Living in the midst of the phenomenally gorgeous Monticello,
where he could have anything he wanted, Thomas Jefferson slept in the middle of
a doorway. Located between two rooms, he stuffed his bed in between two walls.
If he rolled out of bed on one side, he would end up in one room while rolling
the other way would lead him to the other room.
Jefferson’s bed looks incredibly odd and “out-of-place”
measured on an aesthetics scale. Yet Jefferson was an architect who clearly had
respect for geometry and proportion. His mind was replete with the many lessons
he learned from European architectural designs he assimilated from the Old
World.
His bed is incredibly “out-of-place,” or my idea of a
bedroom is far too narrow. I love Jefferson’s powerful ability to think outside
of the box. He was so incredibly creative that he had a hard time accepting
status quo.
Why was his bed located in a doorway? Simply because
Jefferson believed that if his bed were located in between two utilitarian
spaces, he would be able to conserve his time. The room on one side was his
dressing room. The room on the other was his study.
Hmm. It does not matter what we think about where he
positioned his bed. For him, it worked very well. But, as an architect, I
should hope that we would put on a Jeffersonian thinking cap and throw up all
preconceived notions about spaces we have come to know in order to rethink and
redesign spaces that will be more meaningful for the changing times.
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