Category Archives: Interior Design
Nest : a magazine of interiors
Nest
Fall 1998-Fall 2004
In the Winter 1999-2000 issue of Nest, architect and urban theorist Rem Koolhaas wrote in critical appreciation:
“Nest goes for the jugular of the secretive. Sometimes the intimacies revealed are almost voyeuristically painful. It is significant that in the era of celebrity and the relentless confessional, the glimpses of previously hidden lives that Nest reveals are shocking in their acute, slightly obscene quality. They show the extent of editing, pruning and laundering that the professional press of revelation performs before launching its “surprises” for the public. By insisting on the intricacies of private life Nest reveals the complete flattening of the public at the end of the 20th century.”
Founding editor Joseph Holtzman “believed that an igloo, a prison cell or a child’s attic room (adorned with Farrah Fawcett posters) could be as compelling as a room by a famous designer” (NYT). His relentless magazine ran for 26 issues. The SVA Library has all but the first issues (donations encouraged).
These scans don’t do its vibrancy justice.
Igloos, Fall 1998
“This building is my memory,” Fall 1998
A Room of One’s Own, Fall 1998
Philip Apagya’s Portrait Studio, Winter 1999-2000
Final Nest: Death Chambers, Winter 2001-2002
Les Harris, Winter 2001-2002
Object Lesson, Summer 2000 (inside the home of Warhol’s longtime manager Fred Hughes, whose bedridden baldspot is featured in the foreground)
Palace of Living Art, Summer 2000 (Van Gogh in wax)
Divine Providence, Spring 2004 (“recent design trends at Rhode Island School of Design”)
And if beautifully published periodicals on realistic interior design (i.e. not Architectural Digest–which we also have) is your thing, have a look at Spain based Apartemento .
Apartamento: an everyday life interiors magazine
Even the spines are sumptuous
According to their website: “Apartamento’s first issue was released in April 2008 as a magazine interested in homes, living spaces and design solutions as opposed to houses, photo ops and design dictatorships. The magazine is a logical result of the post-materialist mind shift. People are bored with the ostentatious and über-marketing. There is a real quest for identity in the midst of mass production and globalization, and that quest leads to what is personal, what is natural, what is real.”
The photos and interviews reveal intelligent people in real spaces; spaces that look lived in because they are lived in. Instead of showcasing a single design ideal, they show how a space is influenced by a person’s taste, education, location, occupation, means, cultural attitudes and so on. They show homes that reflect life. Some of the articles are self- profiles, in which someone writes and documents their own home, like this one by Yukari Miyagi:
"...My daughters and I brought back lots of leaves, twigs, nuts, flowers falling down to earth, and put them on a white piece of paper. The kids soon began making their 'art works' with their findings freely..."
Or in “”More Feral Than You” (text by Monica Canilao, photos by Paul Schiek):
- “Our past is not something we can choose to leave behind… Paint chip trails and ghost images are left behind in abandoned places, lived in to death and to pieces. Every life leaves an imprint…”
"...Wild and beautiful, inhabited by a strong nature, which defends it by external aggressions... Here, air, water, and even fire manifest themselves as the true fury of the elements...Up to a few years ago the water was just rainwater, there was neither electric light nor even a pier where ships could dock."
Beyond the self-profiles, the magazine features interviews, unique travel supplements, cartooning, illustration, and just a bunch of cool stuff. The design of the magazine itself is wonderful, with flush photos that are laid out smartly and with a nostalgia inducing production quality that is in beautiful contrast with the contemporary subjects. It comes out twice a year. The library has it starting with issue #4. The current issue is #6.
SVA Library Picture & Periodicals Collections 