{"id":3283,"date":"2025-12-17T21:56:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/2025\/12\/17\/required-reading-modern-originals-at-home-with-midcentury-european-designers-by-leslie-williamson\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T21:56:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:56:56","slug":"required-reading-modern-originals-at-home-with-midcentury-european-designers-by-leslie-williamson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/fr\/required-reading-modern-originals-at-home-with-midcentury-european-designers-by-leslie-williamson\/","title":{"rendered":"Lecture obligatoire : Modern Originals : At Home with Midcentury European Designers par Leslie Williamson"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2005, San Francisco-based photographer Leslie Williamson decided to make a list of the houses of her favorite architects and designers with the idea of visiting them all in her lifetime. As she was creating her lineup, she realized there wasn\u2019t a book that collectively documented these dwellings, and resolved to create one herself. That was the start of a journey resulting in two books to date, Handcrafted Modern: At Home with Midcentury Designers, <\/em>which was released in 2005 and focuses on US designers, and Williamson\u2019s just-released, Modern Originals: At Home with Midcentury European Designers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The new  volume explores the houses of designers both noted and lesser known, and though focused on design and architecture, Williamson writes that she felt she was \u201cmeeting these peoples as human beings through being in their homes and learning about their everyday life.\u201d\u009d Along the way, she captured places that are still lived in, as as well as houses that are preserved with personal effects all still in place. The result is a refreshingly new perspective on midcentury designers whose work we may be familiar with, but whose own rooms provide us with an intimate glance behind the scenes.  <\/p>\n

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Above: A wall of windows in Bruno Mathsson\u2019s living room overlook a lake in the countryside outside V\u00e4rnamo, Sweden, and are  furnished with his own designs, including the Pernilla 3 chair with a lambswool cover.<\/p>\n

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Above: The tiled entry to Carlo Mollino\u2019s apartment in Torino, Italy, is flanked by red velvet curtains and has an iconic white chair and marble table and by the iconic designer, who is said to have said, \u201cEverything is permissible as long as it is fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Above: The living room of Italian designer Lino Sabattini\u2013whose career was launched by Gio Ponti in the fifties\u2013showcases his works in glass and ceramics.<\/p>\n

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Above: The open-plan living room in Finn Juhl\u2019s house in Denmark. Williamson tells us that before he became a furniture designer, Juhl trained as an architect: \u201cFinn Juhl\u2019s color sense really made an impression on me. I love the subtle shift of color to the yellow ceiling, and how he controls where your eye moves with pops of coral and blue throughout the room. \u201c<\/p>\n

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Above: A bedroom in Alvar Aalto\u2019s Helsinki home with his modern classic Artek Bench at the foot of each bed.<\/p>\n

Above: The bright Antwerp kitchen of Belgium\u2019s leading modernist architect, Renaat Braem, who apprenticed with Le Corbusier. Williamson notes in her introduction that she loved discovering these designers\u2019 solutions for everyday living: \u201cThis might be a little crazy but Braem\u2019s under-sink cabinet on wheels made me so happy! Who doesn\u2019t lose stuff in the back of your undersink cabinet? Brilliant solution, right?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

Modern Originals: At Home with Midcentury European Designers<\/em> written and photographed by Leslie Williamson, and published by Rizzoli, is available from Amazon for $35.26.<\/p>\n

See our post on Leslie Williamson\u2019s companion book, Handcrafted Modern: At Home with Midcentury Designers. And go to Required Reading for more of our design book suggestions. Five-Plant Gardens? Read about this new book on Gardenista.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

En 2005, la photographe Leslie Williamson, bas\u00e9e \u00e0 San Francisco, a d\u00e9cid\u00e9 de dresser une liste des maisons de ses architectes et designers pr\u00e9f\u00e9r\u00e9s, dans l'id\u00e9e de les visiter toutes au cours de sa vie. Alors qu'elle dressait sa liste, elle s'est rendu compte qu'il n'existait pas de livre documentant collectivement ces habitations, et elle a d\u00e9cid\u00e9 d'en cr\u00e9er un elle-m\u00eame. C'est ainsi qu'est n\u00e9 [...]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interior-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/homeofmaterials.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}