Corporate sex in house of sin

The legalisation of brothels is a hot issue, the subject of much current debate by politicians, the police and church leaders.

If brothels do go above board, what a feast designers could have. Porn kings and pimps, after all, are supposed to be rolling in it and legalisation would mean competition; commercialism; corporate identity; “The Knocking Shop” in Helvetica with a nice frilly knickers device for the logo?

Interior designer Zoe Fugler of Kinnersley Kent Designs jumped the gun and created what may be the first purpose-designed brothel when she was a student at Teesside University. Perhaps she’d been reading Walter Gropius.

The design is based on the body. A bar features breast-shaped supports with nipples poking through its glass top, chairs are shaped like red tongues, and the desk is “based on the arch of a back, all curvaceous and sensual”. There’s a fur room, a silk room, a schoolroom, a dungeon and a chapel. As well as a clinic and facilities for the workers.

How did Zoe know what clients would want? “I talked to a wealthy gentleman who’d dedicated his life to visiting prostitutes. That’s how,” she says.

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