The new HOLIDAY HOME aesthetic is "OFFICE LOBBY"

We build a case for a cold, structured décor for your weekends by the coast, etc.

Dear Snoops,

We must announce first that FOR SCALE XL readers will be treated to a true once-in-a-lifetime early access to a dream lamp, that is very WET LIGHT appropriate from top, top Los Angeles sellers, FORMAS.

So, XL-sub-up for that.

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TODAY, RIGHT NOW, though – We’re packing for our summer lols in Europe, and ergo reflecting on the HOLIDAY HOME, and its associated “looks”. That look is most often:

The Italy of LUCA GUADAGNINO’s A BIGGER SPLASH, which is really this place, if you’re looking for a holiday. Very “sandy feet”, kimono territory, aesthetically.

And, not necessarily mad at this – it’s a kind of Mediterranean look we’re super used to. Super, super, super used to. (And here comes the RANT): So f*cking used to it that this is basically the look of Trend-driven Manhattan apartments, too.

Are you in NoHo or No’Italy? Are you in Silverlake or Sifnos? Nobody can tell anymore.

And if where we live and where holiday are pretty much the home, what are we taking a break from?! Are we to just move from one patchwork, Late-Stage-Bohemia interior to another?

No.

The holiday home is Escaping Your Own Home To Your Own Home, yes. And one’s personal décor preferences should not be quashed, AND YET: contrast is crucial.

Have you noticed that contrast has totally been eroded? E.g.:

We used to have HOME, OFFICE, and HOLIDAY as distinct arenas of décor. But, our offices are now literally at home, and even when they aren’t they certainly try and look domestic (a maturation of the ‘Playground’ office, which Silic*n Vall*y was/is into).

One of Los Angeles’s newest “C*-W*rking Spaces”:

It’s an “OFFEND NO-ONE” domestic interior, with banks of desks as hidden as possible because you’re not supposed to see this and think “OFFICE!” You’re supposed to think Home, and this one is appropriately called f*cking NEUEHOUSE. And, you know what? Fine. Do it.

And, Home has become a place of mental and physical “Wellness”. We used to accomplish this in the 2000s with the Scented Candle in varieties like “Serenity”, but now reshape our home spaces with a décor of Permanent Holiday. For example, the aforementioned Manhattan walk-up that mocks mimics the energy of a Puglian trullo, or whatever.

See the “A BIGGER SPLASH”-Manhattan apartment “contrast”:

We’re sorry – and, this is a controversial opinion – but it’s not okay that these are the same.

Part of this swirl, for sure, is the EAMES HOUSE (1949) here in Los Angeles, which you’ve for sure seen?, and is maybe the best example of this aesthetic as adopted by an In A City Primary Home:

It should be noted that we f*cking love the Eames House. But, we’re building an argument here for a new HOLIDAY HOME aesthetic.

Everything, inevitably, is leaning into this. A kind of “Oh this old thing?” décor that is extremely, extremely art directed but so as to appear Ultra Casual (hence it’s Holiday essence).

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THE NEW HOLIDAY HOME IS THE HOLIDAY HOME OF YORE, BUT… NEW

May we present a selection of delightful interiors (and EXTERIORS, for context only) of HOLIDAY HOMES from 1967’s “VACATION HOMES: AN INTERIONAL SURVEY” by KARL KASPAR, and the following year’s “VACATION HOUSES IN EUROPE” by BERNARD WOLGENSINGER.

Exhibit A:

The architecture on the left doesn’t necessarily correspond to the interiors on the right, just to keep you on your toes!

One for the (tiny or low) coffee table:

Honesly this looks like any book to come out of a London graphic design studio in the 2010s. But this is a 1967 original. Again, as always, plucked from the stacks at the LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY.

With the 2020s “death of the office as we knew it”, and the OCEANGATE-level implosion of all aesthetics into one, singular International Purpose-Vague Bohemia aesthetic, we are sorely missing this:

1958’s SEAGRAM BUILDING is the cliché. It’s in New York, of course, which is also a kind of cliché.

Slick corporate coolness.

It has been rejected by décor-makers in almost all categories, shoved to the margins after a collective obsession with M*d-Century M*dern exhausted us, and a distrust of Ivory Tower Corporations made them change nothing about themselves except how they dress their offices. STRUCTURED and COLD became bad words, but they sure as hell aren’t bad in décor, if done right.

PLUS, what better balance to the rugged cliffs of the [Your Choice] Riviera, and their warm, sun-drenched sands and salty-in-the-good-way diamond-clear waters than STRUCTURED and COLD?

If there is no other places for the “HIGH-POWERED CORPORATE LOBBY” aesthetic in society, why not place it in the HOLIDAY HOME, a make it a means for us to escape the Tyranny of Comfort that coddles us most days?

The summary of Kaspar and Wolgensinger’s respective surveys of late 1960s Europe/The world (which for Kaspar was just Europe + the United States) is that the best holiday homes are basically this – a guesthouse in Westchester County , New York, by I.M. Pei for himself:

Definitely an “EVERYTHING HAS ITS PLACE” type of place. Tough for guests, you don’t want them to feel too comfortable!

Upright chairs.
Flat, solid daybeds. (Probably great for your back.)
Inconvenient tables.
A last bastion of purposeful minimalism

But, great views! Great light! And, you know what, most importantly a godd*mn contrast from your home and your office, if you even have one that isn’t the Dining Table.

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Style notes from CORPORATE COOLNESS appropriate for HOLIDAY

1.No screens, first of all. But equally, chairs on wheels support LAZINESS. Of course, this is an actual office, so we don’t expect you to copy this. But we’re trying to shock you out of “HOLIDAY” as you knew it.

2. The imaginary Paris of Jacques Tati was essentially a Stimulation Deprivation Tank, which he felt was dystopian but actually is - today - prob just what the doctor ordered. More fun with Tati here.

3. Actually, the below is a domestic interior (from 1931!) but with quite corporate energy, where Marcel Breuer and Gustav Hassenpflug offer an insight into how f*cking LIGHT AND AIRY this look (appropriated by the 20th c. office) can be. (Which is VERY VERY airy.)
   
   Also, very easy to clean.

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THE EMOTIONAL BENEFITS OF “HIGH POWERED CORPORATE LOBBY” DÉCOR FOR HOLIDAY HOMES:

1. Satisfyingly rigid in a world quickly unraveling

2. Repower through a décor designed to inflate the Ego

3. Find temporary relief from the need to be an individual, and allow your holiday home to benefit from a matching set of [Your Choice]

4. It is far easier to be Tidy than to achieve Aesthetic Untidiness; the bare corporate lobby facilitates this

5. Use the austerity of the corporate environment to limit distraction and improve attention span!

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LOVE AND GOOD LUCK,