SPACE AND LIGHT
by
Katherine Sorrell
Living virtually a hostel life in a small apartment in the metropolis of Karachi I cannot emphasize enough; the Importance of light and space planning. Especially when the space you have chosen for yourself, be it a house, an office or a retail shop, is small in size, making sure that it feels uncluttered, spacious, bright and airy can be a hard nut to crack. Katherine Sorrell helps us in our struggles with her book Space and Light. This book answers the questions on how to achieve such a space quickly and inexpensively, and gives clever, practical examples and case studies of spaces which look fabulous as a result.
The book provides a sound and comprehensive explanation of the elements that make a space. Sorrell’s writing style resigns from the ‘jargons’ of design per se and makes the text easily apprehensible for the non-designers as well. Nonetheless it can prove fundamental to the aspiring designers as well.
In this seemingly basic book, we don’t just find good decorative ideas but it enables an understanding of and capability to identify the pluses and minuses of any given space. You learn to both enhance the positives and obscure the negatives and as a result are able to maximize the potential of that space.
The book is divided in three main sections; Elements, Ideas for living and Real homes. The first section, Elements examines the different ingredients that you utilize, either in isolation or together, to make the most of the space and light available to you. The second section, Ideas for living, is an analysis of every room in a house as a manifestation of all these elements. In the final section case studies of real properties with poor lighting or limited space have been presented and reviewed.
Sorrell introduces the reader to colors, textures and patterns and explains how they define the dynamics of a room and come together to manipulate the sense of space in ways which usually go unnoticed in our homes....