JUDGING PANEL

JONATHAN ADLER

By Jen Woo

Jonathan Adler—former potter turned face of his wildly popular, namesake design house—spent the last year and a half at his home on New York’s Shelter Island, enraptured by nature. “From the technicolor fantasies of the sunsets to the puffy white clouds in the sky to the animals poking around outside, I’ve been soaking it all in,” he says. Known for his highvoltage glam aesthetic (lots of color, intricate details, and metallic accents), Adler reveals that much of his work actually pays homage to the “floating hazy dreamscape of Mother Nature.”

A quixotic state of mind has allowed Adler to turn a childhood love of pottery into a multifaceted design company with retail locations across the globe, a robust portfolio of residential and commercial projects, and a booming wholesale business. After a brief stint in the entertainment industry, Adler returned to the wheel in the early ‘90s, eventually launching his first ceramics collection in 1993 at Barneys New York. Within five years, he had expanded into the home-furnishings market and opened his own boutique.

Since then, the scope of Adler’s career has become vast and varied. His playful approach and insistence that design shouldn’t take itself too seriously comes through in many of his pieces; perhaps best-known is the Vice collection, a set of porcelain canisters emblazoned with cheeky labels such as “Weed,” “Prozac,” and “Puppy Uppers.”

Adler’s design expertise and effervescence are captured in the multiple books he’s authored, and in the former Bravo design-competition series Top Design, for which he served as a judge. In September 2021, Adler opened his tenth retail location in the New Jersey American Dream shopping center’s new luxury wing, where an atrium features towering topiaries modeled after his Muse collection.

Adler still spends time in his pottery studio, continuing to embrace an analog mindset in an increasingly digital world. After 27 years, his ethos remains unflinching: to be, as he says, “unabashedly yourself and not apologize for it.” h

ABOVE: Midcentury-inspired donut-backed Rondo dining chairs cozy up to the Trocadero dining table in wire-brushed ebonized oak inset with sand-cast brass medallions. OPPOSITE: The Parker curved sofa in pale blue velvet, paired with the travertine-topped Ripple round cocktail table, creates the classic-yet-whimsical look Adler is known for.

GABRIELE CHIAVE

By Jen Woo

At a time when many members of the global design community pride themselves on becoming experts in specific disciplines, Gabriele Chiave— the creative director overseeing product design, interior design, and art direction at Marcel Wanders studio—is a devoted generalist. A perpetual student, Chiave feeds his inquisitive nature by studying culture, materials, and processes, and by tapping into the “irrational, uncontrolled, and emotional sides” of people with the goal of expanding the human experience through design.

His design process involves setting the stage for consumers to experience the poetry and emotion behind the functionality of the studio’s designs and allowing these users to explore the many wonders of the world, from natural phenomena and historical events. With the Hubble Bubble lamp he designed for sister company Moooi, for example, he invites users to relive the childhood joy of blowing bubbles. Every project is driven by finding connections (with people, history, art, and nature) and evoking emotions, which for Chiave, is the ultimate goal. “A chair needs four legs to stand, but you don’t buy a chair for the four legs,” he says. “You buy it because you fall in love with it.”

With Chiave at the helm for the past 14 years, the Marcel Wanders studio has also become known for integrating technology (often hidden) into its products to realize its designers’ poetic visions. Innovations include Moooi’s proprietary Electrosandwich technology, which allows for fixtures without internal wires; the Button, a small, round, device that attaches to any product, giving retailers and consumers the ability to check authenticity with a quick scan; and a printed wallpaper that looks like dimensional, carved marble. According to Chiave, April 2022 will mark the debut of the studio’s “most exciting” Salone del Mobile presentation yet. There, Marcel Wanders studio will introduce new products from more than a dozen clients.

Lately, Chiave has been considering the best means of conveying a message. “Designing is communicating,” he says. “Instead of words, we use materials, colors, and shapes like ingredients in a recipe that you have to calibrate [to] achieve a certain reaction.” In addition to designing products, he also orchestrates photography, branding, advertising, and (for some clients) store design and display to tell the story of each product as it travels from sketchpad to retail shelves. His process demonstrates the multidimensional nature of a designer’s work today. “A product travels from your hand around the world,” he says. “If you just design it and send it out, there is only half of what you meant.” h

ABOVE: The Hubble Bubble suspension lamp, designed by Marcel Wanders studio for Moooi in 2020, evokes the freedom of blowing bubbles and running barefoot in the open air. OPPOSITE: AQ Meliority Cream Baccarat Edition crystal jar and resin spatula designed by Marcel Wanders studio for Decorté in 2021.

KATHRYN GUSTAFSON

By Lauren Gallow

For internationally renowned landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson, four decades of practice have taught her that the most important ingredient in any design isn’t physical or material, it’s emotional. “I fall in love each time I start a new project,” Gustafson says. “When you love something, you look at it really carefully and try to understand it. Maybe to ‘fall in love’ as a designer is simply about how much attention you need to pay in order to make a place that fits.”

Gustafson is known for her ability to conjure the intangibles—wonder, delight, acute sensitivity—with her sculptural, quietly grand designs for public parks and plazas around the world, including the Parque Central in Valencia, Spain; the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in London; and the landscape design for the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Balancing dual practices in London and Seattle, Gustafson has perfected the art of collaboration. “There’s an expression I like: ‘There are certain things only you can do,’” she says. “I try not to do something that somebody else can, because then I’m taking away from them. It’s about helping others grow.”

These days, Gustafson is hard at work on her biggest project yet: One Line, a series of new and historically restored urban spaces adjacent to the Seine River. Though the level of complexity may be deep, Gustafson’s approach remains startlingly simple: “As a designer, the goal is always generosity,” she says. “When something is beautiful, it touches people, and they become more generous through it.” h

ABOVE: As part of Paris’ showcase for the 2024 Olympic Games, ‘OnE’ landscape design features a unified central axis that celebrates the Eiffel Tower and nods to the city’s historic use of gardens as places for artistic experimentation. OPPOSITE: Marine One, a mixed-use building complex in Singapore’s Marina Bay financial district, inspired by the city’s ambition to become a “City in a Garden.”

INDIA MAHDAVI

By Laura Itzkowitz

According to Paris-based designer India Mahdavi, she feels most inspired when collaborating with talented craftspeople—a design approach she’s undertaken many times in her two-decades-plus career. Such collaborations have yielded the limited edition of her iconic Bishop stools; each piece is hand-enameled in cheerful florals by artisans at Emaux de Longwy, the famed French enamel studio that dates back to 1798. In partnership with la Manufacture Cogolin—the historic rug-making studio that has collaborated with designers Jean-Michel Frank, Sir David Hicks, and even French artist and poet Jean Cocteau—she created a line of contemporary kilim-inspired rugs. Newer releases include a redesign of Dior’s Medallion chair, as well as the creation of a special edition of the fashion house’s J’adore perfume bottles.

Whether she’s producing pieces with established studios, designing private homes, or writing a book, Mahdavi brings her instinct for color and a sense of joie de vivre to each new venture. These qualities are obvious in her most well-known projects—the all-pink restaurant Sketch London (once the mostInstagrammed restaurant in the world) and Ladurée locations in Beverly Hills, Tokyo, and Geneva—but they also define her more understated residential projects, like the French Riviera home she recently designed for an American philanthropist.

“Bold colors come from my childhood memories in Technicolor— those five first happy years of my life spent in Cambridge, Massachusetts— watching cartoons in the mornings before school,” the designer reminisces. Born to an Iranian father and an Egyptian mother, Mahdavi spent her early years living in Iran, the United States, Germany, and the South of France before moving to Paris, where she studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and worked for Christian Liaigre before establishing her namesake studio 21 years ago.

The designer travels frequently— or she did before the COVID-19 pandemic, anyway. “I spent my first lockdown in Paris,” she says, explaining that because she lives just 500 meters from her studio, she was able to go in every day and work on her first monograph, released earlier this fall—a silver lining in an otherwise difficult period. “It gave me the time and space I needed to create this book,” she says. Chockfull of sketches, photographs of Mahdavi’s works, and a transcribed conversation between the designer and architect Javier F. Contreras, the eponymous tome is a guidebook through the career of one of the most influential interior designers today—and, if her current creative output is any indication, a sign that the next 20 years will be just as prolific as the last. h

ABOVE: Designed by India Mahdavi as a tribute to client and friend Nina Yashar, Chez Nina (a private club at the Nilufar Gallery in Milan) opened for Salone del Mobile in April 2018. OPPOSITE, FROM LEFT: Mahdavi’s first monograph features photographs and sketches of her works and a transcribed conversation between the designer and architect Javier F. Contreras. Mahdavi in her studio.

BRIGETTE ROMANEK

By Laura Itzkowitz

Brigette Romanek is having a moment. After springing onto the design scene with the 2018 launch of her namesake studio, she quickly gained acclaim, landing on the AD100—Architectural Digest’s list of the top 100 designers in the world— and on Elle Décor’s A-List. With a client list that includes Beyoncé, Gwyneth Paltrow, Misty Copeland, and Demi Moore, she’s currently one of the most in-demand designers in Los Angeles. And it’s no wonder— her freewheeling approach to design embodies livable luxury.

“Eclecticism is everything,” she says. “I feel that it gives my clients versatility, sustainability, and interiors with soul.”

Romanek talks a lot about “designing by feel,” whether she’s referring to her own home—a 1925 Mediterranean-style residence with a rock ’n’ roll past (it once served as a recording studio for musicians including the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix)—or those of her clients. She avoids trends, instead focusing on creating spaces that are not only beautiful, but functional, and that will feel fresh and inspiring for years to come. She might put a Kehinde Wiley painting on the wall, but if a client is too afraid of ruining a sofa to sit on it, then there’s no point, she says. As a wife and mother with two daughters and two dogs, she understands the importance of making a room approachable.

Romanek recently turned her attention to designing furniture, teaming up with Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams in a collaboration that was a first not only for her, but also for the home décor brand. The collection features pieces with an Art Deco–meets–LA feel, like the Lucy daybed in performance velvet, which comes in colors ranging from sunny yellow to subdued charcoal gray.

Romanek is currently working on a book that will lean into the concept of “livable luxe,” while simultaneously designing homes in Beverly Hills and Umbria, and stores for Piaget and ready-to-wear fashion label the Great. When asked what inspires her most right now, she says, “As silly as it sounds, all of it. Because if I’m not learning and growing on each project, then I’m doing something wrong.” h

YE RIN MOK ABOVE: The Romanek-designed Allbright collaborative space in Los Angeles. OPPOSITE: The moody wood-paneled den in Romanek’s Laurel Canyon home.

THOM MAYNE

By Rachel Gallaher

Known for challenging conventions and pushing boundaries, architect Thom Mayne has spent the past four decades designing some of the world’s most inventive buildings and developing his own unique style— one rooted firmly in the Southern Californian ethos of rebellion and experimentation. A founding partner at Los Angeles–based Morphosis Architects, Mayne started his post-college career in urban planning. In 1972—the same year in which Morphosis was formed—Mayne collaborated with five other students and educators whom he met while studying at the University of Southern California to create the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), a school that traded the typical hierarchies of traditional academia for an avant-garde approach to design education.

In 1978, Mayne took a sabbatical from SCI-Arc to attend the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. There, he decided to pursue architecture full time. Upon his return to Los Angeles the following year, he received several residential commissions. As Morphosis grew (the firm now employs more than 60 people), so did the size, scope, and importance of its commissions. Projects such as 41 Cooper Square (an addition to Cooper Union’s campus and the first academic building in New York City to achieve LEED-Platinum certification), the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, and a student hall at Emerson College in LA reveal Mayne’s penchant for bold angles and big shapes, as well as his keen understanding of each building’s end users. Mayne has received dozens of awards and accolades over the years, including the 2005 Pritzker Architecture Prize—one of the discipline’s highest honors.

As a design authority, educator, and creative mind, Mayne is rigorous and thorough in all he does, and he’s not one to shy away from a challenge, once noting that “we will hold to that which is difficult, because it is difficult … and by its difficulty is worthwhile.” h