David Michon

A brief exploration of “BANAL” MODULARITY VS “RADICAL” MODULARITY:

Banal Modularity can still LOOK and FEEL very gorgeous, you know?, and ADAPT to suit new arrangement needs. So it’s like, “boom! My sofa is now two chairs!”, or a Chadwick sofa that is super-curvy-snaking, twirling, goes-around-a-pole, etc. etc.

But, Radical Modularity is present when you can, like, do something that maybe the Capital-D Designer of the thing didn’t anticipate. THAT is not “ADAPT”-ing, that is “INDIVIDUATED F*CKERY”. And the benefit of that is clear: it’s Highly Personal; and, it reveals you as a person who can think LATERALLY.

The lesson is simply: consider power dynamics.

Consider “ARRANGEMENT” or discordance not just to be “individual”, but about communication that some spaces are JUST YOURS.

Never allow your furniture to dominate you, but equally, ensure it is not simply generic: personalization is crucial, as a humanization tactic. (We admit we didn’t really get into that.)

Understand that control can be nice for you to feel some sense of authority in this wild world, and the EXECUTIVE WORLD has honed this approach for decades.

Of course, décor is not instant, not flat. It is produced as reactions to one’s interests and personal version of The World, and is also - at its best – the result of time passing and EVOLVING desires and things being accumulated to fill the emotional and practical needs of the time / a time.

NOTABLY, the airport:

1. Has mastered the meditative “OUTWARD FACING CHAIR” arrangement
2. Skillfully, and uniquely blends upscale Suburban décor with genuine ‘industrial’
3. Makes sense of the most hideous floors (and if you can do it is a great prize!)

...What is particularly curious about the airport is that usual linear progression of time feels suspended. Which means, they are spaces that are:

= deeply contemplative and existential

And, ergo really give us a fresh sense of how we, individually, operate because

= airport time is essentially “FREE TIME”, because regular time has “stopped”

A FRANKENCHAIR is characterized by its construction from disparate chairs or incorporation of non-chair elements to form a singular “CHAIR” with a distinctive and unconventional composition that is ABSOLUTELY better than the sum of its parts.

According to a 1996 study, the psychological state of the BACHELOR is: staunch independence and self-reliance; emotional detachment; interpersonal passivity; and idiosyncratic thinking. The décor results are notably barren (emotionally and sometimes literally) and focused on “EPHEMERAL PLEASURE”, with ideally some quirk.

THE APPEAL: It’s a cold and lonely world; consider what it might be like to embrace this

And, despite the connotations, “BACHELOR” does not necessarily mean sleazy and depraved.

DOUBLE CURATION → leads to ENCOURAGED LIMITATIONS → leads to HOMOGENEITY → leads to EVEN MORE INCREASED CONFORMITY PRESSURE → leads to REDUCED EXPERIMENTATION → leads to IMPERSONAL SPACES which we are gaslit to believe are the result of HYPER-SPECIFIC (i.e. HYPER-PERSONAL) ‘CURATION’ → leads to LIMITED EMOTIONAL CONNECTION.

Today, our version of a list (which is essentially a numbered variety of thoughts expressed in many words, divided into two categories): DELIGHTS and CONFUSIONS. All relate, of course, to our Findings here at SALONE DEL MOB*LE – the world’s most robust and overwhelming décor extravaganza.

TO CLARIFY: there’s nothing else for design to f*cking respond to than the world around it. If you are unable to look at freshly-minted stuff or décor arrangements and NOT pick apart how-why it results from a particular socio-cultural psychology of NOW, then respectfully TRY HARDER.

1. Generally speaking, SINGLE-COLOR interiors are a true delight; WE SHALL EXAMINE WHY THEY CAN WORK and WHY POO-BEIGE IS A (CURRENT) EXCEPTION
2. Particularly speaking, we shall investigate THE COLOR RED, for the reason that it has the LONGEST WAVELENGTH OF HUMAN-VISIBLE LIGHT i.e. expends the least energy in getting places, which is an approach to existence we currently APPRECIATE