In the Studio with PIN–UP Magazine's Felix Burrichter

The first time I visited Opening Ceremony New York, I found a magazine that really captured my interest: PIN–UP, a "magazine for architectural entertainment." Besides its sharp aesthetic, the magazine seemed to present nascent dreams and surreal projects that really stimulated the imagination. It not only featured the personal objects and home interiors of the curious and creative minds it featured, but also used them to read their personalities. Felix Burrichter, the founder of PIN–UP, invited OC into his workspace to answer a few questions.

Alexandre Stipanovich: Where did you study architecture?
Felix Burrichter: I went to architecture school in Paris for five years, at l'École d'Architecture de Paris Belleville, and the École Spéciale. But when I graduated I didn't really want to work as an architect anymore, so I came to New York to intern for Fabien Baron. I had always obsessed over his Harper’s Bazaar in the 90s. In fact, I’ve always loved magazines. In Germany, I would always go to the main train stations, where international magazines are mostly sold, and I'd spend afternoons just browsing racks. Then it would take me about an hour and a half to pick three that I could afford.

AS: What made you choose one magazine over another?
FB: I'd pick the magazines that created a universe of their own, the ones where you could immerse yourself and feel like you were part of something else––whether it was a certain group of people, intellectual discourse, or something graphic or visual, like the understanding of a certain kind of aesthetic. And that's still the same today. I was obsessed with designing and doing architecture and architecture drawings, but strangely enough, I never bought architecture magazines, and I still don't really. I did, however, read older architecture magazines that my parents had at their house. They must've had a subscription in the 70s or 80s to this one called Häuser (meaning houses in German), and it was really beautifully designed.

AS: What was your internship for Baron & Baron like? 
FB: Even though I was a big fan, I realized that at the end of the day, Baron & Baron was an advertising agency, and you're making packaging for Calvin Klein perfume. The problem with architects is that they think they can do anything, like graphic design, packaging design, etcetera. But it's a completely different animal, and I realized that fairly quickly. So I rediscovered my love for architecture by doing something else.

And that’s when I decided to enroll in a one-year Masters of Science in Architecture program at Columbia. After that, I actually accepted a job at a large architecture firm––a very corporate office with, like, 400 people working there. But I found that studying architecture was so much more fascinating than actually working as an architect, because it's more about the history, the creative process, and the entire genesis of a project––not the tedious details of building. [Laughs].

AS: Does architecture always have to remain theoretical for you?
FB: I am mostly interested in the ideas, yeah. Basically at this firm, I ended up doing the Photoshop illustrations and mood boards. So I got bored and I think they also got bored with me [laughs]. To distract myself, I started thinking, well, I’m really into magazines. What would my ideal magazine look like? And that’s how I came up with the idea for PIN–UP. So it started off as a hobby to di