Although they were from different eras, European architects John Soane and Le Corbusier were both innovators in the art of light manipulation. Both considered a window not just as a frame for impending views, but also as a tool to define the mood of the adjoining room.
Using contemporary block composure, Storp Weber Architecture reincarnated the features central to each architect’s approach to perspective lighting through four installation pieces.
To capture the modernistic architecture of Le Corbusier, Storp began by observing the Ville Le Lac – a house Le Corbusier designed for his parents in Switzerland. What was peculiar about the house was its 11-meter long horizontal window, which was designed even before he found the perfect site overlooking the Alps.
In the first model cast in concrete, ‘La Fenêtre Longeur’, Storp recreated Le Corbusier’s long windows with a keen awareness of how the graded light entered the structure.
The second model, ‘The Arrested View’, represents Le Corbusier’s distorted scale and selected view through a water filled aperture.
Known for his neoclassical designs, British architect John Soane didn’t view windows as simple openings. Like Le Corbusier, Soane augmented his spaces by persuading the light to bend and filter into the exact areas he wanted them to.
Storp selected Soane’s own house (now a museum) in the Lincoln Inn Fields of London to embody Soane’s designs.
The third model ‘The Folded Views’ was inspired by the Picture Room in Soane’s museum, which consists of layers of panels that unfold to display his abundant collection of paintings. Storp modeled this expanding view using angled brass openings to reflect and reverberate the featured view, almost as if the structure was translucent.
The fourth model, ‘Lumiére Mysérieuse’, captures Soane’s creative solution to the lack of windows in his museum. By geometrically rerouting the incoming skylights, he was able elegantly stagger the shades the light.
True to design, Storp’s models aren’t just adorned by light – they actually interact with it, which appropriately commemorates the architecture of Soane and Le Corbusier.
