at home, offering seasonal fruits and vegetables.

He has been searching for perfect vegetables since he was a child , says Alexis Gauthier.

In the UK, Alexis Gauthier is also a radical advocate of vegan haute cuisine. His restaurant, Gauthier Soho, has been cooking purely with plants since 2021. The Avignon-born chef confesses that the switch was no easy undertaking. »Although we have been the most vegan-friendly gourmet restaurant in London for the last ten years, this final step still came as a big shock to many of our customers and clients. Some had been visiting us for 25 years, they came to us for marriage proposals and anniversaries, they associated generations of family celebrations with us. For the older clientele, it’s harder to eat a vegan diet. Many of them simply cannot imagine a meal without animal meat. Unfortunately, we’ve lost a few of those customers and clients.« But overall, for Gauthier, who is a strict vegan himself, the move was important not only because of his convictions, but also positively impacted restaurant operations. »Since going purely vegan, we’ve been able to attract a new younger crowd. Our customers and clients now visit us not only for the restaurant experience, but also for our moral standpoint«, Gauthier sums up in an interview with Chapter.

»Comme Un Fromage« (Eng: Like Cheese): Gauthier’s enthusiasm is for experimenting with plant-based ingredients.

However, as good as the customer response is, there is also potential for conflict with colleagues back home, he explains frankly. »Some chefs and cooks have seen my decision as an insult to French gastronomic tradition. But for me, France is a nation of innovation and stands behind some of the most groundbreaking ideas and technologies in history. Only when it comes to food, France is sometimes still stuck in the past. Fortunately, that’s changing; lately I’ve seen and tasted some incredible new plant-based gastronomy products from my old homeland.« When Gauthier talks about vegan cooking, you can sense his almost missionary passion. His lifestyle and work are a commitment to animal welfare, but also to environmental protection. As a chef, he has prepared thousands of different animals over the years, but that is not something he mourns. From today’s point of view, in his opinion, cooking with meat lacks creativity and especially seasonality.

A view of Alain Passard’s vegetable garden “Bois Giroult”. Here he grows over 450 varieties of vegetables, which form the basis of his cuisine.

»Meat, because of animal fats, has only one level of flavor – hearty, while plants have a full, glorious spectrum. The real skill in any kitchen is the sauces, seasonal fruits and vegetables, herbs, spices and putting these delicate things together«, Gauthier says. As little as animal ingredients and their preparation excite him today, Gauthier’s enthusiasm for experimenting with plant-based ingredients is even greater. »I’ve been searching for perfect vegetables since I was a kid. It never ceases to fascinate me how nature can produce such a variety of flavors and colors; it is endless. I still get excited when the new season’s produce arrives.« This diversity can also be admired in its beauty on the plates at Gauthier Soho. Colorful, in diverse shapes and states of aggregation. There are also surprising creations such as the vegan caviar, which Gauthier humorously serves in a retro tin, or the vegetable foie gras.

»The most important ingredient of the future is creativity, time and manpower«, Gault & Millau recently wrote. No doubt, exactly these ingredients mentioned are not only important, but also valuable. A fact that more and more gourmets are also becoming aware of – with the side effect that forward-looking creativity completes the pleasure at the highest level.

Julius Hirtzberger says everything in his life has something to do with places and change of place. This is also unmistakably reflected in his works, in which he manages to transform public areas of life into emotionally charged places of longing. We talked to him about real, but also mental places and the interaction between emotional and visual components in photography.

Chapter Your series »Entrances of Milan (ongoing)« documents impressive door portals in Milan. In addition to the actual subject, what importance does the emotional component – defined here by the color quality of the images – have in your work?

Julius Hirtzberger Apart from the fact that they are often simply incredibly beautiful, the entrance areas of Milanese buildings are of very central importance and often define the entire house. One could argue, »If you know the entrance, you know what the house looks like, how it feels, and who lives there.« My images of Milan doorways also reflect two central aspects of my work: first, it is very much about longings and places of longing, but mostly about how they feel, which is why I tend to play with emotional components in my work rather than deal with things or places in a merely descriptive way. And on the other hand, this concrete motif allows me to show an excerpt that ideally forms a very easily accessible, but just not quite complete basis, which inevitably awakens one’s own imagination and thus quite unconsciously expands and completes the image. The longing arises consequently only in the head.

Chapter Would you say that the depiction of real places is often stylized into so-called places of longing through the almost exaggerated atmospheric representation in your photographic works?

Julius Hirtzberger As already mentioned, my pictures should be as accessible as possible for the viewer. I do not claim to construct anything in my work that I would not have observed in the same way, but I do like to use a certain subtle exaggeration in order to communicate more clearly. The more subtle the scene on which the picture is based, the more I look for the appeal in atmospheric representation, for example, the play with light. In addition, the viewfinder with its limited field of view »forces« me to focus on what actually makes up the room or scene. Viewed in isolation, it is these often inconspicuous details that exude a great deal of power. And admittedly – even if I try to avoid it as much as possible – my work is certainly not fully inspired by current aesthetics – especially those in social media – but at least indirectly influenced by them. And social media is known to be a place where exaggeration wins.

Chapter As a photographer, how does your view of a space change when it’s deserted?

Julius Hirtzberger What interests me about a space is fundamentally what it triggers in us, how we interact with it, and how we move through it. In practice, this is easier to show by at least including traces of people. In a private setting this works too, but rarely unnoticed. In particular public spaces, however, where just observing would work very well, it almost always means that people have smartphones in their hands and are using them intensively. Smartphones, however, are clearly incompatible with my intended display of timeless elegance. In this respect, I prefer deserted rooms from the outset and then photograph them in return in such a way that one imagines oneself to be in them in a certain way.

Chapter More generally, can art – and specifically photography – be seen as a kind of mental retreat?

Julius Hirtzberger Both. In the creative process, I see photography as a mere means to an end. If you like, I never take photographs for the sake of taking photographs. When (digital) negatives become finished images, however, there is something magical about it. So if a series is of particular significance to me, post-production – whether in the darkroom, or even on the computer – can create an environment in which I can lose myself in a pleasurable way. However, a »real« mental retreat for me personally only occurs when I put the camera down, leave my own work behind, and lose myself in the images and art of others.

Whether as an actress in the theater or as a photographer, for Anastasiia Duvallie, telling a story credibly requires a mixture of an unconditional desire for personal expression and raw honesty. In her spontaneously created series of photographs, she takes a look at Philip Johnson’s Glass House shaped by the theater stage and, as the director of the series, intuitively follows the given architectural conditions. The result is a seemingly intimate work that also makes the presence of the person behind the camera palpable.

Chapter Originally being a theater actress, how has your background in drama shaped your visual aesthetics?

Anastasiia Duvallie Being in drama for almost 14 years, I feel like what it taught me is less about visual aesthetics and more about the internal reality. I learned a lot about myself and people in general. It made me become more comfortable with being uncomfortable––staying open and honest should be a goal in any form of art.

When it comes to photography my theater background helped me realize what »connection« actually means, in terms of how much you are able to feel and how deep you can dig. Sometimes it feels scary to know how much I’m telling through my work, especially photography, but it still feels safe in a way that nobody really knows about it. On the other hand, performing a story on stage you might think it is somebody else’s, but it is still you reacting to different circumstances. I think, photography in itself is even more vulnerably honest since you are the one creating it following your own story. In that sense, even commercial work feels personal to me. In conclusion, I think before creating anything we should just find the »human« inside us, not creativity but literally a human with its body and soul––and that’s the blurred line for me between theater and photography.

Chapter Your images of The Glass House built by Philip Johnson seem very much like an imaginative reflection of the actual architecture and linear composition of the interior––how did this series come to life?

Anastasiia Duvallie Thinking about it, I realized it is not easy for me to answer that question because at first it wasn’t about the house but me wanting to be surrounded by nature. The Glass House attracted me by its simplicity and quiet respectful interaction with nature––co-existing in balance, complementing and granting each other space to breathe. When I came there I did not have a plan as what to create, it was very intuitive and maybe that is why the outcome looks like a personal reflection of the actual architecture: I did not try to do something seemingly artistic––I was trusting the space and followed its geometry.

Chapter Being an autodidact in the field of photography, what role do intuition and emotion play in the process?

Anastasiia Duvallie I feel both intuition and emotion play a major part in the process. Without connecting and listening to your inner self, the creations are meaningless. In a modern world, following your intuition and trusting your emotions is risky and very scary which is why I feel like even photographers considered as being good at what they do sometimes are playing on the safe side by just offering trained skills. Transporting feelings comes from opening up and taking that emotional risk in your art. If the outcome isn’t what you intended it to be or even bad, at least you were honest with yourself which means you are being honest with others too.

Chapter In general, how much do you think the evolution of artistic expression is tied to personal growth?

Anastasiia Duvallie I think it is so deeply connected. When I look at my early photography starting 2017 I can tell how new to this world I was as my photography was very experimental. Thinking back, I feel like I just didn’t want to reveal too much of myself or maybe I just didn’t know how to do it. I believe that photography as art is about love and wisdom. Those two things take on different meanings throughout life, changing and evolving the artist’s work by reflecting the concept of it continuously.