For designer Mark Grattan, New York City is a necessary evil. At the time of his interview with Wallpaper*, he had just signed a lease on a new apartment in Brooklyn. Not a permanent space, he insists, just somewhere to lay his head when he’s in town to meet clients and collaborators or fabricate furniture in his studio.
‘I need to be in New York for business and I was spending too much money on Airbnbs,’ he says. ‘I’m the type of person who needs things a certain way. I was pulling out all the furniture and living in these empty homes, which was actually kind of fun – but ridiculous.’ Instead, Grattan would rather be in Mexico City, where he lives in a Luis Barragán-designed apartment building. Or in São Paulo, where he plans to open a gallery to support young Brazilian designers and craftspeople. ‘Ideally, I would have this cycle of New York, Mexico and Brazil – just following the heat.’
