In a few days, I move into my first apartment. I’ve been scouring Craigslist’s ‘Free’ section to furnish my new place. Top priority is anything that’s even remotely mid-century modern. All I really want is a solid wood credenza with tapered legs. At this point, I’ll settle for anything that doesn’t have particleboard or faux gold finishes. Turns out - other people want that too. The Free section is a mad chase to email the poster— unlike at an auction, the piece goes to whoever responds to the ad first.

People with money have it a little easier. This month the major auction houses are holding their big annual spring design sales. Each lot is a far cry from the shady Free postings I’ve been replying to, but the pieces are fascinating to look at no matter your budget. Up for bids are iconic and beautiful examples from the canon of 20th century design—pieces that any museum, or I, would die to have.

The Chicago-based auction house, Wright, had a hefty selection of modern furniture in their “Important Design” sale. The 217 pieces, including a Frank Lloyd Wright desk and several beautiful lounge chairs by Gio Ponti, went to auction June 7th.  A standout was Lot 109 - a colorful 1952 bookshelf by Charlotte Perriand, surpassed the estimated $50,000 t0 $70,000, and sold for $110,500 last Thursday.

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The architect Guy Zucker inserted an elegant, light-filled penthouse into this 1960s-era apartment building on Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square. Photo: courtesy Z-A Studio

It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but during a recent 12-hour flight from New York’s JFK airport to Tel Aviv, two Midwestern evangelical tourists on their way to the Holy Land could be overheard excitedly swapping notes on top upcoming destinations—Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Masada, the Dead Sea. “Why would you even want to go to Tel Aviv?” asked one, for whom the city was clearly an airport and little else. “I don’t know, the politics?” offered his friend. The unintentional punch line (last time we checked, Jerusalem was still the seat of government in Israel) was made all the more comic for its blithe indifference to the recent buzz over the city’s regeneration. Tel Aviv is the secular antithesis to everything that ancient Jerusalem represents; it’s young, cosmopolitan, progressive, energetic, and gritty. And in the past few years—as numerous magazines have been tripping over themselves to report—it’s seen a rising generation of artists, architects, filmmakers, restaurateurs, fashion designers, and other creative types.

I was headed there for the architecture. Tel Aviv is home to both the largest and densest concentration of Bauhaus-style buildings in the world, and to an impressive array of new projects by emerging and established architects. Specifically, I was in town for Houses from Within, a 48-hour event during which the city opens its doors and allows access to all kinds of buildings, large and small, public and private, historic and contemporary, obscure and celebrated (more than 160 sites in all). This urban steeplechase, now in its third year, is an ideal (if exhausting) means by which to assess the current moment in the city’s rebirth, and to see up close how the often contradictory municipal attitudes toward development, planning, and preservation play out in the built environment. Read more…

In the June issue of the magazine, David Sokol writes briefly about the lighting manufacturer iGuzzini’s new U.S. showroom. Below is an expanded version of Sokol’s text, with more details on the company’s history and products.

Even if you’re not yet familiar with the iGuzzini name, you know its work. The Italian lighting brand manufactures Piero Castiglioni and Gae Aulenti’s 1993 Cestello design, which company president Adolfo Guzzini says is “the most copied light fixture ever, for sure!” iGuzzini also partners with that other great Italian architect, Renzo Piano, notably on the California Academy of Sciences.

Guzzini partly credits celebrity collaborators like Piano for his own company’s success. “Architects and designers are always on the move, they ‘pollinate’ different continents,” he says. Not only have global nomads taken iGuzzini products along for the ride, but also they have inspired specifiers in those places to emulate the visiting design dignitary, spelling far-flung orders.

When iGuzzini launched in 1958 as Harvey Creazioni, architectural and decorative lighting was but an afterthought. Quickly the company redirected its efforts, from copper objects and lighting parts to luminaires. A willingness to experiment has defined iGuzzini ever since. Much of the company’s stock was originally conceived as one-offs for architects. Work with Piano yielded the products Lingotto and Le Perroquet, for instance. Moreover, iGuzzini places importance on the science of lighting: “Some of our research activities have led to specific products, such as SIVRA, the first biodynamic light system,” Guzzini says. “Another important issue is the effect of artificial light in museum lighting—on color perception or the shape of the exhibits. Read more…

Photos: Jason Mandella/courtesy MoMA

On first hearing the title of Ron Arad’s new MoMA retrospective, Ron Arad: No Discipline, I was reminded of the mid-1990’s craze for T-shirts with the slogans “No Fear” and “No Rules” emblazoned across the front. And so it seemed appropriate that when I spotted Arad opening night, he was wearing a novelty tee of his own—this one screened with an Ed Ruscha piece that reads, “I Don’t Want No Retro Spective.” Read more…