Staying in a hotel usually makes me think about design. From the moment I walk into the lobby and look for the registration desk to the moment I check out and try to decipher the charges on my bill, I find myself thinking how things could be improved.
I recently stayed in an inn located not far from campus in a college town. The room I had was of ample size, but it was furnished in such a crowded way that it was difficult for me to walk around without bumping into something. The king-size bed had an even larger footprint because of the long dressing bench set at its foot. There were a total of five tables -- one on each side of the bed, one on each end of the sofa, and a coffee table in front of it -- laid out with perfect symmetry. Good design is not crowded; good design is temperate.
The symmetry was destroyed by a large cabinet (containing a flat-screen television) located so close to the foot of the bed on its left side -- the side on which I normally sleep at home -- that I chose to sleep on the right side instead. I knew that if I awoke in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I would surely have run right into the side of the unyielding cabinet. The path along the right side of the bed was similarly obstructed, but by a softly upholstered easy chair that would do less harm. The chair was the only piece of furniture set at an angle, and I imagined that it would strike me only a glancing blow. Good design is forgiving.
The bathroom itself was of an uncommonly good size for a hotel room. The bathroom door opened flat against the wall, hampering neither ingress nor egress. In addition to the mandatory commode and washbasin, the room contained a full-size tub and a separate shower stall. Unfortunately, the washbasin was small and had very little shelf space beside it; my quart-size Ziploc bag of toiletries looked crowded when placed on it. In addition, the shower stall itself was small and confining, so much so that I could see that I would have trouble bending down to retrieve the soap that I would surely drop while showering the next morning. Ironically, there was plenty of floor space in the room to have accommodated a much larger sink counter and shower stall. Why a relatively large bathroom space was outfitted with such small fixtures is beyond me. Good design is balanced.
After I had unpacked, I set about to fill out some of the paperwork that my host had left with me, but I soon realized that there was no desk or desk chair in the room. The surfeit of tables included none suitable for writing upon without a good deal of contortion or bending over, and so I used the back of a book as a lap desk. I could not recall ever before having stayed in a hotel room without a desk. Good design anticipates needs.
Thanks for your perfectly-worded descriptions. At first I thought you were setting up the story to reach a conclusion that good design should include empty space - but now I get the sense that good design should be integrated. I'm not sure how the Scottish decoration theme was integrated throughout the inn, but at least in the Star Trek universe, the Scots make the best engineers. Perhaps the inn was trying too hard to innovate. Good design appears effortless.
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