WRAPPED IN WALNUT PANELING, THE KITCHEN HAS A KARL SEEMULLER STOOL, AN ANTIQUE AMERICAN HOOKED RUG, A MIELE COOKTOP, AND DORNBRACHT FIXTURES. ARTWORKS BY JAMES LEE BYARS (COUNTER) AND CLARE GRAHAM (WINDOW). “We didn’t want a decorative arts museum. The focus is always on livability.”—Oliver Furth ART: JAMES LEE BYARS © THE ESTATE OF THE ARTIST/MICHAEL WERNER GALLERY, NEW YORK AND LONDON
150 ARCHDIGEST.COM parcel-gilt fauteuil, a 19th-century Japanese lacquered cocktail table, a midcentury Edward Wormley settee, a pair of postmodern end tables by Peter Shire from 1981, and a 1990 Joel Stearns cardboard chair. Works of contemporary design and art by Adam Silverman, Ryan Belli, Kueng Caputo, Justin Beal, Anne Libby, and Mary Weatherford (whose landmark house Furth renovated; AD, December 2020) bring the decorative salmagundi squarely into the present day. But it’s not simply a matter of acquiring a trove of farflung design treasures and tossing them into the same room willy-nilly, a feat anyone with a Pinterest account, a curious imagination, and a healthy bank balance could accomplish. “Oliver is like a conductor. He brings together this ensemble cast of important pieces and up-and-coming talents, and he creates a symphony that feels conceptually cogent and visually dazzling,” Yashar says of his estimable partner, whose first monograph is being published in spring 2024. “And we change things up all the time. It’s a game we’re constantly playing, creating new stories and narrative threads. This is how we have fun,” he insists. “Oliver is like a conductor. He brings together this ensemble cast of important pieces and up-and-coming talents.” —Sean Yashar LEFT FURTH CONVERTED THE NONDESCRIPT ENTRY COURT INTO A POCKET GARDEN WITH A VINTAGE CONCRETE TABLE AND REINALDO SANGUINO STOOLS FROM THE FUTURE PERFECT. BELOW ANTIQUE GEOMETRIC ARTIST MODELS SIT ON A JAMES DE WULF CONCRETE TABLE WITH DAN JOHNSON CHAIRS ON THE DINING TERRACE.
A SISTER PARISH LINEN COVERS THE WALLS, THE DAYBED, AND AN 18TH-CENTURY FAUTEUIL IN THE SITTING ROOM. ART: S. LEE ROBINSON. © SAM FALLS. LEENA SIMILU. SEAN GERSTLEY COCKTAIL TABLE, FONTANAARTE PENDANT LIGHT, AND LEENA SIMILU SCULPTURE.
152 ARCHDIGEST.COM THE ENTRY AND THE KITCHEN are separated by a new floorto-ceiling storage unit clad in various shades of green laminate, a nod to the verdant canyon surroundings and the house’s midcentury pedigree. In the kitchen, Furth and Yashar experimented with materiality by juxtaposing the laminate patchwork cabinetry with warm walnut paneling and gray terrazzo-like stone counters. “I wanted to recontextualize laminate. There’s so much history embedded in the material. It feels like a throwback to the 1950s, but it also speaks to 1980s postmodern design,” Furth explains. Between the kitchen and living room, a de facto gallery showcases the couple’s extensive LA-centric ceramics collection on a custom Waka Waka display unit, set beside one of Dan Johnson’s signature Gazelle tables with wood-stump mushroom stools by the legendary decorator Michael Taylor. “It’s a real California moment,” Furth opines. The dining room is another triumph of design mix-mastery, with the focal mirrored table and Jansen chairs joined by an Ettore Sottsass sideboard, a Campana Brothers rope chair, and a Fabien Cappello papier-mâché planter, all set against glazed cork walls and an antique Persian Serapi rug that nods to Yashar’s Persian heritage. On the lower level, the primary bedroom—a calm, rigorous composition of whites, grays, and black—serves as a striking foil to the unapologetically pretty sitting room wrapped in a paprika-hued Sister Parish fabric. “It’s my way of subverting traditional decorating, taking the idea of a toile room and reimagining it in a fresh, California way,” Furth says of the lounge’s fanciful finery. In the end, what’s most compelling about Casa Furth/Yashar is not the stunning pageant of objets de vertu but the finesse with which the objects have been deployed and the strange, unregarded affinities that give life to the rooms that harbor them. “We weren’t trying to disrupt anything or burn the house down,” Yashar asserts. “We worked with the architecture we had, and we challenged our favorite artists and designers to push themselves and their work. We kept saying, ‘We want it bigger, bolder, more complex.’ Clearly, they delivered.” ABOVE, LEFT AND RIGHT A GUEST BATH HAS A 1940s SINK, TOILET, AND TUB SET AGAINST WALNUT PANELING. FURTH’S FOLDING WALNUT-AND-LEATHER TUB COVER PROVIDES A PERCH FOR SECRET CONFABS AND PARTY GOSSIP. KATIE STOUT HANGING LAMP, 1920s LAJOS KOZMA STOOL, VOLA FIXTURES, AND NATASHA BARADARAN TEXTILES SHEER CURTAIN. ART: LOUISE BOURGEOIS. © 2323 THE EASTON FOUNDATION / LICENSED BY VAGA AT ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NY.
IN THE PRIMARY BEDROOM, VINTAGE MILO BAUGHMAN CHESTS WITH MISHA KAHN LAMPS FROM FRIEDMAN BENDA FLANK A MONGIARDO STUDIO PARCHMENT BED BENEATH AN ISAMU NOGUCHI LANTERN. PHILIPPE STARCK CHAIR, RON REZEK FLOOR LAMPS, AND FRETTE LINENS. DRAWINGS BY LOUISE BOURGEOIS.
For nearly five decades, Mimar Sinan—otherwise known simply as Grand Sinan—oversaw all major construction projects for the Ottoman Empire, reshaping the greater Mediterranean area one bridge, mosque, and mausoleum at a time. Today, five centuries later, a little-known wonder by the architect is welcoming back the public in Istanbul. The Zeyrek Çinili Hamam, so named for the blue Iznik tiles that once lined it, first opened around 1540, its domed rooms a breathtaking backdrop for communal bathing. History took its toll (those tiles, for instance, were long ago sold off to private and public collections), and the complex eventually fell into disrepair. But thanks to the Turkish hospitality and real estate company The Marmara Group, it has now been reimagined as a multipurpose arts and wellness center, with exhibition spaces and hot and cold rooms. KA-BA Architecture led the 13-year design and preservation project, unearthing Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman artifacts along the way, including fragments of those original Iznik beauties. That trove is displayed in a new museum dedicated to hammam traditions. The complex’s Byzantine cisterns, meanwhile, serve as a venue for contemporary art. Inaugural shows also span the bathing areas, in advance of their official splash opening next year. zeyrekcinilihamam.com —SAM COCHRAN grand finale Soaking Up History İBRAHIM ÖZBUNAR
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