Introduction

At Steven Holl and Emilio Ambasz’s exhibition opening at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in February 1989, the Stretto House clients introduced themselves to the architects and hired Steven Holl. Although they prefer to remain anonymous it was later revealed that they were the Prices, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s favourite patrons, for whom he had designed several buildings.

Holl had the good fortune to study under a professor who led his students with focussed passion through the works of Wright.1 According to Juhani Pallasmaa, an architect-theorist who also inspired and influenced him, Frank Lloyd Wright’s kinaesthetic architectures are based on a full recognition of the embodied human condition and of the multitude of instinctual reactions hidden in the human unconscious. The multitude of sensory experiences is something that Steven Holl addresses in his work. 2

For the Stretto House, built in Dallas, Texas in 1992, the clients, who were art collectors, set no conditions on the architect. This enabled him to grasp the possibilities arising from the flexibility of the design, while considering their needs, and address this multitude of sensory experiences. When presenting him with a site he rejected it as being too small and then discovered the final site in Dallas which led to a series of explorations.

Figure 3: Model including landscape and three concrete dam ponds

After visiting the site, consisting of three concrete dams and ponds, what captured the architect was the constant sound of water overlapping, which became a reoccurring theme in his design process. He started off with Texas vernacular concrete blocks and metal roofs, exploring shadow and overlap in his sketches. After discussions with his former pianist student, he decided to explore the musical

1 Steven Holl, Anchoring, 3rd ed. (Princeton Architectural Press), 1. 2 Juhani Pallasma, Eyes of the Skin (Wiley Academy), 70.

concept of “stretto”.3 For Holl, there was a strong analogy between “stretto” and the sites overlapping ponds.4

Moreover, as a member of a new generation of architects of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Steven Holl ascribes to the principles of the phenomenological, place-based design set forth by Norburg-Shulz and Relph, as does Juhani Pallasma. 5 As a result, in the Stretto House, emphasis was given to the phenomenological link between building and site, using the musical concept of “stretto” as a tool to organise the experiential phenomena into an “aqueous” spatial sequence.

3 Steven Holl, Stretto House (The Monacelli Press, Inc.), 7. 4 Steven Holl, Stretto House (The Monacelli Press, Inc.), 7. 5 Korydon Smith, Introducing Architectural Theory (Routledge), 363.