Light and colour as guidance

The first thing you do when you enter a room is to orientate yourself. Where am I? The questions isn't just where you are, but also where you are going to. What are you going to do? Who goes to meet someone wants to be in a visible place. People reading the newspaper want to be in a quiet corner, while flex workers want a big table to work on. In a big open space it might seem nice to have an overview. But especially in such a sea of possibilities it's nice to be able to discover the space step by step.

unnoticedly lead

In the multifunctional Keynes Club in Amsterdam you enter in a big space where a lot of things are going on. Without a traditional reception being present. There is a coffee bar taking over the function of the reception. The art is to lead visitors there before they get lost. Besides an optimal layout, we have used multiple means to realise this. The tone of the carpet marks a clear difference between the public space where you are walking and the more intimate space where you sit down. Movement is light and therefor dynamic. The sitting areas are a bit darker with a calming wooden floor. The place where you need to go to is bathing in light: a big lampshade as eye catcher puts the white coffee bar in the spotlights. It feel natural to report here first.

The contrast of gold

To make something be noticed, we often use gold as well. I think gold is beautiful, warm and light. It is in contrast with almost all other materials without it cursing. A shining eye cather, making it function as eye guider as well. In the hallway of Blauw in Den Bosch we chose for golden doors to indicate the fitness rooms. An ordinary, less contrasting colour would have hidden the doors away. You could get the idea there would be emergency stairs or a broom closet behind. Gold tells without question "this is the place to be, here is a special place, open me."

renewal or alienation?        

The question I ask myself as an interior architect is: What do you want to see when you enter a room? A building has a soul and the interior needs to match this. A library for instance, is not a station or a hotel. When modernising it, you shouldn't let go of the archetype of a library. If you would, this might confuse visitors. This interplay between expectation patterns and surprise, cliché and renewal, is one of the nicest aspects about being an architect, but also a responsibility that cannot be underestimated. However spectacular a place looks, who feels disoriented there would want to leave.

Juliet Wong is interior architect at Mulderblauw architecten.
 

Photography portrait: Muriel Janssen
Photography interior: Studio de Nooyer