Daniella On Design

“Within a building frenzy in China—where an impulse to simply build, build, build often means rather vague project briefs—I’ve always admired how Li Hu and Huang Wenjing manage to take the commissions they’re assigned and give them a sharper social and cultural purpose. Beyond the striking forms, there’s a real ethic in their work.” —Aric […]

“The contested intellectual history of Reconstruction [the era] has taught us that structural racism and private racist actions cannot be extricated from society by laws alone… The curatorial charge of Reconstructions [the exhibition], amid a global return to authoritarianism, fascism, xenophobia, and racism, compels us to ask: What cognitive conditions are necessary to think anew

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Center built on the slopes of Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, is the most poignant building I have ever visited. A good building will make you feel, but Yad Vashem will make you cry; it connects with the inner part of your soul. I was interested to see this building not

Years ago, when I first met David Stark­—the influential event designer and producer—he gifted me his book Napkins with a Twist; and what a gift! In this brilliant little book, he teaches the magical art of napkin folds, including how-to guides. It has immediately come to be my Bible. I consult it whenever I entertain,

When Paris was the cradle of Art Nouveau in fin de siècle France, Hector Guimard (1867-1942) emerged as one of its leaders. While his contemporaries depicted flowers, he illustrated swirling stems; while they sought to recreate nature in a realistic mode, he abstracted it—flawlessly bringing his era into modernism. Guimard was not only a talented artist, but also a

“Ever since I saw The Spiral—Daniel Libeskind’s 1996 proposal for the V&A Museum extension—I have felt totally inspired by his work. His juxtaposition of a Cubist facade with the 19th-century classical building was a contemporary statement of our time. He opens new ideas in architecture to move our visual experience forward.” —David Gill, David Gill

“Robert A M Stern—Bob to all who know him—has had an enormous impact on American architectural education. As Yale School of Architecture Dean, a position he held for 18 years, he expanded the breadth of the curriculum, invited many noted architects from around the world to teach, and empowered students to find their own architectural

Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999) and Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), two pillars in the pantheon of modern design, had much in common. Although Perriand was born in Paris and Noguchi in Los Angeles, they were contemporaries whose paths would cross many times. Their love for Japan and the extended periods the two spent there brought them to create