LIVING WITH CONTEMPORARY ART, A CASE STUDY: Architecture Strategies for incorporating an art collection into a home
Designing a home that incorporates an art collection opens doors to new visual and spatial opportunities. This article discusses how art and architecture, when thoughtfully combined, can enrich any living experience.
ART AND ARCHITECTURE
Art and architecture have enjoyed a strong interrelationship over the centuries. Not only museums, but also houses of worship, public buildings and domiciles often integrated these fields in the form of frescos, art glass, carvings and statuary. The two disciplines have become more independent in contemporary times as making buildings and artwork have increasingly become distinct endeavors. Today, the growing trend to exhibit art collections in the home brings into question a renewed relationship between these creative pursuits and what possible forms this could take. Are there ways to develop synergies between contemporary art and house design where the art can add new dimension to architectural form and visa versa?
Designing a home is a one-of-a-kind endeavor, a creation that is finely tuned to the unique lives of its occupants. Typically a home’s main components are a program of uses fashioned by an owner’s needs and desires. These are woven together with architectural space within a form that is designed to occupy its particular site. By adding an art collection to this mix, a completely new dynamic emerges. This article identifies different design approaches to exhibiting collections. It culminates with an approach that is illustrated in a case study project harmonizing art, architecture and lifestyle.
ART CENTRIC DESIGN
Art centric design is modeled on a contemporary gallery and favors flexibility, providing wall surface to accommodate permanent and changing displays of different sized pieces. It may incorporate adjustable lighting systems, sometimes in conjunction with natural lighting. The major focus of the space is on how to best show the art, which means that there may be less attention given to quality of life issues like domesticity, comfort and connection to the landscape. This approach can create a well-lit neutral canvas for display and is maybe best suited for environments that have separate exhibition and living spaces.
Private art collection, Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin. Wall painting by Katarina Gross. Photography courtesy of Sammlung Hoffmann
This former factory building was converted to a home and gallery for a private art collection 40 years ago. In this voluminous space, furnishings and art are constantly rearranged to accommodate changing exhibits. Since 1997, the owners have opened their doors to guided tours through large open spaces exhibiting contemporary works of art in a range of media.
ARCHITECTURE CENTRIC DESIGN
Architecture centric design is where a formal architectural concept takes precedence over functionality. The house design may preference a visual or spatial architectural experience with less focus on specific programmatic elements. This design approach can be successful where flexibility is not a priority and where the owner’s considerations do not include a collection requiring wall surface.
Sleeper House by Charles Deaton, Jefferson Colorado. Photography by Richard Powers.
This house is a spectacular structure and artful in its own right. The entire structure and all its elements are curved for 360-degree views over the valley. One might imagine successfully housing a sculpture collection here, though exhibiting paintings would be a major challenge.
DÉCOR CENTRIC DESIGN
This approach treats art as part of the interior design or as an element of the décor. Sometimes this method attempts to match artwork and interior furnishings by color, form, style or theme. This design approach risks diminishing the gravitas of both the art and the architecture. While a subtle dialogue can potentially be developed between art and furnishings, other than with site-specific art such analogies are difficult to pull off.
Private art collection: Tommy Hilfiger and De Ocleppo, Miami. Decoration-Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Painting-Jean Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol. Sculpture-Jeff Koons. Photography-Zachary Balber
For this house, the decorator matched rugs and pillows with the artwork. The swirling pink and purple theme is replicated in the reflective ceiling. Puppy keeps watch over the chaos.
HOLISTIC DESIGN
The holistic approach aims to discover the potential harmonies between art, architecture and lifestyle. Specifically, how might SPACE, LIGHT, FORM, LANDSCAPE AND FURNISHING, when thoughtfully combined with art become an enriching experience? The variables — for example house orientation, patterns of movement, quality of light, room proportion, exterior views — are endless and highly dependent on the ability of your architect to artfully weave these elements together. The following case study project illustrates how various art and architectural considerations can merge to create a greater whole.
The Bar House in East Hampton, NY was designed for a very active family, a couple and two young children. The owners are new collectors and to date have acquired primarily large paintings. It was their desire to integrate art display into the house design, at the same time having the flexibility to rotate the different pieces in their collection. Large open spaces are suitable for their relaxed lifestyle and their taste for simple clean lined furniture gives the art lots of breathing room. The openness of the house encourages views of the art from many perspectives.
Left to right: Adam Henry, LEM, 2014, 67 x 51 inches, Joyce Pensato, Batman 2013, 2013, 90 x 80 inches, Heimo Zobernig, Untitled, 2009, 78 ¾ x 78 ¾ inches
Ten 10 x10 art panels line the north wall of the main kitchen/dining/ living space where the family spends most of their active time together. The art and the architecture are treated as inseparable. Attention is focused on the paintings subtly framed by glimpses of the forest.
SPACE
Any place can be an opportunity to exhibit art, though creating meaningful synergy between the character of a space and the artwork can amplify a spatial experience. Room proportion, scale and spatial character contribute to how the work is viewed. The particular use of each space is an important consideration for the selection of work exhibited.
Left to right: Jacob Kassay, Untitled, 2014, 84 x 60 inches, Matthew Brannon, Inside Out, lll (The Anesthesiologist), 2013, 90 x 73 inches, Nathan Hylden, Untitled, 2015, 94 x 135 inches, Pae White, Companion, (PW505), (PW506), (PW 507),2015, 7 x 5 x 4 inches
The art panels continue along the living room wall and into the guest wing beyond. The house is designed with solid structural walls that accommodate oversized artworks like this Nathan Hylden painting, the room’s focal point. A custom hanging system suspends the two aluminum panels from the top of a wood clad wall.
LIGHT
Designing for an art collection requires creating a safe environment to display the work. This involves specifying proper lighting and climate controls. It also requires the careful regulation of natural light. Windows are perhaps the greatest contributor to interior comfort and access to exterior views but the light they admit can be damaging to artwork. In addition to special glass types and coatings, passive environmental strategies can be employed that, while protecting the art, can contribute to the building’s architectural expression.
Vertical sunshades are mounted along the exterior glass wall to filter the natural light entering a 100-foot long, gallery.
Left to right: Nathan Hylden, Untitled, 2013, 77 ½ x 57 inches, Matthew Brannon, Between Your Legs, 2010, 31 7/8 x 26 3/8 inches
Photos mounted on the bedroom corridor wall receive only indirect and filtered light.
Heimo Zobernig, Untitled, 2010, 111 3/8 x 111 3/8 inches
The wall surface adjacent to this open stair was specifically designed to accommodate a large Heimo Zobernig painting. It can be viewed up close from the stair and overviewed from the upper floor. Overhead, a skylight with UV protected glass and a ceramic frit coating regulates the level of light infiltration. Hanging below the skylight, a custom designed LED chandelier by Tokio provides even artificial lighting.
FORM
Form can take its cues from any number of sources, though I maintain that all form is inseparable from its structure. Form will impact the building, the surrounding site and interior space. For buildings that house art, dimensions and proportions are significant considerations. And for all buildings, both the occupants and passers by experience its creative expression. In this case passers by consist only of hikers on a nearby nature trail.
A 12-foot module, the dimension chosen for its pleasing proportions and for the potential to accommodate large paintings, is used throughout the entire house. The bar forms are conducive to large contiguous living spaces and by stacking them, visual connections are made with both the ground-scape and the treetops.
LANDSCAPE
I consider landscape to be a fundamental component of architecture and therefore integral to the overall design equation. A home’s domain does not end with its enclosure but extends to the site boundaries. Our landscapes are designed to connect the exterior with the interior visual experience.
Much of the formal expression of this house is derived from the nature surrounding it and articulated through functional elements like structure and lighting. The slim profile of the forest trees inspired the house’s light airy structure. The open glassy façade offers views of the art panels from the garden. The exterior landscape sets the stage for future sculpture acquisitions.
The flip-side of the art panels are sheathed in zinc. Together with their surrounding glass reflections they blend with the landscape.
FURNISHING
Furnishing is an integral part of a home’s architecture. It shapes space, is functional and adds character. It can be sculptural and crafted with art intentions and some furnishings may be considered art. They can also be minimal and quiet, functioning as backdrops to the architectural space and the art. Furniture and furnishings are strongly tied to lifestyle and include items that are cherished evidence of life experience. Undeniably, the furnishings will be seen in dialogue with the art and architecture in a home.
Pae White, Companions, Sergio Rodrigues, Diz Chairs, Leonardo Rossano and Debora Mansur, DNA Bench, Audrey Matlock__Architects, dining table, fireplace grate
Soft Rocks, Paola Lenti, Cast Stone Rocks, EIS Studio
One of the house’s bar forms sits above the other. The lower level roof is in full view of the upper level and therefore provided a design opportunity. It is planted with ornamental grasses and has a terrace for viewing the distant landscape. Lounge furniture seemed silly here so we furnished with rocks instead.
“Together let us desire, conceive, and create the new structure of the future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and painting in one unity and which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like the crystal symbol of a new faith” - Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus school and a pioneering master of modern architecture.
CASE STUDY HOUSE
Bar House, East Hampton, New York
Architecture, Interior Design and Landscape by Audrey _Matlock_Architect
Art Consultation and Curation by Linn Press
Photography by Peter Aaron
