A single partition delineates yet connects the space with the open-frame. Although a lone intervention, the partition has a significant impression on its surrounding space.
While this partition cabinet quietly separates the spaces, it also serves as so much more, becoming a wall, a backdrop, a window, a picture frame, a feature light, a storage cabinet, a hidden altar. With the partition placed in the centre of a space, it is akin to having four-feature walls.
We often consider that to design is to synthesize functionality and aesthetics through geometry. The Chinese altar is proportioned as a heightened compartment and finished with a deep hue to evoke solemnness, and to lessen the darkening from incense fumes. The sliding-casement doors enclose the altar to resume a modern vocabulary.
The open-frame within the partition is made more pronounced by its inward tapering, catching and projecting gestures of light into each space. It frames each moment of dwelling, past and present mingled together.
“Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.”
– G.K. Chesterton