All of a sudden, the days are becoming slightly but notably shorter. Reminding me, as ever, that time marches on. That our days on this beautiful earth are numbered and that our time here matters. When I think about the impact I want our studio to have, I keep returning to beauty. To using every opportunity given, while putting a roof over our heads, to make the world we live in a more meaningful and beautiful place for ourselves, those we love, and those we’re fortunate enough to work with and for.
Here's to making the world a more beautiful place at all costs."
Recently, I had a few experiences that left a profound impression and motivated me to keep beating the beauty drum, to keep believing in its power to shape how we live, especially from a feminine perspective. I visited the homes of two women, Gae Aulenti and Edith Farnsworth, solidifying my conviction about how much women have contributed to the evolution of beauty in architecture, design, and life at large.
The first was in Italy, in Gae Aulenti’s apartment, a space so entirely her own it felt like walking through her mind. Every year, Gregory and I make the trek to Milan for Design Week. It has become a deep source of personal inspiration for the year to come. This year, I hired Selene Privetera, an accomplished designer and curator of all things authentic and beautiful, to help us navigate the fair. She was, in her special Selene way, able to secure an appointment at Gae Aulenti’s apartment with Gae’s granddaughter, Nina Artioli.
​
Being in her apartment, filled to the brim with books on design, architecture, and art in many forms, I could feel her presence, her impact. We lounged on her sofa, walked through her studio, and enjoyed her terrace, while Nina glowed, telling us all about her remarkable grandmother.
Our homes are living, breathing expressions of who we are, of where we’ve been, of what and who we love."
Most of you know that I lean towards less-is-more. While Gae’s architecture is modern and pointed, her apartment was like a warm collage of everything she held dear. It reminded me that collecting holds value; that treasures found along one’s path are part of what makes a home spirit-filled; that our homes are living, breathing expressions of who we are, of where we’ve been, of what and who we love. Gae’s spirit, her work, the lives she touched, and the impact she had were all felt as we moved through the rooms she once filled.
​
The second experience occurred on a more recent trip to visit my son William in Chicago. We made the drive out to Plano along the Fox River to see a home I had admired for so long in pictures, the Edith Farnsworth House designed by Mies van der Rohe.
Even more beautiful in person, the home floats just above the flood plain on slender white steel, the meadow and the river moving right through the rooms with you. The delineation between inside and outside is more blurred than I’ve ever experienced in any built environment. Here, my less-is-more cup was filled to the brim.
What was most impactful was learning that Edith, an accomplished doctor, musician, and poet, commissioned the home for herself alone at a time when women simply did not do such a thing. And while it wasn’t her hand that drew the lines, her vision brought them to life alongside Mies’ brilliance and rigor. While her spirit was less captured in the things of life, it was felt, profoundly, in the scrupulous attention to simplicity, minimalism, functionality, and a deep reverence for nature. I imagine Edith needed this home to come back to herself after long, demanding days at the hospital… a home she used to reconnect with herself, with nature, with poetry, with beauty.
The delineation between inside and outside is more blurred than I've ever experienced in any built environment."
Both of these women were forces of nature - accomplished, smart, talented - forging their unique paths, facing the challenges so many women faced in a male-dominated world, and leaving beauty in their wake. Gae supposedly said, “Architecture is a man’s profession, but I never paid attention to that.” Here’s to their spirit, to tossing politeness and convention to the wind, to making the world a more beautiful place at all costs.