architecture

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Seeing Stars

My favorite building I visited while in Paris was the Palais Garnier or Paris Opera House. Read the history of the building and see the library in my post HERE and the main performance space HERE. One of the small anti-chambers in the main public space was this incredible small jewel of a room which I spent a good 10 minutes in. The ceiling was painted black with silver leafed stars and gilded rays emanating from a brass chandelier.
Even the mouldings were gilded and the black background and silver stars were
even more brilliant by contrast. I think this is a great solution for a small windowless room -why not provide your own view? I could especially see a dramatic treatment like this in a dining room or maybe even a screening room; the movie palaces of the 1920s come to mind.
The walls were a neutral french gray with gilded mouldings, as seen above with flash, but the dim ambiance of the space made them feel a more chocolate brown (below).
This goes to show that any space, no matter how small or of minor function, can be special!

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