
Berlin Living Rooms - lermontov
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/03/02/berlin-living-rooms/
======
colmvp
Having looked at some of the photos, one of the things that I notice is a lack
of televisions which I see amongst sometimes with my friends.

I find when I go to my friends living room with a PS4 and tv, we generally
chat for a few minutes before diving into games or videos. Or if I go to
another friends place, they feel obligated to entertain instead of allowing
one another to be he entertainment. And while I certainly enjoy those moments
around the tv, it feels less gratifying than talking amongst each other about
the state of things and being deep within our conversations. Perhaps that's
why when I'm alone, I love listening to podcasts with two people talking
amongst themselves because they tend to go very deep and are very focused.

~~~
mysterypie
Along those same lines, I never understood why bars and clubs have such loud
music as to make conversation impossible. Especially if it's just canned
music, so you're not there to listen. And especially more if the idea is to
meet women (or guys).

As far as I can determine, it's fashion. It's not that games and videos are
intrinsically more enjoyable than conversation, or that people have more
success meeting the opposite sex if talking is impossible (granted that it
might work very well for some people). I think it's more of a culture/fashion
thing and this can change over time.

~~~
gumby
According to a friend with a restaurant, quiet restaurants get worse reviews
and people don't seem to enjoy themselves as much.

Obviously there are exceptions, and some particularly expensive restaurants
are pretty quiet (I have eaten at some of them with said friend and we have
discussed this phenomenon).

~~~
eru
I also heard that louder places sell more alcoholic drinks?

~~~
jfk13
Or, places that sell more alcoholic drinks tend to get louder?

~~~
eru
I think there were some controlled experiments to answer that question.

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mxfh
Calling them living rooms is a bit of a misnomer for most of them,
representational guest zone in uncommonly large apartments of the Berlin
cultural elite might be a bit more honest description.

The last two (Blechschmidt and Hubalek) might be actual living room
arrangements.

~~~
et-al
> _Calling them living rooms is a bit of a misnomer for most of them_

Living room, family room, and den always confused me when I was a kid. In the
States, "living room" means a more formal room for entertaining guests (coffee
table with thick art monographs) and it'd often be adjacent to the dining
room. In contrast, the "family room" or "den" are places where people would
spend most of their time and that's where the television would be.

Don't ask me how the room came to be called "living room" since most people
don't spend much time there to the point that some houses would have the
couches covered in plastic or bedsheets.

~~~
twic
We don't, that i know, have family rooms or dens in the UK, but i have always
been a bit confused by the possibility of both living rooms and sitting rooms.
There are also lounges, of course, but the kind of people who have lounges
certainly don't have sitting rooms. To say nothing of drawing rooms.

There's actually quite a good gallery of British living rooms through the ages
in the Geffrye Museum in London, starting from back when they were called
parlours. The main thing i remember about it is that the Victorians had
fantastically poor taste in interior decoration.

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shaqbert
Berliner here.... the sad truth is that most living rooms are dominated by
Ikea furniture and are nowhere near like the stylish and classical ensembles
presented in the article.

~~~
fnord123
Yeah, and that Barcelona chair can't be an inexpensive yet faithful
reproduction due to the dreadful European laws on furniture designs. It's a 5k
piece on its own.

~~~
et-al
Wait, please tell me more about these inexpensive yet faithful reproductions.
Is there good place in Germany to find these?

~~~
fnord123
The UK used to allow inexpensive replicas. e.g.

[https://iconicinteriors.com/](https://iconicinteriors.com/)

As seen in 10 Downing Street:

[http://www.redonline.co.uk/red-women/blogs/samcam-s-
italian-...](http://www.redonline.co.uk/red-women/blogs/samcam-s-italian-
lighting-for-10-downing-street)

(Forgive me for the Daily Heil link):
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2926668/A-real-
pow...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2926668/A-real-power-
breakfast-Sam-Cam-welcomes-families-No-10-cereal-launch-exhibition-charting-
joys-challenges-raising-disabled-child.html)

A law change is coming into effect now so all the UK retailers of this kind of
stuff need to dump stock and go out of business. Otherwise, you can get them
in the US but shipping will be eye watering.

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saycheese
If you found this story interesting, you might find this research interesting:

"A room with a cue: personality judgments based on offices and bedrooms" [pdf]
(utexas.edu) [http://gosling.psy.utexas.edu/wp-
content/uploads/2014/09/JPS...](http://gosling.psy.utexas.edu/wp-
content/uploads/2014/09/JPSP02-Roomwithacue.pdf)

~~~
skosch
... and if you prefer something a bit more juicy and judgmental, there's
Fussell's "Class"
([https://books.google.ca/books?id=aPbF1kuayJYC&lpg=PP1&dq=cla...](https://books.google.ca/books?id=aPbF1kuayJYC&lpg=PP1&dq=class%20american%20guide&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=class%20american%20guide&f=false))

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bensun13
In the fourth paragraph he mentions Charlottenberg. The actual name is
Charlottenburg
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlottenburg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlottenburg)).

~~~
christop
And they say it's been more than thirty years since the Berlin Wall came down…

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bogomipz
The article mentions:

>"East Berlin had Alexanderplatz; West Berlin had Europa Center ..."

I know Alexanderplatz but can someone tell me where is/was Europa Center?

~~~
heinrich5991
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa-
Center](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa-Center)

~~~
bogomipz
Now I feel silly, Charlottenburg, thanks.

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quakeguy
No TVs is what i'm seeing here. And lots of books. I'm jealous of those vast
spaces, i only have a tiny room in Berlin.

