Established in 1993,the founding concept of Hinge Magazine
was to provide a strong focus for design with an attitude
that was distinctly international. Our stories meet the expectations
of today's professional designers - newsy, dynamic and stimulating
but the focus will always be directed towords design.
At a fundamental level, buildings and rooms are for the most
part constructed using the same handful of substances the
Greeks, Romans and Imperial Chinese used. That‘s because they
made sense and still do, at least to some degree. That‘s also
because they tended to endure - literally, yes, but also in
our tastes. The old growth forests may be gone, some mountains
of stone quarried out, and the economics or environmental
ethics of concrete or steel may be evolving, but in the end,
we haven‘t truly invented much in the way of primary building
materials since the takeover of steel and concrete. Well,
steel and concrete are brilliant materials, refined for their
intense practicality, then beloved for their aesthetic sensuality.
But what of their even older cousins - stone, masonry and
wood? Can we conceive of a time when the natural beauty and
infinite variation of stone, or the unsurpassed warmth of
wood will no longer appeal? Endless kilometres of marble paving
modern hotel lobbies has failed to squelch the unique pleasure
of studying the individual grains and colour tones of the
stuff. And we defy anyone to resist a beautifully carpentered
wall panel in oak or wenge or walnut. These are materials
that outlive trends and fashions, because of their variety
yes, but also because of what never changes about them: their
natural depth of beauty......
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