Flicking through my twitter feed I find an post that refers me to a blog with about a local designer. It shows a number of images that are your typical magazine images of any life style magazine. Very light… overexposed. Yeah they do look great and full marks to the photographer. As I look more closely at the space which they are photographing and trying to explain why it is great design, I struggle. It has been composed well with stuff in a room, but at the end of the day it is just things in a room. A quite ordinary room with white plasterboard walls and ceilings, it has quaint pendant light that adds to the furniture. Otherwise there is just found items arranged within a very bland space. I am not mocking the designer here, they have done a very good job at making this ordinary space something that is worth of a lifestyle magazine.
My challenge to this would be, can you still create as interesting and compelling images if the furniture was not in this space?
A space that is fundamentally, uplifting and rich is one that move beyond just the clutter that we place into it. It considers many aspects like the materials that make the walls, are they solid masonry or light weight timber or even paper? What light penetrate the space, where does it land? How does this impact the space? Hot/ Cold? Moisture? Airflow? and then yes the finishes are also part if this, but they should also the answering to bigger ideas through the building, city and location within this world. When a building or project can answer many of these type of questions I think it could be considered architecture and a single image can not truly capture this total experience of a space.
What are your thoughts? Where does a building or space shift from, simply utilitarian to inspirational for you?