"I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list."
~ Susan Sontag

2020 will reshape residential development for decades to come, but we never imagined how it would be reshaped. Working remotely, endless Zoom calls a lack of genuine human contact, and a sense of strongly missing the global travel that has always inspired us. So, we traveled from our armchair, via Google, Instagram + Linkedin armed with a latte or a glass of rosé, spoke to friends far and wide, and sought out new perspectives in the only way that we know how; by being curious humans. September is our traditional “back to school” month, but this year the lesson plan and rule book are nowhere to be found.

In this report, we are focusing on 10 collaborators + 10 ideas from around the world that have informed our thinking and approach. We hope that they inspire you as much as they inspired us.

10 Inspiring Collaborators ➤
10 Ideas That Inspire ➤

Editor’s note: Some language has been adapted from each collaborator’s website or the web to ensure transparency + accuracy. All contributors have been noted and credited.

COLLABORATORS

Farshid Moussavi  | image by Benjamin McMahon | via World Architecture — Farshid Moussavi | image by Benjamin McMahon | via World Architecture

FMA : Farshid Moussavi, Principal ➤
FMA completed projects include the acclaimed Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, USA; La Folie Divine, a residential complex in Montpellier; a multi-tenure residential complex in the La Défense district of Paris, flagship stores for Victoria Beckham in London and Hong Kong, and the Toys Department for Harrods in London. Moussavi is an internationally acclaimed architect and Professor in Practice of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design; she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to architecture.

BV Insight: Moussavi’s ideas and work are at the forefront of critical debate about architecture and the role it will play in addressing current and future challenges. We loved a recent live interview by Dezeen’s Founder + Editor in Chief Marcus Fairs; @7:46 Moussavi presents a detailed study about Architecture + Micropolitics, and the influence COVID-19 will have, which is essentially a Harvard-level class available to anyone.

Diébédo Francis Kéré  | portrait by Dezeen — Diébédo Francis Kéré | portrait by Dezeen

Kéré Architecture : Diébédo Francis Kéré, Principal ➤
Internationally-acclaimed architect Francis Kéré is one of the most distinguished contemporary architects thanks to his pioneering of a communal approach to design and his commitment to sustainable materials as well as modes of construction; his practice was awarded the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2004) for his first-ever building - a school he designed, raised the funds for and realized in collaboration with residents of his native Gando, Burkina Faso. Underpinning his architectural practice, are his past and current teaching engagements at TU München, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio and Yale University, as well as his participation in solo and group exhibitions including at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Museo ICO in Madrid, the Architekturmuseum in Munich and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

BV Insight: Kéré’s TED talk about growing up in Burkina Faso discusses how he began to give back by building a school using the tools of innovative engineering + clay as a building medium, while empowering the community - use the materials you’ve got and the skills that you have to achieve your goals.

India Mahdavi  | image by Emile Erbin — India Mahdavi | image by Emile Erbin

India Mahdavi : India Mahdavi, Principal ➤
An architect and designer, Mahdavi imposed herself on the contemporary scene in a singular, eclectic and nomadic manner, celebrating pops of statement color since launching her studio in 2000. “To conceive a space, I listen to it, I analyse its constraints, its needs, and its context. This is how my studio functions; the human scale prevails. I often compare places to faces. I like providing a solution in order to define, with the client, how to work with all the energy that the space inspires.” The New Yorker appointed her the Virtuoso of Color, and it’s easy to see why given her work.

BV Insight: Even if you think you haven’t seen it, one look at The Gallery at Sketch in London with its abundance of pink velvet will convince you that not only can Mahdavi design places that are spectacularly memorable, but also ones that are a public relations and social media success (very important these days).

HOYNE : Andrew Hoyne, Founder + Principal ➤
One of the best things we’ve done at BV in 2020 is to challenge ourselves to meet people that broaden, expand upon + encourage our thinking. Not easy from an office chair armed only with an espresso, gumption, and Google. That is how we learned about Andrew and Hoyne, the company he founded almost 30 years ago. Hoyne specializes in Place Visioning™, branding, and property marketing with three studios in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. The company has an extensive multi-billion-dollar portfolio of locales, developments, and buildings that they have created beautiful identities + brands for, and are renowned experts in placemaking. Andy was curious enough to return our email, and along with some fun debate about the state of WFH, generous in sharing what was going on in his side of the world.

BV Insight: This year, one of BV’s best discoveries has been how much the Australian new development market can teach us about design, sustainability, and creativity. The lesson we didn’t see coming was that it would extensively help reshape our perspective on placemaking. The Place Economy, (Volume 1 + Volume 2) are now on our reading list.

Joyce Wang Studio : Joyce Wang, Principal ➤
Joyce Wang Studio, established in 2011 and based in London and Hong Kong is an award-winning interior design practice with a reputation for luxury interiors. Born to Shanghainese parents in Honolulu, Wang was raised in Hong Kong, sent to boarding school in the UK, and attended university in Boston, London, and the Dutch city of Delft; she is a global nomad in the truest sense.

BV Insight: In luxury development teams often plan and design for people who come from every place in the world; our collaborators should reflect that life experience + design thinking as well. Wang’s interiors evoke emotion; they make us feel comfortable, cozy + safe; yet they are also fun because they are so many different forms of tactile. We can’t wait to work with her on a development one day.

Melanie Murata | image via MelanieMurata.com

Karu : Melanie Murata, Founder ➤
Murata is the founder of global design and Milan-based firm Karu, which means “far away” in Quechua, the native language of the Incas. Karu is inspired by Murata’s cultural heritage and Incan ancestry; she spent a part of her childhood in Huancayo, a small village in the Peruvian Andes; Karu is a continual journey of understanding the depth of humankind by traveling to faraway lands. Murata’s tenure with Gensler in Los Angeles + Newport Beach, and training under Italian Master Piero Lissoni in Milan, enabled her to build a body of work that is nuanced, poetic, and atmospherically unique. She and her work have been featured in Architectural Digest + Interior Design magazines.

BV Insight: Karu’s new website will launch very soon this month. We are excited to see more of the firm’s work and predict that Murata’s star will only continue to rise.

Eva Sonaike : Eva Sonaike, Founder ➤
Driven by her enormous passion for African fabrics and interior design, in 2009 Sonaike founded a London-based Interiors company with the mission of bringing the vibrancy of African colors and aesthetics to the luxury home-décor and accessories market. She graduated with an MA in Fashion Journalism from the London College of Fashion, where she specialized in contemporary African fashion and textiles, then pursuing an editorial career working as UK Fashion Editor working for titles such as German Elle, InStyle, and Focus. Sonaike, who was born and raised in Germany, and is of Nigerian origin, has taken the best elements of those two cultures to inspire her work – her designs draw from the two distinct influences of colorful African clothing culture and European antique and mid-century furniture traditions. The company’s products have been stocked worldwide in prestigious stores such as Liberty, Fenwick of Bond Street, Amara and Selfridges in London, Globus in Switzerland, Temple Muse and Alara in Lagos, ABC Carpet & Home in New York, and Indigo Living in Hong Kong and Dubai; and are regularly featured in the UK and international interiors and fashion publications.

BV Insight: We want to encourage more global design thinking, and incorporate designers that make homes look + feel unique. Eurocentric design has become the safe direction for many development teams, but enough stark-white Scandinavian-chic looks and feels the same after a while, especially to an audience that is growing more diverse by the day.

Potato Head : Ronald Akili, Co-Founder + CEO ➤
The young entrepreneur behind Potato Head Beach Club in Bali and Potato Head eateries in Jakarta, Singapore, and Hong Kong, has embarked on an extraordinary sustainable initiative in Seminyak. Akili describes Desa Potato Head as an “experiential playground [that] combines good times with doing good in the world”. The running theme of these lofty plans is an emphasis on Indonesian heritage and culture. “The moment I was surfing in a sea of plastics 100 meters out from the beach, I realised the chances of my kids enjoying the gifts of nature would be very slim. I want to pass on to future generations a better world,” he says in an interview with Chris Hanrahan. “My resolve to ensure Potato Head does minimal damage to the environment is only strengthened by this. I want to pass on to future generations a better world – something that I think is innate in all of us.”

BV Insight: Climate change and the environment has taken a back seat to the arguably more serious human-interest challenges amplified in 2020. One of our 2021 goals is to begin a heavier focus on sustainability, and we will be looking to experts like Akili to help guide our thinking about what those brands + service components will incorporate - and how we can involve local communities in the process.

EY | Oceania Real Estate and Construction : Selina Short, Managing Partner ➤
“The real estate industry’s entire purpose is to support people — and we can do this better in a digital world. By elevating our focus on people, we will also improve the value of real estate.” Short is the Managing Partner for EY Oceania Real Estate and Construction practice. She is a member of the EY Oceania Executive Leadership team, with managerial responsibility for the resources, energy, industrial products, and real estate portfolio. She is also part of EY Global Real Estate and Construction Leadership team, with responsibility for innovation, and leads EY knowledge collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Real Estate.

BV Insight: Short’s collaboration with MIT on Automation in Real Estate – Cutting Through the Hype which tackles the challenge in the built environment of combining things that are more abstract (technology) with things that have a more structured material-based outcome (finances, floor plans) has made automation + the technologies involved easier to understand than ever.

Malika Favre : Malika Favre, Founder ➤

One of the most sought after commercial illustrators, Favre is a French artist based in London. Her work is unmistakably with the current times, yet uplifting in the way that you keep coming back to it and wanting more. Favre’s bold, minimal style – often described as Pop Art meets OpArt – is a striking lesson in the use of positive/negative space and color. Her unmistakable + unique style has established her as one of the UK’s most sought after graphic artists. Malika’s clients include The New Yorker, Vogue, BAFTA, Sephora, and Penguin Books, amongst many others.

BV Insight: We would love to see her work in an amenity or public space for a building. Just check out her London home for some serious inspiration.

IDEAS THAT INSPIRE

Yō no Ie House | image by Kentauros Yasunaga

Japan | MUJI : Yō no Ie House aka “Plain House” ➤

Muji’s new prefab home designed for aging in place - no stairs and ample open space; yet we can see a host of other uses involving many generations and diverse consumers. The Yō no Ie House (Plain House) is the fourth offering in their line of prefabricated homes. Unlike its predecessors, the Yō no Ie House is the brand’s first single-story prefab, and it was launched in response to the growing demand for low-profile homes with suburban and rural—rather than urban—applications.

BV Insight: This house is anything but “plain.” With the growing conversations around ADUs (incredibly popular in locales that face housing shortages), amenities that allow for social distancing, and communal living, we have a new opportunity to put beautiful things in unexpected places.

Reena Saini Kallat, Chorus, 2017 | via The Sculpture Park at Madhavendra Palace — Reena Saini Kallat, *Chorus*, 2017 | via The Sculpture Park at Madhavendra Palace

India | Madhavendra Palace | Jaipur : The Sculpture Park ➤
How do you take a place with intense history and juxtapose it with art from modern times? The first contemporary public sculpture park in India and also one of the first examples of public and private partnerships in the arts has turned a 19th-Century fortress into a Sculpture Gallery with works displayed throughout the meandering rooms and grand courtyards. It is the first example of collaboration between a state government and private cultural philanthropy in contemporary art, inviting visitors to meander through the palace, to encounter and experience each work in a range of settings and display.

BV Insight: Architectural Digest took us through Season One (2018) and then Artsy takes us through Season Two (2019). Season Three is set to debut later this year.

Nightingale 1 | via Breathe Architecture

Australia | Breathe Architecture : The Nightingale Model ➤
Nightingale is based on the idea of living simply. It’s about building less to give more. Breathe are the founders of this approach of providing financially, socially, and environmentally sustainable housing at-cost. Homes that are carbon-neutral in operations. Every Nightingale building is: 100% electric and no gas will ever be plumbed in; are only powered by certified Green Power, often at lower prices, with the supplemented with a rooftop solar collection. They bring the direct-to-consumer concept to real estate and exemplify the mission of “We cut out everything that doesn’t help to deliver real homes. Marketing. Display suites. Profit.” We think they are a model to watch.

BV Insight: In 2018, Breathe won the prestigious National Award from the Australian Institute of Architects (Multi-family category) for their Nightingale 1 development. In the U.S. we build horrible-looking things as “affordable” housing. Someone that inspired us questioned why the basics of a good home + sustainability should require a premium to be paid by consumers; we know in our gut that they are right, but need to figure out how to get there. The Nightingale Model should (and will) inspire us to try harder.

Design Anthology Asia Edition | Issue 17 | via DesignAnthology.com

Asia + Australia | Design Anthology | Podcast : The Design Dialogues ➤
One of our favorite podcasts of 2020. In this original audio series, the editors take us around the globe and talk with some of the most recognizable names working in design, architecture, and interiors, unpacking the careers of luminaries and exploring the state of the industry. Tony Chi (Taipei), Kate Challis (Melbourne), William Lim (Hong Kong), and Yabu Pushelberg (Toronto) are just a few. DA is an independently-published luxury interiors, design, architecture, and urban living magazine, with editions in Asia and Australia alongside a very robust + engaging global digital platform that we can get lost in.

BV Insight: We love the DA travel highlights. In a time where we are desperately missing our end of summer international vacation, a thank you to DA from BV for recently taking us to Copenhagen to experience 3daysofdesign, Denmark’s annual design event.

The Markthal | image by Daria Scagliola + Stijn Brakkee | via World Architecture

Netherlands | MVRDV : The Markthal ➤

The Markthal is a sustainable combination of food, leisure, living, and parking, a building in which all functions are fully integrated; it is formed by the construction of privately-developed apartments arranged into a large arch, strategically allowing a private initiative to create a public space. A secure, covered square is nestled beneath a large arch, conceived as an entirely new take on a typical market square and its surrounding buildings. The result is a covered square which features a central market hall during the day and, after closing hours, a lively series of restaurants on its lower levels. The building has a total floor area of 95,000 square meters, with 228 apartments and 1,200 below-ground parking spaces. But the building’s most striking feature is its central market hall, which provides a home for 96 fresh food stalls and shop units, ranging from Rotterdam based businesses and market vendors to established local heroes.

BV Insight: Essex Market (and Essex Crossing), we love you but this is gastronomical placemaking on another new level. For long-term placemaking, teams are designing for a COVID-19 vaccine to be in place - this should provide some inspiration.

Harriette | Artist Rendering | via Harriette.com

Australia | Fiducia Group : Hariette ➤
Once again, we find ourselves inspired by Australia; Harriette is a beautifully conceived and executed development of (only) ten residences in Sydney’s Neutral Bay. Fiducia has a strong background in residential + single-family homes and has brought their skillset + lessons learned into the multi-family space. With over 600 apartments and homes completed to date and in excess of 16 years’ experience, the team has won multiple awards from Housing Industry Australia for design excellence and execution.

BV Insight: We think that as the world grows more connected and smaller, there will be ways to collaborate across continents. The Fiducia team is one that BV will continue to follow. We love this piece via Boutique Developer “Making a Big Impact on a Small Scale” that highlights Co-Founder + Development Director Marie Doyle and discusses what inspired Fiducia Group, along with the philosophy that makes their developments so special.

Google : Google Community Mobility Reports ➤
Google is an American company, yet this made our list as you can see how people are moving around in almost every country, often broken down by state/region. Per Google, "See how your community is moving around differently due to COVID-19.” Each Community Mobility Report is broken down by location (once you download the PDF you can see even more nuanced detail) and displays the change in visits to places like grocery stores and parks.

BV Insight: With the proliferation of clickbait-driven headlines, 2020 has presented us with the challenge of having to guide decision-making based on real data points in real-time. With people’s needs evolving so rapidly, how can we best estimate what the future holds? Are people really fleeing cities for the suburbs? Are we the only ones sick of being 100% Zoom and WFH? Are people using public transportation? How are they really moving around?

Fælledby | Artist Rendering | Henning Larsen

Denmark | Fælledby : Copenhagen’s First Neighborhood in Wood | Henning Larsen ➤
A Copenhagen neighborhood comprised of three “mini-villages” to be built fully with wood, with housing for 7,000 people, a school, and a focus on integrating nature with city life. The neighborhood is set to preserve ~40% of the 45-acre project site as undeveloped habitat for local plants, and is designed in collaboration with biologists and environmental engineers.

BV Insight: We love this piece by Kristin Toussaint, which discusses Fælledby in more detail. As the debate around mass timber as a sustainable material to build with continues, we expect to see it incorporated into even more real estate developments + new communities.

Nigeria | Alárò City : Plan via SOM ➤
Africa has inspired us when it comes to placemaking, sustainability, as well as large-scale approaches to critically build much-needed infrastructure. Developed by Rendeavour, Africa's largest new city developer, Alárò City is a mixed-income, city-scale development with modern employment, industrial and logistics locations, offices, homes, schools, healthcare facilities, hotels, entertainment, and 150 hectares (370 acres) of parks and open spaces. Located in the North West Quadrant of the Lekki Free Zone, the master plan lies in the growth path of Lagos, one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities with a population of over 20 million, is adjacent to the future international airport, the region’s largest deep-sea port, and major Nigerian and international companies.

BV Insight: Globalization and the politics that come with it are not the most comfortable topic in the U.S. right now, but we cannot stop learning and discovering what the big initiatives in the world are going to be. Alárò City has strong potential to be one of those.

“parkipelago” | Artist Rendering via Airflix.com

Denmark | The Copenhagen Islands : Small Islands - Big Ideas ➤
The Copenhagen Islands introduce a completely new type of public parks in Copenhagen - a “parkipelago” focusing on the place and function of public spaces in the city. The islands will be dispatched on suitable locations around the inner harbor, but also find their way to more forgotten and underused corners of the harbor, catalyzing life and activity. Founded by Statens Kunstfond and Havnekulturpuljen, the prototype CPH-Ø1 was launched at sea. CPH-Ø1 is a 20 m2 hand made wooden platform with a linden tree at its centre. It is a simple and iconic metaphor for an uninhabited island, representing wisdom and an earthbound vitality. This is the first taste of a completely new type of public space coming to Copenhagen. Moveable, floating, public spaces free for people to explore and conquer.

BV Insight: This is the first iteration of a completely new type of public space; moveable, floating, public spaces free for people to explore, and create their own special moments in. BV hopes to see more of these around the world, particularly in (calm) water-adjacent new development locales.

These inspiring collaborators + ideas are just a few out there in the world; BV hopes that this post inspires and encourages you to learn about them. There are so many talented collaborators + examples of brilliant design-thinking, and we will continue to discover and share.

A thank you to our Butterfly Voyage industry insiders + contributors. Their perspectives, insights, and support were a key part of making this piece come to life. Please send us feedback about what you loved, and want to see more of to meg@butterflyvoyage.com