A Little Room in the Sky

Do you like small spaces?

Lavatory on an Embraer ERJ-145 Amazon. One of the few airplane bathrooms where the console faces the toilet. I am a big fan of that.

Aside from the entirety of Japan, airplanes are some of the best examples of the 'everything in its place' philosophy. Every item is pared down to its simplest form. Interiors are literally engineered. No poetry. There is something beautiful in that, I think; airplanes are these giant aluminum kites and people fit into them with the same degree of technical consideration as soap and coffee and blankets. Maybe I like that because it seems honest or maybe I just like to be squeezed a little.

The galleys are beautiful and boxy, lined with metal cubbies and shelves, all held in place with little red and blue flanges. The lavs are similarly structured (albeit 100% more beige): baby cabinets and tiny ledges for single objects; a phone, a paperback novel, once upon a time, a pipe. There's little holes for your razor blades and your tissues. 

The iPod made me distrustful of music because it immediately overwhelmed with a wave of easy choices. Reality is actually overwhelming because I can discard my used tissue anywhere. An airplane bathroom cleaves my options back down to one. It achieves a singularity of purpose that is both old and true. It's the record-player of rooms.