The Europa Bar employs a device common to turn-of-
the-century interiors – it is constructed as a circle within a
square, treated rather like a clearing in a forest with the
dome of space representing the pulling back of the trees
to reveal the sky. In such an interior the columns could be
likened to the trunks of trees and the exposed beams to
branches. Many famous interiors employ a biological
metaphor, especially those in the Art Nouveau style
whose forms echo those in nature. At the Glasgow
School of Art the renowned library by Charles Rennie
Mackintosh has also been likened to a woodland clearing,
the verticality of the columns suggesting some northern
pine forest.
By way of contrast, a sketch of the interior of a
medieval cathedral should evoke its imposing ambience
and Gothic detail. Here the architecture is not one of line
and rectilinear decoration, but of light, shade, space and
carved decoration. Accordingly, the artist should adapt his
or her style to suit the interior and choose materials that
are appropriate for depicting the subject in question. The
resulting sketch may well tell us more about Gothic
architecture than could be communicated by laboriously
measured drawings of walls, windows and columns, and
certainly more than could a photograph.
In terms of design, interior spaces are treated in a way
that is so similar to certain exterior ones that it is hardly
worth analysing them as a separate entity. The rules of
articulation, of the manipulation of scale and of the
exploitation of axial arrangements are equally relevant to
the design of the interior of buildings as their exteriors.
What is different is the fact that interiors are designed to
be entered: these are spaces that can be inhabited and
modified, rather than simply gazed upon. As such, the
positioning of the artist is vital; drawings are static records
yet the viewpoint should seek to show the
interpenetration of space, and how light is used to
20.1
The use of timber shutters to reduce glare
in North African houses creates
attractive patterns on floors.Interiors 171