There is a local architecture firm here in New Zealand that calls themselves Box Architecture.
This should be embarrassing.
Ever since architects learned how to manipulate space, good architects have been trying to break the box.
Frank Lloyd Wright is still one of the most successful ....
The key that Wright understood is the importance of corners — either to define a space, or (by removing it) to open space out.
Once a corner is broken, you can then join two spaces on their corners to share space, creating a much more interesting meeting of spaces — which also stress and suggest diagonals, which further increase a space's apparent size.
And once you've begun playing with that method, you're well on the way to understanding how to use nested spaces—with often just a hint of enclosure—to suggest more space, and more openness, than your overall space really contains.
And that's without even starting to talk about how to bring the outside in to make a small space appear larger ....
Look at how the methods described above are used in the two deceptively simple plans below to suggest larger space than there is, and to link the spaces within to the landscape outside (you should be able to click on them to enlarge them).
I hope this has helped you to see more clearly how architectural space is about more than just laying out wee boxes. :-)
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