Good & Bad Interior Design
"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones to keep."
Although the aesthetic value of interior design is something that is opinionated and will vary from person to person, there are concrete qualities that differentiate a good design from a bad design. A good design should solve a problem, function well, reflect meaning and intent, respect impact on the environment, integrate design elements and principles, use appropriate materials, and add beauty. On the contrary, a bad design lacks true beauty and is not a functional space due to the poor design decisions that were made.
Good Design
In 2016 I had the pleasure of visiting the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City. The incredible yet heart wrenching design elements of this museum left an everlasting impact on me.
Historical museums typically serve as a way to tell the story of something that happened and came to an end. This museum is different... It is a story that has no end. The events of 9/11 are still raw in our memories and very alive in our political and cultural climate. For the museum's designers and curators, this immense tension led to a tangle of design difficulties: How can you create a meaningful tribute that will resonate with every visitor? The creative team was faced with both emotional and psychological challenges that they amazingly tackled through a combination of sophisticated design an artfully developed technologies.
One design element that stood out to me was Spencer Finch's,"Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning."This installation is the focal point for Memorial Hall. The quote is rendered in metal letters that is casts from steel recovered from the original Twin Towers and reads: NO DAY SHALL ERASE YOU FROM THE MEMORY OF TIME. The words are surrounded by 2,983 watercolor squares in is its own shade of blue- one for each of the attach victims. This massive art installation was so powerful that it instantly brought me to tears- along with almost every other design element of the museum.
Bad Design
Where do I even begin with this one... My cousins recently purchased an older home that needs a significant amount of renovations and remodeling. This is one of their guest bathrooms, and as you can see it is quite the eyesore. Not only is it aesthetically unappealing, but it also has some very impractical elements. The first being that the toilet does not sit flush with the wall. There is a significantly large gap between the wall tile and the back of the toilet. This is wasting valuable floor space in a bathroom that is already relatively small. The second questionable element is the extra door that connects to the master bedroom. This is a guest bath, not the master bath. This door is also taking up valuable wall space that could be used for more storage. The entire bathroom is filled with bad design decisions and needs a lot of TLC down the road.
Commentaires