The monastic and ordered realm of the design perfectionist.

Last week, the world learned of a certain breed of human known as the design perfectionist. They’re a type driven by symmetry, aesthetics, distinct lines and extreme minimalism. So extreme in fact, that many who eschew design most, consider common sense in favor of streamlined simplicity.

Steve Jobs was one, as evidenced by the ever-decreasing convolution of Apple products. Evidenced, too, by an anecdote from his widow Laurene Powell referenced in The New Yorker and recalled in his eponymous biography.

“We spoke about furniture in theory for eight years,” Powell told Walter Isaacson. “We spent a lot of time asking ourselves, ‘What is the purpose of a sofa?’”

A topical question: one that would really throw the Jobs’ household into a tizzy? The purpose of a sofa that takes up an entire room.

The design perfectionist has never met a sheet she couldn’t tuck.

They also debated washing machines for two weeks at the dinner table. The table itself was undoubtedly a painfully acquired object in its own right. Though, perhaps not as painfully perfect as Todd Waturbury’s apartment per The New York Times.

“It’s not simply that his book collection is restricted to titles with black, gray or white bindings, and stacked jacketless, in neat horizontal rows,” Penelope Green writes. “Or that nearly every item here is also either black, gray or white, including the paint on the walls… there’s an even deeper level of ‘perfect’ at work in this large one-bedroom apartment near Central Park South.”

The money shot of Waturbury’s cherry-picked perfection can be sighted by standing in the “sweet spot” of the apartment, wherein all the lines come together to form some kind of wood accented typographical vortex.

One can only speculate the impact extreme minimalism can have on the health of one’s sex life, though handsome Waturbury is one of the only apparent bachelors in the Times article. Besides, while a date night parlay into the vortex would be a deal breaker for most, for a New Yorker, being featured in The New York Times is natural aphrodisiac enough.

The design perfectionist does not attract dust. 

The Times also mentions Klaus Biesenbach, director of PS1 in Long Island City, Queens. When he travels, he puts anything that moves, including furniture, colored pillows, desktop accessories, into the closet. His own Lower East Side apartment contains a mattress, television and sofa sprung upon him by a houseguest, who also happens to be an artist. As such, the sofa has gained the status of “performance” as opposed to couch, the spectacle being gift giving.

Green delves into the homes and psyches of many other perfectionists, including a minimalist architect who forced his interior designer wife, an admitted hoarder, into living without a sofa for twenty years; an academic whose friends play a dinner party game involving moving objects from their permanent installations in order to see how long it will take their host to notice its misalignment (presumably before he runs off and washes his hands half a dozen times); and another architect who hilariously refers to radiators as “wall acne” and the maximalist who loves him.

The design perfectionist does not need doors.

Psychologically speaking, perfectionism “is a personality trait expressed in a spectrum of behaviors that range from adaptive to maladaptive, appearing as an element of obsessive-compulsive disorder.”

These perfectionists are the maladaptive kind, aesthetes to an almost supernatural degree who would sooner sit on a cold marble floor mindfully before defaulting to anything from Ikea, as so many do, unquestionably. These are also the devout opposites of New Antiquarians who acquire with intent and purpose, but accumulate nonetheless.

The design perfectionist is a fascinating and complex blend of principled aestheticism, exacting indecisiveness, clinical OCD and minimalist snobbery. To be a design perfectionist is very much a state of being, of living very distinctly in a clutter immersed world.

The design perfectionist knows that every object has its place and every place has its object.

Would you want to live with one? Probably not. But they do have their consciousness in check. Why clutter when you can minimize?

Images: Arch Daily; Kaye Tan; Home Interior Design; deluxearch; Convoy

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Small was sexy in 2011. 

The world’s population hit seven billion this year and is projected to reach nine billion by 2050 – a sure sign that we better start figuring out ways to maximize space. The average house size in America has more than doubled since the 1950s, forcing us to consume more utilities and resulting in a housing culture where bigger is better. We think just the opposite.

These Shelter posts from 2011 highlighted the small space trend and showed that less can definitely be more.

Not only are narrow homes more energy-efficient, they’re also genius and popping up in cities from London to Tokyo.

Artists, professionals, and sustainability activists like Graham Hill and Jay Shafer are turning extreme micro-living into an art, but can others follow suit?

When her partner starts building a 130-square-foot wooden cabin from scratch, Merete Mueller decides to document the process. The result is “TINY: A Story About Living Small,” a film exploring the couple’s turn to minimalism and the concept of small living across America.

Small living is one thing, but dumpster homes? Artist Gregory Kloehn debuted Elite Waste, a luxury urban home installation housed in a trash receptacle, at the San Francisco Fringe Festival in September.

Guests at the Tubohotel in Tepoztlan lodge in 6-by-9 foot concrete tubes set in an organic orchard. What they lack in entertainment and facilities, they make up in pure novelty.

Mirrors can instantly make a small abode appear larger. We loved these 12 eco-friendly ones.

If you’re ready to make the leap to little, you’ll need some innovative storage solutions. Try these.

SEE ALSO:

2011 in Review: The Most Offensive Ad Campaigns Of 2011

2011 In Review: The 10 Stories That Defined Shelter in 2011

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Clever solutions for stylish clutter control.

Estimates show that we use about 20% of our objects 80% of the time. Why, then, are our lives so cluttered? It could be that we have an overabundance of stuff – here’s a hint: we do. Or perhaps we haven’t yet discerned the fine art of fitting all those bits and pieces seamlessly into our personal sanctuaries.

A word of caution: I’m a proponent of downsizing – even purging – to get to a minimal way of being. But there is a better way, a cleaner and prettier way to selling off that 80% horde. Indeed, these clutter solutions prove that there is a sexy way to stick your stuff where the sun don’t shine.

Hidden compartments behind expensive works of art are typically reserved for grand houses under investigation by Sherlock Holmes. Now thanks to iBride, you can bring some of that nineteenth-century style and mystery to your own abode.

From the series “Les Dandys,” these hidden bookshelves depict a trio of Baudelaire-era gentlemen in immaculate dress and rams’ heads. Sexy beasts, if I do say so myself.

These mile-high bookshelves are deceptively tall. Designed by London and Germany based architecture team Kraus Schoenberg, this integrated and stylish book cranny is one of the main storage features in an affordable, prefabricated low-energy house.

Repurposing staircases as storage drawers was, I’ve read, invented by Japanese cabinet makers. They called them kaidan tansu; I call them very cool.

Another variation on staircase storage, this serves both form and function.

If you’re lucky enough to land an antique mail sorting cabinet, turn it into a gorgeous storage opportunity. It’s an enviable solution for shoes, hats, and scarves.

Had I grown up with this cloakroom under the staircase, I’d be a much more organized person today. Certainly our most family-friendly clutter solution.

Yet another inventive use for our trusty friend, the mirror. It’s a logical arrangement: jewelry, makeup and other flair tucked tidily inside a sturdy floor-length.

Try as we may to meld the modern television set with the wall, it nevertheless detracts from the quiet simplicity of our homes. Perhaps by tucking it discretely behind the stairs, we’ll forget it’s even there. Out of sight, out of mind…until it’s time for True Blood.

Now that the clutter’s sorted, how about a therapeutic purge?

Images: Storage Geek; iBride; Kraus Schoenberg; The Lennoxx; Spoon & Tamago; House to Home Pinterest; Department of the Interior via Kim Ficaro; HB

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