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EUR 35.00 | USD 45.00 | wonder.ifdm.design

Summer 2025

24/06/25 15:22

Summer 2025

FEATURES

Summer 2025

Color stories

A hybrid palette between digital and organic

Interviews

PEOPLE Jean-Michel Wilmotte Lateral thinking in design PEOPLE Laura Gonzalez

The delight of the unexpected

PEOPLE Andrea Marenco

134 Architecture that listens to its place PEOPLE Carola Migliore & Miles Wagner

178 When art meets design

Projects review Jumeriah Marsa Al Arab Dubai

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16 Milan | Velasca Tower and Square | BBPR

62 Rotterdam | Fenix, International Art Museum

Devoted to Migration | MAD Architects

66 Yixing City, China | Huanglong Mountain

Mini rail cruises

Desert Pool Villas Dubai

Hospitality as an oasis of well-being

Cohabs Brussels

Zisha Mineral Source Museum | Atelier XÜK

A story of contemporary living

Brach Madrid

A retreat on the ‘Bavarian sea’

La Dolce Vita Orient Express Italy

64 Bochum, Germany | Spirit

HWKN Architecture | Landmarken

Nautical milieu

Chiemgauhof Übersee, Germany

14 London East Bank | V&A East Storehouse Diller Scofidio + Renfro Asti Architects | Hines

Modern nostalgia

Capitolo Rivera Genoa, Italy

138 A privileged observatory on nature

Publisher Paolo Bleve | bleve@ifdm.it

Editor-in-Chief

Ruben Modigliani | ruben@ifdm.it Alessandra Bergamini alessandra@ifdm.it

Senior Editor

Giulia Guzzini | redazione@ifdm.it

Editor-at-Large

Veronica Orsi | orsi@ifdm.it

Editors

Alessandro Bignami, Manuela Di Mari, Elena Luraghi, Francesca Oddo

International Contributor New York | Anna Casotti

Web Department redazione@ifdm.it

Brand Relations

Graphic Department

Additive Bozen, Italy

Marco Parisi | grafica@ifdm.it Maripina Cappelletti | mari@ifdm.it

146 The revolution of workplaces

Advertising

Officine Creative Milan

150 Italian Commedia dell’Arte... in space Golden Box Arzignano, Italy

154 Matryoshka effect Palazzo Talìa Rome

158 Hospitality as a journey through history Finlandia Hall Helsinki

164 Updating a Modernist landmark The St. Regis Al Mouj Muscat Resort

168 Following the wave Casa Brera Milan

174 An ode to Milan 4 | IFDM

Summer

Deputy Editor

WONDER 12 Shenzhen Science & Technology Museum Zaha Hadid Architects | Beijing Institute of Architectural Design Co.

02 YEAR X

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FEATURES

Summer 2025

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The Design Directory

A selection of the most innovative products for the contract sector by international brands

Total comfort

Outdoor dimension

Unveiled kitchens

158

Brighting rays

Night shapes

Design culture

104 Caimi | Gebrüder Thonet Vienna | Isolspace

Surface & Bath

Kreoo | Marca Corona | Margraf | Marmo Arredo

Smart work spaces

174

116

Wonders at sea

Style & Objects

Passwords

182 Ideas from Milano Design Week 2025 On cover

La Dolce Vita by Arsenale & Orient Express Photo © Mr.Tripper

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Next in the world

190 Top hotels: Europe looks North

Light inspired by beauty.

With the new collection of lamps inspired by its most iconic vases, Venini renews the art of glassmaking and elevates it through the transparencies and the wonderful shades of light. FANTASMINO / Color: Red / Designer: Venini. FANTASMINO XL / Color: Milk White / Designer: Venini. venini.com

EDITORIAL

Summer 2025

Architecture as Storytelling

RUBEN MODIGLIANI Editor-in-Chief

hose who design a building – in terms of both structure and furnishings – do more than arrange volumes and materials in space. Designing a space for human activity also means thinking about what will happen inside and outside of it. In other words, designing a place presupposes imagining how it will be used from the outset. This applies to all places, especially public ones, where providing explicit or subliminal guidelines to frequenters is a necessity. In recent years, this aspect of design has changed significantly, especially in areas where the emotional component matters. The collective obsession with social media led to a focus on the photogenicity of spaces (the Instagram effect), resulting in the creation of spaces that are divorced from context or function. Today, however, there is a growing interest in creating multifaceted experiences where each element complements the others. These are meaningful worlds that induce users to identify with the places where they are. This is where the role of the designer expands, as their scope broadens to encompass an entire lifestyle. Any architecture has the potential to influence the behavior of those who use it. For example, it comes naturally to lower one’s tone of voice in a religious building. As Alessandra Bergamini notes in her editorial, some of the spaces presented in this issue of Wonder resemble movie sets. In a movie, one acts according to a script. Designing an environment means constructing a story and connecting with those who will experience it – one of the most profound and fascinating aspects of the architectural profession.

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CURATOR’S LETTER

Summer 2025

Carnet de voyages

ALESSANDRA BERGAMINI Deputy Editor

he collection of projects proposed in this Wonder Book Summer 2025 forms an imaginary cultural puzzle spread across Europe and the Middle East, a dynamic, three-dimensional journey: through diverse geographies from the city to the desert, in space, encompassing living, work, culture, and hospitality, and also in time, understood as a past that is still current and updated, as a present that dialogues with history and memory. For example, in Philippe Starck’s project for the Brach Madrid, the inspiration is the Spain of the 1920s, or in that of the Finnish firms Arkkitehdit NRT and Fyra for the ‘contemporary’ version of Finlandia Hall, Alvar Aalto’s masterpiece from the late 1960s, which has been carefully restored, in its architectural structure and furnishings. Or again, in the regeneration of the nineteenth-century Passage du Nord in Brussels, which has become a modern place of ‘co-living’, and in the restoration of the Roman Palazzo Talia, a building originally erected in the sixteenth century that has recently been transformed into a refined Small Luxury Hotels of The World. A Wonder Book like a travel journal among architectures that span different eras and settings, where every material and every object means something, as in the experimental Golden Box house by the AMAA studio, which references masters such as Prouvé, Le Corbusier, Perriand, and Michelucci, or again in the retreat on the Chiemsee designed by Thun & Partners, whose starting point is the traditional typology of the Bavarian court farmhouse. The journey becomes real with the ‘resurrected’ Orient Express La Dolce Vita, the 5-star train that offers luxury and slowness in Italy with a setting that in my imagination immediately becomes a cinematic ‘set’. A travel journal that is a written record of a journey, in this case design-related and designed, but also a play of the imagination in a series of almost filmic settings. Furthermore, the architect of the Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab in Dubai, Shaun Killa, would see his hotel as the perfect set for another episode of the James Bond series.

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Summer 2025

WONDER

SHENZHEN SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY MUSEUM | ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS | BEIJING INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN CO. The new institution, opened in May 2025, will explore the power of science and the technological advancements defining our future. A solid, spherical volume stretches and transforms into a dynamic sequence

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WONDER

of outdoor terraces overlooking the Science Park, extensions of the interior galleries that surround a grand central atrium, creating a significant new civic space for the city.

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Summer 2025

WONDER

The working museum storage with an extensive self-guided experience opened on 31 May 2025. Visitors can immerse in over half a million works spanning from fashion to theatre, sculpture, and design icons.

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The Rosa Rosae collection, a rebirth of elegance and art

geminianocozzi1765.com

Summer 2025

WONDER

The rehabilitation work just completed involved the conservative restoration of the facades, the regeneration of the interior spaces, and the creation of the new square that strengthens the link with the city.

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Summer 2025

COLOR STORIES

A hybrid palette between digital and organic The color trends of 2026 promise a surprising balance: organic hues meet synthetic tones, all inspired by the cutting edge of bio-computing

Trend

ow do we know what’s coming? The ColorWorks™ design and technology center has been charting the course, revealing the rich color palettes that will define the year. Their annual ColorForward™ guide, crafted by international experts, analyzes emerging social movements to pinpoint 20 key colors. These are presented in five chromatic stories, each capturing the shifting tastes of consumers as they respond to cultural changes and new aspirations. 2026 opens with lighter and more harmonious tones compared to this year’s trends, ushering in an era of balance, luminosity, and fragile optimism. Soft pastels and mid-tones take center stage, gently replacing darker shades, with a careful equilibrium between warm and cool tones emerging. A continuous thread is woven by special effects that continue to infuse the palette with a sense of depth and movement. These nuances emerge from the stories of Wonderland, Bio-Funk, Viviendo de Noche (Living by Night), and Carnival of Fuels, which compose ColorForward 2026. Wonderland (which we covered in February’s Wonder Book edition) identifies the growing search for escapism and comfort, in a multitude of solutions ranging from the fantasy genre to collectible games. Carnival of Fuels, on the other hand, tells a more pragmatic story: the search for alternative fuels that will help us meet the growing demand for electricity. Similarly, Viviendo de Noche focuses on the problem of rising temperatures and heatwaves, which increasingly force us to adapt our daily schedules to different hours – a factor that could contribute to the growth of the night economy. Finally, Bio-Funk, the protagonist of this edition, takes us through some of the extraordinary computing technologies for data processing, such as bio-computing. We discuss this with Roberto Romanin, senior designer at ColorWorks. Author: Veronica Orsi

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Amama project, designed with Andrea Steidl.

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Summer 2025

PEOPLE

LATERAL THINKING IN DESIGN Jean-Michel Wilmotte enters through the front door and immediately breaks away from traditional logic. Overused words such as “inclusivity, ethics and creativity” come to life in his narrative. There is no room for banality here, and his “simplicity” is at the service of design

ontemporary grafting is the keystone of the numerous objects and environments designed by Wilmotte. The charm of context in relation to history is the paradigm of his studio’s approach to any design challenge. All this is governed by a code of conduct that does not deviate from market logic but, precisely because lateral thinking is a daily routine, finds solutions that do not betray the original idea.

author: Matteo De Bartolomeis portrait photo: Luc Castel projects photo: La Spiral de l’ONU (Schnepp Renou), Hotel Lutetia (Mathieu Fiol), Château Pédesclaux (Rodolphe Escher)

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Jean-Michel Wilmotte

In the world of design and planning, exclusivity is sought after, but inclusivity seems to be your trademark. How do you put together an exclusive team with inclusivity? As an architect, I have always worked in a contextual manner. Contemporary grafting is, in itself, a form of inclusivity: it involves inserting a volume, or a set of volumes, into an existing and often ancient fabric to bring it back to life, without resorting to pastiche, using a clear, legible language. This way of inhabiting the existing, of prolonging it without erasing it, is already a form of inclusion. So yes, we can talk about inclusivity, but in the sense of respect: respect for the context, for the environment, for the materials. And it is precisely in this tension between the graft and what receives it that a form of strength is born. Something similar happens in design. The question is how to integrate different materials to achieve a unique and exclusive result. This is where the play on words makes sense and describes our approach quite well, both in architecture and design. The two practices are in constant dialogue. Your bio mentions curiosity even towards unlikely subjects: do you have any examples? For the Cos d’Estournel estate, for example, we designed a winery in 2008. But before that, we analysed in depth how a winemaking site works, studying the essential role of gravity in the winemaking process. Every project begins with a process of knowledge: it is learning that guides design choices. We never design in a vacuum, nor in the abstract. Another example is the Austerlitz train station in Paris, which is currently undergoing redevelopment. Historically, it was a place designed to accommodate airships, and today, at the heart of the project, we have reconstructed a sort of airship, an evocation of that memory, which becomes an emblem. The same applies to data centres, to the nuclear power plants we have worked on, or to Station F: a huge building where we have brought together over a thousand start-ups – at the time, it was a completely new experience for us.

Summer 2025

PEOPLE

Jean-Michel Wilmotte

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