ABSTRACT

When the usually rectilinear enclosing surfaces assume unusual angles and the openings in them take uncustomary shapes, the results can be disorienting. This scene is from the 1919 German film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; set designers were Hermann Warm, Walter Rohrig and Walter Reimann. At the bottom of every interior design is a floor. For children, it is often used for seating; for more decorous, less limber adults, contact with it is primarily with feet and eyes. Because it is so apparent and so accessible, it seems to plead for decorative treatment, and, because carpets and rugs cushion our step and reduce sound reverberation, they are an obvious answer. "The characteristic of a floor is its levelness," English architect and educator W. R. Lethaby has pointed out. But even this rule has its exceptions: in rare cases the designer may deliberately tamper with the solidity of the floor to create a sensation of danger or alienation.