Architectural Corners and Returns

Today I return to the topic of architectural corners and returns that I introduced in “A Prelude to Corners & Returns”. At a time when “returns” refer foremost to financial benefit (or consumer dissatisfaction) I invite you to consider another alternative that might inspire you to look differently at building exteriors and interiors.

Corners and returns are the heart and soul of architecture and design. Yes, astute readers will note, texture is also essential for me. But it is the corners and returns that define and distinguish the built environment. (Source: A Prelude to Corners & Returns)

Texture and lighting, overall cohesion and contextual integration (ie. room-to-room, parts-to-whole, interior and exterior, etc.), proportional balance (ie. symmetry and asymmetry, volume and massing) and plenty more underpin appealing and enduring/timeless architectural and landscape design. Not just corners and returns. But, the aesthetic impact of architectural returns and architectural corners is visceral and profound. Together they define dimensionality and spatial engagement.

I’m referring to the interactive relationship that a viewer experiences with architecture and design, the feeling that the constructs arouse.

The aesthetic effect of an architectural work is referred to as its everyday aesthetics. It refers to the visual and sensory appreciation of architectures based on factors like symmetry, balance, harmony, and involves cognitive and affective processes. (Source: SwethaJ et al via Brainly)

In the photograph of Rosslyn’s dining room, there is plenty to invite interest. That ethereal blue that I borrowed from Maison Margaux. The mahogany chairs that we had fabricated in the far east and mahogany dining table from The Federalist, both custom built slightly taller than their historic forbears. The rug, another nod to our years in Paris, and the Greek Revival mantelpiece designed by Dale Clark, the window trims reinterpreted from artifacts of the original Greek Revival details (and adapted in collaboration with Jamie Stephens), the crown molding sourced from The Federal Pattern Book and milled locally in Vermont,…

It’s tempting to go in, nodding your head nostalgia, but it’s these last three that pertain to this look at architectural returns and corners.

This closeup detail (Thanks, Jen!) offers a perfect example of both details dramatically contributing to the understated elegance of Rosslyn’s dining room.

Architectural Returns

As too often I’ve taken to long to come around to the point. Time to giddy-up a bit!

Architectural returns include wall returns (i.e. “a wall that makes a decided angle with… an outer wall of a building…”), mantle and molding returns, landscape returns (i.e. “the narrow strip of land that runs alongside the [side(s) of the] ground floor of a property”), etc.

[An architectural “return” is the] side or part which falls away, usually at right angles, from the front or direct line of a structure. (Source: The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture; 3rd edition; compiled by John Fleming, Hugh Honour and Nikolaus Pevsner; published in 1980; via Designing Buildings)

Let’s simplify further.

Return: the receding edge of a flat face (Source: Glossary of architecture – Wikipedia)

The wide photo of the dining room offers textbook examples of architectural returns (and corners) as does this look at the second story hallway reading nook.

Looking outside (front facade at the top of this post and an angled view of the rear elevation of the ell below) offers even more illustrations of returns and corners defining the character and dimensionality of the home.

Let’s look quickly at corners, deferring to a more learned spokesperson than yours truly.

Architectural Corners

Corners are a design opportunity, potentially telling part of the story of a building through the material fabric of a buildings surface… Corners often tell us about a buildings character, a chosen materials strength, tactility or lightness and how the materials interact with each other.

[…]

A good designer will terminate a material in a way that respects the material. Where is the best place to end a material? The inside corner, the corner pointing towards the building. At the inside corner, viewers can no longer see the side of the material so this becomes a natural place for material transition. Inside corners are where mass, plane, color or texture feel most comfortable to meet.

Take a look at the built world around you, what stories do the buildings tell? Do you often see materials telling a story on one face and not telling the same story on another face?  Or does the story flow consistently around the whole building? Architecture is art and the way corners are designed are important moments in the story.

— Nate Robinson (Source: When Walls Meet | Sam Rodell Architects AIA)

As I’m running short of time, I’ll wind down this post with a revisit of four recent illustrations with a fresh look at this stone wall in light of the preceding [abbreviated] look at returns and corners.

More soon!