Urban Utopia

June 6, 2018 / by Zhang Yen

Image above: Tongva Park in Santa Monica, California was designed by James Corner, who will speak at KODW on June 13

The creation of liveable cities is increasingly about the holistic design of an innovative urban ecosystem that helps connect, activate and transform the city, its people and the environment for an improved quality of life. Building the cities of tomorrow is a work in progress, engaging with individuals, businesses and governments to co-create and co-design, with the ultimate aims of shaping and investing in a better shared future. 

“The way we live, work, and play is very different today than it was just a few decades ago, thanks to a network of connectivity that encompasses most people on the planet,” explains Carlo Ratti, a director at the Senseable City Laboratory, a research initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is among a large group of luminaries speaking at this year’s Knowledge of Design Week (KODW) in Hong Kong. 

“Today, we are at the beginning of a new technological revolution where the internet is entering the physical space – the traditional domain of architecture and design – and becoming an ‘internet of things’, or IoT,” says Ratti. “As such, it is opening the door to a variety of applications that, in a similar way to what happened with the first wave of the internet, can encompass many domains: from energy to mobility, and from production to citizen participation.”

Data is often referred to as the new oil, but does this mean there are vulnerabilities in terms of smart cities and sustainable designs for the future? Anne Kerr, the global head of urbanisation for Mott MacDonald in Hong Kong, has specific concerns about data. “Who holds the data when designing a digital twin for a city or components thereof, and then who owns the data once the city infrastructure is built?” she asks. Should smart cities be open-source and available to all – will this drive better city designs for the future? Kerr believes these questions about the digital century will affect the development of sustainable and green city design.

Meanwhile, former lawyer Markus Shaw will call for Hong Kong to have its politics aligned with the aspirations of its citizens, especially younger people, for a healthier and more inclusive city. At KODW, he will discuss urban planning, the need to reduce road traffic, and the measures needed to address obesity, mental health, pollution and climate change. And through the partial pedestrianisation of Des Voeux Road Central, the Walk DVRC initiative (which Shaw chairs) maintains that a decaying Central can be revived and a sense of neighbourhood regenerated – all of which will bring about economic gain, as well as create a place where Hong Kong’s vibrant culture and heritage can be showcased. 

Finally, David Yeung, an environmental advocate and the founder of Green Monday, a social venture that addresses healthy living and food insecurity, will share his views on the forces that are set to disrupt the industry and the opportunities for a liveable future.

Look in My Four Eyes

May 23, 2018 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Half the world will be nearsighted by 2050, predicts the US academic journal Ophthalmology. Omnipresent digital screens, smartphone addiction, light pollution and more are leading us towards a glasses-filled society. But as our collective vision gets worse, who wants to wear those thick Coke-bottle lenses and shoulder the nerdy bookworm stigma that comes with them?

Israeli designer Tamar Canfi is trying to address this eyewear dilemma using an entirely different approach. She started wearing glasses from the age of eight and, as her prescription became more severe, she had to get thick lenses like many of her peers. This experience inspired Canfi to rise above the stigma of thick glasses, instead going all out and embracing her myopia. With the idea of “extreme frames for extreme lenses” in mind, she’s creating glasses that make a bold fashion statement.

Exaggerating the thickness of the frames and their visibility on the face, and thereby refusing to “hide the flaw”, is the core idea behind the latest project by the industrial design graduate from Shenkar College (Alber Elbaz’s alma mater). “They actually conceal the ‘disability’ aspect of thick lenses better, as all the attention is on the frames,” explains Canfi.

Game On

December 1, 2017 / by Pierre Godeau

Growing up, what was your favourite toy? 

When we played in the old days, we didn’t have the money to buy toys – we made them ourselves, using very simple materials. It’s a good childhood memory. I was born in Macau and at that time, it was poor. We couldn’t get toys easily, so we created them. Like for a pinball machine, we just took a piece of wood, put some cloth and rubber bands on it, and we played pinball – very simple! Kids are very creative. I always say toys are educational tools for children to educate themselves and build up their creativity. 

Did these childhood experiences get you into the industry?

Not really. It was an accident, but because I liked toys so much, I still serve the industry after I retired. One of my friends is 93 years old and still in the business! I have toys in my blood – that’s the problem. [laughs] 

How did Hong Kong become the world’s biggest toymaker in the 1970s?

The toys industry in Hong Kong has existed for more than 60 years, since the period after the Second World War. Lots of people came here from China in the early ’50s to look for opportunities and many of them started to manufacture toys. 

In the ’60s, because of the low cost and the manufacturing experience, many foreign companies came to Hong Kong
to source toys, particularly from England. Because toy manufacturing in Japan became too expensive, companies were looking for an alternative and the business boomed through the ’70s, when many of the big companies established factories here.

It’s still a toy hub, though now of course manufacturing is on the mainland, but the headquarters and the brains – the design, management, financial and technical support – are still here. If you go to any toy store in Europe or the US, the majority of toys sold there are made by Hong Kong companies. 

Which Hong Kong-based entities have achieved global success?

[Educational electronics company] VTech is very successful today. When I started in the ’60s, Hong Kong had one major toy company established, [New York toymaker] Louis Marx. After they closed the business in the ’70s, many of their toys became collectable. Another famous one was the British company Matchbox – it was acquired by Hong Kong toy company Universal [in the early ’80s and later sold in 1992 to Tyco, which was bought out by Mattel in 1997]. 

How about some specific “Made in Hong Kong” toys?

Without exception, I would say the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line from the ’80s – several tens of millions were made, according to a good friend of mine who produced them. Barbie, of course. The Matchbox and Dinky Toys metallic cars. I would also say Star Wars products, and many of the toys made in the ’60s and ’70s. And the Rubik’s Cube is still popular today – it’s very basic and very classic.

What’s the oldest Hong Kong-made toy still being sold?

It’s a simple product invented around 1956 – a little football, like a melon. It was first made as a sample by a machine manufacturer to show the toy companies that a machine could produce it – but you can still find it today on the streets. Toys are very funny; the simplest things like the spinning tops and the clackers are still popular today. Of course, the designs are a little bit different, but the idea is the same – toys last for a long, long time. 

Magnificent Mosaics

October 27, 2017 / by Louis-Marie Delmas

France’s cement tile industry was born in 1850 in the southern village of Viviers-en-Ardèche. For more than a century, these tiles were the most commonly used floor-covering material in the French home. Castles, luxury townhouses, traditional detached houses and Haussmann-era apartment buildings all featured cement tiles in a range of patterns and colours, and numerous local factories attempted to satiate the growing demand.

Imports soon flooded in. As the French market was flooded with cheaper, plain-coloured porcelain stoneware tiles from Spain and Italy in the latter half of the 20th century, the local cement tile industry began to die out, with factories closing one after the other. Today, David Dalichoux, from the fourth generation of a family of craftsmen, represents the only company in France that still makes cement tiles. 

“My great-grandfather established his factory in 1910 in Pézenas, in the Occitanie region of southern France, and my grandfather and then my father took over from him,” explains Dalichoux. “I had studied to be a mosaicist, so it was my duty to continue making cement tiles, because no one in France was making them anymore. I had inherited 140 dividers, which are the moulds used to make the patterned tiles. And I couldn’t abandon this heritage, this treasure handed down by my ancestors.” 

Dalichoux’s great-uncle, now 94, taught him the family’s secrets for combining the different raw materials and making the tiles. “The tile is made up of cement, marble powder, metal oxides and a few secret ingredients that are totally French… it’s a bit like the Coca-Cola recipe.” 

In the Dalichoux workshop, cement tiles and mosaics are custom-created following similar rituals. For a mosaic, the process starts with a blank sheet of paper, on which the artist designs the pattern or image based on the customer’s wishes. “It’s the same basic principle as for creating a painting,” he says. “In fact, the Italians say that a mosaic is a painting for eternity. I use the indirect method, the same one used by the Romans. After completing the actual-size drawing, I cut marble sheets into tiny cubes – or tesserae – of two centimetres or less and stick them face down on the paper.” 

All of Dalichoux’s mosaics – murals, table tops, Venetian-style terrazzo floors and inlaid decorations for swimming pools – are created using a multitude of marble and Venetian enamel tesserae. The entire process is done by hand, so it can take a long time. “The Last Supper mosaic, for which I received the Best Craftsman award [in France in 1997], took me 450 hours,” he recalls. 

The process for making traditional cement floor tiles is equally time-consuming. It takes 10 minutes to make a 20-centimetre-square tile, not counting the hours spent creating the colours and mixing the oxides, marble powders and other essential ingredients. To cover a surface of one square metre, 25 tiles are needed; the workshop turns out around 100 tiles each day. 

Rolling Easy

October 27, 2017 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Hang on, Please

September 29, 2017 / by Marine Orlova

The history of European wallpaper dates back in the 16th century, when the first domino papers – poster-size sheets of paper printed with wooden blocks and painted with stencils – were made. “They first represented religious images, such as biblical figures with the Latin invocation O domino written underneath,” explains Véronique de la Hougue, chief curator of the wallpaper department at the French museum for Decorative Arts. “They were hung on walls like paintings. Secular images such as a garland of flowers, a fruit or a leaf appeared later at the end of the 17th century. These patterns were printed over several sheets of paper that had to be joined together – and this was the beginning of wallpaper.”

These refined, fragile pieces of paper were used in small, intimate rooms such as a corridor, an alcove or a cabinet, while state rooms were still covered by large tapestries as they had been in the Middle Ages. Dominos also lined the insides of furniture, coffers, boxes and bound paperback books. In the 1750s, It girl Madame de Pompadour (Louis XV’s favourite), who was a huge fan of wallpaper, fully adorned her dressing room in Versailles with these colourful papers. “Let’s keep in mind that there was no electricity at that time, only natural light and candles,” says de la Hougue. “If one shed a modern halogen light in an 18th-century interior, one would be really surprised by the bold terracottas, vivid greens and azure blues applied on the walls.”

Wallpaper paternity is a European bone of contention. “If the French were very good at drawings and patterns, the Britons made the major technical breakthroughs,” says de la Hougue. “At the beginning of the 18th century, the English invented a machine that could join up to 24 sheets together, which made printing easier. They also set the trend of flocked wallpapers, whose texture imitated cut velvet – they are still a staple in wallcovering.” Can you imagine that the French even employed spies to uncover the secret of these trendy wallpapers?

Without a doubt, the 19th century was the golden age of wallpaper. The steam revolution, which allowed the printing of large quantities of paper faster and at a lower cost, made it affordable for working-class homes. “Wallpaper was then considered as a necessity, as vital as food and home,” says de La Hougue. It was an economical, clean and stylish alternative to painting and fabric; moreover, it was an easy way to bring fashion and art into one’s house. Indeed, wallpapers were infused by contemporary artistic movements: arts-and-crafts flower patterns, jazz-age and cubic-style designs, psychedelic swirls in the ’70s and so on.

Though wallpaper went out of style for a couple of decades, the world has seen an incredible revival over the last 10 years. Used as an ornament to create an accent wall or as a plain background to set a cosy atmosphere, wallpapers are truly everywhere. 

So what are the hottest trends? Nadine Tulloch-Osborne, a marketing executive for Cole & Son, answers: “Botanical patterns and textures of natural materials such as leather, wool and stone are desirable. African inspiration is also very strong nowadays. One wants their interior to bring a sense of reassuring warmth in the increasingly dominant age of the digital lifestyle.” 

De la Hougue also notes that digital printing allows the creation of extraordinary large-scale murals and ultimate sophisticated patterns: “Once again, a technological innovation makes wallpaper history move forward.”

Breathe Easy

September 29, 2017 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Dasha’s Smasher

July 10, 2015 / by Ben Windsor

Above image: Garage Museum in Gorky Park, Vestibule

The opening of Moscow’s striking new Rem Koolhaas-designed Garage Museum of Contemporary Art last month was a decisive moment for Russia’s global cultural ambitions. 

Founders Roman Abramovich and his wife Dasha Zhukova, along with director Anton Belov, and chief curator Kate Fowle, hosted over 500 international guests from the fields of art, entertainment and business, and representatives from many of the most prestigious global institutions.

Top American dealers Larry Gagosian, David Zwirner and Jeffrey Deitch all travelled to Moscow, as did Shanghai-based Xin Li, deputy chairman of Christie’s Asia. The museum’s patrons also include Hong Kong’s Silas Chou and Sir David Tang. 

Zhukova has grand plans for Garage, which she regards as a place for people, art and ideas to create history. “When I came up with the idea to create an art institution in Moscow, I could never have imagined that Garage would become what it is today,” she said at the opening. 

Founded in 2008 by businesswoman and gallerist, Zhukova, Garage is the first philanthropic institution in Russia to create a public mandate for contemporary art and culture. Originally housed in Moscow’s renowned Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage, designed by architect Konstantin Melnikov, from which the gallery took its name, in 2012 Garage relocated to a specially commissioned temporary pavilion in Gorky Park designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. 

The new structure, designed by Pritzker-prize winning architect Rem Koolhaas and his OMA studio, has transformed the park’s famous Vremena Goda (Seasons of the Year) restaurant created in 1968, into an imposing, sci-fi art space. The building had been derelict for 20 years before Zhukova bought it. In this part-preservation project, some original Soviet mosaics were retained and decorative tiles and brickwork were also restored. 

The 5,400 square-metre structure features a state-of-the-art façade of a translucent double-layer of polycarbonate elevated two metres above ground that wraps around the retained concrete structure of the restaurant. 

There is a ground floor space that opens onto the surrounding park and two 11-metre wide vertical sliding panels that rise seven metres above the rooftop terrace when fully extended. 

There are five exhibition galleries, an auditorium, public library, children’s area, and bookshop - Garage’s much-patronized café has also been retained.

Koolhaas was excited by such a prestigious challenge: “Preservation is increasingly important in our approach to existing cities, so we were delighted to work on turning the virtual-ruin of Vremena Goda into the new home for Garage. 

We were able to explore the qualities of generosity, dimension, openness, and transparency of the Soviet wreckage and find new uses and interpretations for them; it also enabled us to avoid the exaggeration of standards and scale that is becoming an aspect of contemporary art spaces,” he says. Zhukova is similarly enthused: “I am certain that our collaboration will help us create a new vision for contemporary art in Russia.

It is quite a vision, too. Garage will have Russia’s first public library devoted to modern and contemporary art, including “unofficial” art from the Soviet era, providing a glimpse into the country’s alternative art history. There will also be an archive of documentary material relating to the development of contemporary art in Moscow, St Petersburg and other Russian cities since the ’50s. Several commercial galleries across the country have donated their archives.

If Garage is to succeed, it must function as a two-way street. While, as the first such contemporary museum in the city, it must focus on bringing international contemporary art to Moscow, it also has to “produce internationally important projects from Moscow,” says curator Kate Fowle. 

The exhibition programme is testament to Zhukova, and the country’s ambitions; interactive shows by Japan’s
Yayoi Kusama and Argentina’s
Rirkit Tiravanija with Slovakia’s
Julius Koller; a series of displays from the Garage Archive Collection, photographs of the Moscow underground art scene from the ’70s through ’80s by conceptualist George Kiesewalter of Moscow, and works by Taryn Simon from the US, as well as a site-specific installation by Germany’s Katharina Grosse, among a host of other offerings. 

Kusama, the world’s most expensive female artist at auction, is making her debut in Russia, immersing audiences in her sensory and psychological environments. Connecting Garage to the place, she has created a large-scale public artwork, Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees, to guide visitors through Gorky Park.

The Visionary

May 29, 2015 / by Natacha Riva

Most Hong Kong stores were selling licensed brands of optical wear, like Gucci, Prada, or Dior, but nobody was selling original optical brands,” says eyewear pioneer and Visual Culture owner Pazo Ho, on the city’s ocular offerings when he set up in 2008. 

But Hong Kong being one of the global cities with the highest per-capita glasses-wearing population, Ho saw room to cater to a different, more discerning market. “Many people appreciate the traditional handcrafting of frames and innovation in frame designs.  We wanted to introduce something completely different,” he says. 

And so he did.  Visual Culture, an iconic eyewear and lifestyle store for the chic and avant-garde - which counts film directors Peter Chan and Wilson Yip among its clientele - was the result.  Now with six stores in greater China, its cutting-edge artisanal eyewear collection, gallery-decor shop atmosphere, and experienced optical professionals, the brand provides a platform for eyewear lovers who share its passion and appreciation for arts, design, culture, and 500 years of optical history. 

With 25 years of merchandising experience, Ho, a registered optometrist who started as a trainee in an optical store in 1990, always wanted to push his career to a higher stage. He worked his way up, across a selection of the city’s optical shops, and became manger of an Optical 88 branch in Macau.  Optical 88 are the largest optical chain store in Hong Kong.  As a result, he knew the products and services customers needed and, just as importantly, appreciated what was lacking in the local optical market. 

“We searched the world looking for special eyeglass brands, but not the obvious names. We wanted those with limited production who were not seeking world renown, but who worked hard to make the best glasses in their respective cities.” 

That passion has seen the introduction of names like Japan’s Hakusan by Megane, America’s Moscot, and England’s Oliver Goldsmith, none of which had previously been available in the city, and all with a particular provenance. 

Hakusan, established in 1883, still makes all its frames by custom order. The Aoyama-based brand was a favourite of musician John Lennon, 

who, while on a trip to Tokyo with wife Yoko Ono, bought their ‘Mayfair’ model in 1979 and subsequently had nine pairs of bespoke frames made.  New York brand Moscot is an institution celebrating its 100th anniversary - five generations - this year. Its signature aesthetic - classic design mixed with downtown New York City culture - was the go-to brand for Hollywood films during much of the 20th century. 

Goldsmith is often credited as the man who invented ‘fashion eyewear’. He was the first to work with fashion houses to create one-off pieces for catwalks, the first to regard sunglasses as fashion accessories and his signature black spectacles were favoured by Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn among a host of 20th century icons.  “We want people who come to our stores to appreciate the history and culture of the brands,” says Ho. 

It would be easy for Ho to sit back and enjoy the fruits of his labours, but ever the game-changer, he’s making new moves again.  Ho’s latest venture is new concept store Cult, an extension of the Visual Culture brand with stores in both Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui. Targeting younger, more savvy customers, Cult drives the store concept in a more imaginative and energetic way, directly appealing to the next generation of art and fashion conscious eyewear devotees. Brands like Yohji Yamamoto, ill.i Optics by will.i.am, Anderne, Boston Club and Ush will be the pick of the bunch. He has also discussed opening stores in Japan and Taiwan. 

Flights of Fancy

April 24, 2015

Tired of the carbon footprint your Gulfstream private jet is leaving in its wake? Then think different and sacrifice speed for sustainability by transforming the parts of your aircraft into striking and functional furniture.

Call it ultra-high-net-worth upcycling, but that’s what MotoArt does by design, turning parts of decommissioned commercial and military aircraft - wings, fuselages and tires - into conference tables, room dividers and coffee tables. And now the California-based company has just opened an 8,000sq ft showroom in Dalian’s Xinghai Square on the mainland, which aside from serving as a traditional retail outlet, can also be hired for corporate events.

MotoArt’s client list reads like the Fortune 500, ranging from General Electric, Microsoft and Red Bull, to Leo Burnett, Universal Music and Saks Fifth Avenue. It’s little wonder given that the company takes bespoke design to such altitudes while offering clients a chance to own a piece of aviation history.

Chinese travellers, according to CEO David Hall, have been discovering MotoArt and wanting the same back in China. “China is a growing market for American design and there is an element of kid in a candy store with our designs,” he says. Aviation is also growing rapidly in China, with more than 80 airports being built across the country in the next decade.

Among MotoArt’s signature pieces – and its most expensive – is the 747 Cowling Conference Table, right, (US$75,000) featuring a polished Boeing 747 jet engine as its centrepiece. The table seats 12 and has optional data ports to allow users to charge their devices during meetings.

The rarest items are the World War II B-25 Bomber Desks, “some of which come with original bullet holes still in them,” says Hall. MotoArt’s most popular products are its personal 737 Cowling Desks, and the large 747 cowling for corporate reception desks. For good measure, there’s also a Jumbo 747 Sleeper bed.  Which exec worth their air miles wouldn’t want a Gulfstream 2 work desk?

In fact, the permutations for personalisation are almost endless, but MotoArt can’t say yes to everything; for now the sky is still the limit. The day we spoke with Hall, a client had emailed a picture of a Michelin tyre from a NASA Space Shuttle, asking if he could create a small coffee table from it. “We turned this one down,” says Hall, regretfully. “We represent series’ of limited-edition functional art. Any one of our products you see on our website, we must have at least a few of any one series. We don’t have an inventory of Space Shuttle parts,” he says, “Yet!”