FROM THE ARCHIVE: Don of contemporary furniture Giulio Cappellini has had a decades-long career helming the family business. The architect, art director, and talent scout of international design excellence focuses on real products, not on lifestyle.
The utter abstractness of a Mark Rothko canvas or the shocking sparseness of a Donald Judd installation may seem like odd inspiration for a modular kitchen system. Minimalist art, after all, is by its very nature impractical. Our cook spaces, on the other hand, have to perform a multitude of hard, fast, and often messy functions.
The notion that great minds think alike does not apply to this selection of architects and designers. As we bring our 15th anniversary celebration to a close this week, we revisit the people, and stories, behind the spaces we’ve featured over the years.
For Toronto-born, now Tokyo-based Oki Sato, design solutions tell stories. While the use of manmade objects and spaces risks becoming mundane when unimaginative and repetitive, Sato believes that these everyday items and environments have the potential to create meaningful experiences. His designs, as a result, merge utility with quirkiness and charm.
