apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I read the whole article it linked to (I love Andrea Zittel's work) and can understand the desire for simplicity and minimalist living, but quite frankly this apartment just makes me sad, even if it does have a good city view. What really got me is the photo of the patchy wall above the kitchen sink. It's not a clean slate, it's more of a cell with no life in it.

Um - That's not "Minimalist"...
...that's just plain "Empty".

Why even have a sink? Or a bed? This is ridiculous. Only a mentally ill person or someone who is obscenely wealthy and has someone to take care of everything for him, including the essentials such as meals, bills and other paperwork, laundry, etc. would live like this. He probably has someone who wipes his ass for him, too. Altho does he even have toilet paper? All I can think is, this must be some kind of performance art.

I agree with bepsf. It doesn't look like someone lives there (the article says he pretty much lives on his balcony). And it's not like the bare bones of the apartment are beautiful enough to leave it so empty.

Finally, those smudges on the kitchen wall would drive me crazy.

homebody, i noticed the same thing with the bad patching over the sink.

and yes, this place is ridiculous. but not in a good way. i get a strong vibe of sadness and confusion from this apartment.

i do have to say i love the way the floor plan picture is done

oh and PS this place freaks me the f out

Ugh... pretentious AND creepy.

I giggled when I read the description of his voice--"a Teutonic monotone." It made me think of Sprockets. Maybe he doesn't have any furniture so he can use the living room as a discotheque... you know, for the time when we dance.

This is sad, not stylish. The story about him stripping his Mexico hotel room suggests that he has the reverse of a hoarding disorder.

What does he do, sit in the dark on the hard plastic chair?

I agree. Terribly sad. For such a big name who works for the MoMa. Buy some art for Pete's sake. A giant Jeff Koons sculpture would be great in there.

Also, I'd like to see him spend "most of his time outside" in winter. LES ain't so hot in a blizzard.

you want this to be featured as minimalist?

this is why "terms" get mangled and misused; he is just not interested in owning objects. okay. got it.

whatever that is called. a "space-ist" maybe okay... now get rid of your bed and chairs, they are ruining your "space."

naturally, i love it!

I'm quite surprised he admitted to owning a television. How gauche.

not a living space... installation or performance art if you ask me

"small things make me nervous" -yeah, that's kindof unusual... not minimalist

He's probably an airitarian, too.

Those patches over the kitchen sink look to me like someone patched, and then couldn't be bothered to properly prime before slapping paint on there. It's got the dullness you get when bare plaster/gypsum absorbs paint at a different rate than the primed or previously-painted surfaces around it... and that just looks cheap. Not minimalist, just cheap.

Then again, my first impression of that kitchen picture was "do they realize a picture of an abandoned house got stuck in the middle, here?" -- because it looks like a glossier version of some of the photos I've seen of abandoned hospitals in Britain. I mean, honestly: look at the doors on the cabinet. They don't even close properly, and they're sagging into each other!

Minimalism, to me, indicates a wish to let the surfaces and architecture do all the work without bric-brac and whatnot in the visual way. But that also usually means embracing the architecture, giving it all the attention & care that would've otherwise been spent on cheap little woobies. This guy didn't embrace anything. He just slapped cheap paint on everything and called his bizarre anti-packratting OCD-like obsession "minimalism".

Then again, I suppose if I made a million dollars a year as the head of an internationally-known museum, there'd probably be plenty people more than happy to ooh and aahh over, say, my workshop. Because under seven-digits, it's a freaking disaster area of a clusterwhack. Over seven-digits? Oh, well, obviously it's PERFORMANCE ART.

everyone should read the article before they start criticizing the space.

UGH! Creeeeeee-py!

Actually, I love the patches. It's like having a Robert Ryman on your wall--wait, a wall that is a Robert Ryman.

It's funny, too. I mean, why make a gesture towards traditional food preparation (in the home) with a bunch of kitchen things when you never eat at home anyway? I (like many New Yorkers) stay at work til at least 8 or 9 every night, ordering takeway 75 percent of my meals and dine-in at restaurants the other 25 percent. So why even have dishes?

Yes, it's extreme, but isn't that why we love/love to hate NYC?

As he himself says, he is the perpetual observer. His apartment is not set up for living, but watching others live, which is actually rather sad.

Plus, it struck me while reading the article that his "home" is one of his ways of demonstrating his exceptionalism. Again, rather sad.

It all reminds me of very pretentious art-house films; likely deliberate given his area of curatorial expertise.

I agree with the comments...in order for a place to work in the minimalism genre....it must be pristine and have great bone structure....this does not.

All I can think is I hope he hosts lots of parties here with all that unused space. Breakfast at Tiffany's. Ill take it on ice.

I LOVE minimalism, but all elements of the home have to be perfect to pull this off. This isn't the case here. For example, the kitchen sink looks in disrepair with some bashed-up unit next to it with a back wall that has been patched-up.

The hardware on the doors and the light switches looks cheap and boring. The owner could have gone with modern chrome touches.

This is not minimalism. This is buying a subpar apartment. Doing nothing to improve it. Adding some "not so interesting" and "not interesting" furniture and calling it minimal.

"Here, curator Klaus Biesenbach’s stripped-down Manhattan apartment inspired her to conceive a series of images that investigate domestic and urban life and one man’s design for living. "

Translation:

"It occurred to Andrea Zittel to photograph Klaus Biesenbach's apartment."

probably..... maybe..... perhaps...... it's like i wrote in another post... this guy might see his apt as a place to shed whatever crap he gets during his work days off his mind and system....

That being said...there is no excuse for that plastic chair.... i would have a barcelona daybed or something similar in the middle of the room... and then... like someone else said... "sit there in the dark" or lay there and cry myself to sleep... at least it would be more comfortable!!

This apartment does not demonstrate minimalism it's simply empty and unkempt. Even the writer of the referenced W magazine article conveys an uncertainty about the space by attempting to dispell the reader's disgust by heaping up all manner of praise for Mr. Biesenbach's educational and professional achievements. The writer then attempts to evoke sympathy for him due to his supposedly overstimulating work justifying the unit's emptiness. Educational and artistic achievement, and curatorial prominence however do not a livable apartment create and the result of the photo essay only makes the space seem even more imprudent.

Minimalism assumes that someone actually lives in the space, not camps out there in the bedroom and terrace, gazes at the views, and orders out for food. Mr. Biesenbach could have achieved the same by simply installing a cot with the same plastic chair or two in a vacant suite in his midtown offices.

Minimal need not be so severe.

I see it. I read about it in several different articles. I get it. I understand it and it is still empty, lonely and very sad. Strict and strangely suppressed.

Home is where the heart is...

The article is kind of hilarious. It's like a public service announcement for why watching too much performance art is dangerous. "I spend all day thinking about the perfect shade of gray." In a Teutonic monotone, no less.

If he lived in Honolulu this could almost make sense, I mean, in that kind of climate I'd put plants, my bed and a dining table on the deck and say to heck with the indoor space. But in New York? Some February day that dude's gonna jump off the 18th story terrace.

what a waste of a space with lots of great potential

home shouldnt look like a mental institution. how cold and ugly.

a living space with no life

That's just depressing.

OK, I've read the article.
And now I'm criticizing the space.

i read the article. two thoughts occured to me: potential mental illness and some of the images are really beautiful.

i understand the beauty of empty space. there is something very evocative and beautiful about a place that is completely clean and empty. i've fantasized about moving into a new place and not moving any of my crap with me and just luxuriating in the pure emptiness.

eventually, however, i'd like to have a cookie and maybe invite a friend over for drinks. and i'd want to revisit that book i used to have and maybe watch tv. so i could never actually live like this. but knowing that somebody can kind of validates the fantasy.

Yeah, I read the article - The dude is crackers.

I personally would not choose to live like that, but I do understand.
From what I gathered, this is a temporary "phase".
It would not make much sense without that terrace, though...

Love it. It's an extreme exercise in restraint. It's a beautiful space with beautiful views and to be able to live this simply is a major accomplishment. Yay!

I don't want to read the article. I'm hoping that he has a sort of doppelganger apartment bursting w/all his stuff ~ and he spends many hours there, gleefully arranging and rearranging things.

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Actually, from a povertista design point of view, the apartment could be attractive.

Kitchen: get rid of that whatever-it is next to the sink and put in a decent looking small cabinet (even povertistas need somewhere to keep a glass, small plate, a couple of spoons and a jar of peanut butter). Either patch and paint the wall over the sink, or slap an interesting decal on it.

Bathroom: Get rid of the tub (no kidding), put in a shower platform and a personal shower.

Bedroom: Get rid of the bed, and use a single mattress or a couple fleece blankets. The televisiion looks like its entrails have escaped its cabinet--sloppy looking.

The chairs: Oh my! Even a couple of matching folding chairs from Sam's Club would look better.

There are as many types of "minimalism" as there are minimalists. But one point of agreement must be that nothing looks sloppy.