5 Favorite Spatial Experiences
Like so many others, I find some of my greatest inspiration in small details and more intentionally awe inspiring spaces while traveling. I once designed a necklace based on a gum wrapper I found and folded in an interesting way. On a larger scale, details and ideas from spaces that have moved me most have made their way into so many of my projects and especially my own home.
Here are my Top 5 Favorite Spacial Experiences - maybe you will find yourself traveling near one sometime soon, or can just enjoy images of them from afar.
01. Museum Insel Hombroich
I’m listing this one first because it is one of the earlier transformative spatial experiences I’ve had- in Denmark on a semester abroad to be exact. The art foundation is a series of geometrically playful architectural follies dappling a beautiful pastoral landscape in northern Germany. Each pavilion houses a beautifully curated collection of antique or modern art. Sculptor Erwin Heerich who designed 11 of the pavilions called them “chapels in the landscape” and walking among them through the fields was an incredible experience. I discovered works from artists such as Eduardo Chillida, Alexander Calder, and Alberto Giacometti. Here you can also visit the Langen Foundation collection -and building by Tadao Ando.
02. Palazzo Castelluccio
Visiting this private palazzo in Noto (Sicily) to see the meticulously restored and redecorated interiors (a labor of love by French documentary filmmaker Jean-Louis Remilleux) was a dream. Such lavish textures, tiles, painted walls, and a cabinet of curiosities to rival a hall in the Museum of Natural history. I only got a photo of the reception area as no photos were allowed on the tour- but you can see images in the linked Architectural Digest article above, and the images below are from a feature on Artemest.
03. Museo Palazzo Grimani
While we are talking about spaces in Italy- the Palazzo Grimani has one of the most incredible rooms I have ever seen. Make that many of the most stunning rooms. There is always an interesting exhibit on - I go back every time I am anywhere near Venice. The contrast of modern art and sculpture against the historic interiors is one of my greatest inspirations- the mixing of old and new for a layering of time, experience, and differing design styles to me makes for the most interesting and greatest depth in interiors.
04. Casa Estudio Luis Barragán
Images of Barragan’s spare but colorful space with furniture and elements of brutalist modernism are common inspirations on instagram and pinterest - the space is truly amazing and the way this architect blends texture and color while retaining an elegant sense of minimalism that is as inviting as it is groundbreaking. Interior and exterior spaces blend together and interlock physically and visually to create spaces that have a wonderfully distinctive design vocabulary. All of the textiles, furniture, and decorative objects are chosen intentionally and harmoniously with the architecture. The first image below is from a beautiful article at Openhouse magazine.
05. The Barnes Foundation
OK- now this one is really my earliest transformative museum space. I was lucky enough to have an art teacher in high school who took our class to see the original Barnes Foundation on the outskirts of Philadelphia. I remember admiring the unique genius in how the art collections were curated - it was unconventional and highly personal to the owner of the artworks. The curation behind one room seemed to me to be ‘Tutu’s and elements of Pink’ rather than arranging the canvasses by style, artist or era. To walk through the rooms and try to determine the curatorial thread between the artworks displayed within, and to be able to view those works as their owner and curator had left them, was so powerful. The foundation has since moved but the architects of the new space took great care to keep the paintings together as they were intended to be displayed and that space is a treasure as well.
