MARFA MANIFESTATION: Donald Judd’s Marfa buildings restored through measured restraint
ARCHITECTURE
In the small town of Marfa, Texas, the Judd Foundation cares for 22 buildings acquired by Donald Judd and, since his death in 1994, has preserved them according to his artistic and architectural thinking. Judd believed that his work should be experienced within spatial conditions he had personally conceived, designed and carefully planned.
Judd chose Marfa for its space and lack of people, which gave him more room to think. Through his acquisition of buildings and land, he also sought to protect the landscape from development and its architecture from demolition. “One of the most difficult [ideas] is the one of leaving the land alone,” he wrote in 1987. “Leave it alone or return it to its natural state.”
In September 2025, following a seven year rebuilding process, the foundation reopened the Architecture Office in downtown Marfa. Developed with Schaum Architects, the restoration followed Judd’s principle of delayed intervention: “Do nothing for a day or two and think about it before you act.”
“We have learned through this work that strategically not doing something is much more difficult than producing the new,” says Troy Schaum. “These are projects in which, if we are successful, our hands as designers will leave little trace.”
The restored building houses Judd’s furniture and architectural drawings on the ground floor, with works by John Chamberlain and furniture by Judd and Alvar Aalto upstairs.
Read the full architectural feature in Ark Journal Volume XV.
WORDS SISSE BRO
PHOTOGRAPHY MARTIEN MULDER
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MARFA MANIFESTATION: Donald Judd’s Marfa buildings restored through measured restraint
ARCHITECTURE
In the small town of Marfa, Texas, the Judd Foundation cares for 22 buildings acquired by Donald Judd and, since his death in 1994, has preserved them according to his artistic and architectural thinking. Judd believed that his work should be experienced within spatial conditions he had personally conceived, designed and carefully planned.
Judd chose Marfa for its space and lack of people, which gave him more room to think. Through his acquisition of buildings and land, he also sought to protect the landscape from development and its architecture from demolition. “One of the most difficult [ideas] is the one of leaving the land alone,” he wrote in 1987. “Leave it alone or return it to its natural state.”
In September 2025, following a seven year rebuilding process, the foundation reopened the Architecture Office in downtown Marfa. Developed with Schaum Architects, the restoration followed Judd’s principle of delayed intervention: “Do nothing for a day or two and think about it before you act.”
“We have learned through this work that strategically not doing something is much more difficult than producing the new,” says Troy Schaum. “These are projects in which, if we are successful, our hands as designers will leave little trace.”
The restored building houses Judd’s furniture and architectural drawings on the ground floor, with works by John Chamberlain and furniture by Judd and Alvar Aalto upstairs.
Read the full architectural feature in Ark Journal Vol. XI.
WORDS SISSE BRO
PHOTOGRAPHY MARTIEN MULDER