I visited the Sir John Soane Museum as part of our History and Theory class and I found the historic objects he collected created unique and dynamic interior spaces that made up his 3 combined homes where he used to work, live and display his collections for his clients, himself and the public to view. His home incorporates a lot of borrowed light and this seemed to govern how he designed his interiors and the whereabouts in placing his collections. Moreover, his collections possibly controlled how he created his unique interior spaces and window openings as well. The architect ‘established in London in the early nineteenth century, presents a panorama of architecture in the form of a capacious chamber of wonders’ (Moldoveanu, 2000). His collection consists of a plethora of sculptures, paintings, drawings and archaeological fragments from his travels throughout his career.
When I entered the first room it was covered in pottery and were supported by platforms decorated in green. This contrasted with Soane’s red coloured walls and accentuated the effect of decorativeness which highlighted his collection dictating the interior space. His objects define the décor and exuberance of the rooms, rather than the shapes and architectural details.
His objects became the main focus point of his rooms, and create a smaller and intimate space in his corridors. It brings a real sense of closer contact with his passions and fragments of history. Soane shapes his ceilings downwards to attract the line of sight from the ceiling to the walls where his objects are displayed. I like the use of bulbous mirrors, angled to bounce the light from his carefully installed windows and skylights onto the walls and standing sculptures.
The variety of objects all appeared to have dedicated and special rooms to display them, for example the painting room has walls that completely fold out on either side and unravel a story in the form series of paintings of a gambling man going through unfortunate events in his life.
As I followed the decorative corridors it lead me to a 4 sided arched 2 storey open space with passageways on either side. In the background a tall statue is framed by one of the arches and directly below sits the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Seti I. The surrounding walls are plastered with clay pottery and old fragmented decorative stone facades such as the façade of St Stephen’s Chapel. The entirety of the objects are highlighted by a beautiful domed skylight. The objects displayed here and the framing of this space felt that this was the central part of his home, disregarding the precise the location of my whereabouts.
Every window and opening Soane had designed unleashed layers of history and collections that I could look through into another room or outside space that also held some of his objects. Every single space, nook and cranny played a significant role in his interiors specifically how you viewed his collections.
References
Moldoveanu, M. (2000) “A ‘chamber of wonders’ in London: Sir John Soane’s museum,” Museum International, 52(1), pp. 42–45. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0033.00244.