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Thursday 13 October 2016

Perucchetti Pop


Hovering, quite literally, in a style between Jeff the balloon dog, [named after king of contemporary pop, Jeff Koons], and Mauro Perucchetti's vibrant, translucent resin sculptures, is this gorgeous red balloon.

A store fitting from the window of Sir Terrance's Marylebone hangout that, in a rare move for any shop, was offered for sale ex-display to keen eyed collectors. A perfect and poetic addition to Ultraloft's first plinth, the gigantic perspex balloon floats above it's Koonsian companion in a display of poignant and equally iconic three dimensional imagery; a subtle nod to Design Trawler's favourite childhood novel.

Wednesday 5 October 2016

Pole Position - Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi


Imagine the scene. Flavio Briatore, the larger than life Italian Formula 1 supremo touches down in Abu Dhabi to discuss the possibility bringing the billion dollar super-sport to the Middle East. We'll build you a track Signore Briatore, the developers say; the best in the world! Very generous, but where will I park my 200ft yacht? We all know that Monaco has a delightful marina hugging it's F1 track, and I need to host glamorous parties too.

Not a problem for the visionaries of Abu Dhabi - We'll build the track on it's own island, and have it snake around a marina capable of hosting the largest super-yachts in the world, so that all of your friends can bring their sleek motor yachts too. All well and good, but Abu Dhabi is a fair voyage away from Monaco, and my shargreen sun loungers might melt in this heat...

Saturday 1 October 2016

Grand Apartment Budapest


I'll admit, I wasn't quite sure how to position this article on Design Trawler's recent visit to Budapest. I decided to check in to the curiously named Helen & Frank apartment in an ornate mansion block overlooking the 19th Century theatre of comedy; in search of a whimsically cluttered stage-set in which to draw parallels against Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel; which took home the Oscar for best production design in this year's awards.

What I found however was far richer than any staged theatre set. The apartment is filled with the collections of Dr Frank and Helen Ternovszky; avid adventurers and collectors who moved from the Hungarian capital to LA in the golden age of Sintata, where a transatlantic Lufthansa flight was something worth photographing. Indeed, the apartment is peppered with photographs of Frank and Helen's jet setter life; playing lawn tennis at the country club, sailing with friends, trips to the great pyramids, black tie galas and skiing in glamorous resorts. It's all very Slim Aarons, and the Budapest home which they kept is a museum of their global travels and life well lived.

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