Orior Launches a Playful Collection of Small Homewares, and Other News

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By Launching a Small Homewares Collection, Orior Fine-Tunes Its Focus

Over the past few years, Orior has become well-known as a go-to purveyor of expertly crafted furniture that lends a contemporary sheen to classic silhouettes—think curvaceous ‘70s-inflected sofas upholstered in louche velvets and Irish marble credenzas equipped with olive-colored suede doors. To complement its existing furniture collection, the Northern Irish design brand is launching Objects, a series of limited-edition homewares that sees creative director Ciaran McGuigan translate his design sensibilities to a smaller scale. 

The six-piece collection debuts with a magazine holder, bowl, vase, bookends, candle holder, and small tabletop sculpture fashioned using offcut stones and marbles from Orior’s stock inventory. McGuigan describes Objects as a natural extension of the studio’s existing catalog, carefully reinterpreting familiar motifs like bullnose shapes and tube-like structures that may also inform future collections. 

“In designing Objects, we found an opportunity to give life to the digital sketches that are informing our furniture,” McGuigan tells Surface. “We already were exploring the idea of upcycling our off-cuts, and since we use such beautiful stones in our collection—many of which are sourced locally in Ireland—it felt natural to create small-scale pieces from excess material. Each of the Objects is unique, with every shape offered once in each of the stones, so while they are more accessible than our furniture, they are equally as rare and special.”

Agrotopia, billed as Europe’s largest “rooftop greenhouse” has opened in Belgium. 

Housed on the rooftop of a local vegetable and fruit cooperative, Agrotopia is billed as the largest research center for urban horticulture in Europe. Van Bergen Kolpa Architects and META Architectuurbureau are behind the steel-and-glass complex in Roeselare, Belgium, which harbors high-tech research facilities to cultivate fruits and vegetables, including a double-height conservatory for vertical cultivation. “The innovative building is an example for future food production in the city, intensive use of space, circular energy and water use, and making greenhouse horticulture more sustainable,” states the architectural team.      

An abandoned Hudson Valley zoo may become a massive residential development.

In 1933, New York banker Roland Lindemann established the Catskill Game Farm, a menagerie that at the time was a simple barnyard petting zoo. The operation expanded considerably over the years, soon becoming a major tourist destination and drawing 500,000 visitors per year before closing for good in 2006. The 200-acre swath of land recently hit the market and is likely to be transformed into housing. “The real value for this property is because of the lack of residential housing [in the region], and all the people moving up here,” Jason Karadus of Corcoran Country Living told the Times-Union. “I’d be surprised if the purchaser isn’t going to develop it as residential housing.” 

A studio residency at the World Trade Center will host formerly incarcerated artists.

This spring, Silver Art Projects is opening applications for its third round of year-long residencies at the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan. Several of the 25 available spots, which will offer free studio space, stipends, and mentorship starting in June, will be reserved for artists reentering life from prison. “It just made sense to bring in formerly incarcerated artists as a focused community that could be working alongside all the other marginalized communities we bring together,” Joshua Pulman, who co-founded Silver Art Projects with Cory Silverstein (grandson of WTC developer Larry Silverstein) in 2018.

Studio OOAK transports the Mediterranean to a new restaurant in Washington D.C. 

Washington D.C.’s West End neighborhood has a dreamy new dining room whose immaculate interiors are as tasteful as the Mediterranean and Latin American mashups on the menu. With photographer and art director Yiorgos Kordakis lending his eye, Greek-Swedish studio OOAK Architects’s laced Imperfecto in blues, whites, and a mixed material palette incorporating terracotta, marble, and wood. In the lobby bar, handmade ceramic pieces by artist Melina Xenaki, crimson stools, and Kordakis’s cerulean-hued mural-photograph of a Greek quarry pop against a stark powder-white backdrop. In the main dining room, wooden tables and chairs covered in Kvadrat fabric sit beneath drop-shaped lighting fixtures by Swedish artist Simon Klenell whose warm glow recalls the sun over the Aegean Sea.  

The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood unveils a giant abstract painting of his band.

Though most people know him as the guitarist of The Rolling Stones, few know that Ronnie Wood can also paint. The musician recently unveiled a giant abstract painting of his band on the corner of Wood Lane and Ariel Way in Shepherd’s Bush, London, that’s based on Pablo Picasso’s The Three Dancers. It depicts him on stage with bandmates Charlie Watts, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, who conspicuously lacks any form of clothing. “It’s great because they finally discovered I can paint,” Wood told the Associated Press. “Nobody knows I can paint, so we’ve got to make sure that people realize I can. It’s a good form of expression.” 

OpenSea quickly reverses a decision that limits how many NFTs users can create.

After users decried OpenSea’s decision that limited how many NFTs users can create, the popular online marketplace has reversed course. The update would limit each user to five collections that number no more than 50 NFTs, meaning 250 in total. (For comparison, the Bored Ape Yacht Club has around 10,000.) Most users complained they were given no prior warning to the rule, noting they had spent months preparing and minting assets for the collection. In a statement announcing the reversal of the new rule, OpenSea said the limit was originally instituted to prevent theft. “We originally built our shared storefront contract to make it easy for creators to onboard into the space,” the statement reads. ”However, we’ve recently seen misuse of this feature increase exponentially. Over 80 percent of the items created with this tool were plagiarized works, fake collections, and spam.” 

Today’s attractive distractions:

Universal may have plans for an immersive Pokémon-themed amusement park.

Architect Amaylit Dugarte rides into Paipa, Colombia, with a bike-shaped park.

Hermès’s latest dining set will brighten your table with white-and-yellow hues. 

This iridescent cocktail dress made from 2,000 pennies is worth more than $20.