How to Plan Entertainment Spaces in a Luxury Home

An entertainment space does not require a spare room. It requires a decision about how part of the house will be used, and that decision can range from a screened-off corner to a purpose-built suite. The sections below climb from the lightest commitment to the heaviest, each starting from what the household wants to do there and the last ending in a room built to shut the rest of the house out.

The Boundary: Mark Out a Space Without Building Walls

Begin with the smallest commitment, which is no new room at all. An activity can claim part of an existing space as long as something signals where it starts and stops. Screens, a rug and a shift in lighting can each draw that edge through zoning: dividing a space by purpose while leaving it open. A piano, a reading chair or a card table can all be placed this way. Freestanding screens add flexibility, since they can be reconfigured or folded away, as in the music room below. A rug anchors the furniture and cushions sound on a hard floor, and a line of light overhead completes the outline.

The Audience: Put Some Entertainment on Show

A hall calls for a different strategy, because it is the part of the house everyone passes through. Rather than tucking entertainment into a corner, the owner can place it where visitors cannot miss it. The tool is the axis, the line that draws the eye from the entrance towards a focal point, and whatever stands at its far end shapes the first impression of the whole house. An instrument suits that position, as one of our double-height halls shows, since its purpose is obvious at a glance. Placed on that line, it turns a route people merely cross into a destination.

The Activity: Let It Set the Size and Shape of the Room

Once a room is dedicated to one pursuit, its measurements should be drawn from that pursuit. A golf swing needs a clear arc; a card game needs chairs that can be pushed back without meeting a wall. In a simulator the empty area around the ball, the swing zone, is fixed, so storage for clubs, bags and towels moves into the walls, which is how one of our lounges handles it, with a backlit niche beside the screen. Planned in this order, the equipment adapts to the person and never the reverse.

The Group: Plan Table, Bar and Seating Around How People Move

Add guests and the plan has to account for movement as much as for the activity itself. Clearance comes first. A pool table needs open floor on every side so a cue can be drawn back, and circulation, the paths people take through the room, should run beside the playing area, never across it. Visibility follows. A bar that can be seen from the table, as in a games room we designed, keeps the host in the conversation and lets the room work as a single gathering. A pendant above the table concentrates attention on the play.

The Level of Privacy: Decide What the Room Must Keep Out

The heaviest commitment is a room sealed against the rest of the house, and film is its clearest justification. A cinema depends on exclusion, since stray light, outside noise and a poor view each degrade the picture. Raising the seating in stages lets every row look over the one in front, as in the cinema pictured here. Curtains and soft upholstery absorb sound that would otherwise bounce back at the audience, and low lighting set near the seat leaves the screen as the brightest surface. Comfort completes the brief: a place to set a drink and a lamp within reach. Few households need every one of these spaces, and most can begin at the lightest end of the scale.

These projects are available to explore through the links below:

The Atmospheric Estate - Baghdad, Iraq

The Sculpted Oasis - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Chroma Residence - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia