Monocle on Sunday, April 21, 2024: Emma Nelson, Simon Brooke and Lynne O’Donnell on the weekend’s biggest talking points.
We also speak to Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, in Marbella, Monocle’s New Delhi correspondent, Lyndee Prickitt, for the latest on the India elections and Monocle’s Bangkok correspondent for the news in Thailand.
Not every workplace features a guillotine. At a book conservation lab tucked beneath the first floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the office guillotine might as well be a water cooler ora file cabinet for all that it fazes the staff. “We have a lot of violent equipment,” said Mindell Dubansky, who heads the Sherman Fairchild Center for Book Conservation.
The Local Project (April 19, 2024) – Creating a place for people to reconnect with each other and nature, Patterson Associates built a cabin that sits upon the New Zealand landscape with advantageous coastal views. Located on a working sheep and cattle farm on the Banks Peninsula, Scrubby Bay is extremely remote.
Video timeline:00:00 – Introduction to the Remote Cabin 01:16 – The History of the Landscape 02:13 – An Insight into the Design Inspiration 03:02 – The Layout of the Cabin 03:57 – Approaching the Bay 05:02 – The Respectful Construction Process 05:30 – A Robust Material Palette 06:31 – The Functionalities of the Cabin 07:23 – A Sustainable Approach to the Build
The cabin home is architectural in its design and faces straight into the sub-Antarctic weather that comes in from the bay and down the mountains. Moreso, due to the home’s location, there is a wide variety of wildlife, including an array of birds, dolphins and whales. Faced with the decision of what to design and how to design it, the architect was drawn to building a residence that responded to the site. Moreover, seen in the house tour of the cabin is the bay, which tends to be covered in driftwood.
This helped influence the architect on choosing the unique materials and timber for the project. Designed to age and get better with time, Scrubby Bay is laid out as two simple gabled barn forms that are slotted together. Specifically arranged for families or large groups renting off Airbnb, the house can accommodate up to 16 people and encourages them to come together and experience the natural landscape. Three main bedrooms have been created for the adults and spread throughout the gabled form of the home. Additionally, seen in the house tour, at each side of the home are two gathering areas, one being an entertainment deck facing the ocean and the other is a pool facing the rear mountains.
Monocle on Saturday (April 20, 2024): Isabel Hilton, founder of China Dialogue, joins Georgina Godwin to talk about German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to China, A24’s ‘Civil War’ (warning: spoilers ahead) and Anne Hidalgo’s vision of a greener Paris under threat.
The co-founder of independent publisher Charco Press, Samuel McDowell, also joins the show to discuss translated Latin American fiction. Plus: we hear from Turkish designer Gülsün Karamustafa, who is representing her country at this year’s Venice Biennale, and Monocle’s design editor, Nic Monisse, speaks to Nicola Coropulis, CEO of renowned design company Poltrona Frau, at Salone del Mobile.
You know so much more about yourself and your desires when you’re older that dating apps — even with all their frustrations — can bring unanticipated pleasure.
The Week In Art Podcast (April 19, 2024): We are back in Venice for the latest edition of the biggest biennial in the world of art. The 60th Venice Biennale comprises an international exhibition featuring more than 300 artists, dozens of national pavilions in the Giardini—the gardens at the eastern end of the city—and the Arsenale—the historic shipyards of the Venetian Republic—and host of official collateral exhibitions and other shows and interventions across Venice.
The Art Newspaper’s contemporary art correspondent, Louisa Buck, editor-at-large Jane Morris and host Ben Luke review the international exhibition, Foreigners Everywhere/Stranieri Ovunque, curated by the Brazilian artistic director, Adriano Pedrosa. We talk to artists and curators behind five national pavilions—Jeffrey Gibson in the US pavilion, John Akomfrah in the British pavilion, Romuald Hazoumè in the Benin pavilion, Gustavo Caboco Wapichana, the curator of the Hãhãwpuá or Brazilian pavilion, and Valeria Montii Colque in the Chilean pavilion—about their presentations.
And we like to end our Venice specials by responding to an example of the historic work that made la Serenissima one of the world’s great centres for art. So for this episode’s Work of the Week, Ben Luke gained exclusive access to one of the most significant paintings in Venetian history: the Assunta or Assumption of the Virgin made between 1516 and 1518 by Titian. Since the last Biennale in 2022, the Assunta has been unveiled after a four-year conservation project, funded by the charity Save Venice. We spoke to the man who restored this incomparable masterpiece, Giulio Bono, right beneath Titian’s painting.
The Globalist (April 19, 2024): Israel carries out airstrikes on Iran, with explosions heard in the city of Isfahan. How will Tehran respond?
Meanwhile, the US votes on aid for Ukraine, which Kyiv says could make the difference between victory and defeat. Plus, a flick through the papers, music news and a report from Salone del Mobile.