DRENCHED
DRENCHED is the architecture of mental collapse. The domestic space — once a symbol of control and order — is overtaken by what usually remains buried: intrusive thoughts, buried anxieties, unspoken desires. Water here is not salvation, but emotional overflow — a liquid memory that expands, floods, overwhelms. The mind becomes a submerged landscape, a home without boundaries, a psyche in flood.
ARCHITECTURE x INTERIOR DESIGN | MARCH ‘25
Lorena Ceresoli — Art Director + Graphic Designer
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DRENCHED is a direct, visceral name. It evokes total immersion — a body, or a mind, completely soaked, overwhelmed. The word carries both physical and emotional weight: something has been flooded, absorbed to the point of saturation. The subtitle “The mind, submerged” deepens the idea — this is not just about water, but about thought. A psyche that no longer floats, but sinks.
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An apartment entirely red, slowly flooding, like a psyche overwhelmed by uncontrollable emotions. The walls, the furniture, every surface is submerged in an act that is not catastrophe, but a psychological manifestation: inner drowning takes on architectural form. Red, the color of uncontrolled emotion, trauma, and burning passion, is invaded by clear water, a symbol of purity and uncertainty. But the water does not purify, it distorts: transparency turns into weight, movement into stillness. The mind, paralyzed by saturation, is trapped in a dense silence, where fluidity becomes confusion and calm becomes suffocating. The environment is not just a physical space but a mental prison, where the mind can never breathe. The conflict between red and water becomes the symbol of the struggle between thought and the inevitability of its invasion.
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Red is the color of tension, uncontrollable impulse, passion, and extreme emotion. Water, symbolizing the unconscious mind and memory, becomes the silent invasion that takes shape and space, transforming the environment. The flooding is not just a physical catastrophe, but a loss of control, a forced immersion into introspection and transformation, where every surface is altered, distorted, submerged by the power of what we cannot dominate.
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Anish Kapoor's immersive red installations and liquid surfaces explore the transformation of the environment through color and material. James Turrell plays with sensory immersion, creating distortions of perception that alter our understanding of space. Olafur Eliasson, using water as a perceptual and symbolic medium, creates experiences that challenge the boundaries between nature and architecture. Scarpa, in his works, incorporates water as a structural and narrative element, blending fluidity with solidity. Finally, Hélène Binet visually captures the drama of shadows and invaded surfaces, transforming light and darkness into protagonists of a powerful visual narrative.
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In the bedroom, a single escape route: the sky.
A vertical opening breaks the saturation, but doesn’t save.
It’s a longing for breath, not salvation.
The mind tries to rise, but remains trapped.
The sky exists only to remind you it can’t be reached.