The Shape Of Things To Come

Cindy Allen -- Interior Design, 11/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

I firmly believe in Itten's Seven. (Go ahead, Google it—you can also try plugging in "Johannes," "elements of color," and "Bauhaus.") Opposites, well managed, always win the day or, in a magazine's case, sell an issue. And coordinating contrasts are exactly what coalesced before my eyes when I looked at this month's layouts arranged as spreads on our editorial wall, the high-tech preview system à la pushpins that takes up one side of my office.

Every November, we feature the work of young designers whose XXL individuality is rapidly propelling them to stardom via situations and vernaculars that couldn't be more diverse. The husband-wife principals at Work AC, a couple who once labored on those Prada "epicenters" for Rem, like to play with colors, too. Check out what happens to carpet based on Warhol flowers when you turn up the hot pink or acid yellow and install the result in a New York editing studio. To stick with the flooring theme—by way of illustration for my contrast theory—Leven Betts Studio poured gleaming white epoxy for a Manhattan gallery, while Frédéric Jung laid down dark-gray asphalt in an 18th-century Paris stable that now houses an ad agency. For just plain different, there's the Berlin penthouse loft where Graft installed a bathtub in the living area, all in the service of "erotic architecture."

But that's where I'm going to leave contrast behind. What unites all the projects and all the designers in this issue is a lyrical pride in being builders, the poetry of innovation.