We have lift-off
Newsstand cover
Photography:
Federico Ciamei
‘Costes’ and ‘Toy’ chairs
by Philippe Starck,
reimagined as furniture
for the moon by
Piergiorgio Robino,
founder of collective
Nucleo, for DriadeLimited-edition cover
by Studio Swine
Photography:
Petr Krejčí
The studio’s cover image
was specially created
to herald the launch
of the Wallpaper*
Moonshots Division
Limited-edition covers are
available to subscribers,
see Wallpaper.com
Wallpaper* is printed
on UPM Star, upm.comThe Wallpaper*
Moonshots Division is
set to reach for the skies.
Our truly remarkable
design lab is given a
launch boost by Studio
Swine and its smoke-
filled bubbles, page 119On a sultry Shoreditch evening during
London Design Week, I had the honour
of introducing a conversation between
Richard Rogers and his son Roo. I opened
by telling the crowd at Second Home about
an architecture documentary series that
BBC2 ran in the mid-1980s, scheduled just
before the sizzling banter of Bruce Willis
and Cybill Shepherd in Moonlighting.
The series, of course, talked to and about
Rogers – then un-Lorded but post-
Pompidou and the Lloyd’s building,
eloquent in his hard-to-place accent, and
strikingly handsome in a collarless shirt
that may have been fuchsia or Yves Klein
blue. I was watching on my black-and-white
bedroom telly, so I’m making assumptions
in post. Rogers immediately joined
Jack Kerouac and Barney from New Order
in my mixed bag of male role models.
None of this had anything to do
with the topic under discussion that
evening. Richard and Roo were there
to tackle what it means to design for a
better world. In many ways, they represent
diferent approaches from diferent
centuries. Richard gave startling new form
to modernist idealism. Roo, a writer and
documentary maker who did a stint with
Yves Béhar at Fuseproject, is now whatyou might call a progressive accelerator.
His Founders Factory Africa is about
to set up oice in Johannesburg, aiming to
help establish 100 start-ups across the
contintent. Rogers junior is as passionate,
insightful and eloquent a speaker as his
father, and I recommend listening to their
conversation on Soundcloud (soundcloud.
com/secondhomeldn). You can skip my
bumbling reminiscences at the beginning.
Designing for a better world has been
a constant concern for this magazine and
we have been working towards lift-of on
a project that will take that mission to a
whole new level. Read about the Wallpaper*
Moonshots Division on page 119. Elsewhere
in the issue we tackle work, with our
Oicepaper* guide to well-designed and
wellness-conscious spaces; rest, with
a selection of remarkable retreats from
Namibia to Bahrain; and creative play,
which is one way to think about art. In our
Smart Art section (see page 086), we try
a few other ways of thinking about it, too.
A inal note. Roo Rogers’ Wikipedia page
says he has only worn red socks (though
diferent pairs) since he was 11. A lesson in
obsessive dedication and attention to detail
we could all learn from.
Nick Compton, Acting EditorEDITOR’S LETTER
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