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This week, David Plaisant kicks things off with a look back at a Croatian service station with a modernist design (pictured). We also check out a teak lounger with a classic feel, look at a literary branding project in Uruguay and consider the future of architectural education in The Netherlands.
Opinion / David Plaisant
Since 1986 motorists hurtling along the A3 highway on the outskirts of Zagreb have been met with a distinctive sight. Named after the national park famed for its waterfalls some 130km to the south, the Plitvice service station and motel, with its peculiar modernist detailing and distinctive sky-walk bridge, is a pleasing reminder of how motor travel once was in Yugoslavia.
Designed by hotel architect Zdravko Bregovac in collaboration with Ivan Piteš, the complex comprises a set of twin structures containing identical restaurants, bars and restrooms connected by a covered bridge. The heavy use of wood throughout the structure, together with earth-toned ceramic tiling, exudes a slightly kitsch but nonetheless nostalgic charm. Nostalgia, however, has to contend with utility, argues Peter Korchnak, design critic and creator of the Remembering Yugoslavia podcast. “The modern traveller might be left wanting,” he says of Plitvice’s tired facilities, “and in reality there’s no practical reason to cross the bridge.” Aside from a small faction of so-called “Yugonostalgics”, Korchnak suspects that travellers today aren’t satisfied with the building’s rustic – and rusty – charms. Plans are now in place to tear down this freeway structure and construct a unified service station beside the motorway in its place. A bridge for cars will take the place of the panoramic footbridge.
In an increasingly consumerist world, there are some lessons to be learned from Plitvice. Its striking form not only acts as a landmark for travellers but equally provides visual relief from the monotony of modern-day service-station stops. Had it not been earmarked for demolition, an effort to preserve Plitvice would have been about more than just the preservation of an architectural structure – it would also have been about what its legacy represents. It’s a case that others who want to save heritage buildings might want to invoke before it’s too late.
David Plaisant is Monocle’s Rome correspondent. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today so that you never miss an issue.
The Project / Design Parade, France
The 2023 edition of Design Parade wrapped up last weekend in Hyères and Toulon on the French Riviera. Since its foundation in 2006, the fair has put a spotlight on contemporary Mediterranean design and has developed into a celebration of furniture and interior architecture with exhibitions and competitions for emerging designers. A highlight this year was the Made in Situ showcase at the Villa Noailles in Hyères, which will remain open until 3 September. It features work by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, the Lisbon-based French designer behind the Air France lounge at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Duchaufour-Lawrance’s pieces are inspired by and made from natural materials found in Portugal. The standout work at the show is “Azulejos” (pictured) – Portuguese for a kind of tin-glazed ceramic tile work – which consists of three long, narrow screens clad in tiles that have been painted and shaped to reflect the changing depths and colours of the sea. Also on show are 15 bronze candlesticks with beeswax candles, appropriately titled “Bronze and Beeswax” (pictured, bottom), which play with the idea of a solid material melting into liquid. Design Parade might have ended but make sure you catch Made in Situ at Villa Noailles while you still can.
villanoailles.com
Design News / Tane Garden House, Germany
Japanese architect Tsuyoshi Tane has designed the Tane Garden House for the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany. With its production buildings, museums and pavilions designed by a host of award-winning architects, the Swiss firm’s design hub is fast becoming an important source of inspiration beyond the showroom. Inaugurated during Art Basel earlier this month, Tane Garden House reflects the Japanese architect’s approach to design, which seeks to connect architecture with a place’s memory, an approach that he calls the “archaeology of the future”. This ethos translates to a more sustainable form of design that uses local materials, including stone and wood from within a 50km radius.
“Through this process of thinking about the future and the memory of a place, archaeology gradually becomes architecture,” says Tane. “A place will always have memories deeply embedded in the ground, [which I use as a] driving force.” His compact structure will serve as a storage space for the campus’s garden tools, as well as a space for employees who tend to the grounds’ bees. It can also accommodate up to eight people for meetings and has a coffee machine in the corner and an observatory deck with a 360-degree view of the surrounding Piet Oudolf-designed garden.
vitra.com
Words with... / Marina Otero Verzier, Italy
Marina Otero Verzier is an architect, academic and curator. Since 2020 she has led the social design master’s at Design Academy Eindhoven, focusing on the new role of designers who seek to address social and ecological challenges. Her impressive background makes her well placed to tutor at the first-ever Biennale College Architettura, part of the Venice Biennale’s international architecture exhibition. At the event, which began on 25 June and runs until 22 July, Otero Verzier and 14 other academics have been discussing the biennale’s themes with students and graduates. Here, she tells us about the college and the future of architecture education.
Why is the Biennale College important to you?
I have been intrigued by the ways in which we can rethink educational institutions. When I heard that the Venice Biennale’s curator, Lesley Lokko, was planning to make changes to the structure of the college, I saw an opportunity to influence its programme of architecture education. It’s very refreshing to suddenly have this time and space to try something different.
How do you think that architecture education can improve?
Schools prioritise a specific type of work and have very competitive structures – they’re about grading and getting degrees. But that’s not how the world works. Most architecture practices are very collaborative. Recently, one of my students in Eindhoven proposed a project that was about helping others with their designs. I really had to consider how to evaluate his work. It made me think: perhaps we need to accept that knowledge is interdisciplinary and that it comes as much from peers as it does from tutors.
How does the Biennale College help to address these issues?
It is reimagining what learning looks like. With my teaching, I will emphasise the value of dialogue and participation to empower students rather than treat them as passive receivers of information. My classroom will be a space of mutual learning more than anything else. Obviously, we want to ensure that the people who join the college can take something from it but that doesn’t mean that they will be evaluated on the basis of one particular project.
For more design stories, including reports from the Venice Biennale, tune in to ‘Monocle on Design’ on Monocle Radio.
From The Archive / Teak lounger set, Denmark
Buying outdoor furniture can be a challenge, as buyers are often compelled to make a choice between form and function. To ensure that they can be kept outside all season, furniture sets often sacrifice elegance in favour of chunky metal frames and rainproof polyester fabrics. This set-up by Danish designer Hans Amos Christensen, however, shows that it’s possible to have the best of both worlds. The slender two-piece lounger and partition are built with thin teak rods that turn silver-grey when kept outside, which means that the wood only improves from exposure to the elements.
The outdoor furniture set was first conceived in 1986 but only made it to the prototype stage. Since then, the workshop of the cabinet-maker who realised the pieces, Niels Roth Andersen, has been bought by Carl Hansen & Søn. If the deal included the rights to the workshop’s archives, the Danish furniture-maker should look into putting this gem into production. More than three decades since it was designed, it’s safe to say that this lounger set is only looking better with time.
Around The House / Loro Piana x Lucas Castex, Italy
The Italians and French excel in many art forms but expertly laying out a convivial table is certainly high on the list. It’s a notion that Loro Piana is exploring as part of its foray into homeware for entertaining. The Italian luxury fashion and textiles house has teamed up with self-taught French woodworker Lucas Castex on a limited run of 200 wooden trays in organic and intricate shapes. Each tray is hand-carved from walnut in Castex’s workshop in the heart of the French forest of Les Landes.
Available in selected Loro Piana shops, the trays come in three shapes and sizes – with round or rectangular options – designed to serve typical Italian fare: think a board for cutting pizza or an antipasti plate for a spread of olives and cured meats. The variation in woodgrain and carved patterns make every item from this collaboration a one-of-a-kind piece and a kitchen addition that will no doubt receive admiration from guests at your next summer gathering.
loropiana.com
In The Picture / National Book Day, Uruguay
Uruguay’s Día Nacional del Libro (National Book Day) is a celebration of the inauguration of the National Library of Uruguay, a landmark founded in 1816. For this year’s event, which took place in May, Uruguayan creative Amijai Benderski was commissioned to develop a vibrant campaign to promote the festivities. In collaboration with Polish designer Janusz Bieliński, the Montevideo-based graphic designer created a jagged typeface to reflect the shapes of handmade letterforms. “It’s a testament to the human touch in a rapidly digitising world,” says Benderski.
The branding, which also featured a bird motif, was applied to stickers, tote bags and bookmarks, with banners and billboards also plastered across the city. “This is not a random selection but a thoughtfully devised strategy to maximise the reach of the campaign,” says Benderski, on his ambition for the project to infiltrate both private and public spaces. And while reach was important, Benderski was keen to stress that the ultimate purpose was to celebrate the boundless potential of literature. “We wanted to produce a sense of intrigue, mirroring the experience of discovering a great book.”
benderski.design
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