A Cadillac’s aerodynamic and slightly futuristic silhouette. The geometric motel signs dotted along American highways. Pastel-hued trailers and colonial homes. But also the Shakers’ approach to essential and functional interiors and deconstructed architecture with a pinch of surrealism. These and more formed the basis for Stefan Beckman’s set for Wallpaper’s dream American house, a backdrop to our celebration of American furniture design.
American furniture design and a dream home by Stefan Beckman
Among the USA’s leading set designers, New York-based Beckman is the name of choice for a plethora of fashion brands who regularly enlist him to create the backdrops to their shows and collections, but his work also includes exhibition design for the likes of Gagosian, commercials for fashion and more. His sets combine rigorous research into a theme or inspiration with pure spectacle, with no two designs looking or feeling the same.
‘I wanted to tell this story through the framework of an American house,’ Beckman explains of his process to create the set for this shoot. He looked at the suburban ideal home through archive images, builders’ plans and vintage photography, which he used as a starting point to illustrate the concept.
Structures mimicking idealised homes with traditional pointed roofs frame the interiors vignettes, their slightly reduced proportions making them appear almost like doll houses: ‘We created a miniature world within a world; instead of creating an environment, I wanted the sets to feel more like an installation, and the furniture to feel heroic within them.’
The sets were created inside an industrial building within the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a place chosen by Beckman for its rough character, which can be perceived at the edges of the more curated elements of the pictures. ‘I wanted to go to a specific location, and this gritty warehouse gives a sense of where things are created,’ he explains. ‘This was a great contrast to the slick environments and conceptual furniture pieces, and was complemented by the dramatic, moody lighting.’
The vignettes offer an overview of American design today, with contemporary sculptural works by emerging and established makers alongside furniture that nods to midcentury heritage, such as George Nelson’s ‘Marshmallow’ sofa and a series of chairs by Rhode Island-based O&G Studio, whose work references New England design traditions.
This layered approach interested Beckman, who sees it reflected in contemporary American interiors. ‘Interiors today push the boundaries of materials, mixing genres, periods, textures,’ he says. ‘The more interesting interiors I see now are curated through objects that relate to one another. It’s not all cookie cutter, and this is the spirit of this story, all these objects are like characters in a play, and they speak to each other.’
Set design assistants: Nic Der, Syvash Jefferson, Oscar Romero, Nora Bayer and Mary Gavin. Photography assistants: Tom Rauner, Jacob Wayler and Andrew Oppeneer. Local production assistant: Sirat Kaur. Digi tech: Justin Shaffer
This article appears in the August 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, available to download free when you sign up to our daily newsletter, in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today
