The White House.

The name alone conjures up all kinds of imagery and expectations of power, prestige, formality, and history. The last association one might make with this impressive structure is domesticity. But that’s exactly what it is: a family home. The iconic pillared front contains the presidential Residency, but the places where all the hard work happens, such as the Oval Office, are in the wings.

So how does the world’s newest public family want to live? And how can everyday domesticity be achieved against the backdrop of the presidency? I’ve tried to imagine the Obama’s private sphere and invent ways of supporting and shaping their aspirations for a comfortable home life while at the same time providing sanctity from the very building they live in – and all that it is associated with!

My initial analysis of the building and its existing layout raised a serious question about the size and location of the family kitchen installed by President Carter. Stuck in a northern corner measuring 12’ by 12,’ the space wasn’t sufficient to create a ‘sociable family kitchen.’ So we decided to move it! The space is traditionally used as a parlour or reception room. The choice is also a nod (and a wink) to the ‘Oval Office’ – it focuses the two most important jobs in the world – running the country and raising a family!

The history of the building was the starting point for my design. The building is grand and guarded zealously by a curator. I had to respect the fabric of the architecture and furnishings. That’s why I chose to use free-standing furniture, as we do in many of our JG kitchens. It leaves the walls untouched and use of pieces from the White House collection. It also means the Obama family can take the kitchen with them at the end of their time in the Residency.

I started by imagining a helm from which Michelle and Barack can survey and command their family surroundings while performing culinary theatre! This offers long views out of the windows as well as shorter sight lines to sociable areas. From here, all of the cooking zones radiate in a sequential system, each with the necessary countertop space and storage.

The main kitchen elements comprise two curved islands that create a subtly annexed cooking zone – its tapering shape discourages guests from entering the hive of cooking activity but invites them to hover around the perimeter. The food preparation and cooking zone overlooks the couch, dining and homework areas. The dish washing zone faces the wall and creates a soft barrier to the other living quarters. Pieces from the White House collection house dry food, breakfast cereals, crockery and the like.

In order to create a buffer from the main corridor, I have included a high backed banquette with café table. This piece creates a cocoon in which two can have a quiet conversation or where the girls can do their homework. The larger oval table in the bay is for family dinners and important decisions. And once peace has broken out and all is right with the world, the family can migrate to the hearth or crash on the giant L-shaped couch together.

So this sums up how the form and function were derived…our next installment will bring together materials, colours, and textures – in other words, the aesthetics of First Family life.

- Matt Withington

See the entire concept presentation here.

Harry Truman said it was like living in a big white jail. How will the new first family cope with their new home? Will they change the interior of the White House? It may not be the most crucial element on a new president’s agenda, but says historian William Seal, in the FT’s Jan 18th House and Home section, ‘you can be sure it will be one of the most observed and scrutinised things the incoming family will do’.

No decorator has been appointed yet, but as journalist Tony McMullen, goes on to explain, the White House is like a living American museum where there are 40,000 revolving exhibits to choose from its permanent collection, all kept in check by a committee, complete with a curator.

The White House is an unusual genre: it is part office, private home and entertaining and ceremonial venue. It is mixed use par extraordinaire. It possesses elements of a country house hotel or a live-work unit on a grand scale. Somewhere in one’s imagination it might be in between a Roman palace, an 18th century aristocratic home, or even a medieval merchant’s town house.

Regardless, the crucial issue remains the health and happiness of the chief incumbents, as decisions that come from it affect the entire world. Creating a safe and truly comfortable haven for the president and his family is thus vital for our future.

We know that the happiest times of day are around 6 -10 pm, and the place where people spend much of this time is the kitchen. As far as we can tell, the domestic kitchen in the White House is not a sociable place. There is a gap in facilities for the Obama’s family, in terms of chances of intimacy and time together cooking and eating.

For the Johnny Grey Design team, the key question is not the décor, or just creating the perfect kitchen. It’s more fundamental. We think it is necessary not only to create a place for the first family’s well-being, a series of environments that offer sanctuary, as well as offices for staff and spaces for public ceremonies, but also the social heart of the first family’s new home. This is where  a sociable kitchen could truly come into its own and take on a new meaning.

Over the next week, we will be posting vignettes of our imaginary sociable kitchen space for Barack and Michelle and their daughters. We think the new president, as a visionary leader, should use the opportunity to send a public message – both symbolic and practical  – that would be part of his change initiative to make family life happier.

We plan to write an open letter to the president outlining family-friendly proposals as to how design can improve the United States from an eco-based point of view. Watch this space.

© 2008 Rough Luxe

As the global economic crisis plays out, the notion of luxury is clearly up for repositioning. Do you feel guilty about a massage, a fancy handbag or business class travel? Must authentic luxury also be swanky or indulgent? Will morality force luxury underground? Whether it is in shiatsu, gourmet dining or high-end consumer goods, we use the word with a nod toward momentary feelings of cocooning, being treated briefly as kings and queens.

Luxury consumption can convey an I’m-richer-and-smarter-and-cooler-than-you syntax, and yet many of us who rent our luxury in well-earned temporary snatches do not rely upon it, and desire nothing more than occasional, democratic access to it.

I like to think that everyone should taste and enjoy luxury, in a spirit of renewal. My voluptuary spirit says we should take our eyes off harsh realities from time to time, perhaps in part an innate bacchanalian need and a means of getting through hard times.

The culture commentator Stephen Bayley confirms this when he says luxury is about experience, not accumulation. After ten years of brand-conscious acquisition in a time of abundance, less is indeed beginning to feel like more. In his book, Meaning of Things, Deyan Sudjic describes the unfortunate transition of luxury from respite and a form of solace to a sign of status.

And so instead perhaps a new kind of rough luxury emerges, where authenticity gives depth of meaning, rather than, say, the absurdly superficial mollycoddling of a Las Vegas hotel. The mind is engaged, not just the body, as something real is offered: the anchor of a sense of place and culture, and where care and good will are also part of the package.

In London’s Kings Cross the first “rough luxe” hotel has opened, and I’d rather stay in such a place. It helps that the building is old, and its restoration shows its history. It’s a personal and real place with depth of character; there are no fake columns or equally phony staff who show little genuine personality.

Here is my fantasy of luxury: an outdoor bath with a view of the mountains; a shiatsu massage; my handmade table all set to enjoy a long lunch with family and friends, in a welcoming kitchen with a beautiful work of art above the fireplace. It’s a combination of respect for objects and place, and a real experience shared with those I love and admire.