The cracked earth of the Old Airport Road Park made me think about how people would see the sky from within. This, in turn, made me think about framed views.
A lot of images which come up when searching for framed views are often horizontal and even panoramic. Not many are vertical. However, the image above presents a brilliant vertical framed view out of a house in Sonoma County, California.
I find vertical views so much more interesting than horizontal ones. They actually feel more open because of the amount of sky which is captured by them. The shape leads your eye up towards the sky, but starts straight from the ground. It gives the view far more depth.
This got me thinking about how framed views could work in the Lumsdale Valley site. Whilst at the site, I took several photos, below are two of my favourites.
I find vertical views so much more interesting than horizontal ones. They actually feel more open because of the amount of sky which is captured by them. The shape leads your eye up towards the sky, but starts straight from the ground. It gives the view far more depth.
This got me thinking about how framed views could work in the Lumsdale Valley site. Whilst at the site, I took several photos, below are two of my favourites.
Both of these images are vertical. The left focuses on the distance and it's depth. The right focuses on the waterfall. In my opinion, both of these were best captured in vertical orientation and I believe that the same would be true through framing them with architecture too.
The waterfall would be an amazing view to capture, especially close up. A vertical frame would be the best way to do this. To capture the distant views, I feel the same would be true. I think that the use of vertical views throughout would provide a very different experience to conventional expectations of elements such as windows.
There is a by product of using tall slim windows. This could be viewed as negative, but in this case, and for this client, I feel it is positive. Vertical windows in the buildings would provide amazing frames, but may also feel slightly restrictive. It would be as though your eyes are not able to explore the landscape, only focus on what they are being shown. I like this though, I think that it will encourage people to go outside of the buildings and explore the area themselves, instead of just looking at it from behind glass walls.
In this respect, the best solution to designing for a client who wants to connect with nature, may actually be to limit how much they connect with nature. At least as far as the interior is concerned. This seems like a fundamentally contradictory concept, but I believe it is one which works perfectly for the ecologist clientele.
The waterfall would be an amazing view to capture, especially close up. A vertical frame would be the best way to do this. To capture the distant views, I feel the same would be true. I think that the use of vertical views throughout would provide a very different experience to conventional expectations of elements such as windows.
There is a by product of using tall slim windows. This could be viewed as negative, but in this case, and for this client, I feel it is positive. Vertical windows in the buildings would provide amazing frames, but may also feel slightly restrictive. It would be as though your eyes are not able to explore the landscape, only focus on what they are being shown. I like this though, I think that it will encourage people to go outside of the buildings and explore the area themselves, instead of just looking at it from behind glass walls.
In this respect, the best solution to designing for a client who wants to connect with nature, may actually be to limit how much they connect with nature. At least as far as the interior is concerned. This seems like a fundamentally contradictory concept, but I believe it is one which works perfectly for the ecologist clientele.
http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/350968/list/Design-Details--Framing-Views