Elegant Technology

I was re-reading a book I have from 1996 called ‘London Minimum’ by Herbert Ypma when I came across the phrase ‘permitted intrusions’. This related to the objects found in a minimal living space but is equally applicable to other areas of a minimalist lifestyle.

The phrase has resonated in my mind ever since.

Everything I see around me, within the spaces I control, I permit.

I would be the first to agree that I permit too much.

My eye falls upon my MacBook Air and I think about that phrase, Permitted Intrusions. Now if I assume that a minimalist started out to design the purest laptop they could by stripping away all the unnecessary switches, sockets, latches, vents, screws, colour, and pattern they would arrive at the MacBook Air without the socket bay along the right hand lower edge. Then I imagine key decision makers calling for these features to be added back into the design.

With a strong will the Minimalist permits a few features to be added back but sees these really as intrusions to the overall form of the laptop. In order to mitigate against this, the Engineers and Designers at Apple came up with a clever storage bay to hide these intrusions away.

When I look at the interiors in the book I also see hidden storage used to hide away intrusions (those not permitted) in order to improve the form and clarity of the spaces.

The MacBook Air is truly a minimalist and beautiful object.

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