The strength of the best architecture is often in the purity of a simple idea executed to the clarity of its vision. Vo Trong Nghia’s work has ambition and yet that ambition does not get it the way of their values, focusing on sustainability, craft and community.

European architects (particularly German architects) flourished under schools like the Bauhaus and the principles emerging from this explosion of Modernism in the early 20th Century still define architecture today. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969, born Aachen, Germany) fuelled the ‘explosion’ with the ripples still being felt.

We think we know architecture. We think that architecture has a vernacular; it has a look, a typical approach. New York base architecture firm SO-IL, has created a new architecture, a language that is fluid, tactile and literally stretching boundaries.

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, a reflective stream. Rolex Learning Centre, a rolling landscape. New Museum, stacked mesh cubes. Moriyama house, a courtyard village. Japanese architects SANAA somehow manage to package complex ideas and distil them into an elegant outcome that walks that fine line between sculpture, architecture and play….and they make it look easy.

I’ll be honest the Hocker stool is one of my favourite pieces of furniture. But that sounds a little limiting because l think its a beautiful object. Yes, you can sit on it or use it as side table but best of all , its just beautiful to look at .