green sofa in space

July 14, 2025

Words: Malia Agostinelli

Photography: Courtesy of Rottet Collection.

Lauren Rottet Invites Serenity Into The Newport Art Museum

There is an intimacy created between the relationship of an object and its observer. It is this intimacy that captured the attention of designer and architect Lauren Rottet during a recent project for the Newport Art Museum. Commissioned by the museum to create a space in conversation with artist Bobby Anspach’s current exhibition “Everything is Change,” Rottet fashioned a restorative space that invites agency, sensory play, and reflection.

Step into the museum’s timeless John N.A. Griswold House and explore Rottet’s work. The exhibit titled “The Nature of Choice,” highlights her holistic approach to design, softening the boundaries between art and emotion. “I sought to create a room that would make one feel a part of nature instantly and completely.” Rottet shares. “To create a room that would cause one to pause, recalibrate and reflect that we are nature and how we treat it is ultimately how it, in turn, will treat us.”

To bring the serenity from the natural world indoors, Rottet includes signature pieces from her own collection such as the Dark and Stormy Tables, Cubist Curve Sofa, and a 3D-printed Petite Wood Float Chair, which expands upon Rottet’s exhibit themes of impermanence and flow by portraying movement in static form.

lauren rottet on a chair in her exhibit room
Lauren Rottet, founding principal and president of Rottet Studio, and Hannah Rae, designer at Rottet Studio.

How Lauren Rottet’s Design Ignites The Senses 

The space also weaves in a custom soundscape by composer Matthew Cooper, known as Eluvium, as well as Rottet’s own Split Face Planters. The rounded, heavily textured vessels feature a reflective material one side and are filled with thousands of pennies, which visitors are invited to take or add to, encouraging a touch-based participatory experience.

“I always consider the multisensory experience, as a space is never just visual,” Rottet continues. “I wanted to make sure the visitor bonded with nature while in the room and nature, of course, encompasses all senses.” Guided by this philosophy, the exhibit offers what Rottet calls, “many delightful ‘coincidences,’” ensuring no two experiences in the space are alike.

a blue sofa in the exhibit space
The exhibition space features an abundance of choices, including two chairs—Coco and Karl—with see-through seats that beg the question: “Can I sit in these?” Photography by Pernille Loof, courtesy of Rottet Studio.

Creating a space that enables those within it to pause, discover, imagine, engage, and most importantly, make a concerted choice about their own relationship with object and design, is what Rottet initially envisioned while working closely with Anspach­–she certainly achieved that and more.

Rottet’s restorative space, entitled “The Nature of Choice,” is on display at the Newport Art Museum in Rhode Island from June 21-September 28, 2025.

an orange and pink room in the newport museum of art
Bobby Anspach’s exhibition at Newport Art Museum, “Everything is Change.” Photography by Pernille Loof, courtesy of Rottet Collection.
two reflective planters designed by lauren rottet
The Split Face Planter from the Rottet Collection. “When I chose the trees for the planters, I rejected every tree until I saw these Dr. Seuss-like pom pom trees,” Rottet says. Photography by Pernille Loof, courtesy of Rottet Collection.

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