FINALS!!! Survey of Contemporary Interior Architecture

This is the final project for this class; I still have a BIG test to take tonight. Anyhoo, the designer is John Saladino and this guy I really like. He's big into Mediterranian ruin designs mixed with contemporary designs. I hemmed and hawed about adding the essay I had to write too. I guess I'll go ahead and post it below. I'm still waiting on the grade.

“To me, the ultimate refining of a thing ends in its utter simple geometric form. That is what gives it its timeless quality”. Such is one of the design basics of John Saladino, one of the worlds most distinguished interior designers.

Born the son of a Kansas City Missouri doctor, John Saladino has risen to become known as “the designer’s designer”. Although he initially studied painting, he was educated at Notre Dame and the Yale School of Art and Architecture in the 1960’s. After graduating with a MFA degree, he went overseas to work at an architectural practice in Rome, Italy. In the two years he was there, Saladino fell in love with history and ancient ruins. This new love released his inhibitions and fed his natural romanticism. The teachings at Yale, steeped in minamilist philosophy, and the dramatic architecture of Italy gives Saladino the natural ability to blend the old with the new; modern with traditional. Saladino can seamlessly blends scratch-coat plastered walls, stone floors and sleek modern furniture together. In a 1988 interview he reaffirmed his unique design style, “Now I believe in always bringing something of the ancient world into the twentieth century.”

After his time in Italy, Saladino returned to American and in 1969 he opened his own design company, which is still going strong after forty years. In his designs, Saladino pulls from classical and traditional designs, simplifying them to their basic geometric form. “I want the basic shapes of all the furniture to come out of primary forms – drums, cubes, rectangles, spheres”. His furniture while simple in line, is luxurious in fabric in texture. He is not afraid to change the covers of his furniture to follow the different seasons. A couch or chair may be of cotton in the summer, then of quilted velvet in the winter.

The interiors he designs often displays his love of theatrics and grand architectural scale; he is a master of proportion, such as columns, corroded surfaces and color to create a feeling of a grand house or a cozy cottage. When it comes to the use of color, Saladino believes in using colors that can be easily changed by natural light, whether it is day or night. The use of layered lighting also comes into effect, creating dramatic realms of color in a whole room, from only one color source. As was noted by Adam Lewis, author of “Van Day Truex: The Man Who Defined Twentieth Century Taste and Style”, Van Truex believed that “John Saladino had a remarkable eye for color” which evoked “the aura of a Renaissance painting”. Saladino himself says that “I think of interiors as a walk-in still life…”

The color pencil rending I have chosen to portray is of an interior view of a dining room. The feeling of this room gives the impression of entering an ancient temple and glimpsing into the secret room where Gods may feast. The simple geometric shapes are unmistakably noticeable in the design layout. The initial entrance is an opening with scratch-coat plaster walls that are flanked by tall fluted columns. As with the rest of the interior colors, the actual base color is elusive. The exterior lighting reflects off the walls and pillars in shades of white, gray, tan and a warm light peach.

The inner entry features what seems to be tall, square and triangle, nail-studded shapes on the doors. These doors are open and allow you to glimpse into the dining room beyond. The dining room features four of Saladino’s own Highback Villa Chairs that surround a white linen covered, round table. The chairs seem to be covered in an off-white or tan cotton fabric that absorb the reflect color of the focus wall, seems to be in a shade of peach. The grand focal point on the wall is a large gold framed mirror; the white ceiling which features a curved triangular molding that seems to be the crown on this beautifully crafted masterpiece.

The sample board exhibits the original photo of the room, a photo of the Highback Villa chair, fabric swatches of linen and cotton, as well as paint swatches that seem to reflect the colors that Saladino used in this interior design.

Sources:
www.Saladinostyle.com
www.sfdesigncenter.com
www.fineliving.com
www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-4027126.html
http://query.nytimes.com