Design-Milk

From home interiors to fashion runways, a particular kind of quiet luxury has come to define the past decade––restrained palettes, hushed materials, and statement pieces that don’t do much more than whisper. What happens when calm is no longer found in color’s absence, but instead in its abundance? This joyful Long Island home offers a different answer: joy as a design principle, color as a reset.

Set atop a hill and surrounded by old-growth trees, this 12,000-square-foot contemporary home was originally conceived as a study in minimalism—clean lines, sharp angles, and an all-white interior that mirrored the prevailing aesthetic of restraint. But for its owners, a dynamic family deeply rooted in New York’s culture, that neutrality felt less like sanctuary and more like silence. What they wanted instead was something far more radical: a home that radiates happiness.

Working with a blank canvas and full creative freedom, Shanna Gatanis Design Studio leaned into a subversive approach, transforming the stark shell into a saturated, high-energy environment that still manages to feel deeply restorative. The result is not chaos, but calibration, and a declaration that joy can be just as grounding as stillness.

Bright hues are uplifting with the power to positively affect changes in mood. Color, in this sense, becomes less about decoration and more about emotional infrastructure and a tool for resilience. Here, that philosophy is embedded into every space.

The palette pulls from 1990s hip hop ephemera, retro sports graphics, and the chromatic buzz of a recycled Nike sneaker floor—the project’s unlikely starting point. Blues anchor the home, providing a sense of depth and continuity, while saturated reds, yellows, and greens move through the interiors with rhythm to create visual beats that energize without overwhelming.

It’s a deliberate rejection of “chromophobia”—that quiet cultural fear of color that has long dictated what is considered “tasteful.” Instead, this house leans into what color does best: reflecting mood, amplifying joy, and even inviting participation.

The home’s delicate balance between vibrancy and excess lies in its material intelligence. Warm woods, terrazzo, colored glass, and lacquered surfaces create layers of tactility, while sheer fabrics and rounded, 1970s-inspired forms soften the intensity. The effect is immersive but palatable for daily life.

Programmatically, the house unfolds as both a playground and retreat. Open entertainment zones flow into more intimate family spaces, while amenities—a basketball court, music lounge, pools, and a convertible outdoor room—extend the idea of home into something experiential.

Moments of delight are everywhere, often quite literally. A Lego-inspired fireplace rises as a sculptural focal point. A graffiti mural weaves together Brooklyn, Biggie, and basketball into a visual love letter to the family’s roots. While these gestures could be read as whimsical, they become markers of identity, memory, and belonging.

That sense of personal narrative is what ultimately elevates the project beyond spectacle to autobiography. Perhaps calm isn’t always found in muting the world, but in meeting it in full technicolor. And to do that means dialing up the saturation.

To see this and other works by the unabashed design studio, visit shannagatanis.com.

Photography courtesy of nickjohnsoninteriors.com.

The concept of home can mean many different things – the concept of comfort as well. The home is a sanctuary, a safe space of creativity, flourishing, and family. Arya and Michael, founders of Studio OSKLO, treat their abode as such, and inspire us to do the same. Named after the Trousdale Estates neighborhood of Beverly Hills, the Trousdale Collection embodies the familiar streets well–1960s architectural silhouettes outlined against mountainous panoramas, city views filtered through mature pines, all drenched in golden California sun.

An ode to a specific place at a specific time, the Trousdale Collection is a culmination of synergy between founders Michael and Arya, and their most personal collection to date. Developed within their own residence—the OSKLO House, originally designed by George Varnum in collaboration with Benton & Parks—the pieces act as both functional objects and vessels of lived experience. While this marks their third furniture line, it is the first to fully center their own domestic landscape as both inspiration and stage.

However direct, each piece has clear historical ties. Studio OSKLO’s work consistently threads past and present, pairing original designs with museum-quality vintage works. The slight pitch of the top of the Bloom Nightstand, for instance, ties us to a time of careful craftsmanship, where materiality is at the center of creation, its whimsical floral reference subtly embedded in its form and bronze hardware detailing.

The De Gaulle Chair creates sloping, organic lines that flow their way down to the ground as they envelop the seat. Its rounded, French mid-century silhouette is further refined through tailored piping and offered in richly tactile mohair, balancing sculptural presence with softness.

The Lady Bird Console features a generously curved top, three evenly spaced drawers, and a rich satin finish in stained oak. The elongated form reads as both architectural and approachable, allowing a certain amount of texture to shine through while maintaining a cohesive, grounded hue.

This S.C.A.L. daybed daybed by Jean Prouvé features true-to-era upholstery paired with its original 1950 metal frame, restored to museum-quality condition. Masters of preservation, Studio OSKLO seamlessly integrates brilliantly-restored pieces into contemporary interiors as anchors of design lineage.

Here, the Hillcrest Dining Table is paired with eight matching Dining Chairs, creating a stately surface for elegant gathering. The table’s monumental presence is grounded by fluted walnut pedestal legs, while the chairs reinterpret traditional French forms with abbreviated arms and extended backs, upholstered in sumptuous Italian cotton velvet. Together, they create a setting that feels equally suited for intimate dinners or more theatrical moments of gathering.

Last, but certainly not least, these twin Monaco Barstools continue the celebration of organic form, even at last call. Rounded, woolly seats sit atop freeform oak bases, evoking soft, slightly whimsical silhouettes while maintaining structural clarity.

Far from an exhaustive list, remaining pieces in the collection span from playful to monumental–and always grounded–echoing the studio’s dialogue between material richness and sculptural intent. The pair continue to push the bounds of materiality and making.

“When Arya and I met; we almost immediately began working together. Our 7-year relationship coincided with the beginning of OSKLO, at the time we were both working on separate real estate design projects and each excelling in different areas than the other,” says Michael. “Together, we immediately felt like we made a more formidable team,” shares Arya. “And of course who doesn’t want to spend every moment together when first meeting?”

To learn more about the Trousdale Collection from Studio OSKLO, visit studioosklo.com.

Photography courtesy of Studio OSKLO.

Mexico’s Riviera Maya is chock full of bombastic resorts with massive footprints and gimmicky attractions. Xcaret’s boutique offering, Casa de la Playa, is the exception. The 63 key, adults-only accommodation tucks away along the northern edge of the multi-pronged resort’s expansive campus and on the other side, untouched jungle. Its circuitously tiered structure makes the most of unencumbered Caribbean Sea views.

The meticulously “crafted” eco-integrative hotel—a deft mix of roughly hewn natural materials sourced from the site and uniform industrial components—forms as a fluid matrix of indoor and outdoor spaces, hugging a coastal cliff and embedding below its idiosyncratic formation. Designed by award-winning architect David Quintana, the carefully sited hotel nods to the climate-responsive spatial distribution of tropical Modernism and the colorful geometry of oh so influential Mexican architect Luis Barragán.

On offer: several Michelin-Star fusion-cuisine restaurants; a subterranean wine cellar with impressive local selection; a self-service tequila and mezcal bar with even more range; a comprehensive multi-level spa; a 130 foot infinity pool that juts out of the water; and series of yachts at the ready for special request excursions along the coast and over to Cozumel. The kicker: the sizable suites—not just furnished with private Caribbean-facing pools and rock-hewn bathtubs—feature bedside aquariums with jellyfish. The level of attention from staff—personal butlers and others—is unmatched and yet tempered.

These accommodations, distributed on three stories and divided by massive “white earth” sascab stone fortifications, are accessed by a series of rectilinear concrete tunnels pitched at split level. Regional sourced wood and red brick inserts create a striking contrast. Certain ceilings are rendered in a collage of sequenced branches.

The constant presence of especially verdant native plants cropping across the semi-indoor, semi-outdoor spaces is an added touch of grounding as is the meticulous collection of bespoke Mexican furniture and art—much of which was crafted in the surrounding Quintana Roo region. The total composition is a feast of visual and visceral contrast, emphasized only by the turquoise sea emerging below. Though eclectic and bold, this confluence of texture and detail feels cohesive, it imbues each public and private space with a rooted, calming effect.

While Xal—helmed by celebrity chef Andoni Luis Aduriz—uncovers the unexpected “global south” culinary connections between Mexico, Basque country, and the Philippines, equally famed Martha Ortiz’s Tuch de Luna serves up local staples in a relaxed eatery setting. Nestled along an interior courtyard that seems to have been extracted from the bustling streets of Mexico City, the Lumbre/Centil restaurant has a chameleon-like decor. A suite of custom furnishings easily changes over each night to reflect the respective haunt’s distinctive Northern and Southern Mexican menus. Here, wood spindle barstools flip over and become low-slung dining chairs and the previously mentioned red brick forms in a particularly patterned three-dimensional wall.

Like in these various restaurants, the Muluk Spa—replete with massage cabins, salt rooms, mud rooms, saunas, steam rooms, and more—utilizes as much locally sourced ingredients as possible.

What: Casa de la Playa
Where: Playa del Carmen, Mexico
How much: $1,736 per night
Design draws: An eco-integrative boutique hotel bold crafted out of locally sourced materials, set along Mexico’s Caribbean coast, and features an extensive offer of hyper-refine culinary experiences.
Book it: Casa de la Playa

Photography courtesy Casa de la Playa.

Engineered surfaces manufacturer Wilsonart marks its 70th anniversary this year, a perfect time to revisit Wilson House, the residence and showcase built by the company’s founder, Ralph Wilson, Sr.

Located in Temple, Texas, where the Wilsonart Americas headquarters is maintained today, Wilson House was designed by the visionary’s daughter, Bonnie. It was completed in 1959, a few years after he moved from California to the Lone Star State, and founded what was known as the Ralph Wilson Plastics Company.

The patriarch not only wanted a home to live in, but also a place where he could experiment with products and make adjustments on the spot. “The house has many features that were ahead of their time,” says Kate Grossman, vice president of marketing and design at Wilsonart. “It is a living piece of history, but it also tells the story of laminate and Wilsonart.”

The 3,000-square-foot, three-bedroom home blends ranch and mid-century modern styles. Inside, Wilson made sure his signature material was everywhere, starting with the center of domesticity in the 1950s—the kitchen. The countertops here are early examples of post-forming, a process where laminate is bent and wrapped to form continuous curves from the top to the side edge.

Laminates are found in the laundry area, bathroom, and most surprisingly, the shower. As Wilson tried different iterations he regularly swapped out various elements like cabinet doors. His wife Sunny and their children were the ideal users. They were in the high-touch zones at all hours and could put durability to the test.

The house also highlights Wilson’s appreciation of bold colors. Not content with typical neutrals, he played with a full spectrum of hues that complement contemporary palettes. A vibrant turquoise enlivens cabinet doors and wall art in the living room, while a sunny orange tint pops on the countertops and matching backsplash. Woodgrains show up too, to add an organic feel to the open interiors.

Wilson House was regularly featured in advertisements, and Wilson would bring clients there to show off his latest creations, always a source of pride for the entrepreneur. Wilsonart purchased the home from Sunny in 1997, and it has since been restored to its original appearance. Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is open to visitors by appointment.

This fresh look at Wilson House is sure to provide inspiration to specifiers today, and offers a fresh perspective on this material for the masses. “Ralph was pushing it to its limits so that people could utilize it in different ways,” Grossman notes. “He believed in deeply liveable spaces, and he felt that laminate and the house provided an opportunity to show that.”

To learn more about what the brand has to offer, visit wilsonartengineeredsurfaces.com.

Photography courtesy of Wilsonart.

There are moments when the senses blur—when sound feels like color, when texture seems to hum, when form carries a frequency all its own. This perceptual crossover collapses the boundaries between what we see, hear, and feel, turning experience into something immersive and indivisible. It’s a condition often associated with artists and musicians. For iconic brand Bang & Olufsen, it becomes something to leverage: an approach where sound is not just engineered, but sculpted, tinted, and made tangible.

With the complete unveiling of its Beolab 90 Atelier Editions, Bang & Olufsen leans fully into this sensorial overlap. What began as a flagship loudspeaker defined by technical supremacy now expands into a five-part, limited-edition series—each iteration translating sound into material, color, and surface. Together, they form a kind of synesthetic suite: five distinct interpretations of the same acoustic core, each one tuning the visual and tactile experience to match the invisible architecture of sound itself.

At the center of the collection is the Beolab 90 platform, first introduced in 2015 and still considered the apex of the brand’s acoustic innovation. Each speaker houses 18 drivers powered by advanced amplification and technology capable of shifting from intimate, precise listening to a full 360-degree soundfield. Rather than altering this foundation, the Atelier Editions build outward transforming the exterior into a canvas where engineering meets artistry, and where listening becomes a fully embodied act.

Conceived through Bang & Olufsen’s Atelier program, each edition is produced in a highly limited run of ten pairs, underscoring their position as collectible design objects as much as high-performance audio equipment. Across the series, a consistent language and design rigor presents itself—precision-milled joinery, hand-finished surfaces, and experimental material pairings—but each model pushes that language in a different direction to explore how sound might be expressed through weight, light, color, or tactility.

Titan Edition
The Titan Edition strips the Beolab 90 back to its structural essence, revealing a raw, almost geological expression of sound. Its 65-kilogram aluminum cabinet is hand-sandblasted with crushed volcanic rock, producing a matte surface that feels both elemental and refined. Polished base panels introduce contrast, creating a subtle illusion of levitation, while precision-milled details—radiating grooves, engraved fasteners, and a facemask carved from a single aluminum block—echo the movement of sound waves in visual form. The result is austere yet expressive, industrial with emotional resonance.

Mirage Edition
The Mirage Edition explodes outward in an iridescent meditation on color and movement. Its anodized aluminum components are finished in bespoke gradients, shifting between hues like a visible sonic spectrum. The textile facade oscillates between sapphire and magenta, producing a graphic surface that seems to vibrate with energy. Here, sound becomes chromatic as if the speaker itself were translating frequencies into light.

Phantom Edition
Delightfully macabre, Phantom is about concealment. Cloaked in deep black tones, this edition channels a kind of engineered darkness, where form is revealed only through shifting light. A semi-transparent PVD metal mesh creates a holographic effect, allowing glimpses of the speaker’s internal architecture, while carbon fiber elements introduce a motorsport-inspired lightness and precision. It is a speaker that feels elusive as its surfaces absorb and refract light in a way that mirrors the depth and intensity of its sound.

Monarch Edition
With the Monarch Edition, Bang & Olufsen turns to heritage, grounding the Beolab 90 in the traditions of Danish furniture design. Angled rosewood lamellas wrap the aluminum body in a continuous rhythm, their curvature introducing warmth and tactility to an otherwise technical form. Wooden knots punctuate the structure while subtle light-through details animate the surface to create a quiet interplay between solidity and permeability. It is less about spectacle and more about the slow, deliberate choreography of material and craft.

Zenith Edition
The Zenith Edition completes the collection with a study in luminosity. Thousands of anodized aluminum spheres arranged in pearl-like formations create a surface that shimmers with ambient light, shifting throughout the day. A mother-of-pearl inlay crowns the form, reinforcing its celestial reference, while curved panels maintain the speaker’s sculptural continuity. Where other editions emphasize mass or color, Zenith feels almost atmospheric as if sound itself has been distilled into twinkling lights.

Taken together, the Beolab 90 Atelier Editions operate less as variations and more as translations—five ways of rendering the same acoustic experience through different sensory registers. “For 100 years, innovation and design have been at the heart of our brand,” says Kristian Teär, CEO of Bang & Olufsen. “But more than a celebration of our legacy, this showcases a level of craftsmanship and bespoke capability that only Bang & Olufsen can create. It is a bold statement of what’s possible when artistry, technology and vision converge,” In this sense, Bang & Olufsen is engineering perception itself where sound echos through surface, frequency becomes color, and listening becomes something inhabitable all at once.

To inquire about this and other artful electronics from the brand, visit bang-olufsen.com.

Photography courtesy of Bang & Olufsen.

How drab the palettes of today have become. We knew the moment grey was being advertised to children—who have yet to fully develop their rods and cones—that we were on a distinctly more boring path. Color reflects the brilliance of our natural world, and has even been shown to make us happier overall, certain hues lifting our mood simply by entering our field of vision. Memphis Milano, established in the eighties in Italy, signaled a release from Modernist conventions and was both revered and reviled by critics and the public. Memphis Style has been described as “a shotgun wedding between Bauhaus and Fisher-Price.”

Prism Stack Glasses

Prism Stack Glasses

Forever fans of nonconformity, the Cedric Mitchell x JOOPITER collaboration embodies the spirit of these trailblazers, yet filters it through a distinctly contemporary lens. Released as part of JOOPITER Marketplace—an always-on, buy-it-now platform offering direct access to the personal collections and archives of influential cultural figures—the collection situates Mitchell’s work within a broader ecosystem of cultural artifacts, where provenance and narrative carry equal weight to form. Texture, color, and transparency all play major roles here, with high-gloss and satin finishes lending a frozen, almost suspended quality to frosted surfaces. Ideals of contrast and constraint emerge to define a new Memphis, where color is not merely decorative, but declarative.

Modern Funk Jacket II

Each piece brings its own unique flavor. Mitchell’s practice—operating at the intersection of craft, utility, and visual culture—draws from a wide spectrum of references including ‘90s hip-hop and retro streetwear to graffiti and childhood iconography. Color, in this context, becomes emotional currency, triggering responses that feel at once nostalgic and immediate. Thick, hand-blown glass cylinders transition gracefully into seating and sculptural forms, emphasizing tactility and the push-pull of saturated tones. Totemic silhouettes emerge throughout, their stacked geometries lending the objects an almost anthropomorphic presence—creatures of color that mirror our enduring fascination with the natural and the constructed alike.

Modern Funk Jacket I

Continue reading to get a glimpse of Mitchell’s world as saccharine hues stack, bend, and spill into various forms. What you’ll see is a cast of colorful characters–playful, a little off-balance, and entirely alive—each one speaking fluently in the language of Modern Funk…

Primary Portal I

Primary Portal I
Primary Portal I opens a threshold. Bold geometric framing surrounds a mirrored center, pulling the surrounding space into the work itself. It’s furniture, object, and environment all at once—always shifting with light and reflection.

Playhaus Perch Chair

Playhaus Perch Chair
The Playhaus Perch Chair brings Mitchell’s language into the realm of sitting. Lacquered geometry meets soft lambskin upholstery, turning a chair into a sculptural experience. It invites use, but never loses its presence.

Art Deco Diaspora

Diaspora Deco Chair
Diaspora Deco Chair bridges eras. Glossy, architectural forms meet plush lambskin, reinterpreting Art Deco through a Modern Funk lens. It’s grounded yet expressive, where history and experimentation sit side by side.

Plonko

Plonko
A quiet detour, Plonko trades gloss for a fully sandblasted finish, letting form do the talking. Soft volumes intersect at subtle angles, holding motion in suspension like a paused gesture. It’s restrained, tactile, and just a little mysterious—a study in what happens when Mitchell turns the volume down.

Petal Stack

Petal Stack
Petal Stack rises like a bloom mid-thought, each hand-blown element stacking into a rhythmic ascent. A chartreuse base anchors the piece before lavender and deep pink nodes lead to a soft, petal-like bowl. Equal parts vessel and sculpture, it softens geometry with a floral exhale.

Play Loud

Play Loud
As the name suggests, Play Loud doesn’t whisper. A lapis dome, electric rings, and a saucer crown collide in a glossy, saturated stack that feels both retro and futuristic. It’s a totem of joy—bold, buoyant, and impossible to ignore.

Verdant Oracle

Verdant Oracle
Verdant Oracle reads like a prophecy in color. A striped green base grounds the piece while a violet sphere and magenta ring give way to an asymmetrical teal rise. Pattern, gloss, and proportion work together to create something that feels both ancient and electric.

Zestrel

Zestrel
Zestrel is a balancing act in full color. Teal, chartreuse, orange, and turquoise stack into a tower that feels both precise and playful. Its glossy surface sharpens every hue, turning structure into spectacle.

Groovy Sprout

Groovy Sprout
With its matte finish and pastel palette, Groovy Sprout softens the tempo. A chartreuse dome anchors frosted violet and translucent blue forms, punctuated by a ring with a circular void. It’s light, architectural, and just a little dreamy.

Bubble Funk

Bubble Funk
Bubble Funk leans into contrast—rigid meets fluid, polished meets playful. A lapis cylinder grounds a pink ring dotted with blue nubs, while a red twisting form rises like a gesture mid-dance. It’s kinetic, cheeky, and full of attitude.

Primary Assembly I

Primary Assembly I
A study in structure, Primary Assembly I builds from intersecting planes and rounded forms. Its lacquered yellow finish amplifies the clarity of composition, turning geometry into a bold spatial statement. It’s furniture, yes—but it behaves like sculpture.

Moonstruck

Moonstruck
Moonstruck tilts toward the unexpected. A lapis base and chartreuse sphere give way to a turquoise spiral and an off-axis blue vessel with a glowing amber interior. The imbalance is deliberate, lending the piece a quiet, cosmic energy.

Triovo

Triovo
Triovo plays with expectation. A flared teal base supports magenta forms and a vivid orange sphere before an angular wedge breaks symmetry at the top. It’s precise, but never rigid—always just slightly off.

Orbolo

Orbolo
Texture takes center stage in Orbolo. A cratered violet base, dotted sphere, and ribbed stem build into a tactile, matte composition that invites touch. Its totemic form feels grounded, even as it lifts visually.

Halo Study

Halo Study
Halo Study is a vertical meditation on form. A lapis cone rises into a spiral, sphere, and disc, each element articulating a clear progression. Balanced yet animated, it’s as crisp as it is playful.

Badu Bloom

Bada Bloom
Bada Bloom grows upward in a rhythmic burst of color. From a grounded teal base, dotted and ringed forms lead into a swelling pink column crowned with a dome. It’s symmetrical, but never static—always in bloom.

Counterweight

Counterweight
Counterweight finds equilibrium in contrast. A warm orange base meets a violet hinge and teal lift, culminating in a tilted chartreuse bowl. The off-axis top keeps the piece alive, always in gentle tension.

Bendrix

Bendrix
Bendrix curves with intention. An amber column arcs upward from a green base, punctuated by red rings and a translucent collar before opening into a flared cup. It’s fluid, off-center, and quietly dynamic.

Ettore’s Echo

Ettore’s Echo
A nod with a twist, Ettore’s Echo channels postmodern lineage through a slender, stacked form. A lapis shaft rises through a spiral and sphere before ending in a tilted violet vessel. It honors the past, but refuses to sit still.

Primary Pivot

Primary Pivot
Primary Pivot turns balance into a question. A chartreuse base, red joint, and blue cylinder stack into a composition that feels both stable and on the verge of motion. Functional as a vessel, it reads as something more sculptural—almost architectural.

To learn more about the Cedric Mitchell x JOOPITER collaboration or shop the drop, visit joopiter.com.

Photography by Julie Dickinson.

Architecture, when reframed, is about space rather than walls; it does not enclose, but reveals. The Garden Apartment by Aranda/Lasch, reimagines the domestic interior as a calibrated aperture: a sequence of frames, thresholds, and volumes that attune everyday life to light, landscape, and time.

At the center of this Lower East Side (LES) project is a near-mythical condition for New York living—a double-wide private garden. Rather than treating this as an amenity to be accessed, the architects position it as the project’s conceptual and spatial anchor. The apartment home becomes, in their words, “a frame for the oasis outside,” a device through which the shifting outdoor atmosphere is continuously registered from within.

This framing is not metaphorical alone. A newly introduced double-height volume operates as the primary viewing device, pulling daylight deep into what was once a compact, compartmentalized plan. And the vertical expansion increases perceived space by reorganizing daily rituals around the daylight void itself. Dining, gathering, and rest unfold within a tall, luminous chamber where the presence of the garden is constant, even when not directly visible.

Crucially, the aperture here is not a single opening but a sequence of calibrated thresholds. The existing rear facade is opened to accommodate expansive glass, dissolving the boundary between interior and exterior. Yet the project resists the totalizing transparency often associated with contemporary residential design. Instead, openings are composed as “dramatic frames,” guiding the eye outward while maintaining a sense of interior depth and enclosure.

Material becomes instrumental in reinforcing this layered permeability. Reeded white oak volumes flank the central space, their vertical striations subtly echoing the texture of the exterior fence beyond. This dialogue between inside and out leans into visual resonance—soft alignments of surfaces, which allows the two realms to bleed into one another without collapsing their distinction. The effect is atmospheric rather than literal, a quiet synchronization of planes that heightens spatial awareness.

The restraint of the material palette further sharpens this perceptual clarity. Oak defines the primary living zones with warmth and continuity, while terrazzo and terracotta ground the more functional spaces in durability and tactility. The kitchen, rendered entirely in brushed metal, introduces a counterpoint—cool, reflective, yet softened through finish. There is a notable absence of excess; each material reads as both surface and signal, delineating use while maintaining cohesion.

“There is nothing extravagant here, and that is where the beauty lies,” says Aranda\Lasch cofounder and principal architect Ben Aranda. “Life itself can be extravagant, but architecture can be the quiet, enduring backdrop that accommodates it.”

Even the plan participates in the logic of aperture. The first floor is kept deliberately open, punctuated only by a monolithic stair and kitchen—two sculptural anchors that organize movement without constricting it. The stair, in particular, operates as both object and interface; its handrail, described as the project’s singular moment of extravagance, becomes a tactile point of contact between body and architecture. In a home defined by visual porosity, this detail grounds the experience in touch.

What emerges is a domestic environment that privileges continuity over separation, yet never abandons the need for gradation. Apertures evolve beyond being ‘seen through’ and become about ‘sensing across’—light filtering, textures aligning, volumes expanding and contracting, all in response to daily rhythms. Even from deep within the apartment, the garden’s presence is perceptible.

Leveraging its unique advantages, the Garden Apartment proposes an alternative model for urban living that maximizes spatial experience in the service of life rather than square footage. It does not impose itself as an object to be admired, nor does it operate as an instrument to capture attention for social currency. It continually directs awareness to personal moments outward, inward, and everywhere in between.

To see this and other works by the studio, please visit arandalasch.com.

Photography courtesy of Aranda\Lasch and RBM Lab.

Although they work with different media, Camilla Iliefski and Eva Zethraeus have had a simpatico career. For the past two decades, these two alumni of the HDK School of Design and Crafts in Gothenburg have evolved alongside each other, both producing work focused on detail, process and craft. And now, the exhibition Shimmering Real: Perception and the Spaces Between at HB381, on view until April 18, positions their pieces in thoughtful dialogue, with Iliefski’s soft, vibrant rugs a backdrop to Zethraeus’s sculptures that resemble hard yet friendly sea creatures.

With a background in graphic design, Iliefksi uses color as the dominant language in her fiber pieces, where hues in various gradients and intensities blend into and bounce off of each other with gusto.

Her rugs are akin to vivid paintings (the exhibition’s curators make comparisons to Kandinsky, among others), with their irregular borders and undulating pile heights and depths. The latter result in bulbous, organic compositions that feel like surreal odes to clouds, plant-life, and all things organic and thriving. Iliefksi often uses nature as a point of departure — landscapes, vegetation and the surfaces of the sea and sky.

Zethraeus also looks to the natural world for inspiration. Her pieces appear as if they’ve been rescued — in pristine shape — from some magical ocean floor. She counts marine life, Buddhist gardens and viruses as catalysts for her ideas, which take wondrous form in porcelain.

She works meticulously on each sculpture, whose every component is hand thrown, the composition assembled and then treated with numerous glazings and firings. The resulting works feel both natural and artificial, striking a balance between the familiar and altogether new.

To see more work by the respective designers, visit camillailiefski.com and evazethraeus.se.

Photography by Joe Kramm, courtesy of HB381.

Swiss brand Swatch first emerged in the early 1980s as a fresh, sportier alternative to the more staid luxury producers making up the country’s timepiece industry. It was the quartz crisis—a period marked by decline in the market due to shifts in mechanical systems and international competition—and the emergent company seized the moment by fully embracing the new technologies. And while its established counterparts eventually bounced back, Swatch remained a rebellious favorite, an accessible go-to for BMX-ers, skateboarders, surfers, and young gen-x looking to define their era: the 1990s.

One innovation the brand introduced during this period was the ultra-think SKIN line. The near-weightless design—available in a variety of materials—has been refined and re-styled over the past four decades; reflecting changes in taste. The minimalist, no-nonsense contour of this slim chronometer serves well as a canvas of these stylistic shifts, an agile quality that has largely ensured its longevity and enduring popularity.

The just released Painted Paradise Collection represents an exuberant, naturalistic take; a breath of fresh tropical air for this particularly dark timeline. These four deftly imagined compositions are transportative; wrist-bound portals to soft white-sand island beaches paired with the turquoise waters of the Caribbean; the dense greenery of a Brazilian rainforest with bright sunlight flickering through these verdant canopies; vibrant blooms from Central Africa captured in the half-light of dust; and a cornucopia-arrangement of lush South Asian fruits.

There’s little need for immediate, intrusive connectivity—hundreds of emails, text messages, or news alerts popping up at any moment. Checking the classic dial head—rendered in captivating yet pattern-molifying metallic purples, baby blues, fuchsias, and silvers—is a far less stressful experience.

In expressing this feeling on an implicit rather than explicitly representational level, Swatch’s design team chose to adorn the bands in viscerally expressive motifs: marble, watercolor puddling, cloud, and sfumato effect effects that incorporate different tones. These silhouettes become freeze framed landscape paintings: abstracted representations and distilled depictions of these somewhat universal settings culled without the need of AI Slop generative image-making tools. The visual quality is engaging yet not overpowering, playful but elegant, serious but not so serious.

To shop the collection or see more from the brand, visit swatch.com.

Photography courtesy of Swatch.