new spaces 10 EN

Gaggenau
new spaces 10
10,000cycles
See page 53

2 Editorial
Welcome to the World of Gaggenau!
In this issue of new spaces you’ll meet the vintner Elisabetta Foradori,
who owes part of her success to her revival of historic techniques of
viniculture and winemaking. She exemplifies a new awareness of
traditional values — principles to which Gaggenau is also committed.
An ultramodern product can have deep roots. At Gaggenau, it’s the
company’s values — an uncompromising commitment to quality, extraordinary
performance and true style — that characterise this brand
with its long tradition. For us, “The difference is Gaggenau” is not
just a marketing slogan — it’s the essence of our worldwide appeal.
For the tenth time, we present to you in new spaces spectacular
themes from the global world of Gaggenau. These are stories worth
telling, which have fascinated us. Their selection and design in
new spaces have received a number of awards. We’re proud of this
success, and even prouder of your interest. Pleasant reading!
Yours sincerely,
Sven Schnee
Head of
Gaggenau International

PHOTOGRAPHY: XXX (TOP), YYY, ZZZ (BOTTOM)
08
54
44
Imprint
Gaggenau new spaces 10
Publisher Gaggenau Hausgeräte GmbH, Marketing international
Responsible Sven Schnee
Project Management Annette Kaiser
Contents
04 Thinking the Future I Garden architecture: The museum of trees
08 Inside Gaggenau The new showroom in Istanbul
14 Projects Urban oasis: The Garden House in Melbourne
18 Kitchen Love The Dutch architect Ben van Berkel
20 Thinking the Future II Martí Guixé’s visionary cuisine
24 Thinking the Future III South Korea: Guest houses with a fun factor
30 Best Practice A dream house in Sotogrande, Andalusia
34 Gaggenau Online A preview of the new online brand experience
35 Sights and Scenes Focus on New Zealand
43 What’s Next? Spectacular architecture of tomorrow
44 Thinking the Future IV Modern temples to the Muses
52 New Products The fully retractable table ventilation AL 400
54 Thinking the Future V The vintner Elisabetta Foradori
58 Worldwide News from the world of Gaggenau
Editor in Chief Peter Würth (responsible according to press law) Art Director Dirk Linke Managing Editor Inga Borg Design Stefan Kaetz, Lukas Niehaus
Picture Editor Trine Skraastad Copy Desk Sebastian Schulin Translation TransForm, Cologne Production Claude Hellweg (Head), Oliver Lupp Contributors Barbara Bierach,
Sam Eichblatt, Adam Leith Gollner, Roland Hagenberg, Malte E. Kollenberg, Sabine Küper-Büsch, Anke Richter, Sara Sarre, Kerstin Schweighöfer, Anuschka Seifert, Andreas Tölke
Questions or suggestions regarding this issue should be sent to newspaces@gaggenau.com Publishing house and editorial office HOFFMANN UND CAMPE
VERLAG GmbH, a company of the GANSKE VERLAGSGRUPPE, Harvestehuder Weg 42, 20149 Hamburg, Germany, Tel. +49 40 44188-457, Fax +49 40 44188-236 Managing Directors
Dr. Kai Laakmann, Dr. Andreas Siefke, Bernd Ziesemer Publication Manager Inga Borg Lithography fi lestyle medienproduktion, Hamburg Printing Neef+Stumme, Wittingen
Copyright © 2011 by Gaggenau. Reprinting only with source credit and voucher copy. The content does not necessarily refl ect the opinion of the publisher.
3

4 Thinking the Future I
Tree Dreams
Enzo Enea collects trees. The Swiss
land scape architect has transformed
a 7.5 hectare park near Zurich into
a unique outdoor museum where trees
up to 130 years old are celebrated as
artworks of nature
Text: Andreas Tölke Photography: Christian Grund

The centred view
Free-standing limestone blocks
focus the beholder’s gaze
onto the individual
collector’s pieces, lending
them a unique aura.

6 Thinking the Future I
“Wir trafen uns in einem Garten ... wahrscheinlich unter einem
Baum” (We met in a garden … probably under a tree) — the
summer hit of the Berlin pop group 2raumwohnung is the perfect
soundtrack for a walk with Enzo Enea. On Lake Zurich,
where wealth and culture meet, he has realised one of his
dreams. The man who turns simple plants into enchanting art
is creating a park that abolishes the boundaries between art
and nature. Far removed from all the things that usually pass for
art in a garden setting, his piece of land celebrates a fusion
of architecture, design and landscape. The Swiss “nature architect”
stands satisfi ed in the lush, spacious garden landscape
above Lake Zurich that he has been laying out and perfecting for
several years.
His park is home to many interesting trees, including
some that are more than 130 years old. Essentially, it is a walk-in
culmination of English landscape gardening of the 18th century
and Isamo Noguchi’s land art from the 1930s. Although the
park is not contrived in any way, it is precisely designed and
em bodies a touch of zen that enables visitors to enjoy a moment
of peace. Enea has a personal, if not tender, relationship to
each tree. When referring to his 80 year old yew, for example,
he sounds like an art critic speaking about a painting: “This yew
has a dramatic character. It was ‘forced’ into a beautiful and
desirable shape by humans. The yew submits to it’s destiny and
continues to grow in this form. Nevertheless, it still exudes a
cool elegance and a hint of danger. You almost want to believe
that the twisted trunk hasn’t yet given up its struggle against this
shaping process.”
Enea, 47, is today’s most sought-after landscape architect.
Together with the 145 employees who work at his company, he
has realised well over 500 projects and designed gardens for
private villas, pubic parks and green oases for the headquarters
of corporations. Enea has worked not only on the gold coast of
Lake Zurich, but also in England, France, Japan, Florida and
Hawaii, acquiring inexhaustible knowledge about the vegetation
in diff erent climate zones and the various cultural traditions associated
with garden design.
When you observe the garden philosopher in action you
see a man who proceeds with slow steps along the path before
him, enjoying the play of light in the leaves as he talks about the
A collector, his museum and his works of art
Landscape architect Enzo Enea has created
a refuge on Lake Zurich in which his favourite trees,
one of which is the Japanese apricot (right), can
really put down roots in the truest sense of the word.
nature of nature. In this setting, it is extremely diffi cult to believe
that Enea often leads the stressful life of a top international
manager. But the truth is that he is just as much at home in an
airport lounge as in the shade of his trees. And he has come a
long way.
At the start of his career, Enea didn’t work with trees,
gravel and shrubs, but rather with plastic, metal and wood. He
studied industrial design before moving to London, UK, to learn
the art of landscape architecture. It is this design background,
the knowledge of the delicate relationship between form and
function, that makes Enea unique in his fi eld and allows him to
combine architecture, design and nature. After completing his
education, he initially worked in Hawaii and Brazil, and it quickly
became clear that a special talent had landed on fertile soil. He
won the top prizes for his fl oral settings, and took gold and silver
at the Giardina fairs in the Swiss cities Zurich and Basel. The
absolute crowning achievement came in 1998: the gold medal at
the Chelsea Flower Show in London, the equivalent of the Olympic
Games of nature architecture, so to speak.

Enea has abolished the boundaries between fl oral design and
landscape architecture. Thanks to his work, he has long occupied
a prominent place in the contemporary culture scene. In
2007 at Design Miami, the annual spectacle of form and fun on
the coast of Florida, for example, he erected a lounge where
visitors were able to retreat from the hectic action of the design
fair and slow down to a state of complete relaxation. The contemplative
oasis, which was created from bamboo, formed the
natural counterpoint to the aesthetic twists and turns of star
designers such as Marc Newson and Ron Arad. Enea fi ts in
perfectly in this circle.
Several years ago, when Enea began to plan his new company
headquarters in a location overlooking Lake Zurich, he wanted
more than just a few offi ces and conference rooms. Together
with the American architect Chad Oppenheim, with whom he
had already collaborated on projects around the world, Enea
created a landscape of plants, stone and light in which the
award-winning offi ce building is only one element among many.
The heart of the complex is the Enea Tree Museum, which features
a collection of over 50 trees and shrubs. All of them were
carefully selected and all of them are decades old. The museum
has been open to the public for more than a year now. The park,
which evokes a feeling perhaps best described as “Bauhaus-zen
with magnifi cent trees”, is a magical landscape of trees, lawns,
water courses, hedges, fl ower-beds and unobstructed views
of the sky. “I wanted the museum to also emphasise respect for
these creatures of nature. In other words, I wanted to inspire a
degree of appreciation that is otherwise only shown for art ob-
jects,” says Enea, explaining his motivation. Limestone blocks,
which centre the visitor’s gaze and look like a mixture of sculpture
and ruins from antiquity, divide the area into a series of
spaces, each with its own distinctive atmosphere and special
character. Oppenheim’s architecture is of course also an outdoor
showroom for Enea’s work: “I believe trees are always directly
connected to the surroundings, which should be designed
accordingly. That ensures the areas are imbued with life and
become living spaces that develop over the course of a year.”
Enea observes a group of visitors who are standing in
front of a 120 year old Azalea japonica, viewing the tree as if
it were a work of art in a museum. He smiles. “The collection
started with that azalea. We placed it in the garden at the
Chelsea Flower Show in 1998,” says the “Lord of the Trees”.
Now he has built a home for it, where it can put down roots.
Even though the collection features only trees that can withstand
winter weather conditions in central Europe, it is remarkably
diverse, and includes swamp cypress trees, Japanese bonsais
and 400 year old ferns from Tasmania.
Enea is a rescuer of trees. The plants fi nd their way to him like
stray dogs. After all, most of the exhibited plants were obstacles
to a construction project or the redesign of a landscape area.
To prevent such trees from being turned into fi rewood or sawdust,
he allows his employees to carefully extract them and
transport them to the grounds of the tree museum. “My greatest
success is the fact that we successfully transplanted all the
trees,” says Enea. He won’t reveal how it is done: “That will remain
my professional secret.” He does explain one detail,
though: “Transporting the big specimens required the main
street of the canton to be closed off .”
A team of gardeners and landscape architects looks
after the unique museum. The boss himself no longer has
an active hand. “But I regularly take walks through my park,”
Enea says. “This way I see immediately if something needs
pruning or watering — or if a tree isn’t doing well. I’m very demanding
in that regard.” Enzo Enea knows that a garden is
never perfect, that it grows, wilts and changes. He doesn’t have
a favourite plant, he says. It all depends on his mood at any given
moment, but there is a dream tree he wants for his museum:
“My neighbour’s superb white magnolia. It’s 20 metres high and
is now blooming.” ¤
Further information
The Enea Tree Museum: Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland.
Mon. to Fri. 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Sat. 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Admission: Adults 15 CHF, students 12 CHF. Upon request it is
also possible to arrange a tour led by Enea’s landscape architects.
The intensive tour lasts 1.5 hours and costs 300 CHF.
www.enea.ch
7

A Jewel
on the
32nd Floor
Istanbul’s
tallest
residential
tower
is also home
to the
new Gaggenau
showroom
Text: Sabine Küper-Büsch
Photography: Volga Yıldız
PHOTOGRAPHY: MURAT GERMEN

Inside Gaggenau 9
A sensational view
The new Istanbul
Sapphire is Europe’s
tallest residential complex.
The Gaggenau
showroom on the
32nd fl oor is open
for guests.

10 Inside Gaggenau
A discreet reference
The “dome”
above the seating
arrangement is
decorated with
Oriental ornaments.
Ebru Yalman is braising aubergines on a cooktop integrated
into the work surface, while simultaneously sautéing onions and
tomatoes. With a sure eye and the intuition that only many years
of apprenticeship can provide — Yalman trained at the famous
Le Cordon Bleu in Paris — she seasons the fi lling. The aubergine
halves are stuff ed with tomatoes and garnished with roasted
peppers. The dish is popped into the oven for ten minutes, then
arranged on a plate and put into the fridge to cool. Legend has
it that this Turkish appetiser, which is called “İmam Bayıldı”, was
named after a pious preacher who had none of the ordinary
vices. The only thing he could not resist was this delicious dish.

Once he ate so much of it that he fainted. Yalman, the chef and
event manager at the new Gaggenau showroom in Istanbul, is
about to receive a group of guests. The managers of a Turkish
media group would like to present to their Italian business partners
some interior design suggestions for the business apartment
they have just bought in Istanbul. And they’d like to do this
over an exclusive meal of Turkish specialities. Anyone watching
Yalman in the new Gaggenau showroom in Istanbul and enjoying
the aroma of this traditional dish can not only empathise
with the hungry preacher but also be certain that the guests are
about to have an unforgettable evening.
Professional charm
Ebru Yalman is the
chef and manager
of the Gaggenau
showroom in the
Istanbul Sapphire.
11
The Gaggenau showroom is on the 32nd fl oor of the Istanbul
Sapphire, a new high-rise that also houses a shopping centre, a
hotel and exclusive apartments. This shimmering blue tower,
which spirals elegantly up to a height of 261 metres, is the city’s
highest building and the tallest residential complex in Europe.
From the windows, it off ers an incomparable panorama: the
Bosporus, Hagia Sophia and the Topkapi Palace sparkle in the
setting sun. The minarets and mosques of the historic Sultanahmet
city centre refl ect the golden evening sunlight.
The Istanbul Sapphire is located in the Levent district,
which has evolved in the past 15 years from a leafy suburb to the

A look behind
the scenes
In the centre of the
“Heritage Wall”
visitors can view
the Gaggenau
oven in detail from
all directions.

centre of the Turkish fi nancial and economic sector. Büyükdere
Caddesi, a broad avenue lined with skyscrapers sheathed in
refl ecting glass, is this business district’s main artery. Yalman is
delighted with the showroom’s location.
The residential tower is not only an innovative work of
architecture but also something of a revolution for Istanbul.
“For a long time, luxury residential complexes were only built on
the periphery of Istanbul,” says the architect Murat Tabanlıoğlu.
“But today the city is expanding in every direction, and people’s
commutes are becoming longer all the time.” The city has long
awaited a centrally located residential complex, because many
of its 18 million inhabitants spend a good two hours every day in
rush-hour traffi c jams.
The Tabanlıoğlu architectural practice has already designed
numerous luxury residences and shopping centres in Istanbul
and is also responsible for the city’s museum of modern art, the
Istanbul Modern. Tabanlıoğlu has combined all of his experience
in catering to diff erent areas of life — living, shopping and enjoying
culture — in the Istanbul Sapphire. When visitors emerge
from the Istanbul Sapphire’s own underground station, they
fi nd themselves in a public square that connects with an elegant
shopping mall and a modern hotel. The lifts to the higher
fl oors of the tower, which has been specially secured against
earthquakes, are reserved for the residents (and guests of
Gaggenau), who thus gain exclusive access to facilities such as
a pitch and putt course, a swimming-pool landscape and a business
centre. The studio and duplex apartments have between
120 and 447 square metres of fl oor space, and the penthouses
off er 1,100 square metres. Only the express lift, which goes to
the observation platform on the 65th fl oor, is open to all visitors.
Istanbul has been the capital of three empires, and it’s the
only major city that extends across two continents. The two suspension
bridges that span the Bosporus therefore also bear a
huge symbolic burden as well as an average of 350,000 vehicles
per day. “An old, ring-covered hand stretching out towards Europe”
is how Jean Cocteau once described Istanbul, summing up
many Europeans’ scepticism regarding the Orient. Fortunately,
today the Occident’s sense of superiority has disappeared. After
all, the urban “hand” that is Istanbul remains agelessly beautiful
and is continually decorating itself with new jewels.
The Gaggenau showroom, which was designed by the
architect Hendrik Müller, has also become a jewel. This generously
proportioned apartment on the 32nd fl oor off ers facilities
for every purpose. For example, there’s a large fully equipped
kitchen where Yalman prepares her delicacies and visitors can
experience at fi rst hand all the functions of the Gaggenau appliances.
There’s a conference area and a large lounge area for
casual gatherings. In this living room, a minimalist geometrical
ceiling structure above the seating arrangement echoes the
dome-centred aesthetics of Islamic architecture. The border
around its interior is decorated with an Oriental symbol of prosperity.
Individual decorative elements in this presentation of
modern design and high-tech kitchen infrastructure remind visi-
tors of a special aspect of the long history of German-Turkish
interaction. Openings in a wall panelled with century-old wood
from the Black Forest reveal old prints, documents and photos
that illustrate the history of Gaggenau. Incidentally, the company
was already exporting its ovens to Istanbul in the 19th century.
The industrious workers and pretty young women from the Black
Forest who came to the Bosporus at the turn of the century even
appear in the fi rst modern Turkish novels, which were written
during that era.
In the centre of the “Heritage Wall” visitors can take a
look behind the scenes of Gaggenau’s current production: here
the separate elements of the Gaggenau oven, down to the oven
door, can be seen behind Plexiglas in precise detail.
Ebru Yalman carries a tray with glasses of Champagne
out onto the garden terrace, a feature that is part of all 187
apartments in the tower complex. The tower has a double
façade, and in the space between the two façades there is room
for gardens and terraces. The kitchen in the Gaggenau showroom
is in use every single evening. Yalman’s appointment calendar
is full of business meetings and product presentations,
and it often happens that one of the residents of the Istanbul
Sapphire simply wants to enjoy her culinary expertise. The concept
of an open showroom that can be booked by the tower’s
residents even after normal business hours for events and relaxing
evenings is just right for the mixture of exclusiveness, awareness
of time and place, and stunning dynamics of the city and its
new jewel, the Istanbul Sapphire. It’s a magical place. ¤
Further Information
www.istanbulsapphire.com/en/index.html
An inviting concept
The tower’s residents
can book the
Gaggenau showroom
for their events.
Inside Gaggenau 13

Homesteading in the City
The Garden House in Melbourne, located
between a colonial monument and the
vibrant city centre, successfully breaks
with Australian traditions
Text: Barbara Bierach Photography: Floodslicer

Projects 15
Colonial heritage
and modernism
The Garden House,
with its 46 apartments
and three townhouses,
is located in the
centre of Melbourne,
just a stone’s throw
from the Royal Exhibition
Building of 1880.

16 Projects
Australians don’t really like apartments. For over 200 years, the
immigrants coming to this sparsely populated continent in the
Southern Pacifi c have dreamed the “quarter-acre dream” — having
a freestanding home of their own on about 1,000 square
metres of land. Thanks to this house-proud mentality, Australian
cities are quite sprawling. Outside the historic city centres, they
consist of gigantic anonymous residential areas dominated by
the conventions of suburbia. In Sydney, for example, the population
density is only about 2,000 inhabitants per square kilometre
— in Berlin that fi gure is 3,870, and in London it’s 4,800.
But when the construction project “The Garden House”
in the centre of Melbourne went on the market in September
2009, the living units were sold within three weeks on the basis
of the plans alone. All of the buyers were locals, despite the fact
that the 46 apartments and three townhouses are, unusually for
Australia, compactly stacked together on fi ve fl oors on foundations
measuring just 1,750 square metres. How could this be?
This success is due to 710 steps. That’s the number of
steps the residents must take in order to get from the Garden
Individuality rules
There are 26 diff erent ground
plans for the apartments.
The built-in cupboards are
of course customised,
and the basic appliances
in the kitchens always
come from Gaggenau.
PHOTOGRAPHY: TREVOR MEIN
House in Rathdowne Street to the historic Princess Theatre in
the city centre to see the latest play. It takes only 230 steps to
get to the famous coff eehouses and wine bars in the narrow
lanes winding between Melbourne’s main streets. And 85 steps
will take them to the Royal Exhibition Building, which was built in
1880. Apart from the Sydney Opera, this is Australia’s only building
designated as a UN World Heritage Site. It is situated in
Carlton Gardens, a park laid out in traditional British style, right
across from the new apartment complex. In other words, the
Garden House is located in a green oasis — and within walking
distance of the centre of this city of four million.
As one might expect, this luxurious complex off ers spectacular
views. Thanks to the gigantic panorama windows — a
central idea of the Woods Bagot architecture fi rm — and the
layout created by the interior designer Paul Hecker, residents
will be able to see the neighbouring Royal Exhibition Building
even while they’re cooking. Because the architecture considers
the stove and the sofa equally important, the dining and living
areas fl ow together seamlessly. Moreover, in many apartments
this living space is extended by a terrace or a courtyard garden.
Sliding glass doors make it possible to bring the indoors outdoors
and vice versa. Residents can cook, live and dine with
a view of the park and its jewel of colonial architecture. “The
kitchen is the social and communication centre of a home, and
the architecture has to refl ect that,” says Hecker. This unity of
cooking and living, indoors and outdoors, is emphasised by the
light-coloured tundra-green limestone fl ooring throughout, which
connects all the spaces and functions.
The kitchen appliances in all 49 units of the Garden
House come from Gaggenau. “Australians love German industrial
design,” says Hecker, who heads the 18-person Melbournebased
design company Hecker & Guthrie. “We’re crazy about
German brands. Everything we’ve used in the Garden House is
absolutely top-quality, and when it comes to kitchens, Gaggenau
is simply the best.” Hecker believes that the built-in gas cook-

Indoors is outdoors...
...and vice versa. The apartments
in the Garden House open
onto a terrace or a garden —
each in its own way — to give
their owners the feeling of living
on their own plot of land.
tops, ovens, microwaves and dishwashers from Gaggenau have
helped to sell these luxury apartments. “The residents bought
their new homes while they were still in the planning stage. And
everyone understands a well-known brand and its claim to quality,”
explains Hecker, who has been a fan of traditional German
cuisine ever since he made a journey through Europe. His memories
of meat roulades and “Sauerbraten” are still quite fresh,
he says — and of course the kitchen appliances in his own home
come from Gaggenau.
The decision to use Gaggenau appliances in all of the
living units in the Garden House was important, because the
units in this project — which represents a total investment of
60 million Australian dollars (equivalent to 45 million euros) —
cost between 500,000 and 4 million AUD. That’s a tremendous
range. “Customers who have spent 4 million AUD want to experience
extreme luxury everywhere they look,” says Hecker.
“But their neighbours in an apartment that cost 500,000 AUD
don’t want to live with the feeling that they’ve missed out on
something either.” That’s why the smaller units have a set of
Gaggenau basic equipment consisting of an oven, a cooktop
and a dishwasher; the larger ones also have a Combi-steam
oven, a microwave and a wok. “This sense of lasting value is the
great thing about working with a boutique construction company
that takes the quality factor seriously,” says Hecker in praise of
Piccolo, the developer of the complex. This Melbourne-based
company, which is run by the mother-and-son team Mima and
Michael Piccolo, always works on only one project at a time,
with loving attention to detail. The family had to fi ght for a building
permit for the Garden House for 18 months because it
was to be built next to the city’s domed icon — which, among
other things, housed the young nation’s fi rst parliament in 1901.
Mima Piccolo has invested so much emotion in the project that
she has decided to move into one of the town houses herself.
The Piccolo project manager Toby Earle and the 140
skilled workers on the job have installed individually crafted cupboards
in the variously structured living units. The cupboards
run in a long, consistent line through the cooking, dining and
living areas. When they’re opened, they reveal a series of crockery
cupboards, a home bar and a workspace. Not only the cupboards
but also the panoramic windows are customised; wherever
possible, both the windows and the doors are as high
as the ceilings. Ultramodern building technology also helps
to create a feeling of luxurious minimalism, which is not always
a matter of course in sunny Australia. An energy consultant
has made sure that the walls are properly insulated and the windows
are double-glazed.
In the Garden House overall, individuality rules. Every
living unit opens into a courtyard or a terrace, so that even the
residents on the fourth fl oor can feel like early Australian settlers
living on their own homesteads. ¤
Further information
www.thegardenhouse.net.au/steps.swf
www.piccolo.net.au
www.heckerguthrie.com
17

18 Kitchen Love
“ The Modern Kitchen
Is Superbly Equipped
but Invisible”
Why Ben van Berkel
has a sofa
next to the cooker
Interview: Kerstin Schweighöfer
What role does the kitchen play for you as an architect?
The living room used to be the most important meeting place in
a house — as a semi-public, semi-private space. Now the kitchen
has taken over that function. It’s the most important place. You
don’t just cook there; you can sit down and relax. In the modern
kitchen you don’t fi nd only tables and chairs; there’s also a
sofa you can stretch out on while someone else makes the meal.
A sort of lounge-kitchen?
Yes! No one’s created that yet, but it’s something that really
should be designed! After all, in the year 2011 the kitchen is
multifunctional. It’s a combined cooking, eating, sitting, and living
space.
And what does it look like?
The modern kitchen is becoming less and less obviously a kitchen.
In America, I recently designed a loft where you no longer
even recognise the kitchen as such. The sideboard became a
table, and the gas cooker was integrated into it too. The modern
kitchen is equipped with the best and most modern appliances,
but it’s invisible. And this means that the cool, cold and sterile
character that kitchens used to have has disappeared.
What does your own kitchen look like?
I don’t yet have a lounge-kitchen either. But at least we already
have a sofa in the kitchen, so that together with my wife and
daughter I can sit back and feel wonderfully relaxed while one of
us cooks.
Do you cook too?
During the week I’m travelling and I have to fl y quite often. But at
weekends and early in the week, I try to be at home. Then I cook.
Preferably Italian food, but not just pasta — fi sh and meat too.
And lots of vegetables and salads?
Defi nitely! Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but I do tend to
eat more and more consciously. I eat breakfast too, and now I
even take time for lunch. The days when I would just keep working
with a bread roll in my hand are over. I sit down at the table
for lunch. I do still treat myself to a good glass of wine, but no
more than one. There’s no other way to keep up the pace and
deal with the pressures of work.
Wouldn’t you like to design a kitchen yourself sometime?
Ben van Berkel (53) and his wife Caroline Bos run
You’ve now proven yourself as a designer as well as an
the architectural fi rm UNStudio in Amsterdam and
architect. You’ve designed a lounge chair for Walter Knoll
(RIGHT)
Shanghai. A native of Utrecht, van Berkel fi rst became
and a tray for Alessi. The tray is just as multifunctional as
OCHS
widely known as the architect of the Erasmus Bridge
in Rotterdam, called “the Swan” by locals. UNStudio
the modern kitchen...
BENNE
gained international renown with the Mercedes-Benz
Yes, because you can turn it over and use it as a deeper serving (LEFT),
Museum in Stuttgart, shopping centres in Seoul and
dish — both ways, in other words. That’s why it’s called the
China, and the faculty building of the University of
BREUKEL
“Switchtray”. I’d also like to design a few wine or cocktail glass-
Music and Performing Arts in Graz. Last year UNStu-
KOOS
es. And for a long time now I’ve been looking for an electric
dio designed the “NY 400 Pavilion” for New York City
in honour of the founding of New York 400 years ago
kettle that you can also use as a teapot. Kettles like that haven’t
by Dutch merchants, who called it Nieuw Amsterdam. been made yet. I think I’ll have to design them myself.
PHOTOGRAPHY:

1
2
4
1 Blender
In this case, the time savings
clinched the deal: fruit in, press
the button — and in no time at all
you have a healthy mix. I chose
this model because of the handle;
it fi ts so comfortably in your hand.
2 Coff eemaker
I start the day with a lot of tea, but
at the weekend I enjoy making coffee
— and then I make a ritual of it.
It all depends on getting the right
mixture: plenty of milk, sometimes
a spoonful of honey, but always
just half a shot of coff ee. With this
machine, it always turns out right!
3
3 Wok
I’m a real “wokker”. I throw
everything imaginable into the
wok, sometimes even an egg.
19
4 Toaster
This is something our kitchen
has to have, because I like to
eat toast — all diff erent kinds.
I chose the black model because
our sideboard is black,
and that was the best match.
Here again, it’s a question of
how much time is saved. We
often buy fresh bread and put it
in the freezer to have a supply
on hand. Then I just have to
throw it into the toaster — and
it’s thawed out in seconds!

20 Thinking the Future II
A Visionary Who Bursts the Boundaries
The ex-ex-designer Martí Guixé is searching for
a contemporary culture of dining that suits
our mobile society. The result is a series of smart
concepts that reveal the fun of going to the limits

Ebit et velliqu atibus rem
quae cus. Untur, sam quia
sum re ne pla cum rem
poris ad elestia que nissimi,
soloreic te nusciet ero
reptaes am lorem ipsum
A pop-up restaurant in the harbour
An open space painted white, with fi ve exquisitely
set tables and a whole battery
of solar cookers — is this what the future of
cooking looks like?

22
Text: Anuschka Seifert Photos: Imagecontainer/Knölke
Helsinki, Sörnäinen, 11 a.m., 30°Celsius. The designer Martí
Guixé is standing under a bright blue sky at the end of the pier
of an old freight harbour. The contrast between the 13 futuristic
solar cookers made of highly polished aluminium sheeting and
their surroundings could not be greater. Guixé’s colleague, the
35-year-old chef Antto Melasniemi, who has made a reputation
for himself as a visionary, is busy making a salad consisting of
wild plants, carrots, caulifl ower, radishes and pumpkin seeds.
Melasniemi, who comes from Finland, energetically mixes the
vegetables with fi nely chopped wild herbs and fi ne Dauro olive
oil from Spain. To fi nish, he decorates each plate of salad with
edible fl owers from local meadows. The result is a fi ne example
of the new Nordic cuisine.
In the meantime, Guixé, wearing a sun hat and refl ecting
sunglasses, is strolling from one solar cooker to the next. The
cookers consist of a parabolic mirror with a device for hanging
cookware at the mirror’s focal point and a framework on wheels.
“Because of its low focal point, the cooker must be adjusted to
the sun’s movement only every half-hour,” says Guixé. “Because
the sunbeams are focused, the food to be cooked can be heated
to temperatures higher than 300°Celsius.”
The results can be seen and smelled. The chocolate
cake is just about to burn and the tomato and goat’s cheese
casserole with potatoes boiled in their jackets is almost done.
“It’s not so easy to use these solar cookers, which were developed
for the Third World, for cooking, grilling, roasting and frying.
The most important thing is not the ingredients and the dishes,
but sun cream, a head covering and a pair of sunglasses,”
Guixé adds. “Incidentally, these solar cookers have not been
widely accepted so far. In most developing countries it’s so hot
that the people there only start cooking when it starts to get
dark,” explains Melasniemi as he puts on his glacier sunglasses.
Then he turns the parabolic mirrors downward one after another
in order to reduce the cooking temperature.
In the meantime, the long wooden tables, which were
designed by Guixé, have been covered with white tablecloths
that fl utter in the wind. The Alessi crockery and glasses were
created by Jasper Morrison, whose strictly functional design
lends his products an air of refi ned simplicity. The highlights are
the wooden stools designed by Guixé, which are held together
by a wide blue band. If you want to fold up your stool, you stand
up and simply pull on the band. If you unfold the stool’s legs, the
band is stretched across the seat, thus holding the wood together
and giving the stool stability.
Simple place settings for about 60 guests, with a panoramic
view of the city centre’s skyline, are set up in front of the
counter where Melasniemi is now cleaning blueberries. The
improvised “sun kitchen” restaurant is standing on just over
500 square metres of hastily levelled ground which form a completely
new space on the abandoned pier. It couldn’t be more
simple and austere, and yet one defi nitely has the feeling that
the tables have been set for an exquisite meal. For Guixé, who
says he works on “clever and simple ideas with curiosity and
seriousness”, this temporary restaurant off ers the opportunity
“to rethink our relationship with kitchens, cooking, eating and
drinking, especially with regard to nature”.
The fi rst guests arrive about 11:30 a.m. Most of them
come on bicycles, only a few by car. They are well-dressed people
— couples, families with children and youngsters wearing
ultracool sunglasses and Birkenstock sandals. They’ve found
out on Facebook that the pop-up restaurant sponsored by the
Finnish beer manufacturer Lapin Kulta (Gold from Lapland) is
opening here today.
For Melasniemi and Guixé, neither the solar cookers nor
the organic produce is worth a special mention, as they believe
that sustainability should be a matter of course. They prefer to
focus on concepts such as fl exibility and directness. Guixé feels
more at home in the world of abstract concepts than in the material
world. In Melasniemi, a former keyboard player in the Finnish
band HIM, he has found the right culinary partner. “For years I
looked for an unconventional chef with whom I can share ideas
and develop joint projects,” he says. “Antto and I are doing
something that the great chefs don’t dare to do: we’re taking the
art of cooking to its limits and trying to burst its boundaries.”
Guixé regards himself as a “tapaist” and a “techno-gastrosopher”,
but primarily as an ex-designer. “My projects are
generally very abstract, and they’re shown in art galleries,” he
says. “But I’m neither an artist nor a designer in the academic
sense. In order to defi ne my position, I think the most appropriate
thing to call me is an ex-designer.” However, since he continues
to do design work, he is often called an “ex-ex-designer”.
Guixé often explains that he actually hates objects. He
likes to take objects of daily use and relate them to himself. Everything
that is superfl uous — the shape — disappears, and the
object in itself becomes a message. Instead of designing yet
another chair — “We only need two chairs in our lives” — he pre-
Martí Guixé is from Catalonia and studied in Barcelona and Milan. He is regarded as one of the most unconventional designers
of our time. Nonetheless, he is very critical of design in itself. He gained his notoriety primarily because of his off beat designs in
the fi eld of food design as well as his shop designs for Camper and the Desigual fashion label and his designs for Authentics,
Droog and Alessi. He has repeatedly questioned the world of products and design through his conceptual designs such as
“Pharma Food”; “Park Life”, architectural kitchen modules in natural settings; and his remarks about design, such as his “picture
frame from a tape dispenser”. Guixé has published numerous books and exhibited his works in venues including MoMA (New
York), mudac (Lausanne), MACBA (Barcelona) and the Centre Pompidou (Paris). He lives and works in Barcelona and Berlin.

Sunglasses for cooking
Antto Melasniemi (bottom left) and Martí Guixé
(right) cooking with solar collectors in
Helsinki (top right). The solar collectors (top)
generate high temperatures, but because the
heat comes from every direction and the products
cook faster, everything tastes diff erent.
fers to ask provocative questions. “For me, the important thing is
to develop concepts for our life today. And I believe that these
concepts involve freedom of movement and speed.” We still eat
with plates, knives and forks, even though we spend most of our
time sitting in front of a computer and regularly complain about
sticky keyboards.
Guixé’s answers are critical, clever, witty and usually very
practical. His techno-tapas — his own version of Spanish appetisers
— not only can be eaten from your hand, but they also
don’t drip or crumble. His “pharma food” for people commuting
between the airport, the offi ce and the home is an aerosol that is
atomised and breathed in. And his “Communicator Balloon” fruit
bowl holds three white speech bubbles on which people can
write messages. “This way people can express their thoughts or
leave instructions,” he says. His “Communicator Plant” is a holder
for pencils, kitchen implements and household objects that
consists of a kind of fl ower pot with a stylised tree in it. Post-its
can be glued onto the tree like “leaves”. Communication and
a contemporary culture of dining turn up repeatedly in Guixé’s
objects and concepts.
The guests invited by Guixé and Melasniemi are enthusiastic
about the unusual use of solar energy and the texture of
the organic produce cooked in this way, which is so diff erent
from that of conventional food. “It was a very special meal with
my family, and we’re going to be talking about it for a long time
to come,” says the young student Sanna Virkki, who came with
her parents.
But what will happen to the Lapin Kulta solar kitchen
restaurant when it rains? “In that case, we’ll just have to adjust,”
Guixé laughs. “We’ll have to plan a new menu, include other
dishes that require lower cooking temperatures and deal with
the delays caused by the weather. A single cloud could completely
change the course of a business dinner!” On the following
day, it’s actually raining — but there are still more guests than
empty stools at the tables. The appetiser and the main dish
are excellent, and the partly baked chocolate cake is just as delicious
as the fresh strawberries that are served with it. Guixé
realised a long time ago that “today’s society doesn’t want
beautifully shaped industrial products — it wants entertainment.”
Guixé and Melasniemi are now thinking about how they can
equip a real gourmet kitchen with solar-powered appliances in
the near future. ¤
Further information
Thinking the Future II 23
http://lapinkultasolarkitchenrestaurant.com, www.guixe.com

Space Tuning
in the Korean
Countryside
Text: Malte E. Kollenberg Photography: Yeum Seung Hoon

Off beat, loud and gaudy
Whether it’s a Ferrari or a Barbie doll, the Rock It Suda
guest houses created by a Korean artist and his cool builder
have become monuments to their style icons.
Thinking the Future III 25

26 Thinking the Future III
Houses with a bonus
The Rock It Suda guest houses off er travellers lots of fun.
The fl oors of their long extensions are as springy
as trampolines. A stay in one of the houses becomes
a visit to a frenetic amusement park.

Korea’s most unusual
guest houses lie amidst
breathtaking nature.
Like a robot army from
outer space, a Barbie
house, a Stealth Owl
27
building and a Ferrari
cube watch over the valley.
A surprise is waiting for the traveller at the end of a narrow,
bumpy road that twists and turns through the mountainous
landscape of Gangwon-do in South Korea. Or perhaps one
should say “a shock to the eyeballs”! It almost feels as though
you’ve passed through a hidden gate and landed on a strange
planet — maybe during the last long leftward curve of the road?
On top of a hill stand six garishly painted bungalows, staring
down boldly at the traveller with their lighted windows. Thanks
to their shrill colours and sharp edges, the houses look like an
army of robots from outer space that have set up camp on the
ridge of the hill or are waiting to be picked up by the mother
spaceship. However, the complex, which is called Rock It Suda,
poses no danger whatsoever to travellers. On the contrary, it’s
meant to be an oasis of calm and relaxation. It’s the most unusual
holiday resort in the world.
The buildings’ architect, Moon Hoon, and their owner,
Kim Jae-il, modestly call them “guest houses” — as though these
creations were not an architectural sensation. Rock It Suda lies
in the midst of a forest on top of a mountain. On one side is a
dry riverbed, and on the other are an evergreen forest and small
cultivated fi elds. But the complex bears no resemblance to the
traditional farms and forest huts of this region, which lies between
the East Sea and the city of Jeongseon, about a four-hour
drive from Seoul. The houses, which bear names like Spain,
Ferrari and Stealth, look like a mix of Lego blocks and comic
book fi gures. There’s a futuristic sports car you can live in, an
owl, a house with horns and a red-and-yellow construction that
visitors simply lack the words to describe.

28 Thinking the Future III
Rock It Suda, which was opened in 2009, soon became a mecca
for people who love architecture and nature equally and are
looking for a holiday that is well off the beaten track. According
to the manager of the complex, the hip Kim Jae-il, most of the
guests are Koreans, but a growing number of tourists from
abroad are fi nding their way to this remote region because it’s
been recommended to them by enthusiastic friends or architecture
blogs on the Internet.
The charm of Rock It Suda is due not only to the beautiful landscapes
of Gangwon-do but also to the architectural concept
behind the complex, which has the quality of sculpture. Moon
Hoon, the planner, is not a traditional architect but an artist who
creates video fi lms and installations. “At the moment I happen
to be doing architecture,” he says. What all his works have in
common is that they transport the viewer — or the inhabitant —
into another world where he or she is allowed to defi ne even
the laws of nature and aesthetic principles on his or her own.
Moon Hoon calls his work “Space Tuning”. Rock It Suda is his
masterpiece.
The six houses have identical ground plans but completely
individual shapes. The resort has been inspired equally
by Western consumer icons such as Barbie and Ferrari and
the Asian concept of building design, which involves a fusion of
interior and exterior spaces.
Of course not everyone will like these fl ashy and colourful
buildings. Critics call these houses simply eccentric, nonsensical
and illogical. But they’re being unfair to the builder,
because Moon Hoon has a reason for everything he does.
His motives may be diff erent from those of most other people,
but he’s got a logic of his own — or, in this case, a specifi c
commission.
“Spain” was the key word the owner-builder of the complex,
Kim Jae-il, said to his architect. That’s because he had lived
there and was so impressed by it that he wanted to import its
way of life to this province in southern Korea. “Bullfi ghting and
Andalusia were the infl uences I wanted to see in these buildings,”
says Kim. The eccentric Moon Hoon was the right man
for the job. However, says Kim, all of the fi rst drafts looked
alike. Together, the two men decided to add other designs: the
Ferrari, the Stealth Owl and Barbie.
In Rock It Suda, not only the houses’ outer appearance
but also their interiors are unusual. The bedrooms, living rooms
and bathrooms correspond to the houses’ respective motifs.
The walls are painted or wallpapered in an appropriate colour
or pattern. Even the smallest details are correct. For example,
the interior of the Ferrari house is 100 per cent red — right
down to the air conditioner and the fridge — and the black-andwhite
stripes along the outside are repeated on the fl oors.
The small resort complex bears the same name as the rock band
in which its owner, Kim Jae-il, plays bass, and the band rehearses
in the small café that is part of the complex. Today, though,
there’s no music in the air. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a drummer
right now,” says Kim. His love of music matches the style of
the houses. Rock It Suda rocks, even though none of the houses
is based on musical motifs. The loud colours, the built-in technology,
the craziness — all of it is pure rock ’n roll.
The essence of Rock It Suda is the contrast between its
ultramodern design and its rural surroundings. Jeongseon is a
popular tourist region. People come here for skiing in the winter
and for enjoying the landscape in the summer. But the main
reason for building the complex so far from the capital was the
aff ordable cost of land. South Korea has a long tradition of
theme-oriented “love hotels” in which visitors can step into another
world. Rock It Suda takes this trend to a new level. It’s
always booked out at the weekend, says Kim Jae-il — and nowadays
it’s not so easy to book a room during the week either.
The houses were built from cast concrete and then painted
with spray paint. The Ferrari house and the Stealth Bomber
are covered with an enamelled metal coating. A bit lower down
on the mountain, below these works of pop art, are four very
simple houses built in the Korean style. They are also part of
the complex, and in a certain way they form the foundation of the
fi ghting bull and Ferrari structures. Here too, Moon Hoon has
incorporated a quirky detail: in each of the downhill houses, a
ladder concealed in a cupboard leads to the pop-art house directly
above it. Guests can rent both houses and thus have room
to accommodate an entire extended family.
It’s no wonder that Rock It Suda is especially popular with
kids. That’s due not only to the swimming pool that is part of
the complex. Some of the houses have an extension — an accessible
tunnel whose fl oor resembles a trampoline. A stay
at Rock It Suda is comparable to a visit to an adventure park.
“I hoped the buildings would also be entertaining,” says Kim.
But Moon Hoon and Kim Jae-il are too smart and sensitive to
simply lock up their guests in a colourful fantasy world. The
stunning mountain landscapes that surround the complex are
the real stars of this architecture.
Moon Hoon has made sure that the mountains and forests
are visible from inside the houses as well. On every side of
these bright houses are huge windows that off er views of the
river and the forest, mountaintops and meadows. From the bedrooms
one can look directly at the starry sky. Moon Hoon realises
the even the concept of Space Tuning cannot compete with
the reality of outer space. ¤
Further information
www.rockitsuda.com

Ingenious, imaginative and specifi c
Like most Koreans, Kim Jae-il loves fantasy worlds. This is how guests can look
at the outdoors through the eyes of the Stealth Owl (above). Spain was another
theme that captivated the builder of the complex (below).
PHOTOGRAPHY: MOON HOON

An island of good taste
In the middle of the dream kitchen
stands an island worktop that
off ers all of the desired appliances.
Here it’s easy to cook together
with lots of guests.

A lush green oasis
This traditional Spanish villa in the
exclusive setting of Sotogrande is
now a social haven
Text: Sara Sarre Photography: Alexander James
Best Practice 31

If you’ve heard of Sotogrande it is most likely because of its
famous Valderrama Golf Club, home to the Ryder Cup in 1997,
or the Santa María Polo Club. But few know that its international
jet set appeal was originally down to its natural Andalusian beauty.
Composed of 20 kilometres of national park stretching from
the Mediterranean, east of Gibraltar, up into the foothills of Sierra
Almenara, Sotogrande was developed by the Filipino couple
Joseph Rafael McMicking e Ynchausti and Mercedes Zobel de
Ayala y Roxas, who in 1962 came up with the idea of creating
a luxury residential development on this idyllic part of the Mediterranean
coast. Now it is home to perhaps the most expensive
real estate in Spain. But to many Gibraltarians, Sotogrande is a
weekend retreat, a place to get away from the densely populated
Rock of Gibraltar. This house is also mainly used on weekends
and is one of the oldest in Sotogrande, a Mediterranean gem
hidden behind ornate iron gates and thick foliage on one of the
prime avenues in the development.
Havens of relaxation
The pavilion (left) stands in
the middle of a carpet of
velvety green. It invites guests
to linger — and so does the
ultramodern kitchen.
Built around a small inner courtyard rather like a traditional fi nca,
the house stands in front of a sweeping lawn — more like a carpet
than actual grass — dotted with palms and indigenous twisted
cork trees that cast abstract shadows across the expanse of
green. When asked what attracted him to the house, the owner,
whose business is shipping, said that it was undoubtedly the
garden. In the Andalusian climate, shade is a commodity. Houses
are designed to stay cool in the summer, when temperatures
average in the mid-30’s. This house is no exception, with its shuttered
windows, thick walls and barro cocido (terracotta) tiles.
The grounds are dotted with cool shady spots for eating and
relaxing. In fact, the whole house is designed with the idea of
downtime in mind; it almost demands relaxation. Step across the
threshold and you leave everything behind and enter a sanctuary:
huge cool rooms with sofas and chairs inviting you to take it
easy. “Even though we’re here just for the weekends and holidays,
we do a surprising amount of entertaining. People come

here to chill out, but even pleasure requires some amount of
work. Everyone knows everyone else here, and we often host
parties,” the house owners explain.
It was a friend who recommended the house when the couple
mentioned that they were looking for a second home. Originally
built around a very traditional Spanish theme, the house is
fi lled with character, but inevitably a certain amount of re storation
was needed. The couple wanted to give the house a modern
edge without losing any of its Mediterranean style. They painted
all the woodwork a matt grey and decided that in contrast to the
rustic kitchen that was already in place they wanted something
minimal. In London they met the designer Ramón Casado.
“We hit it off immediately,” says Casado. “They are a family
that are accustomed to quality and design, so it was a pleasure
to work with them.” The room, which originally had a vaulted
ceiling and panelled units, needed simple clean lines, a bank
of wall-hung storage units and contemporary fl ooring before
Elegant comfort
The design of the entire
house is geared toward
comfort and relaxation.
Best Practice 33
it was transformed. The kitchen was to be mostly a functional
cooking space rather than a living area, although a dining table
was installed so that the family had the option to eat in the
kitchen if they were dining alone. Casado suggested a blackbrown
oak table and shelves to create a feature. He also
recommended Gaggenau appliances, which included a wine
climate cabinet of the Vario cooling 400 series, a Vario gas
wok, an oven and a Combi-steam oven. If you’re partial to risottos,
then the Combi-steam oven is a must — and it also cooks
vegetables in a healthy low-fat way without destroying nutrients.
“What a lot of people don’t realise about steam ovens is
that you can cook fi sh alongside other foods with no aroma
transfer,” explains our hostess.
“The clients love to cook, especially fi sh, so I suggested the
largest ventilation hood,” says Casado.
It’s true that the Mediterranean is a gastronomic paradise,
and living alongside it means that fresh fi sh and suc culent
vegetables are always readily available. You can nip down
to the port, pick up some langoustines and cook them up on
the Teppan Yaki. The Gaggenau island hood, with two air ducts
and two fans, whisk away any trace of fi sh within seconds.
When it came to designing the kitchen, another one
of Casado’s priorities was ergonomics. “The clients wanted two
fridges, as they buy a lot of fresh food, so I made sure that
both fridges, the 91.4 cm wide Vario fridge-freezer combination
and the 76 cm Vario fridge, opened out toward each other,”
Casado says.
Casado set the island back from the bank of storage units
so that if there were three or four people working together
they wouldn’t get into each other’s way. The hostess, who has
taught all of the staff to cook her favourite dishes, will often
delegate tasks when a huge party of people is due to arrive, so
the kitchen can look more like the backstage scenes of a restaurant
at times. But Gaggenau is built to withstand a punishing
routine of gastronomic demands. “The clients are pretty impressed,”
says Casado.
Our hostess chose a pearl-grey Corian work surface,
subtler than just a plain white one, and now the whole kitchen,
although it was designed to be practical with clean lines, is both
elegant and stylish and brings a fresh contemporary touch to
an otherwise traditional villa.
What is important to the couple is that their home is
a refuge, a place to escape the throb of “The Rock”, entertain
their friends and guests, and relax in an idyllic setting. They
are keen golfers and sailors, and they love to watch polo
matches — and what better place is there in Europe to do all
that than Sotogrande? ¤

34 Gaggenau Online
Values brought to life:
The new online presence will
refl ect the brand’s identity.
Authentic, uncompromising and extraordinary: Attributes that
characterise the Gaggenau brand in every respect. They point
the way when it comes to conceptualising and designing a
new online presence. And they are basic elements of the brand’s
redesigned website, which will present Gaggenau worldwide
starting in March 2012. The site’s content and visual design will
convey these three core attributes. It will refl ect the authenticity
of the original by focusing on the product as an attention-getting
“icon”, starting on the home page. “Uncompromising” also describes
the approach taken with technical details.
www.gaggenau.com
The Difference Is Gaggenau:
A preview of the new online brand experience
Each individual detail can be found on the website, set in an
impressively sophisticated overall aesthetic. “Extraordinary” is
the right word to describe not only the web design, but also
the practical utility of the site. On just three levels, the user can
quickly gain an overview and fi nd all of the product information
and combination possibilities for the appliances. Integrated
animations and fi lms demonstrate appliance installation and
functions. This is all thanks to the site’s user-friendly overall
concept, which it will also be possible to experience on smartphones
and tablet PCs. ¤
HHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF APPLE

Gaggenau
new spaces 10
Focus on New Zealand
1.
First Aid
The mobile showroom: Help after
the earthquake in Christchurch
On 4th September 2010, an earthquake measuring 7.1
on the Richter scale caused massive destruction in Christchurch,
New Zealand. Many buildings collapsed or were
badly damaged, including two that were adjacent to the
restaurant owned by the renowned chef Jonny Schwass (see
p. 40 ff .). The restaurant stayed open, but a severe aftershock
on 22nd February 2011 forced Schwass to close it.
Gaggenau acted quickly to help its cooperation partner
Schwass. Its mobile showroom was immediately dispatched
to New Zealand. In Christchurch the mobile showroom is
now being used as a kitchen for Schwass’ private dinners
and his master cooking courses, as well as an exhibition
room for the Gaggenau partner “Kitchen Things” until new
buildings are constructed for both enterprises.
Bulldozers pulled down
Jonny Schwass’ restaurant — but
Gaggenau is helping out with its
mobile showroom (above).
Sights and Scenes 35
PHOTOGRAPHY: GAGGENAU/MANFRED JARISCH (TOP), JONNY SCHWASS (BOTTOM)

36 Sights and Scenes
2.
Building with a sense of place
The Stevens Lawson practice aims to give
New Zealand its own architectural idiom
Text: Sam Eichblatt
The mountain cabin high above Lake
Wanaka is only a few years old, but
it looks as though it had been standing
for ages in the midst of these craggy
mountains on New Zealand’s South Island.
The complex geometry of this modern
Alpine home fi ts in harmoniously with
the monumental highland scenery and
the peaks, pinnacles and towers of the
mountains, which are over 3,000 metres
high. The holiday house is sheathed with
cedar. This wood organically covers the
roof and walls, and as it weathers it gradually
takes on the colours of its surroundings
— the grey-green tussock grass and
the light-coloured stones that are typical
of this landscape. “So even though the
form itself is quite bold and it’s quite an
Individualistic design idiom
Herne Bay House 1, a
single-family house in an
Auckland suburb, has a
striking sculptural façade.
unusual looking house, it feels like it belongs,”
says the architect Nicholas Stevens,
who planned and built the holiday
house together with his partner Gary
Lawson. “It’s not trying to disappear.” A
robust mixture of timber and raw concrete,
wood and stone, gives it an elemental
quality and lends a sense of
warmth and shelter to the interior spaces.

A strong building for a strong landscape
The mountain cabin on Lake Wanaka, a
mixture of timber and concrete, wood and
stone, conveys a sense of warmth and
shelter. It perfectly matches the landscape.
It’s a strong building for a strong
landscape.
The Stevens Lawson architectural
practice has completed some of New
Zealand’s most distinctive architectural
projects. One remarkable aspect of the
two architects is their great fl exibility.
They’ve worked on almost every type of
architecture, from a Bauhaus holiday
home in the mountains to a discreet
and elegant beach house on Waiheke
Island and public offi ce buildings in this
island nation’s cities. They are enthusiastic
about all kinds of assignments. “Every
time we sit down for a new project, the
possibilities are endless,” Stevens says.
New Zealand has developed very little
in the way of a local style, and most of its
PHOTOGRAPHY: MARK SMITH
cities are a jumble of colonial villas, infi ll
housing and late 20th-century offi ce
blocks. “One of the themes we’ve been
following with our work is establishing a
sense of place with architecture which is
highly specifi c to its location and which
expresses us as a population and a place
in the South Pacifi c, and the multicultural
nature of New Zealand,” Stevens adds.

38 Sights and Scenes
Partners in spirit
Nicholas Stevens and
Gary Lawson have been
working together since the
mid-1990s to create an
independent architecture
for New Zealand.
A room with a view
The interior design of
Herne Bay House 1
is also consistently clear
and modern, with large
glass surfaces off ering
fabulous views of
the green landscape.
The two architects are exploring the question
of what it means to live in a boundary
area between Western Anglo-Saxon culture
and the South Seas.
The architectural practice has an unusual
history. In the mid-1990s Gary
Lawson became an intern in the offi ce
where Stevens, who was ten years
older, worked as an architect. The two of
them got along so well and complemented
each other so eff ectively that they
soon began to work on projects together.
In 2002 they set up a practice of their
own. Since then, the two have designed
every project collaboratively. Stevens’
drawing skills and his interest in art com-
plement Lawson’s affi nity with the
outdoors.
New Zealand is a country that unites
many cultures, landscapes and lifestyles.
That’s why it’s so fortunate that Stevens
and Lawson come from completely different
backgrounds. This makes it easier
for them to integrate and discuss this
region’s many contradictions.
Nicholas Stevens grew up near Auckland
and graduated from the Auckland
School of Architecture before embarking
on an extended tour of Europe from England
to Greece, “tracing the history of
Western architecture to the source”, he
says. Gary Lawson, who hails from the

South Island and graduated from Unitec
Institute of Technology, is regarded as a
computer expert. He says, “We struck up
a good working relationship very early on.
It’s something we purposefully don’t analyse
very much.”
The only rule they have is that nothing
goes ahead until they’re both happy with
it: “If one of us is troubled about an aspect,
we’ll continue to work until we’re
both excited about it.” Lawson regards
his partner’s veto right as a challenge
rather than a limitation. “I couldn’t imagine
sitting down with a blank piece of
paper and trying to design something
without Nick’s input now,” he says. Stevens
is also enthusiastic about the collaboration:
“Between us, it’s all hands on
deck to work out the best way a design
comes together. It’s really free — it’s
a good way to work.” As a result of the
permanent dialogue, he says, certain
dominant themes have developed.
Stevens and Lawson put themselves
in the tradition of Group Architects.
Formed in the postwar era in New Zealand,
the fi rm built few houses, but aimed
high. “They were looking for a regional
modern architecture,” says Stevens.
“Not the international style, all horizontal
planes and glass, but something that
keyed in to what was important in this
country.” Like the Group, Stevens Lawson’s
design work has an acute sensitivity
to the landscape around it. However,
this contemporary practice has transcended
the by-now standard concept of
“indoor-outdoor” living to create projects
that are, to use Stevens’ phrase, in conversation
with their environment.
For example, a recently completed
project in the wine growing region of
Hawke’s Bay has a lighter, more permeable
structure that the architects deliberately
designed with reference to the
vernacular architecture of a wool shed
— refl ecting the history of the clients, who
lived on a sheep station for 30 years.
Stevens Lawson builds not only in the
quiet hinterlands but also in the lively
major cities of this island nation. It’s true
that two inner-city construction projects
have fallen victim to the fi nancial crisis,
but Stevens Lawson is increasingly es-
tablishing itself in the fi eld of urban architecture.
The partners are now beginning
work on a music school in Hawke’s Bay
and restarting their most ambitious and
large-scale project to date — a new public
development for the Auckland City Mission,
which covers half an inner-city block
and will provide a public square, social
housing, a detox centre, a medical centre
and offi ces for the adjoining St Matthews
in the City church.
Currently, the western side of the
central city is bleak. It’s scored by lanes
of fast-moving traffi c, but is also densely
populated. “It’s an exciting time to be
involved in the regeneration of the city,”
says Stevens. The project will, he says,
be a socially responsible legacy, creating
human-scale spaces that bring life and
community back to the centre of the city.
“There’s fi nally a sense that the people
governing this place actually believe
in urban design and great architecture,”
he adds.
For such projects you need clients
with vision as well, says Stevens. One of
them is the City Council of Auckland,
which is starting to look beyond tax collection
and, as he puts it, this is “leading
to some unprecedented big-picture
thinking”. Says Stevens, “Good architecture
isn’t only for the wealthy, it’s for
everybody.”
Further information
www.stevenslawson.co.nz
Woodwork
Westmere House in Auckland
consists of cubes of diff erent
sizes that almost look like Lego
blocks and are sheathed in dark
wood. For this building, Stevens
Lawson won the “Home
of the Year” award in 2007.
PHOTOGRAPHY: MARK SMITH
39

40 Sights and Scenes

3.
“Food is not an art — food is life”
Top chef Jonny Schwass lost his restaurant to the earthquake
in Christchurch, but he didn’t lose his enthusiasm
for slow cooking and natural products from New Zealand
Text: Anke Richter Photos: Aaron McLean
A hefty man with lots of sensitivity
In spite of his imposing girth,
Jonny Schwass (left) is a sensitive
soul in the kitchen. His pale-pink
duck breast (above) was cooked
“sous vide” and received its crispy
crust in the very last step.
41
It’s not only Jonny Schwass’ girth that is
impressive. When he places a gutted
duck on the chopping block, hacks off its
head, strokes the carcass with his big
hands, laughs and then energetically
breaks a couple of its joints “like a good
orthopaedic surgeon”, it becomes clear
that you could trust this man implicitly to
slaughter a hog or repair a diesel engine.
And you’d be justifi ed in doing so: pork is
his favourite meat, he requires his chefs
to have butcher skills, and if he had
followed his father’s advice he would be
an auto mechanic today. “But both of
my grandmothers were such wonderful
cooks that I preferred to stay in the kitchen
and learn from them,” says Schwass,
who is now 40.
The Schwass family, which emigrated
from Germany to New Zealand in the
19th century, always harvested its vegetables
fresh from the garden and ate or
preserved whatever happened to be in
season. Jonny Schwass has deeply internalised
this philosophy of food and perfected
it in his own way, with a big dose
of passion and imagination.
His restaurant, which was destroyed
last February by the severe earthquake in
Christchurch, was absolutely top-class,
but his opinion on how to produce the
best possible cuisine is very simple: always
use local products. In his view, you
have to know the farmer who produces
your steaks, instead of supporting factory
farming. “When I’m standing in a fi eld
here in Canterbury, where we have so
many good agricultural and natural products
at hand, I spontaneously think of a
complete dish made up of everything
that’s growing there,” he says. For this
environmentally oriented master chef, it’s
more important to pluck a fresh fl ower

42 Sights and Scenes
Environment-conscious
Jonny Schwass works only
with local produce and
dismisses haute cuisine
with imported luxury
products as nonsense.
himself and put it on a guest’s plate —
and to know how these fl owers tasted
out in the meadow yesterday — than to
serve delicacies that have been shrinkwrapped
long before and fl own in from
some distant part of the world. “People
really don’t have to eat caviar,” he says.
His holistic philosophy also extends to
meat consumption. “People who kill an
animal should always eat the whole animal,”
Schwass says. He believes that
killing ten cows to get 20 fi llet steaks is a
senseless and unethical luxury. He therefore
wants to “demystify” the duck he’s
carving and preparing for the participants
of a cooking event in Auckland that is
being organised in the Gaggenau mobile
kitchen in cooperation with the New Zealand
magazine DISH. He uses the skin of
the neck as a sausage casing, the head
and feet will later be roasted and then
reduced to stock, and the fat will be melted
to use as lard. “It’s wonderful for
roasts,” he says. But what about the cholesterol?
The chef simply laughs: “I love
butter and animal fats. They’re the best
carriers of fl avours.”
Despite his baroque exuberance,
Schwass handles the raw meat with extreme
gentleness. He poaches the duck
breasts in a plastic bag just barely simmering
in a double boiler. This method of
cooking food at temperatures below the
boiling point, which is known as “sous
vide”, is once again becoming very popular.
“Slow and low” is his motto. In the
very last step, the meat is roasted to
make the crust crispy. Without having the
necessary kitchen technology, Schwass
could not achieve the top quality for
which he is receiving accolades — and
numerous awards — from a growing
number of New Zealanders and visitors
from abroad. He swears by his Combisteam
oven and his induction cooktop.
Until just a few years ago, he still believed
that cooking with gas was the opti-
mal method. After all, he had grown up
in the tradition of the “raging, racing,
testosterone-driven chefs” who frantically
manoeuvre pots and pans across open
fl ames — a cooking style that is a brutal
struggle with the elements and the
employees.
“If you wanted to shoot a reality show
in my kitchen, you’d bore your viewers to
death, because it’s so quiet here —
there’s no cursing and no panic,” grins
Schwass, who is an advocate of “slow
food”. When he’s in his kitchen, he takes
his time; in fact, some of his dishes take
hours or even days to prepare. And he
merely laughs at the complicated artworks
presented by TV chefs — creations
that tower over the heads of the guests
and sugar spirals that could stab your
eyes out. “Food is not an art,” he says.
“Food is life.”
Schwass has experienced this truth at
fi rst hand. The fi rst time was ten years
ago, when he was diagnosed with cancer
and underwent chemotherapy, and the
second time was half a year ago when his
city was devastated by the earthquake.
Ever since these two experiences, he has
focused on the essentials — the things
that really count. “If worse comes to
worst,” he says, “I’d prefer to surround
myself with good wine, delicious food
and happy people.” He will soon be able
to do just that, but hopefully without experiencing
any further catastrophes: at
the end of this year his new restaurant
will be opening in Christchurch. This
time it will be simpler, even more inviting,
and less exclusive. “I want it to feel as
though you’re eating in someone’s
home,” he says. “Being together with
other people has become more important
for us.” Until his restaurant opens,
Schwass is making do with the
Gaggenau mobile showroom. There he
can work on his new dishes and try them
out right away at his private dinners.

1
2
1 THE STOCKHOLM SPHERE Stockholm, Sweden/Landscape and
infrastructure-centric master plan featuring a huge fl oating solar-powered
sphere that refl ects its surroundings/BIG/Design competition entry,
1st prize/Construction started/www.big.dk
2 HOOVER DAM Hoover, USA/Idea of the Hoover Dam in the U.S. as an
inhabitable skyscraper that unifi es the power plant with a gallery, an
aquarium and a viewing platform that directly engages the falling water/
Yheu-Shen Chua/EVOLO competition entry, 3rd place/www.evolo.us
3 TORNADO-PROOF HOUSE Kansas City, MO, USA/House with an
insulated Kevlar skin combined with a series of hydraulics that push the
house into the ground as a tornado approaches/Ted Givens (Ten
Design) and Mohamad Ghamloush/Design proposal/www.10design.co
4 CHENGDU TOWERS Chengdu, China/Twin towers with integrated
wild vegetation, a series of connecting bridge gardens and surrounding
courtyards/Y design Offi ce/Design proposal/www.ynotwhy.com
3
4
What’s Next?
What’s Next? 43
New Projects around
the World
PHOTOGRAPHY: XXX (TOP), YYY, ZZZ (BOTTOM)

44 Thinking the Future IV

Modern-day Cathedrals
Spectacular new museum buildings offer
a unique opportunity to escape from
the information overload of the modern world
and to savour rare moments of tranquillity
Text: Roland Hagenberg
PHOTOGRAPHY: IWAN BAAN

Teshima Art Museum
A drop of water was the inspiration for
Ryue Nishizawa’s building. First 120 trucks
spread cement across a hill, then
the soil was dug out from underneath
(above and previous double page).
Robert Smithson’s diary entry from 1970 reads like the invoice
of a building contractor: labour, 625 hours; truck transports,
36 days; soil moved, 6,650 tonnes. Far away from cosmopolitan
cities, the artist, who was then 32 years old, had decided to
build his own museum under the open skies of Utah by heaping
up a 500 metre long basalt spiral in the middle of Great Salt
Lake. He called it Spiral Jetty, made several aerial photographs
of the piece — and made a lasting mark on art history. Smithson
wasn’t the fi rst American who thought that the ideal museum
ought to have invisible walls — or even better, be a part of nature.
Michael Heizer, an artist who infl uenced Smithson, and Walter
De Maria, a drummer in the legendary band Velvet Underground,
were also creating artworks, preferably in the wilderness regions
of Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, by digging shafts and
ramps with titles such as “Double Negative” or “Mile Long Drawing
in the Desert”. Like Smithson, they styled themselves the
saviours of an art form that had become diluted in the hands of
the fashionable New York art world. And like Smithson, they
expressed their disdain by sporting sandy boots, battered jeans
and fi ngernails stained with motor oil. Smithson himself died
in a plane crash in 1973, while photographing another one of his
pieces from the air.
Today’s museum establishment may look back and smile at the
naiveté, idealism and supposed otherworldliness of these artists.
After all, didn’t Heizer once try to scare off unwanted visitors
with his gun? However, some of these dusty rebels went on
to enjoy real-world fame as pop stars. And who wouldn’t be fascinated
by someone like James Turrell, who bought a volcano
and transformed it into an interactive, starlight-fi lled museum at
an estimated cost of 30 to 50 million US dollars? Who wouldn’t
want to experience a thunderstorm in Walter De Maria’s “Lightning
Field”, in which 400 steel posts are lined across the prairie
like acupuncture needles in order to attract lightning — another
investment of several millions? Nowadays, however, most museums
seem to be preoccupied with attracting record numbers
of visitors each year, and they’re doing so by off ering outlandish
architecture, outrageous design and over-the-top, futuristic trappings.
It’s an experience not all museum visitors seek. Increasingly,
they’re looking for a meditative experience, both in their
personal lives and in a museum setting — just like Smithson and
his pioneering generation of artists.
Last November the Teshima Art Museum was completed
in Japan, built by the 45-year-old architect Ryue Nishizawa.
“When the idea fi rst came to me, I was inspired by the shape of
a drop of water and its delicate, fragile curves,” he explains.
“Such a building would automatically merge with its natural surroundings!”
Around the building he has planted grasses and
brush that will grow to embrace, if not engulf, the smooth concrete
structure by next year. Robert Smithson certainly would
have approved. The museum itself, 60 metres long and 40 metres
wide, contains nothing — no paintings, no sculptures, no

video installations. Instead, it showcases nature in its purest
form — or rather, forms of nature, as selected and arranged by
the Japanese artist Rei Naito. Cobweb-like threads hang suspended
from the ceiling and seem to be in perfect communion
with the autumn and the sea breeze outside. Hidden nozzles,
87 in number, spray occasional bursts of groundwater across
the fl oor. Since the sloping fl oor is coated with a water repellent,
the drops of water dance across the surface as if on a hot stove.
Once they collide, they merge into larger drops, and soon they
look like glass fi eldmice racing around with jerky movements
until they come to rest in a large pool at the end of the museum.
Amid the tranquillity and emptiness of the hall, which is about
the size of four tennis courts, this chemical trick takes on an
otherworldly, almost ghostly quality, reminiscent of the fi lm scene
in “Terminator” where a pool of quicksilver morphs into an alien
creature. Two oval openings in the museum’s ceiling off er
dramatic views of the elements, ranging from blue skies to rain
clouds or perhaps even typhoons. Last year Nishizawa and his
partner Kazuyo Sejima were awarded the Pritzker prize, the “No-
Museum Aan de Stroom, Antwerp
With its boxy facade made out
of glass and red natural stone, the
65-metre tower designed by the
Rotterdam architects Neutelings
Riedijk resembles a fortifi ed castle.
Thinking the Future IV 47
bel Prize” of architecture. “Their use of space and nature is visionary,”
the jury statement praised the architects. So could it
be said that Teshima’s austere arch is indicative of a new worldwide
trend in museum architecture? Perhaps it even heralds a
return to Smithson’s romantic naturalism?
“Not necessarily,” argues the architecture critic Sachiko
Tamashige. “We’ll continue to see contemporary museums that
attract attention to themselves and their surroundings — or that
seek to distract the visitor from something else. Whether they
engage with nature or not depends on the builder’s preference!”
For decades, the inhabitants of Teshima struggled to fend off
a noxious haze of politics, business and organised crime that
had engulfed their island and saddled it with illegal toxic waste
and polluted groundwater. Ten years ago, the polluters were
fi nally sentenced to cleaning up the island and restoring the
natural order of its environment. This is also the philosophical
context of Nishizawa’s museum. Its investor, Soichiro Fukutake,
is one of the ten wealthiest businessmen in Japan. He hopes
that his art project will rejuvenate this deserted region, where
the average age is 70. Another one of his projects, the Seto
Naikai art festival, attracted 300,000 tourists last year.
At the same time as in Teshima but on the other side of
the globe — in Israel, just south of Tel Aviv — another building
has been completed that calls itself a museum yet doesn’t house
a permanent collection: the Design Museum Holon, built by
PHOTOGRAPHY: IWAN BAAN (LEFT), SARAH BLEE (RIGHT)

Museum of Islamic Art, Doha
I. M. Pei, who is now 94, spent six months
travelling across the Arab world to study
mosques. He built his museum on an island
off Doha that off ers meditative views of the
ocean. Its hall is as tall as a cathedral (right).

49
PHOTOGRAPHY: MARTIN WESTLAKE/GALLERY STOCK

Ron Arad. With its elegant, gigantic curves of rusted steel, it is
a sculpture in itself. The museum celebrates Israel’s secondlargest
industrial park and at the same time distracts from it by
focusing our attention on the beauty of everyday objects. “We
wanted to create an icon that would make a lasting impression in
people’s minds as soon as they see it,” explains Galit Gaon, the
museum’s Creative Director. “We wanted a monument worthy of
gracing a postage stamp!” Arad, who is celebrated for his sleek
industrial designs, seems to have been the right man: whether
it’s a coincidence or not, the perfume bottle he designed exclusively
for Kenzo has the same cross struts as his new museum.
In contrast to the Holon Museum, the Museum of Islamic Art in
Qatar actually houses a permanent collection. In order to showcase
its impressive selection of manuscripts, textiles and ceramics
from 13 centuries, the desert emirate wanted a modern building
that wouldn’t emulate the Western-looking skyscrapers of
downtown Doha. And so they chose a celebrated master builder
with Chinese roots: I. M. Pei, famed for the Paris Louvre’s glass
pyramid, among other works. In order to avoid having the museum
smothered by surrounding skyscrapers, the 94-year-old architect
declined all of the proposed sites in the city centre and
opted for a coastal island instead. Like a cubist desert fort, the
building seems to fl oat between the ocean and the sky, projecting
pride in its cultural past and openness toward the future.
Here too, stressed-out city dwellers are attracted to the sacred
peace and emptiness of the interiors. Indeed, the art museums
of today are similar to the castles, mosques and cathedrals of
the past — and sometimes they even resemble fortresses, like
Cidade da Cultura de Galicia
Peter Eisenman’s design alludes to the
medieval city structure of Santiago de
Compostela. The cultural centre perches
above the Spanish city like a castle.
Peter Eisenman’s Cidade da Cultura de Galicia in Spain. Here
visitors will be able to fi nd respite from the never-ending chatter
of the information age and to enjoy a peaceful, protected environment
that allows them to concentrate on a select number of
themes. This renewed focus on spiritual tranquillity may explain
why Japanese architects are in high demand today. Perhaps
their Zen aesthetic imparts peace of mind to the visitors of these
museums. As in the case of Kengo Kuma’s GC Prostho Museum
in the prefecture of Aichi or Kazuyo Sejima’s Inujima Art
House Project, invisible space is the most important design
element in Japanese museum architecture. When Shigeru Ban’s
off shoot of the Centre Pompidou in Paris was opened in Metz in
May 2010, the museum’s director Laurent Le Bon expected to
welcome 15,000 visitors per month. Today the museum attracts
ten times as many visitors, and the architect is delighted. “I’ve
been asked to expand the offi ces and restaurants,” he says. “But
construction won’t begin for a while. That gives me a chance to
build more museums in the meantime!” ¤
Further information
www.benesse-artsite.jp/en/teshima-artmuseum/index.html
www.mas.be/eCache/MIE/80/92/042.html
www.mia.org.qa/english/
www.cidadedacultura.org/?lg=ing/
www.ronarad.co.uk/design-museum-holon/

Tel Aviv Holon Museum
Ron Arad intended the steel
construction to gradually rust and
change colour over time — a
reference to the Israeli desert.
Thinking the Future IV 51
PHOTOGRAPHY: MANUEL G. VICENTE (LEFT), LAURENT BURST/AGENTUR FOCUS (RIGHT)

52 New Products
Completely Retractable
The AL 400 table ventilation: Efficiency
right at the cooktop

The completely retractable AL 400 table ventilation is the ideal
solution for kitchen islands or large rooms with high ceilings. Its
principle is simple. The ventilation system, which is visible when
in use, quietly and effi ciently extracts the vapours right there
where they are produced. It’s easy to operate using the familiar
Gaggenau control system, provides three power levels plus an
intensive mode and lights up the cooktop comfortably with its
steplessly dimmable fully LED-illuminated surface. Optimal service
life and reliability have been guaranteed by retracting and
extending the unit over 10,000 test cycles. And there’s another
decisive advantage: the table ventilation can also be operated in
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Product information
AL 400 Table ventilation made from stainless steel
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fully LED-illuminated surface, suitable for fl ush
mounting or conventional installation, operates in
air extraction or recirculation mode
Further information www.gaggenau.com
53
PHOTOGRAPHY: GAGGENAU

54 Thinking the Future V
Back to the Amphora —
Winemaker Elisabetta
Foradori borrows ideas from
the ancient Romans
Text: Adam Leith Gollner Photography: Ulrike Myrzik

The mountains give shelter
The plain is surrounded by the Dolomite Mountains,
which keep heat inside the valley. Elisabetta Foradori
has long been devoted to biodynamic winegrowing.
“Back to nature” is her motto.
The Rotaliano Plain is located 20 km north of Trento in a valley
in Italy’s Dolomite mountains. Lush and fl at, it is encircled by
sheer cliff s jutting hundreds of metres into the sky. These rocky
hillsides off er natural protection against the elements, keeping
the heat in and the wind out. As a result, the fertile landscape
is an agricultural paradise in which farmers and vintners harvest
very special fruits and plants. The Rotaliano Plain is also home
to the teroldego grape, a coveted insiders’ tip in the world
of wine. Teroldego is genetically linked to the syrah grape, but
many wine connoisseurs claim that it’s unlike anything else
they’ve ever tasted.
When it comes to the cultivation of the teroldego grape,
Elisabetta Foradori is an unquestioned expert. She has been
making wine here since she was 19 years old, and today,
27 years later, she is producing the best wine in the valley. The
wines she has created have gained recognition all over the

56 Thinking the Future V
world. One reason for that is certainly her approach to winemaking:
she focuses not on maximising production but rather on
producing small batches of top-quality wine. In addition, she
employs some relatively unusual methods — but we’ll come to
that later.
Foradori is a petite woman who, despite her classic
beauty, has an extremely energetic personality. Her handshake
is fi rm and strong, with fi ngers dusty. One always has the impression
that Foradori has just come in from the vineyard. “My
whole goal is to nurture the life of this soil and its vines,” she
says. “Everything I do is about having a deeper, more open approach
to nature.”
Foradori’s vineyard is completely unlike the streamlined
monocultures that have become standard practice in the global
winemaking industry. Here, fl owers and other plants grow between
the rows of vines — poppies, barley, daisies. The grass in
the paths between the vines is not mowed, so that it can grow
freely and help to improve the quality of the soil — and that’s not
all. Foradori points to a couple of fruit trees near the vines. “We
encourage wildlife here, and this region off ers them an ideal
habitat,” she says. “Pheasants, foxes and rabbits live here in the
tall grass. Every year, when we harvest we fi nd all sorts of bird
nests among the vines.” This teeming vineyard is a logical extension
of her philosophy, which emphasises the connection between
human beings and nature as well as the eternal search for
balance and harmony.
Of course there are other vineyards in the Rotaliano Plain
that are cultivated in the traditional way, boosting their harvests
through the use of fertilisers and pesticides. Foradori’s face
clouds over when she talks about all the mistakes being made
by the industrialised agriculture of today: intensive use of chemicals,
monoculture crops, corporate farming. By contrast, Foradori
wants to work with the land rather than against it and to give
the fruits of the earth the status they deserve.
The teroldego grape is traditionally used to make a very
rustic wine, which is sold via the local winegrowers’ cooperatives.
Foradori wanted to make the most of this grape’s inherent
strengths and unique character. That’s why she decided to start
aging her wines in small French barrels known as barriques.
The resulting cuvée, called Granato, helped the teroldego grape
to shake off its rustic image. In cities like New York and Hong
Kong, a bottle of Granato sells for around 60 US dollars. Nonetheless,
Foradori is not satisfi ed with this success; she’s already
working on the next wine revolution.
In the future, she will no longer be aging her wines in
barriques; instead, she’ll be using earthenware amphoras. She
explains her reasons over a delicious pasta lunch prepared by

A coveted cuvée
The cork with the Foradori stamp from the winery in Mezzolombardo
(left) is deeply respected in the world of wine. Wine afi cionados
love Foradori. Her grapes ripen under natural conditions,
and daisies, poppies and barley grow between the vines (top).
Her wine reflects the glorious
location where it was
grown. It has a full-bodied
but subtle aroma. And
it’s delicate but firm — just
like Elisabetta Foradori.
her mother. “Clay is the element which connects the earth to the
energy of the cosmos,” she says. “When I fi rst tried using amphoras,
I discovered a world of energy. The juice fermenting
inside these clay pots becomes like an explosion that brings the
wine to life. In the end, this yields clear, precise wines with fantastic
individuality.” Foradori is convinced that the future of winemaking
lies in the past: amphoras were used to age wine in ancient
Rome. The circle of history is closing.
She is making three cuvées in amphoras: two red teroldego
bottlings and a white wine using another indigenous grape
called nosiola. The fi rst teroldego, called Sgarzon, tastes like the
essence of summer cherries. The second red, called Mazzei,
has a deep chocolate quality, and the white Fontanasanta wine
tastes like a spring hillside. All three of these wines have the
potential to create the same impact that Foradori’s Granato did
in the 1990s.
Foradori’s vineyard has benefi ted from several positive infl uences.
One crucial factor is its location. The river that winds its
way through the valley was diverted some years ago because
each year the spring fl oods would threaten the town of Mezzolombardo.
That has benefi ted Foradori’s vineyard, because
her vines sit on what was once the river bed. “This is alluvial
soil,” she says. “The river water brought porphyry, granite, sand
and other debris from the mountains into the basin. All of these
contribute to the taste of the wine.”
Vines that produce charismatic wines need, above all,
healthy soil — and that’s why Foradori decided years ago to
practice biodynamic winemaking. This involves some unusual
methods of cultivation — for example, planting and harvesting
according to lunar cycles and spraying the vines with an all-natural
herbal tisane. Foradori combines biodynamic farming with
Anthroposophy and her personal mystical twist. This special
treatment seems to benefi t her wines. “When you drink this wine,
you can feel the energy of the living soil,” she says. “There is
movement inside the wine.”
Foradori’s approach is very appropriate to an age in
which more and more consumers are demanding natural products.
People today want to eat and drink products that come
not from anonymous factory farms but from producers who love
their work and have a face that customers can connect with.
Great wines, like those produced by Foradori, taste of their
terroir — the region in which they have been produced. They are
deeply rooted in the place where the grapes were grown. To put
it simply, they are authentic. ¤
Further information
www.elisabettaforadori.com
57

58 Worldwide
Hamburg
Gaggenau and the
BCP Hall of Fame
Gaggenau
new spaces 09
48inductors
In 2011 the Gaggenau magazine
new spaces won the gold award for the
third time in the Best of Corporate
Publishing (BCP) competition, the largest
German contest of its kind. That’s
a good reason to celebrate! The award
also means that new spaces will enter
the Hall of Fame in 2012. This distinction
is reserved for participants who have
won gold three times since 2003, the
year of the fi rst BCP competition.
www.bcp-award.com
See page 49
01_Cover.indd 1 09.05.11 11:48
Italy
Poetry Meets
Visual Idiom
Verse meets visual art: “Collezione
7 x 11. La poesia degli artisti” is the title
of an unusual Italian art-book and its exhibition
currently taking to the road with
works from 77 artists. The participants
turned to their favourite poems or poets
for inspiration and thereby supplied the
paintings, photographs and mixed-media
artworks — all sized 7 x 11 centimetre.
The numbers seven and eleven stand for
the two most common metres of Italian
poetry, settenario and endecasillabo,
which have been used since the
Renaissance. Gaggenau supported the
ambitious artistic project together with
the Italian furniture and kitchen manufacturer
Valcucine. Curated by Marco Fazzini,
the exhibition will initially be shown at
galleries in various Italian cities before
moving abroad. The exhibition catalogue
was published by AMOS Verlag and is
available, among other places, at the Eco
Bookshop of the Valcucine fl agship store
at Corso Garibaldi 99 in Milan.
www.valcucine.com/ecobookshop
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr4pWT1f39g
Spain
Gaggenau Experts
Forum
“The Magic of Granada. The Magic of
Gaggenau” was the theme of the
traditional annual Gaggenau Experts
Forum in Spain. This year the gathering
of successful sales partners was held in
the prominent setting of a World Heritage
site: the palace of Charles V at the
Alhambra in Granada. Amidst these
impressive surroundings so rich in history,
visitors learned more about the
strategies and prospects for the Spanish
market, which is currently facing the
repercussions of the fi nancial crisis. In
addition to presentations on current
design trends for premium-class household
appliances, visitors listened to an
address by the author and economics
expert Leopoldo Abadía, who caused a
sensation with the economic analysis
put forth in his book La Crisis Ninja. On
show during the event — and the object
of much admiration — was the full-surface
induction cooktop CX 480.
www.gaggenau.com

Singapore
Culinary Embassy
in a Container
“SPICE” is the evocative name of a
project organised by the Singapore Tourism
Board to promote the varied and
outstandingly creative cuisine of the
city-state. The Singapore International
Culinary Exchange consists of a mobile
“pop-up” kitchen equipped to regale
visitors in nine cities worldwide with
mouth-watering treats from Singapore.
Ten prominent chefs are supplying the
recipes used by the culinary embassy as
it invites locals for a taste in Hong Kong,
Shanghai, Moscow, London, Paris, New
York, Sydney, Delhi and Dubai. In each
city, one chef will be on site in the
container-kitchen, which is named “Singapore
Takeout”. This chef will create a
menu in collaboration with a colleague
from the host city. Gaggenau was represented
by one of its own culinary
ambassadors, Ryan Clift, the chef of the
Tippling Club in Singapore, who oversaw
the Moscow appearance of the popup
kitchen.
www.yoursingapore.com/spice
Sanya
Gaggenau at
Hainan Rendez-Vous
An annual festival of luxury in Asia: under
the inviting name “Hainan Rendez-
Vous”, renowned lifestyle brands from
around the world introduce themselves
in the southern Chinese city of Sanya on
the island of Hainan. During the rendezvous
this spring, Gaggenau teamed
up with Azimut Yachts, the leading maker
of luxurious private yachts, and extended
invitations to a “Seafarer’s Fabulous
Feast”. Guests enjoyed the culinary
creations of Ritz-Carlton chef Stefan
Leitner at a candlelight dinner. The new
collaboration with Azimut Yachts is a
“maritime” departure for Gaggenau in a
literal sense. Henceforth the Italian
yacht maker will present itself in conjunction
with exclusive culinary events
organised by Gaggenau.
www.hainanrendezvous.com
www.azimutyachts.com
59
PHOTOGRAPHY: FUMASONI, REINHARD EISELE/EISELE-PHOTOS, SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL CULINARY EXCHANGE (2), TONI (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT)

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