Room in New York, Edward Hopper, 1932
I chose The painting “Room in New York” by Edward Hopper. (1932) Room In New York peers in at a couple in their living room through the open window of a city apartment. The pair is separated by space both physical and psychological, and they are both preoccupied. We have the man reading the paper, and the woman is slumped at the piano, with one finger on the keyboard. Hopper conveys a palpable disquiet by the angle of the woman’s starkly lit shoulder as she turns away from her companion to plunk a solitary note on a piano.
I chose to design 2 main rooms, a lounge room and a dining room.
1) The Lounge Room: is The dynamic element.
This room is related to the reading of the paper and the piano where there is silence and possibly the source of the tension. To oppose the grounded nature of the dining room, I perceived the lounge to be as being greatly separated from the values of its counterpoint and therefore it required a degree of detachment.
The windows in this room are large like the painting to allow a sense of looking into the space.
The house is like a maze, and you can’t see one room from the other. I did this to give a sense of privacy, where the couple can go off and do their own thing, however on the other hand it will bring a sense of secrecy with each partner wanting to know what the other one is doing.
2) The second room is the Dining Room: which is the grounding element.
I perceived the dining room to be an environment where a couple would be required to remain civil despite any previous opposition of views - a still and almost sterile environment. It is an environment where the couple will feel like they have to communicate to each other, and can’t simply find a mundane task to immerse themselves in to avoid their partner. I created this atmosphere by avoiding openings with direct sunlight. The lack of 'true' windows also controls the environment, allowing it to become highly insular, and contributing to the feeling of stillness and focussing, or confining the attention of the client to the room and the contents within it - in this case, their partner across the table.
I chose The painting “Room in New York” by Edward Hopper. (1932) Room In New York peers in at a couple in their living room through the open window of a city apartment. The pair is separated by space both physical and psychological, and they are both preoccupied. We have the man reading the paper, and the woman is slumped at the piano, with one finger on the keyboard. Hopper conveys a palpable disquiet by the angle of the woman’s starkly lit shoulder as she turns away from her companion to plunk a solitary note on a piano.
I chose to design 2 main rooms, a lounge room and a dining room.
1) The Lounge Room: is The dynamic element.
This room is related to the reading of the paper and the piano where there is silence and possibly the source of the tension. To oppose the grounded nature of the dining room, I perceived the lounge to be as being greatly separated from the values of its counterpoint and therefore it required a degree of detachment.
The windows in this room are large like the painting to allow a sense of looking into the space.
The house is like a maze, and you can’t see one room from the other. I did this to give a sense of privacy, where the couple can go off and do their own thing, however on the other hand it will bring a sense of secrecy with each partner wanting to know what the other one is doing.
2) The second room is the Dining Room: which is the grounding element.
I perceived the dining room to be an environment where a couple would be required to remain civil despite any previous opposition of views - a still and almost sterile environment. It is an environment where the couple will feel like they have to communicate to each other, and can’t simply find a mundane task to immerse themselves in to avoid their partner. I created this atmosphere by avoiding openings with direct sunlight. The lack of 'true' windows also controls the environment, allowing it to become highly insular, and contributing to the feeling of stillness and focussing, or confining the attention of the client to the room and the contents within it - in this case, their partner across the table.
