Unnecessarily beautiful

A series of multinational, not-for-profit, children’s tutoring centres has put interior design high on its priority list. This excerpt from a book about the organisation explores some of the reasons behind its whimsical aesthetic.

The story: back in 2002, some friends in San Francisco had an idea for a youth writing and tutoring centre. They rented a building for this purpose, only to learn that the address was zoned for retail; they could do their writing and tutoring, sure, but they had to sell something in the front of the building. So, they decided to sell pirate supplies, and to decorate the storefront as if it were a real shop for working buccaneers. It was a ludicrous solution to a bizarre problem, and it ended up being the key to everything. The Pirate Supply Store at 826 Valencia took up about a fourth of the building, which seemed at first a problem – all that real estate just to meet the zoning obligation! But…

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Interior (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 2019 / February 2020

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