ELLE DECOR Jan/Feb 2021

SETTLING INTO A NEW YEAR, WE ARE ASKING LOTS OF questions at ELLE DECOR. (After an experience like 2020, who isn’t?) Some are straightforward: What’s the best way to bring light into our rooms, now forced to play double and triple duty? Some are quite literally the stuff of dreams: How can we sleep a little more soundly in 2021 (for ideas, turn to page 33), and can the stars help guide us—or, at least, offer a diversion (page 20)? Many more questions loom larger: After months of isolation and unrest, where do we go from here? And what’s the role of design in all of this? In search of answers, and inspiration, we turn to the world of architecture. For one story this month, we asked architects and designers to…

WHILE I WAS IN COLLEGE STUDYING COMPUTER science, before I decided to become an architect, I picked up a book by Patrick Nuttgens that confounds me to this day. It was called The Story of Architecture. Naturally, I expected it to be filled with awe-inspiring structures from all around the world, but most of it was focused on works from Western Europe and the United States. The rest of the world’s output became little more than a bonus track on a pop album. I was enraged. For a non-Westerner like me, it was profoundly humiliating. How could architecture from other continents, dating back thousands of years, be reduced to so few buildings, while Baroque churches got an entire chapter? I have kept that book all these years, since becoming an architect…

Your research focuses on spaces like Johannesburg’s mine dumps. What draws you to parallel worlds that aren’t at the forefront of design conversations? SV: I’m interested in finding form in overlooked things. In Joburg, where I live, the dumps were used to segregate the races during apartheid—non-white people lived to the south of them, in the direction that the wind blew toxic dust. I think it is something our city has inherited that we have to work through. Social issues are at the heart of both your designs and your research. How does architecture confront injustice? SV: Architecture is complicit in segregation, othering, and displacement, and Joburg is such a profound example of this. But it can also be a force for the opposite—for bringing people together, highlighting and amplifying voices and identities…

NEWS FROM The World of Design From Italy, lifestyle brand Sferra announced its acquisition of Pratesi, the legendary luxury bedding producer, marking a return to the U.S. after a 2018 exit. Plus, Molteni&C has debuted its first e-commerce platform, catering to U.S. clients. Key global markets will follow later this year. On February 20, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City will present “Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America,” an exploration of systemic racism and how it has affected contemporary architecture. Fashion meets home with a new collaboration from Diane von Furstenberg and H&M Home. The collection includes vases, candles, and blankets.…

WHEN THE SCOT TISH PHYSICIST SIR DAVID Brewster invented the kaleidoscope in 1816, he could hardly have imagined the endless delight his design would give generations of children and adults—and even venerable jewelry brands. From the simple combination of inclined mirrors and a handful of loose objects encased in a tube, a person can create a mesmerizing array of evanescent patterns. With its latest collection of watches and jewelry inspired by the kaleidoscope, Harry Winston transforms the illusions within this everyday toy into a tangible and highly luxurious reality. The jewelry house first explored the aesthetic connection between a stone’s beveled facets and the ref lections in Brewster’s creation in the 1990s, when it released a gold and precious stone kaleidoscope object. In its new line, the brand offers 32 necklaces…

“The Hagai Vered lamp is refined, elegant, and sculptural. It reminds me of an Alexander Calder mobile.”VICENTE WOLF“If Carolina Irving and Arne Bang had a love child, this Rose Triangle lamp would be it.”KIMILLE TAYLOR 1 COLMENA BY MERVE KAHRAMAN VICENTE WOLF: The shimmer of the metal would add drama to a darker space, like a den. KIMILLE TAYLOR: I love this! It’s a really successful mix of materials. 22″ w. X 22″ d. X 50″ h.; $2,700. mervekahraman.com 2 WINK BY MASQUESPACIO KT: This is so cheeky. I can see it in an ultraclean 2001: A Space Odyssey–inspired room. VW: A fun piece with a sense of humor. It has a surreal quality. 50.5″ w. X 19.5″ d. X 79″ h.; $2,112. 1stdibs.com 3 “O” BY ARTEMIDE VW: It’s a real attentiongetter, as sculptural as it is elegant. KT: The soft glow…