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Adam Markowitz

@adammarkowitzdesign

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Melbourne-based design studio.
Architecture • Fine Furniture

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Further hot shop action shots of @adammarkowitzdesign and I navigating our latest ‘Kindling’ design.

Two superb 3m lengths of blackwood timber meticulously shaped and finished brought onsite & subjected to the glories of molten glass.

The charred scars of the wood and the precise undulations of the suspended glass creates the evidence of the two materials interaction - each delivering the results of the other.

This is definitely our most challenging pendant design to date with absolutely zero tolerance for either material.

Private commission @powellandglenn

Special thanks to @_hannahcaldwell for the remarkable images & thanks to my team @nick.doran.adams.glass @keely.varmalis & Trish Roan.

#contemporaryart #contemporarylighting #collaboration #madeinmelbourne #handmade taken in Ruth Allen - Glass Art by @adammarkowitzdesign

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16 days ago

@adammarkowitzdesign and I getting all bad ass with a new Kindling design.

Kindling pendant | Private commission
@powellandglenn

Crazy good team @keely.varmalis @nick.doran.adams.glass
Trish Roan

@sasharob on stills
r.a.g.e on moving image

#powellandglennarchitects #privatecommission #collaboration #kindling #contemporaryart taken in Ruth Allen - Glass Art by @adammarkowitzdesign

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a month ago

After Taliesin West we drove north to visit one of FLW’s former apprentices - Paolo Soleri’s experimental ‘arcology’ @arcosanti_arizona . A pioneer of ecologically conscious design. The sand-cast structures were fantastic. Mounds of earth were built as concrete formwork, carved and covered with pigment that the concrete then absorbed, with the earth being dug out. There was a sense of sadness and almost post-apocalyptic feel to arcosanti. It was like standing in the ruins of an ancient civilisation, though its peak was 40 years ago and many still live there. Designed to accommodate 7000, it reached about 250. Now there’s a dozen - the cafe had closed, farming had ceased, though looks like there are still music festivals being held. Hard to tell if it’s in a period of transition or decline. The whole thing seemed to be fuelled by the intense energy of Soleri, gone for almost 15 years. He seems like a complex figure, but no doubt a creative hurricane. Every structure and the sandcast & bronze bells they make bore traces of his (exquisite) sculptural forms, which seemed to be at odds with the communal ideals it was founded around. We stayed the night in his former studio, which was extra special being able to inhabit and explore the space over time and in different light, rather than being bustled through quickly as is typical on architectural tours.

#arcosanti #cosanti #cosantifoundation #paolosoleri taken in Arcosanti, Arizona by @adammarkowitzdesign

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2 months ago

A major influence on a recently completed project - I drove out to Phoenix AZ to visit FLW’s Taliesin West @wrighttaliesin , passing through the Mojave into the Sonoran Deserts.

The massing, detail and craft were of course incredible - surprises included the colour and the fairly rudimentary nature of the build (all built by the apprentices). The part I didn’t quite appreciate until I got there (I’m sure old prof Miles Lewis would be furious) was that the whole thing was designed to operate as a tent with the ceiling packing down and the structure being left to open to the elements over the summer, when they’d head back to Taliesin East.

We also fell in love with the Mojave driving through Joshua tree - it was like another planet. For those who’ve asked, I’m not still in the US - this trip was in late April/May after teaching at @woodschoolmaine - just getting around to posting now.
#taliesinwest #franklloydwright taken in Taliesin West by @adammarkowitzdesign

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2 months ago

Adam Markowitz (@adammarkowitzdesign) and Stavrias Architecture (@stavriasarchitecture):

Stumpy Gully House

Photographed by: @piercarthew

Stumpy Gully House begins from a question about how to build in a place that is quietly being eroded by its own popularity. Sited in the coastal hamlet of Balnarring, on the Mornington Peninsula and on unceded Boon Wurrung Country, the house responds to a street where newer dwellings sit full-width with minimum setbacks, presenting double garages to the road. Against that pattern the project — a collaboration between Stavrias Architecture and markowitzdesign, led by Adam Markowitz — proposes something closer to the older grain of Balnarring: a bushy frontage that holds the house back from the street and lets…

Explore the full article and more photographs on our website:
https://perpetuaforma.com/editorial/architecture/stumpy-gully-house

#PerpetuaForma #Editorial by @adammarkowitzdesign

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2 months ago

After Nakashima, I flew over to the other side of the country and finally got to Palm Springs, and managed to get into Frey House II via @themoderntour . Almost a Tiny House in terms of scale - the efficiency of space, use topography, the mad max detailing, the giant bloody boulder… brilliant.

#freyhouseii #albertfrey #palmspringsmodern taken in Frey House II by @adammarkowitzdesign

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2 months ago

And finally I made it to the hallowed ground of the Nakashima studio. @nakashimawoodworkers only an hour away from @wesherickmuseum ! He’s been important to me in many ways, like Aalto he spanned furniture and architecture but fell rather more heavily into the camp of craft & studio woodworking. Alas, no photos allowed inside! I took a lot away, and I think I’m still processing it all. Probably the thing that struck me the most was the playful imperfection of everything - both the furniture and the architecture. I think there is a cult of perfection built up around studio woodworkers, particularly Nakashima, but to me the work - both furniture and architecture - was far more about the ideas than the execution. The execution was of course done very well, but perhaps not with the fetishised perfection that entered the canon after him. I think that can be a bit of a (perfectly half lapped) cross to bear sometimes. That’s my own take, as someone who sits in both furniture and architecture camps, and can often feel like an outsider in both. You can throw a whole life at either endeavour and still not master them. So I walked out of Nakashima home & studio with a lightness seeing someone who didn’t let that slow him down.

#georgenakashima #thesoulofatree #nakashimawoodworkers

Postscript: it occurred to me that my thoughts about ideas being more important than perfection was specifically directed at woodworkers, and sits quite contrary to thoughts I’ve expressed on other areas of design, where I think there has been a return to a postmodernist celebration of ideas above all else ( #thisisnotmemphis ), and the championing of lots ideas with little skill in the execution. At the risk of being hypocritical, it’s not black and white - ideas are important. Skill and craft is important. My favourite work celebrates both. taken in The Nakashima Foundation for Peace by @adammarkowitzdesign

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3 months ago

Next up on the bucket list tour of the USA was a visit to the @wesherickmuseum . The granddaddy of Studio Furniture, if you aren’t familiar with his work, you should be. A master of craft and detail. For the architects, the workshop building (blue) was a collaboration with Louis Kahn, but the house was all Esherick. The tour guide was excellent 👌 Esherick was a master of curvature and line, and I can see his work echoing through a number of others that I admire, and to my own work. The house was full of moments of play and thought bubbles scattered throughout. There was an iconoclasm that I’d associate more with the likes of Frank Zappa than any other designer that comes to mind. He just did whatever the hell he wanted. There was a relentlessness and a madness to the work. I loved it.

#whartonesherick #esherickhouse #studiofurniture #finecraft #woodwork taken in Wharton Esherick Museum by @adammarkowitzdesign

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3 months ago

I finally made it out to see #fallingwater earlier this year after finishing up teaching at @woodschoolmaine . It was mostly, but not entirely out of scaffolding. I wish I could’ve spent a little longer in there to take it all in, the tour herded us through like cattle... The spaces were smaller and more intimate than I was expecting, possibly due to experiencing it through too many fish eyed architectural lenses. The fine grain craft detail was everywhere. Hard to put 1936 into context.

#franklloydwright #organicarchitecture taken in Fallingwater by @adammarkowitzdesign

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3 months ago

Some (better) photos taken by assistant Joseph Flynn of my recent class teaching alongside @philipmorleyfurniture at @woodschoolmaine .

The class followed the form of a Beaux-Arts style charrette - short, intensive design exercises with limited parameters to get the students to work repetitively through the design process itself, and understand the design as a network of interrelated decisions, and much of the skill in design as being the ability to navigate that decision making process.

There was a huge spectrum of experience levels, with some students having had previous design training, while others having never considered it at all previously. Being 5 months in to the training program, everyone had good competency in the workshop.

#centerforfurniturecraftsmanship #finewoodworking taken in Center for Furniture Craftsmanship by @adammarkowitzdesign

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4 months ago

Still dusting myself off flying into the middle of Design Week from the USA, where I’d been teaching a 5 week design focused class as part of the 9 month comprehensive program at @woodschoolmaine alongside head teacher @philipmorleyfurniture , the second time teaching this segment. Such a privilege to head back to my old school, see old friends, make new ones and just be immersed for a short time in a world completely focused on excellence in the craft. Thanks to all the students who patiently put up with my @ex_lab derived curriculum which is a bit of a change of affairs after 5 months doing capital W Woodworking with the likes of @ykcurio @o.h.harris and @ferrazzuttifurniture . There were no beach balls this time, but we did have some Blair witch stools getting made at one point…

Also a pleasure to get to know Phil better over 5 weeks. He’s just taken over as head teacher of the program - the students are lucky to have him!

#woodschoolmaine #finewoodworking by @adammarkowitzdesign

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4 months ago

Hyperbolic Chair
Stainless steel rod

Using the Parabolic Hyperbola, this chair appears doubly curved but contains only straight structural elements. Sitting on this chair allows the body to form itself to these implied curves. The chair can be sat on perpendicularly; or lengthwise, where the curve supports the back like a hammock.

Fabricated in stainless steel by Robert Hook

Revising a concept originally developed while a student at @kglakademi in 2012 while undertaking @nicolaidegier “One Chair a Week” class.

Now showing at 100 Chairs
Thanks to the fellas that don’t appear to sleep for once again pulling it all together @friends.associates @dale.hardiman @skeehanstudio

100 Chairs runs at South Magdalen Laundry
Abbotsford Convent until the 24th of May. I’ll be taking part in a floor talk lead by @simoneleamon on Saturday.

#MelbourneDesignWeek
#NGV
@NGVMelbourne

Photo credits -
Ingrid Rhule - Creative Director & Photographer @florenceflorence_au
Ellen Keillar - Creative Director & Producer @eskeillar
Mark Harper - Lighting and Technical Director
Chad Weerasighe - Technical Support and Video Production
Kayell Australia & Boncolor - Lighting Equipment @kayellaustralia Image depicts a stainless steel rod chair using a parabolic hyperbole shape against a brick and concrete background taken in Abbotsford Convent by @adammarkowitzdesign

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