Four years in the making, the 1,200-square-foot Vipp pavilion, which sits on a pond at the edge of sixteen scenic acres of forest Upstate New York, has been conceived as a sculptural object.
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In crafting the structure, @johnstonmarklee and @vipp established a dynamic equilibrium between the monolithic form and its wild forest surroundings; between the perception of a heavy mass and the experience of a light-filled volumetric form.
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“The building’s form and materiality create an unexpected atmosphere, inverting the perception of inside and outside. Rough, curved interior walls and a ribbed stucco façade cast rhythmic vertical shadows, contrasting yet harmonizing with the rustic landscape.” says Sharon Johnston & Mark Lee.
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Read more about @johnstonmarklee and their thoughts behind the architecture of the new Vipp guesthouse at Vipp.com
“We wanted to create something primitive, both volumetric and solid,” says Sharon Johnston, co-founder of the Los Angeles–based firm @johnstonmarklee , about @vipp ’s first guesthouse in the United States.
Read the full feature in Vol. XV.
Words by @adrian_madlener
Photography by @luisgarvan
Schaufensterprojekt VI:
In the forthcoming installment of Schaufensterprojekt at Hochparterre Bücher, Johnston Marklee will exhibit a selection of the firm’s collage work. In the early phases of each project, collage offers a way of drawing freely and quickly on diverse historical precedents, selecting key elements from existing architecture to establish a lineage with which the project will engage. Through appropriations of architectural imagery, the exhibited collages produced by Johnston Marklee depict at once the firm’s work and a broader inquiry, as Martino Stierli writes, ‘into the relationship between architecture and its visual other, of project and projection.’
On June 2nd, Mark Lee will be joined by Fredi Fischli & Niels Olsen to discuss his recent book, Five Footnotes Toward an Architecture, co-published by Sternberg Press & Harvard Design Press, in which he present body of work on the basis of five “footnotes” – on history, on cadence, on autonomy, on America, and on point – transcribed from Lee’s Walter Gropius lecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), on the occasion of his fifth and final year as Chair of the Department of Architecture.
Mark Lee is the founding partner of Johnston Marklee, based in Los Angeles, California. Mark has previously taught at UCLA, Princeton University, TU Berlin, ETH Zurich, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he is Chair Emeritus of the Department of Architecture. Mark served as the Artistic Co-Director of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial, and he has been awarded by the American Academy of Arts & Letters, the Society of Architectural Historians, The University of Southern California School of Architecture as Distinguished Alumnus, and Cal Poly Pomona with the Richard Neutra Medal.
We are very much looking forward to having Mark Lee present for this event on June 2nd, 7pm. The exhibited works in the shop window can be seen until July 31st.
Los Angeles sits in a landscape well acquainted with wildfires. The semi-arid chaparral of Southern California has long burned in cycles of clearing and regrowth, an ecological process managed by Indigenous communities for centuries. But few residents of the city could be prepared for the speed and scale of the blazes that spread across Altadena and the Pacific Palisades last January.
At In Focus: Transformation, @zoeryanprojects , director of the Hammer Museum, sat down with Michael Madrigal, president of the Native American Land Conservancy (@nalcorg ), and Los Angeles architects Michael Maltzan (@michaelmaltzanarchitecture ) and Sharon Johnston (@johnstonmarklee ) to discuss the role of architects in rebuilding in the aftermath of two of the most destructive fires in California’s history. The panel, titled Design in the Pyrocene, also considered the ways in which those responsible for the design of cities might broaden their practices to become stewards of the natural landscapes that support them. Watch their full conversation at the link in bio 🔗
In Focus: Transformation took place at the Hammer Museum on Saturday February 21, 2026. Visit our website to watch the full program.
📸: @smgphotoevents
#SharonJohnston #MichaelMadrigal #MichaelMaltzan #ZoeRyan #ArchitectureTalks DesignTalks
Our newly opened guesthouse Vipp Pavilion, designed by the renowned Los Angeles-based architectural firm @johnstonmarklee , is an architecturally daring property that immerses visitors in the lush greenery of its natural surroundings.
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“At first glance, the building resembles a stone on the pond; initially solid, but slowly revealing its volumetric form on the approach”, says Sharon Johnston co-founder of @johnstonmarklee . Vipp Pavilion gives visitors a rare opportunity to engage privately with their work in an intimate setting.
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Interiors feature Vipp’s anodized aluminum V3 kitchen alongside curated artworks and a warm, forest-inspired palette - creating a spatial experience where design, art, and ecology converge.
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Explore more of the new guesthouse at Vipp.com.
Vipp, the Danish design brand, expands its guesthouse portfolio with the launch of Vipp Upstate New York—a sculptural pavilion by Johnston Marklee, shaped as two tangent ellipses on a sixteen-acre meadow in the Catskills.
Opening in January 2026, the property marks Vipp’s first ground-up project in the United States and its fourteenth guesthouse worldwide. The geometric structure, inspired by two tangent ellipses, opens to panoramic views of the surrounding meadow and pond, offering an immersive and tranquil escape where the boundary between architecture and nature is deliberately dissolved. @vipp@johnstonmarklee@ericpetschek
Read more at thisispaper.com
The drama of the Vipp Pavilion begins before you reach the house, following a pond towards a low-slung, rectilinear volume set at the far end of a clearing. Designed by the LA-based architectural firm @johnstonmarklee , the pavilion-like guesthouse sits quietly within the forests of upstate New York.
Six years ago, Danish transplants Frank and Sofie Christensen Egelund fell under the region’s spell while searching for the perfect plot of land for a rural escape from their Manhattan loft. The project was never meant to be an ordinary bolthole. Instead, it would become a guesthouse for their design company @vipp , the Danish lifestyle brand known for everything from pedal bins and toilet brushes to swivel chairs and sleek modular kitchens.
A decade ago, Vipp began offering bookable guesthouses around the world, from Denmark and Sweden to Mexico and Tasmania, retreats furnished by the brand and shaped by its signature Scandinavian minimalism.
The two-bedroom guesthouse in upstate New York measures just 1,200 sq ft, yet the clever layout, minimal décor and natural light pouring in through skylights make the space feel bright and airy. At the centre of the open-plan living space sits Vipp’s monolithic ‘V3’ kitchen, its anodised aluminium and stainless steel surfaces anchoring the interior with quiet precision.
This forest retreat offers the perfect invitation to unplug and unwind.
Read more via the link in bio or at wallpaper.com.
📷: @cb
🖊: @anna_fixsen
The Speakers’ Corner at Biennale Architettura (@labiennale ) became a stage for the Dance Corps of the Rome Opera Theatre during Teatro La Fenice’s (@teatrolafenice ) Concerto di Capodanno 2026.
A space dedicated to dialogue, workshops and respite throughout the Exhibition now reactivated through movement for the New Year’s concert.
#BiennaleArchitettura2025 #IntelliGens @raicultura@crassociati@johnstonmarklee@christopherhawthorne@flor_ness
The Speakers’ Corner was supported by Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Kartell, COIMA, UIC University of Illinois Chicago, Deborah Berke, and Yale School of Architecture, Sidara, City of Amsterdam, Veneta Cucine, Buzzi, Fondazione Modena
Wood Panels provided by technical supporter Saviola (@grupposaviola ).
In memory of Frank O. Gehry, whose indelible influence on our field and Los Angeles lives on through our generation and the countless more to come. So long, Frank!
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Pictured here: Frank O. Gehry & Associates poster, “from our house to yours. 1975”
CSA #9 Gottfurcht Longstreet House is a multi-generational residence in the Pacific Palisades designed for living inside and out. Less house and more garden, CSA #9 is a contemplative home oriented around a walled courtyard.
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Extending the legacy of the original Case Study program, the house is designed with standardized components that enclose three volumes – an ADU, a courtyard, and the primary dwelling space between courtyard and backyard gardens designed by @studiokaufmanlange – that step in plan and section to optimize open space, daylight, and views.
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Together with our clients, the Longstreet family, we designed CSA #9 to adapt through time.
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For more on @casestudyadapt , read the latest @archdigest feature written by @samuelcochran at the link in bio, and visit the accompanying design release exhibition at @uscarchitecture on view until November 30, 2025.
