Designing the 21st Century

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 forgotten that furniture design has always had a tremendous impact on the taste of the time.In the 20th century, manufacturers were motivated in producing avant-garde furniture, and this why it became available to consumers. The Primavera department store in Paris, for example, was the source for high end Art Deco furnishings in the 1920s. American department stores Macy's, Lord & Taylor, and Abraham Strauss offered the American public the most up to date and daring furniture available. During the mid-century years, it was Herman Miller and Knoll that were famously investing and responsible for the some of the iconic furniture of the century. The Japanese department store Takashimaya was the source for art furniture in the 1950s, and it is particularly memorable for the benchmark exhibition of French design curated by Charlotte Perriand. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was Bloomingdales that became the lead tastemaker by exhibiting chic, fantastical space age furniture, brilliantly curated.What really happened to furniture design and why the best of it is found only in galleries and museums, but not in shops?For this discussion I invited Sami Reiss. He writes the bestselling newsletter Snake, covering auctions, design, vintage furniture and fashion. Sami's articles have been published in GQ, the Wall Street Journal, ESPN and the New York Times.

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 University of Pennsylvania, Goldfinger was an architect of volumes. His houses were composed of bold compositions of cubes, cylinders, and triangular blocks. Like Kahn, he believed that only basic geometry has the power to achieve timelessness. His language was highly influential, with many other architects building in the suburbs around New York and in the Hamptons copying his style. Having grown up in a humble working-class environment in Atlantic City, Goldfinger said that he sought to create the type of glamourous houses that he never had.To remember Myron Goldfinger, who passed away in 2023, and to see how his legacy is preserved in the 21st century through fresh interpretation, I invited interior designer June Goldfinger, his widow and eternal partner, along with Kelvin Dickinson, President of the Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture.

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 Space Needle, for the 1962 Expo. It is where architecture is experimental, where it is shown at its best, where narrative and symbolism have been expressed in the built form. Expo Osaka has a particularly glorious legacy. In 1970, it was the first world fair held in Asia, featuring some of the most futuristic and visionary architectural expressions of their time. It was remembered by so many icons, including Isamu Noguchi's series of floating fountains.Expo 2025 Osaka is no less exciting. The American Pavilion comes to enable visitors to experience the American spirit. The innovation, culture, and industry of the country, as well as contemporary themes of sustainability, space exploration, education, all shine a light on what makes the American experience so special and wonderful.

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 luxurious buildings in New York.While you won't find Candela's name in the classical books on 20th century architecture, this gifted architect, an Italian immigrant who graduated from Columbia in 1915, invented the visual built fabric of residential Manhattan. While creating the best apartment houses in history—majestic, with formal galleries, grand scale rooms, high ceilings, and perfect classical proportions—he gifted New Yorkers a unique collective memory. They are the ultimate expression of New York living, capturing all of what we think of as classic New York.A new book titled Rosario Candela and the New York Apartment was recently published, and I invited its author David Netto here today. David is a design connoisseur, writer, and interior designer who has cultivated an expertise in art, design, and architecture history, as well as a keen eye for historic buildings.

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 always surprising, unexpected, and exciting, and if you know how to read it, you will discover layers and layers of meanings. They include themes of morality, religion, political and social statements, and the discovery of design as an agent of change.   To Sebastian, design is a means of communication, questioning, and as a way to engage with the world. He is a brilliant storyteller, and today I am having him as my guest to speak about those stories and about how he conveys them in social media.   While the world of design is currently struggling with the changing modes of Instagram, wandering between reels and posts, and navigating between AI and the authentic while questioning what makes Instagram influencers successful, it seems that he found the right formula.

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 mastered all fields of architecture. Their homes are thoroughly researched, beautifully executed, and meticulously furnished to the smallest detail, with landscapes that are simply divine. They have famously created homes for stars, but it is lesser known that they have also built community gardens for Bette Midler's NY Restoration Project and the kitchen garden for the God's Love We Deliver which provides meals for the needy. Brian Sawyer, co-founder of the firm, is my guest today. He received his Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Virgina and worked with the Central Park Conservancy in restoration projects before joining Robert AM Stern, rising to the head of the landscape architecture department.

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 and objects that were at times eccentric, at times radical, and always colorful. They may appear to be playful and whimsical at first, but if you know how to read them, you'll find that they are filled with social, political, and contemporary narratives. Participating: Marc Benda and Sara di Gangi. Follow Daniella Ohad: Facebook Instagram

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 called Form Portfolios and its mission is to preserve, guard, and advance furniture through licensed reeditions.

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 architect of the millennium. Jean-Louis Cohen, the award-winning French architect, architectural historian, and curator, has published the latest monograph on Gehry, which comes to illuminate some of his best buildings.

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 shaping the industry, some made history, some created work that has been recognized as groundbreaking despite difficulties to express their voices, and together they formed an enormous body of work created exclusively by women.

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 natural environments, awareness of cultures, but also cutting edge perceptions and sustainable solutions.

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 analyzes the politics, zoning, aesthetics, and everything that has made this phenomenon possible.

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 natural environments, awareness of cultures, but also cutting edge perceptions and sustainable solutions.

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 performance events. For one summer.

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 21st century.

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 extinction of planetary species; architect Dan Kaplan who creates high-performance urban buildings that respond to their environments; and Serban Ionescu, who makes the most amazing furniture where form, bright happy colors, and narratives are combined into unique personal creations.

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 architect who believes in the power of architecture to effect change and improve the quality of life for all? These amazing women are champions of design, whose work I admire. Join the first episode of Designing The 21st Century.