So, how many of you hung a few yards of Marimekko fabric on the wall of your first post-dorm dwelling to proclaim a free-spirited modernist point of view? Back in the day, when it was cool to be an intellectual, and even cooler to go to places like Guatemala on travel (not "vacation"), Ben Thompson, a Cambridge-based architect in practice with Walter Gropius' TAC (The Architects  Collaborative), began to combine Bauhaus-influenced design with handmade folk crafts in an eclectic mix that expressed a joyful way of life. Thompson called Design Research, the store he invented, "a General Store of good design."

Cover and spread from Design Research: The Store that Brought Modern Living to American Homes (Chronicle 2010).

His was a style that could be adopted by people in pretty much any income bracket. If you had deep pockets, you would hire an architect to build a glass box on stilts, and furnish it from Design Research. If you didn't, you turned any kind of apartment or house into an expression of the D | R ethos through adaptive shopping; meaning: you got some stuff at D | R, some at Azuma, some at the original Conran's, and, probably, most of it at The Door Store. Thompson, in fact, invented lifestyle marketing, and his influence was so great that the D | R style has trickled down in a very good way. For example, there could not be an Ikea or a Crate & Barrel in the absence of Design Research. And you can still find stores in places like Greenwich Village that contribute authentic native crafts to the marketplace.

This all unfolded at a time when people with vision could create a business apart from the mega-plex models that prevail in today's global economy. D | R first opened in a remodeled townhouse in Cambridge and expanded several time before occupying a glass building designed by Thomson in 1969. Other branches followed, in San Francisco, Hyannis, Cherry Hill, and New York.

The stores had an open plan, with spaces flowing from one area to the next, much as the spaces of his modernist houses did - filled with furniture and lighting fixtures imported from Europe alongside hand blown Mexican glasses. Always, the boldly patterned Marimekko fabrics were hung in mural-size swaths. At D | R, you always saw something fresh and new. Displays were changed frequently to keep shoppers engaged, and there was so much on view that going to D | R became a pastime for many of its devotees, who might pick up a small item or a gift each time they went there.

A new book by Jane Thompson, the founder's wife and business partner, co-authored by Alexandra Lange, presents Ben Thompson's legacy as a pioneering retailer who changed the way many mid-century Americans viewed the idea of home. Designed by Pentagram, its tall vertical format and bold graphic style perfectly emulate the D | R ethos, complete with a Marimekko motif on the cover. The Afterword by architectural critic Paul Goldberger neatly situates the influence that Thompson, the Bauhaus, and Design Research came to have on contemporary residential design. Articles and commentary by architectural critics, retailers, and former staff make this a highly personalized story of a retail design phenomenon. Design Research: The Store that Brought Modern Living to American Homes (Chronicle 2010) is now in bookstores. To see more about the book, visit the Pentagram blog.

And so, Dear Readers, if you're now in the mood to bring a touch of Modernist élan to your digs, Marimekko fabrics can be found at the Marimekko Concept Store, 1262 Third Avenue, NY, NY. In addition, Crate & Barrel recently opened its first Marimekko Shop in Soho, with more to follow in 2011.

22nov10