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"Here I'm fascinated by the possibilities—that architects can experiment and not necessarily report their essence to society." So says the Netherlands-born Florian Idenburg, about designing architecture in the United States. Idenburg does so with his wife and partner Jing Liu from a Brooklyn studio named Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu (SO-IL).   MORE >>

"Here I'm fascinated by the possibilities—that architects can experiment and not necessarily report their essence to society." So says the Netherlands-born Florian Idenburg, about designing architecture in the United States. Idenburg does so with his wife and partner Jing Liu from a Brooklyn studio named Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu (SO-IL).
 
Idenburg studied (with United Nude founder Rem Koolhaas) at the Technical University in Delft, while Liu graduated from Tulane, but they first crossed paths in Tokyo in 2000, where both worked for the illustrious architecture studio SANAA. But it was New York that pulled them together for good. Idenburg had been spending time there since 2002, overseeing SANAA's Glass Pavilion in Toledo, Ohio, and its New Museum for Contemporary Art in lower Manhattan. Liu arrived that same year to work for Thomas Leeser. They founded SO-IL in 2008, and just months later Derek Lam Company cofounder Jan-Hendrik Schlottmann tapped the firm to design the SoHo headquarters adjoining Lam's SANAA-designed flagship store.
 
The interior renovation counts as SO-IL's most visible commission to date. "We wanted to emphasize this landmark building," Idenburg says of the historic, 11,000-square-foot former kickboxing gym. "We also wanted to create fluidity while allowing three contradictory elements to have their own spaces." Walls measuring no more than two-and-a-quarter inches in depth and sporting a few sliding doors provide just a hint of division between Lam's showroom, administrative and workshop activities. All previous layers were stripped away, and mechanical rooms, circulation and restrooms were relegated to a single enclosure. The nook was clad in a shiny gun-metal epoxy that reflects daylight deep into the space.
 
"Usually we come up with one architectural device that defines a project," Idenburg says. A forthcoming 45,000-square-foot private art museum near The Hague stands on the threshold between sand dunes and a polder and balances undulating and rigid forms to "emphasize the sense of being on the edge," he describes. And regarding a wafer-like wedding chapel that should be completed in Liu’s hometown of Nanjing, China, in 2011, Idenburg says, "It was the ultimate opportunity to propose something only trying to be beautiful."
 
"We make sure a project is not just about following a method nor aesthetic preference," Liu notes. "If we had established ourselves in the Netherlands or China, one of our two opposites would’ve taken precedence over the other." so-il.org   << LESS

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This Santa Cruz native and graduate of Cooper Union is a triple threat. Not only a fashion designer, Julian Louie is a photographer and artist whose work has exhibited in New York galleries Vagabond and Stay Gold. Perhaps that's why Calvin Klein's Creative Director Francisco Costa personally chose him to mentor.   MORE >>

This Santa Cruz native and graduate of Cooper Union is a triple threat. Not only a fashion designer, Julian Louie is a photographer and artist whose work has exhibited in New York galleries Vagabond and Stay Gold. Perhaps that's why Calvin Klein’s Creative Director Francisco Costa personally chose him to mentor.
 
The two met during Louie’s unsuccessful internship bid, but a year later, Costa tapped him for the Italian Vogue/AWI (Australian Wool Innovation) Protégé Project. Over the course of 2007, Louie worked as a design assistant on Klein's spring, pre-fall and fall '08 collections, while Costa oversaw the fledgling’s first line. Equally "austere and opulent," as Louie describes it, the inaugural outing showed in Florence, Tokyo and Australia.
Louie's fall 2009 show was inspired by matadors for the silhouette, samurai armor for the embroideries and knitwear and Olaf Otto Becker's photographs of Icelandic landscapes for the palette. Experimenting with heavy wool felt, Louie laser-cut jackets that were then assembled with rivets and centered the rest of the offerings around them. The asceticism was then set off with Swarovski sparkle, whether dusting the epaulettes of a jacket or cascading down the bodice of a dress. For Louie, "tension between elements is key," proving that Costa's instincts were on the mark.www.julianlouie.com   << LESS

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As the days get shorter, good lighting becomes increasingly essential, some may even say, therapeutic. Here, Avant Guardian photographer Patrick Bradley sliced and diced a few of our favorites. Trained as an architect, Bradley scoured Manhattan's showrooms for the most photogenic.   MORE >>

As the days get shorter, good lighting becomes increasingly essential, some may even say, therapeutic. Here, Avant Guardian photographer Patrick Bradley sliced and diced a few of our favorites. Trained as an architect, Bradley scoured Manhattan's showrooms for the most photogenic.
 
The Tatì by Ferruccio Laviani for Kartell (this page) lets out a low nostalgic cry for the days of Art Deco with a rectangular shape and an unadorned silhouette. With adjustable light intensity, the transparent polycarbonate table lamp flaunts different moods with an internal diffuser, either in a pleated fabric or in solid black or white.
Meanwhile, old flames have returned to the fold. A result of a collaboration between Franco Albini, Franca Helg and Antonio Piva in 1969, the mushroom-shaped blown-glass AM1N table light (opposite) is being released for the first time in the US this fall by Nemo, Cassina’s lighting division.
 
And at less than half the size of its beloved 1987 predecessor, the Micro Tolomeo desk lamp (previous page) by Michele de Lucchi for Artemide—available in five colors with a stamped-aluminum base—adds metallic brilliance to sedate workspaces. Its fully adjustable arm, stainless-steel cables and die-cast control knobs continue to set this model apart. kartell.it, nemo.cassina.it, artemide.it    << LESS

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We've scoured the country's top design universities for the best graduate thesis projects. We found so many amazing talents for our print edition of the Annual Avant Guardian Issue that we're revealing more online. From the cleverly conceptual to the deftly commercial, these projects challenge the status quo.   MORE >>

OUR GUIDE TO AMERICA'S MOST PROMISING GRADUATES   << LESS