Typically the viewing of art is a public act while the domestic world of sleeping and dining is perceived as private. In the home of a collector this normal expectation is reversed. The act of viewing is a private act, while the domestic day-to-day activity constitutes the public life of the apartment. Responding to this inversion was critical in limiting an overflow from the compulsive world of collecting into the domestic realm. A small move perhaps, but the placement of a wall in the living area protects the intimate act of viewing from the living area while also allowing a domestic life that is not completely enslaved to the collection.
Strong colour reinforces the spatial composition and the separation of the collection from the domestic . Red and black walls provide a strong background for the photographs and define areas of private viewing. Conversely the living room and its free-standing screen wall are a warm yellow that provides a neutral backdrop for rich scarlet seating and red persian rugs. It is the furnishings of everyday life that provide colour in the domestic realm, while walls provide the colour in the collection areas. Throughout, the exposed concrete ceilings lift above the spatial delinations established by colour. They define the living area, hold the light, and provide a visual and material link back to the column.
The dining area occupies a large ‘bay window’ with views in three directions into the surrounding trees. The only significant intervention is a floating ceiling panel - a huge electrical cover plate that uses the same compositional rules to conceal the re-alignment of the off-centre electrical service over the dining room table. A slash of blue on the wall and ceiling cleanses the visual palette from the strong reds, blacks and softer yellows elsewhere in the apartment. Appropriately, this is the one space that is most isolated and protected from the collection.
The study is the only space that does not participate in the composition generated by the concrete column. It is the heart and head of the collection, and is dis-connected from the domestic world. Here the collectors can be un-abashed collectors. The walls are a dark slate colour for hanging and viewing. The closet has become a study with storage and an extendable work-surface that can be pulled out to create a larger area for viewing and reference.
