A new-build block of 32 apartments in Mayfair is launching with one penthouse open for viewings still in its raw, ‘core and shell’ state.
PLP Architecture’s 60 Curzon has interiors – including four show apartments – by Thierry Despont, the lauded French-born, NYC-based designer and architect who died in 2023. But property developer Valouran want to show prospective buyers not just the finished articles but the work-in-progress fifth-floor penthouse, complete with builders’ markings on the walls.
Christopher Wool's 'Rip Rig Panic' (2001)
Instead of showing the penthouse as a bare shell, it has a short lifespan as an art gallery. “Launching the building to the world properly, we wanted to do some events there,” says Alex Michelin, co-founder of Valouran. “We think it’s a really cool space, more arresting than a flat that’s beautifully done.”
This exhibition space is in stark contrast to the “chichi Bond Street galleries” nearby, says curator Lawrence van Hagen of LVH Art. The 28 works in his show Double Take examine what’s real and what’s fake, with a nod to the rise of AI.
Van Hagen has mixed pieces by established artists, such as Andy Warhol’s 1978 Shadow, Larry Bell’s untitled (eclipse) from 1981, and Albert Oehlen’s untitled from 2015, with newer pieces by emerging talent, including Brice Gilbert’s 2024 Fournez, and Wangshui’s Poiesis III from 2023.
The exhibition’s design complements the rough, industrial feel of the duplex. Mimicking its existing scaffolding, George Lewin Studio has bolted the works to support structures made from slim aluminium poles, so that viewers get to see the back as well as the front of each piece.
From left to right: Brice Guilbert's 'Fournez' (2024), Wade Guyton's 'Untitled' (2019), Andy Warhol's 'Shadows' (1978)
“A huge number of buyers have their own interior designers and taste,” adds Michelin. “It’s nice to launch some (apartments as) shell and core, as that allows the buyer to put their own stamp on it. They want to come in with their wives and create their dream home, rather than ripping out the marble,” that the developer’s interior designer has specified.
Meanwhile, for the building’s common parts and spa, along with the four show homes, Valouran briefed Despont “to recreate Mayfair glamour”. The aim is to appeal to “a more discerning buyer,” says Michelin. “The world has moved on from conspicuous wealth, now, it’s more about stealth wealth.” Hence Despont’s art deco-inspired design details, from all the bespoke furniture to the leather wall tiles in the gym.
Despont’s art deco-inspired projects included the Ritz Paris and homes for Bill Gates and Calvin Klein. 60 Curzon is his only residential scheme in London, and follows on from his 45 Park Lane Hotel, which completed in 2011.
-
Time, beauty, history – all are written into trees in Karimoku Research Center's debut Tokyo exhibitionThe layered world of forests – and their evolving relationship with humans – is excavated and reimagined in 'The Age of Wood', a Tokyo exhibition at Karimoku Research Center
-
Tour Xi'an's remarkable new 'human-centred' shopping district with designer Thomas HeatherwickXi'an district by Heatherwick Studio, a 115,000 sq m retail development in the Chinese city, opens this winter. Thomas Heatherwick talks us through its making and ambition
-
Vans’ West End store turns skatepark, with a 200 sq m travertine rampPart store, part community hub, Vans West End in London ramps up its skateboarding credentials with a design by Andrea Caputo Studio
-
From bleeding bodies to phantom paintings, inside the distorted world of artist George RouyFrequently drawing comparisons with Francis Bacon, painter George Rouy is gaining peer points for his use of classic techniques to distort the human form
-
‘I'm endlessly fascinated by the nude’: Somaya Critchlow’s intimate and confident drawings are on show in London‘Triple Threat’ at Maximillian William gallery in London is British artist Somaya Critchlow’s first show dedicated solely to drawing
-
Looking forward to Tate Modern’s 25th anniversary partyFrom 9-12 May 2025, Tate Modern, one of London’s most adored art museums, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a lively weekend of festivities
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA week in the world of Wallpaper*. Here's how our editors have been entertaining themselves in the run up to Christmas
-
Love, melancholy and domesticity: Anna Calleja is a painter to watchAnna Calleja explores everyday themes in her exhibition, ‘One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night’, at Sim Smith, London
-
Ndayé Kouagou speaks the language of the chaotic social media influencer in LondonNdayé Kouagou celebrates meandering incoherence with an exhibition, ‘A Message for Everybody’, at Gathering in London
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA snowy Swiss Alpine sleepover, a design book fest in Milan, and a night with Steve Coogan in London – our editors' out-of-hours adventures this week
-
Discover psychedelic landscapes and mind-bending art at London’s Tate Modern'Electric Dreams' at the Tate encompasses the period from the 1950s to the beginning of the internet era
