If you’re tinkering around with interior design, run, don’t walk, to A Pattern Language, the online repository of architectural patterns.
“Architectural Patterns” are a way of discussing common problems and solutions in ways that don’t demand a particular type of home, a particular kind of furniture, etc. Those familiar with object oriented software development will recognize it as the concept that influenced Pattern Programming in the 90’s. Seeing the ideas play out in the architectural spaces they were originally conceived in is quite cool. Instead of capturing a specific layout of a home, patterns discuss tiny conceptual building blocks and how they can be combined.
An example is Pattern 142, The Sequence of Sitting Spaces.
Problem
Every corner of a building is a potential sitting space. But each sitting space has different needs for comfort and enclosure according to its position in the intimacy gradient.
Solution
Put in a sequence of graded sitting spaces throughout the building, varying according to their degree of enclosure. Enclose the most formal ones entirely, in rooms by themselves; put the least formal ones in corners of other rooms, without any kind of screen around them; and place the intermediate one with a partial enclosure round them to keep them connected to some larger space, but also partly separate.
It’s fascinating stuff.