Inside Look: Dune CEO’s Southampton Home by Sawyer|Berson

Over the past few decades, the New York architecture firm Sawyer|Berson has designed a bevy of houses in the Hamptons. Admired for their stylistic versatility, founding partners Brian Sawyer and John Berson have masterminded everything from stately Colonial Revival residences to bold, contemporary compounds. But never before had the studio worked on a home quite like the one proposed by Richard Shemtov for a wooded single-acre property in Southampton.

Shemtov, the CEO and founder of furniture company Dune, was looking to build a weekend retreat to share with his wife, Dominique, and their three daughters, who range in age from 14 to 26. He envisioned something modestly scaled, modeled after traditional gable-roof barns but in a rigorously pared-down style. Key inspirations were Herzog & de Meuron’s Parrish Art Museum in nearby Water Mill and the Baron House in Sweden by John Pawson.

“It wasn’t our typical commission,” says Sawyer, who has known and worked with Shemtov for years. “It was an exercise in discipline, really, a fun puzzle to work out. We could fit a certain amount of program in the box.” Adds Berson, “As it turned out, that was a deceptively simple idea, to coordinate the plan and section and make the entire composition sing.”

A Southampton Home Three Years in the Making

To create a crisp silhouette, Sawyer and Berson sunk one of the structure’s two main levels entirely below-grade and devised the standing-seam roof, a weathered-gray zinc, so that it is flush with the perimeter edges and has hidden gutters. Expanses of 10-foot-high, black-painted aluminum–framed glass—most of which slide open—line much of the front and rear facades, while the rest of the exterior is clad in a distinctive recycled-glass brick.

The house’s ground floor encompasses an open living/dining area, the kitchen, and four bedrooms. The loftlike basement level—housing several entertaining areas, Shemtov’s home office, a laundry room, a gym, and a kitchenette—is completely column-free, which added significantly to the engineering complexity of the project. The house also expanded a bit as plans developed: A custom-fabricated carport was tacked on and room was carved out below the eaves to create a half level, a cozy attic den that can double as a guest bedroom. “It’s the house we wanted,” Shemtov says. “But we went way over budget and it took nearly three years to build.”

Interiors are by Homeowner Richard Shemtov

A big chunk of that time was devoted to fitting out the 8,000-square-foot interiors. It’s not uncommon for Sawyer|Berson to handle every aspect of a project—architecture, interiors, landscape—as can be seen in the duo’s forthcoming monograph, to be published by Rizzoli this fall in advance of the firm’s 25th anniversary. But in this case Shemtov oversaw the interiors himself, his first time designing a project of this scale. “Every inch of the house was considered and thought out, almost to the point where it was obsessive,” he admits.

A Courtyard Garden by Sawyer|Berson Brightens the Lower Level

The art is mostly things the homeowners have collected over years, works by friends or that have a personal resonance. One new acquisition is the Bernardo Siciliano painting of a restaurant interior that hangs in the dining area. The scene felt distinctly familiar to Shemtov, who learned after he bought it that the artist had based it on Lincoln, a restaurant in Lincoln Center where Dune created a custom banquette.

To bring light down into the lower level, Sawyer|Berson, which oversaw landscaping, created a courtyard garden with a series of amphitheater-style concrete terraces that are arrayed with a profusion of potted plants. “I originally saw it as a kind of hanging garden with things tumbling down,” says Sawyer. “Richard came up with the idea of lining it with pots, which I think is fun and punchy.”

The focal point of the rear grounds is a minimalist swimming pool, surrounded by porcelain-tile coping and a sweep of precisely graded lawn. There’s an outdoor kitchen and a poolside dining pergola, as well as a covered terrace that’s become one of the family’s favorite hangout spots. Shemtov imagines spending weekends and summers here with the girls—and, eventually, their families—for many years to come. “Labor of love is a commonly used term,” he says, “but with this house, it resonates a lot.”

Inside a Southampton Home by Sawyer|Berson 

sawyer|berson: alex taylor wilk

blue sky design: structural engineer

bk kuck construction: general contractor

toulemonde bochart: rug (lounge)

normann copenhagen: small side table

romo: chair fabric (lounge), drapery sheers (living area, dining area), banquette fabric (mudroom), bench fabric, window-treatment fabric (guest bedroom), settee fabric (main bedroom)

anna karlin: pendant fixture (dining area)

élitis: chair fabric

crosby street studios: rugs (dining area, guest bedroom)

schmitt design: chandelier (living area)

pollack: sectional fabric

kerry joyce: chair fabric

through jeff lincoln art & design: cocktail table, side tables

Ortal: fireplace

foro marble: fireplace stone

stone source: floor tile (mudroom)

renson: custom carport, custom pergola (exterior)

damien hirst: wallpaper (bedroom)

art + loom: rug

Knoll Textiles: wall fabric

robert allen: headboard fabric

brinklicht: pendant fix­tures (kitchen)

corian: countertops

piet boon: stools

wolf: oven

California Faucets: sink fittings

through lee jofa: drapery fabric (main bedroom)

c & c milano: bed fabric

céline wright: pendant fixture

beadlight: sconces

jab: chair fabric, ottoman fabric (main bedroom), chair fabric (game area)

mgs milano: outdoor shower (guest bedroom)

pelican pools: pool (terrace)

ceramiche refin: pavers

lindsay cowles: wallpaper (bedroom)

paul smith: lamp

loro piana: chair fabric

verzelloni: bench

jane churchill: bench fabric

modernica: screens (game area)

Moooi: pendant fixture

salvatori: wall tile (bathroom)

concrete collaborative: countertop stone

ann sacks: floor tile

brizo: sink fittings

&tradition: lamp (den)

fleetwood windows & doors: windows, exterior doors

rheinzink: roof

harbour outdoor: outdoor furniture

Stonhard: resin floor coating

benjamin moore & co.: paint

Roar Breaks the Mold With the Design of This Government Office in Abu Dhabi

2022 Best of Year Winner for Government/Institutional

A huge custom ottoman in the shape of a teddy bear stretched out on its back is not the sort of thing often found in the office of a government agency. Nor is a fluffy armchair the color of a pink flamingo standard bureaucratic furniture. But when the innovative Dubai-based interiors and architecture studio Roar was commissioned for the Abu Dhabi office of the Supreme Council for Motherhood & Childhood—an agency that sets policy in matters concerning the welfare of women and children in the U.A.E.—there was no question that the firm would put its own spin on the workplace. After all, founder and creative director Pallavi Dean and her team’s portfolio spans a pop-up bakery, a state-of-the-art rental deposit-box facility, hotels, and spas. This project takes cues from residential design and is undeniably stylish, colorful, comfortable, and, above all, fun. “In many ways it’s a community space for moms,” Dean says, herself the mother of two. “It’s kind of like our home.”

In the training room, they’re printed on fabric wallcovering in dusty shades of pink, blue, and beige. For the ex­ecutive suite, they’re in the form of a brushed brass partition system, and throughout the workplace they’re incorporated in the built-in cabinetry.

Roar Prioritizes Comfort With Soft Colors and Furnishings 

That curviness extends to the freestanding furniture, which Dean describes as “feminine,” in tune with the Supreme Council of Motherhood & Childhood’s focus on women. But feminine doesn’t mean dainty here. “The furniture has a lot of rounded, rotund forms. That’s intentional,” she says. “A lot of it feels like a hug, like it’s cocooning you.” The aforementioned flamingo-reminiscent armchair, called Hortensia, by Andrés Reisinger and Júlia Esqué, is a prime example.

The material palette furthers that sense of comfort. Greek white marble in reception is softly striated. Carpets and rugs in rhythmic patterns are plush underfoot. Natural oak, ash, and maple are used extensively—on floors as well as in the custom furniture and pieces by the likes of Alp Nuhogˇlu. “When you think of luxury interiors, you think of wenge and dark wood. We were steering clear of that,” Dean explains.

The Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Motherhood & Childhood, Her Excellency Rym Abdulla Al Falasy, was
involved in shaping the color scheme and other aspects. And not just for her own domain, which is slightly more formal in feeling, as befits a place where she might greet high-level officials from her own country as well as delegates from other nations. Here, for instance, one finds paneled walls and an alcove with a raised platform.

An Inclusive Space in Abu Dhabi for Parents and Children Alike

But the design pays just as much attention to those who are too young to express their aesthetic preferences. In the children’s restroom, which has a marine-life theme, walls are enlivened with blue-and-white mosaic tile, metal-mesh sea creatures hang from the ceiling, and pendant globes are encased in the same jute netting that fishermen use. In the children’s library, under concentric ceiling circles, a climbable circular enclosure corrals beanbags and a bench resembling one of those balloon dachshunds brought home from kids’ birthday parties. Then there’s that big teddy bear. It rests on an oak base, under a ceiling with a traditional sadu composition of woven palm leaves. Its paws are upholstered in traditional Emirati weaving done by Bedouin women in rural parts of the country.

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Roar: tamara taamneh; anna de florian; ana carreras; nadeem asharaf

summertown interiors: woodwork

b&t design: wood-frame chair, loveseat, round coffee table (reception), tan chairs (training room), loveseats (waiting area), bench (nap room)

karman: pendant fixtures (reception)

bestuhl: task chair

arper: stools, high tables (hall)

inclass spain: round table, pink chairs (training room), task chairs (library)

la chance: stool (training room)

estiluz: pendant fixture

pedrali: tables (training room, office), lounge chairs (library)

Lee Broom: hanging chair (reception)

Moooi: furry armchair

moroso: sofa (lounge)

viccarbe: chairs (lounge, office), tables (mezzanine)

softline: green chairs (lounge), chairs (mezzanine), tan chairs (office)

carpet crafts: custom carpet (mezzanine)

Roll & Hill: pendant fixture (office)

kendo mobiliario: tables (waiting area, office)

flos: pendant fixture (nursery)

Carnegie Fabrics: bear fabric

fatboy: bench, beanbag (library)

sensi: tile (restroom)

zero: pendant fixtures

ege: custom carpet, custom rugs

A Hip, New Restaurant Next to MoMA Offers Diners a Feast for the Eyes

2022 Best of Year Winner for Fine Dining

A successful restaurant in New York must be “yummy,” according to Lionel Ohayon. The designer isn’t simply referring to the food, however. Rather, it’s the entire experience that comes from carefully combining lighting, acoustics, materiality, layout, visual impact, and a sense of discovery, together compelling diners to return time and again. “What are yummy rooms?” he asks rhetorically. “They’re the enduring restaurants that have lasted forever, and people just know that they want to spend time in them. It’s so much to do with the entire package.”

That’s exactly what ICrave, where Ohayon is founder and CEO, intended for 53, an already buzzy Midtown restaurant developed by Altamarea Group and helmed by Singaporean chef Akmal Anuar. Its prime location is nestled at the base of Ateliers Jean Nouvel’s 53 West 53, a much-publicized residential tower that rises 82 stories into the Manhattan skyline as a series of carbon-gray shards, and accommodates part of the recent expansion of the adjoining Museum of Modern Art. The restaurant’s 11,000 square feet are divided across two spaces: the street-level bistro and the subterranean main dining room. Jean Nouvel’s angular beams enable wide column-free expanses, while allowing for the creation of a sequence of intimate dining areas “framed to feel like part of the building,” Ohayon notes. However, given the proximity to a world-famous contemporary art museum, the ICrave team decided to approach the project not as interior design, but as sculpture or a painting.

ICrave, in the words of Ohayon, is a studio of “big moves,” and, at 53, this manifests in some three dozen giant curving fins that span the full width of the restaurant. Emerging from the street-level ceiling, they cascade down in front of the bistro, swoop underneath it, and finally wrap around the ceiling plane of the main dining room. Each fin is edged in a bright stripe, the nine nearly neon colors lifted from the Nine-Dragon Wall reliefs found in Chinese imperial palaces. The hues also nod to the varied Asian cultures and cuisines represented in the menu and the modern art on display in the museum galleries nearby. (The restaurant will also feature a rotating selection of fine art in partnership with the Friedrich Petzel Gallery.)

Glossy black on one side and sepia-toned on the other, the fin installation has a lenticular quality when moving through the restaurant or walking by on the sidewalk. Ohayon describes it as both a loom and a veil, its colored threads drawing glances from passersby through the glazing and down to an aerial diorama of tables, banquettes, and chairs on ink-wash carpet, the latter three in subtle smokey grays that echo Nouvel’s steel construction. “With hospitality projects in New York, you’re creating a piece of the landscape of the city for the people who live in it and memories for those who visit,” the designer says.

The idea for the sculptural architectural gesture stemmed from the Chinese artistic principle of xieyi, which refers to works created with broad, expressive strokes, and it represents the chi, or energy, that flows through 53. In contrast, the principle of gongbi, that’s all about realism and fine detail, guided choices for the decor that ties the environment together. A keen eye will notice the colors from the fin edges replicated in the precious stones used as chopstick rests, for example.

This maturity, which comes from ICrave’s beginnings and long-standing experience in hospitality design, then its later expansion across more sectors, including healthcare, has enabled the studio to complete a restaurant interior that celebrates its cuisine without pastiche, understands and capitalizes on the importance of its context, and is ultimately just as yummy as the mango pudding on the menu.

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ICrave: michelle schrank; renee joosten; greg merkel; jane yi; amit dishon hoffman; bingjie duan; rudi pham; gisbel videla

anthony mrkic architect: architect of record

pentagram: graphics consultant

rosini engineering: mep

ferrante manufacturing company: woodwork

munnworks: custom furniture workshop

certified construction: general contractor

certified signs: custom signage (exterior)

demar leather: red seating upholstery (bistro)

Moooi: chan­de­liers (dining room)

Clipso: stretched bar fabric

arca: bar stone

potocco: stools, chairs

thinkglass: custom instal­lation (bar)

el torrent: custom sconces (dining room)

hemera: pendant fixtures

ultrasuede: wall covering

elements of architecture: mirror

design communications: custom fins

soundply: paneling

ambientec: table lamps

fort street studio: custom rugs

tiger leather: seating upholstery

This Sustainable Home by Pascali Semerdjian Architects Reflects São Paulo’s Style

The first time Brazilian architect Sarkis Semerdjian met clients Renato Lulia Jacob and Emily Perry, the chemistry between them was obvious. Semerdjian, who is coprincipal with Domingos Pascali of the São Paulo-based firm Pascali Semerdjian Architects, had gone to London in late 2019 to visit friends. Jacob and Perry, originally from Brazil and the U.S., respectively, had lived in England for a decade. When the couple learned of Semerdjian’s visit, they invited him for a meal at their Edwardian townhouse in North London. “Being there with them was like sitting at a bar with old friends,” Semerdjian recalls. From then on—despite the challenges of the project they were about to embark on—the relationship “just flowed.”

Not long before that dinner, around the time Perry became pregnant with her and Jacob’s second daughter, the couple had decided to move to São Paulo, where Jacob had grown up. “There was a kind of gravity pulling us back,” he says. They wanted their daughters to grow up speaking Portuguese and have more time with their Brazilian grandparents. “The window for both,” Perry adds, “was getting smaller.”

They hired Pascali Semerdjian, which had worked with several of Jacob’s friends, and began looking for a suitable apartment in Vila Nova Conceicao, a leafy neighborhood adjacent to São Paulo’s Ibarapuera Park, one of relatively few green spaces in a city famously choked in concrete and asphalt. They were looking for a place they “wouldn’t feel guilty over destroying and rebuilding,” as Jacob puts it, eventually settling on a spacious flat in a nondescript 1990’s building, previously owned by an elderly couple who had moved out five years earlier. Jacob and Perry returned to London, intending to visit São Paulo frequently during the gut renovation of the apartment—a plan the pandemic quickly nixed. “All our process was via Zoom,” Pascali reports, noting that the couple was only able to return to the city shortly before the project’s completion.

Having spent practically their entire adult lives as renters—in Buenos Aires, Lisbon, and London, where they’d moved three times in 10 years—the new homeowners “had a checklist of mistakes we wouldn’t make and things we liked,” Perry says. This included wall space for a growing art collection; public areas that were generous but not palatial; avoidance of leather or synthetic fabrics; and certificates of sustainability for every piece of wood used in the renovation. The goal: “A home that was proud of São Paulo,” a city, she adds ruefully, “that people love to hate.”

Gutting the 4,000-square-foot apartment was relatively easy. Removing the worn-out gypsum ceiling revealed the building’s elegant concrete formwork, which is left exposed in some rooms. Save for an unmovable plumbing pipe—wrapped in rope, it’s now part of the daughters’ playroom—there were few structural constraints, allowing the couple to organize the layout as they saw fit: The public areas and guest suite occupy the southern half of the apartment, while sliding doors allow private circulation between the three family bedrooms and the kitchen, an intimate sanctum within the larger context.

In particular, the clients worked with the architects to develop social zones that are both deeply Brazilian and vividly cosmopolitan. In the entry hall, a hemicycle of light blazes through a panel of jade-color Pakistani onyx, “like a sunset at the end of the corridor,” Semerdjian suggests. Board-formed concrete panels line the walls, from which a small, brass key bowl projects like a font of holy water: a secular blessing for the domestic space. The panels continue throughout the public areas, curving around the building’s idiosyncratic chamfered corners to create what Pascali describes as “a kind of tunnel” connecting the entry to the dining and living rooms. In the latter, the panels frame a pair of built-in sofas sitting in a large niche that formerly accommodated a fireplace—the type of fanciful gesture toward old-world glamour that Jacob and Perry were looking to avoid.

The residence comes to life in the refinement of its details, a punctilious approach to junctures and joints, to the points where materials meet. In one corner of the kitchen, shelves in washed freijo wood and pale gray quartz meet in a complex concatenation of boxes and panels, as precise as frames crafted for museums. Nearby, a 9-foot-long table, also fashioned from freijo, cantilevers weightlessly from the side of a monolithic concrete island—a cool, calm defiance of physics that recalls São Paulo’s most iconic buildings, which take heavy concrete masses and levitate them above the earth.

Another aspect of the sprawling inland metropolis—its constantly evolving relationship with a tropical environment that it has never fully suppressed—is reenacted on the apartment’s many planted terraces, which encircle it with an exuberant jungle worthy of neighboring Ibarapuera Park. “The garden is chaotic, like a forest,” Semerdjian acknowledges. “Our goal was to really surround the space. The foliage, the concrete—there’s a lot of identity in those elements.” The residence’s tranquility does not so much erase the stimulating excess of the urban environment outside as highlight its intoxicating beauty, the irresistible pull that brought Jacob and Perry and their young daughters here in the first place.

pascali semerdjian architects: ana luisa cunha

rodrigo oliveira paisagismo: landscape consultant

companhia de iluminação; dimlux: lighting consultants

avelart móveis: woodwork

dix arte metal: metalwork

tresuno: concrete work

steel engenharia e construções: general contractor

Moooi: pendant fixtures (dining room)

etel: table (dining room), chaise longue (living room), desk chair (main bedroom)

through studio schalling: chairs (dining room, living room), floor lamp (main bedroom)

villa remate: custom sofas (living room)

marset: sconce (entry)

pedras bellas artes: custom cocktail table, basalt flooring (living room)

espasso: bench

Sé: black side tables

vitra: lamp

phenicia concept: rug

lumini: sconces (playroom, child bedroom)

deca: fittings (main bathroom)

artek: stools (kitchen)

Nuura: pendant fixtures

docol: sink fittings

savoir beds: bed (main bedroom)

Bert Frank: table lamp

arte final placas: custom storage (child bedroom)

arteal artefatos de alumínio: windows

oscar ono: wood flooring

suvinil: paint

Crosby Studios Pops Up for Moooi During New York Design Week

Playfully pixelated, the Moooi New York Brand Store is hosting a pop-up installation by Crosby Studios running from NYCxDesign and ICFF through September. Crosby Studios founder Harry Nuriev was given complete freedom to design a Moooi environment through his eyes. Inspired by the pixelated aesthetic of early video games, and aptly titled Video Game Collection, the interior collectibles adopt the form of its virtual counterpart by embracing the bitmap aesthetic of early video games. The low-tech Crosby Studios video game will launch later this year on The Sandbox, which will allow players to construct their own digital interiors. “We were curious what a mind like Harry’s would create when asked to design a Moooi environment through his eyes,” Moooi CEO Robin Bevers says. “There’s a tactility in his works that is in line with our own vision of multi-sensorial design—it feels as if the digital world of Moooi has come full circle.”

The installation comprises the Sofa So Good sofa and footstool by Interior Design Hall of Fame member and Moooi founder Marcel Wanders along with pillows and rugs. “I have always designed furniture for my clients and my practice but designing objects for a furniture brand is quite different,” Nuriev says. “I wanted to take the brand out of their comfort zone and create something totally new together on the boundary of digital and real-world experience.”

A Viral Chair Rendering by Andrés Reisinger is in Full Bloom

Talk about the power of manifestation. Hortensia, the Interior Design 2021 Best of Year winner for Residential Lounge Seating, began life as a 3D rendering by Andrés Reisinger that went viral on Instagram. Customers wanted to buy it, but the chair didn’t exist…yet. Enter textile designer Júlia Esqué and manufacturer Moooi, who helped Reisinger figure out how to put the exuberant piece into production. Dressed in pink or gray laser-cut polyester petals, the seat resembles a hydrangea in bloom. For a subtler take, the pillowy foam shape can be upholstered in any Moooi fabric.

7 Highlights from Dutch Design Week

After a year hiatus, the collective city of Eindhoven breathed a sigh of relief last month when once again able to celebrate Dutch Design Week, their annual festival teaming with the conceptual, the beautiful, and the creative works of young talent, established studios, universities, and partners presented throughout the city. The fair returned with the theme “The Greater Number” and put the focus on taking a critical look at the way we—as a global society—produce and consume. 

“DDW21 came at the right time,” states director Martijn Paulen. “There is so much happening in the world. We need the perspective and enthusiasm of designers more than ever.” Works on display included many that put public interest first. “Whether it concerns the carbon problem, housing shortage, mobility or social issues related to inclusiveness, designers are the trailblazers to chart a new course,” he adds. “A course that leads us to a sustainable, more social, and more just future.”

The event, considered the largest design festival in Northern Europe, took place from October 16 through 24.  Here are some exhibitions that caught our eye.

Kiki x Joost

A stop at design duo Kiki x Joost’s canal-side workshop and showroom revealed new collaborations including Kiki van Eijk’s designs for the French brand Maison Dada. Dubbed La fabrique des rêves, the collection references the creator’s own historical design language and includes a clock and two trays. Meanwhile, Joost Van Bleiswijk rolls out flat-pack cabinet collection NSNG—aka No Screw No Glue—in CNC-cut pressed paper with cheeky Dutch brand Moooi. Initially conceptualized many years ago and re-edited for today, the launch proves good things come to those who wait.  

Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation Show 2021

Always a treat to behold, this year’s showing of work by the graduates of Design Academy Eindhoven included 163 projects displayed in the city center’s cavernous Beursgebouw venue. One notable offering was Ned Kaar’s Causa Materialis collection consisting of objects and furniture imagined in isolation and constructed from components found in his lived environment (read: apartment), which includes a bed, desk, and light as well as an impressive tower of found materials. 

Objects for a New Kind of Society by Dutch Invertuals

The exhibition’s design featured the deconstructed components of a dropped ceiling covered in a texturized terracotta coating invoking a desert-like dystopia. Standouts include Moonseop Seo’s Bit-scape tower-like ceramics that appear to bring virtual games to 3D life as well as the SIRI chair by Dae Uk Kim meant to allow for fluid identity. “We need to rethink our relationship with objects and our role as designers within our society,” said Wendy Plomp, design director for Dutch Invertuals.

Gradient Mesh by Atelier Rick Tegelaar x Wired Collectiv

The Arnhem-based industrial designer known for his wire chandeliers by Moooi turns to traditional mesh wire producer Wire Weaving Dinxperlo to produce Gradient Mesh, a pleated material the designer imagines will make a bold statement in hospitality projects. The design proposal was created in collaboration with Wired Collectiv and part of the Cabinet of Collaborations showing at Futlaan Hall.

Between No-Longer and Not-Yet at Kazerne

The exhibition space, restaurant, design shop, and hotel location (housed in a former military barracks and adjoining industrial warehouse) offered many good designs, but particularly of note was lighting installation Phenomeneon by Pieke Bergmans set alongside textiles based on the drawings of her mother Jet Bergmans. Another highlight was the work of Jesse Visser entitled Beacon of Light, its visual tension created by tying light orbs with rope anchored by boulders. 

Hotel Piet Hein Eek 

The maker whose name is synonymous with Dutch design continues to expand his reach with the just-opened hotel at Strijp T+R, part of the complex already containing the brand’s workshop, showroom, and store. Don’t miss the secret micro room dubbed Nachtwacht (or Nightwatch) and crafted entirely in scrap wood gathered from the onsite workshop by emerging talent Teun Zwets and painted a mesmerizing blue hue. Guest rooms include custom pieces straight from the woodshop as well as items for purchase through the design shop, such as their one-mold wall lights and folded metal toilet paper holders in brass, copper, stainless, or aluminum with on-board storage for an extra roll. 

Isola Talents Factory

Curated by fellow designer and curator of Dutch design Wisse Trooster, the exhibition of emerging design talents—including students from several Dutch design schools like Design Academy Eindhoven, ArtEZ, and WDKA—was held in the Schellens Fabriek and exclusively featured work designed in 2020 and 2021. Selected designs included knit silk Volare lamps nestled in oak frames by Sjang Niederwieser, inflatable furnishings by Robbert Schneiders, and Osangmin Studio’s Thankspressure textile featuring colorful amorphous shapes.