Why do people add vases in their living room? It fragile and often don't serve any use case at all, unless it is meant to have plants in it. If you have kids or pets, accidental of shattering it into pieces is awaiting. So why bother add vases into your design collection where there are so many alternatives that in some cases are functional.

The Origin

To understand vases on a better light, let's go back in time during our hunter-gatherer ancestors used to roam the planet, revisit how and why it exists in the first place. In those days, there were no means of storing food. What the tribe hunts must be devour to the bone entirely; what the tribe gathered must consume before sun down. This was an inconvenient cycle because the following day they must repeat the cycle. Until 1 day when someone learned to make fire, and tame it, and fuel it, for this writing purposes I would assume it's a she, since it is more likely men are out in the wild for the game, while women stayed in their abode to care for the young and at their leisure time do something else, like gossip I guess. She initially used fire for cooking, killing off some unwanted microbes (unknowingly). To prevent skin burn, she dug a small trench on the ground where the wood lay down to fuel the fire. Perhaps the newest technology at that time after the spears and knives. It did not take long until she observed that a certain type of soil responded differently to the fire. The more it is exposed to heat, the harder it gets. This soil is called clay. She noticed that she can actually mold it into a shape she like. As she experimented to different shapes, an AHA moment lights up. Why not shape it for containing food? So pots were made primarily for storing food for later consumption which played a major role in population growth and thriving civilization.  

Pots to Vase

Fast forward a bit to civilized world. The time where nations conquer to exploit the defeated nation for more territory and resources. I'm talking about the days of from Julius Caesar to Napoleon Bonaparte. The era where there exist a "rich" nation and "colonized" nation. As long as history can remember, wealthy individuals in "rich" nations -often referred to as aristocrats, they collect artifacts from their colony, such as Egypt, and art paintings to decorate their luxurious homes. Some artifacts they've collected were made of molded clay. Like pots but in a shape of the Egyptian god RA, shape of pyramid, shape of the Pharoah, and many more. As you can already imagine, human creativity is no longer restricted only to what's functional, but also what's aesthetic. So why not mold something that can hold flowers and some plants out of this clay, right? Thus came the vases of today. 

Why Vase for Home Decor

A. Remnants of the past: If you like history like I do, well everybody loves history except their history, seeing vases in a friends living room or hotel lobby makes me imagine the time when only the aristocrats can afford to custom made for them. For something that derived from pots that meant to contain food, vases contain status symbol.

B. Fragility: I know this sounds like a disadvantage, because it is. Who wants to display something that easily breaks. Well, aren’t most décor fragile? Think of wall painting, or tapestry, or framed photographs, they all need extra care plus firm & fixed. But let me argue that fragility is a positive feature. Imagine someone gave you a live flower versus a plastic flower that stays forever, would you value the plastic one over the real flower? No! You would care more on the live one. You’ll put it in a vase and water it daily until the they it withered. Likewise a fragile vase you would be extra careful because once it breaks, there’s no more putting it back in one piece.

C. Personality: But let me argue that fragility is a positive feature. Imagine someone gave you a live flower versus a plastic flower that stays forever, would you value the plastic one over the real flower? No! You would care more on the live one. You’ll put it in a vase and water it daily until the they it withered. Likewise a fragile vase you would be extra careful because once it breaks, there’s no more putting it back in one piece.. I have a friend who has several antique vases collected in many parts of the Philippines. His dad is an architect who design houses similar to the Spanish colony century. You would be in awe to the intricate design of the vase surface. One look and I know my friend’s dad artistic taste. Another example is when I Airbnb to Cebu, I noticed the reception area is filled with many beach themed vases. Whether there were plants in it, or just sitting on the shelves besides the photographs, it really gives the expected beach holiday vibes when I checked in as a guest.