Facade/Fasad

The design for Façade/Fasad, an artist's home used as live/work/show art-space, entwines the client's divergent spatial needs and aesthetic goals so that form = function. The idea of "home as circus," a place where the interior design components (like "trained acrobats") mechanically facilitate ("perform") and elevate the art-life needs of the artist/client, was one theme used throughout the design process. The space serves as: home, office, art studio, and rehearsal space, plus on occasion as art gallery and performance/installation venue. The main multi-mode room with multi-mode furniture and folding entry wall is convertible for both private and public functions. The entry wall folds up to accommodate load ins/outs, then folds back down to maintain privacy and reestablish entry sequence. The folding entry wall also serves as an interior "facade," becoming a sculptural centerpiece that in many ways embodies the design of the entire space. The built-in and mobile benches serve for seating and storage, plus conceal perimeter outlets and heating elements. The multi-mode tables serve as desks, coffee tables, dining tables, and can be placed on angles for use as drawing tables or art display. The small rear multi-mode bedroom is convertible for eating/serving/sleeping and any number of backstage uses, dressing room, green room, and/or instrument/prop storage. The bathroom is set to one side of the main multi-mode room with the kitchen through the arch, opposite the bedroom, having a door to the backyard.

Interlocking bracket-like forms frame/embrace various spaces without impeding use. The folding entry wall, connected to the overhead soffit and stage-backdrop wall, serves as "high-wire trapeze," or vertical bracket/spatial-embracing component. The surrounding stationary benches serve as "circus ring," or horizontal bracket/spatial-embracing component. Slipped/interlocked/segmented delineations of space, benches, and soffit, mark the public-to-private sequence of space, front-to-back. Rhythmic rows of overhead lights and gray-scale color bands enliven the soffit and general atmosphere - the soffit-assembly spanning the space like a "tent structure" or "trapeze," always visible overhead no matter how many people attending an event. Both the vertical and horizontal bracket components, frame/embrace the various multi-mode spaces, interlocking like the arms of an embracing couple, representing the client's own desire to freely embrace a new private/public home life.

All the changeable components and furnishings were made for quick and easy conversion from home to public use/mode and back again, with all private possessions able to be concealed. The overall design emerged slowly as the multi-mode interior components were developed, the aesthetic slowly brought into harmony with, and eventually trumpeting the divergent functionalities, thus: form = function. Ultimately the back-and-forth form/function design process led to a relatively practical way for the client to open his home to the public without unnecessary disruptions.