Thursday, February 08, 2007

2: elizabeth & goil

Practically speaking at least both Elizabeth and Goil provided desks but the rooms were rather low on storage. I thought that they both designed rooms that felt a bit institutional.

Goil
I was not as fond of this room as the judges were. To be frank, it feels a bit precious: too "baby Einstein." It looked like a spiffy new test lab in some child cognitive psychology laboratory.

Where are the toys? And what is with that damned pepper again? It's kind of like "eat your spinach" decorating: as if you can shut a child off in a pure educationally stimulating environment where he would develop only tasteful interests and never want to hang posters of his favorite athletes (or movie stars etc) on those Spartan white walls or put up basketball hoops or get a rug and pillows for the floor so he and his friends can sit around and play video games.

Elizabeth
At least Elizabeth's room has the sensibility of her client's actual interests. Practically speaking, you could put a group of boys in that room and they could practice soccer and rough house in there and not do a whole lot of damage. The trade off is that despite the bright colors it felt a little bleak because the furnishings were few and spare.

It seemed like the buckets are designed from a "pick your stuff up" point of view. They were supposed to be for his sports collections? It was so sad to see the boy looking at those buckets like, "what the hell??" Kids like to treasure the things they collect not throw them in buckets. It was a tough balancing act and she erred on the side of restraint and practicality. She's the mother of a small boy and she designed as a mom more than as a kid. This may have been a case of being too informed about the subject!!

2 comments:

Vic said...

Agree with most of your assessments of the rooms. Being European, I find Goil's room to be similar to the rooms my tiny Dutch second cousins sleep and play in. Personal taste, background, and culture all play a role in our preferences. I like Goil's room. It reminds me of the interiors I see when I visit family in my home country, The Netherlands.

kora in hell said...

You are right.

As you may have noticed, I can sometimes be a bit of a contrarian. Goil is a very smart and talented designer but somebody has to keep the Goil-fest from getting out of control! I think his work is too cold.

I really like the modern Euro style -- god I wish we could buy the European stuff here that is designed for smaller spaces. But what I've seen in European apartments has more warmth -- and is more eclectic.

Unless you are talking about pure DeStijl or classic International style!