Robyn Nelson Dissertation Abstract

How can structure (domes) create beautiful internal domestic scale spaces?

Abstract

  

Guided by my personal interest in interiors, and a particular curiosity of interiors created by domed structures, I have elected to make this the topic of my dissertation. 

The quality of interior space is appreciated through its illumination. Therefore in order to study the dome I must always analyse the lighting conditions. As light falls on a surface it gives it form... fundamentally this is architecture. Josep Quetglas writes for Elias Torres’s book Zenithal Light,

“As we often instinctively, associate light with its source -the sun- and shadow with its limits -darkness-, we assume that light is a phenomenon of the exterior, and that shadow is a phenomenon of the interior.

The opposite is closer to the truth: only in interiors does light materialize and allow itself to be seen; the shadows are outside. The light has a presence and gives form only to what is inside, while shadow has a presence and gives form to what is outside.

Light is a phenomenon of the interior.”

In order to make this topic more tangible I will study the architecture of Sir John Soane in England around the turn of the nineteenth century. I will use No.13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London as a lens through which to explore Soane’s understanding of the interior and in particular the dome. 

Soane a master of both light and space and free from Classical restraints would manipulate classical orders to achieve wonderfully intriguing and diverse rooms. The manner in which the museum was built informed much of how it came to be as it is. The museum, made up for three adjoining town houses acquired at different stages throughout a forty year period meant that the museum was an ever evolving project for Soane, deeply personal to him.

For research purposes I hope to visit the Sir John Soane Museum, No. 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. There I will document the rooms within the museum in order to achieve comparable data each space. I will also undertake archival research where I hope to discover evidence of the people and buildings that influenced Soane’s architecture.