Houses designed by architects are pleasant spaces. They have strong connections to the outside, the correct amount of light, clever places to store your ugly things and pretty places to store your pretty things, and an obsession with lots of places to sit that aren’t seats. Simon Pendal’s work is no exception, though there is something exceptional about the spaces Simon crafts.
The term “desire lines” –described by writer Robert McFarlane as paths made by “the wishes and feet of walkers” – are free and intersecting lines often contrary to those of the ordered perimeter. This term is apt when reviewing Simon’s work, though it could be expanded further. It might be appropriate to call Simon’s architecture “desire volumes” –