Benevolent Passage
The space for cooking used to be isolated and used only by servants who were not to be seen. The original path from the kitchen into the dining room passed through a pantry full of beautifully built cabinetry. The house is comprised of a series of boxes, organized tightly with clear definition to each one, and certain functional adjacencies. We were interested in finding a way to make connections between spaces, based on the clients desire to unify the kitchen and dining areas. The path became more direct, but taking cues from what was already there, we reconstructed the pantry threshold to maintain the feeling of passing through from one space to the next. So while there is connection, the material change and the programed threshold maintain that original separation. The details attempt to find a balance between the clients leaning toward modern aesthetics, and the house's original finishes and details.
