 One enters on axis with the dining table beyond, but the axiality is undermined by asymmetry of a screen of wooden poles and a free-standing, angled wall which together define an informal ante-room between the living room and dining room.The angle of the low wall is set from the corner of the white-plastered fireplace diagonally opposite, which becomes the natural centre of attention as one ascends the step into the living room.Similar diagonal relationships are established between Harry Gullichsen's private library/study and the ‘winter garden’ (which Maire used for flower arranging and from which a stair leads directly up to her studio), and between the main staircase and open sun-lit part of the living room into which eyes are drawn as you emerge from behind the vertical poles which screen the stairs.