Inside ISSUE 63, from the Editor

INSIDE ISSUE 63, FROM THE EDITOR

As a journalist, I’m often the one asking the questions. So, I was caught off guard to find myself in the hotseat as a guest on The Art of Holistic Design podcast last month. Wren Loucks, host of the podcast, as well as designer and Founder of Be-Kin studio, asked me about my own creative practice as an editor, writer and photographer, and how it weaves its way into the pages of the magazine. At first, I was stumped for an answer, because I saw the work I do here as showcasing other people’s creative pursuits. But it made me think of John Berger’s book Ways of Seeing, where he argued that artistic output is a direct record of how the individual choice, history and positioning of the maker shape reality. The more artificial intelligence finds its way into what we make, the more design holds on to the patina of humanity, the traces of our own stories.

Issue 63 of SPACE asks whether craft is separable from its creator, design from its destination. Jose Rivero Gallardo, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Studio Sixty7, wonders the same, and takes a journey back to his native Venezuela to revisit the architecture, artists and cultural movements that first shaped his work, questioning how his own heritage influences his creative perspective today. Upon being asked which project represents the epitome of her design philosophy, Mary Alice Palmer, Founder and Global Creative Director of ROAM Interior Design, chooses sentiment over spectacle, and reflects on how her childhood in transit was formative to her practice today. Meanwhile, PuLi Group’s new CEO, Dean Winter, shares how luxury is now less about grand gestures and more about character, telling SPACE that the brand’s growth plans are about protecting what sets it apart, not chasing numbers and scale.

For our selection of Spaces, the theme of heritage and connection to place continues. In Munich, Tatjana von Stein finds out more about the city she was born in while designing a chic culture-clash concept for The Dean’s latest opening. GA Design reimagines the former Bank of Italy as a family palazzo passed down through generations for Corinthia Rome. The Grande Dame of cool in Marrakech, El Fenn, gets a new lease of life as Vanessa Branson passes on the leadership baton to AKAN Collection. Architect brothers turned hoteliers Gian Carlo and Matteo Primatesta launch their second property, La Darbia Chianti, shaped by a monastic luxury aesthetic. In Austria, Berlin-based weStudio draws on the principles of the Wiener Werkstätte to create The Companion Vienna, where craftsmanship, geometry and colour bridge heritage and contemporary hospitality.

And last but not least, back in London, Holloway Li revisits the 1960s office as hit show Mad Men remembered it for Locke’s Canary Wharf opening, where a corporate past makes way for a hedonistic future. As we wrap up our last issue of 2026, a special thank you goes out to the design community. Your projects are what make SPACE a world of inspiration, and my job all the nicer. Happy reading, and see you on the other side.