3 Position: Starting with the most important room

Start with the most important room (often the biggest, but not always). It seems almost silly to state this so naively, but it is really true: Most buildings have a “most important” room. It might be a hall or a living room of a house, or the main room of a museum, or the meeting room of a conference center, the lobby of an office. The ultimate feeling of the building as a whole will depend greatly on the effect and beauty of this main and largest room. It is this which you remember.

In software, rooms correspond to the screens we spend time on. Apps have most important screens we spend most time on when we use the app.

In any building, one may say as a general rule that the main room of the building — in size, position, light, volume, character, and structure — must be unforgettable. You must not constrain it with other thoughts; you can let everything else go. If you try to make this main room “fit in” or be part of some system, you will almost certainly make it less than it could be. What you have to do is concentrate, concentrate, concentrate on just this one room. Make sure that you place it where you want it, that it has the most profound character you can get hold of, and let everything else go to hell — for the moment.

In every building — whether museum or church or cottage — what matters first, and before you do anything else, is to get one really beautiful room in the place you want it, with beautiful light — a main center which will bring the building to life.
It all hinges on being able to make a main room which is really beautiful. Everything else should come as secondary.

#book/The Nature of Order/3 A Vision of a Living World/13 The Character of Rooms#