THE CAB AESTHETIC
We approach design with beauty at the forefront. At the same time, we endeavour to express the unique nature of a home’s surroundings and occupants. To achieve this goal, we adhere to an important set of principles: (1) create places to linger, (2) make each part unique, (3) embellish with detail, and (4) finish for warmth and personal character.
(1) CREATE PLACES TO DWELL
A good home design begins by focusing on the most important shared spaces: kitchen, dining, and living room. These should be made into places where people want to dwell—engaged happily in tasks, spending time together, or just quietly enjoying a comfortable spot alone. Such rooms should be well formed so that they do not not blur uncomfortably into surrounding spaces. At the same time, they should maintain a connection to the house and outside world. These important spaces should be distinguished with key features, such as plentiful daylight, higher ceilings, and a strong focus (e.g., fireplace, dining table, or island).
Architectural features should emphasize the most important places in a home.
(2) MAKE EACH PART UNIQUE
Each part of a home should be made unique so that it properly responds to its own function and environment, while reinforcing the overall design. For instance, a good kitchen must do many things at once. First, it must support the main gathering area while also responding to several practical concerns: the locations of counters, sinks, appliances, etc. In addition, the form of the room must accommodate the available sources of natural light and circulation patterns through it. There is no Instagram or Pinterest image whose facsimile will solve such a complex design problem—the right solution will always be unique.
Design must not be forceful—it must adapt to need and circumstance.
(3) EMBELLISH WITH DETAIL
We believe that truly enriching architecture shares the detail-embellished character found throughout nature, where it’s easy to observe how beautiful things are defined by their diverse but unified parts—think of a flower and its pedals. Architecture should similarly be enhanced with embellished details. For example, mouldings provide a necessary function: covering the seams where parts come together. At the same time, a moulding’s proportions and profiles can contribute greatly to a building’s beauty and sense of meaning. Good design must recognize and capitalize on these opportunities.
Embellishment through colour and pattern can bring life to a space.
(4) FINISH FOR WARMTH & PERSONAL CHARACTER
To make a house feel like a home, the finish of its materials must imbue a sense of warmth. For example, wood flooring and tile can be enhanced with patterns and borders. Likewise, something as simple as the right paint colour can provide a room with a feeling of serenity.
It is also important that a home exude a strong personal character. This can only be accomplished with the homeowner’s personal touches. As keenly observed by Christopher Alexander in his insightful book A Pattern Language, “very often people forget their instinct for the things they really want to keep around them…It is far more fascinating to come into a room which is the living expression of a person, or a group of people, so that you can see their lives, their histories, their inclinations, displayed in manifest form around the walls, in the furniture, on the shelves.”
A home should be made in comfortable harmony with itself, its surroundings, and those who live within it.
These principles help deliver an aesthetic that is rich and layered, one that expresses the individual nature of our clients and the homes they occupy. The resulting style is rooted in traditional forms, but in a way that is comfortable in the modern world. Ultimately, we believe that every home should be in harmony with itself, its surroundings, and those who live within it.
