To understand architect Annabelle Selldorf’s aesthetic, a good place to start is the Neue Galerie in New York. Selldorf transformed the interiors of this Beaux Arts mansion, imbuing them with a Modernist touch but with restraint and respect for the original decorative elements, such as the marble and gilt of the second-floor salon. Though she proudly declares her Modernist allegiance, Selldorf is much more than that label implies. “You begin by embracing the so-called austerity” of Modernism, she says, “and not thinking of it as a pejorative.” From there, she continues, “intuition and a sense of humor take a bit of the strictness from the polemic of the minimal.”

Selldorf’s team of 30 architects and interior designers tackles residential and commercial projects with the same focus—on clarity, proportion and light. Her Vica line of furniture—which includes reeditions of pieces by her father, architect Herbert Selldorf, as well as new designs— also displays a Modernist discipline, but without its severity. Currently at work on a newly constructed apartment building in Manhattan, Selldorf says she’s enjoying “creating residences with thoughtful layouts and working out a façade that is at once modern and elegant but relates to its urban context.” The project reflects her core belief that “architecture is not mere gesture, that it must enhance and respond to the environment as much as it improves the lives of the people who use it.”

Annabelle Selldorf

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