caliwag

I do find the concept of borrowed space interesting, our current cottage does this well with a couple of nooks and areas that whilst not adding greatly to the floor space do give the perception of greater space. 

 

I’m also a great fan of the little vistas you describe with thinks presenting more than just the plain. 

Aye, that's why I'm a sucker for internal windows, often as a result of extensions or severe alterations...glimpses to other places and circulation, often through strategically placed foliage. Take note in pubs or hotels that have expended...that defo makes a place seem larger. There is a natural assumption that they just get closed off, bricked up or whatever. Mind they could turn out to be pockets (poche`)! Thanks for your comment LGP

20 minutes ago, caliwag said:

Aye, that's why I'm a sucker for internal windows, often as a result of extensions or severe alterations...glimpses to other places and circulation, often through strategically placed foliage. Take note in pubs or hotels that have expended...that defo makes a place seem larger. There is a natural assumption that they just get closed off, bricked up or whatever. Mind they could turn out to be pockets (poche`)! Thanks for your comment LGP

 

I'm impressed with the effectiveness of the one internal window I designed in.  By necessity (the planners wouldn't allow windows anywhere on the North elevation, plus I was averse to them because of the heat loss) our bathrooms ended up without external windows.  Adding a high level window, made of glass bricks (both for aesthetic and noise reduction reasons from the wide open, and very light, central hallway, to the main bathroom, is surprisingly effective at both allowing in light and making that room seem more connected to the rest of the house, especially when there is sun shining in.

 

The idea behind using glass bricks was just taken from an article in a Sunday newspaper, that had a photo of an old glass brick wall in an Art Deco building, so I hunted around and found that a French company still made a range of glass bricks.  They have a very slight tint, but that barely shows, and they are very good at both letting light in whilst seeming to have the solidity of a wall.

That’s interesting caliwag, we have also taken in an internal window, it’s there for two reasons really, one to bring the lounge in contact with the rest of the house, and it’s shape is driven by artifice and interest. We’ve massive redesigned the house and I wanted the building to read like that in places. 

 

Hence we have a window that looks like it could have been door ( as part of the previous mill building ) but in reality it’s all new...

 

There is a top lurking here about pastiche and creating something that feels right. 

 

The window In question

More artifice to be found here, an elevation that was designed to be looking like a barn entrance. Before and afters attached. 

I’d be interested to hear how you present it @caliwag artifice and pastiche is a dangerous thing, but being part of a vernacular is key. 

Stick a TARDIS door on any house and it'll look big when you go inside!

I'm building probably one of the smallest houses on here, at 43m2 internal.

I weighed up the pros and cons of open plan vs greater division. I found that the more you split the space up, the more practicality you could build in- easier placement of furniture, far more storage, better privacy. I had some 'must haves' that included an entrance vestibule (for weather protection) and a bathroom that was not en-suite (to give greater flexibility). So that is initially what I went for.

However once the shell was up, my ideas gradually shifted as I spent more time in the building... and in the end most of the walls and divisions disappeared. I've now created a sight line from one end of the house to the other, framing the woodburner as a focal point. I've even decided not to bother putting the double glass doors between the bedroom and living room, although they could be added later. The bathroom has become en-suite and the vestibule is gone. There is now zero space wasted on corridors/hallways.

It just feels so much better this way. Yes I have lost my original 'must haves' but I can see now that I was letting some arbitrary requirements, that are actually of very little importance, drive the whole design process.

Aye LGP...some serious works there. My view is that the only way to approximate or reconstruct vernacular or indeed nature (artifice if you will) is to observe and study many examples of historic works or natural events. I say this as when I was, as a student, exploring a building project which had a degree of collapse or chaos built into it (don't ask) an artist friend said to me ' why are you making all this up? Just go to the Uni library and study how nature has done it and then rework. Must say it enlivened my project...Interesting that an art student (a good one mind, she just gained a first in her MA) could see what was going wrong and why I was stuck, whereas my architecture tutor couldn't help!

 

Recently I was asked to consider a 'rockery' in a garden in Yorkshire, and applied exactly the same approach, so rather than a rock garden looking like a pile of alien rubble as though a tipper truck had dumped them, I studied Yorkshire hillsides where natural formations of variously exposed rock (cannot remember the Geological term), but all at the same angle, surfaced at the edge of the lawn and resurfaced at another part of the garden (I Know, a picture saves a massive description, but I don't have a snap to hand...sorry) + some indigenous plants planted in the crevices.