07.25.24

Sighted

This Parisian Studio’s New Collection Turns Grandmotherly Flourishes, Like Tassels and Cords, Into Something Decidedly Modern

Imagine a place in the Mediterranean — where North Africa meets Europe meets the Middle East — and a time that can’t quite be determined, and you’ll get a feel for the latest collection from the Parisian architecture and design studio Ebur. Racha Guttierez and Dahila Hojeij Deleuze, who founded Ebur in 2020, conjure their respective cultures and histories in their designs: The two of them grew up in Côte D’Ivoire — Ebur means ivory in Latin ­— and the childhood friends spent their summers in Lebanon before going on to study architecture in Paris. Ebur’s first release of furnishings, last year, drew inspiration from their early memories of the seaside. This second act builds on that and continues an elegant exploration of form and material.
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07.24.24

Shopping

5 Furniture Icons That Have Been Reimagined for Outdoor Living

While outdoor furniture has undergone its fair share of aesthetic transformations over the last century — from natural wicker to synthetic resin, Adirondack chairs to sleek lounges, curlicued wrought iron to ribbed aluminum — it has almost always looked, in the end, like it was purpose-built for the great outdoors. In many ways, this was a function of practicality, as it's incredibly difficult to build a piece of furniture that can actually withstand the elements, from ongoing dirt accumulation to full-on inclement conditions (which, if you have a sprinkler system, is pretty much every morning around 4AM). But something began to happen in the last decade or so, accelerated by the pandemic into a full-fledged trend: Brands began to treat outdoor furniture as simply interior pieces with different materiality, reimagining some of their most iconic works for outdoor use. When we heard that one of our favorite brands, Ellison Studios, was launching a capsule collection of some of their most beloved designs in outdoor-friendly fabrics and materials, we realized it was time to round up some of our favorites in the game.
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07.20.24

Saturday Selects

Week of July 15, 2024

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a Prada Marfa-esque store in a decommissioned gas station in the Swedish countryside, a debut collection by an up-and-coming South African designer (now based in the US!), and a new lighting collection that channels a Ligurian summer.
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07.18.24

Up and Coming

Designers in America Lack the Infrastructure to Help Build Their Businesses. A New Residency From Colony is Here to Help.

Putting creative work out into the world can be incredibly daunting. There’s not only the pressure to conceive of a strong artistic vision but also the challenge of balancing logistical production details — not to mention the cost, particularly here in the United States, where we lack structural and financial support from the government. The Designer’s Residency Program from Colony, a gallery and design strategy firm in Manhattan, helps guide up-and-comers through all of this. For their 8-month intensive incubator, Colony’s founder Jean Lin and creative director Madeleine Parsons draw on their experience as professors at Parsons and RISD to help emerging, independent designers navigate the stages of launching a studio and breaking into the industry.
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07.16.24

Interiors

This London Cafe Proves There’s No Color Butter Yellow Can’t Elevate

A new cafe at London's Somerset House, run by acclaimed chef Rishim Sachdeva and designed by the London- and Milan-based studio Duelle, seems to prove a rule that people keep forgetting: that any color or trend can feel fresh again depending on the context in which it's placed. Seeing Café Petiole's cafe tables and 1930s bentwood chairs doused in a layer of antique rose and set against a backdrop of butter yellow and blue, made me feel like I was seeing Millennial Pink for the first time all over again.
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06.16.22

Fair Report

The Best of the 2022 Salone Del Mobile — Part III

Our third Salone del Mobile round-up of 2022 picks up where yesterday's grab-bag of in-town shows left off: We're staying inside (well, and just outside) Milan's inner ring, sweeping up another round of the brand presentations, bar and restaurant pop-ins, installations, and collaborations that didn't live at the fairgrounds or at Alcova.
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07.13.24

Saturday Selects

Week of July 8, 2024

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: two design projects made from discarded materials, an exhibition that's a who's-who of young Scandinavian designers, and an opulent new space for the intersection of French and American culture.
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07.11.24

Fair Report

A Decade In, 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen is a Must-Visit on the Design Fair Circuit

There's an increasing sense in the design world that 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen is a must-stop on the design fair circuit — some have argued even moreso than Milan. And while we didn't make it over this year, we could see from our inboxes that there was no shortage of wonderful things to see at the 11th edition this past June. The annual festival featured more than 400 exhibitors, bringing together emerging, experimental voices and established global giants, sprayed across the city, each stop just a bike ride — or sometimes a boat ride — away. While Danish and Scandinavian talent was on full view, a roster of international designers also had a strong presence. The theme this year — Dare to Dream — brought forth new interpretations of classic forms and inventive uses of unusual materials. Here were some of the highlights for us.
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07.10.24

Excerpt: Book

A Brutalist Cemetery, a Center for Spiritual Exploration, a Compendium of Product Design: What We’re Reading, Summer 2024 Edition

This week, the New York Times is counting down the 100 best books of the 20th century. So while you could be reading one of those this summer — or, perhaps, the book everyone I know is talking about, which does tangentially relate to this site in the form of a motel-room renovation — we've recently had a few more hefty design tomes come across our desk. What better time, then, to inaugurate a new column, where we tell you all the great things we're reading, browsing, or simply returning to again and again for inspiration. 
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07.06.24

Saturday Selects

Week of July 1, 2024

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: We're taking a deep dive into the first ever LA Design Weekend, plus a stellar new London hotel draped in Bode tapestries, a gloriously tangible furniture collection by a digital artist, and a summery group show at Tiwa Gallery in New York that takes its cues from the mossy ancient forests of Wales.
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07.03.24

Interiors

A Tour Through the London Architectural Marvel The Cosmic House, Charles Jencks’s Postmodern Masterpiece

Located in London’s ultra-wealthy Holland Park, architect Charles Jencks's London home, The Cosmic House, doesn’t particularly stand out at first glance from the classic row of Victorian brick houses. But a closer look reveals unorthodox details, including circular windows and a metal gate that’s a collage of historical styles — telltale signs of Postmodernism. Adam Štěch revisits the 1983 masterpiece, now a museum and art foundation open to the public.
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07.01.24

Sight Unseen Presents

Want to Have Your Work Judged by Sight Unseen in Stockholm Next Year? Apply to Greenhouse Today!

I've now been to Stockholm in the dead of winter, when the ground is often covered in ice, on four different occasions. I've visited in the throes of summer — season of archipelago-hopping, 10PM sunsets, and simple but chic country houses — a grand total of zero times. But there's a non-masochistic reason why I keep returning: The Stockholm Furniture Fair, which in 2025 runs from February 4-8, is one our longtime favorites, and it's become even moreso in the last couple of years as we've developed our partnership with the fair's organizers, adding a Sight Unseen Best in Show award to the fair’s emerging design showcase, Greenhouse. We're excited to announce we'll be returning to the fair in 2025 — having bestowed last year's honor on the exciting up-and-coming duo Bursell/Svedborg — and we're hoping to convince more than a few of you today to submit your work to the jury in the hopes of being selected for next year's fair.
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06.29.24

Saturday Selects

Week of June 24, 2024

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a show celebrating 40 years of American art furniture, a house near Barcelona with a dazzling red and blue kitchen, and a very fun palm-shaped mirror.
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