Berrington Hall Research Trip

7 courses plus with a different wine for each

We made a trip to Berrington Hall to collect research for our Design Development brief. We are charged with the task of creating work in reaction to what we saw there.

Designed in 1785, it is the quintessential Georgian country home; square, cold, and symmetrical. None of this excites me, but that's OK because it doesn't have to. The work does not necessarily have to match the style of the property, it just has to have developed somehow from something we either saw, heard, or felt during our time there. Well, that’s pretty wide open! This is just as much an exercise in sales and creative writing as design development. Hmmm.... maybe that’s what design development really is anyway. If you can convince the client that what you are making is what they want and what will satisfy the demands of their site, then you can make whatever you want I suppose.

Knowing that the aesthetic taste of the property as a whole didn't really interest me, I decided to focus on the details of the home and decor for my research.

Along the way I also got an interesting glimpse into the some of the social and economic nuances of the families that occupied the home over the years. The people who lived there were human; they had eccentricities, struggles, vices, scandals, and secrets. This sociological element provides an interesting context for looking at the space. Human nature hasn't changed at all. Back then they installed doors to nowhere and hired 47 servants, now they buy Bentleys. People are the same. That much said, it would make sense that they would decorate their country home with the most en vogue decor of the time, no matter the cost.