The reason we get engrossed in the details (see blog post “We Love Puzzles” 8/8/18) is because through the application of the details the bigger picture comes into view. And it is the bigger picture, the final product, that makes us go “wow.”
The big picture starts with a vision. The vision inspires the details and the details come together to create the space. The design + construct process is fluid as a new space is brought to life, allowing our clients to see the big picture as visions become reality.
The word “vision” sounds supernatural, and tangentially it is. When asked to explain how I come up with a vision for a space, my best answer is that the space “speaks to me, it tells me what it wants to be.” Spaces speak easily, but it takes years of experience and knowledge to be able to listen to what a space is saying.
It is the relationship between what the space wants and the client’s lifestyle that allows the vision to take shape. Some clients will come to us asking for specific details, such as “a blue door” for example. The detail can then influence the vision for the bigger picture; an entire space-design stimulated by a blue door.
The SweisKloss vision is influenced by light, movement, wellbeing, place and time. Sustainability, functionality, codes and aesthetics provide parameters that guide the vision through each project.
The vision-inspired details that come together include: natural light on the center-stage commanding the placement of doors and windows and floor to ceiling glass; orientation for the movement of air and flow within and between the indoors and outdoors; client usability and experience of the space through cabinetry and screens where private belongings can seem to disappear; views framed to draw out the eye and body; seemingly seamless intersections and the flush alignment of materials; and using the historic bones of the space to combine old and new to create something extraordinary.
When a renovation project is complete and the space is now what it has always wanted to be, the space will simply feel right, as if it is saying “thank you.”
