Last year, Australian hardware company Bankston Architectural made its US debut with the launch of a collaboration with Civilian — the New York design studio behind interiors like Newlab and Sandbox Films Studio. Dubbed Hemispheres, the 12-piece collection (which includes everything from knobs and pulls to levers and doorstops) plays with domed shapes in a rich palette of walnut, Potoro Gold marble, polished chrome, smooth nickel and bone — materials selected to enhance the ergonomic characteristics of the rounded forms.
Interchangeable components allow for myriad configurations. The combination of contrasting materials, however, made for some unique technical challenges: “To get stone and wood to match to a more precise material such as metal, those kinds of tolerances are very difficult to achieve,” explains Ksenia Kagner, one-half of the design team at Civilian.
The collection’s name, Hemispheres, not only references the geometry of the pieces, but also its geographically disparate collaborators. “It suggests the idea of complementarity between two sides,” explains Nicko Elliott, who co-founded Civilian with Kagner. “It was a metaphor for our working relationship with the technical team on the opposite side of the clock from us here in New York.” This metaphor is reflected in the collection’s careful juxtaposition of materials, which work together to engage the senses. “Architectural hardware is very much a kind of grammar of how you move through and experience space,” says Elliot. “The feeling that is most associated with it is something that is very engineered, logical and rational. And we were very much interested in playing up the sensual and pleasurable aspects through the exploration of contrast — wood, stone and chrome.”
The resulting collection feels decidedly modern yet nostalgic, recalling both the classic lines of Art Deco and the sleek modernity of industrial aesthetics.
