This article is part of a special section of design on how designers can inspire designers to do amazing things.
Swiss furniture company finds a new Manhattan home
Vitra is a nomadic in New York City and has occupied three different spaces since leaving the 9th Avenue showroom almost a decade ago. These Wanderings this week, the 75-year-old Swiss furniture company will unveil a new, eye-opening Manhattan home: Chinatown loft with a huge (16 x 65 feet) window wall looking out at the Manhattan Bridge's gateway.
Nora Fehlbaum, the granddaughter of Vitra founders Willi and Erika Fehlbaum, and the company's current chief executive, said they were looking for a “similar vibe” in the Meatpacking district while searching for space around 2003. “It's not so obvious. Something to discover. I really feel like it's New York, but it's a bit vague,” she said.
This showroom, which previously housed the Jing Fong Dim Sum restaurant, feels like a real discovery. Located on the third floor, the elevator is in the front yard, in the middle of the interior alley where many tenants are restaurants (especially Joe Shanghai).
Fehlbaum recalled that she felt “overwhelmed” when she first visited the space. She worked with architect Serge Druin (the grandson of French designer Jean Prouve) with Vitra's in-house design team to create a flexible environment. Naturally, it is very minimal, with curtains hanging from the rails instead of walls, with long bars that double as communal tables, and vibrant blue tiles from the recently demolished Edgar J. Kaufmann Conference Center designed by Alvarard.
The furniture offering is decorated with a New York-centric touch, including locally purchased cast iron doves by Brooklyn designer John Thorne. The showroom is located on the 3rd floor at 46 Bowery. vitra.com. – Lima Suki
Mansion Museum celebrates its maker
Protean Architect tastemaker Alexander Jackson Davis catered to an ambitious American art patron of the 19th century with turrets and domes in an Americanized version of European castles. “Alexander Jackson Davis: Designers of Dreams” is an exhibition examining his buildings and objects, and will open on May 23 at Lyndhurst, a museum that has turned to a marble mansion in Tarrytown, New York.
Davis designed Lyndhurst on 67 acres of banks on the Hudson River from the 1830s to the 1860s. It was one of dozens of private and public buildings he decorated with Crenelle, Facet Bay windows, Quatrefoils, Gargoyles and Spiky Finials. He drew inspiration from the Gothic architecture of centuries ago that he read in novels and saw in book illustrations. (He spent most of his life near New York City and never travelled abroad.) He was equipped with his own unique furniture design, including a chair formed from openwork petals and a chair with flared red legged hoofs.
For his new and rich clients, the committee has publicly proven their secular world. “We've seen a lot of money on our products,” said David Scott Parker, architect, Davis expert and collector, Lyndhurstshaw's leading lender.
The team of curators reunited Davis' sketches with actual objects from the first home and vintage photos. Lyndhurst still has almost all of the original Davis work and is one of the few of his buildings in public.
Lyndhurst executive director Howard Zar said that by integrating so many occasional source material, Davis is a pioneer of modern artists. The show will be on display until September 23rd; lyndhurst.org. – Eve M. Kahn
Ralph Pucci's support stopped
“It feels like a UFO that hasn't landed yet,” observed Kevin Walz of Numino Love Seat, one of five upholstered pieces from the new collection, which launched later this month at Manhattan Design and Art Gallery Ralph Pucci International.
The seating began as a personal project for a 75-year-old designer and artist who suffered from back problems and discovered that “Western” furniture was not supportive. At first glance, the low silhouette of the numino seems to be guilty of the same claim. But Waltz argued, “They are cooperative and not squeeze, they're very easy to come and go.”
The Numino family also includes three tables: sides, coffee and consoles (the end of two sizes). Unlike its low-haired, opaque siblings, the table has legs and is transparent. “They have quality of service with spilled lips, like the most elegant TV trays popular in the 1950s,” says Walz of The Design. Made from cast resin and stainless steel, this table is produced in the same Ralph Pucchi Workroom, where the company's artistic mannequins were once manufactured.
Peace will be featured on May 19th at 44 West 18th Street. ralphpucci.com. – Lima Suki
At Triennale di Milano, we focus on inequality
For over a century, the Triennale di Milan has been one of the fixtures of the global cultural calendar, if it were one of the more confusing things.
Previous editions of the irregular, sometimes, sometimes square art and design festival, pioneered experimental projects that included an entirely new neighborhood in Milan (1947), and served as the early platform for future celebrities such as Italian architect Aldo Rossi (1973).
The show's 24th installment, which opened Tuesday, promises to be so diverse and ambitious. Under the heading “Inequality,” the triennale features a series of sub-exhibitions, including highlighting affordable homes curated by the Norman Foster Foundation. A study exploring the intersection of bacteria and buildings, “emphasizes how they are deeply intertwined from the Neolithic period to today.” A selection of historical portraits of the upper Milanese crust from the 17th to 20th centuries.
Participants from over 40 countries explore the inequality of all of its outfits in the Triennale Palazzo del Arte, a stately building in Milan's central park. Through summer and fall, a full calendar of events and talks (immersive music performances, a roundtable on climate change) continues researching, finding ragged social fabric rifts and trying to figure out exactly what can be done to fix them. It will be on display until November 9th. triennale.org. – Ian Volner
