Incollect Magazine - Issue 13

70 www.incollect.com HISTORIC HUDSON VALLEY BARN, DUTCHESS COUNTY, NEWYORK Three years after having designed and renovated the main house of a historic early 1900s Dutchess County, New York property, Hendricks Churchill was asked to transform the three-story barn into a guesthouse. After the necessary aggressive structural work was completed to preserve the barn, the interiors were addressed. Tinted plaster was installed within the exposed existing timber frame, creating a backdrop that combined rusticity and bold, rhythmic geometry. In the dramatic double-height living room, a vintage 1970s Togo sofa by Michel Ducaroy for Ligne Rosset establishes mood and grounds the space with a laid-back aura. Said to be inspired by a rolled-up toothpaste tube, the low-slung, organically shaped form and shar-pei-like wrinkles were an invitation to casual relaxation in a time when furniture and posture were more formal and restrained. A pair of 1960s ‘Garrigue’ coffee tables is by Roger Capron. The handcrafted ‘Garrigue’ tiles were produced by pressing leaves from ‘La Garrigue,’ a scrubland ecosystem in southern France where Capron’s Vallauris pottery studio was located. The leaves burned off in the firing process, leaving finely detailed impressions of the indigenous botanical specimens. Serene organic energy emanates from an Akari floor lamp by Isamu Noguchi. In 1951, Noguchi visited the town of Gifu, Japan, known for producing traditional Japanese mulberry paper lanterns and umbrellas. He developed his modern Akari light sculptures using the Gifu methods with handmade mulberry bark paper and bamboo, which became instant design classics. Above a sculptural black wall-hung cabinet, a Japanese boro textile is displayed. Boro (tattered rags) patched and mended textiles are collected as folk art, exemplifying the Japanese concept of ‘mottainai’ (prolonging an object’s life through recycling and repurposing). A monumental vessel’s dramatic scale and rich green glaze make an eye-catching accent. Finnish architect Ilmari Lappalainen’s 1960s vintage Pulkka lounge chairs were reupholstered in faux horsehair, contrasting the distinctive warp and weft woven texture of the fabric with the sleek bentwood frame. Photo: Chris Mottalini Heide Hendricks and Rafe Churchill. Photo by Jeff Holt