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DOMESTIC LIFE DESIGN GARDENING D.I.Y.

Drawn by the beaches andethereal light, a family buildsan offbeat island home. Page 4.

The LureOf the Hebrides

DAVID BARBOUR

By STEVEN KURUTZ

LOS ANGELES — New arrivals to this cityare often told by locals to hop in the carand take Sunset Boulevard to the PacificOcean. It is a beautiful drive, world fa-mous. It is also an initiation into the Cali-fornia myth without the downsides: youglide past the traffic-clogged 405 freeway,wind through rustic canyons where moviestars live and breathe in the ocean breezeswest of Brentwood, as if nature had pro-vided Angelenos with free air-condition-ing.

On this same stretch of road, the new-comer is sure to encounter some of thecity’s daring architecture. Just before Pa-cific Palisades proper, there is a curvedhill, and clinging to it, a house gingerly bal-anced on massive concrete stilts. The two-story, redwood-sheathed home appears tohover dangerously above the road. It is ar-chitecture that broadcasts, This is notCleveland. The out-of-towner looks up,considers earthquakes and shudders.

Thomas Carson, a Los Angeles architectwho admires the home’s engineering bra-vado, said it has become part of the sce-nery of this famous route. “Everybody

knows about it,” Mr. Carson said. “It’s oneof those iconic houses you first see whenyou’re driving west on Sunset.”

J. Scott Carter, a fellow architect, likenedit to another familiar Southern Californiasight. “It’s like a freeway overpass withthose concrete pillars,” he said, adding,“From below, you don’t get any sense ofsomebody being in the house.”

The home does have an air of mystery.

Its dramatic form and remote perch sug-gest the lair of a Bond villain or an agingHollywood producer-turned-recluse. It is astriking example of brutalism, yet it isn’tthe work of a renowned architect and does-n’t appear on greatest-hit lists of the city’smodernist masterworks.

While many are familiar it, Mr. Carsonsaid, “very few people know who did it.Even fewer know that the guy who lives init designed it.”

ONE AFTERNOON LAST FALL, RobertBridges sat in his kitchen high above Sun-set Boulevard, reflecting on his life and ca-reer. The room was bisected by a heavyCorbusian column and was man-cave-dark, and as he talked the faint whoosh oftraffic could be heard 100 feet below.

Mr. Bridges, 60, is a professor of real es-tate finance at the University of SouthernCalifornia, in the Marshall School of Busi-ness. But 30 years ago, he was a builderand architect who designed several homesaround Southern California, including thisone sited so precariously.

“I prefer ‘carefully,’” Mr. Bridges said.

WHO LIVES THERE

PHOTOGRAPHS BY TREVOR TONDRO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A Mystery at the BendClinging to a hill is a little-knownarchitect’s masterwork that looks as if itwere designed for a Bond villain.

The brutalist home cantilevered over SunsetBoulevard has become a landmark. “Every-body knows about it,” one architect said, but“very few people know who did it.”

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By JULIE LASKY

PARIS — On Sunday, the British designerTom Dixon was a guest of honor at a cock-tail party at Eclectic, a new restaurant inthe 15th Arrondissement here. Mr. Dixonhad designed the space, with his usual flairfor muscular materials (in this case, con-crete warmed by splashes of gleamingmetal). He was being feted by Maison etObjet, a trade fair held every January andSeptember, which had anointed him, alongwith Philippe Nigro of Paris and DimoreStudio of Milan, a “designer of the year.”

Maison et Objet, a five-day event thatended on Tuesday, is the pre-eminent de-sign show in France and results in a billioneuros a year worth of sales, said its manag-ing director, Philippe Brocart. It began 19years ago with a focus on tabletop goods —teapots, cutlery, vases — but has expandedto fill eight pavilions at a fairground nearCharles de Gaulle Airport with many otherkinds of objects for the home.

Sitting beneath a chandelier he had as-sembled for the restaurant from an enor-mous cluster of his perforated brass Celllamps, Mr. Dixon responded to a questionabout whether he was responsible for whatappeared to be an international design fix-ation on brass and copper. Every pavilionat the fair, including “Ethnic Chic” and“Now!” (the more experimental work),was rife with rosy and golden metals, beat-en, punctured and woven.

Those materials are seen as “an al-ternative to stainless steel,” Mr. Dixonsaid, adding that people are rebellingagainst the coldness of steel, just as they

THE DETAILS

THOMAS DUVAL

All that brass: Tom Dixon’s Cell lamps at thenew Eclectic restaurant in Paris.

Global DesignDu JourAt Maison et Objet, anemphasis on the young, asdesigners and customers.

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2 CURRENTS

Marcel Wanders’sgreatest hits, plantswith no inhibitionsand new sales.

4 SHOPPING

Containers that flatter your plants,even in winter.BY RIMA SUQI

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scorn other features of industrial modern-ism considered bland or anonymous. Steelwill always be hard and gray, but brassand copper are malleable and take on a pa-tina making them more distinctive withage.

They also mix well with new technology,he said. Incandescent bulbs make brasslamps uncomfortably hot, but LEDs lowerthe temperature. And the color of the met-al improves any harsh quality still found inLED light.

In his way, Mr. Dixon, through his mus-ings about metal, answered another ques-tion that this reporter had left unvoiced:Why go to France to see design trends thatare visible everywhere?

For one thing, you never know whereyou are going to find fresh ideas. Amongthe many copper objects at the fair was alamp called Light Drop, designed by TimBrauns of e27 studio in Berlin for Pulpo, aGerman company. The metal-mesh-and-glass lamp, Mr. Brauns said, is meant as acompanion for communing with ourscreens. “You don’t need much light withhand-held devices and TV,” he said, butneither do most of us want to sit in theglow of our electronics, so Light Drop pro-vides atmosphere. New technology hasgiven rise to a new typology.

Similarly, Prado, a sofa bed by ChristianWerner for the French company Ligne Ro-

set, is one of several recent designs pro-moting the idea that the family that surfstogether on individual devices needs a newstyle of furniture. The traditional couchthat is placed against a wall facing a televi-sion may now be less practical than thisbig, armless, backless surface punctuatedwith movable but stable backrests. Familymembers can sit or lounge on it, facing dif-ferent directions. Remove the cushionsand it becomes a bed.

And context is always instructive. Evenas design fairs grow more global (morethan half of Maison et Objet’s exhibitorsare international, and the show just an-nounced plans to travel to Singapore inMarch and to Miami next year), each fairhas its own character. This one offered aview of French designers who are mired ina depressed economy and searching forways to translate their elegance, rational-ity and humor into sellable objects.

“We still don’t have an industry, which isproblematic,” said the Paris designer Pat-rick Jouin. “Ligne Roset and Fermob,” headded, referring to the outdoor furniturecompany. “That’s it.”

It is a tribute to Mr. Jouin’s stature thatcommissions for him, at least, pour in fromaround the world. He recently introduced achair for the Italian company Pedrali, ren-ovated the lounge and restaurant of theBayerischer Hof hotel in Munich and redidthe Van Cleef & Arpels boutique in NewYork. At the same time, he is designing therestaurant and all the furniture for the newheadquarters of France’s Ministry of De-fense, a three-million-square-foot buildingin Paris that will house 10,000 workerswhen it opens next year.

Arik Levy, another French designer witha large international clientele, has beencollaborating with small companies incountries with developing design interests,like Turkey and the Czech Republic. His-torically, he said, France has paid more at-tention to fashion, perfume and wine thanindustrial design, and the neglect hasturned corrosive in the long economic mal-aise. “Design is based on entrepreneurialenergy,” he said. “We are all micro compa-nies. Financially, the situation in France iskilling every entrepreneurial initiative.”

But a lack of government support doesnot seem to have discouraged a growing

number of French designers, fresh out ofschool, from entrepreneurship. Youngcompanies with names like the Y’a Pas LeFeu Au Lac, slang for “no need to rush,”and Petite Friture, or “small fry,” showedpieces like cylindrical wooden containerswith architectural tops and a giant skeletalchandelier that rotated gently overhead.

This youthful independence is new, Mr.Jouin said. More typically, designers hereapprentice with established ones beforegoing out on their own. Mr. Jouin started inthe studio of Philippe Starck. “To createyour own company is normal for Ameri-cans,” he said. “Not for the French.”

And what of the giants? Pierre Roset,chief executive of Ligne Roset, described apractice, common among international de-sign producers, of spreading goods outonto a giant virtual carpet. The companyhas showrooms and distributors through-

out the world, and it is adapting popularproducts to the small-scaled homes of cit-ies like New York and San Francisco. (Itrecently introduced the luxuriant Ploumsofa, by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, as alove seat with the adorable presence of ababy hippo.)

And as it sees the age of its core consum-er rising well above 40, it is trying to lureintimidated younger consumers into thestore with furniture like the new Tarmacstorage system, by Dieter Zimmer andBurkhard Hess, which sells for less thanits usual fare.

“More and more, the young generationappreciates design and interiors prod-

ucts,” Mr. Roset said. “The problem forthem is the price.” He estimated that itwould cost less than $6,000 to outfit a roomwith Tarmac, and the buyers, he added,would be able to take the system withthem when they moved.

In the end, Maison et Objet was worththe visit if only for the pleasure of its sur-prises: antique saucers paired with gildedteacups that reflected the patterns (byRichard Brendon of London), a life-size si-sal dog sculpture designed as a scratchingpost for cats (by Erik Stehmann for theDutch studio Soonsalon), a table and chan-delier made of borosilicate laboratoryglass (by Studio deForm of Prague) and ahookah that is a stylized whirling dervish(by Karim Rashid for the Istanbul-basedGaia & Gino).

There was no shortage of vitality in thefairgrounds, much of it evident in the fer-ment of various styles. “I have two vi-sions: the French and the Italian,” said Mr.Nigro, the much-lauded designer, who wasborn in France but spent 12 years in theMilanese studio of Michele De Lucchi, afounder of Memphis. Mr. Nigro charac-terized his Italian side as spontaneous, ar-tistic and experimental, and his Frenchside as quiet and determined.

The enthusiasm of many of the otherFrench designers struck a similar note.That can-do spirit. That mix of influences.It felt almost . . . American.

THE DETAILS

Global Design du Jour

‘We still don’t havean industry, which isproblematic.’

At the Maison et Objet designshow in Paris, clockwise fromright: Patrick Jouin’s Grasstable for Coédition; Latticependant light by Neri & Hu forDe La Espada; Wrap objectsby SkLO; bone china teapotby Richard Brendon with Pat-ternity; porcelain spoon byIittala designed for the EastAsian market; Hooka hookahby Karim Rashid for Gaia &Gino; and Big Light Droplamp by e27 for Pulpo.

Counterclockwise from above:Borosilicate glass table andchandelier by Studio deFormwith Kavalier Design; radio byMathieu Lehanneur for Lex-on; My China! Ca’ d’Oro dish-es by Sieger by Fürstenberg;iteration of Patrick E. Nag-gar’s popular Drop light forVeronese; Influence silveredglass candleholders by ArikLevy for the Prague-basedVerreum; and the Ploum loveseat by Ronan and Erwan Bou-roullec for Ligne Roset.

Above, Botti floor lamp fromDelightfull; left, cup and 1894saucer from Richard Bren-don’s Reflect group; right,Dog scratching post by ErikStehmann for Soonsalon; topright, Pet Nic basket withfood and water dishes byMiriam Mirri for Alessi.

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CARLOS TEIXEIRA

N D7THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014

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