There are times when I’m sufficiently self-aware to recognize my failings. This is one of those times. I’ve not yet assembled the pieces into anything definitive. I only recognize that design, in all its forms, and privacy – or rather perceptions of privacy – are becoming increasingly intertwined. So, having tried and failed, I’ll only post a couple of recent pieces to what may only be a portion of the greater convergence puzzle.

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Surfing through Clive Thompson’s blog last week I came across a link to a New York Magazine piece, “Say Everything” (Link), which I thought was a good read, if not especially revelatory. From what I can tell, the blogosphere is talking about it, so that’s enough endorsement to suggest you might want to read it.

After you’ve absorbed the NYMag piece, I’d point you to a couple of “PreFab Friday” posts on the Inhabitat blog: Jeriko House (Link) and New LivingHome (Link). You don’t have to read the entries; just look at the designs; at all the glass. Makes one hope that whoever lives in such homes is a neat freak. On the flip side, can you imagine a neighborhood filled with transparent dwellings; houses as Jerry Springer shows where dirty laundry is quite literally out in the open?

And what might interior designers stick inside such public homes? Check out some lighting pieces recently mentioned on MoCo Loco (Link). I don’t see any shades on those things. They’re as revealing as the homes themselves; as transparent in how they function as the people discussed in the New York Magazine story.

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Maybe what we need are transparent homes. If, as I’ve hypothesized, design is returning to pre-Industrial Age craft, then maybe the nuclear, de-centralized family is experiencing a similar evolution; and they’re connected.