Design Heroes: Season 1 Episode 1

Katie and Dawn launch the podcast with a discussion of inspirations, specifically the artist/architect they each selected as their “Design Hero” and why.

Sonia Delauney

Dawn speaks about Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979)

Reference: Sonia Delaunay: Fashion and Fabrics by Jacques Damase from Harry N Abrams, Inc.

Delaunay's career spanned the European continent, allowing her to reap the riches of the exciting advances by many avant-garde art groups. Born and raised in Russia, she was educated in Germany and then France, making Paris her home just as modern art was finding meaningful subject matter not dependent on realistic depictions of the world. Sonia was one of the primary propagators of Orphism (a movement founded by her husband Robert), a theory wedding color to form in order to achieve visual intensity on the surface of the canvas. Delaunay extended the visual exploration of this theory to a range of fields beyond painting, developing an entire career in textile design.

Wenche Selmer

Katie speaks about Wenche Selmer (1920-1998)

Reference: Norwegian Wood: The Thoughtful Architecture of Wenche Selmer by Elisabeth Tostrup from the Princeton Architectural Press

Pronounced Vehn-keh, Selmer was a Norwegian architect who specialized in the design of custom “recreational” and primary residences on the shores, among the mountains, and in the woods of Norway. She and her husband Jens Selmer had separate architectural practices, though they were influenced by each other’s architecture and design sensibility. Wenche, a mother of two, worked from home and focused on the design of smaller cottages and cabins, integrally connected to the rugged Norwegian landscape. As an architect practicing during the competing forces of international mid-Century modernism and vernacular traditional regionalism, Selmer’s work artfully bridges the two. Homes of her design are at once modern and regionally influenced and crafted. The marriage of art and livable practicality were at the crux of her practice. She was also an educator, teaching as an assistant professor and then associate professor at the Oslo School of Architecture. Perhaps because of the modesty of her buildings and practice, Selmer was never awarded a full professorship, though she is rightfully recognized for the quality of her work and influence in Tostrup’s book.