Designing the 21st Century

Robert A.M. Stern, the architect who became synonymous with the affluent architecture of New York City and that of the seaside villages of the Hamptons, passed away on Thanksgiving. To remember him and to illuminatehis contribution to the story of architecture, I have invited renowned architecture critic and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, Paul Goldberger. His tribute to Stern published in the Ne...

The Nakashima Foundation for Peace maintains the architecture and furniture collection which American-Japanese woodworker and architect George Nakashima created and built in New Hope, Pennsylvania. It is one of the most personal and memorable places I have ever visited: apowerful representation of Nakashima’s personal and design vision and of his life story. Now that the foundation has a special m...

My guest today has created some of the most beautiful houses in America. Perhaps I am biased, because if I ever build my own house, I know that Tom Kundig will design it. If he agrees Over the course of his four-decade career, he has built museums, wineries, universities, foundations, retail andcommercial buildings. But the touchstone of his work, and for what he became known, is the single-family...

In recent years, there has been a great emphasis on the supreme beauty and quality of the handmade in contemporary design. I am confident that we are currently at the heights of a craft movement and it carries a particular 21st century identity, which combines traditional fabrications of craftsmanship with methods rooted in new technologies and materials. It is no longer a secret that bronze, whic...

Today I would like to discuss the level of furniture that can be found in shops and department stores. It is a sensitive issue that is rarely brought up in public but remains a hot subject in the architecture and design communities. I have heard people describe it as ordinary, mediocre, poorly made, and less inspiring and innovative than it has been at any other time in history. It should not be f...

Myron Goldfinger was an American architect who, during the height of his career in the 1970s and 1980s, devised a distinctive style in trophy homes for the rich powerful seeking to live in contemporary houses. He reinterpreted American vernacular architecture into an entirely new language that responded to the spirit of the time: the Disco Age.  Inspired by Louis Kahn, his teacher at the Universit...

As I am preparing to attend what is certainly the most anticipated architecture event of the year, Expo 2025 Osaka, I invited New Orleans architect Trey Trahan who created the American Pavilion as my guest today.  The World Expo events, also known as World Fairs, have always showcased the most cutting-edge inventions of their time. Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 Paris Expo, and the Seattle Sp...

If you are a New Yorker, even if you are not interested in architecture, you should certainly know the name of architect Rosario Candela. In the 1920s, Candela shaped Manhattan with the most celebrated and influential apartment houses of the time, which would become the crown jewels of the New York’s skyline. In fact, even a century later, these are still the most desired, legendary, the most luxu...

Sebastian Errazuriz is an artist and activist who celebrates design’s presence in every part of our life. He works with many disciplines. He is a craftsman, thinker, and creator who makes beautiful objects and fun things but also making provocative statements. His work is bold, ambitious, and experimental, touching on his own personal experience while connecting to the spirit of the age. It is alw...

I am a long-time admirer of the work of architecture firm Sawyer Berson because I can see myself living in every one of the houses they create—every apartment, every interior, and every garden. Their homes, whether modernist, Federal, or traditional, are always so airy, beautiful, chic, and inviting. They are dazzling in their elegance as they make your heart drop, because Sawyer Berson have maste...

The design world has lost one of its most important and brilliant legends. Gaetano Pesce died last month at 84, leaving an enormous legacy behind. During his six-decade career, he held a special position in contemporary art and design; always remaining provocative, surprising, and interesting. He was an architect by training, but devoted his life and career to design, creating innovative furniture...

Have you ever asked yourself what is the lifespan of furniture copyright? Whether design objects are protected as intellectual property? As the market becomes flooded with copies and fakes, and the web is filled with design masterpieces of the past, poorly produced and sold inexpensively, this question has become more and more relevant. Mark Masiello knows the answer. He founded a company cal...

Frank Gehry, the architect we all love to love. Even since he completed his Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in 1997, Gehry became a favorite architect by everyone. By the public, by architects, and by the architecture criticism community, a true celebrity, who turned architecture into popular enterprise, and at 70, Gehry launched a second and super successful chapter of his long career, the leading archi...

Recent years have witnessed a growing attention to the study of female artists, architects, designers and their contribution to the story of modern design. Jane Hall’s book  Woman Made: Great Women Designers  comes to tell the story of 200 pioneering female designers from 50 countries, who have worked in the past 100 years in furniture, textiles, and lighting design. Some helped sha...

Swiss industrial designer and innovator Yves Behar has created a global and influential career in product design always fusing design, technology, and sustainability. He has worked with endless brands in various industries and the products he created throughout his career are the topic of a new monograph Designing Ideas, published by Thames and Hudson. It brings us to the forefront of the world of...

The Billionaire’s Row is a series of ultra-luxury tall residential towers built along 57th street, turning the area into Manhattan's new center of developments. Each one of these towers was designed by a star-architect, and they have come to offer a new way of New York lifestyle. Architecture critic Martin Filler has published a remarkable article in the New York Review of Books, where he ana...

The Carnegie Museum of Art has opened a new show that comes to celebrate and define current architecture through the work of 10 practices from around the world. The exhibition is called The Fabricated Landscape, and it explores some innovative minds working in contemporary architecture today. What defines the projects is not a common style, but rather relationships, to local communities, to natura...

Tom Kundig is a partner in the award-winning firm Olson Kundig Architects, based in Seattle. I have discovered his incredible, immaculate, elegant houses years ago and fell in love. Tom's buildings are engaged with their landscape, and their strong relationship with nature has come to define their identity because context is highly meaningful to him.

Mimi Lien is a Tony award-winning stage designer who is known for her scenic creations for theater, opera, and dance. Her new project of reimagining the outdoor entrance of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts into an enormous green lawn was launched last week. Known as The GREEN, this project comes to provide New Yorkers with a place of pleasure, rest, and outdoor, free, and low-cost perfor...

Mike Grosswendt is a builder who has perfected the art of the building to its ultimate expression. He builds the most ambitious custom residences in Southern California, where design and architecture excel and where any innovation becomes possible. Most of his clients prefer to remain private and never allow the camera to enter their homes, but Mike shares the secrets of the art of building in the...

David Stark is an influential artist who is known for the brilliant events and powerful experiences he has devised. In an age when experiences are valued more than consumption, his creative imagination brings new ways of engagement with products, people, and ideas. How did event design transform during the age of COVID-19, and what is in its future?

Through his unique voice both in architecture and in critical theory, Kengo Kuma has brought the continuity of Japanese heritage and its craftsmanship to 21st century architecture. His new book My Life as an Architect in Tokyo is a poetic tribute to the city he loves.

Five visionaries, extraordinary talents, who stand at the forefront of the world of design and architecture share their insights on designing, envisioning, and thinking the 21st century: Kai Bergman, partner at Bjarke Ingels Group; Craig Robins, the Miami-based renowned real estate developer and collector; Mitchell Joachim, founder of Terrefoem ONE, a nonprofit group that seeks to stop the extinct...

What is in common between Cindy Allen, the legendary editor-in-chief of Interior Design Magazine; Edwina von Gal a landscape designer for the famous, who cares about nature and sustainability; Jennifer Olshin, partner of Friedman Benda Gallery, a platform for cutting edge contemporary design; Beatrice Galilee, a curator and writer of contemporary architecture and design; and Susan Rodriguez, an ar...