Special Parts

 
Saloon windows, Fonthill Castle; design by Henry Chapman Mercer (photo from the Mercer Museum & Fonthill Castle website). Fonthill has over two hundred windows of varying sizes.

My weekend schedule precludes producing an original blog entry, so I am happy to share an excerpt once again from SYNTHESIS, the foundational textbook written, self-published, and oft revised by my college professor, Bill Kleinsasser. As I have said before, I feel compelled to feature Bill’s writings on my blog because his legacy is otherwise non-existent online and risks being lost to time. The audience for SYNTHESIS was essentially limited to his immediate students. An increasing number of us are moving toward the back half of our careers or are already retired, so the opportunities to directly apply the principles he espoused in our work are dwindling. My hope is by publishing his words here that some among the newer generations of designers will also come to appreciate the value base he embraced.

Though brief, the selection below from SYNTHESIS is noteworthy because of how succinctly and concretely Bill uses the examples of Henry Chapman Mercer’s design of his home (Fonthill Castle), the Mercer Museum, and the Moravian Tileworks to illustrate how we acquire spatial cognition through the organization and utilization of special parts in buildings and places.

Special Parts

To know the places we experience, we construct mental maps of them, first assembling the outstanding features as a sort of outline, then gradually filling in the details. For this process to work, a building or place obviously must have some outstanding features. And the more complex the place, the more essential they are. Even a city can be understood more easily with such features but, without them, small places can be confusing.

Special parts also contribute to the richness and expressiveness of places.

Mercer’s buildings contained many special parts. In Fonthill, there are tiles, vaults, ceilings, fireplaces, and columns that stand out. There are also special rooms, a Russian stove, and many special relics of travel. In the Museum, many parts of the collection are markers. The whale boat, the sleigh, the Conestoga wagon are all memorable, and again certain rooms, ceilings, fireplaces, and columns. In the Tileworks, the huge kilns, chimneys, and the immense fireplace in the “Indian House” are unforgettable. Mercer deliberately established all these features. All are seen repeatedly from many vantage points. Together, they provide accentuation, orientation, and variety.

Mercer often used natural light to create special places. By letting lots of it in, by controlling it, and by using spatial organization and surfaces to dramatize it, he enlivened his spaces with its shades, shadows, and highlights.

WK / 1981