Month: October 2015

The Saatchi gallery is currently host to a glamorous, interactive exhibition showing the journey through the House of Chanel’s creativity from Coco’s first hat shop and early travels, to Karl Lagerfeld’s development of the brand. Alongside Alexander McQueen’s Savage Beauty earlier this year, this has generated a huge amount of interest in high fashion and luxury brands.

After queuing in the rain for twenty minutes and approaching through ‘The English Garden’ – designed by RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winners, the Rich Brothers – the start of the exhibition is an eye catching augmented reality vision of Gabrielle Chanel’s Paris apartment. Having downloaded the app beforehand, the backdrop of mirrored panels transformed into a 360° view of her chic apartment in Rue Cambon when viewed through a smartphone.

Other rooms featured a super sized scent making chamber with mysterious vats opening to reveal vibrantly coloured ‘steaming potions’ to represent the ingredients used in perfume production; a series of imaginative totems made from all manner of materials; swathes of black and white fabrics suspended from the ceiling inviting you to touch them as you walk through. The focal point is the display of Karl Lagerfeld’s AW15 haute couture collection liberally sprinkled with re-editions of Chanel’s 1932 Bijoux Diamants jewellery.

It is a very clever and beautifully presented journey through the brand and greatly appeals to smartphone users. Although short on historical background, the effect is visually stunning and varied and has sparked my interest in finding out more about the legendary designer.

When Hub were formed in 2006, the world of luxury kitchens had emerged with flagship stores lining the streets of Wigmore Street. The kitchens on offer had been taken to a new level of finest cabinet making alongside meticulous engineered solutions for cooking with a finely tuned array of seamless, smooth-functioning cabinets and appliances.

It was at this time that we met Darren Miller, who worked with Pedini and later opened a flagship showroom for Milla kitchens. We could see then that Darren’s sense of style and understanding of the English market raised the bar on many levels. Whether it was his vision for the articulation of a new showroom installation or the commitment that Darren offered to each project, he would strive tirelessly to maximise every design opportunity.

It was therefore with interest that Simon and Kate attended the launch of Rossana kitchen showroom on Duke Street. Since 2012, Darren has worked with the Italian brand to place them in the English market. Although a well-established name in Italy, Rossana had previously not expanded in to the UK. However, as Darren explained to us last night, he shared a vision and passion for design with Rossana, he felt that together they could bring something very special to the British market.

At the launch of Rossana UK’s first showroom last night our high expectations for this vision were confirmed. The Rossana installations filled two storeys with sumptuous, artisan crafted, materials. Innovation lead the design at each turn. The highest quality design was evident throughout from the re-invention of a tall unit, the smooth articulation of a Rossana hinge or the gorgeous honed leather polished stone work top generously bull-nosed in bronze. As Darren’s assistant, Chanda Pandya explained, the unique Italian stone seems to come from “God’s land”. There is indeed a sublime, unworldliness surrounding this reinvention of the World of Luxury kitchens.

Following on from our blog post last month, we have heard of more exciting things happening in Margate.  A crowd-funded project – the brainchild of local natural fragrance and skin care brand Haeckels – saw the creation of a sea-bathing machine to be used as a sauna and massage treatment space on Margate sands with views over the English Channel.

Bathing machines were popular on 19^th Century beaches, allowing users to modestly enter and exit the sea for recreational, and sometimes medicinal purposes. The nearby Royal Sea Bathing Hospital, founded in 1791 and now a housing development, prescribed the natural elements of bracing coastal air and sea water to treat patients.

We first became aware of the project in the October edition of World of Interiors (that included Hub’s full page advert, to coincide with London Design Festival). Yesterday, it featured on George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces showing how the community pulled together to support the project. The steel framed and wooden hut was created with local architect Chloe Young, Whitstable based Moosejaw Woodworks and Prestige Saunas.

I am looking forward to seeing it the next time I visit – maybe there will be more in production by then as I can see this new addition to the Margate beachscape being popular with locals and visitors alike.

You can read more about the project here.

Last week was my first taste of a World Expo. The theme for 2015 ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’ provides a platform to share ideas on sustainable sources of food and nutrition and a celebration of traditional values and knowledge. Milan is hosting the spectacle at the new Rho Fiera international expo venue. We were met by a vast and seemingly never-ending canopy covered gallery, with exhibition plots either side from over 140 participating countries totaling a massive 1.1 million sqm of exhibition space. Feeling overwhelmed we took some time out in Vietnam to study the map and agree on a strategy.

The day was nothing short of a visual feast; an extravaganza of architecture and food. Each country had taken a different approach to the brief, some four storeys high with viewing platforms, others more modest, with restaurants or street food, homegrown products for sale, traditional artefacts, informational graphics, interactive interventions and interesting places to sit or move through. In Russia we were offered a cedar milk drink. We spun around on Heatherwick Magis chairs beside Italy’s ‘Tree of Life’ fountain. Japan offered Sake tasting. We talked on swings in Estonia before trying on traditional hat wear.  Bahrain had assembled a ground level linear maze of sweeping whitewash concrete walls revealing secluded courtyards of regional flora and traditional pottery and other articles; a fluid and serene set of spaces that really transformed from day to night.

The UK pavilion was designed and realized by artist Wolfgang Buttress and BDP Architects and serves as a reminder of the declining bee population worldwide.  At ground level a beautifully crafted walkway with bite size information, hole-in-the-wall films, sounds of birds and lush wild flowers and greenery on raised beds, typical of the English garden; something for all the senses.  Visitors are invited to walk upstairs past a bar serving fish & chips onto the circular platform of the ‘hive’, a metal honeycomb shaped structure rigged with lighting. The music, or sounds were ethereal and the empty space allowed for nothing else but admiration of the architecture and a truly immersive experience.  Lighting played a big part of the visual so we made a conscious effort to re-visit as the sun went down, I could have been there for hours.

The Expo is open 10am – 10pm daily and ends on 31st October 2015. To find out more visit: www.expo2015.org

Author: Jennifer Wakefield