In Marcel's Place - Marcel Wander's Design Studio

Elle Decor Italia
by Marc Heldens
photo by Mark Seelen

Marcel Wander's new studio in Amsterdam is a horizontal building over several floors.

He spends half his time abroad, and the other half in Amsterdam. Every morning Marcel Anders strolls through the Jordaan area to get to Westerhuis, the building where his design studio is based. It is during these walks through the city that he finds the ideas for his latest projects. He looks inside his soul to find the "burning flame", as he defines his creative mind. He loves working like this and inspiring his team in the process. "My task is also to spread my creativity around", he explains, "which is why I needed a new design office. This horizontally-structured building is perfect for my kind of organization. All the members of the international team work on the same floor, which creates great synergy." The studio is split across two levels, with reception areas on the fourth floor and the beating creative heart of the operation on the third floor. "This space is a very fertile ground", Wanders continues. "The people who work here are important to me and their creative spirit needs total freedom. My studio is like a home from home, and my team is like a family that fills me with energy.

My projects are like puzzles, and everybody makes their contribution: myself, the Marcel Wanders Studio, the various international manufacturers and clients. My work has sometimes been defined as quirky, but I believe it's better described as a "fantasy", because what counts is creating surprise, happiness and innovation. I also have a deep respect for everything that is old. I like working with past and present archetypes from different cultures, because they often reveal wonderful values." When we ask him to talk about his greatest fantasy and his greatest vision, Marcel Wanders doesn't think twice: his fantasy is to design a mosque. Meanwhile, his greatest vision is already coming to fruition: a book called "The World Heritage", a collection of his sources of inspiration and of various archetypes from around the world, all mixed up and captured in photographs.

The Spirited Workshop - Anish Kapoor

Elle Decor Italia
by Paolo Campostrini
photos by Vincent Mercier

Located in an old building in London is the studio of Anish Kapoor. Where things are cut, welded, ground and polished. All focused on the Absolute.

In his workshop, where almost impossible solid engineering takes shape, Anish Kapoor searches for unexplored spaces between matter and light; those metaphysical flashes which emerge from steel when it is polished so rigorously that it seems like liquid mercury and becomes a misshapen mirror (the Cloud Gate in Chicago), where onlookers can discover the face they never knew they had. It is a workshop of solid people run by Kapoor; 15 post-conceptual art labourers who work with him in a large industrial warehouse south of London. "I want them to be agile, in their heads and in their legs," says the Anglo-Indian sculptor of anti-matter. "An idea is worth nothing in itself but only makes sense as the conclusion of a journey of experimentation and work".

After spending just a couple of hours in the workshop, it becomes clear that art, in order to become a spiritual adventure, must first involve the body. Kapoor and his workers use masks because it is dangerous to bring out the soul of matter: splinters, smoke, chemical emissions, acids which peel away even the more resistant surfaces. It is a veritable Vulcan hothouse which supports a construction madness that is attempting to overcome the borders between solids and gases.

In 2012, we will see the highest installation ever constructed: a spiral (the Orbit) which will rise above Olympic London for 115 meters. It is a tower of Babel which, for some, is an anthem for the useless and, for others, is the unexplored, the latest among many works to challenge the static. Works which reveal his obsessions: for red (My red Homeland at Besana, in wax) or for the dragon (The Leviathan for Monumenta 2011, at Grand Palais, in PVC). We, too, have our obsessions, but by getting into his works, we can at least learn to recognize them.

Chalet Béranger by Noé Duchaufour Lawrance

Elle Decor Italia
by Jeremy Callaghan
photos by Gaelle Le Boulicaut

A collector of designer pieces entrusts the renovation of his Savoy home to Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance. The result: a creative, modern version of the classic Alpine chalet.

The owner of this house describes himself as a collector and art and design enthusiast, with a particular interest for the French designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance. When he later purchased this chalet, a former restaurant with an adjoining farm, where the three valleys of the French Alps cross each other, he entrusted the renovation of the property to the designer. Duchaufour-Lawrance accepted only on the condition that the owner would give him carte blanche and reinterpreted the external landscape of the interior design with a constant reference to the natural Alpine architecture.

Surrounded by the immensity of nature, the strong symmetrical geometry of the traditional chalet was abandoned in favor of the organic curves that are so characteristic of this designer. Soft, organic and fluid, a strip of wood used as seating, walls and ceiling, emphasised by the tradition of wooden slats, expresses the double passion of Duchaufour-Lawrance for materials and for shapes. The concrete flooring is transformed into a raised surface in Corian for sharing meals. A white monolith by Boffi hides all the elements of the kitchen. The designer has infused great lightness into the materials, more traditionally associated with a rustic presence.

Armani Hotel Milano in Elle Decor

Elle Decor features an article on Armani Hotel in Milan – with the mention of Silk Georgette, the prime stone materials supplied by Salvatori for interiors. Silk Georgette was chosen as it is considered as the perfect finishing for elegant settings and meticulous designs. Outstanding by an unusual vein pattern, Silk Georgette, in shades of grey, bears a strong resemblance to the allure of the delicate fabric. The prestigious partnership between Salvatori and Armani - dated back with the Hotel in Dubai - is a validation, for the Tuscany brand, of its attention and investment in terms of research and innovation aimed at identifying with the needs of a new luxury contract.

Elle Decor Italia & Living Divani

Living Divani furniture display in the window of La Rinascente in Milano. 

Window display features Piero Lissoni's new design (1) Cabrio, monoblock armchair introduced at the Salone del Mobile 2011 and Nathan Yong's (2) Bolle side table designed in 2009.

Cabrio in bright colors for high urban definition armchairs.

Bolle side tables and small stools.