Architecture in Film and T.V : On the interior design in Severance, a commentary by Rawan Hussin

This is the first part of a series of interviews we decided to make about the intersection of Cinema and Architecture named : Architecture and Interior Design in Film and T.V, where we interview architects and designers on Architecture in films and T.V shows of their choices and have them comment on it.

For this first part, we interviewed Rawan Hussin, an architect based in London, that documented Severance season two's interior design on her website. We asked her few questions about the era (s) from the interior designs were inspired by according to her research and documentation and the Eagans' house.

What initially drew you to analyse and research the interiors of Severance?

What drew me in first was the calm, quiet and cold atmosphere. It made me wish I worked in a 60s inspired corporate hellscape.

We are first introduced on the Severed Floor at Lumon. Answering as an architect, what caught my eye were the metal components; the vertical trims in the corridors, the skirting detail and the architraves. I love the proportions of the vertical panels that break up the never ending corridors. The lighting is clever too: no spotlights are used, only recessed lighting and diffused modular ceiling panels.

The interiors gave me a strange nostalgia for a time I never lived through. Apparently that’s called anemoia.

Once I started recognising lamps and chairs in Devon and Ricken’s home, I had to dig deeper. I needed to know everything about the set.

How would you describe the overall interior design aesthetic used in Lumon’s offices in terms of furniture and colour palette?

Lumon’s interior design makes direct reference to mid-century modern principles and the architectural work of Eero Saarinen, who designed the Bell Labs building that houses Lumon HQ. The aesthetic is clearly influenced by the structured office environments developed by IBM in the 1950s. As one of the first companies to treat office design as part of corporate identity, IBM helped establish a blueprint for modern workspace planning using modular furniture systems, rational layouts and integrated colour schemes. Architects like Saarinen and Marcel Breuer were commissioned to design their research campuses, setting visual and spatial precedent for spaces like Lumon.

The palette is muted: greys, with tones of blue and green across walls and flooring in the executive offices and MDR. Red is reserved for lighting: either as warning or celebration. Yellow appears in accessories: Mr Milchick’s Break Room headphones, Helly’s dress, Dylan’s shirt. Warmth is introduced sparingly, in the Renaissance-style paintings by O&D and the timber panelling in the Wellness Room.

It reminds me of the colour palette designer Paul Rand developed for IBM in the 1950s: Classic Blue, Willow Green, Garnet Rose, Sunrise Yellow, and Charcoal Brown. Each colour was assigned a specific role within the system.

What specific era(s) is the Lumon interior design inspired by? Did you notice any historical or stylistic references in the design choices?

It pulls heavily from postwar modernism. Much of it is reminiscent of Eero Saarinen’s work; there’s a clear visual language of repetition, order and efficiency. The modular ceiling panels throughout the severed floor seem to take inspiration from Saarinen’s General Motors Technical Center (1949). MDR reminds me of the underground conference room at Oscar Niemeyer’s French Communist Party Headquarters (1971) for its green carpeting and sense of isolation. The waiting room seating outside the wellness room is also similar to the built-in furniture in Marcel Breuer’s IBM La Gaude building (1962).

Which specific design elements stood out to you the most in the show, and why? Were there any particular pieces of furniture or materials that felt symbolic to you?

The chairs! I did a whole breakdown about them on my website because I got obsessed.

In Season 2, Episode 7, “Chikhai Bardo,” furniture was somehow used as a whole protagonist. One of the key pieces was the chair. What do you think these chairs tell us about the environment and the Testing Floor?

The Testing Floor is systematic; furnishing, spaces and those ‘severed’ reduced to interchangeable parts. Key pieces by Dieter Rams (620 Chair Programme in the nurse’s office), Luigi Massoni (Dilly Dally chair in Gemma’s bedroom), and Joe Colombo (Universale Chair in Gemma’s living room) define the space. The bespoke furniture they used has strong references to the work of Eames and Dieter Rams, both of whom brought architectural thinking to industrial and furniture design. For example the custom modular sofas on the testing floor in Gemma’s living quarters clearly reference Dieter Rams 620 Chair Programme. The modularity of the furniture fits perfectly with what they do on the Testing Floor, well done to Set Decorator David Schlesinger for nailing it.

In Episode 9, “The After Hours,” we see the Eagans’ house. If you had to do a visual breakdown of their interior design and what it tells us about Helena and her father as characters, what would you say?

The Eagan family home marks a clear departure from the warmer environments of Devon and Ricken or Burt and Irving’s homes. It feels cold, curated and controlled. The entire floor we see is carpeted, as if it were another corporate space at Lumon. The John Pomp Rift table Helena sits at is literally severed in two. Kind of echoing the fractured family dynamics and emotional distance between her and Jame Eagan. Then the close-up of the 19th-century plate before Helena wedges her singular egg shows two figures, one red, one blue, restraining a third. A literal depiction of control, hierarchy, and the inherited ideology that governs Lumon.