Although the AD editors conceived this month’s edition loosely around the theme “the future of design,” I must admit that issuing predictions and edicts about what is modern, what is now, and what is next can feel as simplistic as dismissing looks and trends as “over.” In truth, the future of design is ultimately about discovering fresh talents and seeing the world through their eyes. It is also about homeowners who have the vision, imagination, and will to craft a bespoke environment. Excitingly, several projects featured this month showcase the work of designers who have never been published in AD.
When an adventurous client engaged Food Architects to rethink his SoHo apartment, the brief was very conceptual: “I wanted to hire someone who would do something radical with the space; something outside the norm,” he says. By the time AD100 designer Adam Charlap Hyman came on board to consider the furniture, he found that “Food had created a kind of impossible architecture. The only way to work with it was to use things that were totally alien to this language.” The result is both futuristic and nostalgic and completely sui generis.
On the other end of the spectrum is the getaway in historic Kinderhook, New York, in which designer Martin Brûlé conjured his “fantasy of an American country house.” But hold the wicker and the chintz: Brûlé defies expectation with his ultrarefined and decidedly European take on the lodge-style residence, while still working a few antlers and antique hunting trophies into the elegant mix.
In LA, art world insiders Mark Fletcher and Tobias Meyer reside in a quintessential midcentury-modern house furnished with startling originality and a provocative art collection, proving that
the future of design does in fact lie in the power of personal expression.
Amy Astley’s letter appears in AD’s February 2024 issue. Never miss an issue when you subscribe to AD.
