Long Awaited, Soane Museum Opens Private Apartments
June 17, 2015
An endless source of design inspiration for today’s traditional architects, the London townhouse of Sir John Soane which houses the Soane Museum, has for the first time in 160 years opened the private apartments of the architect to the public. Painstakingly restored to the state in which it was left after Soane’s death, the opening of the apartments, which include the historic model room and a private bath, is the Stage II of Opening Up The Soane project (OUTS) that aims to restore and refurbish the enduring legacy of this great architect.
A master of light, space, and texture, Sir John Soane used variation in the building volume to sculpt dynamic spaces. Strategically injected with natural light and often enhanced with convex mirrors, rooms form dramatic backdrops for the obsessively designed vignettes of his vast collection of sculptures, architectural models, and a multitude of decorative objects.
In Soane’s spaces we often find inspiration for our own. Below are renderings of several rooms of an unbuilt residence in Houston. The house was to have a succession of volumetrically diverse spaces awash in natural light.
The dish room shown below for a residence currently under construction on Meadow Lake in Houston also looks to Soane’s breakfast parlor.
