One of our avid readers Esperança de Souza, has sent us this tip about the Globetrotter series of rings inspired by iconic architecture from around the world by jewellery brand Matina Amanita. They are quite cool, even if slightly ridiculous. We love a bit of eccentricity because straight is a tad boring! Our favourites are the Chrysler from Manhattan, Candy Castle from Russia and the Gaudi’s magic inspired by Barcelona architecture.

The quirky rings designed by Bangkok-based designer Matina Sukhahuta, who honed her skills at Central Saint Martins and Parsons, are available in Thailand, the UK, US, Australia, Japan, Switzerland and India, in the Middle East it’s currently only stocked in Saudi Arabia at the Life store.

We would love to see Burj Dubai or Burj Al Arab next. It might already be in the making for all you know.

We want to know who isn’t coming to Dubai? Because we already know who is- which includes the entire directory of luxury brands from around the world. The latest name to join the ever-expanding brand umbrella in Dubai is London-based perfumer Ormonde Jayne. Its creator and founder Linda Pilkington said at the recent launch of the new Bond Street store that a second store is in the cards to be opened next month in the emirate.   

Ormonde Jayne store at Bond Street, London

Didja know that Dubai was ranked 12th in a recent survey of the world’s 25 most fashionable cities by Global Language Monitor?

We are feeling quite overwhelmed by this brand invasion, so we have decided to soak up some simple fun at an exotic locale. But that doesn’t mean we’ll not be working. We love our job too much!

At last some refreshing news for fashionistas. Since fashion designers got busy with designing residences/clubs, our wardrobes have been feeling a bit neglected. Not all is lost though as the cutting-edge Danish brand Noir has just announced its plans to make its international debut with a stand-alone store in Dubai. The eco-conscious brand founded by Dane Peter Ingwersen three years ago has been generating rave reviews among the fashion-forward set. Eco-conscious because the label sources its materials from sustainable businesses in developing countries such as Uganda.

Noir Spring Summer 09

However, don’t mistake organic for lack-lustre. Like its slightly sinister name suggests, Noir’s range that is ‘fetish meets precision-tailoring’, oozes oomph from every single stitch. Ingwersen describes it as “meaningful luxury.”

Peter Ingwersen, founder of Noir

In an interview with WWD, Ingwersen says about Dubai, “It’s a brand heaven there.” We couldn’t agree more. Even though the location hasn’t been disclosed yet, we are guessing it’ll most likely be at the highly-anticipated Dubai Mall at Downtown Burj Dubai, that promises to be the mother of all malls. We can’t wait.

Quirky British fashion label are launching a series of fun home accessories at London’s Selfridges this October. How cute are they?

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid is one of the most favoured international architects in the tiny island nation of Singapore, where the prices of real estate have shot through the roof after almost a decade of stagnant prices. After winning the competition to design the masterplan for the high-profile One North project, Hadid has been asked to design another upscale residential project called Farrer Court at Farrer Road, which is conveniently located between Holland Village, Singapore’s bohemian and most popular suburb amongst expats and the shopping belt of Orchard Road. The project, that is faintly reminiscent of Hadid’s Dancing Towers in Dubai, has been designed by Hadid along with architect Patrik Schumacher.

Recently Rem Koolhaas also announced his project in Singapore at Scotts Road, off Orchard Road with Singapore-based Far East Organisation. Other well-known architects with projects in Singapore are Toyo Ito (Vivo City Mall), Michael Graves, Daniel Libeskind and Frank Gehry to name a few.

Here’s the official press release issued by Zaha Hadid’s office:

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) have unveiled the design for seven 36-storey residential towers and twelve villas on a 838,488 square feet site at Farrer Road, Singapore. The Singapore $3 billion (approx £1.1 billion) development is by a CapitaLand-led consortium; other partners include Hotel Properties Limited, Morgan Stanley Real Estate Special Situations Fund III, L.P. and Wachovia Development Corporation. It will be the largest residential development in Singapore’s history.

“We have been working in Singapore for almost a decade and the Farrer Road development is a continuation of our detailed research into the urban fabric of the city. The seven tower development on one of Singapore’s most prominent sites represents further exploration into the tower typology and our studies into organizational systems and growth in the natural world. The towers are subdivided into petals according to the layout of each level to form a series of diverse and distinctive towers,” states Zaha Hadid.

Patricia Chia, CEO of CapitaLand Residential Singapore, said, “With a reputation for constant innovation,
CapitaLand seeks to work with architects who share our vision of building distinctive homes for global citizens. The new condominium to be built at Farrer Road is one such project. We are confident that Zaha Hadid’s signature style of flowing lines and sensuous architectural silhouettes will bring out the best in the site. The development will be a jewel in Singapore’s popular Holland-Bukit Timah residential precinct.”

The footprint of each tower is minimized offering an open and textured landscape with privacy in the gardens - unique to a development of this scale. The orientation and placement of the buildings generates a complex level of diversity across the development and optimizes the views of Bukit Timah Hill, Singapore Botanic Gardens, MacRitchie Reservoir and the Orchard Road city skyline.

Site Proposal
ZHA’s Proposal for the Farrer Court site is generated by the study of the existing alignments and the main axis surrounding the site, which are brought in and connected to generate a series of construction lines highly connected to the neighbourhood. The ground landscape level is visualised as a very green layer, which wants to emphasise the presence of florid vegetation in the Singapore’s climate. The site levels are re-organised into a series of terraced plateaus to maximise the area dedicated to communal site amenities. The orientation and placement of the buildings is optimised in relation to the local environment as well as to maximise views out towards the surrounding city and landscape.

Building Proposal
The program is organised into seven towers, which grow from sunken private gardens within the site landscape. The lower floors kink in to highlight the point where buildings meet the ground, enabling yet a greater open area and the creation of highly private gardens which are quite unique given the scale and density of the development. The towers are subdivided into petals according to the number of residential units per floor, with a common principle a series of diverse and unique towers can be generated. The petals are expressed in three dimensions thanks to vertical cuts which give definition to the building’s façades and, at the same time, allow for cross ventilation of most of the flats. The buildings culminate at the top with a series of fingers stepped at different heights, which blend the transition between the architectural fabric and the sky.  Through rotating the buildings across the site, and the careful use of balconies and façade panelling a combination of self similar towers produce an incredible amount of diversity across the development.

Here’s some of the confidential skinny on the upcoming Louvre Abu Dhabi museum on Saadiyat Island. The Art Newspaper claims that it has “seen the contract signed recently between the governments of Abu Dhabi and France for the creation of a Louvre Abu Dhabi.”

According to the contract a relatively small number of works will be lent, with a “reasonable number” coming from the Louvre’s collections. At the launch of the new museum in 2012, it will be 300 works; four years later, 250 works, seven years later, 200. After ten years, the loans will cease. All works loaned to the museum will be indemnified from seizure within the UAE.

Abu Dhabi is dishing out a cool $1.6bn (Dhs5.88 bn) over 30 years to the agence France-Muséum, that will administer this capital sum for the benefit of a consortium of participating French museums, which includes the Louvre with a share of 40 per cent. The income is to benefit “new scholarly projects” in these museums “without any reduction to their current financing”.

Over 3,000 square metres of display space will be ready to show “comparisons between works of various periods and geographical origin, with an emphasis on the dialogue between civilisations” and arranged thematically: landscape, funerary art, the portrait etc. A “smaller proportion of this space” will be devoted to contemporary art, “to resonate with older works and demonstrate the continuity between different periods and the way in which our view of older art is conditioned by contemporary perception”.

And get this– No similar operation may be set up using the name of the Louvre with any of the other emirates of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran or Iraq.

The agence France-Muséum will be the operative partner with Abu Dhabi and will supervise all aspects of the building of the museum and training of the museum’s curators. It will suggest an acquisitions policy and draw up an ethical charter, with all works having to demonstrate an unimpeachable provenance.

Abu Dhabi contracts to provide  $62m (Dhs227m) for the acquisition of the collection, but Sheikh Sultan Al Nahyan, chairman of the emirate’s tourism authority, under whose aegis the museum is being developed, has told The Art Newspaper that, “if we want, we can spend more than this.” The annual budget for exhibitions will be $20.2m (Dhs74.13m).

In addition to the $620m (Dhs2.27bn), the Louvre gets for the use of its name, it will receive $39m (Dhs143.13) to develop part of its Pavillon de Flore, a wing of the Paris museum which houses paintings, while the agence France-Muséum will be paid $256m (Dhs9.5bn) for its services over and above $1.56bn (Dhs5.73bn) for the whole project.

As told to The Art Newspaper

Pasadena-based multi-disciplinary studio Bluelounge, known for such creative solutions as The SpaceStation, Cool Feet and the CableBox, has won the Bronze International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) from the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and Businessweek, for The Sanctuary.  The IDEA competition is a celebration of the most innovative and exciting product and product concept designs of the year and one of the world’s most prestigious international design competitions.

With The Sanctuary, gadget-buffs can now charge their cell phone, iPod®, PDA and headset simultaneously in one compact location. Containing or cutting out clutter is the ultimate challenge of urban lifestyle and The Sanctuary makes it easier and more stylish at the same time. It contains a universal cell-phone charger compatible with over 1500 electronic devices from over 35 brands and hundreds more via an industry standard USB port.

Architect Kyu Sung Woo has been named the winner of the 2008 Ho-Am Prize in the Arts. The Ho-Am Prize in the Arts recognises Koreans who have made outstanding contributions to the promotion of culture and the arts through their creative efforts and accomplishments. He is the first architect to receive this prestigious award, which is often considered to be the Korean equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

Kyu Sung Woo

Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Photo credit and copyright: Timothy Hursley- The Arkansas Office)

Kyu Sung Woo is the most prominent Korean American architect practicing in both Korea and the United States. His architecture and urban design work represent a style informed by nature. Eschewing ornamentation and exaggeration in favour of harmony, Woo combines the minimalist ideals of the West with the quiet spaces of the East. His utilisation of light, space, and movement combine to create a unique and Zen-like experience.

Above and below: Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Photo credit and copyright: Timothy Hursley- The Arkansas Office)

Kyu Sung Woo Architects, based in Cambridge, MA, boasts a wide range of completed projects in the United States including the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, the Graduate Student Housing at 10 Akron Street at Harvard University, the Heller School at Brandeis University and the Arts of Korea Gallery at the New York Metropolitan Museum.

Representative works in Korea include the new 1.4 million square foot Asian Culture Complex (Gwangju, Under Construction), Stone Cloud (Seoul, 1997), and the Whanki Museum (Seoul,1993).  Kyu Sung has also participated in a number of exhibitions including the 8th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.

The Heller School at Brandeis University (Waltham, MA) (Photo Credit: Anton Grassl/Copyright Esto)

Above and below: Puzzle Loft in New York (Photo credit and copyright: Paul Warchol)

The Ho-Am Prize is an annual award bestowed upon five ethnic Koreans living at home or abroad in the categories of science, engineering, medicine, the arts and community service. The award was first established in 1990, in honour of Byung-Chul Lee, founder of Samsung Corporation, and his lifelong commitment to the promotion of public benefit programs. Past winners of the Ho-Am Prize in the Arts include educational pioneer Won-Yong Kim, video artist Nam-June Paik, painter Lee Ulfan, dancer Sue Jin Kang, the Bucheon Philharmonic, playwright Oh Tae-Sok and most recently in 2007, novelist Yi Chong-jun. Ho-Am Prize winners receive a gold medal, a laureate diploma, and 200 million Korean won (about $200,000 US Dollars).

London-based interior designer Martin Brudnizki has been causing quite a stir in the design circles with his sophisticated and modern style. His latest project is popular chef Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant called Jamie’s Italian– a new chain of Oliver’s neighbourhood restaurants, the first of which has opened in Oxford, where Brudnizki effortlessly blends Tuscan-inspired rustic charm with London’s cosmopolitan style. The jewel-toned walls adorned with worn out and antique frames sit in complete contrast with the fuchsia coloured glossy chairs, giving the space a very urban edge.

And with Oliver at the helm, rest assured that the food will be as sumptuous as the décor.

Jamie’s Italian in Oxford

Martin Brudnizki