essay: october 2008 editor's letter
DESCRIPTION
ÂTRANSCRIPT
8 ML | October 2008
ml | editor’s letter
The small spaces featured in this issue have me think-ing about the spaces I’ve lived in over the years: a rambling19th-century Neoclassical/Georgian Revival with Palladi-an windows and a third-floor ballroom with a black-and-white tile floor; a city loft perched just above the light railline with half walls that allowed all the smells—andgrease—from the kitchen to waft right into my clothescloset; and a wood-shingled house at the end of a cul-de-sac that my family and I shared with a ghost who liked tosteal teaspoons and wander the halls at night.
But of the 15 or so places I’ve called home, the spaceI’ve enjoyed living in the most, the one that felt the most “just right,” was by far thesmallest space of all: my 80-square-foot room in Sewall Hall, a beautiful old dor-mitory on the University of Colorado’s campus. Really more of a closet, the roomforced me to edit my possessions down to the essentials. As a result, I lived sur-rounded by my most favorite things.
There must be something to that, because when I asked the architects featuredin this month’s “The Ones to Watch” feature (on page 25) about their dream proj-ect, many described a space that was small. Trey Jordan, a Santa Fe-based architect,explained that small spaces just seem to be moreessential. “When you really cook stuff down, thestructure feels like it’s that way because it’s sup-posed to be that way,” he says.
It seems to me that the constraints presentedby a small space foster ingenuity. Of course, a big budget and 20,000 square feetoffer lots of room for creativity, but I’m talking about the outside-the-box thinking ittakes just to accommodate all of the basic functions of a home in a unique, livableand aesthetically pleasing way.
The homes featured in this issue are as different as can be, but each one wasborn of a set of constraints—a floodway, the surrounding landscape, a herd ofdeer. And while these restrictions may have seemed like problems at one time,today they’re more like gifts, for the homes we get to enjoy in this issue simplywouldn’t be here without them.
“It seems to me that the constraints presented by a small space foster ingenuity.”
Small Spaces,Big Ideas
PH
OTO
BY
DEB
OR
AH
CO
TA
CHRISTINE DEORIO, EDITOR IN [email protected]