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urban item
Urban style is the definite article in this Wellington design store.

Artikel, German for object, is unashamedly appealing to the urban design junkie.

"We're aimed more at inner-city apartment dwellers than your Thorndon villa set and the store reflects that," says co-owner Angela Gordon (above left).

Angela, whose passion is interior design, and brother, Geoffrey Gordon, are the team behind Artikel's clean, minimal look. Their design brief? Unusual and exciting products with an international edge.

But more often it's locally-produced furnishings with a retro or futuristic bent that catch their buyer's eye. Designs such as Shane Kenneally's aeronautically-inspired sycamore and aluminium table and chair (shown above) and Lothair Hamann's seventies-style plastic petal lamps (top) lend the store its distinctly brave new world feel.

Aluminium planter pots, silver plastic bean bags, a reproduction Asko Pastilli black fibreglass chair, classic sixties Danish mobiles, German ceramics and reproduction 1920s Spanish tin toys are among other must-haves.

126 Wakefield St, Wellington. Phone 04-499 7787.

Lynn Murphy