WAward-winning
ork from home, live from work’ is what our deputy editor Harry Roberts calls the new blurring of demarcation between career and leisure. Alarming? Yikes – yes, but in the case of two standout spaces in this issue, I feel more calm than alarm!
design team Alexander & Co has created an incredible sustainable headquarters for their dynamic operation that welcomes collaborators and clients – see p55. Not just a showcase of their work it is, I think, the kind of elevated benchmark we need to aspire to when designing spaces from which to work. Let’s face it, we spend a lot of time around the water cooler; we all crave inspiration to produce our best ideas – and I know I would be reaching greater heights of creativity if I was ensconced on my leather banquette surrounded by artisanal nishes!
Now that we all know that working from home is possible, if we want to attract stellar talent to work from an of ce every day, we will have to make it worth their while. A few no-brand teabags and a laminate desk are not going to cut it! Acclaimed architect William Smart has also created an incredible design destination for his staff, with architecture graduates lining up to take a seat in this exquisitely designed bureau, p82.
We introduce some new pages – In uences, on p30, featuring inspiring spaces, nishes and ateliers that excite design lovers such as our rst in uencer, Daniela Scala, who has spent the last three decades creating stunning homes with an eclectic line-up of design collaborators from architects to artisans. A new destination that is leisure-only and exudes a chic serenity is the Blainey North-created Crown Spa Sydney at Crown Towers, p70. Sydneysiders have waited for a spa like this, and Blainey’s glamorous take inspired by the sense of slipped consciousness you fall into when you have a particularly fantastic treatment is soothing and indulgent.
We have driven around in some fabulous motors, and in this issue Melbourne design dynamo David Hicks takes Elise Elliott around his favourite interiors haunts in Porsche’s new electric car, p101. If you miss travel and, like me, would like un petit sojourn à Paris, let us teleport you to a reinvigorated Haussmannian apartment designed for a young family by Le Berre Vevaud, p118. The story is by Belle’s friends in Paris, the wonderful duo of writer Ian Phillips and photographer Stephan Juillard, who, in different times, we have had a lot of fun with, in Paris and en Australie.
I spoke to another Parisian friend of Belle’s, Pascal Buisson of USM, over Zoom recently. I don’t think we can imagine, from the relative safety of our enormous island, how dif cult it has been to endure lockdown after lockdown. Let’s hope we can recapture a more free-spirited joie de vivre again soon. In the meantime, let us take you on a journey into some exquisite spaces.
1 ABSTRACT THINKING
Sebastian Wrong, founder and director of Established & Sons, has drawn on his ne-art background to launch The Wrong Shop, a curated and aordable collection of experimental and eclectic art including digital prints from acclaimed designers Ronan Bouroullec and Nathalie Du Pasquier (below). livingedge.com.au
2 GRAND DAMES
Two incredibly driven and creative women are behind the vibrant and optimistic collaboration that heralds the limited-edition release of La Grand Dame 2012. The house of Clicquot is a champion of dynamic and inspiring women, and artist Yayoi Kusama creates an artistic ode to this sublime drop with an accompanying poem, My Heart That Blooms in The Darkness of The Night.
veuveclicquot. com/en-au/la-grande-dame-2012-yayoi-kusama