For duo interior designers Rodman Primack and Rudy Weissenberg, founders of the international practice AGO Interiors, design has been the core of their relationship unit—partners in business and life—for twenty-seven years. Throughout their journey into the world of design, defining their own shared taste has been a holistic and interconnected process in many ways. They live and breathe design, traveling the world to explore crafts and architecture while creating textured, sensual, and layered domestic spaces. They called their first monograph Love How You Live: Adventures in Interior Design (published by Phaidon), because they believe that such a philosophy can create joy, stimulate passion, and bring together people, objects, and homes, filling our lives with a sense of purposeful existence. Award-winners Primack and Weissenberg were my guests in the series, ‘Interior Design: Then and Now.’
To both, the notion of a ‘home’ has been meaningful from the very beginning – Primack was raised in Laguna Beach, California, where he remembered that, as a child, he fantasized about the dream houses in his resort town, and those he saw in magazines. Decorating, he says today, was an integral part of his family life. Weissenberg grew up in Guatemala during the war, where the home became a sphere of refuge, while the domestic aesthetic engendered feelings of safety and security. At the core of their philosophy as interior designers is the idea that the ‘home’ should be designed to make us feel better, more centered, rooted, and content.
Primack and Weissenberg came to the profession from very different places, yet the fact that they were raised by ‘similar grandmothers’ (in their words), captures their shared love for design and décor. Both grandmothers cared deeply about the sense of ‘home’ and were connected through design, as well as the fact that ‘their lives were how they wanted to live,’ Primack says. Long-time Executive Director of Design Miami, Primack was trained in the auction-house arena and started his career in interiors at the office of Peter Marino. Weissenberg, an alumnus of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, actually started off in finances, having received his master’s degree in business administration from Columbia Business School.
Their life and work are captured in the new monograph featuring thirteen projects, from Mexico City and London, to New York, Hawaii, and Cape Cod, including their own homes from the past and present. While there is no singular style or mode of language, every property tells a story that is interwoven within the spaces through the choices of objects and design schemes. Ultimately, the book tells the story of two brilliant, intellectual designers who have done it their own way, and who have forged unusual language—somewhat whimsical, somewhat colorful, with a strong presence of handcraftsmanship—that has placed them at the forefront of the world of interiors.
You won’t find industrial pieces of furniture in their interiors. Primack and Weissenberg have developed an expertise and love for collectible design, which is expressed in the monograph, and radiates a strong presence in their interiors. This includes working with historical objects and collaborating with contemporary artists on bespoke, unique pieces for their spaces. ‘We try to use collectible design as much as possible,’ Primack says, because using unique pieces of furniture and lighting brings the type of energy that otherwise is difficult to achieve—an energy embedded in the DNA of those pieces. ‘The opportunity to have a unique piece,’ they say, referring to a one-off chair by Wendell Castle, ‘is unparaleled.’ Collectible design pieces bring textures, patina, and uniqueness lacking in the furniture found in shops. While they recognize a commitment to handcraftsmanship, they also value an investment component in collectible design.
They demonstrate a preference for objects with decorative qualities, such as the unusual, colorful, textured, somewhat quirky, and always handmade, because they believe that these types of objects add layers to interiors, such as the furniture by South African husband-and-wife makers Dokter and Misses, whose limited-edition pieces are layered with political, historical, and cultural narratives. They have forged close relationships with makers, designers, and craftspeople from across the globe. Some of them, such as David Wiseman, Francesca DiMattio, and Mono Rojo, received entire chapters in the book, devoted to their studios. Those artists, they say, feel similar to them regarding the role of objects in interior spaces, and following their evolution in the art world has given them great pleasure as they draw them into their own story.
In out talk, we looked at two houses for which they created the interiors—in Hawaii and in Long Island, New York—by Seattle-based architect Tom Kundig of the firm Olson Kundig Architects. The award-winning architect has made his name with private residences that have proven to be both rewarding and inspiring, and from which they learned about devising spaces for family life. They started acquiring furniture long before the house was completed. This holistic approach was particularly appreciated by the clients in both houses, who have a special affinity for collectible design. Witnessing the evolution of both the building and the furniture was a unique way of working, as they created symphonies of objects, which included modernist masterpieces along with studio furniture and contemporary design.
They dislike empty spaces and prefer instead those cozy, playful, colorful, and joyful environments that exude comfort. Their love for fabrics addresses this and matches their passion for objects. They use textiles to introduce patterns and textures, and to achieve spatial sensuality. Often, they say, it is the fabric that determines the direction of the interior scheme, while they particularly love handmade textiles and often use old textiles they find in small shops across the world as the point of departure for new patterns and languages. Incorporating vintage fabrics from Liberty and Japan, old Italian linens, vintage American quilts, and combining them into colorful, layered symphonies, imbue a sense of nostalgia and emotionality, while defining their signature in the world of interior.
