Rich pickings
Welcome to our December issue, which, with the festive period soon upon us, is dedicated to entertaining.
First, we feature the best new houses for happy gatherings: a brutalist den in eastern Mexico, by Ludwig Godefroy; a pared-back perch overlooking a northern Italian town, by Federico Delrosso; and a party pad by William Smalley, newly installed within a 17th-century French château. We also exclusively preview Dior’s new tableware collection – which brings the art to ‘les arts de la table’ – inspired by El Badi Palace in Marrakech, and showcase some South Korean delicacies in our main entertaining shoot.
From Seoul food to one of South Korea’s foremost contemporary artists, Lee Bae, who provides this month’s limited-edition subscribers’ cover, coinciding with his solo exhibition, ‘Promenade’, at Galerie Perrotin New York. We enter Lee’s monochromatic world, which blurs the lines between drawing, painting, sculpture and installation.
We also look ahead to Design Miami, with Swiss design duo Kueng Caputo’s furniture collection for Fendi, combining terracotta bricks and colourful leather in homage to the brand’s iconic Rome headquarters. Meanwhile, Porky Hefer, winner of a 2019 Wallpaper* Design Award, for Best Private House (W*239), has created molecular-inspired seating pods for Southern Guild gallery, a brilliant ode to the joys of science. A short hop over to the Miami Design District sees Berluti, under the creative direction of Kris Van Assche, partnering with Laffanour Galerie Downtown to combine the house’s contemporary craft with Pierre Jeanneret’s ingenious midcentury furniture for the Chandigarh Capitol Complex. The series of 17 original pieces is upholstered in Berluti’s signature Venezia leather, each in a different hue referencing Le Corbusier’s colour systems. I visited Chandigarh in 2011 while making our ‘Made in India’ issue of Wallpaper* (W*147) and I believe the collection captures the true essence and energy of the place.
Elsewhere, we celebrate innovative hospitality with our Best Urban Hotels awards, adjudicated by a panel of five globetrotting female judges, each hailing from a different continent. And we go lunar with moonphase watches, harvest our favourite fungi, and check out Kengo Kuma’s chicken shed for Casa Wabi Foundation in Oaxaca, Mexico, a testament to the possibilities of agricultural architecture.
Finally, for our monthly Artist’s Palate series, we feature a simple dish with a heartwarming backstory – Camille Henrot’s gâteau Manon, a recipe inherited from her great-grandmother Marie-thérèse, who lived to the age of 104 and was a constant companion in the artist’s formative years.
Bon appétit! Sarah Douglas, Editor-in-chief