Radiating warmth and light, the hearth as the middle of a house endures. And while modern thinking about fireplaces has changed from the essential to the quaint, fireplaces remain appealing architectural devices at a house. Modern fireplaces discuss a number of common design elements necessary for their performance, each of which has dimension requirements ordered primarily by construction code requirements.
Abiding by and conforming to these restrictions can have a homogenizing effect on fireplaces, forcing them to look comparable in scale and proportion. These examples show how the use of two simple techniques — oversizing and diminishing — can open a world of possibility.
Fireplaces include three primary elements: a hearth, a firebox and a chimney. (Some contemporary gel-fueled fireplaces don’t even require a chimney) Other elements, such as wood storage and mantels, while traditional necessities, are being used in new and exciting ways also. By oversizing or decreasing these three primary components, you can achieve some brilliant results. Let us begin at the base of the fireplace.
The Hearth
Wood-burning fireplaces require a noncombustible surface in front of and adjacent to the fireplace opening. It is meant to prevent stray embers from igniting nearby flammable surfaces. As in this instance, the hearth also functions as an anchor to the fireplace and the area. There are code requirements that dictate the minimum dimensions of a fireplace hearth extension, plus they are tied to the size of this opening of the fireplace. As you may imagine, a larger opening demands a larger hearth extension.
Oversize it. An open, three-sided fireplace such as this requires a larger hearth than a typical single-sided fireplace. Here the architects moved outside the dimensions required with an enormous, monolithic hearth rock. The oversize hearth strengthens the burden of the fireplace and makes the fireplace a dominant element.
The spaces surrounding it pinwheel relating to this enormous, dynamic composition. What greater way to match the scale of this landscape outside? The series of interlocking L-shapes comprising the fireplace follows the notion of oversizing to its logical conclusion: The mantelpiece is oversize as well; it seems to be cantilevered in the flanking rock service. The metal mantelpiece was separated from the hearth below, and the vented chimney allows views throughout the firebox to the outdoors.
When to use: To command attention and emphasize a special object or substance, or to fit the scale of a large space.
Cary Bernstein Architect
Minimize it. An equally valid approach is to decrease the hearth. This takes its design cues in the space. Carefully written, flush surfaces washed with mild focus the eye shape and form and nothing else. The streamlined firebox and the absence of any extraneous ornament follow the cues as well. When a very simple room is treated this way, it’s the fire that animates the room.
When to use: To give focus to the flame, not an object or substance.
Capoferro Design Build Group
Oversize it. This hearth is oversize, filling the width of this space. It is a piece of built-in furniture used for seating, keeping firewood and displaying objects that are special. The architects have inset the required hearth depth into the wall and then put the hearth at a comfortable height for seating, effectively producing an all-purpose inglenook.
The hearth is so much more than only a functional, code-deferential requirement. Note how the height of the firebox opening was carried throughout the inglenook at a noncombustible cladding of steel. Similarly, the facing of the chimney over the firebox was treated similarly: It is oversize and monolithic.
When to use: When you want seating, storage and display.
BAAN layout
Minimize it. This renovated fireplace comes with a tasteful, minimalist hearth and and a steel mantelpiece that’s integral with the firebox front and opening. The flush hearth virtually disappears, representing just the flame. The architects have clad the first fireplace opening in steel, set slightly in front of the current wall airplane. By offsetting the plane of the steel in the wall, they made a very simple mantel that serves double duty.
Not only can it be a location to exhibit objects, but it hides a sliding glass door, that protects the area from errant sparks and keeps building heat from escaping when closed. The steel plate onto the right side extends beyond the code-required minimum to conceal the sliding door in the open position. An individual can imagine that the place to the best on the hearth also offers a place to store a couple pieces of wood. Not merely is this appropriate, but it’s proportionally beautiful.
When to use: To emphasize simple forms.
OLighting
The Firebox
The launching that comprises the fire is called the firebox. In a wood-burning fireplace, it dictates the size of the chimney flue; a larger opening demands a larger flue. Additionally, it determines the amount and prominence of flame visible in the area. Sometimes overlooked but crucial to think about is that if the fire is not lit, the firebox also determines the size of this dark opening in the wall.
Oversize it. With gas fireplaces, as in this instance, the firebox could be pushed to extreme limits without a few of the concessions required when creating a sizable wood-burning fireplace (very large flues, efficacy problems etc.) gas fireplaces have the advantage of clean combustion, restricted interior particulates, instant on-off and low maintenance. If oversizing a linear burner, then you are able to illuminate a much larger area of this space, which can be an effect impossible to achieve with a wood-burning fireplace. The architects have dodged the “black hole” effect by cladding the whole wall.
When to use: Restrained use can be very dramatic, as revealed here. Large burners can throw off considerable amounts of heat, so use them with care in a restricted setting.
Jose Garcia Design
Minimize it. Here the fireplace’s effect on the adjacent pool terrace was minimized. Recessed into the ground level, the unlit fire pit functions as a straightforward dark feel on the ground plane (like the darker plaque onto the walls). When lit, the flame becomes a vibrant dancing sculpture contrasting the water element. (And just think of the fire-walking-party possibilities)
When to use: Outdoor settings are perfect for a minimalist, recessed firebox. This applies to all fuel types — wood, gas and gel.
Estes/Twombly Architects, Inc..
The Chimney
The proportions of this chimney are determined primarily by the kind of fireplace. For wood-burning fireplaces, the minimum flue size is determined by the firebox opening. The larger the opening, the larger the flue (and so the chimney to conceal it). For gas-burning and fireplace inserts, the flue size and type are determined by the producer, but the flue is generally smaller and more flexible in its own arrangement and concealment.
Oversize it. The chimney overlooks an whole wall in this living area. It is much more rock than required by code for noncombustible surfaces flanking the firebox, but the sheer weight and amount of rock speak to the fireplace’s visibility in the makeup of the home and the comparative importance the homeowner and architect have put on this element. I especially like the treatment of this solid rock lintels and accents surrounding the firebox within the rock facing, which bear the burden of the rock above and distribute it to the flanks.
When to use: To focus attention on the fireplace and emphasize workmanship and materials.
Amitzi Architects
Minimize it. It is hard to discern just where the chimney is in this image. A small linear element in the wall, that this little terrace adds warmth and a luminous light without adding yet another compositional element to an already complex space.
When to use: whenever you don’t want your fireplace to control a space.
Firewood Storage
Oversize it. Anybody who has heated their house for winter utilizing wood understands the worth of ample room indoors for wood storage. Not only does this afford the wood some additional conditioning, but it saves you from creating hourly trips outdoors to the woodshed to bring in cold, damp logs.
Here the proportion of this oversize wood storage area balances the window opening reverse, along with the warm wood tones perfectly balance the grey fireplace facing. Note that the essential hearth extension was set flush with the wood floor but runs the full width of this space, both minimizing it (because it’s flush) and oversizing it (because it’s total width).
When to use: If potential (as proper to gasoline kind), oversize your wood storage area. Not only is wood a wonderfully textured background, but it’s amazingly functional.
Jae Chang
Using these techniques together will yield much more interesting results.
Minimize and oversize. A broad, planar chimney place clad in wood contrasts the blackened steel sliver of a firebox whose thin flat structure is matched by the pure rock hearth. The lighter tones of the wood texture well placed floating over the fireplace, skin-like, while the darker tones enclosing the fire element texture equally appropriate. The slab furniture and recessed lighting incisions help the fireplace’s compositional elements as well.
Space Group Architects
Minimize and oversize. Exactly what the architects have rescued by decreasing the firebox opening, they’ve invested in a stunning cantilevered polished concrete hearth that extends the whole width of two chambers and proceeds to the exterior of the home, which can be in London. The hearth is sweeping and multifunctional within this little space, and it contrasts with the minimalist remedy around the firebox opening — a straightforward show.
Eric Reinholdt, Architect
Oversize and decrease. Here a custom gas fireplace burner was incised into a 12,000-pound granite boulder. The stainless steel chimney cowling cantilevered in the roof structure, whilst oversize, is fragile and mild when seen against the dimensions and sheer mass of this hearth object. The flame hovers between the metal fireplace “container” and the organic rough-textured rock.
Horst Architects
Oversize and decrease. No hearth, a broad firebox and an oversize chimney facing make for drama. The architects asked what was potential in this space and replied with all the unexpected. Contrasting water and fire, dark and light, the fireplace is scaled in a means that’s hard to ignore, even in an extremely dynamic room.
Martinkovic Milford Architects
Oversize and decrease. With the hearth omitted entirely and the width of the chimney facing enlarged, this fireplace controls all of the attention in this area. An extremely wide firebox allows the whole wall to become a fireplace object that the architect has clad in a textured rock, coarse and shadowed, yet it stays machined like the fireplace opening. I especially like the balance between the flickering fire and the cool grey of the rock and surrounding firebox.
SB Architects
Oversize and decrease. I will leave you with this image, which I think illustrates many of the concepts we’ve been discussing. Because this is an exterior space, the fire element does not need special venting, thus a chimney was rendered unnecessary. The firebox was minimized and set flush with all the hearth, which can be oversize and was integrated with the seating in the space. The architects also have taken good care to oversize the pendant lamp as well as the table along with the chairs unit. Every element was elevated and pushed from the normal to the sudden, such as a (potentially) very hot seat.
By designing at the extremes instead of the huge middle ground, we set objective. And it’s only that intent that elevates an off-the-shelf solution to a one-of-a-kind custom made layout.
More: Design Workshop: Kinetic Architecture