COURSE ASSIGNMENT: INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY: Describe the indoor location that really appeals to you and explain why. Tell us about the aesthetics, ambiance and environmental conditions of your special place. It could be a coffee shop, library, temple, lodge, summer place or bedroom. This assignment is intended to start you thinking about conditions that evoke positive feelings as opposed to the many neutral or negative environments we often find ourselves in.

A Great^2 Room: Dominated by shoulder-mounts of African game animals, dark-toned hardwood cabinets and over-stuffed maroon leather furniture beneath an 18’ high gabled ceiling with exposed crossbeams, this room is part British drawing-room, part library, part art-gallery and part safari-lodge. It measures 20’ X 14’ overall.

Environmental conditions: In accordance with its purpose as a private retreat within which to withdraw for conversation or contemplation, usually in the late evening, the room is designed to be exclusively an interior space. The windows are covered by 17th and 18th century woven tapestry reproductions, effectively blocking-out the outer world. This adds warmth to the space, even as the originals were used to block radiant heat-loss to cold castle walls. Room temperature is maintained at 70 by the home’s HVAC system via two floor registers. An overhead ceiling-fan prevents the uneven stratification of conditioned air. A fireplace is used when guests are present, though more for ambience than warmth.

Aesthetics: Unlike its environmental conditions, the aesthetics and ambiance of a room are less grounded in physical reality and more subject to the personal preferences of its occupants, whose responses upon entering this room have ranged from, “Oh my God” to “Wow” to “That’s disgusting”, the last coming from a young lady opposed to hunting. The accent is on craftsmanship, with few signs of industrialization or machine-made products.

The room was designed to have two levels separated by an imaginary border just above human head-height. The top edges of the door and window-casings, cabinet-tops, wall-sconces, tapestries and floor lamps create the imaginary border. The wall-sconces direct light upward and the ceiling-fan fixture directs light downward. A series of dimmer-switch controlled spot-lights highlight the trophy-mounts; and floor lamps can be set at any one of three intensities, all allowing for great variability in the rooms lighting and ambience.

The upper level is surrounded by the aforementioned trophy-mounts of eland, kudu, impala, gemsbok, springbok, blesbok, wildebeest and hartebeest. Large bronze busts of African explorers Mungo Park and Henry Morton Stanley, as well as an original bronze-cast bust of Frederick Courteney Selous, commissioned by the author, oversee the room from the tops of cabinets.

At the lower level, original oil-paintings of African peoples and wildlife decorate the walls. A large antique map of Africa is mounted above the fireplace mantle, upon which sit first-editions by Stanley and Selous and a few curios. There are two mahogany bookcases, an 18th-century hand-carved German hunt cabinet that holds a stereo and an antique walnut buffet which serves as a liquor cabinet. A zebra skin lies on the floor and another hangs over a cross-beam. A rifle is mounted above the double-wide doorway to an ante-room just inside the entry.

Ambiance: This is a room designed for contemplation and philosophical discourse, experienced to the accompaniment of brandy, cigars, the soft strains of classical music and burning embers in the brick-faced fireplace. The slow spin of ceiling-fan blades provides the tempo: deliberate, unhurried and unaffected by the confusion and complexities of a world-gone-mad. The faint smell of wild animals, still present in the skins and shoulder mounts, mixed with those of smoldering wood, liquor and cigar smoke, give the room a pungent aroma; wild, untamed and reminiscent of a wilderness campground.

Emotional Impact: This is a room designed to do more than evoke positive feelings. It is designed to elicit reverberations deep within the psyche of its visitors; all the way back to when the first man looked over at his primate cousins and thought “We are different … we can think”. The tones are rich and earthy; the mood subdued. One must hold one’s thoughts until they are as real and true as the surroundings. Words are chosen carefully; simple, direct, and as close to absolute truth as is possible. Occasionally, often when the music reaches a crescendo and the fire spits and sparkles, an inspired voice tells a story of adventure, sudden and profound insight, or wisdom wrought from the experiences of indigenous peoples. When voices fall silent, the crackling of the fire comes to the fore, its intermittent popping and hissing reminding one of its presence. Flare-ups reveal glimpses of bronze, leather bound books, shades of mottled and striped animal-hide, or a reflected glint from the glass eyes of hunted animals. Sleep comes easy; dreaming redundant and unnecessary.

That's really cool!!!

Who wrote it?

quote:

Originally posted by Matt Graham:
That's really cool!!!

Who wrote it?

Can I steal it for another forum?

quote:

Originally posted by Matt Graham:
Can I steal it for another forum?

Be my guest (but when it hits African Hunter I'm claiming copyright).

OK!!!

Damn!! That is good. About the only room to beat that would have soft lighting, a heady perfume in the air and a twenty something nubile reclining.....

quote:

Originally posted by Scriptus:
Damn!! That is good. About the only room to beat that would have soft lighting, a heady perfume in the air and a twenty something nubile reclining.....

These two rooms should be connected by a hallway.

quote:

Originally posted by Scriptus:
Damn!! That is good. About the only room to beat that would have soft lighting, a heady perfume in the air and a twenty something nubile reclining.....

You forgot the Barry White music....

Nicely done, I enjoyed it.

When were you at my house??
Only items you missed were the pool table and one wall dedicated to NA and the opposite wall dedicated to SA.
Oh, and the dimensions are 20x40.

quote:

Originally posted by Blacktailer:
When were you at my house?? Only items you missed were the pool table and one wall dedicated to NA and the opposite wall dedicated to SA. Oh, and the dimensions are 20x40.

Yeah, but you don't have an original one-of-a-kind bronze bust of Selous (and what's this NA stuff all about ... never heard of it)

So now the dilemma - if I build a room which evokes the emotional impact you so eloquently describe, right down the curling aroma of cigar smoke, it would be contrary to the will of She Who Must Be Obeyed. So do I choose the really cool digs, or the wife?

I will miss her.... (then reload and adjust for windage)

Love the story, thanks!