House and Garden August 2022

NIFEMI MARCUS-BELLO/DESIGNER Nigerian industrial designer Nifemi Marcus-Bello has BSc and Master’s degrees in product design from the University of Leeds. In 2017, he founded Nmbello Studio in his home town of Lagos with a focus on furniture, product and installation design. Nifemi says, ‘I love the element of surprise that you get after diving into a new topic or context – the approach to design and making in Africa is extremely under the radar.’ Nonetheless, in 2021, Nmbello Studio’s portable handwashing station was chosen as Life-Enhancer of the Year in the Wallpaper* magazine awards. Nifemi says he is inspired by his ‘colleagues, peers and a vast array of African designers’. This month’s ‘Style Story’ (from page 24) includes a selection of furniture and accessories chosen by him to represent the spirit…

After several years of complicated holidaying, this summer comes with high expectations for most of us. On pages 126-130, our travel editor Pamela Goodman whisks us off to what is surely the most luxurious and beautiful of new hotels, Passalacqua, on Lake Como. She also gives us the ins and outs of what to do in San Sebastián – the gourmet coastal city in Spain’s Basque region (from page 134). Meanwhile, I peep inside The Alice Hawthorn (on pages 132-133), a Yorkshire pub that has won multiple architectural awards. It would make for a restorative weekend away for those in search of delicious food, good design and charming countryside – without any panic about flights. However, for many of us, the idea of a perfect summer holiday is not seeking out…

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