After 12 atmospheric rivers saturated the sand dunes of the Mojave Desert in the winter of 2023, a Superbloom followed. This bloom began with rich hues of yellow and orange, which were followed by waves of deep red, neon magenta and white desert bouquets.
Wave after wave of blossoms sprung right up out of the sand, some minuscule, some covered in protective cactus spines. The perennially dry & prickly sands turned into soft carpets of lush, delicious explosions of neon flowers.
The brevity of a Superbloom is part of its magic. Some blooms only express themselves for mere days, while others hang on for a couple of weeks.
Impermanence has been a hallmark of my creative career. Some ad creatives from my early days had a runtime of mere days, while others hung on for a couple of weeks.
While impermanence is thrilling, permanence is an alluring fantasy, since the only permanent thing in the era we preside over appears to be incessant distraction and digital noise (like this article).
Could the impermanence of a Superbloom and the relative permanence of architecture be friends? This piece aims to visualize what living in a Superbloom might look like.
Note: if you suffer from seasonal allergies, I do not recommend viewing the following images.
All things being equal, it turns out I would in fact love to live inside of a Superbloom. Generating these conceptual renderings has confirmed that this fantasy is delicious, and it can be built. Design-wise, what we are looking at is a staggered seasonal green roof design with rotating blossoms, all year round. In this particular exploration, the season is early spring in California, when California Poppies are in full bloom.
This type of visual exploration is a creative consulting service offered Lovejoy Paradise. If this visual research and exploration resonates with you, I encourage you to check out the free creative consult schedule here, and you'll end up with a quote for your wildest ideas.
This type of green stacking has been done by gardeners for ages, and can absolutely be done on a house with a green roof. If we think of every horizontal surface, even small perimeter strips, as garden beds, the Superbloom concept comes to life immediately.
Exploring what creative components could support the Superbloom idea, we could easily pull direct inspiration from the richness of the blossoms themselves, and develop a material library that supports that visual spectrum.
Keeping a laser focus on the hue range of richly saturated orange to warm whites, natural fibers and stone patterns, we can start to world build. One of my favorite parts of the creative process is the laser focus onto one or two components (like orange and white here). The impulse to include the entire color spectrum can be ignored as a practice, which leads to a deeper exploration of the spectrum of choice. Seeing the material library samples above kicks the creativity into overdrive, which leads me to wonder what the interior design of this place could become.
Large scale wallpaper murals always feel site-specific, and celebrating flowers at this scale feels so exciting. If there is a wall in the residence that doesn't have a window, it would be a great idea to capitalize on the entire wall volume with a richly saturated mural. There are plenty of vendors who can print a quality wall mural with high resolution and intricate details.
I tend to lean towards retro-futurism at this point in my creative career, which typically is in the same color range as California Poppies, which is helpful to bring a room to visual unity.
If we wanted to take the feeling of site-specific wall murals to level two, we would install them on curved surfaces.
Archways always provide a sense of sanctuary. Filling them with large scale floral murals communicates a sense of monastic botanical intimacy.
A place that feels like living in a flower bed, like looking at the world from the eye level of an insect. Perhaps this is the way to immerse ourselves "inside" a Superbloom.
Exterior design elements call back to the original rough drawings explored, where flowers are planted on layered green roof and exterior walls. This would be a design challenge but if properly layered, would provide noticeable insulation against the harsh elements year round.
If this sort of exploratory creativity resonates with you, consider booking a free 45 minute pro-bono call with Lovejoy Paradise.
No matter how crazy your idea may be, co-creative consulting provides the research and image libraries necessary to express your idea to others, a crucial step in projects zooming into reality. Our creative call will culminate in a project quote sent by email.