Putting It Together 2

I. Principles & Elements

Principles and elements are possible the most basic makeup of interior design, yet it also sets a basis in which all other themes work from. Elements tend to be thought of as the most basic, yet many of them must work in unison in order to make sense of the principles; they both must work in unison. For example, the picture I have chosen is from someones random home office, but it displays a couple different elements very well and tell the story of the room almost by their selves. If I were to ask you where the focal point of the room is, or where to head honcho in the room would sit, you could tell me immediately. The reason for this is elements such as color and lighting, meaning the two lamps which place the seat at the center. The sculpture hanging on the back wall works as well to bring attention to the center of the meeting area. All of these elements make sense hierarchy (principle) of the space, as well as things such as the unity and harmony.

II. Scale

Scale is a feature of design that has been around since the beginning of time, and could be argued as possibly the most exhausted. Scale has long been known as the go to way to easily represent a higher power, and the evidence is clear in ancient civilizations. From Egypt (which we will talk more about in this rationale,) to Greece, Rome, etc. humans have honored, or represented, their gods with towering statues in order to appease them. In some instances it was even to the point of a sign of power. Take the Colossus of Rhodes, for example. The leaders of Rhodes constructed the towering Statue of Liberty-sized sculpture not only to appease their Gods, but also to celebrate their military victories in the previous years. Another good example of this, the Great Hypostyle Hall in ancient Egypt. The Hall can be found nearly in shambles today, but in its prime It was a towering spectacle with no other purpose than to honor a higher power and to give thanks to them. Holy temples like this were often the largest epicenter of the civilization, and it just shows the dedication of civilizations through time that have sacrificed their best and biggest expenditures on the Gods.

III. Materials

Materials are an interesting part of interior design, and in some cases can fluctuate the price of a space by hundreds or thousands of dollars. If you don’t believe me or are having a hard time understanding, think about the difference in cost of a gold painted room versus an actual gold plated room. Pretty massive right? Materials can truly make or break a space, and what makes them interesting is that they are sometimes either covered up with other finishes, or are just not immediately recognizable to admire. In most cases, materials that are better off left unfinished are probably more expensive, or may take a clear lacquer finish such as some hardwoods. This could be brick, stone, wood, or maybe a natural skin. For instance, the python jacket I have provided in the image above. First of all, this goes back to the point of real materials can make or break an item. I believe when I saw this picture the price said something like 2800 dollars, quite expensive. However, if this were simply a leather jacket with a replica painting of a python on it, were talking thousands of dollars cheaper. Same principle applies with interior design.

IV. Light & Color

Light and color, in particular lighting in my instance, can do quite a bit in terms of touching a person in terms of experience. Whether it is mood, setting, anything really, it can be influenced by the dimming or brightening of light. Movies are better in the dark, you chances for a kiss increase when the lights dim, and in a lot of cases, the clothes and food get more expensive when the lights go dim as well. Why do we see this trend? Well, lighting itself is the trend; it sets a mood. A brighter lighted area will make people be more focused and attentive, while a dim light could make you relax a bit. On the flip side, a brighter light could convey a mood of happiness or excitement. However, a dark or viscous color could convey darkness or even fear. It doesn’t just stop at the lighting itself, but also in the way it is presented to you. In the image I have posted, you will notice that the restaurant is very dimly lit and each guest has a candle at their table. The candle-lit dinner represents a more naturalistic and classical feel, nowadays a sign of high class. The little overhead lighting there is is mainly accent lights, which also convey a feeling of high hierarchy.

V. Technology

Technology in interior design has been around for a long time – I would go as far as to say in the beginning, since it has been possibly the major factor to advance interior and exterior design as far as it has come today. Technology basically can be anything in a space or room that makes human life easier; that can be saving space, saving time, saving effort or even energy. All the way back to the beginning, something like a textile hanging over the window or door to keep the inside warm can be considered technology. Furthermore, even stairs made to access a higher floor; this allowed us to continue to build our buildings upward. A more modern instance, take the image I have posted above. If you can’t tell, this is a table and a set of six small rectangular chair, and all of it can be folded up on top of one another to make an ottoman. This is a great example of humans furthering the use and efficiency by advancing technology. A pretty small and simple place to sit I know, but consider the amount of space this can save in an average room. Not to mention the practicality, it can be shifted for multiple different situations.

Putting It All Together 1

I. Experience

For my first theme discussed, I will be using a copy of a floor plan from John Lautner’s chemosphere house in Los Angeles, a picture I have used many times throughout my case studies but applies very well to the theme of experience. Experience, to me, is more or less the notion that an individual immediately recognizes how to interact with a certain space, and sometimes even recognize how you are supposed to move through it, though it may happen unconsciously. For example here in the chemosphere floor plan, I have drawn a bright green line through the middle of the house to indicate the two sides, the private and public sectors. Upon entering the house, any person can immediately tell which is which, more so than any other house, and that is on purpose. The plan only accounts for 2200 square-feet, so the direction of travel must be easily laid out. Notice that the public sector is completely open, with opportunity to occupy any space throughout the sector. The private sector on the other hand, is completely walled off with no outside visibility, and there is only one hallway to take you down that path, one that comes to a dead end in the master bedroom.

II. Finishes

Located in the Catherine Palace near St. Petersburg, Russia, sits a recreation of one of the greatest interior design achievements of human history. Called the Amber Room, its wall panels are made of pure amber backed by gold leafs and mirrors. The original Amber Room began construction in 1701 Prussia, and has since made stops in Germany before ending up in Catherine Palace in Russia. Upon its completion of over 10 years of work, it consisted of over 6 tones of amber and covered 590 square feet. It was once considered the 8^th Wonder of the World, but in World War II Nazi Germany looted the palace, taking the contents of the Amber Room to Konigsberg Castle in Berlin, and also where those contents would never be seen again. I chose this place to showcase finishes because of the fact that humans went through and will continue to go through hell and back just to salvage precious materials. The Amber Room became a crown jewel for Russian pride throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and was even desired enough for Adolf Hitler to pack it all up and make it his own crown jewel.

III. Furnishings

Moving on to furnishings, these are the characteristics that are going to make or break a room, and truly make it unique from the rest. When you really think about it, a lot of the rooms in a standard building, well in a house anyway, are separated based off of what type of furniture I hold. For instance take the image I have provided. It is of just a standard bedroom, but it is an idea that holds true to my statement that our rooms are largely separated based on furniture. The furnishings are a lot of the times the first indicator into what type of room it is. Whether it is a desk we know its an office, if there is a bed we know it is a bedroom, if there’s a dinette set it’s a dining room, and if there is a toilet than that one is pretty obvious as well. Our furniture can many times even be used to decorate the room itself. For example, take a chandelier that is made completely out of elk antlers. These types of accessories are very popular among log-cabin style houses that blend their insides with the natural surroundings. A person could go legally hunt elk and over a period of time, make his own chandelier for free, yet someone would be willing to pay thousands of dollars for one.

IV. Representation

What better way to showcase the ideas of representation than with an interior space that has a sole objective of transporting you from one side of the globe to the complete opposite? If you were to walk into a Rainforest Café like the one that I have provided an image of up above, you could be anywhere from the snowy streets of Boston, all the way to the island town of Myrtle Beach. But regardless of your actual location, for the hour and a half that you inside this space everything in it adds to the sensation of a tropical rainforest. Everything from the materials, to finishes, to the furnishings, all contributes to enhance your experience. If one were to go into this space and take down all of the decorations, strip the wallpaper back to its original color, it would just be another normal restaurant and probably go out of business. But since they have put all of their efforts towards contributing their materials and furnishings into your experience of a far away place, they have successfully represented the recreation of a tropical rainforest. All of the physical additives to a room that combine to enhance your experience, are all a part of the representation aspect.  

V. Theories

 Theories of interior design is overall one of the hardest concepts for me to grasp, but when you get down to the roots it is truly one of the first examples of humans expressing themselves here on earth. To explain this, I would like to use the example given by Patrick Lucas in the ‘putting it all together’ video assigned to watch before this post. There are many examples of humans expressing them selves all across the ancient world, but the one I will use is the ancient Egyptian Pyramids. With so little clue about what was taking place in their surroundings and especially the science that explains it all, ancient cultures would many times look to the sky and even the afterlife for their answers. This grew into a strong connection between their civilization and the afterlife, and we see this prevalent in the pyramids. Dr. Lucas uses the analogy that the pyramids were a way for the Pharaohs to lift their selves away from the physical world and funnel that into the afterlife with the gods. Everything in the pyramid, from the ways in which the light travels to the depictions on the walls, speak to a connection with the gods.