Monday, July 20, 2009

Sir John Soane's Breakfast Room

The house located at 12 Lincoln's Inn Fields in England has an extraordinary breakfast room. You may not notice at first glance but it is an illusion box. A funhouse organization of mirrors—tilted, concave, some appearing to be windows—such that you may have to inspect the room more closely to realize where the natural light is coming from...

It is the work of Neo-Classical architect Sir John Soane.

Sir John Soane's Museum (aka, the Soane Museum) is the former home of the architect...

Let's let Wikipedia flesh out this entry for me:
Soane demolished and rebuilt three houses in succession on the north side of Lincoln's Inn Fields. He began with No. 12 (between 1792 and 1794), which is externally a conventional plain brick house typical of the period. After becoming Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy in 1806, Soane purchased No. 13, the house next door, today the Museum, and rebuilt it in two phases in 1808-09 and 1812.

In 1808-09 he constructed his drawing office and "museum" on the site of the former stable block at the back, using primarily top lighting. In 1812 he rebuilt the front part of the site, adding a projecting Portland Stone facade to the basement, ground and first floor levels and the centre bay of the second floor. Originally this formed three open loggias, but Soane glazed the arches during his lifetime. Once he had moved into No. 13 Soane rented out his former home at No. 12 (on his death it was left to the nation along with No. 13 - the intention being that the rental income would fund the running of the Museum).

After completing No.13, Soane set about treating the building as an architectural laboratory, continually remodelling the interiors. In 1823, when he was over 70, he purchased a third house, No. 14, which he rebuilt in 1823-24. This project allowed him to construct a picture gallery, linked to No.13, on the former stable block of No.14....

The Museum was established during Soane's own lifetime by a private Act of Parliament in 1833, which took effect on Soane's death in 1837. The Act required that No 13 be maintained 'as nearly as possible' as it was left at the time of Soane's death and by and large that has been the case...
The house is supposed to be filled with remarkable structure. The breakfast room is just one piece of the damn thing!

I want to go to there.

1 Comments:

Blogger Chaotic_Architect said...

In my opinion, there is nothing neo-classical about 13 Lincoln's Fields Inn. I'm currently doing research on Sir John Soane and his "museum", and I've come to the conclusion that Soane is more of a Romantic than a Neo-Classicist. Within No. 13 the only neo-classical elements even remotely present is the idea of proportion, and the domes (which are also styled and not true "classical" domes). There is one instance of a hypostyle-type hall, I do believe, which can be considered neo-classical. But to mimic the aesthetic qualities of neo-classical doesn't make it neo-class. It's about the principles underlying the visual as well as the experienced qualities that make a space or structure neo-classical. Just FYI thanks for listening.

6/27/2011 09:20:00 PM  

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