Peter Pennoyer

Makers & Rooms — Essay V The Classical Present Peter Pennoyer builds in the tradition of McKim, Mead and White and sees nothing remotely conservative about it. In an architectural culture that treats ornament as embarrassment and history as weakness, he has spent thirty years making the case that the classical orders are not aContinue reading “Peter Pennoyer”

Zaha Hadid

The Architecture of Impossible Things Zaha Hadid spent sixteen years designing buildings that could not be built. When the technology finally caught up with her imagination, she remade the skyline of the world. The question she never stopped arguing about was whether any of it was actually for the people inside. By Bergotte There isContinue reading “Zaha Hadid”

John Derian

Makers & Rooms — Essay II The Man Who Saved the Image John Derian didn’t invent decoupage. He did something harder: he convinced the world that beauty could come from what had already been beautiful once, that the archive was inexhaustible, and that a shop on a quiet street in downtown Manhattan could function asContinue reading “John Derian”

Poul Henningsen

Makers & Rooms — Essay I The Light He Couldn’t Stop Arguing About Poul Henningsen designed the most beloved lamp in the world. He also wrote cabaret songs, picked fights with the bourgeoisie, and fled to Sweden ahead of the Gestapo. The lamp was almost the least interesting thing about him. By Bergotte There isContinue reading “Poul Henningsen”

Living in Silence

Makers & Rooms Ivan Van Mossevelde built a house of raw concrete in the Flemish countryside in 1972 for an art collector who filled it with Judd and Sol LeWitt. Decades later, a young architect spotted it through the trees during a walk, was refused entry, and spent years waiting for it to come toContinue reading “Living in Silence”