< Previous118 ne of the common threads running through everything bearing the Apparatus name – from wild looking sci-fi chandeliers to hand tuft- ed modular rugs connected by brass hardware – is a sense of the future. You can see it in the home of the Iranian-American co-founder Gabriel Hendifar on Bond Street, in a luxury apartment block close to the Bowery in downtown Manhattan: from the antechamber by the front door, with its starship-like rounded lights set into a fabric panelled wall and oval mirror, all screened off with tassels of golden ball bearings, to the pendulum lights that make the bedroom look like a set design from Dune. “My sense of futurism comes from being a fi rst generation American, born to people who left a place they didn’t want to leave,” says Hendifar. “I have an intense connection to an Iranian culture I have only been able to experience through food, music and stories. It’s always been a fairy tale to me, something that exists far away. So, with no tangible legacy for me to respond to, I’ve created a world that visual- ly references one, but it’s not of this time. It’s not of the past.” Originally focused purely on lighting designs, the New York-based company was founded in 2012 by Hendifar and his then partner Jeremy Anderson. It has since become an international design power- house. Last year, Anderson left both Apparatus and the apartment on Bond Street that they had moved into towards the end of 2019. When the pandemic hit New York a few months later, Hendifar found it a rea- son to focus rather than cause for despair. “It made me think about the Apparatus collections, and how I want to live,” he says. “The period reasserted how important it is to consider the emotional impact of a place you’re in. A home is a safe space. I found myself really leaning into that, as much as any other aspects of storytelling through design.” Hendifar recently released a new collection – Apparatus Act IV – which includes the aforementioned modular rug series, produced in collaboration with CC-Tapis; the Episode: Settee in sky blue leather with a tarnished silver structure, as well as a cadet wool and brass ver- sion, which has the industrial punch of classic Bauhaus but freshened up for the 2020s; and the Reprise orb lighting pendants, which he has in his bedroom. Act IV was originally meant to launch in Milan at Salone del Mobile in 2020, but of course there was no Salone that year. Instead, the designs were put on ice while Hendifar transformed both his personal space and the vast Apparatus HQ in the NoMad area of the city. Originally, the latter housed all of the production for the brand, but the growth in the business necessitated a move out to a 45,000 sq/ ft space in Brooklyn. Now the HQ is a gallery space as well as head offi ce, hosting sporadic events that brings the Apparatus storytelling to life; earlier this year, there was a pop up jazz club in one of the rooms. “Act IV was about exploring the future through the past,” says Hendifar. “So, through that, my apartment became a kind of sexy spaceship. When I think of how we saw the future back in the 1960s, it was a naïve rendering of the future through the human imagination. Space exploration and technology is often seen as a joyful solution to things, but always informed from the human perspective. I have been O Designed by the architect John Pawson, the lof -life apar ment is de ned by panels which create distinct zones. The living room sofas, ot oman, tables, pendants are all by Apparatus and the rug is from Stark. An embroidered Japanese ar work from Sut er Antiques anchors the space. AD_047_116-123_Arena_New York_12609590.indd 11804/10/2022 10:42:42 PMAD_047_116-123_Arena_New York_12609590.indd 11904/10/2022 10:42:53 PM120 thinking about nature as part of that, and how we create things that look like plants, for example. Our current idea of the future is quite dark. But what if the future is more like the ‘It’s a Small World’ ride at Disneyland, with lots of nations coming together? The hook for me is always the human lens, the human perspective.” The Act III Apparatus collection, released in 2018, was similarly poi- gnant, but in a diff erent way. The designs were based on a box that belonged to Hendifar’s grandmother, which she brought to the States with her from Iran. The emotionally charged object, intricately inlaid in the Persian Khatam style, possessed an essence that Hendifar want- ed to bring to Apparatus. Numerous pieces were conceived to be hand crafted in Iran, but because of the political situation between Iran and the US, importing them was impossible. “I had people going back and forth,” says Hendifar, “and I started to have a tangible connection with my roots. But then reality set in and I realised it continues to be a place of longing and nostalgia, and can’t be real for me. I can’t bring it here. I could have the pieces made in New York, but that would have defeat- ed the point. The pieces served as a portal for me. It wasn’t about the objects themselves, but about what they mean.” When Act IV was fi nally released earlier this year, it was through a short fi lm starring the fashion model Debra Shaw, who was an early muse for Alexander McQueen. “I had the idea in my head of creating a set piece with an archetypal 1960s socialite interacting with the furni- ture,” says Hendifar. “I was thinking about Babe Paley and Lee Radziwill. I grew up working in fashion, and that kind of woman held a lot of power in my imagination, but I wanted it to be a woman of colour.” Andrew Cinnamon, the studio’s SVP of creative, suggested Shaw: “As a teenager, I had a subscription to Vogue, and the Peter Linbergh image of her wearing Dior couture by Galliano in 1998, with all the African beading jewellery, was seared into my brain. I couldn’t believe we could actually get her. She is the truest defi nition of the term ‘muse’. The way her energy animates her body is without comparison. It’s incredible.” The set of Apparatus pieces for the Act IV fi lm isn’t too far removed from the look of the Bond Street apartment Hendifar lives in. The new- build block represents the coming together of some of the biggest names in international design. Ian Schrager conceived the project (he lives in the penthouse upstairs), and commissioned Herzog & de Meuron to design it, then brought minimalist master John Pawson in for the interiors. When Hendifar moved in, he used Pawson’s blank canvas to create something purely Apparatus. The apartment – which incorporates a series of spaces all lit by fl oor to ceiling glass along the south side of the building – tells the story of how Hendifar lives. The bathroom is luxe and white and perfect for meditative hours. The kitchen is relatively tiny and nondescript, in comparison to the opulent dining room it is adjacent to. “I don’t fi nd myself cooking a lot,” he admits, “I just order in from my favourite restaurants.” While the designs in the space are largely his own, complemented by elegant, tapered leg Chiavari chairs from the 1920s and sculpture by Peter Brooke-Ball, he doesn’t feel like it’s an extension of the Apparatus studio per se. “Yes, it’s my work,” he says, “but I see it as a playground.” Part of that is the constant playback of curated playlists that drift through every space. “One of my favourites is made up entirely of KPM tracks, which is music that was made by session musicians from the 1950s through to the 1970s to be anonymous mood muzak,” he says. “It creates a world with lots of fi lm and television references. It’s the kind of soundtrack for a cocktail and a cigarette.” Hendifar’s home is essentially a classic New York loft, compartmen- talised with panels to demarcate areas for dining, lounging and sleep- ing. But it’s all the same mood: a little bit 1970s Halston, a touch louche, a lot Gotham. It’s a sweet spot. Like much of New York itself, and indeed the designs that come out of the Apparatus workshop, it’s a narrative bridge between the past and the future. apparatusstudio.com AD_047_116-123_Arena_New York_12609590.indd 12004/10/2022 10:43:03 PM75 The cocooning entryway is peppered with antique gold accents: ball bearing fringing, crushed velvet upholstery and starship-like wall lights. Opposite page from top: The custom brass bed frame is flanked by Apparatus pendants on either side. The cur ains are in a Decor ex velvet; Gabriel Hendifar. ’’Iran continues to be a place of longing and nostalgia that can’t be real for me’’ AD_047_116-123_Arena_New York_12609590.indd 12104/10/2022 10:43:19 PM122 AD_047_116-123_Arena_New York_12609590.indd 12204/10/2022 10:43:28 PMAbove: A detail of a Standby sidetable by Apparatus, which serves as a nightstand in the bedroom Opposite page: The bed is topped with a cover and bolster in Zak+Fox fabrics. P H O T O: W ICHM A N N + BEND S T EN ( T HIS P A GE ) AD_047_116-123_Arena_New York_12609590.indd 12304/10/2022 10:43:41 PMNature Study Words Mark C. O’Flaherty Pho ography Roger Davies 124 On Lake Tahoe, Jamie Bush has created a modernist retreat with moody, organic interiors that celebrate the beauty of the alpine landscape AD_047_124-133_Arena_Lake Tahoe_12632774.indd 12405/10/2022 06:33:27 PMA table by Zaha Hadid anchors the dining room, which also features work by Ugo Rondinone (right) and Howard Hodgkin (centre). The light is by Lindsey Adelman. A pair of brass tables by Ten10 anchor the seating area in the great room. A custom sofa upholstered in Pierre Frey mohair sits on a Jamie Bush rug for Marc Phillips. The Cloud ceiling light is by Apparatus. AD_047_124-133_Arena_Lake Tahoe_12632774.indd 12505/10/2022 06:37:21 PM126 Unlike the pile-it-high urban grid of Manhattan – where the dimen- sions of the island determine that buildings go up, not out – Arizona, California, and Nevada have always off ered a languid sprawl. From Spanish colonial infl uences in Hollywood to the international style of Palm Springs, the buildings of the west are about a generous and open connection to the natural world. The interior (and exterior fi nishings) of the new Lake Tahoe house that Jamie Bush has created is one of the most luxurious examples in recent years. “We started the design process with the living room, where we devel- oped the idea of biomorphic forms,” explains the L.A.-based founder of the 20-strong team of Jamie Bush + Co. “The house in a landscape that resembles a bowl, with a sweeping shoreline. We took that motif and created islands within the room, with furniture placed in arrange- ments on organic rug forms, and lighting above them that resemble cloud formations.” Much of the graphic pattern in the house comes from the same inspiration. “I wanted to blur what is architecture and what is interior design,” says Bush. “There are a lot of curvaceous forms, and patterns that look like part of an eroded shoreline.” Like many signifi cant desert homes, the Lake Tahoe house has a pavilion-like feel to it. Each room has been shaped to draw the eye out to the landscape. “We purposely made a lot of the interior elements dark to help with that,” explains Bush. “A lot of architects in the past The light and space of the North American west coast and canyons have always shaped its architecture. AD_047_124-133_Arena_Lake Tahoe_12632774.indd 12605/10/2022 06:41:05 PMThis page: “The house’s small kitchen didn’t work,” says Dorsey, who opened up spaces that were previously enclosed to create a sunny breakfast area, and added cabinetry rom Christopher Peacock.The appliances are Thermador, and a Hans Ho mann painting adds a splash o colour. A custom blue entry table by Collection Par iculiere or Lawson Fenning and a Steinway & Sons grand piano add dramatic lair to the great room. OPPOSITE PAGE, FROM TOP: The house has direct lake access; the statement teak staircase. AD_047_124-133_Arena_Lake Tahoe_12632774.indd 12705/10/2022 06:41:19 PMNext >