Get Inside this Year’s AD100 Debutant, Johnston Marklee

Take this opportunity to get inside the mind of an amazing and innovative team of architects that were featured on this year’s AD100 list for the first time.

For Johnston Marklee this was the first time they made the cut into AD100, Architectural Digest’s yearly list of the best interior designers and architects. Every year, this same list is filled with names that promise to shake things up in the design and architecture scenes, and we have a feeling LA-based Johnston Marklee are here to stay!

Meet the founders!

The dynamic duo Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee first got together and founded Johnston Marklee in 1998, creating a daring and honorable reputation over the years, and sharing with the world their geometric designs. Their main focus has been residential projects, and the duo has even gone as far as to publish a book on the matter in 2016. Read it if you can: “House Is a House Is a House Is a House Is a House.”

The architectural team has also worked on institutional and commercial projects, such as an ongoing update to Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, a retail building in Miami’s Design District, and the eagerly awaited Menil Drawing Institute in Houston, opening later this year

Some of our favorite projects

Vault House, Oxnard, California, 2013

Located in what is nowadays a densely developed beach in southern California, Vault House challenges the architectural typology we are used to seeing in beach houses. Instead of focusing on a single privileged ocean view, a series of spaces in transparent layers make up the main volume of the house, offering multiple oblique points of view throughout the house, all the while it captures daylight from a series of different angles.

The beach climate, with strong winds and the typical sea air you breathe in, made the architects choose materials that had to be simple, yet resistant to different weather conditions. Limestone was used to build every story, and as a type of wall coat, a layer of cement we call grailcoat was used to cover the outward façade.

The open living room and kitchen area inside Vault House.

Green Line Arts Center, Chicago, Illinois

Johnston Marklee are designing the concept for the new Green Line Arts Center in the historic Washington Park neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. The Center will provide new performance, workshop, and exhibition spaces where important works of art are made and vital skills are shared to help all artists excel.

View House, Rosario, Argentina, 2009

Situated near Rosario on the vast landscape of the Argentine plains, the 3200 sq foot house occupies a 22,750 sq foot parcel. According to the architects, “the design is driven by two conflicting desires: engaging the living experience of the house with the views of the surrounding landscape and preserving privacy from neighbors.”

Hill House, Los Angeles, California, 2004

With the world-renowned Eames House very nearby, the designers and architects of the Hill House project believe “the 3300 square foot Hill House provocatively continues the Case Study House tradition of experimentation and reinvention of Los Angeles lifestyles.”

KEEP READING: Interior Design Trends 2018: What’s In & What’s Out!

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