Concord Architect Opines On Radiators That Look Like Rams

Radiators that look like rams are a thing in Europe, according to this New York Times story picked up recently by the Star-Tribune. 

Home heating systems and home décor are no longer mutually exclusive, apparently, thanks to Guus van Leeuwen, a Swedish design student who reportedly came up with the idea of bending radiators into life-size animal sculptures draped in animal skins for a graduate project at the Design Academy Eindhoven.

Electric versions of van Leeuwen's Domestic Animals radiators reportedly sell for about $7,700 to $11,600 in Europe, but Holly Cratsley, principal of the Concord-based Nashawtuc Architects, isn't necessarily convinced the concept will catch on stateside. 

From the NYT-reported piece: 

If you live in a Victorian mansion in New England, you may be open to a hunk of metal, like a classic upright cast-iron radiator or even a contemporary art-style one that appropriates a wall, said Holly Cratsley, the principal of Nashawtuc Architects, in Concord, Mass. But as Americans reduce the size of their homes, they imitate Europeans only insofar as they seek out smaller appliances. That goes double for those who live in apartments.

Believe it or not, the resistance to designer radiators might have more to do with their suggested placement than the animalistic design. 

“The push for my clients is more to liberate the walls rather than to add to the walls,” Cratsley said, according to the Times. 

Interested in reading more about radiators that look like rams? Check out the full story here. Or here.