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THE INTERIOR DESIGN REFERENCE + SPECIFICATION BOOK
Chapter 6: Sequencing Spaces
Although the art of composing a plan would seem to be the province of the archi-
tect, the interior designer must be involved in choreographing the sequence of
spaces, so that a project reects a single design approach. Acknowledging the nec-
essary collaboration between architects and interior designers, it is important to
understand the two primary vehicles for organizing the relationship between rooms:
the plan and the cross section.
Through-Room and Independent Circulation
Interior design typically begins with the plan. Fundamental to the logic of the plan is the
distinction between rooms that can serve as both places and as routes for through-
circulation—such as the living room, dining room, and kitchen—and rooms that, because
of issues of privacy, require a separate circulation space or network of spaces to access
them—such as bedrooms and bathrooms.
Servant Spaces
A third type of space comprises closets, storage rooms, pantries, replaces, and powder
rooms. Spaces of this category should be consolidated into systemic
create acoustical privacy between larger rooms and to generate a logic for the plumbing, ven-
tilation, and mechanical systems and overall structure of the house. When composing a plan,
it is useful to consider these consolidated smaller spaces as solid masses, in opposition to
the open spaces of major rooms. In the late 1950s, American architect Louis Kahn qualied
this as an opposition between “servant” and “served” spaces. In the 1980s, the consolidated
zones of servant spaces came to be called the
technique used in the nineteenth century at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris (from the French
pocher
Relationships between Rooms
Networks of rooms can be conceived by aggregating rooms, with the gap between each
room functioning as both a thick-wall poche zone and a threshold space. Rooms can also be
created by subdividing a space with thick-wall zones or chunks of poche, as the Farnsworth
House illustrates below.
The plan of the Robie House is
composed of two distinct wings
that separate the public from
the private space.
The plan of the Farnsworth House
is a modern example of poche; the
kitchen, bathroom, and storage
areas are collected into one single
volume in the open plan.
section
plan
COMPOSING A HOUSE IN PLAN
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spaces, so that a project reects a single design approach. Acknowledging the nec
-
understand the two primary vehicles for organizing the relationship between rooms:
Servant Spaces
A third type of space comprises closets, storage rooms, pantries, replaces, and powder
rooms. Spaces of this category should be consolidated into systemic “thick-wall” zones to
create acoustical privacy between larger rooms and to generate a logic for the plumbing, ven-
tilation, and mechanical systems and overall structure of the house. When composing a plan,
it is useful to consider these consolidated smaller spaces as solid masses, in opposition to
the open spaces of major rooms. In the late 1950s, American architect Louis Kahn qualied
this as an opposition between “servant” and “served” spaces. In the 1980s, the consolidated
zones of servant spaces came to be called the “poche,” a term borrowed from a drawing
technique used in the nineteenth century at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris (from the French
pocher “to ll in”).
Frank Lloyd Wright, Robie House
Mies van der Rohe, Farnsworth House
Relationships between Rooms
Networks of rooms can be conceived by aggregating rooms, with the gap between each
room functioning as both a thick-wall poche zone and a threshold space. Rooms can also be
created by subdividing a space with thick-wall zones or chunks of poche, as the Farnsworth
House illustrates below.
The plan of the Robie House is
composed of two distinct wings
that separate the public from
the private space.
The plan of the Farnsworth House
is a modern example of poche; the
kitchen, bathroom, and storage
areas are collected into one single
volume in the open plan.
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THE INTERIOR DESIGN REFERENCE + SPECIFICATION BOOK
Attached or freestanding central
courtyard (California and the American
Southwest)
Plan Types in American Domestic Architecture
The differences among vernacular housing types, designed based on localized needs, con-
struction materials, and reflecting local traditions is the result of climatic variations (the
need to conserve heat versus the need to encourage cross ventilation), security concerns,
and the density of development. The American single-family house is generally organized into
five plan types.
Freestanding house organized around a
central fireplace core (the American North-
east and Midwest)
Freestanding house with a through-house
central stair hall with fireplaces on the end
walls (the American South)
Freestanding house with rooms orga-
nized along a south-facing double-story
portico (Charleston, South Carolina)
Attached row house with a stair and
corridor along one of the common
walls or in the middle of the plan sand-
wiched between exterior-facing rooms
(the American Northeast and Midwest)
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Sequencing Spaces
Attached or freestanding central
courtyard (California and the American
Southwest)
and the density of development. The American single-family house is generally organized into
Freestanding house with rooms orga-
nized along a south-facing double-story
portico (Charleston, South Carolina)
Attached row house with a stair and
corridor along one of the common
walls or in the middle of the plan sand-
wiched between exterior-facing rooms
(the American Northeast and Midwest)
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THE INTERIOR DESIGN REFERENCE + SPECIFICATION BOOK
COMPOSING A HOUSE IN SECTION
If a house is conceived as a series of independent oor levels, then every room on each oor
will share the same ceiling height. Ideally, however, a house should have rooms whose ceil-
ing heights differ in proportion to the overall size of each space. The height of the living room
should be greater than that of the powder room or a coat closet, for example. Opportunities for
such a house of interlocking rooms with different ceiling heights are best explored in section.
The simplest way to organize a mixture of ceiling heights is to make one or several rooms
double-height spaces, with the potential that rooms on the second level can look onto these
taller spaces. Le Corbusier organized houses around double-height living rooms at every stage
of his long career: The Villa Schwab of 1916 and the units in the Unité d’Habitation of 1949
are but two such housing designs.
Another strategy for varying spatial heights in a house is to connect one-and-a-half-story
rooms to adjacent one-story rooms via short stairs. Separating sections of the house by par-
tial-level stairs rather than the full-oor stairs of conventional house designs offers numerous
psychological and functional advantages.
As a variation on this strategy, in the 1920s Adolf Loos designed a series of houses that
organize the rooms of the main living level with a common ceiling plane, but allow the oor
levels to shift, creating rooms with a mix of ceiling heights. As a result, the interiors of Loos’s
houses resemble a terraced landscape. In houses with these complex sectional relationships,
the interconnecting stair needs to be carefully designed to take full advantage of views into
taller spaces and beyond to the exterior.
Le Corbusier, Villa Baizeau
COMPOSING AN OFFICE SPACE IN PLAN
Since the modern ofce is designed for a preexisting at-oor-plate ofce building, there are
very few opportunities for creativity in the section. Rather,
generates design possibilities
(1.5
the exterior window wall. This module works with the dimensional module of the American
systems furniture industry, including manufacturers such as Steelcase and Herman Miller.
This
occasionally wider for senior executives. It also governs other rooms located along the perim-
eter walls, such as conference rooms and reception areas.
A series of intimate, terraced spaces along
the sides of a triple-height space, exempli-
ed in the section of the Müller House, is
another strategy for varying spatial heights.
The section of the Villa Baizeau has interlocking
double-height spaces that become single-height
spaces when joined.
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