Standing in front of a rough and overgrown piece of land, looking down to the same rough sea and trying to get a first inspiration, or better said a brain wave for a future home for a scattered family, with the need to have a special place in the sun, where they all can meet up, time by time and where they can share their love for transparency, light, sun and spaciousness.

After a first detailed topographic plan and knowing all needs, peculiarities, habits and ideas of the future dwellers, the creative boundless work can start. Doing such a openminded project in a small intimate team, is a wonderful brainstorming. 2 crazy minds – me and my old friend Roman started to dream, to imagine, to discard again, to turn all around, to start again……long nights with a lot of laughter and playfulness.

It is a gift, being able to let arise creative visions and dreams. I am very thankful for having such great people around me, which love to share this freedom of thoughts and whom are the same brave and crazy as me 🙂 Thanks Roman, for your big thinking and your spirit.

All started with a beautiful letter, in which a family described their life, their habits, their little secrets, their quirks, their lifestyle and their visions in detailed and vivid short stories to give me a guideline for my future planning. Today, I know, that this letter opened a door to a very different way of developing a living space. I felt like knowing every and each family member since always and the relation ship became so warm hearted and trustful, that we became a team by planning together, by designing together and by inspiring each other. Charlotte Jeppsson is such a creative and stylish person – with a nose for trends, qualities and style. Lars has a fantastic overall view, which keeps the balance in between creativity and comfort. Both together bestowed such a great spirit, that I am thankful for that experience and essentially for what we created together. Christine Leja / “Christine Leja architects”

for further information regarding “Christine Leja” architect`s and the article in “INTERIORS” – “El gran azul” – please enter into my web page:

www.bconnectedmallorca.com

Born in Brooklyn New York in 1920, Norman Cherner’s designs are part of the iconography of mid-20th Century furniture design. He is recognised as one of the most original of a generation of designers that explored post-war technological innovations in architecture and industrial design. He studied and taught at the Columbia University Fine Arts department and was an instructor at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1947-1949. Cherner’s training in the Bauhaus tradition led to a lifelong exploration informed by the belief that all design stems from one discipline. His chairs, tables and case goods have shown an enduring popularity since their introduction nearly fifty years ago. The moulded plywood Cherner Chair, designed for Plycraft in 1958, has become an icon of mid-twentieth century design and can be found in galleries and design collections worldwide, including the Vitra Museum.

Housing was in enormous demand in the US during the Postwar era, with the GI Bill, the baby boom and the surge of postwar prosperity. Cherner was determined to make affordable design a reality. He created a prototype for prefabricated housing that, although it was not commercially successful, he transported to Connecticut and used as his own home and studio in the late 1950s. He published books on the subject of affordable design throughout the 1950s, including, Make Your Own Modern Furniture (1953), How to Build a House for Less than $6000 (1957), and Fabricating Houses from Component Parts (1958).

But it was the plywood chair that Cherner is best known for, and the story of its creation is fascinating.

The Cherner Chair Company, founded by Norman Cherner’s sons Benjamin and Thomas in 1999, is the sole authorized licensor of Cherner’s designs, and they work off of his original drawings and specifications. The company produces Cherner’s original armchair, side chair, barstool and counter stool, as well as his other designs.

This timeless design deserves deepest bow and all honor – Christine Leja

INSPIRED BY JOSEPH DIRAND

Specially after an inspiring time in Paris at the Maison & Object and chiefly an impressive stay in the family house of JOSEPH DIRAND, I feel that my head is round to change ideas and my openness to new inspirations allows me, to see “old fashioned” materials in a new perspective. I am inspired, I am fascinated and I am re-planning…

Joseph Dirand, the son of Jacques Dirand, arguably the most famous interiors photographer of his day, and now himself one of fashion’s most heavily sought-after architects, Dirand has built a career on incorporating a quintessentially French style of design into otherwise minimalist interiors.

JOSEPH DIRAND DESIGNS EATERY MONSIEUR BLEU AT PARIS’S PALAIS DE TOKYO

He settled on a design that is elegant and a little bit louche. “I don’t care about style anymore, in a way I hate style, I hate design,” he says. “It’s about life, and generosity.”

Dominated by black and white, this taut architecture likes to contrast scales and eras and reveals a sense for an innate nature to a given setting. A graduate of the Paris/Belleville school of architecture, he cultivates the stylistic stamp that fits his very personal sense of elegance. It is a jarring setting in which to find Dirand, one of the most sought-after architects and interior designers in fashion and the creative mastermind behind the brand-new Givenchy store in Paris, Rick Owens’ Mayfair boutique as well as Alexander Wang’s Beijing outpost. He has also designed luxury hotels in Mexico and the Monsieur Bleu restaurant at Paris’ Palais de Tokyo, which mixes the elegance of early Viennese modernism with electrifying jolts of various provenance: a shade of green here, an unexpected lamp there and exquisite Lalique glass wall panels throughout.

Dirand’s style is almost instantly recognizable, characterized by strong lines, impeccable proportions, and breathtaking precision. “The way he treats and defines space is very clean,” says Mahdavi. “He’s created a language of his own by reinventing traditional French decorative elements in a contemporary way.” Kalt agrees, saying, “It’s the meeting of classicism and minimalism. There’s both a Cistercian touch and great elegance.” And as Gilles Malafosse, owner of Monsieur Bleu, points out, “One of the main characteristics of his work is the absence of anything superfluous.”

I am excited in converting a 60`house – which is located next to the sea with a wonderful view and in an old settled neighborhood – into a special midcentury house. All on one level, surrounded by a big garden with an olympic pool. Honestly all existing materials are average and the entire distribution was done for the needs of a big family. A lot of little rooms, long hall ways, lost spaces, lousy windows,….- only one possibility: cleaning out everything, leaving the “4 wall around” and start from zero 🙂 Giving this house – in that wonderful location – the touch it deserves. Open spaces with wide windows and the touch of “midcentury”, “Los Angeles style”, “contemporary”, ….with all comfort what we need nowadays.

Classic furnitures as the well known Eames chair, searching for the Warren Platner dinning furnitures, combining it with simple shelves, colored sofas and creating with braveness a new ambience which reminds you to the “study-house-era” and in the same time to a “individual anthology of beauty & style”

Combining fresh colors with unforgettable designs and without any fear of “stepping out” of the usual settings.

Small details, like the big numbers on the facade – which we know mainly from L.A., or an old cinema poster framed, the “fine lined shelve” – all that gives a special character to the property.

…and if I could wish ….. I would love to add this “toy” 🙂

You get into a space and you know what to do! It is not only about re-distributing the space – it is to get rid of the old ghosts and to breath a new spirit into this place! And you know that it´s worth!!!!

Happiness

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one’s self, and in the next, from true & warm friendship and the enrichment of the people with whom you surround yourself. To create something with beloved like-minded is a gift and it is not only the result of the creation – it is the process itself which makes you happy and which gives the soul to the result.

I am more than aware of the value of my surrounding, the value of my friends which form part of my thoughts, the entire team which makes ideas come true and last and not least my life & soul partner who senses every breeze of a change of my thoughts.

be connected with what you love is the essence of success

Thanks from deep of my heart to Andree, David, Franzi, Carolina, Roman, Laura, Martha, Camila,

Anni, Ben, Isel, Tino, Mariel, Estefy, Monica, Toni, Leticia, Esperanza, Eva, Alicia, Barbara, Jaime,  Caspar, Juan, Miguel, Josep, Ida & family, Lars, Lotta, Gudrun, Angela, Mucki, Max, Natasha, …and much more friends

Isel 

Often I get asked, with whom, how, when, …. I create my visions, my ideas, my projects, our stores, …… simply all what bconnected is embodying …- and my answer is: be inspired – be awake – be alive – be brave – be connected and move your a…

But as we all know, there are millions of ideas and visions in this world – but only a little part – get reality. Therefor – the vision needs to be translated into action – and only with this brave step – a vision is becoming reality – and the reality is creating new inspiration, new life, new braveness and new connections.

be brave and move your a….

Christine Leja