Design guru Bayley wants us all to live like peasants
THE pandemic may have heaped untold misery upon the nation, but design guru Stephen Bayley is determined to see a silver lining in this darkest of clouds.
Bayley (pictured), who was the first director of the Design Museum in London, says lockdown could make our lives more satisfying — if we revert to a ‘peasant’ outlook.
‘In recent years, a lot of people have been feeling increasingly fretful and anxious about the digital world,’ he tells me. ‘Our world is haunted by tech, and the freedom it has allowed has turned out to be a sort of slavery.
‘Nowadays, any fool can lead a busy life. What we need is to get back to a less complicated life.’
Bayley, a former collaborator with Habitat founder Sir Terence Conran, is writing a book — Value: What Money Can’t Buy.
‘When I say “peasant lifestyle”, I’m not advocating a return to felt leggings, wattle-and-daub huts and a life expectancy of 35,’ he says. ‘I mean a new respect for enduring values and satisfying rituals in place of trashy novelty. ‘If you think about it, this is exactly why people enjoy holidays in villas in Tuscany or the Dordogne: here, the basic mechanisms of existence become all-consumingly satisfying. You sweep the stone floor carefully and throw away the Dyson. ‘I started writing this book and then the virus came along and emphasised all of these beliefs. I’m not a technophobe, but I passionately think that analogue experiences are more valuable than digital ones. ‘People would rather look at a screen than a building or the city they live in. What we’ve discovered during this crisis — and what I’ve always suspected — is that ordinary domestic routines are deeply satisfying. ‘Cleaning the fridge is more truly satisfying than [watching] Love Island. Mrs Thatcher taught me the importance of cleaning the fridge. ‘In a complicated life where not everything went well, she found that this was the rare task that could be completed to perfection.’