Daniella Turner

My first essay explored the development of the critique of ornament within architectural practice at the turn of the nineteenth-century in Vienna. This subject matter emerged from an interest in the flattening of wall surfaces and movement away from applied ornamentation, in favour of highly grained natural materials such as wood and marble.

Using an object selected from the V&A archives, my second essay investigated the Frank Lloyd Wright office built for Edgar J. Kaufmann (1935). I was specifically interested in the conception and construction of a high concept holistic space, from wall panelling, to lighting, furniture and textiles.

Alongside my academic writing, I worked on a creative piece reflecting on American sculptor, Wharton Esherick's home and studio (1926-). Contemplated here were the wider themes of how the personal practices of artists and craftsmen permeate their wider lives, specifically, the desire to live amongst one’s own creations.

My dissertation looked at the designing of the sensorial experience of the naturalistic grottoes of eighteenth-century England. Of particular concern to this research was how these spaces were designed to connote ‘otherness’ and the intangible, and intentionally displace visitors into the fictional realm of the interior grotto space. Various features such as the audible and visual qualities of water, were considered against contemporaneous discourse promoting the artificial manipulation of natural environments to improve one's experience of the world.

IMAGE: Author unknown, interior view of Wharton Esherick's studio. Photo courtesy of Society of Architectural Historians. https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-CH38.