Earthy Crunchy

Cindy Allen -- Interior Design, 1/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Do you remember, as a kid, hiding behind a ridge to peek at the world through hundreds of blades of grass? Or lying on your back to stare at the clouds framed by the delicately articulated branches of a tree? How about hopping down rocky outcroppings to reach a creek, quickly assessing each unique step before taking the next? You probably do.

These are just a few of the many experiences we all share, memories of exploring and discovering the complexities of nature. We're biologically equipped for it. In fact, we inherently crave landscapes where we just. . .fit. Which is, ironically, the exact same dynamic behind the very man-made world of interiors.

Shamir Shah calls a New York penthouse he designed a "place to kick back and relax." With its Central Park views and African artifacts, we might call it the world's most global tree house. And there's a very different kind of comfort factor at work at a Gabellini Sheppard Associates tourist attraction that feels like it's always been an organic part of Rockefeller Center. (Ever notice how often the word organic gets used to describe a successful project?) Ditto for a Lehman Smith McLeish–designed headquarters that makes General Dynamics executives feel at home. Not that we've forgotten that nature extends to the entire universe: Take the intergalactic spaceship of a house that Architröpolis built for music and film executive Dallas Austin—it just touched down on planet earth.

Yours in Gaia,

Cindy Allen