1) How would you describe your latest works?
I am aiming to work in ways that have long term impacts on part of the public realm in the cities I’m invited to create projects in. I introduce elements that are carefully made with uplifting designs and high quality, robust materials, that make a major contribution towards deepening a sense of singularity, specialness and pride in a particular place.
2) What are the biggest challenges you have met in your career?
I would say that the challenges have been quite standard, with the most significant being also very normal, which is finding the kind of work that I would like to do, and convincing clients that I am the right person to do it. At the beginning this took a very long time, which is why for many years I was working in architecture practices, while doing my own practice on the “side” until I had enough of a portfolio and sufficient clients to go it alone. This side of my practice -finding jobs- has been particularly interesting as I am very keen on doing projects that currently don’t really have a category, and fall between art, design and architecture, so it is an ongoing voyage to find ways to create the opportunities with clients who are keen on the ideas I try and convince them of.
3)What is the message you want to send?
I don’t really want to send didactic messages, I prefer to speak through my work, but I guess if I had a message it would be that high quality, decorative art at an architectural scale, made with beautiful, crafted materials, with interesting aesthetics that speak in different ways of different taste-cultures, embedded at scale in the city and in our buildings, makes an absolutely gargantuan difference to how unique and specific our urban areas feel, to how people can form bonds and relationships with the places they pass through every day, it is a uniquely powerful way to counteract the now all encompassing and overpowering feeling of disillusionment embodied so viscerally by the neutral, mineral aesthetics of our globalised city landscapes. My upcoming book (September 2026) “Chromatic Architecture, The Craft of Colour in Design” is intended to make this point through positive examples.
4) What is your main source of inspiration?
I have many, but London is probably the biggest one, and always has been. I find endless inspiration in my hometown, it is just so historically rich, but also its contemporary life is always so vibrant and full of novelty, that I get a month’s fill of inspiration just going for a day’s aimless wandering. I adore architectural history, so generally walking through new cities is a joy, looking up at all the old buildings, visiting the great public interiors, from Buenos Aires to Tokyo, New York to Tel Aviv, Rome to Glasgow, I just love urban wanderings…
5) What about your next project?
I am doing a scheme for a huge space under a highway in Greenwich with Adams & Sutherland Architects and Make:Good where the whole space is being rebuilt, new floorings, new lighting, new “Sicilian Staircase” of patterned tiles and ceramic walls, coloured metalwork and a huge 2400 square meter mural completely covering the underside of the flyover. Its well underway now and is looking great, and the feedback from the local community has been amazing, so its very exciting.
Adam Nathaniel Furman Portrait by Gareth Gardner