The thing I love about architecture is the play of light, space, texture and form. Walking in to a space, any space, effects you, sometimes subtlety sometimes with with strikingly. What studies show, is that the spaces that you live and work in effect you physically and mentally. These effects and be positive and negative. For me it’s fascinating to try and capture a building or space, and try to convey some feeling, some part of the experience of being there.

Sometimes this takes a fair amount of thought, and planning to achieve. From the angle to the position of the sun, and when and where to introduce supplementary lighting in to the situation.

For this project, the old colours were well out of date. The browns had lost their luster, and certainly didn’t flatter the building any more. With urgent remedial work required, the owner engaged with Arto Architects to patch up the water damage and give her a bit of a polish. The shapes and structure of the building is unique, and I’d never seen anything like it before. After a bit of scouting and tracking where the sun would be, the shadows and highlights in the late afternoon sun gave some depth and shape and interest to the original architecture. The use of white might seem stark at first but I think it give extra strength to the original design and concept.

The shapes come into sharp relief and I do like the play of shadow and highlights. Arto Architects did a sterling job with the project and I’m looking forward to creating more projects with them.