Well that’s it. We’ve had 12 months of madness; 11 unconventional hotel interiors; 10 inspiring artists; nine concept store wonders; eight cosplay dolls; seven international art spaces; six norm-challenging chefs; five upcycled coffee shops; four graduates a-exploring; three food trucks; two award-winning photographers and a parachuting toasted sandwich caught in a pear tree.*
The wheels of the festive period are grinding to a halt, but not without one last shebang – 2015 is closing in on us, the champagne is on ice, the fireworks prepped. Before you don your kilts and belt out another round of Auld Lang Syne – indulge us with a look around our top 12 features from the month just gone. There’s high-end art/design spaces, a salvage yard paradise, a very fancy old lavatory, an immersive art installation and plenty more besides. Charge your glasses, and raise a toast to the last 12 in our Best of 2014 Review. Here’s to our December, and 12 more months of mayhem ahead…
* Figures entirely fabricated.
Photography © Matthew Williams
Chamber of Delights
Studio Job curate first collection of design goodies at New York concept boutique…
The concept comes from Argentinian founder Juan Garcia Mosqueda, who imagined a modern-day reinterpretation of the Renaissance-era “cabinet of curiosities” transplanted into a Chelsea gallery premises. Every two years the owner will choose a new creative team or individual to ring the changes…
Photography, David Sievers Photography
Made to Measure
Adelaide bar Clever Little Tailor cuts a dash with bespoke early 20th Century interior…
They were appealing to “adults that know and enjoy quality liquor”, and with that in mind Adam set out to deliver an environment which combines the luxury of life’s finer things with an urban edge in a contemporary take on the classic early 20th Century laneway bars of New York and London…
Clever Little Tailor — Adelaide
Photography, The Gaztronome
and Kris Piotrowski
Dirty Dawgs
Sniff out some of West London’s best gourmet fast food in a salvage yard paradise…
A lovely old pinball machine serves as the hostess table, antediluvian Nintendo machines (nailed down to thwart light-fingered urchins and older than most of the patrons) also feature, and the low lighting ranges from cabaret-style rows of bulbs at the bar to an eclectic selection of attractive fittings in the main dining space…
Dirty Bones — Kensington, London
Photography, Snøhetta & Ketil Jacobsen
Stories of the Old Gods
Norse creation mythology plays a role at elemental Oslo concept store…
Mythology plays a role in the design of this store as well as the backstory; there is a 25 metre pinewood frieze at the entrance telling the story of the 12 rivers converging at Ginnungagap, and the first floor represents the elemental ice from Niflheim…
YME Universe Concept Store — Oslo
Photography, Marcus Peel
The Odyssey
RUN embarks on new journey with semi-autobiographical tale under real name Giacomo Bufarini…
Seen as a whole the works form a book in which Bufarini is both creator and protagonist, trapped within his own story, and presents an opportunity to learn more about an artist highly-regarded in the street art world for his murals but relatively unknown in a gallery context…
Giacomo Bufarini — Parabola di G at Howard Griffin Gallery, London
Photography, Scottie Cameron
Return Fire
Canberra basement bar bears the scars of devastating blaze at former hotel site…
The bar, bakery and restaurant bears the scars of the past devastation as part of its character; DesignOffice embraced the fire’s legacy to deliver a textured, layered interior, adding bluestone, galvanised steel and leather to smooth over the rough edges and create a comfortable environment…
A. Baker — New Acton, Canberra
Photo © Florian Holzherr
Individual Brilliance
Eclectic mix of guest designers makes Munich loft hotel The Flushing Meadows a truly original proposition…
The Flushing Meadows is made up of 11 studio loft apartments and five penthouse studios, with each of the standard lofts given a boutique look by a special guest – Austrian actress and singer Birgit Minichmayr, musician Michi Beck, pro-surfer Quirin Rohleder, DJ Hell and industrial furniture designer Norbert Wangen were among those to contribute. Eclectic tastes indeed…
The Flushing Meadows Hotel and Bar — Munich
Show: Hayward Annual’78, 1978
Poster design: Richard Hollis
Show and Tell
50 years of Hayward Gallery exhibitions revisited with fab retro A3 poster book…
In the course of its life the Hayward has amassed a brilliant collection of promotional posters, and no less an authority than Catherine Flood, Curator of Posters and Prints and the V&A, has been through the archives to select the best 50 examples to present in a cracking A3 format tear-out-and-frame publication…
On Display: 50 Posters for the Hayward Gallery
Coming out of the Closet
Spend a penny or two at Clapham Common tube station’s lovingly-restored WC…
The two local lads have been working for two years upscaling the loos from bog-standard to top shit. The 100-year-old listed premises were derelict when the project began, but there were more than enough original features left intact to give its next incarnation an authentic period look…
WC Wine & Charcuterie — Clapham, London
Courtesy, Royal College of Art
Body Language
We chat with the poetic South African artist exploring the relationship between the see-able and say-able…
“I am fascinated by our relationship with what surrounds it, be it other humans, nature, furniture or even abstract things like desires and fears. I am very intrigued by the relationship between the see-able and say-able, and I often think about my paintings as stories I could not have written with words”…
Making the Grade
Portland craft and design suppliers put their products through a rigorous selection process…
On the design front, a product must be innovative, attractive and/or ergonomic, and from a practical point of view it must be functional and purposeful. The third, and perhaps crucial, criterion is the product’s story, which should offer something in the way of interest, heritage or uniqueness…
Photography, Dennis Lo Designs, www.dennislo.com
Justin Lim, www.justlimphoto.com
Secret Identity
Clandestine entrance at Hong Kong stamp store reveals Mrs Pound’s hidden speakeasy bar…
Mrs Pound, at first glance a collector’s stamp shop in keeping with the neighbouring traders, is actually a speakeasy bar, accessed through a sliding door activated by pressing a certain item in the shopfront display case. So cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel…
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