2010年3月17日星期三

The Sir John Saone's Museum

The Sir John Soane's house, museum and library located at No.13 Lincoln's Inn Fileds in Holborn. It was designed by Architect Sir John Soane's, he was an Englighs Architect, born in 1753 at Goring-on-Thames, Berkshire in England. Graduated at the Royal Academy in London. His specialized in architecture is the Neo-classical style. His architectural works are distinguished by the clean lines, massing of simple form, decisive detailing, careful proportions and skillful use of light sources. The influence of his work, coming at the end of the Georgian era, was swamped by the revival styles of the 19th century. His best-known work was the Bank of England, a building which had widespread effect on commerial architecture.
He bought the house at 12 Lincoln's Inn Fileds in 1792. He used the house as his home and library , but also entertained potential clients in the drawing room. He purchased and rebuilt it and resided there until 1812. In the meantime, he bought No.13 in 1806, which covered a large area. It was pulled down and rebuilt as his residence . Later in 1823-24, he designed and rebuilt No.14 which connected to No.13. It is a picture gallery.
The picture on lift hand shows the facade of Sir John Soane's House (No. 12) around 1812, before it was
purchased by Sir John Soane. It is just a normal house with conventional plain brick in that period. And the picture on right hand shows the facade of it today. It is constructed in stone and brick, the stone having been subsequently painted for preservation.
I also can see the different construction works for the house before and after rebuilding though two pictures. Before the rebuilding, the house has 4 floors (including the basement) but it is 5 floors nowadays. Those original balconies on ground floor, first floor and second floor were replaced by windows after the rebuilding. I think it extend the interior space of the house.(after compared two pictures show on lift and right .)
I was very curious how does it looks like behind the ordinary facade. There was already a queue of people lined up in front of me waiting to get in when I visited it. The number of people's visit to the museum is limited due to the narrow corridor inside. The interior structure is quite complex. The ground floor has been devided into 17 different functional areas. (see the picture below)lift picture: Ground floor plan for Sir John Soane's Museum.
a.Entrance Hall
b.Libraryc.Dining room
d.Sepulchral chamber (in basement)
e.Breakfast Parlour
f.Anteroom
g.New Courth.New picture room
i .Central domej .Colonnade
k.Dressing room
l .Small Study room
m.Monk's parlourn .Recessed room
p.Stairs to basement
z.Breakfast room.
The picture on lift shows the basement plan of the No.13 and extension behind No.14. The front part of the drawing ( bottom the drawing) is conventional domestic offices. On the lift top corner ,it is the alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I. It is named Sepulchral chamber by Sir John Soane. The Soane's first house, No.12 is to the left, and where the Museum's temporary exhibition space is today located, is not shown on this plan.
The half part in the front of the house are rooms for living, they are higly unusual in subtle ways. Those rooms were build by wood, walls, floors and staricases are all wooden materials. The Breakfast room has a domed ceiling , has a round window in the center and surround by convex mirrors. (Picture on right). Although it is a breakfast room, drawings are hung on walls , sculptures are on tables and on top of fireplace. (see drawing blow the breakfast room picture). Drawings are hung on the flat celling in the library room, the constructive design bookcase form, a big mirror in the center of the room and two big windows face to street,windows in the house are have big size, and celling windows also provide natural light from sky. Those detail design reflects the architect's features again, simple form, and skillful use of light sources.The staircase is an ingenious piece of planning and construction, containing items of interest such as the Shakespeare recess, a bay window, and the Tivoli recess.
The most famous space in the museum is the rear part on the first floor.

Picture above shows the section of the museum, the space is fully used to its maximum. Every detail is a artwork, such as a lamp, a chair, window's frame , staircases, patterns on the window and so on.
In conclusion, the Sir John Soane's Museum is a

2010年3月6日星期六

The Sir John Saone's Museum

Sir John Saone's, RA( 10 spetember 1753-20 January 1837) was an English Architect who specialized in the Neo-classical style. His architectural works are distinguished by the clean lines, massing of simple form, decisive detailing, careful proportions and skilful use of light sources. The influence of his work, coming at the end of the Georgian era, was swamped by the revival styles of the 19th century.
It was not until the late 19th century that the influence of Sir John's architecture was widely felt. His best-known work was the Bank of England, a building which had widespread effect on commerial architecture.

The architecture Sir John Soane's house, museum and library at No.13 Lincoln's Inn Fileds has been a public museum since the early 19th century. Soane demolished and rebuilt three houses in succesion on the north side of Lincoln's Inn Fileds, begining with No.12 between 1792 and 1794, moving on to No.13, re-built in two phases in 1808-9 and 1812, and concluding with No.14, rebuilt in 1823-24.