Prospect + Refuge: Big Little Luxury
Designer Renny Rammakers put it best, she wrote, “Luxury in the 21st century is no longer about an ethos of riches, but of qualities that are hard to come by in our modern urbanized world. Space, fresh air, silence, slowness, time, handcraft and quality.”
While visiting family in my hometown recently, I came across a property that spoke to me; the day I saw it, I sketched the concept for a rebuild that felt so meaningful and authentic, I knew it was to be mine. I hired an architect to validate my vision, negotiated the purchase, and launched into the process of designing a forever home, a place that reflects my values as a designer and as a human being, a laboratory of sorts, where I’ll build on my work exploring the concept of luxury… because in 2024, it’s changed.
To me, nothing can be luxurious if it’s not ethical, and socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable, but that’s just baseline. In 2015 when I began my research looking at parallels between sustainability and luxury, I had no idea it would become my life’s work, but with every step along the way, I’ve become more and more convinced
of the meaningful relationship between these two seemingly disparate concepts. I’ve been writing a book about it.
The new luxury isn’t traditional, or strictly material, it’s evolved, accessible, and sustainable. It’s biophilic, and it’s woven with meaning and cultural significance. It’s layered and engaging. And luxury, like beauty, can be found in the eye of the beholder.
This home will be the culmination of a decade of working with these ideas. I fell in love with the property for it’s potential for architectural pleasure and beauty. The prospective views North to Lake Ontario, and south to greenery and the hundred-year-old walnut tree that balances the prospective views with feelings of cozy refuge. Prospect and refuge are features I’ll express in the design and talk about over again, an element of luxury of our time.
