Ideal Self-Portraits

Kind Self-Portraiture

People who live alone can go days at a time without seeing another human in person. They'll likely see hudreds or thousands of people a day, however only on a screen, where essentially all photos are heavily filtered. This gives people a warped view of reality and what people look like. When they look in the mirror, it might the only unfiltered image of a person they see that whole day, so for their self-image -- while we can't apply Instagram filters -- I think it's worthwhile to make them look as good as possible. What makes everything look better? A nice frame. What is art other than what we treat as art? If we treat their bathroom mirror as artwork, then what appears in it, ie, themselves, can be presented with the honor and respect we show to artwork.

In Haven House, all mirrored closet doors were removed (for TID) and custom mirrors were added to the insides of the doors, framed in a shaker style. This moved them as out of the way as possible to reduce conflict in double-occupancy rooms. Plus, the heavy mirror added significantly to the weight of the door (for perceived security, reference Saturn car case study) and the sound dampening (for privacy and sleep quality).

However, the need there is lesser because, while living in a group home, each resident will see several other women every day.

The layouts