How is it like a rare-books library?
Have you ever been to the Beinecke library at Yale University? The walls are a marble that lets the sun shine through slightly on a bright day. It’s a shrine to knowledge and the artifacts that embody that knowledge. Our shrine here is a celebration of wine. Tell me about the room’s interior. The step leading inside is the height of a step stool. The interior platform is a place to lounge that’s soft and plush and somewhat bigger than a king-size bed. We used leather for the padded floor to change the way people might interact with it. If you don’t provide someone with a table and a chair, it makes them consider another way to do something. The leather forces you to take off your shoes, which links back to the Japanese tea ceremony. What kind of person did you design this structure for? It’s for someone who is very devoted, who likes precious things but also has a sense of sharing. It’s also for someone with a sense of humor.
