Soft Minimal: A Sensory Approach to Architecture & Design

DESCRIPTION:

Norm Architects

We are a product of our environment. The spaces we inhabit and the objects we live with influence the way we feel, think, and behave, while they create the framework for our lives to unfold within. Guided by the purpose of wellbeing, Norm Architects’ approach to architecture and design is therefore based entirely on the idea that spaces and furniture should, first and foremost, serve its user rather than merely be a means of artistic expression.

Through insightful essays and tactile imagery collected in Soft Minimal, we share the principles that underpin a human-centric design philosophy honed over 15 years. The artful balance of light and shadow is reflected in a Swedish retreat, while a Japanese house quietly professes the calming effect of natural materials; a Sri Lankan residence makes the case for bringing the landscape inside and a Danish retail space celebrates tactility.

With an intention to share what we have learnt and achieved as designers thus far, we want to contribute to the ongoing dialogue about human-centric design, with a broader goal to re-sensualize the built environment. We believe design should be sensory, simple, and functional, and this book published by gestalten is a manifesto-come-monograph outlining what these ideas mean to us and how we work with them. Serving as a sourcebook and aesthetic inspiration for design professionals and enthusiasts, Soft Minimal offers a nuanced perspective on minimalism that is warm, sensory and enduring.

Designers are problem solvers working to improve the lives of the end-user. We certainly feel charged with this cause, but we also want to provide beauty and poetry in the process. We see design as another mode of communication, not dissimilar to the written word, and we see books as design objects as well as vessels for ideas. Our approach has been to make a poetic literary object that looks and feels beautiful, is functional, and hopefully leaves the user better than before they picked it up. We’ve thought both rationally and emotionally about the tactility of the book, the layout design, texts and images, just as we do when addressing architecture and design. We’ve imagined it being held by the reader, how the weight and shape of the book is encountered by the body, how it feels to run a hand over the paper and turn the pages. Structure – both in terms of chapters and the rhythm of content within them – has been given great attention. Just as we consider the way someone moves through a space or reads the language of a product, we’ve attempted to achieve a natural and pleasant flow in this book. 

LEAD TIME:
1-2 Weeks