Bungalow : Illusion

Working this week through the process of creating a dining room that we felt was inspired using both methods of creating a space that mimicd the Arts and Crafts era as well as incorporating our concept. I felt that linearity had a lot to do with this period and keeping a consistency of materials throughout the space. The arts and craft movement always revolved around wooden material so I felt that keeping this material in my space would bring it all together. In the end, I played with creating many areas in my space that would give an illusion of things that seemed real or seemed closer but really were not.

Everyday Magazines

When investigating Furniture South Magazine in 1969 I came across many unique features. In this magazine you come across a series of advertisements that while displaying their furniture, they are also creating a line of competition within the other similar furniture companies. One of the most common features throughout the magazine was the way they displayed the furniture sets that consisted of a sofa, love chair, coffee table and recliner. However, when displaying these sets they really did not care about the effect it caused within the space. Many of the images never matched. Each different piece of furniture consisted of different fabric styles. Many had animal prints and others where just bright colors. They also would use repetition of articles where they would only change the character and leave the same sayings. Overall, its a magazine filled with variation of furniture and different styles.

Great Houses Process.

Edwin Lutyens was one of England's most prominent designers. When he designs his houses he keeps them symmetrical and adds mass forces to keep people promenading throughout the space. When begin to design the boards, I began with thinking that the two most important things on the board were the floor plans. However, as I kept moving things I realized that movement and was the most important. This led to my final board layout where I made the floor plan the most important and laid images around it to make it symmetrical. These are some facts about Homewood.

Project Statement:

One of England’s most prominent and inventive architects, Edwin Lutyens, deploys axial complexity into traditional buildings, playing the idea of a symmetrical building against asymmetrical movement throughout the scheme. At Homewood, Lutyens uses masses – staircases, chimneys and walls – to separate and define circulation patterns, resulting in intricate experiences within harmonious interiors.

Site Plan

The seven acre (three hectare) site features a garden, also designed by Lutyens, linking house to land through sophisticated interior/exterior relationships and development of exterior “rooms” in the garden.

Materials and furnishings

In the Arts and Crafts movement, material expression remained a major approach to design. Consistent with this philosophy, at Homewood, Edwin specified white-washed plaster, wood and brick, allowing the simplicity of the materials to shine through and enhance the space through contrast. Of color, Lutyens suggested that: “Black is conductive to magnificence. It gives life to white molding.”

Lighting

With natural light as his main light source, Lutyens took advantage of this source in all rooms but the drawing room.

Spatial Adjacencies

Typical for Lutyens’ houses, the plan takes the form of an H or a square. Users accessed minor and servant spaces with corridors, wherein public rooms, the designer fashioned a promenade for users to move through. At Homewood, Lutyens distorted the square plan to accommodate a larder and scullery, both related to kitchen uses.

Did you know?

Homewood, also known as the Dower House, served as the residence for Dowager Lady Lytton who later became Lutyen’s mother-in-law. With an Arts and Crafts aesthetic, Lutyens purposely made this place “simple and vernacular,”. belying its complexity when looking at it closely, revealing a complex and clever design “incorporating mannerist detail.”

“In essence, it’s one of those pretty little gable houses, with weather-tiled upper floors, to which the young aspire and the elderly withdraw”.[

Inspiring : Bungalow

While taking the above house as an initial inspiration, we are to take forth our new assignment. We must remodel the dining room of this space. Using the arts and crafts movement as a place to begin with our design I have decided to take into consideration the way the space is divided. When sitting in the dining room you can easily see the living room. So by taking this into deliberation my focal point will be emphasizing the areas that will have the most impact to the dining room. This includes the overall entrance coming from the living room and the entrance coming from the kitchen. By taking some of Lutyens arts and crafts inspiration, i want to create a space that is symmetrical with its design as well as creating movement with the furniture design.

602 North Mendenhall

When arriving at 602 North Mendenhall I didn’t know what to expect on the inside. When first approaching the house you come to a bright yellow door. However, when you enter, you encounter a living space, that with the design of the owner is very modernized. While still keeping the historic look with the trim work and fireplace and mantle design, this house has an astounding foresight. The living room and dining room area have an open division where you can see whats going on in the other room. Every other room has its own division where it occupies its own space. I really enjoyed the overall look of this Historic house.