A Space for a Poem: Warmbloods by Claudia Emerson

Project Statement

We each were assigned a poem from Claudia Emerson’s book “Figure Studies” and had to design a space for our specific poem. The poems take place at an all girls school in Chatham, VA. The space had to be separated into a space for the poem and a gathering space.

Statement of Intent

The intent for the space was to separate it by “horse stall” and “pasture” at night emanated in the poem. I used the dichotomy caged vs. free. The stall is designed to only fit about 1-2 people and have a restricting feeling, like how Claudia Emerson described the caged life of a horse in her poem. The stall is also the main light source acting like a lantern in the space to further separate the two, but also to make the outside area of the stall feel like night. The poem mentions when the horses are free at night they lick salt blocks, so I designed my furniture in my “pasture” to be made from Himalayan salt rocks.