What’s Happening: Numerous sci-fi films feature classic furniture that have shaped our image of the future. The Vitra Design Museum’s latest show reveals how history’s most notable designers seek inspiration within the genre—and continue to apply its learnings.

The Download: Filmmakers were imagining future fictional worlds soon after the medium’s advent at the dawn of the 20th century. Over the next few decades, science fiction not only saw a rapid ascent in film and literature, but crept closer to reality as satellites shot into space and aeronautical technology took off. Meanwhile, what we now call the Space Age was finding numerous expressions within design thanks to Gae Aulenti, Eero Aarnio, Luigi Colani, Joe Colombo, and Verner Panton dreaming up furnishings whose organic shapes and shiny plastic surfaces looked straight from the future. Furniture that reflected the technology of space travel was also landing on the silver screen, notably in Stanley Kubrick’s opus 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), in which Olivier Mourgue’s undulating Djinn loungers furnished the rotating Hilton.

Design’s relationship with science fiction informs “Science Fiction Design: From Space Age to Metaverse,” a newly opened show at the Vitra Design Museum, which pulled more than 100 objects from its expansive archives into a futuristic scenography devised by Spanish artist Andrés Reisinger. More examples from film abound: Aarnio’s Tomato Chair in Men in Black (1997), Marc Newson’s Orgone Chair in Prometheus (2012), and unexpected ones like Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Argyle Chair in Blade Runner (1982). Beyond film, though, the show examines how that dialogue persists today. Besides continually applying new technology to help solve pressing social problems, designers are also imagining innovative solutions on platforms like the metaverse, which are mostly free from physical constraints.

In that regard, the museum found an ideal collaborator in Reisinger. The graphic designer by training first rose to stardom by rendering idyllic fictional wonderlands that reference the imagery of sci-fi films and sharing them on Instagram to much fanfare. (“I try to deform reality, but not too much,” he once said.) He’s also one of the earliest designers to experiment with NFTs before the market ran its course and staged auctions of virtual furniture long before the metaverse hype. He not only devised the show’s scenography but is displaying two pieces, including the Hortensia Chair. The hydrangea-clad lounger was originally rendered in one of his dreamscapes, but he spent a year learning industrial design to bring it into reality after a follower put in a sales order for an object that didn’t physically exist yet—a sci-fi plot in and of itself.

In Their Own Words: “As soon as I was invited by the Vitra Design Museum to work on this exhibition, I knew I wanted to incorporate the themes of Argentine fantasy writer Jorge Luis Borges, whom I’ve long admired,” Reisinger says. “A central motif in his work is mirrors, symbolic of portals to alternate realities. I resolved to make mirrors focal points, utilizing them to reflect and evoke multiple realities and timelines intertwining.”

Surface Says: We’re eager to watch a sci-fi film that focuses on AI-powered interior design—at least in a way that doesn’t suck. But based on how quickly the technology is evolving, it’ll likely be out of date by the time it hits the screen.

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Hidden within Marrakech’s former French Quarter, a new haven for creative types has opened its doors. A three-year wait built high anticipation for the arrival of Pétanque Social Club, literally named for its former occupant, a nearly century-old pétanque club. Owner Kamal Laftimi—the mastermind behind local restaurants Café des Epices and Nomad—acquired the space in the face of the city’s aggressive development push and tapped the principals of Diego and Alexeja Art & Design Studio to revitalize the club while preserving its character.

They responded by reworking the club’s windows to let in more light and create a sun-washed interior, in the process repurposing existing shutters as tabletops. A healthy amount of vintage goods abound, including club chairs sourced from the renowned five-star hotel La Mamounia. Antique photos of the preceding club’s members now decorate the walls, while crystal chandeliers, mirror balls, and an ample dose of velvet creates a luxuriant atmosphere.

When: Until July 28

Where: Hauser & Wirth, Somerset

What: By making meticulously textured dalhangari (“moon jars”), the South Korea–born ceramist explores her earliest recollections of her birthplace and seeks to transform the emotional experience of memory into the physical. Her porcelain vessels seem to crater, bloom, and percolate like planetary bodies, reading not only as celebrations of nature and the universe but as of her most favored medium in all its unpredictability.

To mark NYCxDesign 2024, Surface and Audo Copenhagen brought together more than 50 members of the design community for an intimate panel discussion held in Audo’s Tribeca showroom. Leaders from Meyer Davis, Design Within Reach, Lumens, Louis Poulsen, Flos, and more turned out to hear from Norm Architects partners Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen and Katrine Goldstein, and Bang & Olufsen creative director Kresten Bjørn Krab-Bjerre. In a conversation moderated by Surface editor Jenna Adrian-Diaz, the group discussed how an increasingly opinionated and hyper-aware consumer base is the driving force behind standards of excellence in product, sound, and hospitality design.

Attendees mingled over espresso and matcha drinks by Sway Coffee before taking their seats in a café-like arrangement of Audo’s Eave Sofas, Harbour Tables, and Column Lamps. The tableau was styled by Ateljé Nordöst in an homage to the brand’s Copenhagen HQ, showroom, restaurant, and boutique hotel, Audo House. Sculpture and artwork curated by Sharon Radisch rounded out the vignette.

Founded by David Rockwell, FAIA, Rockwell Group is a cross-disciplinary architecture and design firm that emphasizes innovation and thought leadership in every project. Based in New York with a satellite office in Madrid, projects include Union Square Cafe, The Shed (Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group), NeueHouse, and the TED Theater.

Surface Says: Rockwell Group deeply understands theater as much as it does architecture, and the firm’s immersive environments capture the imagination. Whether designing a Broadway set, a restaurant, or a hotel, David Rockwell and his team combine technological know-how with design thinking, creating spectacular spaces and places.

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