Savor The Beauty Of Sandstone With These Au Naturel Lamps

While students at the University of Cincinnati, Hank Beyer and Alex Sizemore spent a summer studying the operations of a family-owned quarry located along the Berea sandstone formation in northeastern Ohio. After turning some of the quarry’s discarded stone offcuts into lamps, they attracted the eye of talent scout Leo Lei, founder of minimalist-design outlet and online publication Leibal. Returning to the site this past winter, Beyer and Sizemore—the founders of San Francisco studio HB-AS—spent a week salvaging more sandstone fragments to be shipped back to their West Coast workshop. There, they spent the subsequent six months crafting Berea Sandstone, a new series of 11 lamps exclusive to Leibal. Each piece is formed with minimum intervention: raw and deliberately crude in shape. As such, it’s a rich reflection of the mining process.

Daria Zinovatnaya Unveils A Bold Constructivist Rug Collaboration

Ukrainian-born furniture and interior designer Daria Zinovatnaya is known for her use of rich colors and edgy, attention-demanding graphic shapes. Those skills combine in Loko, her second collaboration with Spanish rug expert Gan. Cut like a Constructivist collage or resembling flattened origami, the 79-by-131-inch wool rug comes in two colorways: hand-tufted Color is a chromatic play of intense rainbow hues plus black, gray, and cream, while Natural features light-to-deep earth shades of undyed wool and is hand-knotted. Different strokes for different folks.

Walk Through A Lush Pergola In Bogong Island Ecology Park

To revitalize and draw more visitors to Bogong Island Ecology Park near Shanghai, Wutopia Lab reenvisions the traditional Chinese pergola in new materials and a beckoning form.

---

Wutopia Lab Revitalizes Bogong Island Ecology Park

• 10 architects and designers led by Wutopia Lab cofounder and chief architect Ting Yu
• 10,000 square feet
• 32 feet high
• 10 months of design and construction
• 10,000+ visitors

---

Using Photoshop, Wutopia Lab illustrates the site plan and elevations for Emerald Screen Pergola, the firm’s new multi-arched pavilion at Bogong Island Ecology Park in Wuxi, China.

Wutopia cofounder and chief architect Ting Yu and his team were tasked with replacing an existing ¾-mile-long canopy, which had fallen into disrepair, with an architecturally dynamic, photo-worthy centerpiece.

Construction workers spent four months on-site building Emerald Screen Pergola from bent tubular steel panels inset with steel mesh, all later painted white.

Yu drew inspiration for the structure from an Imperial-era handscroll depicting walled gardens, a wisteria covered pergola, and structured paths in a lush landscape.

Wutopia Lab modernized the typology of traditional bamboo pergolas into stacked and overlapping mesh panels.

Like leaves, the curved panels vary in height and width and will eventually be covered in climbing jasmine, ivy, roses, wisteria, and honeysuckle.

An aerial view captures the top of the pergola and its flowerlike configuration.

An incentive for the Emerald Screen Pergola is to make it a site for wedding photo shoots.

The structure follows a long, winding path—Yu refers to it as “dragonlike,” and, in China, the mythical animal symbolizes wisdom, power, good fortune, and wealth.

How Charlotte Culot Reimagines Rugs As Abstract Masterpieces

Charlotte Culot’s Rugs Capture the Essence of Southern France

Interior Design: After years of collage painting, what led you to start designing rugs?

Charlotte Culot: Back in 2017, at a Tadao Ando–designed art pavilion near Aix-en-Provence, I saw a tapestry by Le Corbusier on a wall and thought, Wow! So, I started making tapestries. In 2022, my business partner Hannah Vagedes and I founded Maison Rhizomes in Berlin as a studio for hand-knotted art rugs. We collaborate with skillful work­shops in Nepal and India, using Tibetan wool and Chinese silk that are hand-dyed on-site. Each rug is produced in a limited edition of 22.

ID: You call them ‘rugs,’ but wouldn’t it be more accurate to say you’re using a knotted-rug technique to achieve a tapestry effect?

CC: Yes, that’s why I often refer to them as ‘art rugs’ or ‘tapestries.’ Early on, our customers decided to hang them on the wall like paintings rather than put them on the floor. They start as micro-size collages, about 11 by 13 inches. Sometimes one of these hits the eye as a fantastic rug pattern, one that works no matter which way you turn it. (As one of my favorite artists, Nicolas de Staël, noted, a good painting should work just as well hung upside down.) So that acts as our maquette, and we recreate the layered, textured collage effect with different heights of pile—you can touch them and feel the difference.

ID: Why the name Maison Rhizomes?

CC: A rhizome is a plant stem that grows horizontally underground, generating new shoots and roots. It’s a symbol that perfectly embodies our connection to nature. By adding ‘maison,’ we’re signaling our commitment to offering artists a nurturing space to translate their paintings into a new medium.

ID: It’s quite noticeable that the rugs are very painterly. Who are the artists you admire and how have they influenced you?

CC: When I started painting, I really liked Matisse, particularly the way he framed his compositions because I was also interested in photography. I’ve used gouache since I was a child, so I was mesmer­ized by his cutouts and the way the cutting makes the medium jazzy. Acrylics and oils don’t interest me nearly as much. Following Matisse, I began painting white wallpaper with gouache, tearing it into pieces—déchirer, as we say—enjoying the energy of the moment.

ID: That’s an interesting difference from Matisse, who used scissors.

CC: I like irregularity and accidents, a bit of craziness. I’m also drawn to American color field painters like Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko, and Joan Mitchell, who’s probably my favorite. And then there are Russian-born French artists like de Staël, Sonia Delaunay, and Serge Poliakoff—I feel I really understand what they try to express. 

ID: You split your time between Brittany and Provence. Many of the rugs seem to embody the sunny essence of Southern France, like the paintings of Pierre Bonnard.

CC: Bonnard is probably not as well-known as he should be, but if I had to choose one French painter, it would definitely be him—he’s really my chouchou. He allowed me to assemble colors that normally don’t work together, turquoise with pink with yellow with orange and so on. Color is really energy. If you scuba dive, you’re always surprised by what you meet. With colors, it’s the same: endless, infinite. Like Bonnard, you can spend a lifetime assembling them. 

ID: You’re also a serious equestrian who keeps horses. How does that relate to your artwork?

CC: Nature is my soul, my base. I couldn’t do what I’m doing creatively if I wasn’t connected to nature. I spend a lot of time in my head, so I need to ground myself. My horses help me do that—it’s all part of the journey, I would say. 

Badie Architects Ignites Cairo’s Dining Scene with Escá Cueva

Among the inspirations for Escá Cueva, a new restaurant by Egyptian firm Badie Architects that’s heating up Cairo’s culinary scene, is the feminine form. “I was looking to reflect the body’s complex elegance, while prioritizing comfort and practicality,” recalls founder and chief architect Mohamed Badie, who earned his master’s in architecture from SCI-Arc. But, as witnessed by the sweeping rocklike formations pervading the 5,300-square-foot venue, it’s clear nature contributed to the concept as well. “There’s a sense of enclosure and intimacy, similar to what would be experienced in a grotto,” adds junior architect Farah Kamel—an apt description, as cueva means cave in Latin. 

Sited atop a hill with panoramic city views, the architects have built upon the existing base of a former home, softening and reshaping it with organic forms cut from silhouettes of the human body in motion, and added an expansive dining terrace to take advantage of those vistas. The undulating contours, while raw and elemental, were complex to formulate, made possible by mixing 3-D software and traditional hand craftsmanship by local artisans, wrapping a steel skeleton with a cement-polymer mix painted the color of sand dunes.

Rough surfaces, such as the ecru flooring, complemented by modern custom furniture upholstered in earthy-toned leathers ground the scheme, illuminated by natural and artificial light. Stretched ceiling fixtures emulate the diffuse glow of sunlight filtering in through the rounded openings, while others embedded into creases and depressions accentuate depth and texture. “Blurring the lines between architecture and nature, the user and their surroundings, strategic placement of lighting helped enhance the forms, creating a visual peace,” Kamal adds. The vibe intensifies, however, in the restrooms, where the fluid, monumental curves are lit by vividly hued LEDs that may remind patrons of saffron, a common Egyptian spice.

Explore This Trendy Restaurant by Badie Architects

PRODUCT SOURCES FROM FRONT: AQUA ART: STUCCO WORK (RESTROOM). THROUGHOUT NEOCEMENT: WALLS, FLOORING. COLORTEK: PAINT. MRIYA BY ELLA: BLACK CERAMICS. ARCHILIGHT: LIGHTING DESIGNER. FREE ART STUDIO: GENERAL CONTRACTOR. 

Rottet Studio Designs A Luxurious Fort Worth Hotel

Lauren Rottet designs hotels and workplaces and residences all over the world, but she was born, raised, and educated in Texas and founded her now five-office firm there. So, when she offers up a nuanced description of Fort Worth, the burg of nearly 1 million located 30 miles west of Dallas, you know it’s a legit assessment. “Fort Worth is a quiet, unpretentious city with a lot of old money and stunning estates, and it’s also quite dynamic and social,” the Interior Design Hall of Fame member explains, adding that the college town has a devoted football fan base and major game-day culture (Texas Christian University’s Horned Frogs were Big 12 champs in 2023). Although perhaps best known by its nickname, Cow Town, courtesy of its protected cattle industry and stock shows, Rottet continues, “More recently, it’s come into its own as an entertainment venue and an art destination.”

That latter designation is thanks largely to a trio of institutions that line up along Camp Bowie Boulevard in the downtown cultural district: the Kimbell Art Museum, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Amon Carter Museum of Art. Rottet and an “all-women power team” from her Houston and Austin offices spent much time in those hallowed blue-chip halls when conceiving the Crescent Hotel directly across the street. The 200-key, 216,000-square-foot luxury property anchors a new-build mixed-use development that includes a high-end residential component and a Canyon Ranch Wellness Club (which the firm designed for the same client, Crescent Real Estate). “The whole block related to the museums, so we drew on that,” Rottet says. Her team looked at not only the masterworks that hung on the museum walls but also the walls themselves and other architectural finishes. “All three museums boiled down to two materials—one type of wood, one stone—so we took cues from that and decided to go as purist as possible,” Rottet describes. “The interior is quite robust in its color and forms and visual interest, but also minimal in a way.”

The Crescent’s lobby is, naturally, the space that forges the strongest connection with its artful neighbors. Gallery-esque white walls are ample enough to accommodate large-scale canvases, which provide the majority of the color. Sight lines were strategically mapped out, down to the view from within the elevator while waiting for the doors to close. Floors are pale oak, just like those in Louis I. Kahn’s 1972 Kimbell building. Structural columns are partially clad in limestone, referencing Philip Johnson’s 1961 Amon Carter facility, while others were concealed: one within a faceted plaster fireplace, an abstraction of early 20th–century Spanish Mission style (“like what you might have found in a grand house during Fort Worth’s heyday,” Rottet notes), and another behind a floating partition outlined with a subtle reveal, creating a sort of frame and pedestal for a Madeline Peckenpaugh oil painting from the hotel’s impressive contemporary collection.

The studio’s mission for the F&B spaces was to devise a modular dining zone that could expand and contract according to time of day and flow of patrons and that was flexible enough to host simultaneous shindigs. “The hotel is very centered around private functions—events are a big deal there,” Rottet emphasizes. “The challenge was trying to figure out how many parties could be thrown at once.” Sliding glass doors framed in bronze-finished steel screen the restaurant’s open-concept kitchen during morning coffee service and predinner prep, so it always feels activated, never empty. Multiple private rooms have direct kitchen or courtyard access, including one veiled behind a glass wine-storage wall and the white-tablecloth Blue Room, which is the most saturated manifestation of the hotel’s sky-toned palette.

Guest accommodations cater to art tourists, Canyon Ranch spa-goers, and attendees of football games, weddings, bachelorette bashes, and other events requiring multiple costume changes. Given this clientele, a minibar and ample wardrobe space were essential and ultimately dictated the layouts. “Pushing the bar into the room allowed the dressing area to be more prominent, so there’s a spot to place your shopping bags and take off your shoes as you come in,” Rottet explains. The size of closets and built-in storage was also maximized. “It’s all about the party and ‘Where am I gonna hang the dress?’”

Certainly, one needn’t leave the hotel to have a ball. The courtyard and restaurant are filled around the clock with hotel guests and locals, but the most party-centric space is Ralph’s, the top-floor speakeasy and a decadent departure from the otherwise elegantly restrained vibe. A hand-painted, gold-leaf mural wraps around the bar, M.C. Escher–esque wallpaper sheathes the ceiling, and vintage-inflected multifunctional seating units are kitted out in performance velvet. Barstools embroidered with a dromedary motif nod to the family who once owned the land the hotel stands on. “We found amazing archival video footage from the ’70’s, when a camel purchased from the Neiman Marcus catalog was delivered to their home dressed in gold and red tasseled ropes,” Rottet laughs. It’s that kind of locally specific insider’s detail that gives the Crescent a feeling of authentic hospitality. “Coming here feels like you’re being invited into someone’s grand home,” she concludes. “It’s very much designed around entertaining, welcoming you in, and getting a drink in your hand before sitting down together.”

Experience A Warm Welcome At The Crescent Hotel

ROTTET STUDIO: ANJA MAJKIC; TAYLOR MOCK; HANNAH RAE. OZ ARCHITECTURE: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. TBG PARTNERS: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. OLDNER LIGHTING: LIGHTING DESIGNER. RUNYON ARTS: ART CONSULTANT. VIEWTECH: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. BLUM CONSULTING ENGINEERS: MEP. DUNAWAY: CIVIL ENGINEER. AMTREND: CUSTOM FURNITURE WORKSHOP. ANDRES CONSTRUCTION: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT KYLE BUNTING: CUSTOM CHAIR UPHOLSTERY (RECEPTION). BRIDGEPORT: CUSTOM CREDENZAS, CUSTOM TABLES. IWORKS: CUSTOM CHANDELIERS (RECEPTION, BLUE ROOM). HAWORTH: SOFAS (LOUNGE). MM LAMPADARI: CHANDELIER (RESTAURANT). FURNITURE ATELIER: CUSTOM TABLES (RESTAURANT), CUSTOM CASEGOODS, CUSTOM SECTIONAL (SUITE). LUKE LAMP CO.: CUSTOM PENDANT FIXTURE (CONFERENCE ROOM). CAM STUDIO: CUSTOM PEN­DANT FIXTURE (WINE PRIVATE DINING). HILL ASSOCIATES: SOFAS, CHAIRS, TABLES (COURT­YARD). JONATHAN CHARLES: CUSTOM SOFA, CUSTOM CHAIRS, CUSTOM TABLE (BAR). ARTE: CEIL­ING WALLCOVERING (SPEAKEASY). LIGHT ANNEX: PENDANT FIXTURES. DAC ART CONSULTING: ART (CORRIDORS). CROSSLEY AXMINSTER: CUSTOM CARPET. THORNTREE SLATE: FLOOR TILE. PIANCA: CHAIR (SUITE). ROTTET COLLECTION: MIRROR. POTOCCO: DINING CHAIRS. VISUAL COMFORT: PENDANT FIXTURE. THROUGHOUT SACCO CARPET: CUSTOM RUGS, CUSTOM CARPET. SYGMA STONE: STONE SUPPLIER. FARROW & BALL: PAINT.

Marvel At This All-Marble Lamp With A Luminous Glow

As Chatdaroon Narkphanit and Rumrada Taungwelageati of Kaoi tell it, the journey of making their dome-shaded Hed table lamp began with a visit to a local marble factory in Saraburi, Thailand. There, the Bangkok-based graphic designers turned furniture makers were impressed by the sight of stone pieces piled in mounds, each one with its own distinct color and vein pattern. Some of the marbles boasted solid hues of green, red, or yellow, while others exhibited a more translucent quality, catching the daylight and emanating a luminous glow. It was in that moment that the concept of stacking stone slabs to create Hed’s striped base was born. The graphic all-marble lamp is now produced in three pretty colorways perfect for mixing and matching. And it’s economically priced to boot.

Rebecca Moses Dreams Up Whimsical Wallcoverings

Fashion illustrator and designer Rebecca Moses is a genius at female portraiture, her colorful sketches presenting women as goddesses in all their stylish diversity. This coming January (with a sneak preview here, then at BDNY), she will debut a 10-print wallcovering collection, her first, with elements culled from those compositions. “As I’m passionate about color, pattern, and creating magical spaces, it has always been my dream to design a wallcovering,” Moses recalls. “I was fortunate to meet Momentum’s Jennifer Nye through Interior Design editor in chief Cindy Allen at the Giants event in Palm Springs, and our creative synergy was immediately evident.”

Drawn from her Kimono Lady canvas comes the self-portrait Close Up, Kimono Mosaic (a maximalist repetition of her attire), the minimalist abstraction Kimono Untamed, and Fleur, which scales up the portrait’s floral watercolor elements. Other highlights are a gallery of Moses’s painted women, various riffs on the Queen of England’s likeness (including Reflection), and Have a Seat, featuring watercolor chairs. All speak with wit and whimsy to women’s enigmatic beauty and power.

This Exhibit Pays Homage To Scott Burton’s Legacy

Cut short by an untimely death in 1989 at age 50, American artist Scott Burton’s 20-year career crossed over myriad genres: from sculpture, pho­tography, drawing, performance, and video to art criticism, curation, and collecting. This legacy is examined in “Scott Burton: Shape Shift,” taking over all six galleries and the outdoor courtyard at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis through February 2. Among the exhibit’s more than 100 pieces, some of which Burton referred to as “sculp­ture in love with furniture,” is his 1980 Aluminum Chair that pays homage to the Adirondack version, 5-ton granite Rock Settee from 1988, and Five-Part Storage Cubes, 1982, in a rainbow palette. Inde­pen­dent curator Jess Wilcox penned the show’s pro­voc­ative title, alluding not only to the breadth of Bur­ton’s work but also the reality of life as a gay man who died from an AIDS-related illness.

Experience Jomo Tariku’s Debut Solo Show ‘Juxtaposed’

Jomo Tariku has come a long way—literally and figuratively. Born in Kenya and raised in Ethiopia, he came to the U.S. to study industrial design at the University of Kanas, launching his first furniture studio in Washington, DC in 2000, then relaunching it in 2016. A year later, we met him at ICFF in New York where he was debuting his modular Birth II chair; acquisitions of his pieces by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, LACMA, and Denver Art Museum—and their appearance on 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever set—soon followed.

This fall, Tariku is the subject of his first-ever solo exhibition, “Juxtaposed,” at Wexler Gallery in Philadelphia. In keeping with the tradition of most material artists in Ethiopia, Tariku’s work has historically been done in wood (birch, walnut). But this exhibition, which includes 31 pieces, seven of them never before seen, including the 22-foot-tall Meedo wall sculpture, explores new technologies and materials, such as metal, plastic, and leather, but that still relate to his heritage. “It’s a celebration of the past and the present,” Tariku says, “a contribution to a positive cultural experience, a new creative language based on Black culture.”