Marcel Wanders is very busy from the West to the East and he is getting ready to come to Milano for the Design Week.
With Wanders&Yoo he just announced the project of a residential complex in Panama and in the meantime he has been working on a XXI century Mosque in the Emirates for the future. But Salone del Mobile is less than one month away (April 17/22) and all his attention (and ours) at the moment is focused on Milano, where Marcel Wanders is coming with a rich variety of new proposals, partners and events. First of all with a revolutionary concept for Moooi “Through The Eyes Of…” and the temporary “Museum of Extinct Animals”.
We quickly caught the Dutch designer in Milano on a recent business trip, for a round-up on his new and upcoming adventures and a sneak peek of his Salone del Mobile presentations.
First of all Marcel, how about the Hyde residential project you just announced for Panama?
I was there just a few weeks ago, it’s an amazing project! We are doing it together with Yoo, a London-based residential and hotel company that also works with Philippe Starck and other names for interior design. Together we made an exceptional high-rise building, that is super beautiful and in a super exciting city; I am much inspired by the local atmosphere and nature: it’s going to be amazing. A certain number of apartments has already been sold, way more than they expected, so it’s going really well.
When will it be ready?
I think in two years.
What is your idea of home?
If you had asked me this question 20 years ago I would have said “We want houses to be personal and very much an expression of ourselves”. But now I also see the house more and more as the place where we make friends and build a community; so, the public areas are becoming bigger. In Hyde Panama, we made a super nice lobby, there is a pool, there is a gym, a cinema, all that kind of amenities that normally you don’t have in a house. I do see a big change on what we should expect for living in the future.
What do you wish for?
I want to create a world with objects and surroundings that are human, more romantic and less sterile. I do feel that we have come through a long period of minimalism and rationalism. As humans, we are not so rationalist as we think we are. I think our biggest quality is indeed that we are human, truly human: if our biggest quality would be rationality, we would lose our soul… The only way forward is to be truly human and not purely rational. I believe that it has to do with our creative spirit, our soul, and that is my main inspiration and drive: who we want be and how we want to live together.
You are known as a very audacious spirit… it said that Audacious could be your middle name!
I am trying to live and also design in that way, you know... I take risks, I don’t want to make life too easy, I also want to be straightforward; I want to say what I feel, and I want to express what I think is right, even though I might find out in the process that I am wrong. I want to live in the moment, I want to make sure I follow my heart, that’s what I think is very important for who I am and also for what we are doing in the studio.
We can feel this courage and exuberance in everything you do. The New York Times has dubbed you as the “Lady Gaga of Design”.
I have a long list of how people call me: “The Prince of Design”, “Beethoven of Design”, “the Dutch Prince of Design” and the list goes on and on and on… and also the “Lady Gaga of Design”! I am fine with it. I think she is an amazing character who has,innovated the music scene, and is respected by so many people; she is surprising. I think she is an amazing artist! But if you want to really know what it means, I don’t know. Again, people have called me in many ways, but I am trying to make my own way. The comparison with Lady Gaga is fine and fun, she is an innovator and I want to be an innovator.
Let’ go back to your current projects. Following the innovation that is in your blood, what comes next?
We are doing a lot of new projects at the moment and a lot of things will be launched in Milano and obviously, as you know… very secret!
Marcel no! Come on!
Some little previews...We will do a fantastic project with Moooi (Marcel Wanders is Cofounder and Artistic Director for this label, editor’s note), we will be as usual in Via Savona 56 but will show ourselves in a very different way. Let’s say, we will look at Moooi through the eyes of others, and I think that is a very interesting new idea for the brand; and in parallel, we will have another presentation, we will have a little museum, a museum of extinct animals…
Sounds very extravagant! Something more about it?
It’s still part of the Moooi presentation, and I am super happy to be back in Milano. It’s a concept of a Museum of Extinct Animals, just for 5 days… We will surprise you.
And what else are you bringing to Milano?
I will be presenting with several brands and companies. We will launch a new piece for Louis Vuitton’s “Objets Nomades” collection. Then Alessi, Laufen, Roche Bobois, Vondom… and also a project with Natuzzi.
How about Natuzzi? if I am not wrong, it’s your first time with them.
Correct. We have created two collections, ’Agronomist’ and the ‘Oceanographer’, truly inspired by the Puglia region, home to Natuzzi. As you were saying, it’s the first time I collaborate with them. I felt it was truly an honour and also our responsibility to really bring the parts of the surrounding areas into the design. When we are able to incorporate the local culture and natural beauty of a region it allows the furniture to then create a sense of the place.
You and Milano: what is your relationship with Salone del Mobile? Your debut was?
I have been presenting since 1996, so 22 years now, but actually I have been coming to Salone since 1988. I first presented the “Knotted Chair” with Droog Design. Salone del Mobile is a lot of parties and friends, like for the New Year, we make resolutions to ourselves and in a certain way we celebrate with a lot of champagne like at the end of the year! I really feel that way.
I heard that you were living in Milano for a year, is that rumor true?
Correct. It was in 2016.
You moved here on business?
I actually had no reason, for a few years in a row I have lived in a few different places in the world. I just thought it was fun to do it. I lived in San Francisco for a year, in 2017 I was in Budapest, the year before in Milano. I think it’s good to live in different parts of the world and now I am back in Amsterdam but I might go somewhere else next.
And how was Milano?
Milano is amazing! Milano is a really cool city and I think the energy that today it has is super nice. My time was amazing. I do think Milano is in a good state, absolutely.
At imm Cologne you received the award “Designer of the Year 2018” in recognition of your life’s work. The jury said: “He always knew that design needs sensuality, opulence, fun, entertainment”.
First of all, let me say, I am super happy that after such a long time, almost 30 years of work, I got this award from Germany; we are neighbors, but you know, German design and my design are not neighbors, so for me to receive this award in Germany is something spectacular. Then, actually you should ask them about those four words…! I am not disagreeing, but I wouldn’t use them to describe my own work, but I respect the jury of course.
Marcel, but sensuality actually can be a keyword in your work.
There is physicality in my work, I don’t use geometry because of the fakeness of geometry; I use shape because it tells a story and it tells something that is hopefully important to us. So, some of the work I do has that kind of interest in being effectively an embodiment of something real, something human as we were saying before, so it has some warmth in it, it’s sexy sometimes. There is that kind of idea in my work, and in some works it is very relevant, so that’s why I think people make this statement.
Any secret dream or project that you haven’t yet made come true?
I have been working on a project for 6 years, and for sure it’s going to last another 2. I decided I would like to make a new contemporary visual language for the Middle East. They have their own language, their own design geometry as we know, and throughout the years they have made spectacular things that today we don’t really know how to do it anymore. It’s funny we always think we are so amazing in the West; I think Islamic art is so beautiful, and I want to see how we can take it further in a more innovative and contemporary way by using computational design for it.
Would you explain it better?
I am developing two software programs for this purpose that will lead me hopefully to design a Mosque, which is what I want to do. So, I have been speaking about it for 6 years, and, coincidentally or maybe not coincidentally, two months ago I finally got a request from the Middle East to do a Mosque for them. I am super happy, so finally the Mosque will start to be developed. This is a dream that has not come true yet, but the first step has been taken. It’s a long way, but we will do it.
Super congratulations, it sounds super exciting and a big adventure! Speaking of the Middle East, last December you designed the Mondrian Hotel in Doha.
It’s amazing working there. I have been invited by Sheikh Majed al Sabah from Kuwait. Ten years ago he asked me to design a wonderful shop in Bahrain and we drove through the country. After that, I got the commission for the Doha Mondrian Hotel that took me a while to complete and in the meantime, I really fell in love with the culture and the people. I think it’s an amazing world, which deserves our respect. I have friendly relationships there that started with mutual respect. I want to do something absolutely unique! I have seen some Mosques done by people from the West, but they are made in typical Western design, so I would love to make something that really has their language and is made for them, but in a new and more contemporary way.
So maybe Marcel after Milano and San Francisco now you should go East now to live!
OK, I will do it!
