Pierre Yovanovitch Masters the Art of Swedish Alpine Aesthetics, and Other News

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Pierre Yovanovitch Masters the Art of Swedish Alpine Aesthetics

In the late 1920s, the Swedish design visionary Axel Einar Hjorth pioneered sportstugemöbler, an aesthetic of finely crafted pine cabin furniture that made use of simple yet robust geometries and upheld traditional Swedish craftsmanship. Progressive in style for its time, the range was marketed primarily to the forward-looking upper class and their rural vacation homes. It was only manufactured in limited numbers and produced until the early 1950s, relegated to obscurity following his 1959 death from a sudden illness.

Despite its obscurity, sportstugemöbler recently captured the attention of Pierre Yovanovitch, the French interior designer known for imbuing historic spaces with contemporary panache by means of vintage furnishings and museum-worthy artwork. At Nomad St. Moritz in Samedan, Switzerland, through March 6, his newly launched furniture line Pierre Yovanovitch Mobilier is debuting a collection of sofas, chairs, and lighting directly inspired by the movement that’s situated within three artful vignettes that recreate the ambience of an alpine lodge. 

“In many ways, this show reflects the essence of my approach in that it focuses on the use of vernacular materials to create modern, yet light-hearted furniture and lighting,” Yovanovitch says. “It’s a celebration of the alpine aesthetic, but deeper inspiration comes from my longtime love for the Swedish Grace movement of the 1920s of which Hjorth, and his sportstugemöbler aesthetic, were the cornerstone.” Highlights include the oak-backed Mindy Sofa and Eloi Chair, the wood-based Hexa Chair offered in a vintage tapestry fabric, and a gouged wood floor lamp with a flared lampshade. Also on view are handcrafted desk accessories—cigar boxes and trays made of Vosges oak and a hornbeam mirror among them—designed in collaboration with Dior Maison that celebrate the French house’s signature savoir-faire.

Soho House Nashville opens with one of Tennessee’s largest local art collections. 

Inhabiting a former pre-war sock factory that once made socks for astronauts that went to the moon, the 47-room property is outfitted with a music room, wellness space, and the brand’s signature Cecconi’s restaurant.. Displayed everywhere from the health club to the stairwells, the art collection encompasses 170 works by 41 Tennessean artists such as Yanira Vissepo, Eden Anyabwile, and Noah Saterstrom.  “When you stay here, you’re in a place that’s full of people from Nashville,” says CEO Nick Jones. “When I travel, the people are as important as the buildings and the history….That’s the reason why I do this — to see a full room of people smiling, laughing, having fun, having a great conversation, and just being happy.”

A cargo ship carrying $155 million worth of luxury cars sinks after a massive fire.

The ship that caught fire this past month in the Atlantic Ocean on its way to Rhode Island has officially sunk 220 nautical miles off the coast of Portugal’s Azores Islands. Onboard, a load of luxury cars from brands such as Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi, and Lamborghini totals to at least $155 million in losses.

Richard Hunt will create a sculpture for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. 

The Obama Foundation has tapped Richard Hunt, one of the nation’s foremost African American sculptors, to create an artwork for the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, Chicago. The sculpture, called Book Bird, depicts a bird emerging with upright wings out of a book, and will be installed in the reading garden outside of a Chicago Public Library Branch. Hunt, who was raised on the city’s South Side and whose mother was a librarian, describes the bird ascending from the book as “a symbol of things expanding, rising up.” 

Polette’s new Paris showroom is an ode to one of the city’s most famous attractions. 

Designed by Amsterdam-based architectural firm zU-studio, the pared-down monochrome space is punctuated with a massive upside statue of the Louvre Pyramid that also symbolizes the band upending the world of optometry with stylish frames starting at around $15. 

Bjarke Ingels Group’s first metaverse building will be an innovation lab for Vice Media.

Bjarke Ingels Group has officially entered the metaverse by designing a virtual office and innovation lab for Vice Media Group. Located on the Decentraland platform in a giant white building with an undulating facade, “Viceverse” will allow staffers to work on various Web 3.0 projects. “It’s an extremely organic building—we can install an entire floor in a day—so we see it as an experimental playground and a canvas on which to build,” Morten Grubak, global executive creative director of innovation at Vice Media’s creative agency Virtue Futures, told Dezeen. “Teams can experiment with NFTs, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), and Web 3.0, applying insights directly for brands eager to make an impact.” 

Today’s attractive distractions:

An innovative new spacecraft will track inclement weather on Earth and in space.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s social media dispatches take place near a Gaudí-like church.

A documentary about Andy Warhol will be narrated by a deepfake of his voice.

Public chargers fueled an electric coach bus from the Bay Area to Seattle and back.