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Architecture of Sir John SoaneArchitecture of Sir John SoaneEssay by Emily - Y12 The architecture of Sir John Soane shows both innovation and clear, expressed logic. While his work mainly consisted of extensions and alterations, it was his quest to create the ultimate ‘ideal’ room that makes him one of the great architects. The way in which he inserted these rooms, and the incorporation of lighting and access in his design, completely reworking existing buildings, show forethought and understanding of the way in which an occupant experiences and changes a space. His design strategies are evident in his projects at 12-14 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, as well as his works on the Bank of England. Soane’s work shows a clear geometry, and he expresses this in both tartan grid plans and toy block elevations. His ability to do so is his defining style, and his reason for success. Sir John Soane’s work was largely extensions and alterations, and as such, one of his design strategies was to simply insert the ‘ideal’ room. This worked in buildings with existing courtyards. Such buildings often had either a U-plan or H-plan, with courtyard areas between wings, and Soane’s new room could therefore be fitted into the existing space. When inserting new rooms, Soane considered the way in which the addition affected the rest of the building. The hierarchy of the various rooms changed, and the primary passageways may no longer be the most effective method for access. Soane therefore rearranged the entire major axis of a building, often using an oval plan room to accommodate the changes in direction of the central paths, allowing everything to link together efficiently. In doing so, Soane also found it necessary to reinvent the entrance to such buildings. He rebuilt entrances in his extensions, often on a completely different façade to the original entrance. Soane could manipulate, through his architecture, the way in which a building was traversed; he could alter the use of various rooms; and he could change the complete appearance and orientation of any such building. Soane’s alterations nearly always involved the insertion of the ‘ideal’ room. This was a perfect square, with a domed roof, lit indirectly from side corridors. His ground plans were similar to that of a tartan grid; with the large squares being the open space of the rooms, the lines of the tartan being corridors, with doors allowing access at the key linking points where these lines join. By using such clear geometry in his plan, Soane was able to create completely separate rooms, each with their own character, and uniquely linked to each other while consistently employing the same design strategies. Spatial relationships between the rooms could be altered through the distortion of the tartan grid. To vary the size and shapes within the grid meant that, once inside a building, it became hard to predict the arrangement of any room in relation to the one in which the viewer occupied, without having actually seen it. The rooms Soane inserted were always smaller than the space that they occupied, but gave the impression of being much larger. The passageways surrounding the rooms opened into the ‘ideal’ room on most sides, sometimes as space, other times filled, leaving no sense of where the wall behind existed. Soane built long vaults along the tops of these passages, reaching above the roof level, with windows at either end, allowing light to indirectly filter into the ideal space. Because a lot of his extensions were carried out within an existing gap in a building, the space was often already surrounded, making it impossible to insert windows into walls. Soane’s vaulting system allowed him to insert a room anywhere in a building, and introduce natural light, regardless of where the external walls were. This system meant that the ideal room in the centre was lit evenly. Lots of soft light could enter from all sides of the room, reaching into the shadows of the room, but never becoming a harsh bright light. In the case of existing windows, Soane always inserted his room away from the wall, leaving a gap between the edge of the room and the window. A false wall along this boundary could then frame the window, and helped to dissipate the light as it entered. This gap also created a sense of distorted distance: Soane could again spatially disorient the occupant of the room. As with the lighting vaults used in the side corridors, the way in which Soane incorporates the window into the space around the room, rather than the room itself, creates the softer, less direct lighting that creates the character and mood of each of his rooms. The domed roof or an ‘ideal’ room, and the lighting vaults surrounding it, meant that Soane’s additions had to be uppermost, they would not work on lower floors of a building. The shape of the roof also meant that light could easily get to any of the windows, there were no sharp walls nearby to block the light out. Soane used this to his advantage as much as he could. In order to obtain direct light into any one of his rooms, Soane could raise the dome slightly, and add windows around the perimeter of the entire room. In this way, he could choose how brightly lit a room could be, simply be the size and angles of the windows, and the amount of light they would let in. The positioning of these windows would also influence the path of direct rays of light, and therefore where they land, and what part of the room becomes lit. When combined with the softer light from the vaults from the side passages, Soane could again create varying characteristics for different rooms. Another of Soane’s design strategies, in keeping with his love of geometry, was the notion of the ‘toy-block’. Soane loved to emphasize the way in which buildings appear to have been created from smaller, geometric shaped elements. To achieve this, each individual element must have a clear distinction from that next to it, and none shall interlock, but merely appear to be stacked both above and next to each other. He achieves this through shadow lines, which create the distinction between each shape, although they may remain connected. Also, Soane uses layering effects on façades, so as to make the blocks appear to stand behind another, although they can be in the same plane. To create from toy blocks is not extraordinary; virtually any shape can be formed through a combination of stretched and compressed cylinders, cubes, pyramids and arches. It is Soane’s ability to work in the larger scale, and the way in which he lets the shapes interact, that make his work successful. Examples of the application of the discussed design elements can easily be seen in Soane’s work at his home at 12 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. Soane later bought houses 13 and 14, and employed his design strategies to join them together. He made many alterations to the three houses, and they were filled with his collections of paintings and antiques. Since his death, 12-14 Lincoln’s Inn Fields has become the Sir John Soane Museum, a tribute to his contribution to architecture. It is maintained exactly as Soane left it, his alterations remain, and his art collections are still displayed throughout. Soane’s breakfast room at 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields (Fig. 1) is possibly his best alteration of the house. Soane employed the tartan grid system to create a square ‘ideal’ room, with two parallel light vaults and a window at one end. The domed roof articulates the boundaries of the room, although the space extends beyond them. The curve of the dome is low enough to cut the vertical elements of the surrounding space, giving the occupant of the breakfast room the illusion that they could potentially continue upward forever. The tartan grid is also employed in the design of the dining room at number 12 (Fig. 2). Much the same as the breakfast room, Soane extends the space beyond the room, although he has used cupboards along two of the outer walls. These serve to again distort the view from the room, confusing the occupant, as a sense of distance becomes warped. Sir John Soane used the tartan grid system in his house to replicate that which he had designed at the Bank of England (Fig. 3). When making an addition to an already existing domed room at the Bank, Soane used the tartan system to create a link between the existing room and his new, additional ‘ideal’ room. He used the same craftsman to do the extensions at the Bank and his own house. Having extended the interior of the Bank, Soane then built one large wall to completely surround it, both for privacy and for security (Fig. 4). The wall followed his toy-block theory, having defined shapes, clear sets of columns at entrances, and large expanses of straight, flat wall. The design of the wall is based on symmetry, using harmony and balance. Soane also employed the toy-block style to the front façade of 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields (Fig. 5), perhaps with more success. Number 13 clearly stands out from the dark brick of numbers 12 and 14, and clearly emphasizes the basic geometric structure of the façade. Each component appears to be stacked on top of the piece below, and each piece appears to be set back the higher the building stretches. Soane has succeeded here in making the house look as though it has been formed purely through a logical order of stacking of materials. Sir John Soane is one of the great architects because he understands the critical spatial relationships between the occupant and the space. As is evident in his work, Soane cleverly creates spaces that challenge the viewer’s awareness of the structure behind, both in his ‘ideal’ rooms and in his toy-block façades. He carefully plans and executes his designs, considering the way in which light and movement within a building interact with the occupant, and ways to manipulate and rectify the problems associated. The universality of Soane’s design, the idea that it could potentially be used in any building as an extension method, demonstrates the exemplary quality of his design work, for both residential and commercial use. |
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