Best Cultural Draw: Wallpaper Design Awards 2021
The K1 multi-use arts complex, by Teo Yang and Ourstudio, for Kukje Gallery, Seoul wins ‘Best cultural draw’ in the Wallpaper Design Awards 2021
Inside the yoga hall of Kukje Gallery’s K1 arts complex, transformed last summer by Teo Yang and Ourstudio
Kukje Gallery has a proud history of introducing Korean audiences to new art experiences. With last summer’s reopening of its K1 building, which now encompasses exhibition spaces, a café, restaurant, and wellness centre, it is rethinking how and where art should be experienced.
The 1987 building is one of three spaces that Kukje operates in the upscale, leafy enclave of Samcheong-dong. The original structure comprises a glass midsection (with Gehry-esque glass façades) sandwiched between two rectilinear volumes, all of which have undergone a two-year makeover modelled on the concept of a multi-use arts complex.
Off-White wins Best Homeware: Wallpaper Design Awards 2021
Off-White wins Best Homeware: Wallpaper Design Awards 2021
Matte black breakfast bowl, part of set, £135; lunch bowl and plate, part of set, £180; jug, £140; coffee mugs, £85 each; art print plates, large and small, £140 each; jug, £200; double-sided tablecloth, £200, all by Off-White Home
The second home collection from Virgil Abloh’s fashion label Off-White follows its ethos of ‘identity by design’; brand signatures, such as arrow patterns, hand logos and Swiss cheese-style ‘meteor’ holes, enliven everyday objects from doormats to deckchairs. With the ceramics, however, it’s a quiet irregularity that sets them apart.
‘The artisanal elements within the ceramic pieces are inspired by wabi-sabi,’ says Abloh. ‘What is perfect is questioned.’ Perfectly imperfect jugs, mugs, bowls and plates are tactile and earthy in matte black, with glossy insides, while illustrated white ‘art print’ version
Best Outdoor Entertaining: Wallpaper Design Awards 2021
Best Outdoor Entertaining: Wallpaper Design Awards 2021
Lounging furniture, fun and games for outdoor socialising: discover the winners of ‘Best outdoor entertaining’ in the Wallpaper Design Awards 2021
Expormim
Our outdoors seating selection of lounge chairs includes ‘Armadillo’, MUT Design’s new take on the classic rattan papasan armchair created for Expormim.
‘Armadillo’ lounge chair, price on request, by MUT Design, for Expormim
Vondom
Ramón Esteve’s ‘Frame Vineyard’ triangular daybed for Vondom features a pitched sunshade that provides refuge from the demands of the outside world, while making us dream of a sunny escape.
Best Music Venue: Wallpaper Design Awards 2021
Best Music Venue: Wallpaper Design Awards 2021
The Floating Music Hub in Cape Verde, by NLÉ, scoops Best Music Venue at the 2021 Wallpaper Design Awards
Image: Ojima Abalaka
The island nation of Cape Verde, off the west coast of Africa, may be tiny, but it has an outsized influence. Once a slave port, it is now an important international commercial hub, and a cultural melting pot, bridging African and European traditions. It was this rich cultural heritage that architect Kunlé Adeyemi – founder of Amsterdam- and Lagos-based studio NLÉ – and Samba Bathily – the Mali-born sustainable solutions pioneer – wanted to honour and amplify when they first started discussing working together in 2018. Adeyemi recalls: ‘We wanted a scheme to use as a point of global connection back to the [African] continent, using music, arts, culture and hospitality’.