If you were to ask 'what style I like most in architectural history', I would say that it will be Modernist Architecture. I don't mean the monotonous, soulness and meaningless International Style, but rather, I meant the White Purist Box architecture of Corbusier. So, when it came to 'what colour' should I paint my house, without hesitation I said 'WHITE'! Although it was nothing like the Corbu box, I thought White would be a way to take away the 'ugly details' on the facade. The one thing I hated about the house was the facade; unfortunately, the Feng Shui master said that the best thing about the house was the facade. So, obviously I obeyed the advice of the FS master and took away every thing in the house, and retained the facade. I swing pass my house to check on the renovation progress, and I saw this WHITE thing, I wonder is this the WHITE house that I wanted? Should I have painted it any other colour? What else could it have been? What do you think?
Of course the house is not totally WHITE. Whilst the front was a Corbu WHITE house, the back was a rugged grey hollow wall. The contractor asked, 'how do you want me to finish this?' And I just replied, 'Oh, this is very nice. It's done. No need to do anything to it?' I guess, the perception of beauty is quite personal. Everyone who saw the wall said that it would be tough cleaning the 'hollow stones'; it's too rough, are you running out of money to plaster and paint..... But to me, this was the best space of the house, 'the wet kitchen', which I may never even use. To come to think of it, design is about imagination + design should solve problem. Not sure it these ideas did solve anything, but it was my imagination of what a 'house' should be. At least, it made my house quite different from the China-man Classical Column House or the mundane repetitive facades by the developer, or the floral gates, grilles, and ornaments which resembled Art Nouveau-ism.
It will be 2 more weeks to the end of my renovation. Looking forward to a house with a blend of modernity, brutalism and a sense of identity!
2 comments:
Corbu!
White will the neighbors say?
I imagine the chinaman extension would be cool, pull out the master bedroom over the porch into a box in the air, pardon moi. With the solitary tree of pink flowers rising out the left corner of the garden.
preserving the original facade form but paint it all white is an interesting reaction to the neighbors...
a protruding box will kill the purpose (if there's such purpose) lol
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