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Four prominent designers discuss yachting’s version of the Little Black Dress.
by Louis Postel
01/01/2005
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As one of the chief exponents of the modernist ideal so prevalent in our
culture, designer Juan Montoya, 59, enjoys lavish media attention.
Recently, he
shared his thoughts on the fine art of paring
down while
living large.
 Lazzarini and Pickering’s interior
design for the 52-meter Benetti Sai Ram, top
and above,
utilizes a
simple but striking palette of colors and textures
to
express a sense
of space. Photography courtesy of
Benetti
(Click image to enlarge)
“Modernism came into play in the 1920s when people
started
looking
at
material objects
for
residential
use. A
celebration and
abstraction
of what was
typically
industrial, modernism
uses
stainless
steel
and
rubber,
rendering it
‘homey.’ It is the
result of the
discoveries
of the
industrial
revolution as
expressed
through the
Bauhaus
school. The big examples
of
modernism are
Charlotte
Perriand,
who
worked with Le
Corbusier
in
the
1940s and
1950s,
and
Jean
Prouvé,
Marcel Breuer and
Philip Johnson in
the
1950s.
“I love
Charlie
Chaplin’s
film
Modern
Times. It was the first movie
to show
stark
industrial
scenery as an expression of
modernism.
Chaplin introduced
elements that
made
architects and designers think,” Montoya
says.
Of
his own work, he says, “I
was
influenced
by Susan
Slesin’s
book, [Lofts, Un Nouvel
Art de Vivre] which
defines
‘industrial
chic’
as it was
known, and also
by the
master
architect
Louis Kahn.” When Mantoya
discusses
modernism, he invokes Kahn’s
transcendental,
geometric, “built
for the
ages” approach, because
geometry
defines the way we
think
about,
build, and
see shapes and
forms. He
also talks
about
the work of
minimalists.
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