The economy is slow, so I goofed around with a few ideas and put them into one house.
The first thing I wanted to do was free the design from the need to be new or innovative. Modern architecture places great value on creating new forms. The result has been a reactionary practice of one generation defining itself in opposition to the immediately proceeding generation. Formal innovations that are praised upon their grand opening look dated and stylized within a few years, or worse yet are empty gestures and functional nightmares creating unnecessary expense. In the past my design processes ground to a halt over worries that a design wasn't “innovative”. This led to an obsession with innovation that caused function and budget to suffer, and the forms often felt self conscious and supercilious. I didn’t eliminate innovation from the design process; instead I made it a much lower priority. This allowed formal innovation to devolve from deeper inside the design process and have more meaning. The result was a hip roof. It sheds water better than a flat roof, still makes an interesting shape, and who cares if it’s a two hundred years old form.
The next thing I wanted to do was design a glass house, but take the idea one step further. Many famous architects have designed glass houses (Mies van der Rohe, Phillip Johnson, Bernard Tsumi), and the overriding theme of these houses is glass's ability to connect the interior with the exterior. I stole an idea form van der Rohe’s Tugendhat house and Paul Rudolph’s Florida houses. The glass panels on the front and rear of the house open like garage doors to let in fresh air. This makes the interior and exterior a continuos space.
The third thing I was interested in was the idea of designing a prototype. Any prototype has two parts; a part that is fixed and provides function, and a part that can be adjusted to fit into any environment. In this case I set the house on an earthen plinth. The plinth can accomodates the topography and creates a flat area for the house. It also creates an outdoor extension to the house's living space. Also it's a cheeky reference to Le Corbusier’s pilotis. It does the same thing, but it is formally the complete opposite.
The house is a glass box with an irregular wood box inside. The wood box contains the functional elements of the house; two bathrooms, storage space, mechanical space, a fire place, and pocket doors to separate the living spaces. The windows are made of two layers of glass with interior blinds that can be closed for privacy.
I’ve shown the house in a variety of locations to emphasize that it is a prototype that can be built anywhere.
Above: a view of the interior without the roof
Above: a front view of the hose. The panel's on the right left are open
Above: an arial view from the rear showing the house perched on an overlook
Above: from this side you can see the masterbedroom and living room.
Above: interior view from guest bedroom through the study to the master bedroom. Individual rooms can be closed with hidden pocket doors that lock into special jambs built into the exterior wall
Above: view from living room past recessed entry to dinning area in kitchen. The wood paneling on the left is part of cental service block.
Above: a front view of the hose. The panel's on the right left are open Above: this view shows the kitchen and guest bedroom side of the house
Above: an arial view from the rear showing the house perched on an overlook Above: from this side you can see the masterbedroom and living room.Above: interior view from guest bedroom through the study to the master bedroom. Individual rooms can be closed with hidden pocket doors that lock into special jambs built into the exterior wallAbove: view from living room past recessed entry to dinning area in kitchen. The wood paneling on the left is part of cental service block.
Above: a view along the rear deck
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