Clients sometimes have awkward requests. An architect told me a story about his one family house project. The client was as lady who wanted her interior to have a certain rural look. She definitely had to have wooden roof beams on her living room ceiling. The only problem was that the ceiling was already made and the structural elements were hidden.
The architect was not too orthodox and agreed to have wooden beams made and attached to the ceiling. Everything was all right until the lady wanted to open one of the large windows for cleaning. They opened inwards and the ends of the beams were blocking them since they were lower than the upper frame of the windows. But the resourceful architect had a solution. He had the ends of the beams cut and hinges installed to the stubs. Now the ends of the beams could be folded aside for window cleaning!
Should designers refrain from fake solutions? In the history of design fakery has been almost prevalent. Cheaper wood has been painted to look like marble or more expensive wood. Traditional Nordic wooden houses were painted with red ochre to mimic brick. The tradition lives on: now you can have the ceiling of Lance Armstrong's kitchen easily with faux wood beams made of foam, resin, or dense polyurethane.
During the modernistic period architects and designers were strongly against any fakery. Even if the iconic Le Corbusier used brick walls that were made to look like concrete. The so-called postmodernism changed the scene. Fake became fun.
Today the question of real materials and truthful constructions is complex. It is really hard –even for professionals– to define what is real or fake. Perhaps what feels right is more important than what looks real.
Solid travertine blocks? No, actually a thin travertine cladding, quite common in modern architecture.
Photo: Aarni Heiskanen
