Time Being Suite

An atmospheric mixtape, the Time Being Suite is speculative fiction for teens—a portal for becoming.

The Chroma x de Gournay Stargazer embroidered textile wall covering debuts 2022. Inquire at info@chromasf.com.

Location

San Francisco

Year

2021

Area

600 ft² / 55 m²

Collaborators

Steelblue Rendering Artist

Teen life plays out in liminal space—the bedroom a refuge, but foreseeably temporary: a room for the time being. Teenagers, too, are time beings. Hyper-present in a multiverse of futures, they both are and will be.

Subversively sited in a 1960s San Francisco high-rise completed the same year the Telstar 1 rocketed into orbit, the Time Being Suite radiates a cool, retrofuturistic aesthetic, rejecting the parents’ minimalist sensibility. Each design detail is itself a satellite—placed intentionally, a mode for self-expression.

A throwback zine for the retrofuture, For the Time Being documents the spatial singularities of the Time Being Suite, distilling the mood, musing on cultural references, and celebrating expression and the creative process. Published by Chroma on the occasion of the project launch in summer 2021.

Download the zine (pdf)

A rare vintage c. 1950s Angelo Lelii lamp in brass, perspex, and painted metal moodily illumines a vintage c. 1950s Gio Ponti Round easy chair model no. 852, reupholstered in a Lauren Hwang Ikat + Atlas textile. A dandelion seed, phosphorous bronze, LED, and perspex side table by DRIFT sits beside, set against Jef Verheyen’s “Vendemmia Eterna—Magie du Vin” oil on canvas and the Chroma x de Gournay Mind’s Eye hand-painted wall covering. Inquire at info@chromasf.com.

The Time Being Bedroom cuts a sharp yet sophisticated edge in tonal mint with shocks of neon red and gasps of turmeric. Bleached walnut accents temper turned metal, terrazzo, and concrete, with youthful outbursts of acrylic set off with unexpected custom textiles. A high-concept collision of what’s past and what’s possible, it’s the realm of teenage rebellion, resilience, and fearless exploration.

In Chroma’s custom Rebel Bed—inspired by Maria Pergay’s sophisticated material pairings—dramatic turned-metal columns with Brancusi-esque contours lend potency to quilted bedding, while a curving bleached walnut base warms the columns’ assertive posturing.

Ambient light casts an ethereal mood in the en suite Libertine Bathroom, as coolly tinted terrazzo articulates the space. Powder-coated metal playfully distorts the austerity of minimalist sculpture, torquing smoothly to define the shower and to form and edge the vanity. Elegant design details with vintage origins—a wooden vessel with Brazilian modernist influences, an asymmetrical midcentury-inspired mirror and sconce—refine the vulnerability of contemporary photography.

Peeking into the Time Being Bedroom, Ryan McGinley’s “Dakota Hair” sets the tone—part euphoria, part ennui—in the Libertine Bathroom.

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