Stories by name

  Mortality is a gorgeous framework. —Anne Boyer The photographer Peter Hujar had a large kitchen table at his East 12th Street loft that was painted cobalt blue. Friends and subjects would sit here to talk, drink coffee or wine, or to eat a simple meal of chicken and rice before a shoot. It was…

We could call Bas Princen a photographer, but above all he is an image-maker, an artist that plays somewhere between architecture, landscape, and design. He has had a strong influence on our generation of architects, and in a tangential way he has flown over several of the conversations we’ve had with others in this series….

London: When I first began to make contact with people who collected ceramics with a passion, some extremely generous invitations were extended to visit their private homes and to see the pots in their collections. And on the very first occasion, a strange thing happened; a jealous streak ran through me. I am ashamed to…

Givraines: It’d been five years already that I’d wanted to go to the house of Denis Charignon, after ambling around one of the websites on art brut/singulier that I regularly consult. I’d come across some photos of his house and was struck by the force of the frescoes, both naïve and controlled, which adorned the…

A walk-in sketchbook Zurich: Beda Achermann is one of the first creative directors from the Alps to become internationally known. He revolutionised fashion during his time at the German Männer Vogue in Munich in the ‘80s. Later, he transformed boring annual reports into stunning narrative picture books. Up to this day, Beda is working non-stop, jetting around…

Concept by Ana Dominguez & Omar Sosa              

Ahmedabad: On a day in March this year, a jury member of the Pritzker Architecture Prize made a telephone call to the home of BV Doshi, in Ahmedabad, India. She asked, first, if he still travels—he is 90—and then went on to invite him to the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, for he had been awarded…

Recently I watched myself give birth on TV. I saw my face contort into a range of pinched expressions, none of which I had ever wanted to see, especially not on a 24 inch flat screen. The television was actually switched off, but its suspension above my delivery suite bed meant I couldn’t avoid my…

There’s no point in trying to sugar coat it. These days my apartment is a total mess. Not the sort of cool, cultivated, creative mess that you see in magazines: the kind that broadcasts the cool, cultivated, creative existence of the people that live there. Just your average, run of the mill, messy mess. Toothbrush…

Horizons of temperamental design Berlin: It’s cold in Berlin. It’s very cold. The wind accompanies, gentle yet insistent, the slippery roads, made treacherous by a heavy and silent snowfall of very light flakes. In Italy they call them ‘i giorni della merla’ (the blackbird’s days, the last three days of January), during which winter shows itself…

San Francisco: In the roaring ‘20s Bobbie’s parents—her father a lawyer, her mother a pianist—lived in a free-for-all San Francisco. The city was full of anarchists, and Bobbie’s father was a lawyer for many of them. In the ‘40s, following the Great Depression, Bobbie was left alone with her mother, Lil, who gave piano lessons in…

Apartamento Magazine speaks about the appropriation of the space by the inhabitant, about the reflection of his/her personality at home. In short, about dwelling and its consequences. In this issue we deal with the fact of dwelling from the whole architectural process; From the project at its drawing board stages, until it is inhabited, passing…

We arrived in Basel on a rainy afternoon. We had been driving from Milan with Marco’s parents’ car and we were tired. Marco had arranged for us to stay on a couch of some friends’ friend’s place. The flat was nice and cosy, but of the kind where all the furniture is new from Ikea…

            Retouching by Lacrin Studio We’ve all enjoyed the childish game of making a stack out of seemingly inappropriate materials, and though it might be more for kids, it’s nevertheless a lot of fun. For most of us it’s an occasional pastime, but for Apartamento it’s a duty, involving serious…

In early July of last year, my roommate, Piper, and I moved into our two-bedroom apartment on the corner of a main drag in Chinatown. As sublets in New York are expensive and my neighbourhood is a popular tourist destination (and I owe a lot of favours), my bed gets international traffic. And being that…

It all started when I began to read books about adventure and sailing cruises. I was a teenager and completely fascinated by the life philosophy of those great oceanic navigators. I already knew how to handle a boat and had been sailing in regattas since I was a child. However, despite sailing every possible weekend,…

The advantage of being a team Berlin: Birgitta Homburger and Florian Lambl are an art director/graphic design team in Berlin. With their studio, Lambl/Homburger, the couple and their eight employees work for furniture makers like Flötotto and Mattiazzi, Germany’s oldest music magazine, Spex, the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, and the New…

Across the pond and back again New York City: It was a particularly cold and sunny January morning. I arrived a few minutes early. Not wanting to be a bother, I sat in the lobby and waited, allowing for a chance to properly admire the large, fluted wooden columns one can find in an art deco…

Concept by Ana Dominguez and Omar Sosa            

London/Pett Level: Ben Kelly is the designer who introduced high tech into Britain’s visual lexicon and pioneered industrial interiors with such commissions as Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s punk enclave on King’s Road, Seditionaries, and Manchester’s legendary nightclub, The Haçienda. In the late ‘90s, Ben and his curator wife, Clare Cumberlidge, left their warehouse loft in…

            We’ve all enjoyed the childish game of making a stack out of seemingly inappropriate materials, and though it might be more for kids, it’s nevertheless a lot of fun. For most of us it’s an occasional pastime, but for Apartamento it’s a duty, involving serious research, lengthy shopping trips,…

New York City: Barbara Nessim defies categorisation and I think that was her plan all along. Born in the Bronx in 1939 to hard-working parents—her father was a postman with a side business importing and exporting raw perfume materials, and her mother worked full time as a fashion designer—it’s clear where she developed her work ethic….

Technicolor two bedroom New York City: Writer Bruce Benderson is puffing away on an e-cigarette, his new favourite accessory. He’s just proudly made me what he considers to be scientifically the perfect cup of coffee with a new press he recently acquired. Coffee is followed by many bottles of Prosecco. Bruce is a great host. He…

Bernie goes to Hollywood Los Angeles: In a luxury-obsessed market place where almost every fashion house strives to make its customer look and feel wealthy, Bernhard Willhelm has always taken the opposite approach. Willhelm is a champion of nonconformity who cares more about decadence, fun, and continuous exploration than conventional signifiers of status and style. Since…

Athena travels light, but you would never guess this from looking at her closet! Moo moos are her favorite kind of fashion. The bigger, the brighter, the better. For her there’s nothing more comfortable, and Athena is all about comfort. Another favorite is a blue 1940s dress with flowers that she fell in love with, and had…

Apparently there is need of a routine here. Some stability. It’s called order you say, and that’s what I’m lacking. This room reflects a state of mind. Bedlam. Like me you say. A beautiful mess. I traced my flights on your globe yesterday. Felt empty when my finger glided around  places I didn’t get to. Now I’m home. Yet I feel…