This article is part of our latest Design Special Report, on new creative avenues shaped by the pandemic.
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted many lives. But for some people, the disruption was positive and provided an opportunity to steer their skills in a new direction.
For New York architect and designer Marc Thorpe, this shift began in 2019, when he and his partner, Claire Pijoulat, one of the founders of New York design platform WantedDesign, built a 500-square-foot cabin in the western part of New York State. York. cat skills. Mr. Thorpe, best known for his products for international companies such as Moroso and Venini, struggled to find a builder willing to carry out his non-traditional design. He and Mrs. Pijoulat started thinking about designing houses that were cheaper to build, and just as importantly, that were sustainable and less energy dependent.
This was followed by what he called “a pandemic moment, where people tried to leave the city and live simpler lives.” But some of those fleeing New York were willing to pay $1 million and more for homes, which Mr. Thorpe found disturbing. As Ms. Pijoulat recalled, they saw an opportunity to give local residents access to ‘modern homes that were out of reach for them’, and to demonstrate that ‘modern architecture doesn’t have to be cold, austere and expensive’.
Having spent so much time in the Catskills during the pandemic, Mr. Thorpe was able to establish a local network of builders and solar engineers. In 2021, he founded a new company, Edifice Upstate, which develops “affordable, environmentally sustainable” homes, according to its website. But ‘sustainable’ does not mean that solar panels are linked to the local electricity grid. Instead, the company’s all-wood homes will be built using off-the-grid solar technology.
Three models will be offered, all using well water: a 500-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bathroom cabin with kitchenette, for $250,000; a 1,000-square-foot two-bedroom, one-bathroom home with a full kitchen, pantry, and living room, for $350,000; and a 2,000-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a den, for $450,000. The first 1,000-square-foot home is expected to be completed by the end of the summer.
Mr Thorpe and Mrs Pijoulat’s one-room cabin was considered too austere for most buyers, but it did change their thinking about what constitutes a comfortable home. “I think we’re on the cusp of a new movement,” said Mr. Thorpe. “We’re focusing on something small and doable, not a grand gesture — the micro leading to the macro.”
For Danish curator and gallery owner Elisabeth Johs – who has lived in New York since 2017 while taking courses at Sotheby’s and co-founded a gallery called Trotter & Sholer – the pandemic was an unpleasant surprise. Her visa expired in March 2020, when the city was locked, so she went to Switzerland, where her parents lived.
During this time, Mrs. Johs and a California-based painter with whom she was dating hatched a plan to move to Mexico City and find a place where they could live and work together. Mrs. Johs moved there in September 2021, but the artist never showed up. Nevertheless, Mrs. Johs decided to go through with her plan. “When you’re heartbroken,” she recalled, “you have a lot of energy.”
She bought a house in the San Miguel Chapultepec neighborhood of the city, completed in 1981 by noted modernist architect Carlos Herrera. The 6,000-square-foot concrete structure, with its large windows and skylights, was not in good condition. Mrs. Johs, in collaboration with the design agency Cadana, renovated the building and bought furniture from the Mexican companies ATRA, La Metropolitana and Decada. “My first goal was to make it liveable,” she says. Called JO-HS, the space opened to the public in November 2021, and its bimonthly exhibitions focus primarily on Mexican and Latin American artists.
The building is entered through a reception area, which leads to a shop, and to spaces and patios filled with art. There is a lounge with a vaulted brick ceiling and stone tile floors, adjacent to a dining room and kitchen. The main gallery space, with its installation of plants from an early exhibition and a large window, is next to the larger of the two patios, and studio spaces are in the garage. Mrs. Johs’s bedroom, a small living room and more office space are upstairs. She noted that it’s “unconventional to hold art shows in domestic spaces”, but she likes that she “blurred the lines between studio and gallery”.
A recent exhibition, “LUZ,” focused on the subject of light, featuring vintage and contemporary pieces from designers, photographers and artists, including a large fluorescent tube starburst created in 2003 by Thomas Glassford, an American in Mexico City. Currently ‘Domesticada’ focuses on works by female painters that respond to the theme of ‘domesticated women’.
Mrs. Johs said she was glad she went ahead with her plan, even if she had to do it alone. “You jump or you don’t jump,” she said.
For others, the pandemic provided an opportunity to do something completely different. Andreas Kokkino is a fashion and design editor (we worked together at T Magazine) and fashion stylist. In 2018 he moved to Athens and in 2020 he was locked up with his partner, Stathis Mitropoulos, a graphic designer, and exhausting for the fashion world.
The couple was watching a documentary on Netflix, ‘Circus of Books’, about a legendary gay porn bookstore in Los Angeles, when they came up with the idea of opening their own business. Athens is full of bookshops and book lovers, but none specializing in photography, design, fashion and cooking. “People asked for magazines like PIN-UP, Toilet Paper and Cabana,” Kokkino said. “There’s a great creative community here — they’ve traveled a lot and they’re looking for the cool stuff.”
The store, Hyper Hypo, opened in Athens last December. The name refers to the founders’ desire to sell goods that are “high” and “low” but also expensive and affordable. Formerly a warehouse, the bookstore was gutted and painted a deep blue, with gloss white for the new shelves. Tassos Govatsos, a local architect, came up with the design, including the shelves and the central table. mr. Mitropoulos created the pair of neon eyes in the window signaling the idea of visual culture.
“We wanted to see a bright and colorful space – not cozy – that reminds people of contemporary shops in other cities,” said Mr. Kokkino. Posters Hyper Hypo made of the work of local artists adorn the walls and sell for as little as $22. Design objects include elegant lamps with marble bases, hand-blown glass spheres and woven-straw screens. There are also mugs, from the design agency Greece is for Lovers, that say, “Athens Sucks.” The lower level is a gallery used for cultural events.
The shop now has many customers who drop by on a weekly basis, and Wanda’s Black Standard Poodle, Mr. Kokkino and Mr. Mitropoulos, has proved equally popular. “She’s our mascot,” Mr. Kokkino said. “People are obsessed with her.”
Mr. Kokkino and Mr. Mitropoulos are already thinking about pop-ups and affiliates and creating merchandise; a series of tote bags with a wild pattern, made by mr. Mitropoulos, was a great success.
“I have found the calling of my life,” said Mr. Kokkino.