Look up, inside any grand space in Vienna—opera house, museum, palace, parliament building, hotel—or indeed at @schlosshollenegg , and the glitter your eye catches from a chandelier was likely generated by Lobmeyr, Austria’s most venerable glass maker. Whether Lobmeyr made the fixture from scratch or restored to its original luster one made by others, the house that was founded in 1823 has touched nearly every splendid light hanging in every magnificent space in a city brimming with them.
Designers in residence at Schloss Hollenegg for Design are initially and understandably overwhelmed by the bounty of details, materials and craftsmanship the castle has on offer. A new theme developed by Alice, the director of the program, each year helps to narrow the focus of their site-specific creations.
As Alice Stori Liechtenstein and her family settled into the 12th-century Austrian castle, Schloss Hollenegg, she soon envisioned it as a space to be shared. That vision became Schloss Hollenegg for Design, a residency and creative community for emerging designers. Though initially hesitant to introduce contemporary artwork into the historic setting, she found her balance through the artists themselves. Just as a young family in residence brought the castle to life, so too would an injection of modern imagination from emerging designers.
With towers and turrets, frescoed vaulted ceilings and grand galleries, ballrooms and libraries and 52 rooms brimming with Rococo moldings, ancestral portraits, hunting trophies, exquisite tapestries and imposing 16th and 17th-century tiled stoves (one in each room), the Schloss initially was an overwhelming trove of architecture, antiquities and art. A restoration project that Alice Stori Liechtenstein married into and lovingly took on, turning the enchanting castle into a permanent residence and energizing it with an artist-in-residence program and creative community for emerging designers.
In The Current, Vol. 6, we visit Alice Stori Liechtenstein and the enchanting Schloss Hollenegg, the storybook estate of tiled towers nestled among forests and vineyards where she lives and works. A magic kingdom of her own making, it reflects her singular vision. Read the full story through the link in our bio.
“We all try to be the stars of our own life… we want to be the best people and professionals we can be—and you, Robert, have succeeded in all of it.”
—Wendy Goodman
Scenes from the Los Angeles premiere of Street Theater at LA Legends, followed by a conversation with Robert Rufino and Wendy Goodman, longstanding friends and colleagues.
An Armand Albert Rateau gilded wood pendant light, once owned by Lanvin and then Lagerfeld, hangs above a bathtub in Luis Laplace and Christophe Comoy’s private residence.
Luis Laplace and Christophe Comoy’s country house near Toulouse, France is a 17th-century, blue-shuttered farmhouse with roots to the original vineyard on the property that has remained in the Comoy family for generations. Its layered interiors and gradual evolution reflect how people and times have changed—the constant, however, is its role as a retreat from a life lived elsewhere. Swipe for a tour of Combenègre where they, like generations of Comoys before them, return to a simpler rhythm.
A peek inside Luis Laplace’s private ceramics studio just steps away from his architecture and design offices. A true artist workshop, with a wheel and kiln, it additionally houses curated assemblages of inspiration—personal collections of art and antique and vintage tools, implements full of utility and humility.
In their Paris atelier, Luis Laplace and Christophe Comoy’s team of 50-plus focuses on the architecture of the house. The furnishings, the landscape, the art and the objects too. This is what is worked on and talked about. A lot. But Luis tells of a team member who also calls the work a réveillé—an awakening. And it’s here that you realize that for the pair, for their studio and clients, this is where the real focus is. A sum of the parts with the common goal in every project: to awaken. Visit the link in our bio to read more.
Luis Laplace and Christophe Comoy, partners in life and business at their Parisian design firm Laplace, grew up 7,000 miles apart: Luis was raised in Argentina and Christophe in France. While the cultural differences and distance between their childhood homes and worlds were profound, they discovered they shared remarkably related family values. Including close relationships with their grandmothers—who, it turns out, shared an uncanny fondness for hats and reptiles. Visit the link in our bio to read more.
Current Conversations | A look back at an intimate series during @chsxdesign , celebrating the hometown premiere of our new documentary, Street Theater, alongside a salon-style discussion with the inspiring Louise luel-Brockdorff Albinus. Grateful for the voices that shaped each conversation and all who joined us.
