Talking points

The Rolls-Royce of picnics

Following Rolls-Royce’s outstanding new Bespoke end-of-the-line Phantom models, the design team has created a beautiful British handcrafted Bespoke Picnic Hamper to accompany each new motorcar.

The hamper is crafted from American walnut wood and natural grain leather. It comes with a finish of three colour combinations to perfectly match the interior of the cars — ardent red with black leather piping, navy blue with arctic white piping, and black anthracite leather with seashell piping.

Inspired by the armrest capping inside the car, piano-black picnic tables within the hamper fold out on milled-aluminium hinges. As a final flourish, the Zenith Collection Picnic Hamper has specially created crockery that features painted black-and-platinum detail around the edges.

Enough about the leather and wood interior shelving of the hamper; the inside is even more impressive. You will find lead-crystal wine glasses, handmade stainless steel cutlery, napkins embroidered with the Rolls-Royce monogram in arctic white and a handcrafted American walnut chopping board.

With only 50 bespoke creations, each car and hamper have an ID number, from 1 to 50, emblazoned on a unique plaque found inside each hamper.

www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com

Natural habitat

Local design firm Nu Infinity has been chosen a finalist for the UK SBID International Design Awards in the show flats and development category for its The Naturalist project.

The unit, which is located in Petaling Jaya, places emphasis on natural materials and ambience using plants, solid wood, natural lighting and real stone.

The design layout of the main part of the apartment has an indirect division between the living and dining areas, the dining area has dark mirrors on one side, reflecting the vertical plant wall on the other. The master bedroom is tucked away in a corner, providing the owner a personal sanctuary for ultimate relaxation.

The award winners will be announced on Nov 25 at Hotel Dorchester in London.

www.internationaldesignexcellenceawards.com

Transformational gem

London-based furniture designer Brodie Neil — known for bold, innovative and sculptural works — showcased his latest elegant work, Plastic Effects, at the London Design Biennale. Neil’s fascination with organic forms that have a continuous line and shape has seen him create elegant furniture from ocean waste that is usually seen as an environmental malady.

The resulting slab’s new material is called ocean terrazzo. Unlike the traditional terrazzo that is typically made from chips of stone set into concrete and then polished down, this ocean terrazzo is composed of 70% plastic aggregate and 30% resin.

To make the slab, the collected plastic was sterilised and sorted into a colour gradient that was chipped into smaller fragments. It was arranged in a parametric pattern based on the longitudinal lines of the planet and set into a resin base to form the ocean terrazzo.

Neil based his concept on the Specimen table, popular in the 19th century, which has tessellated inlay patterns made from rare and valuable stones. The table makes a lovely design statement, its shape evoking the idea of a round table, a place for discussion and debate.

www.brodieneill.com

BHS goes online

British Home Stores recently reopened with the launch of a new online store.

The department store went into administration in April this year, after the previous owner of the franchise, Sir Philip Green, sold the company for £1 (RM5.13).

Fans of BHS can look forward to a wide range of lighting, home furnishings and kitchenware with over 75% of the products made up of the best-selling items prior to administration.

“[BHS] has a loyal customer base with around 1.2 million British shoppers who bought from us online. For our re-launch we have managed to secure many of the products they liked the most,” said managing director of BHS International David Anderson.  

www.bhs.com

Mobile theatre

Inspired by The Globe and designed by William Shakespeare and his partners four centuries ago, the Container Globe will be a new and modern take on the popular theatre.

Designed from repurposed shipping containers, the structure can be broken down, moved and reassembled, and is a more cost-efficient alternative to brick-and-mortar theatres.

Staying true to the design of the original Globe Theatre in London, the Container Globe will see repurposed containers come together in a familiar form, but in steel rather than wood. According to its website, this structure can be built anywhere with containers and scaffolding.

The design is modular and more importantly, mobile — proving that, indeed, all the world’s a stage.

www.thecontainerglobe.com/#team

High-tech food hall

American design studio AvroKo recently completed a cafeteria and coffee bar for tech company Dropbox’s headquarters in San Francisco.

The cafeteria and coffee bar, called The Tuck Shop and Dropbox Café respectively, will serve as a dining and casual meeting venue for the online file hosting company.

The design concept aims to bring people together in a multipurpose and functional space in a “neighbourhood”. The space features industrial elements such as exposed pipes and concrete ceiling with wood panelling, patterned rugs and potted plants.

The Tuck Shop has six food stations and is divided by transparent linen screens. 

www.avroko.com

This article first appeared in the October + November 2016 issue of Haven, which comes complimentary with The Edge Malaysia Weekly. Subscribe here for your personal copy.