![]() ![]() She was inspired by the sunken look and feel of Eero Saarinen’s now-defunct TWA terminal at JFK Airport and the Miller House he designed back in 1957 in Columbus, Indiana, that she’d been obsessed with as a teen. “Since those pictures came out, so many people have asked me about it ,” says Chiara de Rege, the interior decorator behind the space, who prefers the term “sunken living room” to conversation pit. Right there in the middle of the renovated warehouse, surrounded by tables and banquets and really high ceilings, was an emerald-green conversation pit. Then, just a couple of weeks ago, the women’s club The Wing unveiled the first pictures of its new space in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Photo: 1996-98 AccuSoft Inc., All rights reserved Now, somewhere between the design world’s mid-century-modern revival (obsession) and the return of Memphis Milano (a Memphis designer once made this crazy boxing-ring conversation pit), the glamour and decadence of a sunken, low-profile couch where you can look at nothing but the people around you has returned.Įero Saarinen’s conversation pit in the Miller House. These comfy pits are actually relics of the sunken living rooms of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, where people would descend into living rooms of built-in sofas and very permanent-looking furniture. “The idea of using a conversation pit seemed retro and weird to me, but people were like, ‘I’ve never seen that.’ I’m like, ‘Look at Sunset magazine from the 1970s.’” “The weirdest thing about it is how that photo exploded everywhere,” Steely says. Anyway, that was back in March, and then a few months later that same purple-sofa pit made the August cover of Dwell magazine. He had designed it for a house in California because the entire back wall of the house was a window looking out into an almost-forest full of trees, and he didn’t want any furniture obstructing the window or the trees. That is, a built-in sunken sofa, in a rich, deep purple, that looks like something between a bed, a tufted couch, and a Chuck E. The first time over 400 people, together, felt so inclined to double-tap the architect Craig Steely’s Instagram, it was because of a conversation pit. Don’t you just want to dive in? Photo by: Darren Bradley ![]()
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