Emptiness in architecture–or empty space–is not empty, but full: yet to realize this fullness requires the most exacting standards.” — Bruce Chatwin, biographer of John Pawson, London Minimum architect
“Even a kitchen doesn’t have to be a cliche,” says designer Judy Niedermaier.
She should know. The owner of the Niedermaier design showroom in The Merchandise Mart and other design centers in major markets has brought to Chicago a new concept of the kitchen.
A visitor to the just-finished kitchen in Niedermaier’s newly acquired lakefront aerie is aware of being exposed to something startling and different. It is like walking into a sculpture in which the empty, or “negative,” space is as vitally important to the aesthetic effect as that which is filled.
The uninitiated might ask: When will they finish the place?
But those who have traveled or read will recognize it as “London Minimum,” a philosophy that when applied to architecture and design is about space and light, function and refinement, clarity and precision.
“There is nothing quite like her kitchen anywhere else in Chicago,” says Mick De Giulio, the kitchen designer who collaborated on its completion and whose firm, de Giulio Kitchen Design Inc., has created 1,800 kitchens in the past 13 years.
The sparseness, the restraint and discipline in the 400-square-foot Niedermaier kitchen make it an oasis of calm in the center of hectic city life. Says De Giulio: There’s “a Zenlike quality to it”not a common description for this room of the house.
Niedermaier had first seen an example of London Minimum three years ago, at the debut of the new uncluttered and undecorated Calvin Klein shop in New York, done in London Minimum by John Pawson, the leading British architect of the look.
“But it takes awhile to reach the frontal lobe,” she says jokingly. She really “got it” a year ago, after a trip to London where the pared-down, sophisticated interiors are at their zenith. She was shocked, she says, to find London’s The Hempel hotel “100 percent minimal.” The Hempel was done by designer Anouska Hempel, who also had designed Blake’s, another London don hotel, which is “filled with indulgences.”
That trip is when she “became convinced,” she says. The look of visual tranquility is a sneak preview of the future, she believes.
America is a “melting pot of decor.” But as we approach the new millennium with new technology, Niedermaier believes “we are going to clean up our act, and decor is definitely going to go to contemporary.”
“The absence of clutter is a major force in the design world,” she says. And when you are down to the bare minimum, “it makes you want to have the best cup, the best plates, the best frying pan. It’s a point of view I find incredibly challenging. How much do we need of everything? I think that is the question.”
But isn’t there some irony about Niedermaier, whose business has been about display and decoration, to be fascinated with non-display?
“It really was doubly hard for me,” she admits. London Minimum “really is about refinement, about putting away the extra stuff. You can have beautiful things. But you only keep the very best on display. Not everything you own–(which would be like) wearing all the jewelry, or all the dresses you own at once. Or setting the table with everything you own.
“It is better to edit and be appropriate.”
She asked De Giulio, who had done the kitchen in her previous apartment, if he were interested in trying London Minimum, which was new to him. The pair collaborated, along with Mark Demsky of Mark D. Demsky, Architect, in Chicago, and Niedermaier employee Steve Wagner, on transforming the existing all-yellow laminate kitchen.
The whole project was a very emotional experience for her, she says, “because you can’t make one mistake in a room so spare.”
The two designers even went to the marble yards together to search for just the right pieces of Cristola Calcutta marble for the island top, which was about $90 per square foot, says De Giulio. The goal was to have the marble’s veins line up when pieces were laid side by side.
“Everything doesn’t have to be that expensive, it just has to be right,” Niedermaier says. So she has industrial-look light fixtures at either side of the hearth area that cost $10 each, while the main illumination, at a cost of $3,500, comes from fluorescent lights directly over the island, set deep within from five oblong indentations in the ceiling. The effect, achieved by Mark Demsky, the architect who oversaw the kitchen layout, is that of a skylight.
There are other luxurious details, such as the 1920s-style faucet from Barwils, in London.
Though Niedermaier seldom cooks herself, a friend, Bob Busick, who cooks when he visits from out of town, raves about how “everything turns out better because of the high function and the feeling of `lightness of being’ which inspires you to do your best work.”
A real detail of luxury, says Niedermaier, is having the two Sub-Zero refrigerator drawers parallel to the stove, to hold the ingredients the cook needs at hand at the stove.
The countertop by the sink is of Corian for easy care.
Geometric repeats of squares and rectangles in the cabinetry, in the windows and the floors of bleached oak, add to the visual interest in a subtle way.
A “comfort area,” one of the new buzzwords for a place to sit and relax in the kitchen, is located by the windows overlooking Lake Michigan at one end of the room. It is composed of a contemporary Niedermaier limed (distressed) oak table with limed oak chairs with leather cushions at the back and seat.
Above this still-life hangs an unusual lighting fixture from Spain, in the shape of three interlocking shamrock shapes.
The wood of the table and chairs has just a few drops of pink in it, providing warmth, an element very important to Niedermaier.
The table and chairs as well as the built-in cabinetry along the perimeter of the kitchen were made by Steve Wagner, a Niedermaier employee.
The island and the “L” area of sink and stove were the creation of de Giulio Kitchen Design. Siematic cabinetry was used sparingly in this area.
Characteristics
– Clean
– Classic
– Cutting-edge
– Refined
– Precise
Features
– Soft, spare simplicity
– Enhanced feeling of space and height
– Attention to light, function, details, materials
– Pared-down furniture
– Mathematical symmetry (i.e., number of square windows equals number of square floor tiles)
– High regard for negative, or empty, space
Realities
Living with London Minimum requires:
– Discipline
– Planning
———-
If you’d like to learn more about London Minimum, check out “London Minimum” by Herbert Ypma (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $27.50).
