Above: Tim Groen, Felix Burrichter, New York, 2010

Felix Burrichter
Editor / Creative Director, PIN-UP Magazine

“The aim was very simple and almost banal,” Felix answers when I ask what he had in mind when he founded PIN-UP, of which he is the editor and creative director. “I wanted to bring some of the ephemeral qualities, the playfulness of fashion editorial to an architecture publication, and make it entertaining.”

Felix, who was trained as an architect, has always been obsessed with fashion magazines, which is why, when he was still a student, he would intern at a fashion magazine every summer (Numéro, Fantastic Man). “At the time these internships didn’t make any sense, not even to me,” he says, looking back on feeling somewhat torn between two worlds that are traditionally presented in almost opposite ways. “But once I graduated, and was working as an architect, this idea started crystallizing that I wanted to create an architecture magazine that actually wasn’t boring and dry.”

And so the first issue of PIN-UP was created, without a business plan, but with a very clear idea of what the magazine should, and should not be: Lose the heavy-handedness that’s so prevalent in architecture media, and bring on a dose of fashion sprit, in which, as Felix puts it, “there’s no such thing as inappropriate. If anything, inappropriateness is almost desirable.”

Flash-forward about three years, to issue number seven, and all of Felix’ ideas about his magazine for architectural entertainment are still firmly in place. The main change Felix can identify is that PIN-UP is increasingly about design. “Design lies somewhere between architecture and fashion”, he explains, “in terms of shelf life and attitude.” But the reader who has followed the magazine from issue one, may have noticed that contemporary art is featured more and more. Felix acknowledges this: “From design it’s an easy step to contemporary art, and I never thought that that would happen. I was always interested in art, but felt like I didn’t know very much about it.”
Art and architecture are a perfect match, argues Felix, who is excited about the room for experimentation where the two intersect.
“It doesn’t mean that PIN–UP will eventually become an art magazine, but it’s yet another subject that allows for a certain freedom in relation to architecture, and freedom is what PIN–UP is all about.”

I’m personally mildly obsessed with those sections in magazines that ask a person for their favorite things, or better yet, for the “things that they can’t live without,” as ELLE Decor words it. Usually the answers sound pretentious, or embarrassing, or both. And they often pander to the advertiser you see three pages later. Since I have no advertisers to pander to, I asked Felix to list the ten things he can live without (but may decide to keep anyway):

1. Subway Tiles:
McNally did them first, and now, like taxidermy, they’ve slowly crept up all over New York restaurants, presumably to create that slightly rustic edgy charm of yore. I prefer a nice square white ceramic tile any day (like a >Bernd Trasberger< installation)!

2. Plastic Garden Chairs:
I actually don’t mind them so much, the only reason I’m listing it is because it’s part of one of my favorite quotes. A reporter once asked Catherine Deneuve during the Berlin Biennale what she thought was the biggest horror in the world. After some thought that was her answer.

3. Cinnamon and Celery:
There is no dish in the world I can think of that benefits from adding either of those ingredients. The worst to me is cinnamon on a cappuccino, or celery dipped into a jar of peanut butter.

4. Shades/curtains:
I find pitch-black rooms disturbing. Not only do I not mind being woken by the morning sun, but waking up and not being able to see the sky seriously freaks me out. Nonetheless I recently bought shades for my apartment. They’re classic photo studio black vinyl shades intended to shield me from potentially nosy neighbors. (And I have to admit: I really like them and have them down a lot.)

5. Sunscreen:
I wish I didn’t need it, but unfortunately I do. The same goes for glasses, actually.

6. AOL Time Warner Center & Astor Place Tower:
Only two of many examples of how architecture can really destroy New York City’s cityscape and character (and that’s from someone who didn’t even move here until 2003).

7. 43 pairs of shoes (not including sandals or flip flops):
I really don’t need them all, but have very hard time letting go.

8. Ed Hardy by Christian Audigier.

9. Noguchi coffee tables, black Barcelona chairs, and Castiglione’s Arco lamp:
By themselves they’re all amazing design pieces, but combined they remind me too much of the default designer pieces one can find in any low-ceilinged, over-priced New York condo building sample apartment.

10. Dust.

Links:
PIN-UP Magazine

Tim Groen: Felix Burrichter, New York, 2010