Elica segno d'aria - Articles

24 December 2006

POD Philosophy?!

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If several years ago a famous ad promoted the pleasant idea that a few moments alone with a tasty snack might prove to be a useful remedy against the chaos of modern life, in this new millennium it seems quite impossible to imagine being able to escape from the relentless rhythms of big-city living.

And so even designers, interior decorators and entrepreneurs, asked to come up with ideas for the living spaces of the future, are forced to adapt to the requirements of our dizzyingly demanding age.

Everything has to be immediately available, easy to reorder, ready, concentrated into the smallest possible space, a “pod”, if you will, just like the best-selling, widely imitated Apple music system. The real challenge, however, is to combine this indispensable practicality with a careful eye for aesthetic detail – because style and fashion must also be rigorously respected.

In the big Western capitals therefore, as in the jam-packed cities of Asia, the residential building market is becoming more and more oriented towards providing an integrated “key-in-hand” service, so that a living area can be inhabited form the word go, complete not only with the main requirements such as bed or living room furniture but also including cutlery, lighting, bathroom linen, and so on – all, needless to say, tastefully chosen products of the highest possible quality.

A noteworthy example of this new trend is provided by YOO Ltd., founded by John Hitchox and that icon of contemporary industrial design, Philippe Starck. An extremely dynamic company on the world market with the knack of forming intriguing joint-ventures, YOO is often involved in the activity of building recovery and transformation for the creation of original and, above all, complete living spaces. From Boston, where an old police station was renovated and turned into a residential complex of 26 apartments, to Hong Kong; from Sydney, to London, where the headquarters of a phone company became the site of 40 mini-living spaces, up to the recent Jade project, in New York, at 16 West 19th Street, designed by Jade Jagger.
The idea behind this fortunate partnership lies in a keen understanding of the lifestyle of New York’s driven, sophisticated workers, providing a size of habitation different from the loft space, where what counts is not the area available but the quality, the personality, the style and intelligence with which the space is occupied.
A series of varyingly-sized living spaces has been created from the renovation of a condominium in New York’s Chelsea area, the smallest with one bedroom, the biggest with two floors and a maximum of three bedrooms. On the upper floors, hanging gardens featuring Mediterranean plants, a fitness club and a lounge bar.

Her experience gained as creative directorandjewellery designer for London’s long-established jewellery experts Garrard provided Jade Jagger with the project’s highly original solutions for dealing with problems of space. Each apartment is equipped with a Pod, a cubic structure, usually centrally placed, in which all essential services are concentrated: bathroom, kitchen and wardrobes are all contained within this enormous lacquered cube, as shiny and bright as any jewel, so that the rest of the available space can do without dividing walls and remain completely open, devoted to conversation, relaxation, entertainment. But of course this doesn’t mean that the fascination of design and the beauty of precious materials have to be sacrificed: the pods are available in a variety of colours, all in harmony with the interior decor, itself equipped with all the best pieces of modern design. Not the most practical of places to live in perhaps, but then these are apartments designed for working singles or couples who perhaps make only flying visits to New York, who spend most of their day outside the home, and who often use the kitchen merely to unfreeze a tub of ice cream – people who are far too busy to dedicate time and energy to their surroundings, to the choice of decorations or valuable pieces that give a place a touch of personality, but who are not willing to give up a high-quality lifestyle and that abundance of luxury and richesse that their social status endows them with.

Ripalta Borrelli

LINKS
- Jade Jagger - 16 West 19th Street
- YOO The Design Orientated Developer
- YOO D4 by Starck