https://www.scmp.com/rss/519361/feed Sean Dix is a Hong Kong- and Milan-based interior architect designing spaces, furniture and objects. He is inspired by and writes about vintage designs, and has been collecting rare and often overlooked objects and stories for more than four decades across four continents. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Sean Dix Sean Dix In the beginning, there were no separate smoking sections because everybody smoked everywhere. And I mean everywhere: with kids in the car, in cinemas, buses, trains, McDonald’s (and everyone else’s) restaurants, maternity wards, doctors’ clinics, supermarkets, lifts, bathrooms, classrooms and aeroplanes. Pretty much the only place you couldn’t smoke was at the petrol pump. Even kids like me got in the act, “smoking” ever-popular candy cigarettes. (It made me look cool and grown-up, just like... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/article/3317655/smoking-planes-has-been-banned-years-so-why-are-there-still-ashtrays?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/article/3317655/smoking-planes-has-been-banned-years-so-why-are-there-still-ashtrays?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Jul 2025 09:00:08 +0000 Sean Dix Sean Dix Take out your earpods for a sec – really – so I can tell you a crazy story. (Or smack you – you should be more aware of your surroundings.) Music today is, of course, a commodity almost as readily available as water on tap – click a button or two and pretty much anything you can think of is yours to listen to. Now imagine another place and time, the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 60s, where no music was allowed. (OK, I exaggerate: state-approved music was allowed but not even parents wanted to... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/culture/article/3312275/original-picture-discs-could-get-you-thrown-soviet-jail?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/culture/article/3312275/original-picture-discs-could-get-you-thrown-soviet-jail?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 May 2025 22:15:08 +0000 Sean Dix Sean Dix In its infinite wisdom, PostMag tapped me to write something about sustainability. (Points thumb at own chest … “Wait, what … Me?”) So, ladies and gentlemen, here’s the world’s first sustainable, eco-friendly, green, carbon neutral and, of course, plant-based column. First of all, any use of the descriptor “sustainable” is preposterous and should be punishable by the forced use of ecological toilet paper. I think “sustainable” should be replaced in almost all cases by “Slightly Less... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/passions/article/3308527/can-we-ever-really-be-sustainable-or-it-all-performative?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/passions/article/3308527/can-we-ever-really-be-sustainable-or-it-all-performative?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 01 May 2025 02:15:07 +0000 Sean Dix Sean Dix I can’t think of many architects or designers as particularly attuned to the attributes of specific materials as the slightly overlooked Angelo Mangiarotti (1921-2012). This was someone who really understood what different materials could and couldn’t do, and delighted in pushing them to the sculptural limit. As an architect, he is probably best remembered for his precast concrete industrial structures. In other words, big chunks of concrete cast off-site and assembled like oversized building... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/design-interiors/article/3301418/material-mastery-angelo-mangiarotti?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/design-interiors/article/3301418/material-mastery-angelo-mangiarotti?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Apr 2025 19:00:09 +0000 Sean Dix Sean Dix Spare a thought for roadies, those long-suffering, behind-the-scenes folks responsible for ensuring that everything flows trouble-free once the star takes the stage. The last thing they want are any surprises, like malfunctioning equipment, such as tuneless organs, snapped guitar strings or staticky microphones. Unsurprisingly, they like backups for their backups. When Martin Luther King took the stage to give his “I Have a Dream” speech, his lectern was already covered with at least eight... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/design-interiors/article/3297409/microphone-stars-why-elvis-mic-has-been-favoured-singers-and-public-figures-1939?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/design-interiors/article/3297409/microphone-stars-why-elvis-mic-has-been-favoured-singers-and-public-figures-1939?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Feb 2025 09:15:12 +0000 Sean Dix Sean Dix A sexy calculator? You’ve got to be kidding. Though indisputably necessary, it’s hard even to remember a time when they existed. Today we just instinctively tap an app on our phone for some quick multiplication. In the early 1950s, calculators were room-sized precursors to computers, but the technology developed stunningly quickly, from 1961’s bulky desktops to 1967’s first handheld bricks, to Texas Instruments’ chunky Datamath of 1972 – every pocket-protected engineer’s first crush, and one of... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/article/3294886/how-designer-turned-charm-calculators?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/article/3294886/how-designer-turned-charm-calculators?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Jan 2025 22:15:07 +0000 Sean Dix Sean Dix Maneki neko (literally, beckoning cats) have been bringing fortune and luck to people since at least 1852. We can pinpoint the date because that was the year ukiyo-e master Hiroshige Utagawa depicted them in a street scene. Traditionally, maneki neko were white-glazed ceramic, porcelain or wooden cats with a raised right arm. Now, they are commonly found in kitschy gilt plastic, with a cheap, tiny motor and a couple of batteries tucked inside to power the perpetually swinging limb. But they’re... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/design-interiors/article/3289014/those-lucky-cat-figures-theyre-not-what-you-think?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/design-interiors/article/3289014/those-lucky-cat-figures-theyre-not-what-you-think?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Dec 2024 02:15:08 +0000 Sean Dix Sean Dix In 1949, George Lerner came up with an idea for a new toy that went on to become one of the most popular of all time, selling more than one million units in just its first year of production. It was a little kit of parts – multicoloured bits made of that exciting new material developed during the Second World War: plastic. The toy was composed of different-shaped noses, eyes, hats, moustaches, ears, arms – that could be plugged into an actual potato or carrot to create a silly plaything for... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/article/3288134/unlikely-story-behind-mr-potato-head?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/article/3288134/unlikely-story-behind-mr-potato-head?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Nov 2024 00:15:08 +0000 Sean Dix Sean Dix Any creative act can be judged by the extent to which the essential is identified and the extraneous eliminated: think of Michelangelo famously “extracting” his David from a block of stone. The best attain this purity without any apparent exertion. Like tai chi grandmas synchronised at dawn or Taoism’s wu wei doctrine of “effortless action”, Donald Judd’s art and design, as new book Donald Judd Furniture underscores, embodies what he described as “the simplest expression of complex... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/design-interiors/article/3279592/how-american-minimalist-donald-judd-sought-simplify-complex-his-stark-designs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/design-interiors/article/3279592/how-american-minimalist-donald-judd-sought-simplify-complex-his-stark-designs?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Sep 2024 08:45:07 +0000 Sean Dix Sean Dix Their mass-produced products were beautifully designed and well made, and there were certainly a lot of them. Wherever in the world you’re from, there was probably a Marelli fan oscillating in a corner. And even after more than a century, there are still a surprising number of them – in homes, bars and restaurants – keeping people cool, especially in their homeland, Italy, which is still mostly free of air conditioning. Even here in Hong Kong, possibly the world’s hotbed of air con consumption,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3276828/ercole-marelli-known-his-iconic-electric-fans-his-legacy-looking-after-his-employees?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3276828/ercole-marelli-known-his-iconic-electric-fans-his-legacy-looking-after-his-employees?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Sep 2024 03:15:12 +0000 Sean Dix Sean Dix Charles and Ray Eames are among the world’s best known designers. The couple’s ubiquitous furniture designs, virtually all still in production, have furnished hipster homes and madmen offices since the late 1940s. So they might not be the most obvious choice for a column in 2024. For me, however, the most intriguing thing they created is this mysterious object from 1941 that I unearthed in a Chicago vintage shop back in the 1990s. Though they are extremely rare (because they had a lot of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3275409/youll-never-guess-what-designers-charles-and-ray-eames-created-us-navy-during-wwii?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3275409/youll-never-guess-what-designers-charles-and-ray-eames-created-us-navy-during-wwii?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Aug 2024 08:45:09 +0000 Sean Dix Sean Dix You’re a war correspondent chasing the story. You’re supposed to be pretty smart but you find yourself, not so clever after all, in a muddy trench with bullets whizzing by your head and smoke and cordite burning your eyes. Your deadline was an hour ago, the dispatch needs to be written and wired back to your editor in time for the morning edition. So you’re frantically hammering away at your laptop, smack in the middle of the action, and those G and H keys jam together yet again. “Argh,” you... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3275267/ernest-hemingway-and-john-steinbeck-loved-hardy-portable-typewriter-meet-hermes-baby-once-every-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3275267/ernest-hemingway-and-john-steinbeck-loved-hardy-portable-typewriter-meet-hermes-baby-once-every-war?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Aug 2024 06:45:08 +0000 Sean Dix Sean Dix Back in 1911, an earnest little Michigan company called Ironrite Ironer started producing automatic electric ironing machines (sometimes known as Mangles, I suspect because of what their big rollers would do to your hands if you weren’t careful). These were the days before lightweight handheld irons, when women (always women) lost hours of their day, on their feet, wrestling with heavy irons. Ironrite Ironer marketed its machines as a modern, more efficient, less labour-intensive solution to the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3274458/was-ironrite-health-chair-first-flat-packed-chair-behind-vintage-1930s-design?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3274458/was-ironrite-health-chair-first-flat-packed-chair-behind-vintage-1930s-design?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Aug 2024 03:00:10 +0000 It doesn’t fold, you can’t doomscroll or take selfies with it, and there isn’t anything “smart” about it. But the iconic Western Electric Model 302, designed by Bell Labs engineer George Lum, was at the cutting edge of phone technology in 1937. It is sleek and compact, rigorously modern and absent of the superfluous. Its stolid die-cast zinc body sweeps up from its rectangular, leather-footed base to cradle the ergonomic, subtly streamlined Bakelite handset. The understated design was ubiquitous... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3273344/why-western-electric-model-302-rotary-phone-so-iconic-ubiquitous-film-noir-and-hitchcock?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3273344/why-western-electric-model-302-rotary-phone-so-iconic-ubiquitous-film-noir-and-hitchcock?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Aug 2024 19:00:26 +0000