Ornament
. . . once buildings and gardens are finished; walls, columns, windows, doors, and surfaces are in place; boundaries and edges and transitions are defined—Main Entrance, Building Edge, Connection to the Earth, Garden Wall, Window Place, Corner Doors, Frames as Thickened Edges, Column Place, Column Connections, Roof Caps, Soft Inside Walls, Sitting Wall, and so on—it is time to put in the finishing touches, to fill the gaps, to mark the boundaries, by making ornament.
Problem:
All people have the instinct to decorate their surroundings.
Background & Research: Not Included on the site—Go read the book!
Solution:
Search around the building, and find those edges and transitions which need emphasis or extra binding energy. Comers, places where materials meet, door frames, windows, main entrances, the place where one wall meets another, the garden gate, a fence—all these are natural places which call out for ornament. Now find simple themes and apply the elements of the theme over and again to the edges and boundaries which you decide to mark. Make the ornaments work as seams along the boundaries and edges so that they knit the two sides together and make them one.
Usage:
Whenever it is possible, make the ornament while you are building—not after—from the planks and boards and tiles and surfaces of which the building is actually made—Wall Membrane, Frames as Thickened Edges, Lapped Outside Walls, Soft Inside Walls, Soft Tile and Brick. Use color for ornament—Warm Colors; use the smaller trims which cover joints as ornament—Half-Inch Trim; and embellish the rooms themselves with parts of your life which become the natural ornaments around you—Things From Your Life . . .
pg. 1146