B18_#171 // The Salon // Jack Sweet

The original enlightenment Salons where spaces where ‘informal’ conversations came wrapped up in rigid layers of social formality. From the decor to the clothes, every aspect demanded from occupants a highly curated facade, a guarded ‘public self’, denoting their given place within high-society.

The time-honoured key to a good conversation is an ability to relinquish this sense of self, and forgo the trappings of ego that accompany a perceived ‘public’ image. One learns to feel both vulnerable and comfortable. Could the best way to invite genuine openness and connection be to strip strangers of any physical remnants of social formality?     

Jack Sweet is a Part I Architectural Assistant who graduated from the Newcastle University