A fine line

BY LESLEY WOOLF

Val De Vie – Summer 2017/2018

Deceptive simplicity, calm, order and elegant proportions are John Jacob Zwiegelaar’s signature. His gift for designing spaces plays out in the interior architecture of this Val De Vie home.

It’s hard to explain why some spaces and shapes resonate on such a profound level, deeply satisfying our need for order. It may be a leaf pattern or the perfect spiral of a seashell – the ‘golden ration’ -or the superlative balance in the proportions of a medieval manuscript. It’s a concept that underpins the interior design of this Val de Vie Estate home.

John Jacob Zwiegelaar of John Jacob Interiors begins his designs process by closely analysing the space. ‘The internal proportions of the architecture come first, and only after refining the architectural layouts, do I work with furniture and detailing.’ This refinement, he says, is a creative process, ‘something you work at until all the details become harmonious and there is no conflicting element.’ If all the interior proportions are carefully thought through, someone will understand on a subliminal level that there is order and calm, Zwiegelaar explains. ‘It’s consistent use of line, proportion and scale that sets up this harmonious relationship between all things and that’s really what my work is about.’

He’s also an astute judge of how to maximise the owner’s experience of their home. When he first saw this Val de Vie property, he immediately remarked that the way it had been aspected-with the bulk of the house towards the street front-would forever ignore the property’s most spectacular aspect: it’s proximity to the polo field with the pavilion in the distance. Once the home had done a virtual about face, Zwiegelaar began the relationship building so critical to the design process. ‘Right from the beginning, I am completely open. I ask the owner what is it they want to achieve or create and how they want to feel in their house? An idea then comes through and I have to take this idea and, in terms of colours and decorative ideas, relate it back to the building. I was hired by the client to conceive of the interior architecture, interior layouts and decorating, and I had to make sure the interior architecture did not clash with the exterior of the building that had been provided to me.’

If there is any tussle in the process, it comes when an owner wants an interior concept that contradicts exterior architecture of the house. ‘In that situation, ‘ says Zwiegelaar, ‘we are not going to create the kind of synergy that glorifies the architecture or use the positive elements of the space. We are going to be fighting it.’ An even gloomier prospect for the owner is that costs escalate dramatically when the two concepts have to be wrestled with and reconciled.

In this house, the owners had very clear ideas in terms of aesthetic language they liked. ‘They showed me some interiors they had seem that we had done in the past and that they had responded positively to, ‘says Zwiegelaar. ‘It’s very much their house and their ideas. Basically, I saw myself as the person who facilitated the science behind it all.’ The science translated, in one instance, to the dramatic use of oversized ceiling details. Ceiling down stands and coffering details were used with awe-inspiring effect to give the interiors a sense of weight and dignity.

‘You can do this when the properties are great,’ says Zwiegelaar, ‘and you can express it as something exciting.’ When it came to details, Zwiegelaar explains that in this house, no picture was just a picture. It had a relationship with panel mould or a relationship with a space between two volds.

It also meant that every piece in the house had to be a bespoke design. If Zwiegelaar called for two coffee tables, it was not whimsy: the two tables related to ceiling space above. Unconsciously and with peripheral vision in play, sofas , the spaces around them, their placing and their size related to the architecture and proportion of the room and its ceiling height. The result? Precision, balance and a subtle visual rhythm. ‘It’s all about making sense of the space, making it easy to read, ‘ says Zwiegelaar.

While the interiors of this home were designed in the muted tones favoured by owners who understood the role played by the interior architecture, Zwiegelaar says the house could easily have worked in another colour combination for someone who loved dark, rich colours – reds or blues. ‘It could have been amazing in blue and white, burnt sienna, or I might have used toile on the walls. It would have been equally spectacular because, ultimately, you would have seen through the decorating and seen the expression of a beautifully harmonious line that would not have been lost.’

What Zwiegelaar will not do is superimpose his signature onto a home to the point where it loses the owner’s identity and vision. ‘I am more of a facilitator of other people’s ideas.’ He says.

Read more John Jacob Interiors Magazine features here…