The Simplest Home Ever?
This whitewashed silhouette seems like any other home until you get a closer view. The designer, Manuel Aires Mateus has thrown away the book to produce a home of almost stark, windowless monastic austerity and yet…somehow…for a home dwelling…I believe that it still works.
The life-vital light source is well thought out and bravely imaginative. It is given access through the generous top cut-out in the roof and also via ground access as a cut-out in the lawn.
The giant white plant pot provides a lovely, unencumbered visual diversion.
Apart from that rather momentous birth in a stable gig some 2000 years ago – could this be the simplest home space ever?
The low bed and minimal furnishing draws on the Japanese aesthetic of uncluttered simplicity. It would be hard to be stressed and angry in a ‘mood’ room such as this, gracefully devoid of the latest ‘must haves’ and intrusive ‘electronica’.
It is like living in an art piece, but one that still provides the space required to live, love, breathe, think, talk and work, dare I say… ‘normally‘?
Beautiful, strange and right.
What are your thoughts? Have I completely lost my mind or do you love it too?
Simplicity
Abbey Nova from Design Scouting had a really nice post recently which illustrated the grace of simplicity at work even for someone who by her own admission is not one to go for minimalist surroundings. She stayed in a beautifully stark home designed by Brian Messana and Toby O’Rorke.
Abbey found that merely by being in an unadorned simple environment her dormant creative spark was re-ignited whilst her partner could relax for the first time in apparently a fairly long while.
In her words: ‘The house had a purity of vision that I really responded to.’
With no clunky architectural or ornamental distractions, there was enough space created for other more visceral and beneficial experiences.
The architects responsible, Messana O’Rorke design ridiculous environments, (ridiculous as in good). Their site is rather awkward to navigate, but the sheer whoooosh of joyous discovery one gets from every one of their plentiful successful projects is well worth the finicky navigation.
The above is not where Abbey stayed, it is a selection of some of the architects austerely beautiful creations.
refs:
Leo Babauta: The Simple Guide To A Minimalist Life
Leo Babauta is an exemplary writer who has captured the interest of many people who are seeking more with less in their lives. There is something of a movement of people fighting back against the information and expectations they have been force fed and picking and choosing only the quality bits with more discernment and control.
Leo Babauta is a writer who can absolutely inspire you to do so. He has had one book published by Hyperion at the end of 2008 and others he has released independently. This is one of my favourites.
His writing is reflective of his subject in that he is clear, concise and not too wordy. Don’t expect an over-intellectualized tome on the minimalist movement. It is an easy, informative read full of innate wisdoms that you kinda knew already, way in the back of your sub conscious, but Babauta re awakens and crystallizes it all for you. This book is of course old news for those of us aware of Leo Babauta, (2009), but, simply put, quality is always relevant.
Highly recommended as the starting point for folks interested in exploring minimalism and simplified living.
Highly recommended for repeat reminder read overs.
Click here for more details and to purchase from authors website.
My Take On Minimalism
Simple living and minimalism mean different things to different people. Newbies have questioned the movement saying, ‘why would I want to do without things?’
It’s not so much doing without things as it is making sure the things that remain are special and don’t just take up space.
If you encourage space in your life, you encourage room to breathe, less stress, more clarity.
I am not of the minimalist mindset that reeks of religious deprivation and self flagellation. I like ‘things.’ But wanting and having less makes me choosier.
Wanting less takes away my need to compete materially. I won’t win. I don’t want to.
Needing less means that advertisers, banks, bosses and trends hold no power over me.
I simply don’t care.
My impulse to buy is based on necessity or pleasure.
My mortgage is not my master for whom I work tirelessly to impress, frightened that he will remove my fixtures and fittings and social status if I can’t please him anymore.
There is literally nothing I need anyone to buy for me – at any time – for any reason…Therefore I attract more imaginative people into my life.
To me minimalism is a deceptive, sophisticated luxury that not everyone is meant to ‘get‘ or necessarily want.
It requires a certain secure intelligence to wade through the continuous onslaught of garbage served as consumer must-haves and sagely decide to keep your money in your pocket for the most part.
It requires knowledge of self to eschew relentlessly regurgitated fashion for a few timeless pieces and (hopefully!) still pull it off.
For me minimalist simplicity is not because I am broke, bored rich or to be part of a small, emerging clique, but because it is entirely pleasurable…
To be able to see the road ahead more clearly.
To not be baffled by my own financial arrangements.
To be able to find things.
To enjoy things without being ruled by them.
To have more time.
To see Bare White Space in my home, my life and my schedule.
To be my own creation, not my boss’s, society’s, my parent’s, or my partner’s creation.
To be able to say ‘no’ without apology because my ethos and personal agenda are ABC simple.
To not buy into any concepts that cannot be explained to an 8 year old child, because as we witnessed in the credit crunch, needless complexity creates confusion at great cost.
Humbly, this is MY minimalist simplicity.
Those interested in investigating minimalism should try it on like new shoes.
Take it home, try it, walk about in it. If uncomfortable, try another one for a better fit.
One size does not fit all.
More to come…
