Design Considered #08
Eccentric Belgian buildings, a storied Brazilian diving board and best-in-class design.
#01 - Opening Thought
As I’ve looked to grow this platform (thank you to all those who’ve recently subscribed!), I’ve been combing design-focused social media to see what gets the love. Bizarrely, it’s brutalism, which is camera-friendly but not typically user-friendly, that forms some of the most clickable content. With this in mind, I wanted to begin with something both brutal and brainy (and a touch eccentric): the work of Belgian architect Marcel Raymaekers, recently highlighted in the book Ad Hoc Baroque from Rotor. His creations - like the Glabbeek project (pictured above) - were assembled in a patchwork style, sometimes by hand, by amateur builders and often infusing baroque building elements salvaged in post-war demolition. Prioritising aesthetic impact over historical accuracy, the style was certainly ad hoc but created intimate, surprising, and culturally rich spaces that countered mainstream architecture.
#02 - A Tale Of Two Neighbourhoods
As cities grow, more affordable housing tends to be built as clusters of new apartments on urban fringes. While important in alleviating over-population, many of these developments lack the soul and cultural excitement citizens enjoy closer to town centres. Yet, I've been fortunate to split time over the last few months between two modern developments, built on brownfield sites, that have flourished as proper community-appreciated places. The first is where I reside, a mid-rise development called Fish Island Village in East London. The second is a socially-minded cooperative concept in Zürich, Hunziker Areal, where I regularly stay on business trips. Both were built in the last two decades and have virtues and failures. However, combining ideas from the two creates valuable benchmarks for developing under-used corners of space-starved cities - simple urban design solutions to build happier communities. Here are five learnings from the two:
Mown lawns require a lot of energy and feel passé in 2024, but paving public spaces with concrete to avoid any maintenance feels cheap and lazy (Fish Island failed big time here). At Hunziker Areal, grass and flora are left to grow wildly across its public spaces and even up the walls of the relatively new apartments—a proper urban oasis.
A good urban oasis needs plenty of water, and both sites do this brilliantly. Fish Island sits on a canal, and brave residents (myself not included) idle the summer away on the water in inflatable dingies. In Zürich, a shallow kids' play pool with a playful water feature provides endless fun on sunny days.
Both developments have given ground-level space to community-minded projects, a rarity in London. B-Corp The Trampery should be commended for its efforts to populate Fish Island's street-facing units with independent fashion and design-minded businesses. Both sites also offer retailers and restaurants that residents can be proud of visiting.
Safe storage for cycles and properly organised areas for shared bikes and cars mark these developments—housing on urban fringes shouldn't fail to connect residents with the city beyond, with cycling trumping driving wherever possible.
Finally, the empowerment of residents makes both communities tick. Hunziker Areal is a cooperative, so this is built into its DNA. At Fish Island Village, organisations that lobby lethargic property management have formed organically and successfully via social media.
#03 - Design Selection
This week kicks off with the sweet (1) Solid Wood Box Set designed by London’s Yuzhao Huang. The stackable set, which cleverly softens a cuboid form via some nice curves, has clearly found an audience, exceeding its sales target on Kickstarter four times over. Staying boxy, this plush (2) Sacha Armchair designed for Kiwi furniture firm Resident by Philippe Malouin has a striking graphic appearance. Still, it doesn’t strip away the comforts needed for a restful perch. Creative and art direction by Clara Quintana Studio showcases (3) Santa & Cole’s Lámina in its best light; the modern classic was designed by Antoni Arola in 2018, with a collection of standing and suspended lamp variations growing since. A handsome take on a British bar stool continues our seating selection with the recently released (4) Stool 5, by Another Country. It is made in Portugal and available in a fine selection of woods. From Portugal to Japan, the hand-crafted (5) Kumiko Partition in cedar wood from Time & Style is a design delight we all wish we were lucky enough to have in our homes. Created through a historic 800-year-old craft tradition, Europeans don’t have to travel too far to appreciate them - they are available at the brand’s showrooms in Amsterdam and Milan.
#04 - For Your Consideration
While I’ve lauded my own neighbourhood above, I’m always looking for a dream modernist gem in London to call home. Thankfully, I’ve got a good guidebook now for my search in the form of Park Books’ Modern Buildings, which comprehensively covers the mid-century marvels of Southeast London.
How does Chanel always manage to make everything so chic? Even its podcasts are finely crafted works of art, with Season Four of ‘Chanel Connects’ filled with inspirational interviews, including an upcoming conversation with graphic design luminaries Michael Rock and Irma Boom.
Design brands love an anniversary, and the 110-year ‘birthday’ of the late legendary Danish designer Hans J Wegner is being celebrated by Carl Hansen & Søn, with a brilliant profile series of creatives discussing the master chair designer’s work. Researcher Noritsugu Oda’s film is particularly good,
The overhaul of a hulking Hamburg former Nazi bunker has been leading discussion in the design media - the Financial Times’ in-depth look at this incredible redevelopment project is worth a read.
Finally, researching the opener, I discovered Koozarch, a rich and somewhat intimidating repository for serious storytelling on unrealised design, which focuses on ‘reclaiming the role of story-telling for architects, artists, curators and designers’.
#05 - Through The Lens
I often find myself digging into design history online in weird and wonderful places, and this photograph from José Moscardi jumped out at me as I flicked through a digitised version of Brazil’s Acrópole magazine, March 1968 edition. Designed by João Vilanova Artigas (famous among Latin American architects for the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo) alongside Carlos Cascaldi, the totem-like diving board was part of a modernist swimming complex in São Paulo that was sadly - and controversially - demolished. The image highlights a fun, fearless and experimental time for Brazilian architecture. It showcases how something as simple as a diving board can capture our imagination when designed with a bit of flair.