Portuguese Patterns by Nevoa

New Portuguese design brand Nevoa has launched a range of objects for the home combining traditional joinery with one of Portugal's Best Things Ever: tile patterns. Intricate patterns are screen printed on carefully made wooden boxes, frames, stools and more to create attractive contemporary items with traditional roots. I'm a particular fan of the geometric bookends (pictured at the bottom), but click through and maybe you'll find a favourite of your own...

LX Type

Lisbon is a city with a particular look, feel, colour palette and lifestyle: all of it beautiful and warm. One of the many things that gives the city character and charm is the tram system, particularly the old yellow trollies that rattle up and down Lisbon's many hills and through its rambling streets. Inspired not just by the trams themselves but the cables that interrupt the city's blue sky, Lisbon has a new typeface. LX Type is constructed from the tram's cables to create a distinct and individual typeface.

Sensing Spaces

Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined, curated by Kate Goodwin at the Royal Academy in London, runs until 6 April and is an ambitious exploration not just of contemporary international architecture but of how architecture can be exhibited. Taking the form of a series of site-specific responses to the Royal Academy's lush Beaux Arts interiors by seven architectural practices from around the world (including Grafton Architects from Ireland, pictured above and Álvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto de Moura from Portugal), the exhibition brings a slice of an international biennale or triennale to one of London's major art galleries.

Reimagining Traditions at LDF

This article was first published in Architecture Ireland #271.

From 14 to 22 September the 11th edition of London Design Festival proclaimed that 'Design is Everywhere' and it certainly seemed that for those 9 days it was. While in a showcase the size of LDF there is a myriad of projects, products and trends to be seen (here's a post about one of the highlights), one thing that struck me about a number of the exhibitions and products I saw was a reimagining of tradition, in terms of process, material or aesthetic. A number of designers and curators presented work which stemmed from, revisited or played with the notion of the traditional, whether it was taking traditional forms or aesthetics and playing with them or engaging with traditional materials and processes. At a time when technology and its advances seem to be at the centre of so much of what we do, many of us keep coming back to our past.

Artime Clocks by Life With Art

Portuguese designer Pedro Gomes (who featured on the blog recently) has just launched a new collaborative project with an ethical bent. Life With Art aims to create art and design products that positively impact on the environment through sustainable materials used to maximum effect with a minimum of waster, 100% Portuguese suppliers and a partnership with Portuguese NGO Plantar uma Árvore. Life With Art's first range of products are the Artime Clocks and each time you buy one a tree gets planted by Plantar uma Árvore.

Horror Vacui at Trienal de Lisboa

With less than two months to go until the third edition of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale kicks off, more and more projects are being finalised, announced and, in some cases, kickstarted. Close, Closer will see exhibitions, events, interventions and more unfold all across Lisbon from 12 September to 15 December and three architects hoping to join in are Jaffer Kolb, Ang Li and Phoebe Springstubb with their tile-based project Horror Vacui.

Suri Collection by Pedro Gomes

Portuguese designer Pedro Gomes has just launched the Suri Collection - a set of six chairs, each with a subtle difference. By utilising a combination of woods, fabric colours and treatments, supports and legs, Gomes gives each chair in the Suri Collection a different look, feel and character. The chair's two upper components - a round back and a seat which curves up elegantly on either side to create arms - are created using various wood laminates and are upholstered differently for each chair in the collection. These components sit on top of a variety of different legs, my favourites being the wooden ones pictured further below. Gomes has plans to further develop the collection for use in the work environment, and I'll be curious to see what adaptations are made to the chairs for the workplace. Have a scroll through the images to see which one's your favourite, and find out more at suri-collection.com.

Lamps by Vicara

Portuguese company Vicara produce a small range of lamps and tabletop objects in a variety of materials such as cork, ceramics and even cardboard by a number of different designers. Their latest lamp Nata comes from Gonçalo Campos, whose work has been featured here before. Nata cleverly repurposes ceramic tableware moulds to make a cup-shaped lamp that sits on its handles. Another of their highlights (no pun intended) is Cartonado, a flatpacked cardboard lamp designed by Fábio Afonso - scroll down for images of both and a short video of Cartonado.

Textured Textiles by Burel

Burel is a textile manufacturer based in the mountains in central Portugal, in the Serra da Estrela region. Burel has reinvigorated traditional feltmaking in the area by matching centuries of handmade tradition with contemporary design, and the company now makes clothing, furniture, accessories, rugs, throws, wall coverings for interiors and more. Scroll to the bottom of the post for a short video report from Monocle on Burel for a glimpse into how these fabrics are made.

Intricate Illustrations by Mister Mourão

"I'm into obsessive drawing", says Portuguese-born Barcelona based Vasco Mourão (Mister Mourão to his fans, a group I am definitely a part of). Mourão, who originally trained as an architect, creates wonderfully intricate illustrations of reimagined cityscapes, piling details on top of details to amplify the essence of a city. Above and below is his illustration of New York city commissioned by the New Yorker magazine which I stumbled upon recently over on Architectural Review. Further down you'll see Mourão's illustration entitled Is it just me or is Barcelona falling apart?, where his ordinarily tight drawing style becomes fractured and flies apart, like a new form of urban sprawl. One of his more recent commissions is captured in video at the bottom: a drawing curving through 100 metres of wall space in a hotel hallway in Barcelona - a curly cityscape at first tightly packed together but gradually fragmenting towards the end of the space. I could wax on, but I think the illustrations and video speak volumes for themselves. See more of Mister Mourão's immensely skillful work at his portfolio, as well as his daily drawing blog.

Ceramics by Estudio BIS//CUIT

Estudio BIS//CUIT is a homewares brand established by Portuguese ceramic designer Carla Santiago in 2010, having come to ceramic design through her father - a Portuguese tile maker! Combining geometric shapes and patterns with a sense of playfulness, Santiago has created a range of plates, bowls, mugs and most recently salt and pepper shakers that are clean, crisp and fun. The shakers in particular are inspired by robots, but look nothing like machines - they're warm, tactile and really appealing to us humans :) BIS//CUIT's Mu salt and pepper shakers are pictured above and below, while their Patterned Smile plates are at the bottom. For now at least I think Estudio BIS//CUIT's work is only available in Portugal, but keep an eye on the website for more information.

Tricot by aforestdesign

I came across Portuguese clothing line aforestdesign while still living in Lisbon and was really impressed by their range, in particular their casual wear that employed a pattern reminiscent of cable knitting, but that pattern was usually printed or sewn on, not knitted - see an image of their 'flat knitted' limited edition sweater below. Just before Christmas aforestdesign teamed up with Portuguese textiles company Piodão to create the Tricot rug, a rug employing that same cable-knit style, but this time in hand tufted New Zealand wool. The result is great: a simple but beautifully-textured rug that brings some sartorial style into your home :)

TILEWATCH Pre-Christmas Postage

A quick note for those of you looking to get your hands on a copy of TILEWATCH before Christmas: you'll need to get your orders in quick!

Delivery within Ireland: Final postage is 19 December, so orders need to be in by 12 midnight on 18 December (that's tomorrow!)
Delivery to the rest of Europe (that includes you, Portugal and the UK): Final postage is on 18 December, so orders need to be in by 2pm on 18 December (again, that's tomorrow).

You'll find more info on the project here, and you can place your orders over here. And finally, Happy Christmas / Feliz Natal!

TILEWATCH Print Edition

Buy the TILEWATCH print edition here!

Some of you may have noticed that the more time I spent in Lisbon this year, the more obsessed I became with the city's patterned tiles. First that obsession manifested itself in an online project called TILEWATCH where I collected 250 photographs and drawings of ceramic tiles over my six months in Portugal. Well my tile-inspired endeavours didn't stop there, a printed project is just off the press! The print edition of TILEWATCH takes the form of a tile-spotting trail that brings you on a tour of two of Lisbon's central neighbourhoods - Alfama and Mouraria - highlighting a number of tiles along the way.

Curvas Chair by Gonçalo Campos

Designed by Portuguese native Gonçalo Campos, the pinewood Curvas chair caught my eye over on Cool Hunting firstly for its elegant shape and slim arms and legs. Simple and minimal in aesthetic, it's also a really interesting combination of high and low tech. While the elements are cut using computer-controlled machinery, they're assembled by hand by the skilled craftsmen in Portuguese joinery company Wewood. More images below, and be sure to visit Campos' website to see more of his clever combinations of materials and processes.

Lisbon: Top 5 Top 5s

View from Elevador de Santa Justa

Here's a post I've been planning to do for a while, but I kept getting distracted by goings on in Dublin and putting more layers of clothes on... There are so many great things and places and sights in Lisbon that I want to tell people about so I thought I would compile a few Top 5s to give you a sense of what the city's like to spend time in. And then I'll calm down with the effusing about the place, I promise. Without further ado...

Farewell TILEWATCH...

As you may have noticed, I spent six sunny months living in Lisbon, the awesome capital city of the awesome country Portugal. As well as soaking up vitamin D, learning a little Portuguese, sampling pastries and familiarising myself with the vast and tasty local wine selection, I developed a mild tile obsession (the doctor says it's nothing to worry about). Over on TILEWATCH I collected exactly 250 photos and drawings of tiles mainly spotted in Lisbon but also in Setúbal, Porto and Guimarães. They're all there for your perusal, and keep an eye for an upcoming tile-related project I hope to have finished and made public soon enough... The last photo (above) was posted recently, and the tiles (found at the Nossa Senhora do Monte viewing point in Graça) spell out 'Boa viagem; Lisboa espera por ti', meaning 'Safe journey; Lisbon awaits you'. Oh, how I hope it does...

Lisboa Open House

(Image by Pedro Sadio)

As mentioned last week, Open House season is on its way! The booking frenzy has already been and gone for Open House Dublin, and the programme has been launched for the latest international addition to the Open House Worldwide family: Lisbon! On 6 and 7 October (the same weekend as Dublin) over fifty buildings in that beautiful city I briefly called home open their doors for free architectural tours and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bothered about missing it... Lisboa Open House is presented by the very busy people behind Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa/Lisbon Architecture Triennale (they've just launched the programme for the 2013 edition of the Triennale which is curated by a team headed up by Beatrice Galilee and will take place in various locations across Lisbon next autumn). The Lisboa OH programme encompasses old and new buildings and public, cultural and residential spaces in various neighbourhoods of the city. A number of places have already been featured on I Like Local and TILEWATCH (such as Cinema São Jorge, The Electricity Museum, Baixa-Chiado Metro Station and Largo do Intendente), while here are some other highlights:

Introspectiva

This article was first published in Architecture Ireland #264

Having recently relocated to Lisbon in Portugal, I have been getting to know a whole new design scene. Previously, I knew very little about Portuguese design but gradually I’m getting a sense of a small but very active community of creatives both here and in Porto in the north. While architecture is explored at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (next edition in 2013) as well as through the Triennale’s ‘Intervalo’ programme between editions, design has its outings too. Design is experienced and exhibited at MUDE – the Museum of Design and Fashion on Rua Augusta (one of Lisbon’s main shopping streets), while for two months every two years the city centre is home to EXD (ExperimentaDesign) – an international biennale dedicated to design, architecture and creativity, which returns in autumn 2013.

Maria Keil

(Intendente)

Born in 1914, Maria Keil was a Portuguese artist who created a massive amount of work, and in particular a great number of tile patterns and murals in the city of Lisbon. I've seen examples of Keil's designs in various places, but it's her work for the Lisbon Metro system that stands out most for me. I first came across her name when researching a post about Parque Metro Station. Parque was one of the first Metro stations opened in Lisbon and the striking tiles in its lobby were designed by Keil.