Comments on: A question of simplicity http://www.designinnovation.ie/blog/index.php/2009/07/a-question-of-simplicity/ Design Innovation Blog Sat, 13 Aug 2011 14:26:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Anthony Lingwood http://www.designinnovation.ie/blog/index.php/2009/07/a-question-of-simplicity/comment-page-1/#comment-30371 Anthony Lingwood Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:48:57 +0000 http://www.designinnovation.ie/blog/?p=316#comment-30371 Minimalist style is impossible to achieve in these apartments. This style is dependant on the use of a limited palette of materials that must contrast and so emphasise each others natural qualities and textures. This must be present in the architecture as the minimalist style can't be achieved with interior decoration alone. The materials must be high quality and installed with precision as any imperfections will really show up in this style. Minimalism is an uncompromising, all or nothing style that looks deceptively simple, but is often difficult to “get right”. This type of construction to which you refer, and which prevailed over the last decade, was designed to be cheap and fast to build, with parsimonious allocation of living space – the minimum possible to provide the greatest return in a frenzied property market. There was often a disconnect between the architect, property developer/builder, and end user when it comes to defining the style, with little real collaboration between them. Where this did exist, it amounted to not much more than giving the prospective buyer a choice between magnolia or white, or if they wanted to varnish the floorboards! Most recent apartments and houses use panelled doors, profiled trims, PVC and other bog standard materials, all thrown together with little attention to detail. These houses and apartments always have a traditional/contemporary feel to them because of the layout and choice of structural building materials – which limit the style possibilities for the end user. The minimalist style is, even in theory, totally at odds with the general attitude to building in Ireland over the last few decades. As for the “piece (being) intended to sit in contrast with the relative chaos of mass production? That this contrast serves to highlight its simple beauty.” I think that the comparison will only highlight, rather depressingly, that we are conditioned to surround ourselves with so much mass-produced crap. Enjoy your Grace Youngeun Lee bin, and I hope it fits in with everything else ... Maybe you could give it a coat of magnolia? (:P Anthony Minimalist style is impossible to achieve in these apartments. This style is dependant on the use of a limited palette of materials that must contrast and so emphasise each others natural qualities and textures. This must be present in the architecture as the minimalist style can’t be achieved with interior decoration alone. The materials must be high quality and installed with precision as any imperfections will really show up in this style. Minimalism is an uncompromising, all or nothing style that looks deceptively simple, but is often difficult to “get right”.

This type of construction to which you refer, and which prevailed over the last decade, was designed to be cheap and fast to build, with parsimonious allocation of living space – the minimum possible to provide the greatest return in a frenzied property market. There was often a disconnect between the architect, property developer/builder, and end user when it comes to defining the style, with little real collaboration between them. Where this did exist, it amounted to not much more than giving the prospective buyer a choice between magnolia or white, or if they wanted to varnish the floorboards!

Most recent apartments and houses use panelled doors, profiled trims, PVC and other bog standard materials, all thrown together with little attention to detail. These houses and apartments always have a traditional/contemporary feel to them because of the layout and choice of structural building materials – which limit the style possibilities for the end user.
The minimalist style is, even in theory, totally at odds with the general attitude to building in Ireland over the last few decades.

As for the “piece (being) intended to sit in contrast with the relative chaos of mass production? That this contrast serves to highlight its simple beauty.”
I think that the comparison will only highlight, rather depressingly, that we are conditioned to surround ourselves with so much mass-produced crap.

Enjoy your Grace Youngeun Lee bin, and I hope it fits in with everything else …

Maybe you could give it a coat of magnolia? (:P

Anthony

]]>