Design Considered #05
Slimmer Summer Edition (1 of 3) - Modernism on the med, a sunny design round-up, and brutalism by the beach in Barcelona.
#01 - Opening Thought
Over the next few weeks, Design Considered will slim down for the summer but still offer sunny stories suitable for this relaxed period of the year. Thank you to everyone who has subscribed to this new newsletter and propelled its growth over the last month and for the kind words of encouragement you’ve offered.
Staying upbeat, let’s start with an update from a French seaside city one might want to consider checking out quite soon. With many Parisians fleeing the Olympics, typical summer holidaying spots will likely be busier than ever. Yet a more vintage mode of vacationing can be enjoyed at the futuristic enclave that is La Grande Motte.
Built in the 1960s and 1970s, it is coastal modernism that went a little madcap. The master planner and architect Jean Balladur took inspiration from both Brazil’s Oscar Niemeyer and the Mayan Pyramids. The resulting site was laden with stepped concrete apartment blocks and buildings featuring surreal spanning curved features, all constructed on reclaimed swampland outside Montpellier. With intentions to serve as a hub for mass French tourism (albeit of a more tasteful 1960s persuasion), it remained a divisive place, earning itself the moniker "la grande moche” (the big ugly).
But stay with me here. As you can see from the pictures (above), La Grande Motte has aged well and is currently undergoing a masterful urban revitalisation project by Leclercq Associés (pictured below). It’s work that makes the most of the place’s modernist ideas - enhancing Balladur’s pedestrian-first, park-laden, public amenity-abundant philosophy. The firm is turning what was once a community-minded holiday town into a coastal city people want to live in year-round. Additions include upgraded pedestrian promenades (replete with modernist-inspired seating and public art), an enhanced harbour, and, importantly, residential architecture, apartments and workplaces. It’s officially inaugurated next spring, but this summer is the perfect time to go and get a sneak preview.
#02 - Design Selection
Cheers! I’m not sure how the spiky stems feel on the hands, but the (1) ‘Cactus’ hand-blown Murano wine glasses from Venice-based Casarialto certainly provide the perfect opportunity for a good-looking summer pour. They’re available from Abask. Next up is a pair of radically different but equally enjoyable summer perches. The first comes in the form of the simple (1) black stained pine stool from Sweden’s Nadén, a solid timber number that will patina beautifully over the years it spends exposed to the sun. Secondly, every patio needs a famous (3) Swiss spaghetti chair, which is best bought from the brilliant Zurich retailer of all things outdoor furniture, Bogen33. Staying in Switzerland, a top container for floral arrangements this summer comes courtesy of Linck Keramik’s (4) S244 model. Margrit Linck started making ceramic pieces back in the 1930s, and Linck Keramik continues to handcraft her iconic designs near Bern. For those looking to be a little more constructive with their time off, wonderful hand-painted tiles courtesy of Hal Haines Studio should be on their to-buy list. These (5) fruity options could be used as to create a sunny backsplash in your kitchen or for some creative tiling touches in al-fresco areas.
#03 - Through The Lens
A not-so-typical view from the beach city of Barcelona reveals the ‘three chimneys’ of the decommissioned Central Tèrmica de Sant Adrià, captured by photographer Simone Marcolin. “The triptych approach is interesting to me as you have the same elements arranged in slightly different ways,” Marcolin tells Design Considered about his photography of the brutalist powerplant structure designed by Juan Ignacio Coscolluela Muntaner and built in the early 1970s. “I used the line of the horizon to show different things and the posts from the field to frame the towers. It was a playful game of arranging the elements I had in front of me differently on the three-dimensional plane of the picture.”
Shot from the Parc del Fòrum during a walk through his home city of Barcelona, Marcolin explains: “What interests me in the photography of architecture is translating something three-dimensional into a two-dimensional image whilst providing a bit of abstraction. This makes the picture more than a pure representation of the subject without creating pure abstraction. It’s about finding the balance of elements, providing hints of the place and subject matter, and using them to obscure other parts of the context.”
The building itself deserves exposure. The site will be re-purposed (incredible drone fly-through here) as part of the Barcelona edition of the Manifesta art and architecture event, which kicks off later this year.