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