VRTNI NAMJEÅ TAJ - DalCasa

Cover storyIndia Mahdavi potpisuje Coburg bar u hotelu Connaughtu Londonu / India Mahdavi has designedCoburg bar at the Connaught hotel in LondonLuster “Todo”, India Mahdavi / “Todo” pendant, India MahdaviStolica “Bishop” , IndiaMahdavi / “Bishop”chair, India Mahdavilaborated with numerous famousdesigner brands fromall over the world, such asMaharam, Royal TichelaarMakkum, Vitra and IKEA.Her original design is recognizablefor combinationsof materials and techniquesthat always start out lookingincompatible, whileevery project purposelydisplays processes andcraftsmanship procedures,which results in theproject looking slightly unfinished.Her projects eraseboundaries between a work of art and a useable object,which means that many everyday objects that have previouslybeen designed in unimaginative and boring fashionare now becoming true little works of art. Her designerinstallations have been on display in numerous museums– Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum (New York),MoMA (New York), Design Museum (London), GalerieKREO (Paris), Moss Gallery (New York), while her most famousinstallation would have to be The Silk Menagerie.26Matali Crasset – Research within DesignA peculiar figure on the world designer scene, MataliCrasset left for Milan, the world’s capital of design, aftergraduating industrial design in Paris. She spent some timein Milan working with designer Denis Santachiaro, afterwhich she worked with the great Philippe Starck for fiveyears, and she used that period to learn a great dealwhile having her work strongly influenced, particularlyher ability of transformation from one project to the next.Their collaboration gave birth to an award, the GrandPrix of Design of the City of Paris, which they won in ajoint effort in 1997. After those events, Matali proceededto open her own studio, which she used to expand anddevelop her fields of interest over the years. Boasting awide palette of interests, from industrial and graphicdesign to stage design and interior architecture, Matalicreated a truly recognizable brand. Perhaps her mostrepresentative project is HI Hotel, in which she decoratedeach of the 39 rooms in a different way, with the optionof transporting furniture for every guest, even from oneroom to the other. Her ambition was to create a “workin progress”-type project, which would provide all visitorswith the possibility of decorating the space they’re stayingin according to their own desires and needs, evenafter they arrived to the hotel. Among other things, she is