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Dec 20 2022
Surface
Design Dispatch
Lamborghini heads offroad, Laura Gonzalez as an ‘80s tastemaker, and Pussy Riot pees on Putin.
FIRST THIS
“I need to have a gut feeling about every design and to understand it with my body.”
HERE’S THE LATEST

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In 2023, Lamborghini’s Flagship Supercar is Heading Offroad

What’s Happening: As the year draws to a close, Lamborghini prepares to debut a limited run of the Huracán Sterrato: an offroad-ready supercar with the hi-fi sex appeal of Christopher Nolan’s Batmobile.

The Download: During Miami Art Week, Lamborghini unveiled the new Huracán Sterrato, its first off-road supercar. The high-rolling Italian automotive brand has been busy reinventing one of its most pristine and recognizable vehicles, equipping it to go well off the pavement-beaten path. Named after the Italian word for “dirt road,” the Huracán Sterrato is the first sports car created especially to be taken off city streets and into more adventurous territory.

“Everything started with a nice evening in south Italy, having a glass of wine,” Mitja Borkert, Lamborghini’s design engineer, told Surface during a walkthrough in Miami, “We were discussing Lamborghinis on a test track while finalizing Urus [Lamborghini’s SUV] in 2016 or 2017. We were saying ‘The driving experience of the Urus is thrilling, especially on dirt roads. Why couldn’t we bring those same emotions to a super sports car?’”

In Borkert’s view, Lamborghini has always been about evoking emotions—passion, excitement, lust—both through its flagship vehicles’ sleek curves and the driver’s experience behind the wheel. The Sterrato marries that legacy with the hunger for thrills you can’t always find on a flat, open road. It’s pretty marketing speak, but how does the Huracán Sterrato stand out from its super-luxe ilk? At first glance, the car is immediately recognizable as part of the Lamborghini Huracán family. But there are a few key changes to the design that make a big difference when handling rough terrain.


Most notable? The suspension has been lifted 1.7 inches higher than its predecessor, the Huracán Evo, optimizing it for performance on dirt roads. In both the front and rear, the Sterrato’s track has been widened by 1.2 inches and 1.3 inches, respectively. Reinforced sills, a rear diffuser, and over-wheel fenders all protect the body when being driven on dirt or loose surfaces. Finally, the air intake has been relocated from the sides of the car to the hood in order to ensure the engine is supplied with clean air when driving or drifting across dusty roads. Nearly countless customization options, from the shade and finish of exterior paint to the materials outfitting the interior, make each vehicle nearly one-of-a-kind.

Contrasting fenders, exposed bolts, and auxiliary lights on the nose all work to firmly assert the Sterrato as a vehicle that was made for the dunes. Even the tires, custom-engineered by Bridgestone, affirm off-road performance comparable to its sister cars’ on the track. All elements come together to evoke armored cars, dune buggies, and even Christopher Nolan’s take on the Batmobile, all while being seamlessly integrated into the iconic Huracán body.


Though the Sterrato is Lamborghini’s first off-road model, it’s also the brand’s final full-combustion engine, with all models becoming hybrid in 2023 and its first fully electric vehicle arriving in 2028. The Huracán Sterrato will be available in a limited run of 1,499 units starting in early 2023.

In Their Own Words: With a fleet of supercars that rule the streets, as well as an SUV that can perform on and off-road, why create the Huracán? Borkert explained it was part creative idea and part passion project, and it simply kept getting the green light. “We were dreaming a bit more openly, so in the beginning, we did sketches and small models. Then we took a Huracán and added off-road elements and lifted it, so it was kind of an underground program. We then presented it as a concept car in 2019 and everyone, including president and CEO Stephan Winkelmann, told us “you need to do this.”

Surface Says: If early test drives are any indicator, Lamborghini is about to carve out their place on the roads less traveled.

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What Else Is Happening?

Check-Circle_2xAmoako Boafo opens Dot.ateliers, an artists’ residency and resource center in Accra.
Check-Circle_2x Researchers make progress on developing a “game-changer” vaccine against fentanyl.
Check-Circle_2x Arsonists destroy one of Thomas Dambo’s giant troll sculptures in Western Australia.
Check-Circle_2x A proposal reimagines a busy stretch of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue for pedestrians.
Check-Circle_2x Donald Trump’s sold-out line of NFT portraits are now trading for as much as $44,000.
Check-Circle_2x In Reykjavik, Pussy Riot stages an exhibition where they urinate on a portrait of Putin.


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DESIGN

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An ‘80s-Era Tastemaker’s Home Through the Eyes of Laura Gonzalez

When the Invisible Collection first launched, founders Anna Zaoui, Isabelle Dubern-Mallevays, and Lily Froehlicher dreamed about the design-minded e-commerce marketplace eventually settling into a fanciful home. They recently pulled back the curtain on their first physical outpost stateside: a two-story debonair townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side that will house a rotating selection of collectible objects and furniture from their roster of world-class designers. One of the first is Laura Gonzalez, the Parisian architect behind the unforgettable eclecticism of the five-star Hotel Saint James and lavish nightclub Régine’s in her hometown.

Channeling holiday warmth and the sophistication of ‘80s-era New York, Gonzalez recreates the splendor of the neighborhood’s dazzling residences across the entire main floor. “We had fun imagining the show around what the apartment of an iconic 1980s tastemaker’s home would look like,” she says. These carefully curated vignettes appear throughout and include her Lilypad chandelier in champagne shades, the clean-lined Casa Sofa upholstered in Pierre Frey fabric, and a lacquered Nenuphar table designed with Anne Midvaine. They mingle with handcrafted pieces by Goossens, Lesage Intérieurs, and Studio MTX, three Maisons d’Art from Chanel’s Le19M initiative.

Dubern-Mallevays describes the setup as “an organic meeting of the minds inspired by a shared love for eclectic design and an understood, unique approach to maximalism.” For more of that, we recommend also dropping by Cartier’s newly redesigned Temple nearby on Fifth Avenue, which Gonzalez transformed into a romantic apartment through her whimsical lens.

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT

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In East Hampton, Magdalena Keck Puts a Modern Spin on Old-World Decadence

The in-the-know often turn to Magdalena Keck’s eponymous interiors firm for her expertise in crafting pied-à-terre and vacation dwellings and her eye for showcasing distinguished art collections. For a weekend home in East Hampton, Keck and studio designer Tauana Marques created an art-filled locale perfect for entertaining and hosting spirited gatherings.

Their vision unfolds in the living room, where an intellectually-engaging art collection with works by Andrea Hornick, Leo Guida and Alyson Kinkade cultivates a distinctly contemporary dialogue with the well-appointed furnishings. “Designed for entertaining, the house cultivates a variety of social activities, accomplished through the open but dynamic layout and selection of furnishings, from oversized buttery India Mahdavi couches to star-gazing caned chairs and a textured-steel coffee table by Lukas Friedrich,” says Keck. “The details, like a solid spun-bronze vase by Michael Verheyden on the mantle along with the photography books, pottery, and twigs, are rich and tactile.”

ITINERARY

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Mitchell Reece, Polo Silk, & Taylor Simmons: Something Slight

When: Until Jan. 15

Where: Martha’s Contemporary, Austin

What: Weaving together a narrative of city life and community engagement through the lens of homegrown artists Mitchell Reece, Polo Silk, and Taylor Simmons, the group exhibition of paintings and prints curated by Mueni Loko Rudd offers a candid, perceptive look at how everyday experiences shape our lives and reflect our identities.

ART

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ICYMI: Should Artists Facing Censorship Head to OnlyFans?

Vienna’s museums have struggled to promote nude artworks in their holdings because of stringent censorship rules on social media platforms. The Albertina Museum’s TikTok was suspended for showing Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki’s works depicting an obscured female breast. Facebook took issue with the Natural History Museum’s busty photograph of the 25,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf figurine. Instagram even rejected a video promoting the Leopold Museum’s 20th anniversary as “potentially pornographic” for including Liebespaar, a Koloman Moser painting of two lovers embracing.

In a sly rebuff to the censorship, the Austrian capital’s tourism board started an account on OnlyFans, known for its adult entertainment. (A tantalizing promotional video called “Vienna strips on OnlyFans” teases erotic expressionist Egon Schiele’s “unique assets” and promises to reveal “every feature” of a Rubenesque woman.) The account, which also lured visitors with museum passes, earned 150 million visits.

THE LIST

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Member Spotlight: Marcela Cure

Marcela Cure is an interior designer and artist from Barranquilla, Colombia. Her eclectic, upbeat, and Latin-rooted interpretations of contemporaneity across residential and hospitality projects were a canvas to her subsequent sculptural explorations. Today, her studio includes interior design services as well as shoppable collectible design objects.

Surface Says: With her hand-crafted objects and the curatorial point of view of her eponymous interiors studio, Marcela Cure doesn’t just walk the line between artist-designer—she fully inhabits both roles with ease.

AND FINALLY

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Today’s Attractive Distractions

Here’s an early glimpse at Amtrak’s next generation of Airo and Acela trains.

Nendo’s latest has us reconsidering our stance on designer Christmas trees.

Tiffany taps Alex Brewer to create a colorful mural at its new store in Atlanta.

New research may offer insight into why exactly the Roman baths disappeared.

               


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