Pulsing With Life

Judith Davidsen -- Interior Design, 3/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

Long before Whole Foods opened a market, organic referred to shapes fashioned by humans to correspond to the forms of the natural world, seen by the naked eye, and of biology, seen under a microscope. The word suggested movement and change, hence resistance to regimentation. We wouldn't be surprised if organic thinking played a role in the rise of the mid-century use of square as an insult hurled at uncool, inside-the-box people too uptight to get much from life.

At one time or another, organic has also been an art movement and a spiritual quest. The latest design-minded incarnation recognizes that cubic structures don't make the most of the physical laws governing the dynamics of fluids, heat, light, sound, and force, which are mostly nonlinear. A curved facade sends more natural light and passive solar energy indoors than a facade with corners does. The sphere is the most efficient conserver of heat. Using locally sourced materials cuts down on burning fossil fuels for transportation.

Putting the lawn on the roof makes more sense than leaving it lying out front—even the mayor of Chicago knows that.

From left: Molded clay tiles fronted the New York showroom of Design-Technics. At a San Francisco house by Robert Hutchinson, a concrete wall ebbs and flows behind canvas-bag seating.

From left: Luigi Massoni's forms are lamps for Iter Elettronica. Vinyl ripples across a wall by New York School of Interior Design teacher Arline Bechek Fanelli.

A molded fiberglass shell of a reception area, including ceiling, walls, floor, and seating, was delivered to Billy McCarty's Vidal Sassoon salon in London by truck.

Bloomingdale's merchandising guru Barbara D'Arcy, a member of the Interior Design Hall of Fame, sprayed urethane foam over wire mesh to evoke the caves we came from.

24H Architecture's husband-wife principals expanded their Swedish vacation cabin, insulated with reindeer pelts and illuminated by an Ingo Maurer chandelier called Birdie.

The cabin's addition moves in and out like a turtle with its shell; the hornlike chimney might belong to a rhino.