The Room is the theoretical sibling to the Mug, meant to be built around the consumption of coffee. That being said, it extends to food beyond the common caffeinated drink. It is, primarily, addressing the prompt of creating a room meant for coffee making and consumption, sitting, and comradery. The prompt also, importantly, specified that there needed to be access to a second level in the Room.

It was with this basis that the project began, and a conception for the space was born. The tables, chairs, and other surfaces would double as the “staircase” necessary, with places to sit and eat extending all the way to the “ceiling” of the Room. This staircase is comprised of elements taken from the wall.

The walls, then, are another important feature of the space. Meant to emphasis contrast, specifically in thickness and light admitted, one wall is thick - occupying almost half the dimension of the floor - while the other is a thin, flimsy piece of bass wood. The thin side has windows which allow in tons of light, and its chairs, tables, and storage spaces are made of the same thin material. On the other hand, the almost-comically thick wall juxtaposed has its elements of the staircase/pieces of furniture made of half inch bass wood. The thickness of the material allows little light to enter the space from that side, and what light does enter is severely limited by the depth of the windows. 

Together, the two sides create a dramatic contrast which speaks as an experiment in light, depth, and thickness. The elements which protrude from the opposite walls create a shadow display on the floor which, depending on the nature of the light access, can invent interesting, almost-whimsical patterns of shadows. The shadows vary in intensity depending on how far each platform is from the floor and from the light source. 

This mixture of shadows’ darkness is, in my opinion, the most compelling element of the space, in addition to the interaction of the platforms of each side with each other across the space - how they invade each others’ territory and create an interesting and dynamic silhouette in profile.  Where does the space occupied by one wall and its elements end and the other begin? The shadow-patterned floor between the two further greys the line between the two opposing sides.