Merci Boutique Paris

When I was recently in Paris for New Year, I visited this boutique called Merci, and ended up wondering how I had never discovered this trendy hang-out and concept store before. Housed in the cool Oberkampf neighbourhood, the store is laid out on three floors in a former sun-lit warehouse loft- very New York. The store has only been open two years and has a philanthropic message behind all the designer gladrags- profits made by the store are donated to organisations fighting child poverty, particularly in Madagascar. It's more open, cosy and welcoming that the usual designer store- the staff are friendly and the wares are laid out akin to a vintage or second-hand shop. There is also a cafe with a lending library of books and comfy chairs to lounge in with a fresh mint tea and nibbles of lemon and orange cake. 

Images: IT Hunter

Royal College of Art Cafe by Weston Surman & Deane

Three architecture graduates from the Royal College of Art in London- Tom Surman, Joseph Deane and Percy Weston- have redesigned the school's student union cafe. The cafe is sited in an old RCA building on the school's Battersea campus in south London. The design is based around stripped scaffolding boards and reclaimed parquer flooring that form a warm wooden cafe, complete with bespoke kitchen units, shelving and tables.

 

Images: http://www.wsdarchitecture.com/

Getting into the festive spirit: Alastair Hendy's Christmas House in Hastings

Food writer and stylist Alastair Hendy has created a Tudor escape in the middle of Hastings' Old Town. The Christmas House, or 135 All Saints Street, is one of the most complete Tudor houses in Hastings. Hendy has meticulously stripped it back to its original form, transforming the former town mortuary into a cosy haven of open log fireplaces and traditional enclosed wooden beds. Stepping into the low door, you really are taken back in time. For fives pounds entry fee, you get to see this lovingly restored project, plus a little tumbler of spiced mulled wine in the kitchen.

The house is also the setting of Hendy's fairytale, The Elves & The Baker, which is beautifully illustrated in an accompanying Christmas House storybook given on entry. The best bit being the delicious recipes in the back- mulled fruit and nut christmas chocolate bar, almond and cherry sugar hearts, flowerpot baked ginger cakes and advent pretzels.

This is the second venture of Hendy, the first is his Home Store on the High Street in Hastings Old Town (most of the images below are of the Home Store). AG Hendy & Co Home Store is a purveyor of candle sticks, vintage kitchen ware, linen tea towels and traditional tools. The back room also serves as a little kitchen or impromtu restaurant, where you can eat seaside delights such as cod fish stew, soused cucumber, fennel and black pepper, and crab bisque.

Images: Alastair Hendy

Fondazione Querini Stampalia by Carlo Scarpa

While on my trip to Venice for the Architecture Biennale, I also paid a trip to the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, which includes a bookshop carved out by architect Mario Botta, and a renovated ground floor by Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa. The former Palazzo, previously rendered unusable by the frequent invasion of sea water, was given a new lease of life by Scarpa, with the use of gutters and stone steps, which allow the water to come in by just the right amount. The attention to detail continues into the garden, with intricate water features and bands of golden mosaic tiles.

 All images my own

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

I have recently just finished reading 'The Glass Room' by Simon Mawer, a novel loosely based on Mies van der Rohe's Villa Tugendhat in Brno, Czech Republic. The book follows the fictional family of the Laudauers, a successful Jewish car manufacturer and his Aryan wife Liesel, from their honeymoon in Venice in 1929 to the early 1990s. They commission architect Rainer von Abt to design the modernist Laudauer House, on a hillside near a provincial Czech town. Referencing Adolf Loos's famous dicta that 'ornament is crime', the building embraces modern living with the 'Glass Room', 'der Glasraum', alongside rich onyx walls and bespoke furniture. But the family are soon ousted from their masterpiece by Nazi troops, the building slipping from hand to hand, from Czech to Nazi to Soviet, but always having a gravitational pull to its owners. 

The real building, Villa Tugendhat was commissioned by Fritz Tugendhat (1895-1958) and his wife Grete (1903-1970), who both came from Jewish German families of industrialists and traders who had lived in Brno for several generations. Grete was the one primarily interested in living in a modernist home, saying, “I truly longed for a modern spacious house with clear and simple shapes. My husband was horrified by the idea of having rooms full of objects and cloths as he had known from childhood.” Mies van der Rohe was employed in 1929, designing a free standing three-storey Villa, with an open interior, harmonised by a rich palette of materials. The Tugendhats said at the time, “He consequently explained the importance of utilising noble materials in Modernist structures, in particular, which do not contain decorations or ornamentation, this having been a neglected idea up until then by even, for example, Le Corbusier.” The centre piece, the Onyx wall, honey-coloured and marbled yellow, was mined from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco in North Africa. 

I have never actually been to Villa Tugendhat, but it is definitely on my list next. I certainly enjoyed the book- the description of the interior spaces and how they effected each of the characters- even Liesel when she is old and blind can recognise the Glass Room, the Glass Volume or der Glasraum. 

Grete Tugendhat                                                   Fritz Tugendhat

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Also don't miss a small exhibition on Villa Tugendhat at the RIBA, 66 Portland Place. Don't expect much from the exhibition, but it is interesting nevertheless to see the black and white photographs of the Villa. Find details here.

Oh Comely Magazine

Hiding behind the Vogues, Tatlers and Elle Magazines at WHSmith, I discovered this unexpected treasure: oh comely. Here is how they describe themselves... It is a magazine that makes people smile, full of quiet moments and stories. Read it with a cup of tea or a toddy. It inspires people to be creative, talk to their neighbours and explore new things. There are adventures that capture the feeling of being free, stories from people with tales to tell, recipes to warm your heart, and crafty things to make. All these things, wrapped up in beautiful words, illustration and photography. oh comely is published six times a year, available in over a thousand nice places in the UK as well as internationally. Issue ten is out now.

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