The Gardens of the Sky and the Plants of the Salone del Mobile in Milan

AD CORE DEVISE DESIGNER COLUMN Vol.181 The Milan Design Week report we held recently was viewed by over 1500 people, the highest number of participants for a web-based event to date. This time it was also held as a Zoom webinar, and we were encouraged by the feedback we received in the survey that the photos were beautiful and easy to understand. Some people pointed out that the image quality was poor, but this was because some viewers were using browsers other than Zoom software, so we hope you will enjoy the next event using Zoom software. This Milan report showed us 30 events with nearly 500 images, all of which were photos I took myself and then edited. While organizing the images, I compared the photos I took during Milan Design Week with snapshots I took walking around the city after it ended, and I noticed the abundance of greenery on the upper floors of apartment buildings in Milan. In this column, I will talk about the plants displayed during the Milan events and the plants in those apartment buildings. Every year I've walked around Milan for Design Week, navigating the 650 venues within the city with a map (now Google Maps on my smartphone) in hand, pushing myself to the limits like a full marathon, so I never had the luxury of looking up. This time, after Design Week had ended and I was walking through the quiet streets, I happened to look up at the raindrops falling on the road and realized they were coming from the plants on the balconies of the upper floors of apartment buildings. As I started paying attention to what was above me, I realized that there was surprisingly a lot of greenery in downtown Milan, which I had thought had little green space outside of parks. And as I started looking up as I walked around the city, I noticed that there were many beautiful balconies visible from below, and many penthouses with lots of greenery. Speaking of Milan, the "Vertical Forest," a tower apartment building designed by Stefano Boeri and completed in 2014, is famous, but when it was completed, there were doubts about whether plants could grow there given the difficulty of maintenance and Milan's winter environment. However, nearly 10 years later, this Vertical Forest has grown so lush that maintenance can barely keep up. In April in Milan, the streets are lined with "pioppo" (European poplar), a type of poplar tree, and their fluffy pollen is in the air. Usually, the Salone del Mobile is at the beginning of April, so I don't notice it much, but since it was closer to the end of April, the pollen was so thick that you could see it in the air, and even I, who don't usually suffer from severe hay fever, got a bad case of it in Milan. After Milan Design Week ended, and there was some rain, the pollen subsided, so I had more time to look at the buildings and was able to see the upper floors. In the old town, there are no street trees or gardens facing the road, so perhaps people place plants there to soothe their homes, but I thought that this might only be possible for people with the financial means to live in high-end apartment buildings, especially penthouses or those with large balconies. The wealthy people who live on the upper floors of the city center may be cultivating these plants to enjoy their lives, but it is certain that they provide a good view not only from the street but also for those in the buildings in front of their homes. I couldn't tell what kind of plants they were from so far up, but they brightened up the city, which has many historical and dark buildings. As I walked down the street, I recalled how sparse the plants were in the booths at this year's Milan Salone Fiera and in the showrooms around the city. Plants are an important decorative element in interiors and change with the times, but there were no plants in the showrooms of famous furniture brands that had opened in the city. While plants take up space and make the space feel smaller, the space felt sterile. On the other hand, I felt that there were fewer plants at the Fiera as well. However, high-end brands that seemed to have more resources had plants, using them as part of their interiors. The popularity of tropical plants such as Monstera continues, and there were many plants that take up space as their leaves quickly grow out of the pot, such as ferns and Areca palms. On the other hand, rubber trees and Benjamin figs seem to be remnants of the interior design boom of the 1970s to 90s. The current trend in interior design is eclectic style, where vintage, contemporary, and personal items are layered together, and uniform interiors that are simply assembled based on trends are becoming less popular. Is the same true for houseplants? Rather than gathering plants of uniform species, the current trend in plant arrangements seems to be to skillfully surround a central plant with other species. This moderately relaxed arrangement likely contributes to the relaxing atmosphere. The plants in our Roppongi showroom have also grown considerably. The Monstera that we had in our Hiroo office has grown so large that it now exceeds our height, and its shiny leaves are now on display in the showroom. The Ficus has also been repotted and has grown a bit larger. The Phalaenopsis orchids placed at the base of the showroom, which we received as a gift when we opened, have also started to bloom after being repotted. Please come and see them in the showroom, along with the plants in the courtyard. (Creative Director, Noboru Seto)

The true face of Milan

AD CORE DEVISE DESIGNER COLUMN Vol.180 I went to Milan Design Week again this April. I've been going to Milan Salone since I was 24, so that makes it 40 years now. Initially, it was the International Furniture Fair held at Fiera Milano City, a trade fair venue near the city center, conveniently located just 7 stops from the Duomo. It was held in September at that venue, and I remember the last year I went it was as hot as midsummer, with no air conditioning, and the halogen lights illuminating the booths made the inside of the building feel like a sauna. (Back then, it was common for shops in Milan not to have air conditioning.) Since 2005, it has been held at the current Fiera Milano Rho, on the outskirts of Milan, which relieved us from the heat, but it's now 17 subway stops and about 30 minutes further from the Duomo, and the venue is huge, making it difficult to walk around. Since then, various events have been held in the Tortona area, which is a former factory site, and in the city center of Milan, attracting people from all over the world. The Milan Furniture Fair (Salone del Mobile) is known as one of the two major furniture fairs, along with the Cologne International Furniture Fair held in Cologne, Germany. The kitchen exhibition held concurrently is now held biennially in Italy and Germany, and in the years when the kitchen exhibition is held at the Milan Furniture Fair, many interior designers attend. In recent years, this joint kitchen exhibition with Germany has begun to break down, and German kitchen brands have started to focus on showroom exhibitions in Milan and no longer exhibit at the Fiera. As a result, the space inside the venue has been left unused year after year, and this year the aisles were widened and curtains were hung to hide the extra space. The same was true for the lighting exhibition last year. The same is true for furniture brands; many major brands that exhibited at the Fiera have opened showrooms in the city and established permanent exhibitions, and the number of major manufacturers that used to visit 10 years ago has been halved. This is because they have judged that it is more cost-effective to open showrooms in the city than to pay the soaring exhibition fees and set up huge booths at the trade fair venue. In the past, buyers from all over the world gathered at the exhibition, where they tried to generate a year's worth of sales in just one week. Both buyers and sellers were serious about the event, and the intense sales-oriented atmosphere was palpable during the first three days of buyer days (when the general public was not allowed). Now, major brands have agents in their respective global regions, and franchise agencies in major cities, making new sourcing impossible. With communication and payment easily handled online, the exhibition's presentation style has shifted from being buyer-centric to a platform for showcasing an image to the user. This focus on image presentation has attracted crowds, and city events have taken advantage of this, turning the period into a design festival. There are now many brand advertising events, including installations beyond furniture brands, which have attracted large crowds and led to soaring hotel prices. The rising travel costs during Salone in recent years have been a problem, but this year, with the yen depreciating and the euro rising by about 20%, the hotel I've been staying at for the past few years, which cost around 60,000 yen per night two years ago, rose to 93,000 yen last year, and is now over 120,000 yen. The current price is exorbitant compared to 15 years ago when our company was running Milan Salone tours and the price was around 20,000 yen. Therefore, this year we changed the itinerary from the usual three-day stay starting on Wednesday to Friday through Sunday, which are general public days, to make hotel costs a little cheaper. (The price for Sunday, the last day, is halved.) I also decided to extend my stay by three days to see what the city is like after the Salone period. It was my first time visiting Milan on the last day, Sunday, and my first time seeing Milan after the Salone period had ended in the 40 years I've been coming here. On the last day, Sunday, the lines for the fashion brand events were so long that I gave up on getting in, but the showrooms of famous furniture brands, which are also well-known in Japan, were deserted. It seems that ordinary citizens aren't interested in furniture showrooms. At the same hotel, where the price for accommodation was reduced to 1/5 from Monday, the breakfast area suddenly became crowded. During the Salone period, the seats were never full, but it was bustling with regular business people. Admittedly, I can't afford to spend more than 100,000 yen on hotel accommodations for business trips, and the hotel I stayed at was a typical Japanese business hotel, usually used by business travelers. I was surprised when I walked around the city after Salone ended; the bustling streets were deserted, and there were no entry restrictions at the furniture and kitchen brand showrooms. I just walked in through the empty entrances, and inside there were only a few staff members working at their usual leisurely pace. I could look around, sit down, and take pictures to my heart's content. The popular kitchen brand in Brera also had long lines during Salone, and for the past few years I'd given up on even seeing it, or if I could get in it, it was so crowded I couldn't even take pictures. But where had all that hustle and bustle gone? I had only ever known Milan during Design Week, but this was the first time I'd seen it so quietly. From next year, I think I'll visit places other than showrooms during Salone, and then visit the showrooms after it's over. New products are still on display, and you can leisurely look at the interiors and products. While it's nice to see festival-like installations, when I consider whether they'll be useful for my work, I think I could spend my time more meaningfully than seeing the fun, expo-style exhibits that are only enjoyable for a limited time. If fewer people go during the event, hotel prices might go down a bit too... Anyway, this year's Milan Design Week report will have many photos taken in relaxed spaces, so I think it will be a very worthwhile report. Stay tuned! (Noboru Seto, Creative Director)

The price of the most famous house in the world

AD CORE DEVISE DESIGNER COLUMN Vol.179 An interior design magazine mentioned that the Stahl House in Hollywood, Los Angeles, is up for sale for $25 million. The Stahl House, designed by Pierre Koenig and photographed by Julius Schulman, is one of the most famous houses in the world and is also known as Case Study House #22. In 1954, Buck Stahl, a former professional football player and sign painter, purchased a vacant lot near his home in the Hollywood Hills for $13,500 and began preparing the land himself for construction. In 1957, he commissioned young architect Pierre Koenig to design and build the house. Construction began in September 1959 and was completed in May 1960, with construction costs of $34,000 and the pool costing $3,651. When I first visited the house for location scouting in 2006, his wife was still living there and in good health. The couple told me that when they built this house, they acquired it cheaply in a place nobody would even look at, had trouble getting construction vehicles in, and had to level the ground themselves because they didn't have much money. They also said that the building itself cost only $30,000. The Stahl House, built as the 22nd house in the "Case Study House" program, an experimental housing construction program organized by the American architectural magazine "Arts and Architecture" to introduce the appeal of inexpensive prefabricated housing to the American middle class, was photographed by photographer Julius Schulman immediately after its completion and became famous as the world's most famous house, known for its sense of openness and views of Hollywood. I heard stories from the wife about the construction process, how it feels to live in, and her fond memories of it being used in various magazines, movies, and TV dramas. Because of the large glass area, it was cold in winter, the afternoon sun was hot in summer, and the sound of the roof when it rained was loud, so when they first moved in, it was not comfortable at all. However, he laughed as he told us that it was also fun because it became famous through Shulman's book on architecture, and he got to meet celebrities during various photo shoots. After his wife passed away, his son inherited the house and opened it to the public on a paid, reservation-only basis, and we have guided several clients there on our architectural tours. Each time we visited, it seemed to get neater, but with the sponsorship of a local furniture store, generic mid-century furniture and other outdated pieces were being placed inside, and we realized that a house loses its reality when it is no longer lived in. When Mrs. Stahl lived there, it had just the right amount of openness... It seems that his sister and her husband own it now. Living in a house completed in 1960 for nearly 50 years is rare in America, where people move around a lot, and it may be truly rare for a Koenig building to remain unrenovated and continue to be lived in by a single owner. The fact that this house, in its original condition, was put up for sale became a hot topic in the architectural industry. Upon investigating who held the sales rights, it turned out to be The Agency, a real estate group that sells luxury homes, and a group company of Blair Chan, who had assisted me on my West Coast architectural tour. When it was put on the market at the end of last year, the price was $25 million (approximately 4 billion yen), but it has now dropped to $20 million (32 billion yen). This house is designated as a historic building in Los Angeles, and renovations are restricted, but its originality from when it was built is considered valuable, and it is attracting attention from art collectors, just like paintings and other works of art. If the deal goes through, it may become the most expensive 2LDK house in the world, with a land area of ​​1,133 square meters/343 tsubo and a building area of ​​204 square meters. The Bailey House, Case Study House #21 designed and built by Pierre Koenig, which I visited the year before last, was a slightly smaller house, but it was sold in 2006 to a Korean female art collector for $318 million, which was the second most expensive modern house at the time and was said to be a turning point in architecture being traded as art. In recent years, the selling price of famous buildings has reached $20 million, comparable to that of works of art. Unlike art, however, they are subject to high fixed costs such as property taxes and fire insurance, making them more expensive than works of art... I will be attending the Milan Salone again this year. The 1970s were very popular due to the American-originated interior design trend, but I wonder what kind of proposals will be made this year. I think the direction of sales will have shifted from previous important clients such as the Middle East, which is affected by the Iran War, and China, which is experiencing an economic downturn. Although airfares have nearly doubled due to the suspension of flights through the Middle East, the hotel I booked for December has vacancies and is less than half the price of last year, suggesting that the number of visitors has decreased considerably. This year's Milan Salone has seen an increase in admission fees to the exhibition halls, but with the decrease in major brands, I feel that it's time for those attending to consider whether it's still an event worth going to. I am considering a report seminar, so please look forward to it! (Creative Director Noboru Seto)

Are digital cameras no longer necessary?

AD CORE DEVISE DESIGNER COLUMN Vol.178 I recently switched to the latest iPhone 17 Pro. Perhaps because it's been evolving gradually, I haven't felt like there's been a dramatic change in the last few years. However, with the iPhone 17, the camera function has improved even further, and I feel that my DSLR camera is becoming less and less necessary. For the past few years, I've only used my DSLR camera for studio photography for print catalogs or as a selfie camera for web seminars. I remember first using an iPhone was the second-generation iPhone 3G in 2008. Am I the only one who thinks it's only been 16 years since the excitement of first touching an iPhone...? Before that, I carried a flip phone and sent short messages with just text using button operation, but it was very convenient, and although the screen was small, I was happy to look at the photos I took, and I thought that a flip phone that fit in my pocket was the best. The iPhone changed things dramatically. The large touch-sensitive screen was revolutionary, and I was amazed that I could send PC emails and search the internet, and that I could have a computer the size of my own. That said, the iPhone 3G had 8GB of storage, a fixed-focus 2-megapixel camera (the iPhone 17 has 48 megapixels), no zoom, flash, autofocus, or image stabilization, and couldn't even shoot video. The cameras on other companies' flip phones were still superior. At that time, the camera used for overseas coverage, such as at the Milan Salone, was the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX3, a high-end compact digital camera with 10 megapixels and image stabilization, making it several steps ahead in terms of camera functionality. Even so, when taking photos of dimly lit interiors or at exhibitions like the Milan Salone, you had to keep your arm still and move the camera as little as possible to get a clear picture, otherwise you'd end up with a dark, blurry image. Compact digital cameras have since evolved with the development of mirrorless SLR cameras and other technologies that improve image quality with optical and digital image stabilization, and the iPhone's camera functionality still lags behind. Initially, the iPhone camera was like an afterthought, but the evolution of the iPhone camera continued. From the iPhone 6s in 2015, it reached 12 megapixels, finally catching up with digital cameras. Then, from the Pro series starting with the iPhone 11 Pro in 2019, Night Mode was added, and the image quality dramatically improved with three lenses: ultra-wide, wide, and telephoto. Apple used advertising photos taken with an iPhone as part of their "Shot on iPhone" campaign. I learned this from graphic designer Hiroshi Takahara, who accompanied us on a catalog shoot on the West Coast of the United States in 2017. In Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Takahara's daughter's American husband, who was in charge of Apple's global advertising campaign and was the person who designed those monochrome advertisements. Until then, I thought that photos taken with an iPhone were not suitable for printing, so my perception changed when I learned that those vivid and impressive photo advertisements were not fakes and were actually taken with an iPhone 6. I myself started using iPhone photos for interviews from the iPhone 11 Pro in 2019. Even when shooting indoors, it can capture bright and wide images, comparable to the photos taken with the mirrorless SLR I was using at the time. The sharpness of the shadows and the contrast when viewed on a monitor or projector made it suitable for interior photography. Also, the ultra-wide-angle shots that were distorted around the edges on my digital camera were naturally corrected on the iPhone. This is because the iPhone itself has PC-like correction functions to make photos look good. The camera function of the iPhone 17 that I recently acquired has evolved even further, and what surprised me the most was the addition of a dedicated camera button. In my iPhone interior photography seminar, I mentioned that the volume buttons on the side of the screen can be used as a shutter button, but now there is a lightly pressed shutter button on the left side, and this button can be used for zoom, depth of field, exposure, and focus lock. I thought, "This one device is all I need." The photo editing software on the iPhone 17 has also evolved. I used to use Snapseed, which is distributed for free by Google and can be used on the iPhone, or Photoshop on my PC, but now it is possible to correct perspective and delete unwanted parts, so I thought this one device would be sufficient. The Milan Furniture Fair will be held from April 21st. I've been visiting Milan since 1986, 40 years ago. Back then, I would bring a paper map and a film camera that could only take a maximum of 36 photos. Lately, however, I use my iPhone to check Google Maps, and I can do all my work, interviews, and photo editing with just this one device. Plus, I save everything to iCloud, so even if it gets stolen, I know I'll still have the images. It really is a convenient age. But photography is all about composition, so try to keep your photos as horizontal and vertical as possible! (Noboru Seto, Creative Director)