Pelle featured in Azure’s October issue
Extreme Nature
Ultra-organic looks are in, with flora and fauna dominating design (sometimes literally)
With so many blockbuster exhibitions focused on the world’s threatened ecology – from Nature at New York’s Cooper Hewitt to Broken Nature at Milan’s Triennale to Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life at London’s Tate Modern – one thing is clear: The design world is fixated on the natural world. To a one, these shows are inspired by the climate crisis and the role of humans in perpetuating it, a fraught relationship that is also sprouting new approaches to products, interior design and architecture – with nature, in many cases, being invited to retaliate. It has literally taken over, for instance, the verdant facades of edifices created by Stefano Boeri Architetti, MAD Architects and MVRDV. And at RAU’s Tij Observatory in the Netherlands, it seems to be the very force shaping the ovoid bird’s nest of a building. In interiors, meanwhile, plant motifs have gone from floral to formidable, massive banana leaves inspiring Pelle’s new lamps and extinct animals populating Moooi’s lush carpets. More potent than ever, nature is bursting through our curated realms – and we’d be wise to embrace it.
