2024-05-31
58 分钟This episode reflects how early summer days are full of promise. We meet Swiss born Kia Schwaninger, whose jewellery collection is inspired by the art deco architecture of Miami, sit down with Sudanese-Dutch musician Gaidaa in Amsterdam and discuss colour and the meaning of home with purveyor and creator of paint Cassandra Ellis. Plus: historian Hiba Alobaydi explores the legacy of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in today’s cities. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Early summer days are full of promise, that sense of being on the cusp of something.
We've yet to decamp to the coasts, but the first weeks of warmth in the city, when roses are in bloom and bees buzz on hollyhocks, which spring miraculously from cracks in the concrete pavement where I live, are a joyful, blustery episode in the calendar.
In London this month, I've dashed for cover at a garden and cycled through the rain home from what was a glorious picnic.
Surrounded by cow parsley and seas of buttercups.
This episode reflects on the inspiration of the verdant city.
We chat with Swiss born Kia Schwanninger, whose jewelry collection is inspired by the natural world, but also architectural motifs of Miami and memories of teenage travels in Ecuador.
We meet Sudanese Dutch musician Gaida in Amsterdam and find out how writing is her compass for understanding the world.
And we'll discuss colour and the meaning of home with the purveyor and creator of paint, Cassandra Ellis, who was influenced by the writer Katherine Mansfield's story the Garden Party for her latest iteration of green.
Finally, in our audio essay, historian Heber Alobaidi explores the legacy of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
This is Confect Corner and I'm your host, Sophie Grove.
The interesting and challenging part of the job as a designer working for one of these maisons is to pull something important from those archives and bring them a step further.
Bring them into the now and bring them for the wearer and what they would feel comfortable wearing nowadays and what they would want to have in their lives.
This project in general has just been an adventure to get to the finish line.
I just keep changing my mind.
It's been also think about it, it's been since 2020 to now.
Somehow we're in 2024.
So much life has happened, so much world stuff has happened, so much growth has happened.
For me, from the green roofs of Scandinavian cities to the urban parks of Singapore, descendants of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon can be found in diverse approaches to modern urban planning the world over.
In 2024, the gardens are a paradigm employed to promote sustainable and regenerative thinking in future generations.
Welcome to Confect Corner.