Get Ready to Bid on This Mirrored Prefab Chock-Full of Herman Miller Furniture
The Herman Miller at the Mirror House Auction—a fundraiser for the new library in New Canaan, Connecticut—goes live April 12 with a starting bid of $75,000.
The Herman Miller at the Mirror House Auction—a fundraiser for the new library in New Canaan, Connecticut—goes live April 12 with a starting bid of $75,000.
The development team behind the new library in New Canaan, Connecticut, needed a private place to meet would-be donors—and an eye-catching way to raise awareness within the community. Ellen Sullivan Crovatto, head of the new library’s capital campaign, came up with a solution that not only honors the town’s role in design history, but also funnels funds toward the build.
Outfitted with Herman Miller furniture, the mirrored prefab by Estonian company ÖÖD House sits on the front lawn of the existing library in New Canaan, Connecticut.
Courtesy of Herman Miller
New Canaan’s midcentury modern tradition grew out of the influence of five architects from the Harvard Graduate School of Design known as the Harvard Five—Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John M. Johansen, Philip Johnson, and Eliot Noyes—who lived there in the late 1940s. In their design of the new 42,000-square-foot library, Centerbrook Architects & Planners paid homage to this tradition with modern forms, stone cladding, and dramatic expanses of glass.
Reflecting the spirit of the planned facility, Crovatto proposed erecting a mirrored prefab by Estonian company ÖÖD House on the existing library’s front lawn.
The ÖÖD House founders, Andreas and Jaak Tiik, drew inspiration from Philip Johnson’s Glass House for the design—a serendipitous tie back to New Canaan.
Photo: Herman Miller
Crovatto notes that the minimalist ÖÖD House is the consummate metaphor for a library, inside and out.
"The mirrored surface speaks to the way our library, like the best libraries in the world, is a reflection of our community," she explains. "Inside the ÖÖD House, the glass is transparent; you can see everything that surrounds you. Libraries help make facts and information transparent to the general public. That’s what libraries are about."
First imagined as a site for donor meetings, the space has opened for individual, self-guided tours and by-appointment work slots due to the pandemic.
Courtesy of Herman Miller
See the full story on Dwell.com: Get Ready to Bid on This Mirrored Prefab Chock-Full of Herman Miller Furniture
Related stories:
.jpg){kind=small}
