It is a true twist of events when an old-school minimalist convention based on heaviness and solidity of elements are taken in a completely new direction by a visual combination entirely based on balloons tied in geometrical patterns. As the duality of heaviness and lightness is explored by Cern’s bid of opposing two gasses: helium and sulphur hexafluoride — each one vying for opposite directions and creating the fragile stability.

Fundamentally, each balloon combination can go from absolute tranquillity to utter chaos and the swift wave of a hand or a slam of a gallery’s door. The potential interaction from the visitors brings this conceptual exercise to new heights, as the audience partakes the agency of altering the artist’s work with ease. An intriguing variation of the strict era of minimalist artists celebrating absolute control and austerity.

The artist plays with surprising amount of visual variations, taking a simple idea and veering into a surprising amount of variety from it. Minimalism as breakable as a kite in a windy day and resolute as a rock.

Photography by Tadao Cern.

It is a pleasure to observe the different forms the geometric shapes take on when draped around the arm, the neck, the finger or the ear. It is fascinating how they change their appearance when the person wearing them changes posture or position. And this effect is how Agata Bieleń manages to find diversity in minimalism again and again: The most simple forms create the strongest effects. They blend in with the wearer, they seem to be powerful and fragile at the same time. They question our perception in a delicate way and by doing so they stay absolutely timeless. As Agata says herself: Beauty is the harmony of purpose and form.

For Her:

— Roque White Dress

— OYE Swimwear One-Piece Swimsuit

— Roque Black Shorts

— Issey Miyake Pleats Please Backpack

— Mykita Sunglasses

— Varley Terri Crop Top

— Rag & Bone Straw Panama Hat

— Carritz Leather Flip Flops

Our men’s essentials will be presented next week.

The Well Watering Can is a fine example of the new Nordic wave of product design and it combines aesthetics and functionality in the most beautiful manner. It’s a perfect object to water plants and flowers with style and also a gorgeous decorative piece for a garden or a balcony.

Located in San Jose del Cabo on the Sea of Cortez in Baja California Sur, Mexico, Mar Adentro is a fantastically minimalist and poetic hotel developed by renowned Mexican architect Miguel Ángel Aragonés. It’s a place where every detail flows and melds together beautifully.

The 198 guest rooms and additional private residences have been designed like boxes and chambers suspended over mirrors of sea water. Miguel Ángel explains:

I imagined floating houses, houses like boxes that I would harvest in order to trap light. At Mar Adentro, the houses are made of glass on the seaside, and of concrete where they meet both sun and desert. They are cubes in the middle of the ocean that use water not to navigate, but to sustain life.

All spaces are simple, comfortable, elegant and predominantly white, outfitted with sleek Poliform furnishings and top-of-the-line appliances, and always considering the two great protagonists of this work over all: the horizon and the ocean.

Mar Adentro also features different office buildings and public spaces like a private beach club, shopping plaza, restaurants, yoga and fitness facilities, a spa, and even an art gallery.

Photography by Joe Fletcher.

To support this concept, there are no private rooms in the house. The rooms are divided by function rather than by individual. Instead of each family member having a bedroom, all the beds are in one room. All the desks are in one study room, all the storage is in one closet, and so on. The main living areas rest in an open-floor plan, allowing for a clean line of sight to the various functions in this part of the home. Simple whites, natural wood tones, and pale greens comprise the interior materials. The décor is limited to only the necessities, further aligning the focus of the design on the family unit.

Team Living House is an exercise in community living. Therefore, the home is not only an aesthetic achievement, but a philosophical achievement as well.

Handcrafted, each piece is silver-coated and made of a solid centre of brass for durability and strength of form. W-O’s collection is a classic. Enviable but not overbearing or overwhelming, the collection allows individual interpretation and individualisation, either through stacking or through wearing pieces solo. Don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind being adorned in such delicate lines.

Photography courtesy of W-O.

The alluring outer shell is a mix of precast concrete and louvred natural aluminium, infused with a variety of geometric forms as well as a dominant visual bait as a slight fractal feature. An impressive exercise of simplicity with impressive range in style; as each level is explicit to the observing eye from outside. On the base floor stands a comprehensive automobile workshop; on the first floor is a flexible office for training and business meetings; and finally on the top floor is the residential area.

A few solutions were fitted seamlessly — the all-important acoustic barrier from the workshop to the social area for starters. The playful variations in angles help gather rainwater for recycling purposes, and finally, the patio extending the same motif of sparseness and tranquillity.

Making sense of it all, are two fundamental elements: the monochromatic identity of the eclectic dwelling and the head master behind it all, the sole inhabitant that manipulates each space to make the most of it. A textbook example of industrial sensibility and stark minimalism working together in the grand scheme just as much as in the finer details.

Photography by Bruno Candiotto.

My favourite is the Transfer Bag. With a size and functionality that is rare, its design is perfectly positioned between utility and elegance. The many variations in colour and material allow for a very specific and personal configuration, no matter if you are more into a kinfolk inspired kind of minimalism, or if you belong to the group of people who mostly wear tech black like I do. But that is also true for any other of the excellent bags and rucksacks Thisispaper offers. Check them out!

The brand aims to channel Slavic culture through its products — mostly handcrafted bags from local artisans. While the bags are fine-tuned with their construction techniques (seemingly seamless at times, which is a fascinating effect), its monogram is no less detailed. Adorning the minimal bags is a bold debossed glyph that trademarks SLAVA, which is easily distinguishable. Composed of grids that are isometric, it gives an intricacy to the bags, elevating their values.

With the brand’s latest campaign lookbook, SLAVA’s minimalist bags are exceptionally highlighted through the high contrast of the photography. Different brands will have different marketing strategies, but for me, SLAVA is successful in engraving my memories with its products; and not only through its products alone, but through its entire image.

Presented at this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan, Gap contributed to the new collection and exhibition Light & Shadow. Nendo’s lead designer Oki Sato explains the concept behind this work:

When you look at the process of creating a sculptured object, you realise that it is an operation that consists of cutting a piece out from a large block of stone and then continuously carving. The resulting appearance can be as smooth as glass or as soft as human skin, ornate one minute and then light as a feather the next, jet-black darkness or illuminated like a paper-covered lantern.

In two different sizes, Gap is available in White Carraca marble and Black Marquina marble, both matt polished finish.

Rich with towering Saguaros and other succulents, the Sonoran desert is a dramatic landscape that has thrived against all odds. As an ode to the earth’s wonders, the structure was assembled using many local materials. The walls and floors utilise natural stone, while a weathered steel exterior gives the appearance of a well-worn rock formation. The courtyard further embraces the habitat, as the design goal was to modify the landscape as little as possible. A sweeping wall of windows opens the home to its courtyard, while a semi-transparent floor incorporates the desert sand into the decor.

Complete with powerful materials and dramatic gestures, Desert Courtyard House doesn’t just honour the scenery, it becomes a lovely feature within it.

Photography by Bill Timmerman.