[Editor’s note: Today marks the physical release of the AN Interior Fall 2021 edition, which includes the fourth annual Top 50 list, among other editorial features. Ahead of the digital edition’s debut on October 18, we’ve reproduced editor-in-chief Aaron Seward’s note below as a preview. The page number suggestions will be just as valid for the digital edition as they are for the hard copy.]
It could be that you picked up this issue of AN Interior at one of seven showrooms participating in our annual Design District Crawl in the NoMad and Flatiron neighborhoods of Manhattan. We were all hoping this fall would usher in a “return to normal” vis-à-vis the pandemic. While that has not come to pass due to the rise of the Delta variant and middling vaccination rates among Americans, our collective need to come together and socialize again, for business and for pleasure, has pushed us to find safe ways (inoculated, masked, and distanced) to convene, coronavirus be damned.
But chances are you received the issue in the mail at your home or office (perhaps they’re the same place now), just like you receive your print editions of The Architect’s Newspaper (the “AN” in “AN Interior”). As the name suggests, unlike the many other publications that endeavor to cover the world of interiors, we focus on the considerable contributions of architects to this field of design.
After all, architects have since time immemorial thought of the interior as an integral part of any overall design project, all the way down to the fittings, fixtures, and furniture, a point made amply clear in our conversation with Volume Gallery cofounder Claire Warner (page 10 of the digital edition).
It is in the spirit of honoring architects’ contributions to interior space that we, for the fourth year in a row, present our Top 50 list (page 30). Chosen by editors, the firms included here are all working at the forefront of the profession. The list is intentionally diverse by firm size, reputation (many are quite young, while others have been leading the pack for decades), demographics, geographic location in North America (including Mexico and Canada), and type of work—everything from large public and institutional projects to single-family homes and installations. We hope you like our selections.
Check the office for your copy of AN Interior Fall 2021, and stay tuned as we cross-post this issue’s features and reviews online.
