Dwell - SeptemberOctober 2023

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September/October 2023
“The pendulum has swung away from extreme minimalism,

and it’s gonna swing back at some point.”
Jonathan Solomon, resident
CONTENTS
DWE L LI NGS 76 86 96
Quiet Riot Open Invite Trust the Process
COVER
An 1800s Chicago home A penthouse in Kosovo’s Dull regulations lead to
Ana Fortin watches her gets a maximalist capital brings people glimmering innovation in
daughter, Madalena, behind makeover. together. a Lisbon townhouse.
their Lisbon home. TEXT TEXT TEXT
PHOTO BY Zach Mortice Nathan Ma Nathan Ma
Matthew Avignone PHOTOS PHOTOS PHOTOS
Lyndon French Carol Sachs Matthew Avignone
ABOVE
A sunroom offers a place for
Jonathan Solomon to relax
in his Chicago home.
PHOTO BY
Lyndon French
9
Megan Carney and

Ann Edgerton of Muhly
are two of the design-
ers in this year’s Dwell
24, our annual roster of
emerging talent to watch.
“A lot of our pieces have
an underlying message,”
Edgerton says. “Let’s
lead people outside. Let’s
put our phones away.”
46
CONTENTS
29
62
D EPAR T M E NT S
13 Editor’s Letter 29 Modern World 54 Rental Revamp 106 Budget Breakdown

Meet this year’s Dwell 24, Designer Kiki Goti transforms After losing their jobs, a
our annual list of the most her Brooklyn apartment with Uruguayan couple build a small
exciting emerging designers some clever hacks and her own home for about $35,000.
from around the world. creations. TEXT BY Paola Singer
TEXT BYStephen Zacks PHOTOS BY Leonardo Finotti
118 Sourcing 44 Career Paths PHOTOS BY Ryan Lowry
See it? Want it? Need it? Buy it! How do you become one of 108 Small Spaces
the world’s top designers? 62 Interiors When they wanted to expand
120 One Last Thing We mapped the careers of five A Dwell 24 alum creates a vaca- their workspace without going
Ceramist Sarah Hussaini muses of them to find out. tion rental in Mérida, Mexico, that far from home, this Ecuadoran
on a mysterious object that TEXT BY Adrian Madlener plays with local design traditions. couple built in their front yard.
inspires her. Julianne Escobedo Shepherd María Silvia Aguirre
PHOTO: LINDSAY MCALEAVY (29)
TEXT BY TEXT BY
TEXT BYLauren Gallow 46 Home Work PHOTOS BY Jake Naughton PHOTOS BY Juan Alberto Andrade
PHOTO BY Jamie Chung
A tiny office in the Hollywood
Hills glows with hidden meaning. 70 Backyard House
TEXT BYKathryn Romeyn An ADU brings bunker chic
PHOTOS BY Amanda Hakan to a suburban home outside
Get a full year of Dwell at Wellington, New Zealand.
TEXT BY Jacqui Gibson
dwell.com/subscribe
PHOTOS BY David Straight
11
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Måne | Stockholm Collection
Photography by Mikiko Kikuyama
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maderasurfaces.com
editor’s letter
According to a Zillow study, painting your walls

gray will entice potential buyers to offer up to $2,512
more for your home. When the company released
that figure earlier this year, some homeowners living
among gray walls professed paralysis, claiming online
with varied degrees of irony that they wouldn’t dare
paint their home any other color for fear of devaluing
their property.
I get it. If you’re lucky enough to own a home right
now, it’s likely your biggest, most unpredictable asset
and a constant source of anxiety in a market that
doesn’t seem to be following any kind of inherited
logic. But even joking about living under the tyranny
of a trend as simple as a paint color seems like a par-
ticularly cruel form of alienation from the place that
should reflect, well, you. If you rent your place, you
know the feeling. The sense of precarity—that the
owner can always demand more than you can afford
when it comes time to renew your lease—means
that where you sleep can’t truly be your safe space.
Particularly here in the U.S., where there are very
few protections for you.
But remember that it took more than 40 years for
avocado green and wood paneling to become the right
kind of outré. The same cycle will come for oatmeal
minimalism, modern farmhouse kitsch, millennial
pastels—currently breathing their last, dusty gasp—
and, yes, those gray walls that signal taste, but no
particular taste, to prospective buyers.
So, go wild? Or at least make your place your own.
For inspiration, we have a few examples of renova-
tions uninterested in convention: a playfully layered
townhouse in Lisbon (p. 96), an apartment in Kosovo
that feels open without an open plan (p. 86), and a
19th-century house in Chicago (p. 76) that contains a
riotous index of its owners’ obsessions. And, so that
you can furnish your own home in a way that only
you would, we’re announcing this year’s Dwell 24
(p. 29), our annual list of emerging designers making
the most exciting furniture, light fixtures, and other
objects out there right now.
The Tyranny Don’t apologize for your glass bricks, your apron
sink, your wall-to-wall carpeting (old or newly on
trend), or whatever makes your home yours. Maybe
of Taupe make sure you can dial back all of that terrazzo when
you decide to sell—or cover that trompe l’oeil mural
well enough to get your security deposit back. The
breeze shifts. But don’t be afraid of your decor. You
deserve to live in whatever style you choose.
William Hanley, Editor-in-Chief

PHOTO: BRIAN W. FERRY
william@dwell.com
DWELL SEPTEM B ER/O C TO B ER 2023 13

Dwell Editorial
Editor-in-Chief
William Hanley
Executive Editor
Kate Dries Dwell Dwell®, the Dwell logo,
548 Market Street and Dwell Media are
Managing Editor PMB 35259 registered trademarks of
Jack Balderrama Morley Recurrent Ventures Inc.
San Francisco, CA
Senior Design Editor 94104-5401
Mike Chino
letters@dwell.com
Senior Home Guide Editor
Megan Reynolds
Culture Editor
Sarah Buder
News Editor
Duncan Nielsen
Style Editor
Julia Stevens
Senior Staff Writer,
Commerce
Kenya Foy
Contributing Editor
Kelly Vencill Sanchez
Copy Editor
Don Armstrong
Fact Checkers
Meredith Clark
Brendan Cummings
Jy Murphy
Dora Vanette
Founder Advertising Recurrent Ventures
Editorial Fellow
Lara Hedberg Deam
Jada Jackson
Senior Director of Sales Chief Executive Officer
Tara Smith Alex Vargas
Creative Director Dwell.com tara@dwell.com
Senior Vice President
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Client Partner of Home
Director of Engineering
Visuals Director Maris Newbury Jason Lepore
Jim Redd
Amy Silberman maris@dwell.com
Chief Revenue Officer
Software Engineers
Art Director Branded Content Manager of Home
Wing Lian
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Dan Woodson
haley@dwell.com
Visuals Editor Vice President of Commerce
Alex Casto Editorial Manager of Breton Fischetti
Marketing Branded Content
Vice President of
Sarah LeTrent
Programmatic
Senior Marketing Manager Account Services Manager Scott Mulqueen
Erin V. Mahoney Doree Antig
Article Reprints Head of Brand
Send requests to: Digital Marketing Associate doree@dwell.com
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14 SEPTEM B ER/O C TO B ER 2023 DWELL MEDIA

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contributors
Carol Sachs
Photographer
“Open Invite,” p. 90
Early on in Carol Sachs’s career, she documented theater life
in her home country of Brazil. “I really liked the backstage,”
says Sachs. “Seeing the sets being built, people rehearsing,
and costumes and the makeup coming together.” These days,
that interest in getting a behind-the-scenes look extends to
all sorts of topics, from denim production in Japan to meals
by Michelin-starred chefs and personal homes. For this issue,
the Amsterdam-based photographer traveled to Kosovo to
depict a colorful apartment and capture the everyday lives of
the residents and how they adapt their home for the regular
community gatherings they host.
“Design is everywhere,
part of every aspect of our lives.”
Adrian Madlener, Writer
Adrian Madlener
Writer
“What It Takes to Make It,” p. 42
Much of Adrian Madlener’s work
has been guided by an interest in
craft-led experimentation, first as
an undergraduate in an industrial
design program at the Design
Academy Eindhoven in the
Netherlands, throughout editorial
stints at various publications, and
now as a New York–based writer,
curator, and consultant. For this
issue, he charted the career time
lines of five designers who are
exploring materials and technol-
ogy, chronicling their professional
highs, lows, and moments of
Ryan Lowry experimentation in between.
Photographer “It was interesting to trace their
trajectories on a chart and to
“Mediterranean Revival,” p. 46
Ryan Lowry picked up a camera in
see where things are not always Jada Jackson
linear,” says Madlener. “It’s not a Dwell Editorial Fellow
middle school and hasn’t put it straight path to the top.”
down since, majoring in photogra- Jada Jackson got her start writing
phy in college and working as a for her high school’s newspaper
New York–based photographer for club. After graduating from
the past decade. He likes to focus Columbia College Chicago, she
on people and spaces, taking on became a freelance journalist for
such notable assignments as national publications, covering a
documenting Agustín Hernández variety of topics, including beauty,
Navarro’s studio in Mexico City fashion, health, and social justice.
PHOTOS: COURTESY CONTRIBUTORS
and a Donald Judd ranch outside As the Dwell editorial fellow,

Marfa, Texas. For this issue, Lowry Jackson has been profiling up-
stayed closer to home to shoot and-coming designers for this
designer Kiki Goti’s Brooklyn issue’s Modern World section.
apartment. “It’s such a New York “For me, it’s the storytelling, being
story, where people are doing a able to have good conversations
lot of modifications to their living with people and helping to uplift
spaces in rentals,” he says. “It’s unrepresented voices,” says
nice to see how somebody can be Jackson. “At the core of it, I just
creative within those parameters.” like talking to different people.”
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comments
“Beautiful and perfect. It has everything one

needs inside and more than you will EVER need outside.
Ocean, land, living with nature, off the grid.
I’d love to stay tuned for where Chris takes this.”
Robert via Dwell.com
With the help of architec-

ture firm Madeiguincho,
artist Chris Saunders built
this tiny home for himself
on the Portuguese coast, as
described in “A New Wave”
from our July/August issue.
PHOTOS: CARLOS CHAVARRÍA (“A NEW WAVE”); COURTESY ANDREW NEYER (SEEING THE LIGHT)
I am a graphic designer and built these beautiful architectural
would love to know what typeface designs. Whether in an appendix,
was used for headlines in the a link, a YouTube channel, or
article on Italian huts on page 73 the article itself, there is definitely
[in the July/August issue]. a benefit to the DIY enthusiast/ Featured Collection
Stunning, bold, and elegant all professional to be conferred.
rolled into one. Thank you! CHRYS KOMODIKIS Seeing the Light
MAUREEN FARR OWNER, PAROS DESIGNS
MOZELLE! STUDIO GRAPHIC +
WEB DESIGN It’s a shame everybody wants to
“monetize” their homes. It started
Dwell’s creative director, Suzanne with illegal suites, which my city
LaGasa, responds: Thanks! We altered zoning to make legal. Soon
selected Buona by Outlet, which was short-term rentals became all the
inspired by Italian type dating back rage with their associated traffic,
to Roman stone carvings. A good noise, and parking issues. In your
fit for a cover on the Italian Alps. May/June issue, Dwell seems to be
promoting turning pools into public
Thank you for your part in bathing facilities [in the same way].
curating and editing one of the best A pool can be an issue at the best
design magazines out there. I love of times, since most people seem
it. So many homes are shown with incapable of swimming quietly. This
truly excellent photography and practice needs to be stopped. Homes Readers are loving this eclectic lighting
readable prose, but as an investor/ should be for family living, not selection assembled by Dwell’s senior design
builder, what I would find most a never-ending business venture. editor, Mike Chino. Products like Andrew
edifying is a bit more wording STEEN PETERSEN Neyer’s Dune pendant are great ways to add
on how the contractors actually NANAIMO, BRITISH COLUMBIA a bit of color to your home.

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Checkerboard
Lately, grids of all kinds have been showing up everywhere, from tiles
to towels. They seem as popular on Instagram as on TikTok. Here,
Cheap trick. Too

busy.
@patrickstripe
Why not? In the

creative spirit of
Yayoi Kusama, if it
makes you happy,
eyes.
embrace it!
Suzanne LaGasa,
creative director
It’s hard for me to Always a classic, It’s visual clutter. Makes me feel like
that it was hard to
see it and not think but I’m afraid it’s @johnxgrimes a piece of chess.
keep clean! Muddy
of Instagram. becoming the new @parafernali.a
footsteps were very
Kate Dries, executive chevron. Love it but not in
visible on the light
editor @randi.redmon black and white. Trends come and
tiles, and dusty
When it’s in color, go, and this one is
ones on the dark
Seems to get It reminds me of it’s perfection. pulling out of the
tiles.
popular every thirty my college rental, @lbarrfloral driveway.
@marinearmstrong
years. Can we be which is enough for Julia Stevens, style
done with checker- me to check it off If it’s on a kitchen editor
board already?!? my list. floor or even in a
ILLUSTRATION: PETER OUMANSKI
@scabpicker Ian Zunt, digital foyer, then sure. The nostalgic

READER POLL marketing associate But otherwise, it reminder of diners
It’s classic IMO. It’ll screams Season 1 and Vans slip-ons is
too good.
% % never go out of Love how it can of the pandemic,
52 48 style.
@_lauraturner_
read vintage…for-
maI…cozy…grand…
utilitarian…like great
jeans!
@arbre.bcn
and for me, that’s
a no.
Megan Reynolds,
senior home guide
editor
@4adobeslabs
Who wants to
shower in a diner?
@erikeaker
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origin story
Architects of the A-List TEXT BY

Angela Serratore
When it comes to the places celebrities call home, we’re a nosy society. Before celeb
YouTube home tours, we had shows like MTV’s Cribs, and glossy magazine spreads show-
casing A-listers’ mansions date back to Hollywood’s golden era. We’ve long loved to see
where the rich and famous lay their heads and to meet the architects who have designed
extraordinary homes for them. Here, Dwell looks back at a century or so of remarkable
talent whose California homes for the stars shaped the everyday taste of their times.
PHOTOS: GJON MILI/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/SHUTTERSTOCK (LIFE); ARCHIVE FARMS INC./ALAMY STOCK PHOTO (HEARSTS); JULIA MORGAN
PAPERS, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES, CAL POLY SAN LUIS OBISPO (MORGAN AND HEARST CASTLE)
It’s hard to imagine a more intimidating celebrity client
than William Randolph Hearst, the 20th-century media
magnate and Citizen Kane inspirer. Julia Morgan, the first
licensed female architect in California, however, learned
to speak Hearst fluently. Starting in 1919, Morgan spent
nearly 30 years working on his ostentatious San Simeon,
California, estate, Hearst Castle, which included a private
zoo to house camels and zebras, a pool evoking the baths
of ancient Rome, and Greek-columned terraces. Hearst
liked Morgan’s work so much that he asked her to design
a Santa Monica mansion for his longtime mistress, Marion
Davies, with more than 100 rooms plus several guesthouses
and a colossal swimming pool lined in Italian marble. Both
projects were glamorous, showy, and designed to position
their inhabitants as 20th-century royalty.
Curious about
the story behind
a classic design?
Ask us to look into it.
No idea is too big
or detail too small.

PHOTOS: COURTESY CALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARY (WILLIAMS AND SINATRA HOMES); BETTMANN/GETTY (SINATRA AND KELLY); FLORIAN HOLZHERR (MALIBU); ERIC VANDEVILLE/
Hollywood glam as we know it wouldn’t exist without Paul

GAMMA-RAPHO/GETTY (ANDO); CHRISTOPHER POLK/NBC/NBCU PHOTO BANK/GETTY (BEYONCÉ AND JAY-Z)
R. Williams. In addition to the Tudor and Georgian Revival

homes across Los Angeles that bear his signature style,
with grand staircases and oversize patios, Williams was
responsible for the pink-and-green palette at the celeb-
favorite Beverly Hills Hotel, where he designed the 1949
Crescent Wing and reimagined the see-and-be-seen-at
Polo Lounge. The first Black architect admitted to the AIA
lived up to his “Architect to the Stars” moniker. In the mid-
1950s, he designed a swingin’ Beverly Hills bachelor pad
for a newly single Frank Sinatra, adding special cabinets
for Sinatra’s state-of-the-art entertainment system (above
right) and gravel-filled walls to perfect the living room’s
acoustics. In recent years, stars like Denzel Washington and
Ellen DeGeneres have snagged Williams-designed homes.
Hollywood’s latest starchitect darling has his own movie-

worthy story. Self-taught Japanese architect Tadao Ando
worked as a professional boxer before he started dreaming
up minimalist, concrete buildings for high-profile clients
around the world. The 81-year-old Pritzker Prize–winner has
designed only a handful of Southern California homes, but
most of them are owned by very famous people, including
Kanye West, whose Ando-designed Malibu mansion has
reportedly fallen into disrepair, and Kim Kardashian, who’s
working with Ando on a La Quinta mansion. (She posted
about her visit to his Japan office on Instagram this spring.)
Beyoncé and Jay-Z recently bought a $200 million Malibu
compound designed by Ando—reportedly the most
expensive home in California history. The superstar duo are
said to have paid cash, naturally.

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CURATED BY EDITED BY ILLUSTRATIONS BY | @MIGUELPORLAN
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Modern World
THE
DWELL
24
Andu Masebo’s
sinuous wood and
metal furniture is
wacky, unexpected,
and fresh.
Meet the new Dwell 24,

our annual roster of the
PORTRAIT: JACKIE DEWE MATHEWS
best emerging designers

out there. This year’s picks
range in discipline from
candle making to crafting
tile, and they are all chart-
ing the future of design.

THE DWELL 24
MY ST UDI O
IS…
68%
A hive of
productive
clutter
32%
A study in
head-clearing
minimalism
I F I H AD TO
CH O OSE O N E…
44%
Brutalism
20%
MONTREAL @CLARAJORISCH
Clara Jorisch
On her website, Clara Jorisch a catalog for what became places. Her Melting Glass tables
36% describes herself as a “self-taught her debut furniture collection. have a similarly contorted profile,
Bauhaus designer and crafts(wo)man It included a limited series of with ovoid tops supported by
PORTRAIT: WILLIAM DAVIAU
from Montreal” whose work hand-cut mirrors with “broken slumping glass legs that look
“streams from useless ideas and lines” designed to play with visual like vases that are wilting. For
integrates deliberate imperfec- perception. Recent work has Jorisch, who says her work is
tions.” Though her background is been similarly quirky: The Pouf open to interpretation, that’s the
in graphic design, Jorisch formed collection includes soft tuffets point: “My work often comes
her final project at the University of upholstered foam wrapped in from a very simple and sponta-
of Quebec in Montreal around rope so that they bulge in various neous place.” —Sarah Buder

THE DWELL 24
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, MEXICO

@OHLASTUDIO WHAT’S THE LAST
THING YOU DESIGNED?
Ohla Studio A clothes rail. It’s a
tricky thing to design
Ohla Studio crafts objects and in that it needs to be
spaces holistically. Projects like quiet enough to let
its Alcocer collection of furnish- the clothes do the
ings draw inspiration from the speaking yet be inter-
architecture of Sin Nombre, esting enough to
a minimalist house that the prac- justify being made in
the first place.
tice designed and turned into a
Andu Masebo
private home, gallery, hotel, and
artist residency in San Miguel de A theater, a public art
Allende, Mexico. The collection piece, and a shelf.
includes chairs, tables, sconces, Maria Johansson,
and more, which have simple but NAVET
bold details that reference an-
An accent chair with
cient forms. With both endeavors two humanlike forms
coming to fruition simultaneously, sharing a moment.
Ohla’s vision comes full circle— Sugandhi Mehrotra,
but it’s not complete. Stem Design
Cofounders Mat Trumbull and
Giulia Zink want other designers
to bring their work to Sin Nombre DO YOU HAVE A DAILY
to complement their own. The CREATIVE RITUAL?
duo are taking this collaborative
approach with various real estate I always start my day
and retail staging projects and with a walk in the
sunlight. It gets my
plan to initiate similar interior and brain activated better
product design projects, starting than anything else
with a second venture in Mérida, I’ve tried up to this
MADRID, SPAIN @ALLCARUGS
Mexico. —Adrian Madlener point. I’m solar pow-
Allca Rugs ered, I fear.
Anne Dereaux,
Lupita chair
Dereaux Studio
Looking at an Allca rug is like viewing a Matisse print after tak-
ing an easygoing hallucinogen—the graphic shapes softening Wake up. Go for a
around the edges. “I’m sorry. It’s difficult to say,” says Haizea swim in the sea. Work.
Nájera, the designer behind the Madrid brand, when asked Break for workout/
why her rugs are a little out of focus. What Nájera can articu- gym. Work again.
Keith Henning
late is how she arrived at the concept.
After quitting her day job in 2021, the designer moved to I live in the country-
a small house in a town near Valencia, where she grew up, side of Shanghai,
to unplug and focus on her first collection. “I sketched 300 and every day I ride
different rugs and 300 different combinations of gradients,” my bicycle in the
Nájera says. To produce them, she sources handwoven rugs green fields to empty
made from upcycled plastic fiber. Then she prints scans of her my mind.
Zhongyu Zhang,
illustrations onto them. The process is simple but captures the MMR Studio
expressiveness of her drawings—sketching a direct line from
her gestures to your living room. —William Hanley
Delfina rug
STOCKHOLM AND MILAN @STUDIO_NAVET

PHOTOS: COURTESY COMPANIES AND DESIGNERS
NAVET
Like most great ideas, NAVET’s first product was birthed at a fabulous party, where scattered platters for
snacks and beverages were the centerpiece. That display evolved into the studio’s powder-coated metal
clamp tray, which can be fastened to shelves or tables to add a second surface. NAVET stands for
New And Very Exciting Things, which is exactly what friend group Lina Huring, Maria Johansson, Helena
Svensson, and Cecilia Wahlberg came together to create when they were on the interior design team
of a retail company and wanted a creative challenge of their own. “We always had a 360 approach.
The clamp tray was a product, but it was made in the context of an event,” says Huring. Now the
group, based in Stockholm and Milan, is also interested in creative direction and interior design
projects—and good parties, of course. —Julia Stevens
Clamp tray

THE DWELL 24
I AM… CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA @KEITH.HENNING
Keith Henning
“When you’re on Instagram, you’re like, oh my God, oh my God,
oh my God,” Cape Town ceramist Keith Henning says in a conver-
sation about his work and the pressures in gay culture to display a
“flawless” body online. That drive for perfection partly inspired his
collection of glistening columns capped with ceramic interpreta- LOS ANGELES
tions of dumbbells, lipstick tubes, and, of course, butt plugs. The @CRYINGCLOVERCANDLES
88% works have a winking irony but also a sophistication. Unlike the
Right-handed gloppy earthenware that has been in vogue recently, Henning’s Crying Clover
pieces are crisp, evoking the human body not via thumbprints but
4% flesh-tone glazes paired with earthy greens. The sleek works look When Sara Gernsbacher and
Left-handed machine-made, but they’re formed by hand and fired in Hen- Patrick Walsh started Crying
ning’s studio. “Sometimes I can’t breathe from the dust,” he says. Clover in 2019, their intention
8% “Slowly killing myself for the love of beauty.” That’s a sentiment wasn’t to reinvent the candle; the
any Instagram user can identify with. —Jack Balderrama Morley wonky wax figures were merely
Ambidextrous
a creative experiment alongside
K-H11, K-H13, K-H09, K-H10, K-H14, K-H12, K-H05, and K-H15 the duo’s full-time art practices.
sculptures What started as lighthearted gifts
for friends became a full-blown
side project that landed on the
shelves of design shops. The
creations possess an unapolo-
getically imperfect quality:
irregular edges, subtle swelling,
and loose patchwork patterns.
“Redesigning candles is kind of
impossible, but we found a little
space where there was some-
thing that hadn’t been explored,”
says Walsh. The team uses re-
claimed wax from thrift stores and
candle factories. Gernsbacher
and Walsh have even announced
that if Instagram followers ship
the designers some wax, it will
get the Crying Clover treatment,
then be returned to the sender.
The element of reusability is
largely what got Walsh into wax.
24% Steel He explains, “It has this continu-
ation of life that a lot of materials
20% Wood don’t have.” —JS
8% Brass Wheel Void candle

MONTERREY, MEXICO @PARAFERNALI.A
8% Glass
Parafernalia
8% Marble
8% Clay
4% Recycled
polyester
with a lavalike face. For another project, he and his partner,

4% Light
4% Wax
4% Fibers, yarn
4% Paper, steel,
brass, wood—it’s
all good routine for these. They just stay there forever.”
4% All of the above Horchata chair

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CHICAGO @OFFCUT.SHOP
WHAT’S IN YOUR
Offcut DREAM HOUSE?
Lots of plants, light,

Jason Lewis was grinding away school, so he signed up for a turn waste into weekly product textiles that bring
as a day trader in the late ’90s furniture-making apprenticeship drops of stools, shelves, and warmth, shelves full
when he realized he needed with local woodworking legend more. Now, they’re firing up their of books, space for
an exit strategy. “I was sitting Berthold Schwaiger in 2001 and local community with workshops cooking and enjoying
at home, staring at a screen all went on to found his eponymous for budding and adept crafts- food.
Haizea Nájera,
day,” Lewis says. “I just needed Chicago design studio. people. “There are woodworking
Allca Rugs
to break away and do some- A working woodshop yields geeks, and there are people who
thing different.” He had built a piles and piles of scraps—so in just wanna do something fun,” Empty space, sunlight,
pinewood derby car as a kid and 2020 Lewis launched Offcut with Lewis says. “It’s been a cool thing invisible storage.
dabbled in woodworking in high codesigner Lesley Jackson to to experiment with.” —Mike Chino Elodie Dérond and
Tania Doumbe Fines,
Ibiyanў
What I long for is a

photo of my courtyard
house with my mother
and me lying on the
terrazzo floor, enjoy-
ing the wind crossing
by in our veranda on a
summer afternoon.
Sugandhi Mehrotra,
Stem Design
A full-room sofa. I
think it’s a childhood
dream that never
went away.
Clara Jorisch
WHAT EVERYDAY
OBJECT WOULD YOU
LIKE TO REDESIGN?
The Parmesan grater.

It’s the object I use
most after my phone.
Giulia Zink,
Ohla Studio
Recently, one of the

legs on my computer
keyboard broke, and
I replaced it with a
really cute phone
stand with a tomato
pattern. The entire
keyboard now has this
amusing aesthetic.
Zhongyu Zhang,
MMR Studio
We want to design
a handmade wooden
box for your phone,
where it can be inten-
tionally put away.
Ann Edgerton,
Muhly
PORTRAIT: KEVIN SERNA
33
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I SK ETCH WIT H…
60%
28%
I NS TAGRAM IS…
NOIDA, INDIA @STEM.DESIGN
68% Stem Design

A promotional tool
For Aman Bhayana and Sug- Their studio, Stem Design, Light from a concealed source
28%
andhi Mehrotra, emotion is an located in Noida, India, outside shines down through the pillar,
PORTRAIT: PRARTHNA SINGH
An amplifier for
essential part of the design New Delhi, works with local animating a lifelike form that
design ideas process. “We strongly feel that craftspeople to create “living” flows and sways with each pass-
mass-manufactured things lack objects that connect, grow, and ing breeze. “It creates an experi-
4% an emotional aspect,” says change with their owners. ence—we felt so happy, because
A homogenizing Bhayana. “They don’t end up Nearly 2,000 fine cotton it was literally like capturing
force in the inspiring you, and you don’t threads hang from the brass the light,” says Mehrotra. “You
design world develop that kind of bond, so frame of Stem’s Ito floor lamp, want to play with it, you want
eventually you get tired of them.” which stands nearly six feet tall. to feel it.” —MC

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SÃO PAULO @PALMA_PALMA_PALMA_

WHO ARE YOUR
Palma HEROES (IN DESIGN,
IN LIFE, IN BOTH)?
Lorenzo Lo Schiavo and Cléo Döbberthin’s My parents, Philippe

friendship began long before their design studio, Starck, Kobe Bryant,
Palma, did. The duo met in their first year studying and Nelson Mandela.
architecture in the same program in São Paulo but Philipe Fonseca
lost touch for a number of years when Döbberthin
transferred schools to study fine art. Then mutual Amaza Lee Meredith,
born in 1895, is such
friends brought them together again during the a compelling design
pandemic, and they found themselves in the same voice. She insisted on
pod. When Lo Schiavo was approached to create taking up space in the
an immersive experience in a retail project, a tight world of architecture
budget and timeline, along with Döbberthin’s as a queer Black
expertise in sculpture, made it only logical to join woman at a time when
she was not allowed
forces. “We came from different backgrounds, but
to study, let alone
we were both interested in these unlikely con- practice, architecture.
nections that we brought,” says Lo Schiavo. The Despite this, she
installation was a huge success, and Palma was became educated in
born. Interiors projects now play a critical role in the arts and designed
the team’s product design process. “When we cre- several homes for her
ate something site specific, it can always be taken family and friends.
Anne Dereaux,
to another site and be specific in another way,” Lo
Dereaux Studio
Schiavo explains. Inspiration for the cone shape of
their Pinheiro lamp came from jewelry stands they Virgil Abloh, Frank
designed for a store, but the textured fiberglass Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin
creations can light up just about any room. —JS West textile collection.
Jevon Brown
ISTANBUL @ANIMATEOBJECTS_ Pinheiro lamp
Nurses, teachers,
caregivers, friendly
Animate Objects Target employees—
anyone doing their
Zeynep Satık infuses her furnish- part to help other
ings with theatricality. Recently people and keep
establishing the aptly named the world pointed
Animate Objects studio in her in the right direction.
Jason Lewis,
native Istanbul, the Central Saint
Offcut
Martins, London, graduate crafts
limited-edition designs with
human movement and figuration
in mind. While the Exposè mir- WHAT SKILL WOULD
YOU MOST LIKE TO
rors form around the abstracted LEARN?
depiction of a dancer, the Travel-
ing Performers table collection I would love to know
reflects the shapes of a body in how to cast glass.
dramatic motion. Clara Jorisch
“I treat furniture as a means
Welding, surfing, how
of creating immersive and trans- MARTINIQUE @IBIYANE to make small talk at a
formative experiences,” Satık gathering of strangers.
explains, “similar to the way Ibiyanͅ Jason Lewis,
theater sets transport audiences Offcut
to different worlds or times.” Dark, rippled forms trip across the floor, resembling glitchy
Having started in stage shadows in AI-generated art, but there’s something more organic I’d like to build a house
or renovate one.
design before establishing her about these dreamlike objects. They are the enigmatic creations
Patrick Walsh,
own practice, Satık imbues of Martinique-based designers Elodie Dérond and Tania Doumbe Crying Clover
her work with personality. Her Fines, who run the studio Ibiyanў. “We see our objects as three-
sculptural furnishings act as dimensional poems,” Doumbe Fines says. “These objects hold Hypnosis.
protagonists, not only influ- stories, imaginaries, philosophies.” More tangibly, they’re chairs, Maika Palazuelos,
encing the look and feel of an tables, and other pieces of furniture made of blocks of lami- Panorammma
interior but also activating it nated timber carved into abstract shapes. The pair sculpt the
the way you or I might. —AM wood themselves, letting intuition and the material guide them.
“While we’re working on the wood, it reveals other details, other
Epona chair movements,” Dérond says. Their inspiration comes from many
places—African headrests, Renault cars, a monkey’s nose—but
their process always seems to result in reminders of the power of
human touch and physical experimentation to surprise as much
as, if not more than, a machine ever could. —JBM
Elombe 010 chair

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LONDON @ANDUMASEBO
Andu Masebo
“I don’t want the object I’m designing
to be the loudest in the room,” says
London designer Andu Masebo over the
phone. “I don’t want it to say, ‘Look at
me, I’m clever.’ I want it to be a reason
for someone to access the story behind
it.” Masebo studied ceramics at Central
Saint Martins and product design at the
Royal College of Art before working as
a carpenter and metalwork fabricator for
10 years. In many of Masebo’s stripped-
back, functional objects, the influence of
London’s manufacturing industries is ev-
ident. His Tubular chair, one of 13 pieces
selected by design initiative Atelier100
for its debut collection encouraging local
design and production, was fabricated
from bent car exhausts with a recycled
rubber seat. “I guess my work is kind of
an uneasy relationship between objects
and the making of them,” says the de-
signer, “in the sense that I don’t fetishize
acts of making or the maker, but I think
it’s an important part of how the object
comes to be.” —SB
Spare Part side table SYDNEY @LANALAUNAY
Lana Launay
SHANGHAI @MMRSTUDIO_
For lighting designer Lana Lau-
MMR Studio nay, the seed for her practice was
I FOL LOW… planted in childhood. Her father,
a composer with a taste for mood
Zhongyu Zhang uses her MMR Studio (Materials, Modal-
lighting, constantly commissioned
ity, and Routine) as a research tool. For her, materials and
12% lamps for their home—he worked
forms can uncover the underlying connections between
with fabricators to make shades
different cultures and crafts, humanity and nature.
from textiles and metals. After
“Designers ought to follow the features of the material,”
-, I employ inferior moving back to Sydney from New
the Shanghai creator says. “In Hulu Ipu
York City during the pandemic
gourds without the perfection shaped by industry. Thus, the
and leaving her jewelry design
rattan needs to be organically fitted to the irregular gourd,
career behind, Launay started
not only for structural support but to ensure the stitching
making her own lampshades,
detail emphasizes the gourd’s rhythmical breathing.”
following her father’s footsteps
Zhang experiments with different assembly and surface
because there was nothing on the
treatment techniques, looking to replicate the imperfect
market that excited her. “I had all
36% craft processes that have been automated in mass pro-
these incredible lamp bases that
duction. “I like exploring man-made nature,” Zhang says,
I had bought overseas, and I
“taking the cultural traces of urbanization as a starting point
never really found a lampshade
and eventually presenting them as everyday objects.” —AM
that I loved,” Launay says. She
got attention on Instagram, and
Hulu Ipu columns
orders from design stores started
to come in. Launay currently

works with clients on a made-
to-order basis, since keeping a
low impact on the earth is one of
52% her core values: The metals are
Fun salvaged and then reworked by a
welder friend, and the textiles are
plant-based and biodegradable.
“When you purchase something,
you want it to last your lifetime,
but you don’t want it to last the
earth’s lifetime.” —JS
Illuminated Sculpture lamp

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LOS ANGELES @ADIGOODRICH

WHAT IS YOUR
Adi Goodrich MOST TREASURED
POSSESSION?
Adi Goodrich approaches knowledge of building. She left isn’t as expensive as similarly The coveralls I’ve had
creative projects as a storyteller, high school early to work with well-crafted pieces; because since I started wood-
which makes the pieces in Sing her father, a woodworker, and they’re CNC precut and as- working, when I was
Thing, her line of “small-batch became comfortable around con- sembled in her studio, side tables 16. My dad bought
them for me from Farm
furniture that would dance struction. In the collection, you’ll start at $500. “I made a furniture & Fleet in a nearby
if it could,” the protagonists. see a mix of low-grade materials line during Covid because I want- farm town in Illinois.
Goodrich’s background is in set like laminate with comparatively ed to use my hands more and There are so many
design; she’s produced environ- precious cherrywood. “I’m always get back into woodworking,” she layers of varnishes and
ments for film and stores in Los interested in clashes of contrast,” says, “but also I wanted to create paint from projects
Angeles. But she also has a deep Goodrich says. Her furniture also a line that was affordable.” —JS that have gotten me
to where I am today.
I still wear them.
Adi Goodrich
My hearing aids.
Keith Henning
I have an unopened
box of discontinued
British Airways cham-
pagne flutes. They
were designed to
have the same slender
opening but without
the stem, so they have
a lower center of
gravity.
Andu Masebo
A very, very, very old

action figure of
Frozone from The
Incredibles.
Sebastián Zorrilla,
Parafernalia
WHAT’S YOUR
EARLIEST MEMORY
OF AN ENCOUNTER
WITH DESIGN?
My parents took me to
a Frank Lloyd Wright
show at the Museum
of Modern Art when I
was a kid. They said
I ran out screaming.
Patrick Walsh,
Crying Clover
Questioning why my
mother spent a lot of
time shopping for
tassels for her drapery
in the 1990s.
Ann Edgerton,
Muhly
Sixth grade at the

Lowe Art Museum,
seeing Christo and
Jeanne-Claude’s work
for the first time.
Jevon Brown
PORTRAIT: DANIEL DORSA
35
37
THE DWELL 24
I D O MY
B ES T WOR K…
28%
32%
24%
16%
Late at night
I WO RK
B ES T WIT H…
MEXICO CITY @PANORAMMMA_
Panorammma
It’s kind of gross: a pitcher made lighting, and tabletop objects ics manipulate patients.”
PORTRAIT: DARRYL RICHARDSON
from pinkish silicone sutured shortly after finishing her under- Palazuelos says she thinks
Music
together and supported by a graduate degree at the University of the body as an object, a
steel brace. The slightly disturb- of Monterrey in 2018. She began material to be shaped, and she
24% ing container is part of the Soft experimenting with medical ma- smirks a little when she talks
Silence Vessels series by Mexico City terials and bodily references after about her work, appreciating the
designer Maika Palazuelos, who a bout with cancer in college. “I uneasy exhilaration it can evoke.
16% calls her studio Panorammma. was immersed in these clinical There’s a playful provocation and
Podcasts Trained as a painter, Palazuelos contexts,” she says, “and I started a humor inside her unsettling
switched to designing furniture, picking up on how their aesthet- objects. —WH

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FREDERICKSBURG, TEXAS; PHILADELPHIA @MUHLY.STUDIO

WHAT CONTEMPORARY
Muhly DESIGN TREND
DO YOU DESPISE?
When it comes to designers, sometimes two are better than one— The “color of the year”
especially when they complement each other as well as Ann Edgerton is a very strange thing
and Megan Carney of furniture studio Muhly. Edgerton, an interior de- to suggest for interiors
OPA-LOCKA, FLORIDA signer, and Carney, an industrial designer, were childhood friends and and objects that
@NOVEJ.STUDI0 decided to permanently team up after collaborating on some pieces should last a lifetime
for Edgerton’s home outside Austin, Texas. “Ann’s the dreamer,” Car- and beyond.
Jevon Brown ney says. “I can kind of be like, all right, there’s physics and gravity.”
Helena Svensson,
NAVET
The alchemy of their combined vision and technical know-how results
Jevon Brown drew, painted, in simple, elegantly curved pieces like their sleek, stainless-steel Flec- Gray sofas, gray wood
studied industrial design, and to outdoor firepit, which appears almost magically pieced together, floors, gray walls, and
played the violin before landing giving up no secrets of its construction. And though their collection miniature Kaws figu-
on textiles as his medium. His is getting bigger, the two have no desire for explosive, start-up-like rines on bookshelves.
thesis project at the Rhode Island growth. “Trying to do the opposite of that,” Carney says. For this pair, Anne Dereaux,
School of Design used fabric Dereaux Studio
design is more about the enchantment of working together and giv-
to evoke the Black barbershops ing ideas shape rather than conquering the world through business. Cloud sofas.
where he found a community as “We don’t want to crumble under the pressure and then lose all the Tejumola Butler
a child, though a more inclusive creative energy,” Edgerton says. “Life is too short.” —JBM Adenuga
version. “I wanted to create my
own barbershop that’s more Flecto firepit
inviting—kind of queer, kind of
fun, kind of surrealist.” HOW DO YOU
PROCRASTINATE?
The Miami-born designer’s
woven wall pieces also reference We blame business
Black hair culture. Taking color- administration for
ful, elaborate styles as inspira- everything.
tion, Brown weaves geometric Lina Huring, Maria
Johansson, Helena
patterns, some bright, others in
Svensson, and Cecilia
earthy tones, and many adorned Wahlberg,
with braids. “Using all these dif- NAVET
ferent colors and patterns and
these layered identities—being Binge-watch a spy
a Black, queer man, being a part drama.
of the Caribbean diaspora, and Tejumola Butler
Adenuga
all these things that I’m referenc-
ing—it’s all part of the process,” Finding other stuff
he says. “It’s where I find a lot to do.
of confidence, where I’m able RIO DE JANEIRO @PHILIPEFONSECA_ Cléo Döbberthin,
to have freedom to play and Palma
explore.” —WH Philipe Fonseca
Go to Home Depot.
Brazilian designer Philipe Fonseca doesn’t mince words when Jason Lewis,
Barbershop Collage Offcut
textile installation talking about the world around his practice: “I’m a Black guy
in a racist country.” He’s working on his English, but that
sentence, delivered over a WhatsApp call, comes through
loud and clear. And so does the messaging in his work, which
combines influences like the Black Panthers and Nelson
Mandela with his Afro-Brazilian heritage in an effort to estab-
lish more representation for Black and brown people in his
country. His new chair series is focused on hair and includes
a lounge made of interlocking wood slats that look like picks
and a pouf inspired by dreadlocks that’s made of a squat met-
al frame stuffed with elongated black pillows. For Fonseca,
making places to sit that reference Black culture is only part
of creating more visibility. Even if he’s just getting started,

what’s more important, he says, is showing others like him
that there’s a place for them in the world of design. —DN
Cadeira Pente chair

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BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, U.K.; LONDON; BEIRUT @DOLLOPTILES
Dollop Tiles
Stuart Piercy, Guan Lee, and Karim Chaya of Dollop Tiles com-
bine innovation with traditional craft. “As an architect, you’re
always trying to find a perfect solution, but the interesting
thing about these tiles is that they’re inconsistent,” says Piercy,
an architect and director of his own London-based design
studio, Piercy & Company. Dollop started when Piercy and Lee
met while working on a research project about improving the
design of glass-reinforced concrete panels. Lee traveled to
Beirut for a work trip and was introduced to Chaya, who runs a
cement-tiles company called BlattChaya. Lee became a fan of
BlattChaya’s work and found that its methods of manufacturing
meshed with his and Lee’s research, and Dollop Tiles was born.
The unpredictable nature of the trio’s work is what keeps them
interested. “Every project has come with new opportunities
to materialize or to manifest ideas,” says Lee. “There’s always
a new way to realize ideas.” —Jada Jackson
Cement tiles
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

@HOME.IN.HEVEN
Heven
As it was for many creatives,
the pandemic has been a tip-
ping point for Breanna Box
and Peter Dupont, the models
turned founders of what they
call the “heavenly network of
creatives,” Heven. Box had just
completed a glassblowing class
when lockdown began, and her
I B E LI EV E… hobby reignited a dormant child-
hood obsession with the craft
in Dupont as well. Glassblowing
16% can seem unapproachable to a
Less is more layperson. To Box and Dupont,
however, glass is “a very playful
material”—a quality that comes
in handy when developing some-
thing like their Marshmallow lamp,
which Dupont, who is Danish,
says was inspired by looking at
old home wares from his native
12% BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA @DEREAUXSTUDIO country. “It was me trying to
More is more explore blowing bigger glass but
Dereaux Studio in a very simple form,” he says,
explaining that he wanted to
Nashville, Tennessee, native Anne Dereaux thrives on personal expression. mirror the often simple, plastic
Her design career now sits alongside her background as a musical artist, forms of his predecessors. “I
but she didn’t always feel comfortable talking about her other interests at think it’s interesting to take these
work. “When I came into the architecture space, it wasn’t really accept- designers that were making stuff
able to look like you weren’t obsessed only with architecture,” she says. that was accessible and mass-
Wanting a distinct voice in architecture and design as well as a space where produced and then making it into
72% her musical inclinations were also welcome, she started her own practice, something that’s more elevated
Just enough is Dereaux Studio, two years ago in Beverly Hills, California. As it turns out, and handmade.” —Kate Dries
enough her seemingly disparate endeavors have a natural connection. “I think that
music breaks you open, and you see how it impacts people. I think in that Marshmallow lamp
sense designing spaces is a very intimate and emotional process. Spaces
are supposed to make you feel.” Her first furniture line features a chair with
an almost-invisible metal frame, which captures the effect of a great song:
the feeling that you’re hovering. —DN
Float chair

THE DWELL 24
LONDON @BUTLERARCHIVE
HOW CAN THE
Tejumola Butler Adenuga DESIGN WORLD BE
MORE INCLUSIVE?
Nigerian-born graphic designer close to near death experience,” Adenuga focuses on materials Keep high school
Tejumola Butler Adenuga was he says. “And you begin to that ultimately fulfill his theme of woodshops open and
supposed to be a chemical question...I’m making this art- “West African fictional mythol- enroll girls at an early
engineer, but in high school he work, and I have a notion behind ogy,” to complete the narratives age. Giving girls con-
fidence in building
started drawing in secret despite it and self-expression. But what of his Yoruba ancestors. “My aim when they are young
his parents’ wishes. The onset goes beyond that surface?” is to take those stories and finish means they’ll have a
of the pandemic, plus a six- That inspiration has resulted them via a mythological lens. choice to follow a
week-long hospital stay, was in aluminum-based works What could’ve happened if a cer- career in design or
what moved him to start explor- like his Temple desk, a tiered tain community had control over construction. We need
ing furniture. “It was a very shape sitting on two cylinders. their own resources?” —KD all genders repre-
sented in our industry.
Adi Goodrich
Leaving behind the

elitist custom of only
promoting artists with
hype or friends in
the right places.
Genki Matsumura,
Parafernalia
Design should be
taught to children.
Patrick Walsh,
Crying Clover
WHAT DO YOU WISH

NONDESIGNERS
UNDERSTOOD ABOUT
THE DESIGN
INDUSTRY?
The difficulty of
turning an idea into
a product.
Philipe Fonseca
I wish nondesigners
understood that
design is not limited
to visual aesthetics
and doesn’t happen
overnight but rather is
a journey that requires
time, research, and
experimentation.
Zeynep Satık,
Animate Objects
I wish that nondesign-

ers understood the
determination and
perseverance it takes
to design anything
successfully.
Keith Henning
PORTRAIT: NICK BALLÓN
41
P R O M OT I O N
Raising the Bar

A designer couple bring a touch of
California modernism to their dream
home with the help of Marvin.
When Heather and Brad Fox discovered “It was a true labor of love,” says Heather. “Californian modern” style, while the doors
their lakeside home in Minnesota, it was more “Every inch was customized and designed are from the Marvin Elevate collection and
of a bachelor pad than the family home they by us for the way we wanted the house to be. feature three or four sliding panels for expan-
wanted—we’re talking one bedroom, three We never plan on moving.” sive views. These two collections also share a
bars, and four living rooms. But they fell in love As a result of their keen eye for design, sleek, minimal style and an ebony color option
with the view and site and decided to make the house was transformed into their perfect that make the couple’s vision of a seamless
some radical changes. “We instantly saw the 6,800-square-foot family home, with five interior possible.
potential with the space and knew we could bedrooms, four bathrooms, and ample living “We use Marvin windows and doors for
PHOTOS: COURTESY MARVIN
make it our dream home,” says Heather. space spread out over two levels, with a all of our projects,” says Heather. “We love the
The couple had all the skills they needed ground floor that opens out through glass quality, style, and ease of working with them.
to lead the ambitious project themselves: doors to a resort-style swimming pool. They were the perfect partner for this project
Heather owns home wares store and design Throughout the home, the main windows, and were able to help us get as much glass as
studio Foxwell Shoppe + Studio, while Brad which are from the Marvin Essential collec- we could in each room.”
owns Fox Realty and development company tion, were chosen for their modern aesthetic
Fox Homes. and clean lines that tie into the couple’s Read more at dwell.com/marvin.
DWELL MARVIN
C A R E E R PAT H S
He leverages connections
there to secure full funding
to present at Salone
Del Mobile’s young talents
showcase in Milan.
Bowers gets a scholarship

to Savannah College of Art
and Design (SCAD), where
he earns advanced degrees.
Back in Savannah, he floats

Bradley L. Bowers around for a year, eventually
@bradleylbowers securing a job in Miami with
Ecuadoran brand Adriana Hoyos,
but it isn’t the right fit.
New Orleans
What It Graduating from

talent incubator
Design Academy
Takes to
Eindhoven
puts them in
rarefied air.
Lonneke Gordijn
and Ralph Nauta find
Make It
kismet as partners while
in school at Design
Academy Eindhoven. They secure a €25,000
They bond over their grant from the city of
love of design and a Eindhoven in 2007,
Studio Drift reverence for large-scale, allowing them to estab-
yÓìŇĭĭŇǘñǗÓ @studio.drift immersive, and format-

defying art.
lish Studio Drift.
contemporary Amsterdam and New York
designers on their
paths to the top.
His Saturday
While at the Rhode Morning series
Island School of earns him a spot
TEXT BY
Design, Kahn lands a at the Museum
Adrian Madlener Fulbright scholarship of Arts and Design’s
to Israel. Classes at NYC Makers show,
the Bezalel Academy which puts him
of Arts and Design on the map.
set him on track. He moves to New York
How does a big career in design and creates animatronic
take shape? Often, it’s forged with a displays for a depart-
ment store, but the work
confluence of critical factors, whether feels menial.
that includes a degree from a top- Misha Kahn
ranked school, a promising intern- @mishakahn
ship with a venerated master, honest
advice from experienced mentors, New York
support (financial or otherwise) from
family and friends, or pure grit.
Innovative designs, blockbuster exhi-
bitions, rewarding collaborations,
and, yes, good press make all the dif- He establishes his own
practice, Crosby Studios,
ference along the way. in 2014 and outfits pre-
dominantly commercial
For these five designers—boot- interiors with his glossy,
strapping talent Bradley L. Bowers; metallic aesthetic.
Dutch heavyweights Lonneke Gordijn
and Ralph Nauta of Studio Drift; king
PHOTO CREDITS ON P. 118
of collectible design Misha Kahn;

Nuriev starts exploring
and digital-crossover maverick Harry collectible design. “I
Nuriev—and many more like them, felt like interior design
Harry Nuriev After completing architecture and art could be very square
the road to success has been winding. @harrynuriev
school in his native Russia, Nuriev and decided to start
gets his first big break interning at doing other things as
We spoke with them to get an inside prestigious New York interior design well,” he says.
look at the make-or-break moments New York studio Luis Da Cruz in 2010.
that have defined their careers.

He meets designer Patricia
Urquiola, who gets him in
with Haworth, where he
coleads its innovation-focused
In a full-circle
Bowers gets selected DesignLab.
moment, SCAD asks
to be a contestant New York design
Bowers to create a
on HGTV’s Ellen’s gallery The Future Perfect
structure for its Lacoste,
Design Challenge discovers his work and
France, campus. He
in 2016. picks up his Halo lantern
He saves up makes Ooma, which is
series. It earns the Best Dolce & Gabbana Casa
enough to launch installed on a hill over-
Contemporary Work prize at taps him for its Gen D
his own practice looking the campus.
Design Miami in 2021. young talents project.
and rents a storage
facility turned His crystal-like Fiosa vase
studio in Miami— A friend gets him is a showstopper at
but it burns down. a residency at Mana Milan Design Week 2023.
Defeated, Contemporary in
he starts over in Jersey City, and he
New Orleans. gains traction in
New York.
The studio’s Fragile Future

“dandelion lighting” is In 2017, the duo make In 2018, their first solo exhibit,
all the rage at Design Miami their art-world debut Coded Nature, in Amsterdam,
2009, and a subsequent at The Armory Show in is a culmination of their The lull
show put on by Carpenters New York with Drifter, career to date. allows the pair to
Workshop Gallery sells a hunk of concrete that refocus their ambi-
out on opening night. appears to defy gravity. tion. “Our aim is
Franchise Freedom, to share our ideas
drones programmed to with larger audi-
move like a flock of birds, ences and move
lights up Miami’s sky. The society forward,”
Instagrammable moment The pandemic says Gordijn.
Traveling the world
with a variety of garners acclaim beyond slows things
projects over the the art and design worlds. down but
years, the designers provides time
gain more traction, for reflection
but things begin to on their lives
feel monotonous. and work.
Friedman Benda sponsors

a trip to South Africa and An exhibit in collaboration
Swaziland, where Kahn with fashion label Dries Van He becomes one of the
learns new techniques by Noten, Watermelon Party, first designers to create an
collaborating with local affirms his celebrity status. NFT collection, Furniture
craftspeople. Unhinged, developed for an
auction with Christie’s.
Apartamento Publishing
Given pride of place at and Friedman Benda
Design Miami 2016 by release a monograph
New York gallery Friedman on his oeuvre, which
In 2023, he participates
Benda, his Scrappy Cabinet launches at Milan
in The Exhibit: Finding
and light sculptures Design Week 2023.
Pandemic lockdowns severely the Next Great Artist,
garner tons of press. The moment mints
limit the reach of his second a design contest airing
on MTV. It doesn’t move Kahn’s career.
solo show at Friedman Benda,
Soft Bodies, Hard Spaces, the needle much.
in spring of 2020.
He experiments with
designs in the metaverse, In 2023,
Separating
but their real-world a monograph
Crosby Studios
applications aren’t surveys IRL and
and his personal
completely clear. virtual facets of
work, Nuriev lever-
Nuriev’s practice
ages Instagram to
After a collab with to date.
capitalize on mass-
Nike, he develops His Trash Bag Sofa
market crossover
the Balenciaga sofa steals the show
by becoming the
In 2016, his arch- (a clothes-stuffed at Design Miami
self-styled pro-
themed furniture couch), introduc- 2022. Shortly
tagonist of his own
is featured in Sight ing his name to the thereafter, his
design world.
Unseen’s annual show fashion world. off-the-wall Paris
of up-and-comers. apartment gets a
T Magazine video He’s tapped by lead-
At the same time, his
feature, which is ing design gallery
Instagram following
widely viewed. Carpenters Workshop
begins to grow.
for his first solo show,
Denim, in Paris.

HOME WORK
“We came up with this
design out of a desire to
have a bit of a beacon in
the hills,” says Charlap
Hyman & Herrero prin-
cipal Andre Herrero.
He designed a petite
structure of glass, steel,
and terrazzo—plus a well-
placed Noguchi Akari
lamp—in Hollywood for
Steven Alper, a retired
dentist who wanted a
home office with a dis-
tinct point of view.
Mythic
Proportions
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TEXT BY
Kathryn Romeyn
PHOTOS BY ɿ @AMANDAHAKAN
Amanda Hakan

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HOME WORK
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STEVEN ALPER, RESIDENT
“I wanted it to look good Constraints often produce creative add a granny flat to Steven’s 1,000-square-
from everywhere because results, but municipal codes and permit- foot Beachwood Canyon home. So when
the whole canyon can
see it,” Steven says of ting processes can also be design downers. the pandemic lockdown began, Steven
the gleaming cube sitting So much so that Steven Alper, a retired approached Herrero to design a freestand-
on his property that he’d dentist turned something of an architec- ing home office small enough to be out-
hoped to spend $70,000 ture impresario, dreamed up a way to side the city’s purview. But just because
to build. “I just stopped
counting at some point,”
evade them altogether, even while adding they weren’t constantly corresponding
he admits, referring to the something beautiful to Hollywood’s visual with the planning department doesn’t
blown-out budget. hodgepodge of a hillscape. mean the designers avoided dense read-
He and Andre Herrero, principal of ing; Steven assigned homework in the
bicoastal architecture and design firm form of Geoff Manaugh’s book Landscape
Charlap Hyman & Herrero (CHH), were Futures, a compendium of provocative
previously frustrated in their attempt to design inventions. “I wanted to shake

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HOME WORK
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ANDRE HERRERO, ARCHITECT
Pictured in Design Within

Reach’s Pollock chair,
Steven (left)—now work-
ing on The Last House on
Mulholland, a develop-
ment project aiming to
build an architecturally
iconic house in view of
the Hollywood sign—gave
terrazzo artists Ficus
Interfaith creative free-
dom to design a storytell-
ing medallion for his floor.
The architecture firm’s
initials, CHH (above),
are an ode to historical
building plaques.
them up and scramble everybody a little design a custom piece. They had been pre- but was thrilled by an alternative: embed-
bit,” he says with a laugh. occupied with mythological themes and ding the design firm’s initials, CHH, in
His brief: a space just under 120 square suggested some ideas along those lines. brass letters taken from the Walk of Fame
feet with no plumbing or electricity and a The designers’ ambitious client liked the inventory.
very big desk. In essence, a work shed. Icarus motif for his perch in L.A.’s sunny Case study houses and 1970s mirrored
“The whole thing is an appliance,” says hills, so Ficus Interfaith made a circular glass office buildings were part of the dis-
Herrero, “sitting on the hillside.” Beyond medallion of the ill-fated Greek sur- cussion en route to this tiny, gleaming
that, nothing about the jewel box built of rounded by stars and shipped it out. Next, beacon, but the finished office and its
steel and warm gold glass says “shed.” “Steven found the guys who do the exposed steel exoskeleton remind both
Take the glamorous yet no-fuss black-and- Hollywood Boulevard stars,” Herrero says, men of Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram
white terrazzo floor, “a very lobby mate- to complete the rest of the floor by repli- Building, in Midtown Manhattan. The
rial,” says Herrero, who enlisted college cating the medallion’s aggregate recipe. shed’s thin steel columns and proud, off-
friends, a pair of Brooklyn-based terrazzo Steven also wanted a commemorative set pivot hinges allow the golden windows
artists who go by Ficus Interfaith, to plaque like those in historical buildings to swing out 90 degrees on three sides,

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HOME WORK
making the reflective cube truly open to

nature’s breezes and birdsong. Intimate
yet boundless.
Such precise details led CHH to act
essentially as general contractor on the
two-year project, which relied heavily on
local craftspeople. “There are visible
welds, as if this thing was built in 1930,”
says Herrero. “It’s not just a slice of the
Seagram Building. It’s as an artist would
interpret a slice of the Seagram Building.
You see the hand of everyone.” That level
of care and craftsmanship doesn’t come
cheap. Steven’s intended budget was
$70,000, but he ultimately spent close to
twice that. Still, Herrero calls it “kind of
amazing” that even with zero economy of
scale they built the structure for just over
$1,000 per square foot.
The office’s value is infinite to Steven,
who spends hours per day—and some
vivid sunsets—working at his computer,
clipping bonsai trees, listening to music,
and sewing what he calls light-up pocket
fancies (a sort of glowing pocket square)
on the quarter-inch waxed steel desk that
forms the back wall. Herrero pushed hard
to face it—a laser-cut labor of love—
toward the Downtown L.A. panorama,
but his client was unwavering about hav-
ing it face the opposite way. “It was the
pandemic, and I became obsessed with
people’s Zoom backgrounds,” admits
Steven, who was unapologetically fixated
on having the very best one. “Steven is a
tinkerer,” says Herrero of his “dream cli-
ent,” whose respect for the architectural
profession is immense. “And he kind of
tinkered this building to existence.”
“The feeling I get when

I’m inside is my abso-
lute favorite part,” says
Steven. Throughout
the day, the light moves
across the operable glass
windows (above), play-
ing off a ceiling painted
with Benjamin Moore’s
Antique Jade and furnish-
ings that include a shiny
stool by L.A. designer
Shun Kinoshita. Steven’s
mutt (right), Dioji (pro-
nounced dee-oh-gee),
sits between the hand-
welded steel columns of
what Herrero calls the
exoskeleton.

R E N TA L R E VA M P
Looking to put their personal

stamp on a New York rental
apartment, designer Kiki Goti
(pictured) and filmmaker
Vincent Staropoli used strate-
gic painting, a mass of plants,
and a generous sprinkling of
items from Kiki’s line of furni-
ture and objects, including her
stacked OO+II Aluminum Chair
+ Wooden Side Table (here and
opposite) and a pair of OO+II
Wall Lights (opposite).

Mediterranean
Revival
A designer and her boyfriend infuse their Brooklyn

rental with the spirit of their southern European roots.
TEXT BY Inside a row of converted factory build- patterns, giving shape to the open space
Stephen Zacks ings in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, Kiki Goti around the living area. Wide yellow and
and Vincent Staropoli’s vibrant apartment white vertical stripes create a backdrop
PHOTOS BY | @RYANLOWRY opens up to a bright living room with a for the dining table; an orange rectangle
Ryan Lowry wall of windows. Enough daylight streams with a green inset frames a shelf for a
into the modest space to create a New projector above the couch. Vincent once
York loft version of indoor/outdoor added legs to an out-of-production red
Mediterranean living. Kiki, a designer Ikea bookshelf to avoid drilling big holes
from Thessaloníki, Greece, and Vincent, a in the walls of their previous apartment,
Paris-born filmmaker whose family is and it stands in the living room here.
Italian, wanted the look of their rental, Along the wall with windows, plants
with its high ceilings, white walls, and spring from pots large and small, and
rough wooden floors, to reflect their knickknacks picked up on road trips
Mediterranean backgrounds and feel upstate spread out across the space,
influenced by the warmer climates of which doubles as an improvised show-
southern Europe—while staying within room for Kiki’s colorful design objects.
the limits of their lease. Her metal-winged OO+II Wall Lights add
A rental-friendly renovation meant a shine throughout the home, and her Neo-
few clever paint jobs, hacking some furni- Vanity Modular Mirror dangles beside the
ture, and making plenty of use of Kiki’s couch like a brooch; other works of hers
polychrome creations. She and Vincent pop up almost everywhere you look.
painted the walls with bold geometric Though the designer has long worked

Signs of the couple’s

Mediterranean backgrounds
abound. A blue square over
the stove (left) “symbolizes
a window with a view of the
sea,” says Kiki, and broad
yellow stripes in the dining
area (below) “give the feel-
ing of a sunbathed dining
experience,” she says. The
table is from Ikea, and the
blue Tip Ton chairs are from
Vitra. A mirror from Kiki’s
U+II collection hangs on
the wall.
“ We were looking for a raw space where we could create an

environment that would fit our vision of a bright, joyful home.”
KIKI GOTI, DESIGNER AND RESIDENT

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A 3-D color field above the on larger projects like installations and lived-in space, not a gallery setting,” Kiki
couch is the backdrop for a buildings, she decided to try out smaller says. “They see the things in a home
curtained projector box that
faces a blank wall for movie
ones in the early pandemic lockdown. “I already.”
nights. To the right is Kiki’s needed to find my own language,” she “The whole apartment for us is kind of
Neo-Vanity Modular Mirror. says, “so I took a step back and started to an experimental space where we can
The couple are obsessive col- do things with my own hands, to be more express ourselves, change our minds,”
lectors. “We love going hunt-
intuitive, find my voice and my aesthetic.” Vincent adds. “We know we’re not going
ing for weird objects and fun
things when we’re on road While she has been operating out of a sepa- to live here forever. New York is also kind
trips in places like Connecticut rate studio where she’s done the dirty of a transitional city in general, so while
and Pennsylvania,” says work of painting or assembling shelves, we’re here we want to be part of the crazi-
Vincent. The couch is from mirrors, and more out of aluminum, ness and creativity.”
BoConcept, and the pillows
are from Dusen Dusen. upholstery foam, and other materials, she “We’re really dreaming of having a place
calls the loft a “testing ground” for her on an island in Greece, a small house or
new designs. And now she’s moving her something like that,” Kiki says. “We say,
studio into the apartment. “It’s actually ‘That would be great in our summer house
very useful for me to have people come in Greece.’ Then we say, ‘There’s no sum-
over, because they see the things in a mer house.’ It’s all in our head.”
“ The exciting challenge was to completely transform

the apartment with minimal permanent interventions.”
KIKI GOTI

THE
PALE ROSE
COLLECTION
P R O M OT I O N
A central glass cube connects two brick

wedges in this New Jersey lake home.
Clearing the Way
Architect Pierre-Henri Hoppenot’s name loved ones pause to gather and connect. swing door and from Kolbe’s Ultra Series for
for this lakeside residence in Princeton, New Private spaces are clustered in the protected the expansive, five-panel Lift & Slide door.
Jersey, La Clairiere, is a nod to the dwelling’s brick volumes, while the all-important public Visual connection to nature is an undercur-
glass-enclosed central volume—the heart space is located in the glass-enclosed central rent—while in the central space, one never
of the home. French for “the glade” or “the space. “The split down the middle allows the loses sight of the landscape. Dual exposures
clearing,” the name describes a natural junc- users to feel like the landscape is moving offer glimpses of the sky, treetops, and water
PHOTO: TOM GRIMES PHOTOGRAPHY
ture—light-filled, yet protected. “A glade is a through the house,” says Hoppenot. from different vantage points. “The user
stopping point in a forest,” shares Hoppenot, To execute the design vision for the central experience of being connected to nature is
“where you would want to pause and observe space, Hoppenot turned to Kolbe for large- unmatched and fills a primal necessity that
the light moving through the treetops sur- format glazing solutions. “We selected Kolbe gives you a sense of belonging,” says
rounding you.” for their energy efficiency and the size of the Hoppenot. “The large glass openings and
In this family home at the shore of Carnegie window panes they could provide,” he says. skylights in the central space make you feel
Lake, a glass cube slices through two mono- With scale and functionality top of mind, he like you are living outside.”
lithic brick volumes, creating a light-filled pulled from Kolbe’s VistaLuxe WD LINE for
void—not unlike the forest clearing—where the home’s fixed windows, casements, and Read more at dwell.com/kolbe.
DWELL KOLBE
The Vision:
Balance windows & walls to create a gallery merging art & natural vistas.
Nestled in Sonoma Valley, this getaway property was under renovation until wildfires took
it back to the foundation. Rising from the ashes, this contemporary craftsman style home
was reimagined with resiliency, a connection to nature and dramatic views captured through
Kolbe’s VistaLuxe® Collection windows and doors.
Watch the journey from renovation to rebuild at kolbewindows.com/art-from-embers

© 2023 Kolbe & Kolbe Millwork Co., Inc. I Photos © Russell Abraham Photography
INTERIORS
TEXT BY
Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
A Color Story PHOTOS BY | @JAKENAUGHTON
Jake Naughton
Architect Aranza García

of Chuch Estudio refur- An architect and designer—and
bished a 19th-century
house for short-term
Dwell 24 alum—creates a vibrant
rental in the popular
Mexican tourist town of
space that reflects her taste and
Mérida. She stands in
front of a graphic vintage
honors her community.
wood cabinet while her
West Highland white ter-
rier, Benito, looks on.

What makes an icon?
Purposeful design. Quality craftsmanship. Timeless beauty.
Pitu Chaise Lounge Chair & Ottoman by Aristeu Pires
www.sossegodesign.com
INTERIORS
“ I wanted to do a rental that has a different

essence from all of the others here in Mérida.”
ARANZA GARCÍA, DESIGNER
The cobalt blue seat on a chair

from Chuch Estudio (right)
pops against the muted tones
of the original “pasta” floor
tiles—handmade cement tiles
typical of older homes in the
Yucatán region. García used
Behr paints throughout the
house, including Turmeric for
the bedroom ceiling (below).
The black Sol chair from
Chuch Estudio was inspired by
a popular Mexican cookie.
When architect Aranza García purchased

a house in her hometown of Mérida,
Mexico, around the corner from Chuch
Estudio, her vibrant design manufactory,
she went in with a small budget and zero
plans or renderings. The home was built
sometime in the 19th century, so it took a
lot of guesswork to even find the plumb-
ing, and it took time to understand the
space before she could begin filling it with
the custom furniture and bold colors she’s
known for. “It’s my first architectural
project, and at first I thought it was going
to be a lot easier,” says the 25-year-old
Dwell 24 alum and September/October
2022 issue cover star. “I thought I’d just
paint, change the sink, I don’t know.” A
crew of contractors located the plumbing;
Yucatán humidity required repairing and
plastering a few walls. “I thought I was
going to do it in, like, three months,” she
says with a laugh.
One year later, García opened Casa
Picapiedra, a gorgeous one-bedroom
Airbnb that she hopes is just the first step
in her goal of one day opening a boutique
hotel. The restoration helped uncover the
home’s original pasta-style floor tiles—a
European-influenced pattern of salmon
and muted teal starbursts —and she used
these as a starting point for the vibe.
Peeling off some white paint exposed the
original muted yellow on the walls, giving
the space a playful patina rooted in the
history of the locale—near Paseo de
Montejo, an avenue built in the late

INTERIORS
The shower (above left) is 19th century, and Centro de Mérida, a mix modernized black hardware she says mar
lined in tiles that match Behr’s of colonial structures, Mayan art, and con- some of Mérida’s colonial-era structures.
Boat House blue, painted
on the walls. Original wood temporary boutiques. “It really feels like just some other old
beams near the entry are cov- García also wanted to respect the integ- house,” she says.
ered in Heirloom Rose (above rity of the house, keeping the original glass García embraced the unconventional
right). The home’s unassum- front doors and installing ceiling-high aspects of the renovation. “I wanted to try
ing glass facade (below left)
curtains—both central features of many something new. I think there are other
is similar to others on the
street and belies the burst of original homes in Mérida—and simply architects and designers who don’t want
color within. The kitchen table zhuzhing it up with a little pink paint to to take that risk,” she says. She crafted
(below center) is from Chuch match the exterior. “I didn’t want to tear it Casa Picapiedra almost on the fly, “mis-
Estudio, and the chairs are by
down and make it feel like ‘gentrification.’ take by mistake.” Because her business is
a local woodworker. García
added yellow panes to the When you’re outside, you don’t even think on the block, García is already a fixture in
original glass door leading to about what’s inside the house,” she says. the area, and the process piqued the
the terrace (below right). Mérida is a major tourism city—Chichén neighborhood’s interest. “Everybody was
Itzá is an hour and a half away by bus—so like, What color is gonna be next? When
García found it important to reflect the are you gonna open?” she says. “This career
culture in which she grew up, rather than is a perfectionist career, so until I got it
adopt the muted, sand-colored tones and right, I wasn’t gonna open it.”

P R O M OT I O N
A Breath of Fresh Air

A state-of-the-art HVAC system from Trane Residential quietly
modernizes a lovingly restored, 123-year-old house.
When you know, you know. And when Residential. “As a lover and collector of old—
interior designer Leanne Ford and her old trucks, old clothes, old homes—I know
husband, Erik Allen Ford, found a circa-1900 all too well that they sometimes take extra
house right outside Pittsburgh, they couldn’t effort to take care of,” the designer says.
ignore that age-old adage (or their gut). “It “While I don’t always like to modernize a
sat empty for years. I truly felt like it was space—I make a living out of trying not to, in
waiting for us,” Leanne says. fact—modernizing some things is a must.”
The couple moved from Los Angeles in The Trane XV20i TruComfort Variable Speed
PHOTOS: AMY NEUNSINGER; STYLED BY HILARY ROBERTSON
2020—with their then one-year-old daughter, Heat Pump, as well as the Trane Hyperion Air
Ever—to embark on their journey to transform Handler, came to be pivotal in the Fords’ home
the rustic-elegant space into their family’s upgrade, providing the tools they needed to
forever home. Now, nearly three years later, improve indoor air quality, save energy, and
the Fords have created a beautiful, healthy customize the comfort of the rooms.
home environment. Original details from the While the vintage lighting or gorgeous
1900s—like gorgeous molding, well-preserved trim may be what first catches visitors’ eyes
floors, a wood-clad library, and terra-cotta when they walk through the Fords’ door, in
tiles and wallpapers—were happily restored the end, what they can’t see is the real star of
and paired with the Fords’ modern art and this historic home’s makeover.
furniture for what Leanne calls “a bit of funk.” “The truth is,” says Leanne, “how you feel
But when the Fords found another original in a space is just as important as, if not more
detail—black mold—behind old radiant pipes, than, how it looks.”
the family was motivated to modernize the
HVAC system as well with the help of Trane Read more at dwell.com/trane.
DWELL TRANE
P R O M OT I O N
Swapping stucco for redwood, this

Bay Area ranch is transformed from dark
and dreary to light and luminous.
A Fresh Facade
When Tim and Flin McDonald decided to country, the existing home could be described, to introduce wood as a key element in the
relocate with their two children to a rural simply and unimpressively, as a stucco box. home’s revamped exterior. “I think we all felt
setting in Northern California, it was the Eager to experience the landscape through that redwood was the best option,” says
land—not the house—that piqued their inter- a more inspired lens, the McDonalds turned Lundberg.
est. Located in Angwin, a small town nestled to San Francisco–based Lundberg Design to Drawn to the local softwood for its availabil-
among the rolling hills of California wine spearhead the single-story home’s remodel. ity, affordability, sustainability, and versatility,
With a long-standing relationship—design the team engaged Humboldt Sawmill for sev-
principal Olle Lundberg and the McDonalds eral redwood elements in the home’s exterior.
had been friends for over four decades—the With vertical redwood siding instead of stucco,
collaboration was a natural pairing. Lundberg the exterior instantly became warm, contem-
had designed the McDonalds’ previous resi- porary, and inviting. The trellis, a signature
dence, while Tim McDonald, an established feature, incorporates redwood in its beams
local builder, had led several of Lundberg’s and columns, offering heat protection while
Napa-area builds over the years. weaving together natural and built environ-
The existing dwelling had an unremarkable ments. “The trellis really ties Flin’s beautiful
PHOTOS: RYAN HUGHES
facade and eight-foot ceilings, and was landscaping into the structure and adds a
designed, confoundingly, with only two small sense of depth and protection in what is quite
windows overlooking the picturesque hillside a hot climate,” says Lundberg.
and pond. Wanting to change the look of the
home from “stucco ranchburger” to modern
cabin, Lundberg and the McDonalds decided Learn more at dwell.com/humboldt.
DWELL HUMBOLDT
Just
Their Type

BAC K YA R D H O U S E
TEXT BY
Jacqui Gibson
PHOTOS BY | @DAVID_._STRAIGHT
David Straight
A bold, bunker-like typography

studio springs up beside a suburban
home in Wellington, New Zealand.
Typeface designer Kris Encircled by steep, crooked hills and The problem was, their existing home
Sowersby and his wife, perilously placed on the shores of a wild, took up most of the plot, which is located
Jess, a communications windswept harbor, New Zealand’s capital, down a long, steep driveway and sur-
and marketing manager
(opposite), transformed Wellington, and its surroundings don’t rounded by neighbors.
a parking space in front have a lot of flat, sun-drenched sections. Should they add a floor above? Could they
of their Wellington, New Yet that’s exactly what Kris and Jess squeeze in a new wing? They contacted Sally
Zealand, home into a Sowersby, the owners of Klim Type Ogle and Ben Mitchell-Anyon, of Patchwork
ground-floor studio and
a second-story apart-
Foundry, happened upon in 2012 when Architecture, to help them decide.
ment, accessed from an they bought a 5,317-square-foot site in the “At this point I’d spent most of my
external poured concrete suburb of Miramar and two years later career working out of a pantry or a small
staircase. “We wanted built their dream home and office. home office that we needed for our daugh-
it to feel robust but not
Fast-forward to 2017, when the couple, ter’s playroom,” says Kris, who designs for
intimidating,” says Kris.
now with an infant daughter, Indie, an international clientele that includes
decided it was time to expand their resi- brands like Apple, PayPal, and National
dence. They sought to separate the family Geographic. “Building our home, we’d been
home from their workspace and create a amazed by what could be done on a small
guest room for friends, family, and visit- site with clever architectural design. We
ing members of their team. were confident we could do it again.”
71
BAC K YA R D H O U S E
Downstairs (left), oak right and below), the looked at adding a

parquet flooring, built- space is made cozy floor to our house. We
in shelving, and rimu and comfortable using didn’t start out by say-
wood cabinetry create dark tones and cedar ing, ‘Let’s build a tower
a warm work environ- panels on the wall and in our yard.’ But it’s
ment. Upstairs (above ceiling. “Initially, we perfect,” says Jess.
Their brief to Patchwork was for a

sturdy exterior, privacy, thermal effi-
ciency, storage for Kris’s book collection,
and high-quality finishes in both the
workspace and guest quarters. The result-
ing stand-alone tower, occupying roughly
225 square feet of the couple’s former
parking space, is compact and bold.
With a board-formed concrete lower
level topped by a second story clad in black
aluminum, the Fontbunker, as it’s been
dubbed, is barely a few steps from Jess and
Kris’s front door and reflects the couple’s
commitment to things well made.
“They’re very detail-focused people,”
says Ogle.
Downstairs, leathered stone counters
made from Brazilian quartzite provide
desk space for Klim’s team of three. Office
files are tucked in native rimu wood cup-
boards. An entire wall displays Kris’s
library. The parquet floor, brass light fix-
tures, and sculpted brass handle on a glass
pivot door are other notable inclusions.
Then there’s the concrete exterior stair-
case, which takes visitors up to the guest-
house. A carpeted retreat roomy enough
for a large bed, a smaller daybed, and a
bathroom, it provides views over neigh-
boring rooftops to Wellington’s hills.
“In Wellington, there are so many prop-
erties that have these tiny scraps of yard,”
says Mitchell-Anyon. “This project is proof
you can build a viable addition to your
home in those spaces—a place for work, a
creative studio, or an extra room for a
growing family.”

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DW E LL I N G S
Life is lived in layers inside

each of these interiors.
An unassuming home
conceals an exuberant
museum of its owners’
obsessions. An apartment hosts
dinner guests among
space for meditation.
A townhouse has
fun piling up materials
and patterns.
ch cont ins m mori s,
TYPEFACE DESIGN: LINETO
mov m nts, n mbitions

in its ov rl in surf c s.
75
DWELLINGS
QUIET RIOT
A maximalist renovation
of a 19th-century Chicago home
makes room for everything.
TEXT BY
Zach Mortice
PHOTOS BY | @_LYNDONFRENCH_
Lyndon French
Architect Jonathan Solomon and

city planner Meg Gustafson had
experience designing houses,
but not together, which made
renovating their late-1800s
home in Chicago’s Uptown all
the more exciting—particularly
when you consider their style is
anything but traditional.
77
DWELLINGS
The couple (right) relied on

architect Keefer Dunn for
structural changes, like the
bright red I-beam that runs
next to original wooden ceil-
ing coffers and nods to Mies
van der Rohe’s Chicago work.
A portal lets one of their cats,
Cosmo, move between the
kitchen (below) and the stairs
to the basement, where the
litter boxes are.
Jonathan Solomon, an architect and An 1896 two-and-a-half-story house radiators and drop faux-historicist ele-
preservationist, and Meg Gustafson, a city filled with quirky details in the Uptown ments next to amorphous Austin Powers–
planner and 1980s-vibe channeler, are neighborhood fit the bill. It was the per- esque furniture and wall-mounted swipes
fluid aesthetic experts. But when it came fect setting for them to assemble their of neon light. It all creates just enough
time to design a house together after get- collection of pieces representing what chaos to let design artifacts from any era
ting married, they weren’t interested in a they consider the progressive frontier of play well together.
ground-up project. They wanted “some- historic preservation: postmodernism, Meg, who works in Chicago’s planning
thing that already had authenticity,” says Memphis, and other recent historical department, runs the 67,000-follower
Meg, but also “something that we wouldn’t styles of design. To showcase this archival @80s_deco Instagram account, and she’s
feel too bad about messing with,” says swirl, the house embraces “fake authen- become expert at translating the online
Jonathan. He was coming from a sprawl- ticity,” says Jonathan, who designed the churn of stylistic nostalgia into interiors.
ing, prewar, four-bedroom condo in interiors with Meg. “We’re not shy about The Uptown house is the product of “eight
Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood; bringing in new things that help it look months of Pinterest boards,” she says, but
Meg was leaving an 1885 worker’s cottage old.” They mix a rustic Venetian plaster it’s not just an act of curation. In the
in Bridgeport on the city’s South Side. hearth in the kitchen with new hot water kitchen, a tall radiator affixed to the wall

The tight, orange hallway
upstairs is packed with art,
including Meg’s grandmoth-
er’s drawings of the Chicago
skyline. A zigzagging light
that Meg assembled with
components from a commer-
cial office supply company
leads the way to the primary
bedroom and library.

DWELLINGS
The house’s “cavalier” overly deferential to it,”

approach to windows Dunn says. The room
is Dunn’s favorite part is painted in Sherwin-
of the project—there Williams’s Obstinate
are bookshelves in Orange, and Meg sits on
front of them in the a seating prototype by
library (above). “It’s a Norman Teague. A bust
fun way of dignifying of Julius Caesar (above
what has come before right) lends the space a
but also not being historical air.

DWELLINGS
In the living room, visual is a sculptural presence and a vertical weirded out.” The color schemes of Gae
frisson comes from the counterpoint to a fire-truck-red I-beam Aulenti’s Cadorna train station, in Milan,
combination of elements like
above, installed so that Meg and Jonathan’s and Bruce Goff’s Ford House, in Aurora,
the original crown molding
and curved pink couches by architect, Keefer Dunn, who handled the Illinois, helped sell him on it.
Roberto Matta. And though structural elements of the renovation, Upstairs, past a tight stairwell packed
the Memphis style’s jittery could remove a wall and convert the space with art (like Meg’s grandmother’s draw-
energy abounds, it’s mixed into an open plan. It’s a bit of an earnest ings of the Chicago skyline), are the
with newer work, like the
end tables, made of traver-
Miesian moment in a place otherwise library, bedrooms for Jonathan’s two sons
tine salvaged from repairs to filled with smirks. In contrast, the kitchen (plus a bathroom), a laundry room, and
the Farnsworth House and cabinets and walls are different shades of the primary suite. The primary bathroom
designed by one of Jonathan’s green, which Meg says she likes because is a bit gonzo, wrapped in glass block win-
students, Yasmeen Arkadan.
“it’s soothing and a little bit weird.” It isn’t dows and filled with even more neon. A
an intuitive fit for Jonathan. “Accepting dining cart used as a bathroom caddy,
color on walls was probably the hardest designed by Joey Manic, aka Joseph Boron,
thing for me,” he says. “I was a little has enough metal filigree to evoke a
81
DWELLINGS
The bathroom in the pendant and a rolling designs. The hall bath-
primary suite (above) caddy designed by room (right) is a little
has glass block windows Joey Manic, aka Joseph more conventional but
and some unusual fur- Boron, best known for also more color for-
niture, such as a vintage his 1990s science- ward, with a deep blue
East German industrial fiction-obsessed faucet from Jaclo.
Gustafson-Solomon House N
DESIGNERS Meg Gustafson and Jonathan Solomon

LOCATION Chicago
Basement First Floor
B
K
B A
G F D
E
J
C L
H
I
Second Floor Third Floor
N N
N K R
Q
M O
ILLUSTRATION: LOHNES+WRIGHT
Q P
A Storage Room F Living Room K Sitting Room P Laundry Room

B Mechanical Room G Dining Room L Deck Q Bathroom
C Wet Studio H Kitchen M Primary Suite R Office
D Deck I Powder Room N Bedroom
E Entrance J Mudroom O Library

In the living room and hallway are
Joseph Cornell–style collages made
by Jonathan’s maternal grandfather.
Here, Jonathan looks at his col-
lection of toys, including soldiers,
Transformers, and—the most archi-
tectural—Polly Pocket dioramas.

DWELLINGS
Outside, glass blocks

and a red I-beam
extend the quirky
juxtapositions of the
house into its garage
and backyard.

DWELLINGS
The only hint that the couple’s

home offers more than it first
appears to is a neon house
number in a front window
(below). The mudroom (left),
painted in Sherwin-Williams’s
Dishy Coral, gets some
canonical heft from photos of
Mies’s 860-880 Lake Shore
Drive Apartments.
“The Beetlejuice house was absolutely an inspiration

for us. It was a touchstone all the way.”
JONATHAN SOLOMON, RESIDENT
goofily curdled utopia while you brush sons. “You’re such a good archivist,” says Mies van der Rohe,” he says. “And they are
your teeth. “It’s very Terry Gilliam, in a Meg to Jonathan, adding, “He loves not prepared for brutalism, postmodern-
way, kinda Brazil,” says Meg. paperwork.” ism, and beyond.”
Both of Jonathan’s grandfathers were The question of what society keeps is Jonathan and Meg are. He’s interested
architects, and he inherited some of their one Jonathan has been working on for a in “expanding preservation beyond an
considerable archives. A multigenera- while. Beyond his teaching post at the approach that imagines a special, frozen
tional passion for ephemera extends to a School of the Art Institute of Chicago, moment in which buildings are perfect
peculiar closet at the base of the stairs. It’s Preservation Futures, which he and have to be held at,” he says. “I think of
too shallow to hang a coat in, yet it bumps cofounded, he has been a leading voice for preservation as the ongoing care of the
out the perimeter of the house. (There’s the preservation of Helmut Jahn’s master- built environment. It’s not an absolute. It
also a window for some reason.) In it, piece, The Thompson Center. “We’re deal- doesn’t have to be a battle. And this house
Jonathan has curated an exhibition closet ing with a generation of preservationists represents a negotiation between past,
filled with inherited toys, his own, and now who came of age saving Louis present, and future, between Meg and me
newly acquired ones given to him by his Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and maybe and our cats and my kids.”

DWELLINGS
TEXT BY
Nathan Ma
PHOTOS BY ɿ @CAROL.SACHS
Carol Sachs
In Kosovo’s capital,
a couple craft a
haven that welcomes
grand gatherings.
SEPTEM B ER/O C TO B ER 2023 DWELL

Ali Fraenkel and Mentor Dida speakers like Uta Ibrahimi, the
prepare for one of the many first Albanian woman to climb
gatherings they host in their Mount Everest. The couple
penthouse in Prishtina, Kosovo. worked with designers Fitore
Self-described “changemak- Syla and Njomza Havolli of
ers,” they regularly open their local firm Muza to create a
home to 20 or more people for balance of open and intimate
get-togethers with live music spaces. “Gathering people is
from local artists or guest our shared calling,” says Ali.
87
DWELLINGS
New-build apartment complexes in

European capitals often follow a sorry
script: They tower above surface streets,
donning long swaths of windows and
black steel trim on the outside. Inside,
they’re crisp and clean with white walls,
parquet flooring, and so many shades of
gray. This aesthetic is trendy, sure, but it
can be cold and uninviting. And for busi-
ness and teamwork consultant Alexandra
“Ali” Fraenkel and motivational speaker
Mentor Dida, it just wouldn’t do.
“If I had to write a book overnight on
one topic, it would be Nookology 101:
Making Cozy Corners Where You Feel Like
You Could Hang Out All Day,” Ali says with
a grin. She’s joining us via Zoom from her
parents’ place in Rhinebeck, the small
town in upstate New York where she grew
up. On our end of the call, Ali’s husband,
Mentor, is preparing a tea service in their
penthouse in Prishtina, Kosovo.
Mentor passes tea glasses to Njomza
Havolli and Fitore Syla, the couple’s close
friends and cofounders of architecture
and interiors firm Muza. As the designers
recline on an olive green couch in the
central living space, their seats face the
kitchen, where the cabinetry is color
matched to the blue in the backsplash’s
bold blue-and-white handmade tiles.
To their left, a lopsided, cased opening
frames a view into the adjoining sitting
room like a natural arch; to their right is
Ali’s reading nook. The room is awash in
A free-form arch separates in various ways, including

the living area from the den as an improvised laptop
(above), where a wallpaper stand (left). The reading
mural overlooks a sofa from nook (opposite) was a spe-
Flexlux and a rug from Muza cial request of Ali’s. “She
Rugs. The coffee table, wanted a semihidden corner
made from 100-year-old that was still connected to
wood, consists of three the living room,” says Syla.
pieces that can be arranged “It’s a special spot.”
89
DWELLINGS
Playful lighting fixtures continuity of dreams and

and rich colors distinguish desires,” says Syla. The
the couple’s bedroom and meditation room (below),
glass-walled bathroom which doubles as a guest
(here and opposite). The room, is where Ali and
“wiggles” repeated on Mentor recharge. “We occa-
the bed frame, side table, sionally go into hermit mode
and vanity, all designed and take a week or two off
by Muza, “represent the from hosting,” says Mentor.
natural light and smells of fresh-cut

lumber, cinnamon, and flia, a traditional
crepe pie that Mentor serves with cheeses,
roasted pepper paste, and cured meats.
It does feel as if you could hang out here
all day.
For Ali and Mentor, that’s the point:
The couple enjoy hosting large, mostly
sober get-togethers, and they’re happy to
have 20 or more guests milling about
their 1,280-square-foot apartment. They
fell in love with grand gatherings while
sharing Shabbat with Jeremy Levine and
Valentina Raman, their housemates in
Washington, D.C., where they met in 2016
while Mentor was working there. “Every
Friday, Jeremy’s family would invite any-
body that they saw,” Mentor remembers.
“It became a beautiful ritual.”
“Ali and Mentor wanted their home
to be a place for everyone, a community
place,” Syla explains. But they wanted it
to be bright and colorful, and they wanted
a house that felt like both of them: one
that mixed Mentor’s heritage as a seventh-
generation Albanian in Prishtina with

DWELLINGS
91
DWELLINGS
92
DWELLINGS
Ali and Mentor share a laugh

in the living area (left). At the
end of the room (opposite),
sliding glass doors lead to the
terrace, which is as large as
the apartment and provides
additional entertaining space
in warm months. Blue cabi-
netry in the kitchen (below)
was custom matched to the
handmade backsplash tiles
by Kreativ Qeramika. Against
the apartment’s effusion of
color, herringbone hardwood
floors throughout are a warm,
unifying element.
A Ray of Joy N
ARCHITECT Muza
LOCATION Prishtina, Kosovo
K D
H B C
G K
I E
G
J
A F
A Entrance H Bedroom
B Kitchen I Meditation
C Living Area Room
D Reading Nook J Laundry/
E Den Utility Room
F Office K Balcony
G Bathroom L Terrace

DWELLINGS
“When you live in a home that you feel embodies

your essence, your values, and your energy, it unlocks
other possibilities in your life.”
ALI FRAENKEL, RESIDENT
94
At a recent event for (above) for dinner and con- muffin cake (opposite,
Mentor’s organization versation. Biontina Fazliu, bottom) ready for the oven.
Ndryshimtarët, which offers a colleague of Mentor’s, “We want our home to
personal development arrived ahead of time to help evoke feelings of warmth,
and leadership workshops, put things together (oppo- openness, vibrance, and
about 20 guests gather site, top and bottom left), sanctuary for anyone enter-
around the dining table while Ali got a blueberry ing it,” says Ali.
Ali’s more American sensibilities. Muza visitors pass nods to Albanian architectural bathroom, its tiles a deep shade of aqua-
was up for the challenge. and cultural traditions: the couple’s tea marine, feels compact, while a Creamsicle
The couple trusted Havolli and Syla from collection, for example, and shelves and paint job makes the yoga and meditation
the start: The duo worked hard to establish furniture made of timber beams reclaimed room seem endless.
their practice in Kosovo as two young from the ceilings of abandoned traditional Some of these elements aren’t common
women in a field where most of their peers, houses in the region. Even a year after in Kosovo, but they bridge that gap between
business partners, and suppliers are men. construction was completed, the inviting Ali’s and Mentor’s different cultures, wel-
And while the designers respected the resi- scent of lumber lingers. coming guests no matter where they’re
dents’ open-door policy, they knew that As guests fill the space, some may from. It’s a home built to be shared and
playing with privacy would be key to craft- gravitate to more private outcroppings where the couple believe that everyone
ing a home fit for hosting and for living. in the apartment, like the dining table. could find a comfortable seat. For some,
To that end, they choreographed the foot When you sit down, the room feels much it might be on the terrace overlooking the
flow through the penthouse, contrasting more intimate, as your back faces either city and surrounding mountains; for oth-
open spaces with quieter corners. A narrow the enormous windows or the expansive ers, around the dining table for a midday
entrance hall leads guests to a generous kitchen island. Bursts of color and tex- feast. And on a busy night with friends
living space that includes both the open ture play with the perception of space: new and old, it just might be in a tranquil
kitchen and the living area. Along the way, Despite its soaring ceiling, the secondary corner in Ali’s cozy reading nook.

Though Ana Fortin (opposite), last year.
(left) bought a plot in The city’s red tape
Lisbon’s historic Belém slowed design and
district in 2014, she construction way
only moved into the down. But patience
home she now shares pays off: “I prefer to
with her 10-year-old wait until everything’s
daughter, Madalena perfect,” she says.
Making the right choice often comes

down to a gut feeling. This is a truth Ana
Fortin knows well. “I can’t just choose
something because I need something,”
says the Paris-born sales manager, who
has lived in Lisbon since she was a child.
“I would prefer to eat on the floor than
have the wrong table.”
Ana’s house, which she shares with her
10-year-old daughter, Madalena, wears
her choices like a coat of arms. Her taste
tends toward midcentury modern, with
bold twists, like the graphic terrazzo tiles
in her kitchen and bath and the pin-striped
parasol in her backyard. She commis-
sioned a stately round dining table from
Portuguese designer Tomaz Viana and
TEXT BY
Nathan Ma
PHOTOS BY | @MATTHEW_AVIGNONE
Matthew Avignone
Architects play with tight local regulations

to pack a Lisbon townhouse with personality.

DWELLINGS
DWELLINGS

DWELLINGS
“ At times I was afraid because I was used to every-

thing being very simple, but I feel so well here
—it’s flowing, it’s playful, it’s unique and distinct.”
ANA FORTIN, RESIDENT
For Ana, it was important paired it with a set of organic Hiroshima she met with the team at Fala Atelier, she
that guests could gather chairs by Naoto Fukasawa for Maruni. knew the firm was the right one to build it
throughout the open
ground floor. Her kitchen
When Ana needed an outdoor shower for because it’s known for taking big swings
and living room flow into her back garden and pool, she ordered with its designs.
each other. Everyone can three options to inspect for herself; when Led by Ahmed Belkhodja, Filipe
relax on the mustard Togo they weren’t what she envisioned, she sent Magalhães, Lera Samovich, and Ana Luisa
sofa from Ligne Roset in
them back one at a time. Fortunately, a Soares, the Porto-based studio specializes
the living room (opposite)
or pull up a Hiroshima fourth fit the bill. in “giving stupid answers to logical ques-
chair at the custom Tomaz But her intuition—which strikes her tions,” as Magalhães told Dwell in 2022. Its
Viana table (above). when she knows something is just right— work is equally playful and pragmatic.
goes deeper than decorations. When Ana Blocky colors and outsize shapes draw
first visited her property in 2014, the plot attention to the studio’s designs but also
of land bore only the uninhabitable ruins serve a purpose. The conical teal range
of two houses. Still, she just knew that it hood in Ana’s kitchen, the chunky black-
was the right spot for her home. And when and-white chimneys, the stripes

DWELLINGS
When Ana’s design team

at Fala Atelier first pro-
posed blocky kitchen
cabinets with dramatic
stripes, Ana hesitated. “I
thought it would be too
much,” she says. “But it’s
not. It is incredible, and
it is very elegant.” Fala’s
Filipe Magalhães says
the plays of scale and
direction in the house’s
patterns make the modest
spaces feel grander and
create a visual rhythm.
House of Accents N
ARCHITECT Fala Atelier

LOCATION Lisbon, Portugal
Third Floor
A B
C
Second Floor
E
D D
D E
First Floor
G H I
F E J
A Balcony F Entrance
B Attic G Living Area
C Storage Room H Dining Area
D Bedroom I Kitchen
E Bathroom J Pantry

DWELLINGS
repeated across kitchen cabinets, window Belém, a historic district on the western In Portugal, local marble
can be a cost-effective
shutters, and storage cupboards—these edge of the city, where Ana lives, but also
material—Fala used five
features add motion and scale to the mod- limit an architect’s options. Restrictions types in the house. It
est home by guiding the eye from floor to constrain building size, committees rigor- forms a kitchen counter
ceiling, making it feel much larger. ously regulate street-facing facades, and that runs into the floor of
Working with Fala is as fun as its cre- there are only a few options allowed for a landing and then up the
stairs (above and oppo-
ations, Ana says: “Their energy and pas- roof tiles and shingles. Magalhães says site, bottom left), and
sion are contagious.” That attitude came that for homeowners it can feel as if there it even shows up on the
in handy when planning the project is always some new application and wait facade (opposite, bottom
proved to be something of an endurance period to complete. Though Ana pur- right). When mother and
daughter need breaks
test. Architects working in Portugal face chased the plot in 2014, she didn’t move
from the house’s liveli-
plenty of red tape, which maintains the into her new home until June 2022. ness, Madalena takes to
character of the nation’s cities. The capital To deal with some of the regulations, her bed, from Boa Safra
is no exception. In fact, Magalhães says, Fala got creative. For the front facade, the (opposite, top left), and
Ana can relax in her bath-
“Lisbon is actually the slowest and most studio set lighter marble lozenges against
room, which looks out
bureaucratic and complicated municipal- darker triangles for a striking geometric over the backyard (oppo-
ity in the country.” These regulatory pro- motif. But that was unusual, so in the pro- site, top right).
cesses help preserve the city’s feel even as posal, the facade was drawn very simply
Americans and others relocate here in and labeled just “wood” and “stone”—a
droves; they are especially important in bureaucrat’s unobjectionable dream.

103
DWELLINGS
The ruins on Ana’s land

were removed ahead of
construction, but Fala
saved the original retain-
ing walls in the back
garden. The studio also
attached massive mir-
rors to the walls to make
the penned-in yard feel
more open and spacious.
Madalena (below) plays in
the outdoor shower, from
Portuguese company
Bruma, which Ana settled
on after inspecting mul-
tiple options.
“It’s an additive house. It’s about the tiny

moments, ideas, problems, and solutions that
kept adding and adding to it.”
FILIPE MAGALHÃES, ARCHITECT
“The front on the street today reflects The designers worried Ana might shy
Oswald Mathias Ungers,” Magalhães says, away from their more outspoken proposi-
referencing the cerebral 20th-century tions, like the tall semicircular doors or
German architect. “The drawings we sub- the postmodern marble back facade, but
mitted suggested sad social housing. Ana was a fan, and her own taste comple-
“You could make rules and regulations mented the head-turning shapes and col-
that push municipal bureaucrats and ors. Ana wanted a warm wood for the open
architects to work together on the best living room on the ground floor; Fala pro-
solution for a problem,” he continues. But posed accenting the pine flooring with
in his opinion, the existing building- dark walnut tiles—“chocolate sprinkles,”
approval process pits parties against each according to Magalhães. Ana wanted a tub
other. It’s a lose-lose situation and one in for the secondary bathroom; unsatisfied
which it’s up to architects to advocate for with the available options, Fala bought a
their clients and for architecture itself, book on the ergonomics of chairs and built
Magalhães says. “The municipality doesn’t a tub for her instead with the terrazzo tiles
care if Ana has a nice house. And they defi- she’d chosen for the kitchen.
nitely don’t care if it’s good architecture.” The result is a family home that glows
Magalhães points out that after clearing with life across its three floors. The
regional hurdles for a decade, Fala has ground floor feels rooted, sloping gently
gained a tactical edge that sets the studio up toward the wide-open windows that
apart even from more established archi- frame the backyard. The second floor is
tects around the world. He notes that cozy, with the primary bedroom and both
while some firms maintain a fleet of secondary bedrooms—a guest room and a
offices in many countries, most steer clear room for Ana’s daughter—branching off a
of Portuguese projects. There’s a steep central volume. The top floor is a celebra-
learning curve here, and many architects tion: Guests enter it from a spiral staircase
aren’t cut out for the regulatory and and move through Ana’s small home office
design challenges. “It’s like we have to before reaching the marble-lined balcony
speak five languages, and there’s one we with views across all of Lisbon. It’s not
care a lot about: the architectural one,” he what Ana might have imagined when she
says. “Luckily, with Ana, we could talk purchased the run-down plot nine years
about architecture.” ago, but in the end, it feels just right.

DWELLINGS

BUDGET BREAKDOWN TEXT BY PHOTOS BY ɿ @LEONARDOFINOTTI
Paola Singer Leonardo Finotti
A Different Tack A pandemic pivot led

a couple to change course and take up
carpentry. Their first project? Their home.
Early in the pandemic, Natalia Pronczuk build a compact wooden dwelling at the Masa Arquitectos designed
and her partner, Mario Marotta, lost their back of Natalia’s mother’s yard. this minimalist house in
Montevideo, Uruguay, for
jobs at Carrasco International Airport in The couple had a budget of approxi- a young family on a tight
Montevideo, Uruguay. (She worked for mately $35,000. Given that both had some budget who wanted to do
Iberia; he for Aerolíneas Argentinas.) The carpentry training and Mario had com- most of the carpentry them-
shock led them to make a radical decision: pleted a timber-framing course, they selves. The wood-and-glass
home has an adaptable
to give up the three-bedroom rental where planned to cut costs by having him take on
layout, with a kitchen, a
they lived with their young daughter and most of the manual labor, but they needed bathroom, and two closets
hidden behind pocket doors.

BUDGET
WELL & SEPTIC $ 1,500
F O U N DAT I O N $ 900
STRUCTURE $ 3,660
FRAMING $ 5,500
W I N D OW S $ 4,000
ROOFING $ 1,800
P LU M B I N G $ 800
DECK & LANDSCAPING $ 1,500
ELECTRICAL $ 800
WA L L S $ 1,100
C A B I N E T RY $ 500
APPLIANCES $ 973
T I L E & F LO O R I N G $ 880
C O U N T E R TO P S $ 200
FAC A D E & I N S U L AT I O N $ 1,600
LABOR $ 6,173
WO R K E R S I N S U R A N C E $ 3,926
someone to help with drawing the floor Martin, with hints of emotion in his voice. $35,812
plan and millwork details. Enter Martin “Sometimes we don’t know what we’re
Pronczuk, Natalia’s brother and the capable of until we just dive into it.”
cofounder of Masa Arquitectos. The construction of this tiny space, con-
Martin and his studio cofounder, ceived at a time of hardship, brought forth
Santiago Saettone, presented a minimalist an unexpected sense of abundance. All of the furnishings are by
rectangular design with an interior grid Although Mario and Natalia have plans to Uruguayan designers. The
layout that could be divided in a variety of move into a bigger home eventually, they wooden console and iron-
ways. Along the back wall, a row of bifold are not in a hurry to leave their wooden framed sofa (above) are from
Estudio Diario, the black
doors hid a kitchen, a bathroom, and two refuge, surrounded by pecan, plum, and metal chairs are from Estudio
closets. Aside from the glass-walled front laurel trees, as well as the warmth of their Claro, and the round dining
and low cement stilts placed to offset the extended family. table is from Samic.
yard’s downward slope, every inch of the
430-square-foot structure would be made
of wood of one kind or another.
“My head exploded when Martin showed
me the drawings,” says Mario. “I had imag-
ined a much simpler house.” And yet, as
the couple took stock of reality—their
financial uncertainty; their abundance of
idle time—accepting the challenge
seemed like the right choice. To help them,
Mario hired a neighbor who had no experi-
ence in construction but was physically
strong and eager to work.
In the early days, the task was daunting.
For the dwelling’s frame, the architects
chose jatoba wood, a South American lum-
ber that proved to be mulish. “It’s a very
hard wood,” says Martin. “There were many
broken drill bits and even a mangled elec-
tric saw.” Things got slightly easier when
they moved on to the wide eucalyptus slabs
used for the walls and interior doors and
long pine planks that cover the floor.
“When the work was done, Mario and I
stood on a small elevation in the yard,
looking at the house, and he turned to me
and said, ‘I can’t believe I did this,’ ” recalls

S M A L L S PAC E S
Back to the Street

A couple in Guayaquil, Ecuador, turned
ìſŇļƙǞſÇĚļƙŇƙĚļǞĔŇķÓŇìñ¶ÓŬ
Cuqui Rodríguez (above) and soon-to-be first child. Instead and left wood finishes in their
Juan Alberto Andrade are the of renting an office elsewhere, natural colors, like those on
couple behind JAG Studio, an they took over their building’s the plywood cabinetry and the
architectural photography firm front yard and expanded their pine ceiling structure (opposite,
in Guayaquil, Ecuador. After ground-floor workspace into a bottom). At their plywood desk,
years of living and working out nook they call El Retiro. They the couple are sometimes joined
of the apartment building where wanted it to connect to the out- by colleagues from JAG like
Juan grew up, they wanted more doors, so they included a win- Victoria Peralta or their daugh-
space for themselves and their dow to the street (opposite, top) ter, Morena (opposite, middle).

TEXT BY PHOTOS BY ɿ @JUANALBERTOANDRADE.EC
María Silvia Aguirre Juan Alberto Andrade
“ Our goal in life is to give back

to the street what it gave us,
ǘĔĚ¶ĔĚƆƆŇ¶ĚĭĭĚìÓŬź
JUAN ALBERTO ANDRADE, ARCHITECT
AND RESIDENT
In mid-2022, Juan Alberto Andrade, an

architect and architectural photographer,
and Cuqui Rodríguez, a communications
professional with a self-described “archi-
tectural soul,” were expecting a child. It
wasn’t the Ecuadorean couple’s first col-
laboration: Since 2016, they’ve worked
together through their Guayaquil-based
architectural photography firm, JAG
Studio, traveling around the country for
photo shoots and taking on projects both
locally and abroad. When at home, they
lived and worked in a three-story multi-
family building in what Juan calls the
“messy but beautiful” Puerto Azul
neighborhood.
“We had our office downstairs in a
small room,” he says, while their apart-
ment was on the third floor. Although the
couple enjoyed their nomadic lifestyle,
they also enjoyed working from home—
but to do more of the latter, they wanted
more space and privacy within the family.
So while Cuqui was pregnant, she and
Juan designed and built a ground-floor
office expansion in the front of the build-
ing with the consent of their fellow resi-
dents. El Retiro, or The Retreat, as they
call the expanded, 194-square-foot space,
was inaugurated just a few days after baby
Morena was born in January.

S M A L L S PAC E S
When embarking on the project,

Juan and Cuqui agreed that they
weren’t going to move or cut
back the tree that Juan remem-
bers growing up with, which
has stood by their building for
almost 30 years. They wanted
the tree to witness Morena’s
childhood, and it has become
the star of the interior garden.
Juan and Cuqui consider El Retiro an even created a small library in front of the
office and a family space—with furniture small sink and tiny bathroom. El Retiro N
suitable for improvised diaper-changing “The place is very us,” says Juan. ARCHITECT Juan Alberto Andrade
stations. The place looks like a small box, Drawings, models, and gifts from friends LOCATION Guayaquil, Ecuador
its rammed earth wall with a square win- decorate the walls, and the interior plants
dow lining the edge of the street and get moved around a lot. The couple
framing a view out from their front space. focused on keeping materials in their A
“Our goal in life is to give back to the natural state and bringing nature inside, C
street what it gave us, which is social life,” through an interior garden with glass
B
says Juan. Through their window, they can panels around a 28-year-old yucca tree. D
watch kids playing, dogs walking, and To Cuqui, El Retiro reminds her of
pedestrians passing by—this is the kind of her childhood on the beach of Bahía de
life they both wanted for Morena. “For me, Caráquez, where she was in constant
A Entrance
the street is everything. It is where all of touch with nature and neighbors mingled B Office
life is,” Cuqui adds. “The door is always on benches in front yards. “This office is C Powder Room
open.” Once inside, visitors can choose to like my little bench,” she says—and now, D Living Area
sit on the floor or on a bean bag. The pair it’s also Morena’s.

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sourcing
Explore the products, furniture, architects, designers,

and builders featured in this issue.
46 Mythic Proportions 62 A Color Story dwr.com; cabinets by Mutina mutina.it; 44 What It Takes to Make It Photo Credits
Builders Cabinet induction cooktop, wall
Charlap Hyman & Chuch Estudio buildmykitchen.com; oven, and dishwasher Bradley Bowers: Image of Savannah College of Art and
Herrero chuchestudio.mx Agate Green wall paint from Bosch bosch.com; Design courtesy Education Images, Universal Images Group,
and Getty; image of Miami courtesy Danny Lehman, The
ch-herrero.com 62 Banquito Tejido chair from Sherwin-Williams refrigerator from LG
Image Bank, and Getty; all other images courtesy Bradley
Ken Hicks and and table by Chuch sherwin-williams.com; lg.com; rug by Coincasa
Bowers. Misha Kahn: Portrait of Misha Kahn by Charles White
Kyle Simpson Estudio; Parentesi lamp quartz Carrera backsplash coin.it; spotlights from courtesy Friedman Benda and Dries van Noten; image of
kenhicks05@aol.com, by Achille Castiglioni and and wainscotting by Meg Viokef Lighting viokef New York City courtesy fotoVoyager, E+, and Getty; image
kylesimpsoncfc@gmail Pio Manzù flos.com Gustafson and Jonathan .com; curtains from of Museum of Arts and Design by Benoit Pailley courtesy
.com 64 Bathroom sink and Solomon; fireplace by Nuka Home nukahome Friedman Benda and Misha Kahn; image of Design Miami
Structural engineering faucet from Home Depot Keefer Dun, Meg .com; dining chairs and 2016 by Adam Reich courtesy Friedman Benda and Misha
by Gordon L. Polon homedepot.com; table Gustafson, and Jonathan pendants from Zuiver Kahn; image of Soft Bodies, Hard Spaces by Daniel Kukla
gordonpolon.com and chairs by Chuch Solomon; painting of zuiver.com courtesy Friedman Benda and Misha Kahn; image of
46 Antique Jade ceiling Estudio woman’s head by Antoni 88 Shelving and desk by Watermelon Party by Charles White courtesy Friedman
Benda and Dries van Noten; image of Casually Sauntering
paint from Benjamin Clavé; Eero Saarinen Muza and Kolos Interior;
the Perimeter of Now courtesy Apartamento and Misha
Moore benjaminmoore 70 Just Their Type table from Design Within desk stool from Ciao
Kahn. Studio Drift: Portrait of Studio Drift by Teska
.com; Akari 70EN pen- Reach Berto ciao-berto.com Overbeeke courtesy Studio Drift; image of the Armory Show
dant from The Noguchi Patchwork Architecture 80 Sinmi stool prototype 89 Keep Me rug from courtesy Pace Gallery and Studio Drift; image of Franchise
Museum shop.noguchi patchworkarchitecture by Norman Teague Muza Rugs muzarugs Freedom by Jon Ollwerther courtesy Studio Drift; image of
.org; Santa and Cole and .co.nz normanteague .com; modular coffee Coded Nature by Gert Jan van Rooij courtesy Stedelijk
Ignazio Gardella Dorset Construction designstudios.com; table and ceiling beams Museum and Studio Drift; image of Design Academy
Digamma adjustable dorsetconstruction.co.nz geometric prints by by Muza and Kolos Eindhoven courtesy IK’s World Trip and Creative Commons.
lounge chairs and Eileen Structural engineering Victor Vasarely; Obstinate Interior; Copenhagen Harry Nuriev: Portrait by Daniel Roché courtesy Harry
Gray tube light from JF by Quoin Structural Orange wall paint from sofa from Flexlux flexlux Nuriev; image of The Trash Bag Sofa by Pauline Shapiro
courtesy Harry Nuriev and Crosby Studios; image of Denim
Chen jfchen.com; Pollock Consultants Sherwin-Williams .com; chair from Nuka
by Benoit Florençon courtesy Harry Nuriev and Crosby
Executive chair from quoin.co.nz 81 Roberto Matta Malitte Home; wallpaper from
Studios; image of How to Land in the Metaverse: From
Design Within Reach dwr Landscape design by modular seating system Orex orex.de Interior Design to the Future of Design courtesy Rizzoli USA;
.com; Bay 0001 drapery Local Landscape from South Loop Loft 90–91 Bed frame, all other images courtesy Harry Nuriev and Crosby Studios.
fabric by Sahco from Architecture Collective thesouthlooploft.com; headboard, night table,
Kvadrat kvadrat.dk; localcollective.nz upholstery from mirrors, bathroom
terrazzo flooring by Ficus Cabinetry by Dazam Fishman’s Fabrics vanity, and shelving by
Interfaith deligallery.com Joinery & Wood Design fishmansfabrics Muza and Kolos Interior; OGC Construção Estudio Claro and
50 Italian chinoiserie dazamwooddesign.com .com; neon sign from Ming pendant lamp from ogcconstrucao.com Estudio Diario
chair from The Gilded 70 Building signage by Neon Shop Fishtail Dutchbone dutchbone 98 Togo sofa from Ligne estudioclaro.com,
Owl thegildedowl.com; Klim Type Foundry klim neonshopfishtail.com; .com; bathroom tiles Roset ligne-roset.com; estudio-diario.com
oxblood vessel on .co.nz PVC side table by Jack from Refin refin.it; rug from Nanimarquina Plumbing by
pedestal and Japanese 71 Brass door handle by Craig jackcraigstudio bathroom sink and nanimarquina.com Eduardo Brenes
patinated bronze vases Ben Pearce benpearce.nz .com faucet from Bocchi 99 Custom dining table brenesconsultores.com
on desk from JF Chen; 72 Rimu cabinetry and 82 Studio41 and Kohler bocchibagno.com by Tomaz Viana 106–107 Chairs by
desk artwork by Zsuzsi custom table by Dazam industrial lamp from Etsy 92–93 Coffee table, tomazviana.com Estudio Claro; dining
Ujj danzigergallery.com Joinery & Wood Design; etsy.com; yellow tube shelving, bench, and 100–101 Terrazzo tiling table from Samic
52 Silver stool by Shun chairs by Formway for light from Hay us.hay stool by Muza and Kolos from Huguet samic.com.uy; sofa,
Kinoshita shunkinoshita Knoll knoll.com; lighting .com; Joey Manic rolling Interior; curtains from huguetmallorca.com; coffee table, sideboard,
.com; vase by Riccardo from Juniper dinner cart from PHX Nuka Home; Rocco cabinetry, mug rack, and and night table by
Gatti juniperdesign.com; Gallery phxgallery.com couch from De Eekhoorn extraction hood by Fala Estudio Diario
custom daybed from 85 Dishy Coral paint deeekhoorn.com; Mahal Atelier
54 Mediterranean Revival Thonet thonet.co.nz from Sherwin-Williams rug from Dutchbone; 102 Sideboard from Ferm 108 Back to the Street
poufs and pendants from Living fermliving.com;
Kiki Goti 76 Quiet Riot 86 Open Invite Zuiver; wall oven from cabinetry by Fala Atelier JAG Studio
kikigoti.com Bosch; Mattonelle 103 Bed by Fala Atelier; jagstudio.ec
54–55 OO+II Aluminum Keefer Dunn Muza Margherita backsplash bedside table from USM Roofing by Acesco
Chair, Wooden Side kdunn.info muzacreative.com tiles from Mutina usm.com and Masisa
Table, and Neo-Vanity Raw Building Concepts Pozhegu Brothers 94–95 Millwork and acesco.com.ec,
Metal Side Table by rawbuildingconcepts.com pozhegubrothers.com dining table by Muza and 106 A Different Track masisa.com
Kiki Goti; sofa from Landscape design by Interior design by Kolos Kolos Interior; sink and Flooring by Aglomerados
BoConcept boconcept. Christy Webber Interior faucet from Blanco; Masa Cotopaxi
com; red bookshelf from Landscapes kolosinterior.com Mattonelle Margherita masa.com.uy cotopaxi.com.ec
Ikea ikea.com; yellow christywebber.com Lighting by Adria-7 backsplash tiles from Woodmood
chairs by Mark Malecki Interior design by facebook.com/ Mutina; curtains from instagram.com/
markmalecki.com Meg Gustafson and adria7prishtine Nuka Home; dining woodmood.uy
56 Dining table and red Jonathan Solomon 86–87 Millwork, dining chairs and pendants Landscape design by
cabinet knobs from Ikea; 76–78 Custom table, and breakfast from Zuiver Forza
Tip Ton chairs from Vitra farmhouse table by nook by Muza and Kolos 598-9928-6085
vitra.com; pendant from Adam Sherman adam Interior; sink and faucet 96 Trust the Process Lighting design by
Hay us.hay.com; U+II shermanwoodworking from Blanco blanco.com; Walter Carrocio For contact information
Mirror and OO+II Wall .com; Thonet chairs from Mattonelle Margherita Fala Atelier 598-9934-3434 for our advertisers,
Light by Kiki Goti Design Within Reach backsplash tiles from falaatelier.com Interior design by please turn to page 112.
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HAVEN COLLECTION BY SEBASTIAN HERKNER
LOS ANGELES · CHICAGO · DANIA BEACH · VIRGINIA · NEW YORK FLAGSHIP
WWW.GLOSTER.COM
one last thing
When I was still in architecture school

at Columbia University, I found this
wooden object at a studio sale. I think
it was a prototype. It was under a
table and didn’t have a price tag, but
I asked if I could buy it and they sold
it to me for ten dollars. I’ve used it
to hold flowers and candles, but
mostly I just display it like a sculpture.
I have no idea why it was made,
because I’ve never seen that studio
produce anything similar—it might not
have even become a product. If you
look closely, you can see the rough
edges of the compressed wood pulp,
and there’s a small nail sticking out
on the inside. To me, it’s simply a
record of someone’s idea.
Now, almost ten years later, I
understand this object so much bet-
ter. I follow a process that produces
that type of thing all the time in my
ceramics studio. I just want to try out
an idea, but often it doesn’t become
anything at all, and then it sits on a
shelf for years before I pick it up to
see it through.
I’m a perfectionist, and now that
I work in ceramics I want everything
to be a straight line and precise—my
architecture background made me
extremely rigorous—but that’s really
hard in clay. This process has made
me accept that at the end of the day,
the evidence of your hand will never
go away. I’ve come to accept those
character flaws in the work, and it
doesn’t bother me that they go out
into the universe.
Design is innate. There is natural
talent, but there isn’t enough credit
given to the work it takes to find
your design voice. It takes practice.
This prototype reminds me that it’s
the process that produces the prod-
uct, and more often than not, it’s a
nonlinear journey to get there.
A half-baked design concept

serves as an antidote to architect
turned ceramist Sarah Hussaini’s
perfectionist tendencies.
AS TOLD TO PHOTO BY ɿ @JAMIECHUNGSTUDIO
Lauren Gallow Jamie Chung

EXPERIENCE MODERN FIRE | NIMBUS FIRE TABLE
888-823-8883 | sales@paloform.com | paloform.com Photo: tcphotography.ca

Sustainability
is in Style
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CU 861640
CU 861640

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ch07 lounge chair, designed by hans wegner, 1963 - made in denmark by carl hansen & son

©2022 Hunter Douglas Inc.

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Recently, one of the

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SÃO PAULO @PALMA_PALMA_PALMA_

Lorenzo Lo Schiavo and Cléo Döbberthin’s My parents, Philippe

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