Surface Treatments

Treating your surfaces, i.e. walls, floors and ceilings, can enhance your living space. Furniture and objects play a role as well, but don’t ignore the architectural elements.

Prada Store, Tokyo, Herzog & DeMeuron

Manipulate a space by focusing on these elements to either draw attention to or downplay their characteristics.

Church of Light, Osaka, Tadao Ando

Light, natural or artificial, calls attention to walls and ceilings. Opening walls and creating apertures not only carries light from one space to another, it lightens the perception of the wall as a mass thereby changing the feel of the entire space.

Ronchamps Cathedral, Le Corbusier

Similarly the absence of light, or shadow, can also be instrumental to inform a space. It can create an effect of movement along a surface. This can be a clever way to address small and narrow spaces such as a hallway to break up the proportions and give it some dimension. Shadow can also alter the perception of depth.

Komyo-Ji Temple, Ehime, Tadao Ando

Addressing the ceiling is an opportunity to make a space seem larger than it is, by drawing your eyes up. Creating visual interest on the ceiling through the architecture not only forces your eyes to envelop the entire space, but it breaks up the plane to highlight different aspects.

Komyo-Ji Temple, Ehime, Tadao Ando

Similarly, by exaggerating the proportions you can give a space a sense of movement and direction,

Chikatsu-asuka Historical Museum, Osaka, Tadao Ando

or create a space that encourages stillness and rest.

Serpentine Gallery Pavillion 2010, London, Jean Nouvel

Walls, floors and ceilings can be more than places to hang art on, lay rugs on, or hang a fan from. They are elements that can separate a space while simultaneously bringing several spaces together. They are components of a larger system that can guide you through touch, vision, and sound.

The focal piece

Moving into a new space doesn't always mean that one gets full creative freedom to change the interior. This is especially true of apartments where sometimes even painting the wall is not an option. So what can one do to maximally personalize the feel of a space without physical altering it? Let's consider lighting. More specifically, let's think about dramatic chandelier lighting, but in a non-gilded ballroom wall.

For small and lower ceiling rooms, a delicate thin wired design, for example of optical fibers, can create an impressive focal point without making the room feel oppressive.

(Antler chandelier by Miller Studio)

For an artistic composition that also encourages end user creative input, there are combination chandeliers like these nature inspired antler lamps. In the singular antler design, the lamp stands out in its art imitating nature appeal. But when clustered together, the intertwining piece takes on a whole new sculptural dimension that is at once unique and stunning.

(James R. Moder Chandelier via BLTD)

It's also possible to reinterpret the classic notion of chandelier over the dining table. An instant modern classic can be created with a simple yet sophisticated linear chandelier that casts dancing shadows over the entire length of the table.

opening up the kitchen

(Design by: Saidero)

Kitchen is a magical place. It is where people go daily to seek substance, sensory indulgences, and family interactions. An inviting kitchen can provide warmth and breath love into the entire house. So why keep this gem segregated from the rest of the living space? It's about time that the kitchen grabs a spotlight in the house, even if the total footprint is small.

With today's custom flexibilities, the kitchen can cohesively blend into the style of the living area. The above Forma kitchen echos both the ceiling and dining room in texture and tone. The built-in kitchen utilities effectively incorporate all the functionality of a modern kitchen into the slim wall unit design.

(Design by: Saidero)

Custom storage is possible both above and under to make any busy small kitchen look rather clutter free.

(Design by: Allmilmo)

For even cleaner lines, the kitchen can be hidden seamlessly in a sleek sliding door design like this one from Allmilmo. The full utilities are revealed in an instant to resume all kitchen activities.

Rethinking built-ins

(Photo by: Emily Gilbert)

There was an era back in the 80s when thousands of Chinese families installed built-in "combination" furniture of sorts. While these cheap laminated plywood pieces may have temporarily filled a void for modern furnishing, their obvious lack of quality soon became apparent in the peeling corners and bubbly surfaces.

Fast forward a decade and half, built-in furnishing is making a powerful comeback. Only this time, quality is amongst its merits, in addition to effective space utilization and personal customization. Take the above room as example, the wall to wall solid wood shelving not only blends into the wall in tone on tone color, it also compliments the taller than usual ceiling. The built-in loft bed, accessibly by a custom sliding ladder in the upper left corner, adds interest and additional functionality, while preserving the openness of the room.

(Design by: Paul Raff Studio)

Similarly, a built-in office like this one from Paul Raff studio provides an abundance of storage without clutter. It brings substance to an often wasted space under the staircase. The infinite styling possibility of a built-in makes it an obvious choice for smaller rooms, where the designer is allowed the freedom of color, material, and design to create a unified look.

The pleasure of bathing

(image and manufacturer: KÄSCH)

I have always been a shower person, preferring the energy from a high pressured blast to the idleness of a tub. But a recent trip on the idyllic Japanese island of Hokkaido called this preference into question. The island offered artistically constructed hot spring resorts boasting outdoor soaking tubs that are built to blend into their break-taking lake views. It was impossible to resist a daily soak in the brisk early morning air. The Japanese love affair with natural wood were seen everywhere. Many chose to surround the indoor/outdoor soaking area with paneling of natural grained wood, giving off warmth in look and feel.

Upon my return, an urge to recreate the hot spring experience in a modern space led me to these ingeniously designed beauties from European house KÄSCH. The sweeping wood and carefully placed natural stones certainly do a wonderful job of echoing the nature outdoors. But it's the sensuality of the sunken and overflowing tub that really amplifies the romance of the whole layout.

(image and manufacturer: KÄSCH)

When the tubs are further energized with jet-powered whirlpool, it's hard to image a plain old shower coming anywhere near the magical effect.

Lighting: Functional Artwork

When you are at a starting point it can be the best place, but also the most daunting if you have no idea what to start with. Usually it’s easier if you start with one really bold item that you love, and use that as something to work around. An item that you find yourself attracted to is going to have elements of your personality infused into it.

Why not start with lighting? It is a necessity and as you will see there are innumerous options available. Lighting doesn’t have to be just functional, it can be a statement piece.

Mercury Suspension Ross Lovegrove

Some lamps are sculptural so that even when they’re not providing light they are pieces of sculpture.

Esferas Lampara Jose Gandia

Blob S Karim Rashid

This is an interactive piece of artwork. To turn on the lamp, you blow on the “candle.”

B.L.O. Marcel Wanders

Not all lighting has to have white fluorescent bulbs. Using colored lighting can alter your mood.

Living Colors Phillips

Lighting can also serve multiple purposes. A piece of furniture can has lights within in it.

Chester Chair Deep Design

A lamp can be sculpted to provide ambient uplighting can also be manipulated down for direct light.

Pipe Suspension Herzog & DeMeuron

There are also alternatives to electrical lighting. Candles provide a warm glow and the flickering flame creates a very dynamic environment.

Agnes Candelabra Lindsey Adelman

Solar powered LED lights that can be embedded into the ground allow you to have lighting even without an electrical outlet.

LED Solar Cynergy

LED Solar Cynergy

There are many different ways to use lighting to illuminate your life.

Light, Materiality, Texture, and Views

Small spaces don't necessarily have to feel small. Through the use of light, materiality, texture, and views, it is possible to change this perception.

Uplight the ceiling to mimic daylight, and create the illusion of a higher ceiling. Or, install lighting into the floor to light a path. Used in unconventional places, artificial light can increase the way a space is used and transform its appearance from day to night.

Mix materials for more character, and interest. Here, concrete, wood, and glass are used for the structure. Also, note how the concrete was poured in a wood formwork leaving traces of the grain, and establishing a relationship to the wood flooring. The cotton and linen textiles of the interior seating are just solid neutral colors. However these soft fabrics juxtaposed against the coarse textures of the architecture produce a much richer environment.

Use open shelving instead of cabinetry to extend visual space. Cabinetry can intrude on a small space such as in a kitchen. Eliminating the doors allows the shelves and its contents to be exposed thereby creating a more homogenous space. Organizing your dishes into stacks produces functional artwork.

Open a small space up to the outdoors to increase your living space. Either through the use of sliding glass doors, or floor to ceiling windows, use whatever views you have and incorporate them into your space. Space does not need to be confined to its physical boundaries.

This house is fortunate to be situated within a forest, but the characteristics I have addressed can be applied to any dwelling.

Casa Cher Buenos Aires, Argentina, BAK Architects

photography: Gustavo Sosa Pinilla