Focus on Adam Nathaniel Furman

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Nagatacho Apartment by Adam Nathaniel Furman. Ph. Credits Jan Vranovsky

The eclectic London-based architect of Argentine and Japanese heritage as told in a quick-fire interview touching on his projects – tackled with the same exuberant enthusiasm no matter what the scale, from mugs to paving – along with his personal passions and tastes.

First name: Adam Nathaniel Furman

Place where you work: London

Your Instagram account: @adamnathanielfurman

Describe what your job involves: I design all kinds of things, from vases and plates and glasses, to lighting, furniture, interiors, surfacing products, sculptures, public art and spaces, graphics, pavilions, whatever comes my way really! I also write and teach, and have a book coming out next year for the RIBA called “Queer Spaces” on the history of Queer places around the world.

Where did you study? Central St Martins and then the Architectural Association.

The project you are currently working on: I have lots of projects on! For products I will mention my two collections for the amazing Beit Collective, a new female-led Lebanese design brand that manufactures in Beirut, I have a collection of furniture called Beiruti and a porcelain collection called Baalbek launching for them shortly. I am also doing the ceramic cladding for the lower levels of a new skyscraper in London which is really fun!

The project you dream of carrying out one day: Two dreams: a full new-build house in London (full of details and works that I can design) that can be seen from the street, and a skyscraper too! I love both these types of structures, the domestic and the ultra-urban.

The project that has influenced you the most: I would say Eduardo Paolozzi’s Tottenham Court Road Station, the world’s biggest piece of art, where he covered every surface in the vast tube station in luscious mosaics, turning a dingy warren into a glistening cave of wonders.

IT_ggardner-0941-Edit — Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London. Ph Credits Gareth Gardner

An element that cannot be missing in any of your projects: A trigger to the imagination.

City centre or remote geographies? London… so somewhere in between the two. The specific and unusual urban geography of London, a kind of endless medium-density, human-scale city full of nature, is my perfect habitat.