a tent inside a house?
Happy Saturday, Design Enthusiasts.
I saw the photo below online and decided to purchase the book it was featured in.
It's The Lighting Book by Deyan Sudjic, published in 1985.
This setup really speaks to me. I've never seen anything quite like this indoors.
Photo Credit: Gilles de Chabaneix
I've talked about Enclosure several times in this newsletter, but I'm not sure you can discuss it too much.
This whole thing screams Enclosure.
Enclosure by conversation pit. Enclosure by four lamps, all on the same plane and all of which echo the shape of the tent above (also an Enclosure itself). And the Enclosure by beautiful textural large plants.
I don't know what kind of room this is in. If I have to guess, it's a vaulted angular bonus room. The tent brings some order to what is not a rectangular room.
I've never considered putting a tent inside your house, but it could work.
The kids would love it. What's great about kids is that they do with their bodies what we want to do but refuse to.
This setup is also hypersymmetrical. The few asymmetrical accents - plants and statue - do not steal the show but help draw the eye to the tent.
They are also really lining up the lines here; that's a big part of why this looks good.
The tent provides some nice, softly bounced ambient light and gives the whole region a subtle glow.
Enclosure is the art of creating a mini-room inside a room. This setup would be incredible in a hospitality space.
Whether in a hotel lobby, outdoor courtyard, or floor of a restaurant - I want to do it. Maybe in my backyard.
Sometimes, you see something, and the ideas just flow.
Speaking of which, here's a great way to get some new design ideas:
read old design books
I love design books from the past because they teach you how to be new.
The design/fashion cycle has five stages that go like this:
New & Fresh. (Ooh, I've never seen this before. It feels exciting and risky)
Safe (I've seen this, I like it, and I haven't done it yet. I'll jump in the mix now that it is becoming culturally acceptable)
Saturated & a little Boring (This has become the official decor of momfluencer accounts)
Dated & Yuck (Home Goods wants in on the party)
Forgotten (Can you believe we ever did that?)
So why should you read old design books (and probably old books in general)?
First, many old design books are out of print but available online for around $10.
Inside these books are good ideas that may have been forgotten. And you can reintroduce and use them.
Kelly Wearstler did this, first with 1970/80s design and then Vienna Secession.
She had the marketing dollars and the right projects, but still, it's a great case study in pioneering a new style that explicitly borrows heavily from the past.
In her case, that past was 30-80 years ago, and it felt fresh; thus, she helped reignite the cycle.
I'll add that trends come and go, but the human heart knows objective beauty (look at where people travel and what they go to see). Beauty is always there, sandwiched in between trends in each cycle and decade.
The below from The Lighting Book could very easily be today:
Green, Color Drenching, Parquet Floors, Mirror Walls. It's all happening right now.
So get out there and find some new old ideas!
a few things I saw this week
The rice tile series by Marazzi. So pretty.
The dark blue one in a shower with a skylight above would be something else. Please steal this idea.
Feels like a Japanese-inspired response to delft tile.
The Science of Beauty by DR Hay. My friend Solarchitect tweeted about this.
This is from a book published in 1856 that examines beauty in nature and art through scientific principles like harmonic proportions and the golden ratio, focusing on form, color, and proportion.
via the Project Gutenberg eBook of The Science of beauty
Admittedly, it's extremely dense and mathematical, and I have not fully dug into this, but you should take a look at the full text available at Project Gutenberg. The illustrations are beautiful.
This will likely eventually turn into a full newsletter if I manage to get through it.
