Where do people who live in glass houses buy furniture?

Thanks Bob for extending the offer to fill in for you while you’re off exploring the bright lights of Paris. I’m Paul Anater. I’m a kitchen and bath designer from St. Petersburg, FL and I can usually be found at the helm of my own blog, Kitchen and Residential Design.

My blog deals with design, art, life and sometimes architecture. My audience expects this from me and when Bob asked me to fill in I was in a real quandary about what my topic should be. Most of the people who read this are architects or are architecture fans and that’s a little different from the people who usually read my columns. That’s all well and good. I like to spend time in the place where architecture and design intersect and this is the perfect forum for that.

What follows is a profile of two Italian architects and designers who seem like they spend a lot fo time at that intersection too.

Carlo Santambrogio and Ennio Arosio are visionary architects and designers base in Milan. Their vision is remarkably transparent.

Together they run an architecture and design firm called Santambrogio|Milano. If you spend some time on their website, you’ll see that they deal with some pretty thought-provoking ideas. Here’s an example of their vision for the world.

Santambrogio|Milano is committed to exploring a fully transparent world. They’ve come up with a line of glass furniture and fittings to go into their glass houses.

A true glass cook top

A deconstructed and redefined kitchen sink.

A stair.

Double vanities.

A sofa.

A bath tub

A lamp and a chair.

Of course it’s impractical, but I think there’s something to be gained from what they’re proposing, even if it’s just the questions their work poses. Where do you go when there’s nowhere to hide? Is it possible to furnish a room and set a tone with a home’s location? I believe firmly that things like genuine warmth come from the lives of the people who inhabit a space, and an all-glass room really puts that belief of mine to the test.

Could you live in a glass house? Live with a glass room? Cook in a glass kitchen? Sleep on a glass bed? Does ordinary furniture enhance or does it hide? Is all of this horribly self indulgent and wasteful?