Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2015 i OBJEKT South Africa

Customisation is trending, with consumers wanting unique products that make their homes stand out above the rest. From clothes, to vehicles, and now the areas in which we prepare our meals, high-end kitchen designers blu_line, based in Cape Town, are the leaders in mastering the art of customisation. Across the world in Southern Italy, designers/architects Ludovica and Roberto Palomba draw inspiration for their interior colours from unusual, furry muses… their dogs Salento and Sambelli. They show us around their quintessentially Italian abode, which once was an olive oil mill in the bygone days. By Los Angeles’ Venice Beach, the Pacific Ocean and architecture get acquainted with designer Lenny Steinberg’s glamorous American home, built on a coveted slice of land she was lucky to get her hands on. Back to the…

The company was founded in 2002 by two brothers, their intention being to produce custom kitchens that would meet the functional demands of modern living, while aiming to create an experience that would be born and maintained through consistent communication, and professional interaction. Over the past 13 years, through much hard work and consistency towards these purposes, blu_line has managed to solidify itself as the leader of high-end, modern kitchens. blu_line client can always be assured of authentic kitchen design. Due to the high demand for modern architecture, contemporary interior spaces, and an overall simplification and minimalism forming across design disciplines, the company has gone the contemporary route with its own design style. Nowadays, it is very rare to see a classically designed interior, as ornamentation is being stripped away,…

IN PRAISE OF SHADOWS is an essay on Japanese aesthetics, by Japanese author and novelist Jun’ichiro Tanizaki. The essay, published in Japan in 1933, consists of 16 sections that discuss traditional Japanese aesthetics in contrast to change. Comparisons of light with darkness are used to contrast Western and Asian cultures. The West, striving for progress, is presented as continuously searching for light and clarity. The subtle and subdued forms of oriental art and literature in Tanizaki show an appreciation of shadows and subtlety, closely relating to the traditional Japanese concept of sabi. In addition to contrasting light and darkness, Tanizaki considers the layered tones of various shadows and their power, in order to reflect low-sheen materials like gold embroidery, patina, and cloudy crystals. His ideas seem to be quite accurate…

ACCORDING TO BENTLEY, the Bentayga is the most exclusive, high-performance sport utility vehicle on sale. Take heed, though, as Bentley is a brand accustomed to making such bold claims, and then delivering on its promise. Responding to the global demand for a higher seating position, which delivers a more commanding and safer view of the road, the Bentayga is also the first Bentley to offer owners a taste of that outdoor sojourn. Even existing Bentley owners will discover a personality that’s truly unique to the Bentayga. A radical overhaul, which poignantly illustrates proactive creations, while demonstrating how adept the Crewe firm is at changing strategy, and pursuing new traditions. Judging by market research, which highlights that the SUV market is growing three times as rapidly compared to traditional segments, there…

THE ENCOUNTER with Andrea took place on a big, comfy couch at the presentation of “Diesel Living,” during Salone del Mobile. He is the son of Renzo Rosso, the founder of this remarkable brand. All style advice for Diesel Living comes from the same creative team at Diesel fashion. And, again, for their interior creations, they went all the way. It is not a matter of putting a new fabric on existing Moroso furniture, creating an extra pattern on Foscarini lamps, or an extra curve on Seletti cutlery. It is all about creating ground-breaking new pieces from scratch, and throughout the entire process of design, prototyping, and manufacturing. They combine that with their normal fashion-design job. After 20-something years of cutting-edge design in fashion and interior, they never seem to…

THE COUPLE selected Studio Pyramid for their design fearlessness, and love for large-scale projects. The homes they have designed, for art collectors Beverly Hills and New York, cemented their reputation as international trendsetters. This appealed to the well-travelled couple commuting between Toronto and Punta Mita, Mexico. The couple’s new townhouse is a 4-storey, 557-square-metre former rectory in a Baptist church in town. It is part of a 4-unit conversion of an iconic, red-brick church dominating a quaint Toronto neighbourhood. The townhouse was developed and built by Matthew Kosoy, who represents a new generation of urban visionaries. The interior scale was dictated by 4-metre-tall ceilings. The approach was to magnify majestic volumes and vistas by implementing unique and oversized elements. This bold design language encouraged the client to push the design…

Bell & Ross BR-X1 Chronograph Tourbillon I’m starting to think that the “BR” on Bell & Ross (B&R) timepieces stands for “bold and robust”. To mark its 10-year anniversary, B&R introduced the BR-01 which marked the beginning of a whole new chapter in the brand’s journey. It comes from the same family, but is more masculine, robust, and sophisticated, still carrying B&R’s iconic square casing. The new BR-X1 Chronograph Tourbillon packs a bigger punch, allowing B&R to fight in another league, the heavyweight class. To match the watch’s outer beauty, B&R has fitted a new-generation skeletonised tourbillion, monopusher chronograph movement, which features a 4-day power reserve indicator, a 30-minute, 60-second counter for the chronograph functions, as well as a flying tourbillon, which has its cage mounted without a support bridge,…

THEY LIVE and work in Milan, and purchased the old building in 2011, through a friend’s advice. They encountered the abandoned, old olive oil mill, untouched for more than thirty years. On closer inspection, it turned out that the building had been constructed in three stages. Roberto said, “The first part is very old, and was directly connected to the 17th-century palazzo close by. We believe that it was in the palace gardens. The last part was built around 1800. In those days, large quantities of olive oil were being produced in the region for use in oil lamps. You can still see many ancient olive trees dating from that period, the entire region was covered with them. Most of Europe used olive oil from this area for lighting. The…