The Architecture of Robert Adam (1728-1792) Robert Adam's Castle Style - Home Page Seton Castle - Interior of the House - First Floor Home History of Seton Castle Seton Castle Exterior Seton Castle Interior Glossary Links Bibliography
	Following the arrangement of the plan below, the plan at this level is basically divided into four areas. The stair landing is treated as a living room in its own right and designed with its own fireplace. This room is on the South side of the house, overlooking the courtyard, and would have been a very pleasant family area getting a lot of sun. Centrally on the North side is the library, over the dining room on the floor below. This is within the half cylinder drum on the North elevation. The projection of these rooms into the half cylinder allowed additional windows to be located facing North West and North East, allowing views of the sunrise and sunset and at little sun into these rooms on the North side of the building. On the East and West sides at this level are the bedroom suites. From the landing, doors open into each of the other spaces and the staircase leads up to further apartments above. First Floor Plan Landing Sitting Room Fig 1. Landing Sitting Room. This space is open to the stairwell and in effect is an enlarged stair landing. Keeping the space open has several advantages. This room recieves a lot of sun through the South facing Venetian window which lights the stair well at this floor level. Open like this, it would also be important to the family life within the house. It is a comfortable space, visible from all part sof the house, that everyone must pass through. Fig 2. Landing Sitting Room Area. Venetian Window This window is an important feature in the composition of the South facade of the house. Unlike the Venetian windows in the East and West sides all three components of the window have arched heads. The window overlooks the courtyard, and it would be from here that a eye could be kept on who was arriving and leaving. South facing this window provide a lot of light and sun into the heart of the house. Fig 3. Landing Sitting Room Area. Chimeny Piece. Being open to the stairwell this space must have be cold in winter. The open fireplace would have made it more comfortable. The chimney piece is probably marble under the coat of white paint. The blue tiles are not original. The chimney piece has an attractive frieze featuring swags with alternating foliage and rosette motif. The mouldings are heavily carved, but this is a less formal design Fig 4. Cross Arrow Slit window. This window is important to the composition of the facade externally, being positioned at 1st floor level on the face of the square turret on either side of the entrance. The window is hidden from the inside of the house by being in a cupboard. Adam seemed very averse to mixing the language of the Castle Style with the classical interiors. The window does have sashes in the vertical section...even though they are very narrow. Fig 5. Landing Sitting Room. View looking West The door on the far right opens into a cupboard (Fig 6) holding the dumb waiter. Between the parts of the tripartite arched windows there are framed panels which look as if they are part of the original window design. These may be to visually contain the individual windows and help them read as one tripartite window from the inside. The ceiling decoration does not look original. Fig 6. Cupboard with Dumb Waiter. The square turret that this cupboard is in at ground floor level is over the junction of the curved corrisdor to the kitchens and service wing to the house. This is therefore the ideal position for the dumb waiter to be located. Food or beverages being sent from the kitchen to the upper floors could be quickly delivered using this mechanism, as well as linen, laundry etc. Library   Fig 5. Library. The construction of a Venetian window in a curved wall - part of the half cylinder drum projection on the North side of the building - is complex. The reveals of these windows do not relate to the curve of the wall, but run directly North South, cutting through the curved wall as it it were flat. The side windows therefore have deeper reveals than the centre window. The window reveals also do not splay internally as is common in Scottish sash windows. Fig 6. Library Windows. The depth of the window reveal is given visual interest by the shadow lines created by the coffered panelling. In both the center arched window and the windows on either side, these panels are hinged to form the window shutters. The arched part of the centre window has no shutters, and the surface of the reveal of the arch is smooth plaster. Compared to the dining room the cornice in this room is very simple. Fig 7 Library Chimney Piece. Like the chimney piece in the dining room on the floor below, the chimney piece. here is almost certainly marble below the white paint finish. In this case Adam has designed mantlepiece support brackets into the "entablature" section directly. The brackets are heavily carved, as are the edges of the mantlepiece, the decoration being of a repeating leaf pattern. The panel in the centre of the frieze contains a raised oval relief carving with crossed foliage behind. Stairwell Fig 5. Stairwell. This view of stair from the Living room landing shows how this room is visible from the upper floors. The cast iron balustrades to these stairs seem quite heavy in comparison to others designed by Adam. Fig 5. Stairwell. View of stairwell with its flattened barrel vault ceiling and centrally positioned roof light over. On the right the Doric screen provides a spatial division between the stair and lesser rooms and the main bedroom suite with its wide landing at the top of the house.The left hand landing which gives access to rooms on the South side of the house is much narrower . Fig 5. Stairwell. The design of the balustrades consists of an upper and lower band of flattened hexagonal shapes, with a central band of large circles filled with a radial floral pattern and connected together by smaller circular elements. The design is not particualrly inspired, and has nothing like the lightness of touch of the font entrance door and screen.
	Home History of Seton Castle Seton Castle Exterior Seton Castle Interior Glossary Links Bibliography Robert Adam's Castle Style - Home Page Credits Multimedia Catalogue Catalogue Help Your Internet Browser must be set to read Java Applets to view the catalogue keywords: Robert Adam,architect,architecture,Castle Style,Seton, Castle,Country House,East Lothian,Scotland,Georgian Architecture,C18,eighteenth,century,visionary architecture,architectural visionary,visionary,Sandy Kinghorn,Cadking,visual catalogue,catalogues,NOF,RSL,SCRAN Published by Cadking Design Ltd, Edinburgh, Scotland - Copyright © Sandy Kinghorn   This project is part of the RLS (Resources for Learning in Scotland) database held by SCRAN. The full RLS database can be accessed on http://www.rls.org.uk Optimised for Internet Explorer 5 and 6 (or later) and Netscape 4.5 (or later)