Design/build/sell

Residential Architect, Sept-Oct, 2002 by Shelley D. Hutchins

for many architects, it's not a big leap from designing custom cabinetry for a house to designing furniture for sale. Consequently, many recently have tried their hand at select pieces: dining tables, chairs, and so forth.

Santa Monica, Calif.-based Marmol Radziner Associates--an architecture firm known for meticulous restoration of Modern masterworks and carefully crafted custom homes--takes the enterprise even further by designing, building, and selling their own furniture collection. "As a design/build firm, it's very much part of our process to create things and then produce them ourselves," says Leo Marmol. "Furniture is something we can personally control from start to finish."

Marmol Radziner Furniture debuted this spring with a set of reproductions from Schindler's Kings Road home, commissioned by the MAK Center for Art and Architecture. "We loved the idea of working with Schindler's powerful designs but also that some of the profits would go to preserve his own house, which we feel is the best residential example in L.A.," Marmol says. Later this year, the firm will launch an original line.

Restoring work by icons such as Schindler, Neutra, and Meier has influenced Marmol Radziner's custom architecture and furniture projects. "I appreciate the efficiency in their designs," says Marmol. "There's a nice environmental aspect and a wonderful respect for materials." His firm explores the aesthetic and functional qualities of steel, walnut, teak, and fine fabrics in pieces for the dining room bedroom, living room, and outdoors.

"We're hoping to make physical objects that provide functional use and inspire joy," says Marmol. "We want to speak to people through what we do."