Dwelling for a Collector // 2014

Dwelling for a Collector James Heard

Introduction Developments that perpetuate and encourage consumption have fundamentally altered the way one dwells. Rather than inhabiting place, one extends their identity through belongings that settle space on their behalf in a fractured manner. As ever-increasing belongings are distributed, patterns and relationships emerge. The sum of the accumulation possessed by an individual is internally experienced and externally read as self re-presentation.

The dwelling for a collector participates in the act of orienting belongings in space by functioning on the conceptual level of an object. By operating perceptually as an object, the architecture elevates the status of the individual object while insinuating itself into the collection of objects. Multiple modes of representation were worked on simultaneously to attain the parallel reading of Architecture and Object in the project.

This digital publication is a compilation of the digital mockups for five separate volumes, each documenting a separate facet of research. Although the books are ideally viewed without any implications of linear narrative, this digital version was assembled with the intention of wider distribution than the physical edition allows. The original copy of this document is archived by the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

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Precedent

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01 Chronology A chronological arrangement of all work completed during both semesters of thesis.

Technical information regarding each piece is included at the foot of every page.

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Catalog of Representation LaserJet Ink, Newsprint, Steel Staple 8 ½" x 11" C00

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Lakeshore Drive Aparthenon Assorted Cardboard, Xylol Transfer 13 ¼" x 8 ¼" x 5 ¼" C01

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Network of Desire Acrylic Paint, Found Paper, Xylol Transfer 28 ¾" x 21 ½" C02

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Wrapping Room Acrylic Paint, Found Paper, Xylol Transfer 24" x 24" C03

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Gas Station Found Material, Pen, Oil Pastel, Xylol Transfer 36" x 23 ½" C04

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Gas Station Interactive Diagram Acrylic Pain, Found Wood, Mat Board, Xylol Transfer 17" x 13" x 11" C05

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Spatial Entanglement Acrylic Paint, Found Paper, Pencil, Xylol Transfer 19" x 24" C06

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Untitled Cardboard 6" x 3" x 6" C07

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Untitled Cardboard 6" x Âź" x 6" C08

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Untitled Cardboard 12" x 6" x 4 Âź" C09

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Untitled Cardboard 8" x 2 ½" x 4 ¼" C10

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Untitled Rockite 13 他" x 4" x 6" C11

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Thresholds/Space Oil Pastel, Pencil, Watercolor 12" x 18" C12

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Wall/Object Oil Pastel, Pencil, Watercolor, Xylol Transfer 12" x 18" C13

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Wall Plaster 6" x 6" x ⅜" C14

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Construction #1 Digital Media, Pencil 22" x 30" C15

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Untitled Oil Pastel, Pencil, Watercolor, Xylol Transfer 12" x 9" C16

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Construction #2 Pencil 12" x 18" C17

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Untitled Graphite, Oil Pastel, Pencil 12" x 18" C18

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Construction #3 Digital Media, Pen, Pencil 12" x 18" C19

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Spatial Entanglement #2 Found Paper, Oil Pastel, Pencil, Xylol Transfer 18" x 18" C20

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Formwork #1 Cardboard, Pencil 11 ½" x 11 ¾" C21

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Working Model #1 Assorted Cardboard, Bass Wood, Metal Mesh, Found Material 10" x 12" x 10" C22

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Construction #4 (Sheet #1) Canary Trace, Pencil 12" x 18" C23

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Construction #4 (Sheet #2) Canary Trace, Pencil 12" x 18" C24

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Construction #4 (Sheet #3) Canary Trace, Pencil 18" x 12" C25

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Construction #4 (Sheet #4) Canary Trace, Pencil 12" x 18" C26

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Construction #4 (Sheet #5) Canary Trace, Pencil 18" x 12" C27

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Composite #1 Canary Trace, Pencil 24" x 22" C28

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Composite #2 Canary Trace, Pencil 18" x 12" C29

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Orientation Study #1 Oil Pastel, Pen, Pencil, Watercolor 22" x 30" C30

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Wall Digital Media, Pen, Pencil 12" x 18" C31

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Shell Digital Media, Pen, Pencil 12" x 18" C32

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Monolith Digital Media, Pen, Pencil 12" x 18" C33

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Monolith Digital Media, Pen, Pencil 12" x 18" C33

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Skin Digital Media, Pen, Pencil 12" x 18" C35

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Composite #3 Digital Media, Pen, Pencil 18" x 24" C36

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Perspective Section Digital Media, Pencil 18" x 24" C37

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Formwork #2 Cardboard, Pencil 16 ¼" x 13 ½" C38

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Working Model #2 Aluminum Mesh, Assorted Cardboard, Bass Wood, Found Material 12" x 16" x 12" C39

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Skin Digital Media, Pen, Pencil 12" x 18" C35

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Appendix

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02 Theory A theoretical foundation developed in parallel with research and design. Rather than relying on programmatic or situational constraints, the writing functioned as a framework for decision-making. A glossary is located in the back of the book.

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abstract Consumption has unmoored identity from place. The way we choose to consume has become a fundamental facet of our identity. To remain afloat of the sustained influx of material, we orient the cruft of our lives. We pass judgment on which objects to discard and keep — an act of mundane, passive curation. This accretion forms an unintentional collection, embodying, extending and re-presenting the identity of the collector. This postmodern ontology — being in and through things — suggests the opportunity for an architecture that ingratiates itself into the collection.

We distinguish between Architecture and Object through our relationship to the target of perception. Architecture is some thing we are with-in and Object is some thing we are with-out. When an Object rises to prominence in Space it becomes entangled with Architecture. In a state of spatial entanglement Architecture and Object equally assume the role of bodily orientation, diminishing the presence of Architecture and foregrounding the presence of Object. Equalizing these categories subverts the distinction between with-in and with-out, momentarily collapsing the distance between Architecture and Object. In these moments of entangled space, one is allowed to dwell with-in a constellation of objects — perceiving an arrangement of belongings as a mundane cabinet of curiosity.

The Dwelling for a Collector participates in the act of collecting by insinuating itself as both Architecture and Object. Independently recognizable forms collide into an assemblage that contours Space.

Internally oriented thresholds perforate the structure, eradicating boundaries and emphasizing collisions of compositional forms. The simultaneously discontinuous Architecture and continuous Space creates moments that are with-in and with-out, weaving the dwelling into a collection of objects.

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textual situation This text is an over-extension of Jean Baudrillard’s The System of Objects into Space. Colliding Baudrillard’s neo-marxism into a phenomenological narrative cribbed from Gaston Bachelard and mediated by Walter Benjamin has contoured relevant actors to participate in a proposed scheme of Architecture. The variable scales and relationships of the ArchitectureObject constellation are navigated through an archaeological instantiation of Architecture and Object. Once constituted, fragments of a structure are arranged by the projection of an inhabitant with special attention to orientation and address of the body. In observing and reacting to formal relationships in the design, the Space is shaped simultaneously with-in and with-out.

Right Composition of infrastructure and architecture.

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Theory

Left Scrap of wallpaper.

The Collection, a mundane accumulation, is regarded in abstract, a proxy for all possible collections as extensions of collectors. The Collector is considered to be the fundamental animating and fundamentally animated agent of the Collection distributed in Space. Architecture springs from Object while Object precipitates from Architecture — an attempt to coerce Object into Architecture and Architecture into Object. Working toward Architecture that addresses the inhabitant as both fractured and bound by things.

1. Benjamin, Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (pg. 14) “Architecture has always represented the prototype of a work of art the reception of which is consummated by a collectivity in a state of distraction. The laws of its reception are most instructive... Architecture has never been idle. Its history is more ancient than that of any other art, and its claim to being a living force has significance in every attempt to comprehend the relationship of the masses to art. Buildings are appropriated in a twofold manner: by use and by perception—or rather, by touch and sight.”

Theory

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network of desire

Below Graphic analysis of real estate listings in Colorado.

A proliferation of excess has stressed the conventional classification of Architecture, Space and Objects toward collapse. Within this scheme, Architecture and Object are opposed and inverse: Architecture contains (to be with-in) and is perceptually singular, Object excludes (to be without) and is perceptually multiple. Space is the inhabited in-between. As an inhabitant, in and through Space, mediates Architecture and Object he or she exhibits influence over arrangement and is consequently influenced. Our abundant and valueless Space is symptomatic of abundant and valueless Architecture. Consumption has been accelerated in an attempt to infuse void with value, in turn over-populating Space and perpetuating a cycle of expansion and occupation of Architecture — a symbiotic relationship forming between the two, each fulfilling the other’s excesses.

Advertising underlies and guides this belligerent consumerism through identifying and clarifying desire. In this way the Real Estate Listing contours and constitutes the contemporary longed-for Architecture.² The

2. Left Hemisphere, Advertisement Excerpt “Last resort welcomes you through secured (4 camera surveillance) and monitored gates, up through the paved, 20+ post lit drive with towering aspen trees to your destiny at the top. It is here, you will find over one acre of landscaped bliss… surrounded by electric fencing. Be warned, Last Resort will temp [sic] you from ever leaving the retreat…”

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Theory

exchange of Space, appearing as an exchange of Architecture, entails commodification, working it into a market colloquially dominated by Objects. Architecture, like Object, is commodified through packaging and branding. Valueless Space becomes an Accessory Room, Object-ifying the Architecture and applying a notional dimension: The Great Room, The Entertainment Room, The Recreational Room. The ideas that typify the Accessory Room tend to fall into three categories: convenient, pleasurable and hierarchical. Additionally, Accessory Rooms tend to privatize the Public and publicize the Private, including the world as a way of excluding it and rendering exhibition as enjoyment.

Above Detail of an illustrated accessory room.

The Accessory Room is non-essential Space whose experience is prescribed through contents and framing rather than pure experience of Architecture — it must connote status or promote consumption.

Commodified Space is the generalized, unspecified, unscripted Accessory Room, it too is composed of contents: BEAUTIFUL HARDWOOD FLOORS!, GRANITE COUNTER TOPS!, TOP OF THE LINE APPLIANCES!.³ The transfiguration of authentically inhabited Space into Commodified Space is sustained through an equation of part and whole — Architecture is its constituent material. This tethering of Architecture to product and Space to territory underlies the exchange of Space, enabling Architecture to function at the level of Object.

3. Baudrillard, System of Objects (pg. 178) “What achieves autonomy and fulfilment through advertising is thus the whole system that I have been describing… the entire apparatus of personalization and imposed differentiation; of proliferation of the inessential and subordination of technical requirements to the requirements of production and consumption; of dysfunctionality and secondary functionality… And since, like all heavily connoted systems, it is self-referential, we may safely rely on advertising to tell us what it is that we consume through objects.”

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the architectural commodity We encounter Accessory Rooms with set expectations — introductions are framed by explanations, elucidating a scripted dimension that constitutes the Commodified Space.⁴ Perception of Commodified Space occurs in tandem with a subtle appropriation of constituent elements that nudge the inhabitant toward a border demarcated by awareness of the commodity. At this edge Architecture is diminished in favor of the Object, foregrounding the commodity without the exposure of social scaffolding — a moment where Architecture deconstructs, leaving Space bound on all sides

by Object, completely and thoroughly with-out. In this moment Architecture remains, indivisible by necessity, but obscured by and appearing as Object.

Disintegration of Space is rejected in thoughtful analysis of Commodified Space and the Accessory Room. Mapping exaggerations of advertising fueled trajectories suggested by the interplay of Object and Architecture fabricates and indicates relationships, with the intention of capturing the Commodified Space or Accessory Room in a moment of deconstruction — stainless steel appliances orbit a granite countertop that attempts to gather thresholds.⁵ A hybrid Archaeology-Phenomenology, this indicates latent significance in the spatial interaction of Architecture and Objects. Generating an amalgamated image of observed relationships suggests an interiority (with-in-ness) or exteriority (with-out-ness), abstracting and orienting the Accessory Room beyond knick-knacks and surfaces — enriching barren and confused Commodified Space toward Space.

Opposite Representations of tension between elements of architecture and space.

4. Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (pg. 8) “Of course, thanks to the house, a great many of our memories are housed, and if the house is a bit elaborate, if it has a cellar and a garret, nooks and corridors, our memories have refuges that are all the more clearly delineated.”

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5. Sainte-Beuve, Volupté (pg. 30) “It is not so much for you, my friend, who never saw this place, and had you visited it, could not now feel the impressions and colors I feel, that I have gone over it in such detail, for which I must excuse myself. Nor should you try to see it as a result of what I have said; let the image float inside you; pass lightly; the slightest idea of it will suffice for you.”

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spatial entanglement The utility of a thing is fixed and obscured as the thing is taken into Architecture. In being taken in, the expression of Object as such is repressed and replaced with self-representation residual of Space. The Clawfoot Tub’s form literally indicates freedom of Object in Space. Its caulked-in-place, acrylic relative has no such formal connotations: Object tethered to Space, reducing it to fixture; Space bound to Object, rendering it custodian.⁶ Things that steer narrative are buried flush in alcoves or camouflaged with veneers to reduce their presence and deceitfully imbue Architecture with function. Marginalization of things denies them status and opportunity to perform as spatial actors and delineators. Functional things have abdicated their presence in their recession, foregrounding the value-laden commodity.

The shelf has receded in favor of the accumulation exhibited, obfuscating the mediating action of the shelf — a vague hope of incorporating itself into Architecture or Space.⁷ Things with a strong presence have privileged conversations with Architecture; although, from this position Object is more vulnerable to consumption by and more commanding of Space.

The television usurped the radio and demanded of Architecture more Space oriented around itself, eventually garnering its own room. The wardrobe, instead of orienting Space, fell into the wall and its Space unbound, generating the closet, an Accessory Room that rapidly fades into Commodified Space. Proposing a weak theory of interior fashion: underlying the functional obfuscation of absorption is rejection of a built environment replaced by machine and a fear of ceding agency to nonhuman actors. This surfaces as nostalgia for the pre-technological interior free of machines, postponing an inevitable coming-to-terms.

Opposite Illustration of wardrobe fading into space over time.

6. Baudrillard, System of Objects (pg. 13) “The arrangement of furniture offers a faithful image of the familial and social structures of a period. The typical bourgeois interior is patriarchal; its foundation is the dining-room/ bedroom combination... The style of furniture changes as the individual’s relationships to family and society change. Corner divans and beds, coffee tables, shelving — a plethora of new elements are now supplanting the traditional range of furniture... The modern set of furniture, serially produced, is thus apparently destructured yet not restructured, nothing having replaced the expressive power of the old symbolic order.”

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7. Baudrillard, System of Objects (pg. 218) “Traditional symbolic objects (tools, furniture, the house itself) were the mediators of a real relationship or a directly experienced situation, and their substance and form bore the clear imprint of the conscious or unconscious dynamic of that relationship. They were thus not arbitrary. Although they were bound by connotations... they remained living objects on account of their inward and transitive orientation with respect to human actions, whether collective or individual. Such objects are not consumed.�

Above Transfiguration of the the wardrobe into the closet.

Theory

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the collection In relating to the singular thing, power is skewed toward the user. The isolated object is easily situated and appropriated — adjusted and observed on ones own terms. The relationship is complicated with the addition of things, establishing the Collection. Accumulated things mediate intention of the specific thing, bearing on the act of appropriation. The Collector from which the Collection originates invests identity in things with the act of acquisition, distributing their identity across the Collection and continuously situating their self as the prime of the series. Investment of identity in the Collection clarifies the impossibility of completion, as ending a Collection would connote death or loss of self.⁸

Below Portion of a commodified collection.

Arrangement of the Collection establishes a spatial network engaging the body and situation of the Collection within Architecture proffers the built environment as a custodian of Object. When the Collection is made spatial, dwelling is de-temporalized and the identity of the Collector is reaffirmed.

The Collection allows for Architecture and Object to perpetuate in synchrony the identity of the Collector without the animating force of habitation. In this way Architecture participates in Collecting — orienting and orchestrating a gathering of Object to be experienced in Space.⁹ Architecture which attends exclusively to the body fails to address the modern paradigm of the body as distributed through Object and across a Collection. Without built confrontation the Collection is anonymous and unacknowledged — established order is collapsed.

8. Baudrillard, System of Objects (pg. 223) “This explains why THERE ARE NO LIMITS TO CONSUMPTION... That consumption seems irrepressable is due, rather to the fact that it is indeed a total idealist practice which no longer has anything to do (beyond a certain threshold) either with the satisfaction of needs or with the reality principle... The very will to live, fragmented, disappointed, signified, is condemned to repeat itself and repeatedly abolish itself in a succession of objects.”

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Theory

To address the Collection, Architecture must allow exhibition of the agency of Object and distinctions between Architecture and Object must be clear, precluding illusory methods of joining Architecture with Object.

A dwelling for the Collector encourages judgement in orientation and that takes stock of things that occupy it, while acknowledging its own status as Collector and member of the Collection. In this scheme, Architecture hosts a constellation of significance that de-temporalizes dwelling and expands the re-presentation and re-perception of the identity of the Collector in Space.

Above Fragmentary relationship architecture and adjacent element.

9. Stewart, On Longing (pg. xii) “The souvenir seeks distance (the exotic in time and space), but it does so in order to transform and collapse distance into proximity to, or approximation with, the self... the collection furthers the process of commodification by which this narrative of the personal operates within contemporary consumer society. A final transformation of labor into exchange, nature into marketplace, is shown by the collection. Significantly, the collection marks the space of nexus for all narratives, the place where history is transformed into space, into property.�

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terminology A

ADVERTISING is the medium that constitutes a framework through which generic consumption becomes a legible COLLECTION. ARCHITECTURE is any thing one is perceptually inside of. One is with-in ARCHITECTURE.

C

COLLECTING is choosing how and what one consumes. After acquiring something it is meaningfully placed in a space inhabited by the COLLECTOR. COLLECTOR indicates the generic postmodern subject. The identity of the COLLECTOR is shaped, represented and reinforced through consumption.

COLLECTION refers to the sum of all possessions. Organization of the COLLECTION creates a comprehensible constellation that represents the identity of the COLLECTOR.

D

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DWELLING FOR A COLLECTOR is the habitual ground of the COLLECTOR. It functions at the level of COLLECTING to affect perception of the COLLECTION. By being simultaneously with-in and with-out the COLLECTOR the ARCHITECTURE operates at the level of OBJECT to become an OBJECT in the COLLECTION. This feeling of SPATIAL ENTANGLEMENT allows the COLLECTOR to dwell simultaneously with-in and with-out the COLLECTION and ARCHITECTURE.

OBJECT is any thing one is perceptually outside of. One is with-out OBJECT.

O

SPACE is bounded by ARCHITECTURE and OBJECT. One is in SPACE.

S

SPATIAL ENTANGLEMENT occurs when the categories of ARCHITECTURE and OBJECT interact in such a way that they equally orient the body in space.

Theory

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Theory

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03 Precedent A collection of photos documenting remembered situations that contributed to the development of spatial entanglement.

Notes included alongside the images briefly explain additional facets of the experience.

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Cataloged Memories Sorted by Encounter

We distinguish between Architecture and Object through our relationship to the target of perception.

These photographs document a series of experiences that blur the categories of Space, Architecture and Object.

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Contents Sorted by Construction Date Roman Forum Musegg Wall 110 Rosenstein Straße Orange and Red on Red Red, Yellow, Blue V Neue Nationalgalerie Neue Staatsgalerie Stuttgart-Gaisburg Power Plant Sternenlager IV Bodmer Foundation North Carolina Museum of Art Walking Café Wax Room Anonymous Factory Bridge House

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The schizophrenic distribution of pieces prevents focusing on or appropriating any individual work. Being unable to fix on particular pieces when moving through the space makes orientation difficult.

North Carolina Museum of Art Thomas Phifer 2010

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The axis through the exterior courtyard frames and foregrounds thresholds, drains and windows as compositional objects.

The proposition of objects as primary elements suggests that architecture is an additional object in the composition.

Neue Staatsgalerie James Stirling 1984

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Precedent

Precedent

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The two facilities appear as objects in the landscape due to their peculiar proportioning.

Their relationship with the ground is obscured by trees, further confusing their status as architecture.

Stuttgart-Gaisburg Power Plant Stuttgart, Germany 1992

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Precedent

Precedent

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110 Rosenstein StraĂ&#x;e Stuttgart, Germany 1920

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Precedent

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Walking CafĂŠ Terunobu Fujimori 2012

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Precedent

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Floating walls join the upper and lower floors of the gallery and cantilever artifacts. A flow of space through the inter-floor penetration appears to levitate the objects.

Bodmer Foundation Mario Botta 2003

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Musegg Wall Lucerne, Switzerland 1386

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Precedent

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Anonymous Factory D端sseldorf, Germany

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Similar to the North Carolina Museum of Art, works are arrayed in space.

The arrangement allows one to focus clearly on an individual piece without distraction from a background of additional works. The art appears to function spatially when suspended at eye level.

Neue Nationalgalerie Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 1968

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Precedent

Precedent

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Sternenlager IV Anselm Kiefer 1998

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Precedent

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Roman Forum Rome, Italy

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Precedent

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Bridge House Chinatown, Chicago

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The situation of this Rothko painting suggests a horizon in the painting that transitions the frame into a threshold to space contained in the work.

Orange and Red on Red Mark Rothko 1957

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Precedent

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Wax Room Wolfgang Laib 2013

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Precedent

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Memories Sorted by Encounter

We distinguish between Architecture and Object through our relationship to the target of perception.

These photographs document a series of experiences that blur the categories of Space, Architecture and Object.

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Precedent

Precedent

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04 Plates The most important representation is reproduced on plates with full-scale details on the reverse side. Of the images produced in both semesters, these most clearly describe the dwelling for a collector and spatial entanglement.

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Network of Desire (Colorado) Acrylic, Found Paper 14 ⅜"x10 ¾" P01

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Plates

Plates

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Network of Desire (New Jersey) Acrylic, Found Paper 14 ⅜" x 10 ¾" P02

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Plates

Plates

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Network of Desire (South Carolina) Acrylic, Found Paper 14 ⅜" x 10 ¾" P03

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Plates

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Network of Desire (Virginia) Acrylic, Found Paper 14 ⅜" x 10 ¾" P04

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Plates

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Spatial Entanglement #1 Acrylic, Found Paper, Pencil, Xylol Transfer 19" x 24" P05

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Plates

Plates

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Spatial Entanglement #2 Found Paper, Oil Pastel, Pencil, Xylol Transfer 18" x 18" P06

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Plates

Plates

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Orientation Study #1 Oil Pastel, Pencil, Watercolor 22" x 30" P07

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Plates

Plates

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Wall Digital Media, Pen, Pencil 12" x 18" P08

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Plates

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Shell Digital Media, Pen, Pencil 12" x 18" P09

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Plates

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Monolith Digital Media, Pen, Pencil 12" x 18" P10

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Shelf Digital Media, Pen, Pencil 12" x 18" P11

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Skin Digital Media, Pen, Pencil 12" x 18" P12

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Composite #3 Digital Media, Pen, Pencil 18" x 24" P13

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Perspective Section Digital Media, Pencil 19" x 24" P14

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05 Model The model is the most concrete instantiation of the dwelling for a collector. Interior photos document instances that demonstrate simultaneous interiority and exteriority.

Additionally, the individual pieces of the model are documented and described.

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working model #2 documentation

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Model

Steel grates edging the room filter light from the living space into the cellar. The bipartite wall is composed of obsidian, board-form concrete below and a glossy, whitepainted brick above. The raking light gently illuminates the surface of the wall and defines the edges of the space. The soft light fades to a thick darkness in an unlit corner.

Model

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Model

Occupying the cellar, one is aware of having withdrawn from active spaces while not being entirely disconnected — scents and sounds from other areas of the dwelling drift down into the cellar to rest.

Ascending the steps from the cellar is an oblong room that acutely recedes toward the garden. A large square of deep blue tile indicates the cubic volume contained by the larger end of the space.

Model

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Model

The concrete shell bounding the space on one side has a narrow opening cut through it, allowing shadows of activity from the living space to be read. The large window adjacent to the blue tiled floor is partially obscured, its arch disappearing into the living space.

Passing through this room, the large concrete wall appears to intrude and collide into the space.

Model

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Model

Upon exiting, one finds themself in a small, shed-like, vestibule with a view toward the garden and an aluminum screen door leading outside.

Reaching the garden, an array of monumental textured glass plates reflect and refract sunlight onto the concrete wall opposite them.

Passing through this crystalline threshold is a small garden, wrapped in a white brick wall.

Model

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Model

A singular tree sits in the center of the garden next to a hardscaped portion of earth that marks the primary entrance and exit to dwelling.

An identical vestibule opposite the aforementioned one leads to the living space. Opening a heavy wooden door and climbing three steps one enters the living space.

Paths of steel grating and stairs trace the volume of the space and divide a monolithic house-icon from an intimately held living area.

Model

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Model

An oversized, curtained window in the concrete shell catches light cast inside by the glass fins. A thin opening, inches above the floor, pushes one toward the center of the room. Opposite the large window, arched openings, flush with the floor and only a few feet tall, puncture a ribbon of brick wall and support a large wooden armature.

The timber assemblage supports a shingled aluminum facade on the exterior, punctured by a collection of windows.

Model

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Model

Climbing the steel staircase toward the garret, one walks along the contact point of the gabled volume and rectilinear volume as they merge together. Occupying the garret, the gabled volume is completed by a patterned portion of wall. Although the garret is wholly inside the gabled volume, the rectilinear volume floats just beyond — clerestory windows perforating the aluminum skin light the space. A single opening centered on the far wall provides a distant view beyond the dwelling and access to a small balcony.

Model

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Model

This collection of spaces woven together by a circuitous staircase conjures a notion of being simultaneously with-in and with-out the dwelling. Openings onto adjacent rooms, a material eclecticism and continuous re-orientation within a variety of forms contribute to this feeling. As the dwelling is navigated, it continuously deconstructs and reconstructs itself for the inhabitant, animating everything that occupies its constituent rooms.

Model

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Model

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parts

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210

Model

wall : living & cellar A constructed datum that bounds the structure. Vertical movement through the architecture is relative to the wall.

Model

211

212

Model

wall : room Joining the garden and cellar, the wall deviates from the orthogonal grid established by the shell.

Deviating from the grid reorients the inhabitant as distinctly outside of the shell while giving the impression that the shell is colliding into the room.

Model

213

214

Model

wall : garden The garden mediates between the exterior and the interior. The semicircular portion of wall focuses space toward the interior.

Model

215

216

Model

shell The shell demarcates three primary spaces: cellar, living, and garret.

Porous barriers between these three spaces blur their edges, contributing to the sensation of being simultaneously with-in and with-out

Model

217

218

monolith Terminates and completes the volume suggested by the shell. A stair partially screens and separates the unbroken space in the monolith from the living area.

219

220

Model

shelf Suggests a rectilinear form intersecting the gabled house form.

The depth of the timber grid begins to read as a shelf — too large and inconvenient to order anything except space.

Model

221

222

Model

skin Suggests a rectilinear form intersecting the gabled house form.

The depth of the timber grid begins to read as a shelf — too large and inconvenient to order anything except space.

Model

223

224

Model

roof

Model

225

hutch The vestibules that provide access toward the cellar or living space are materially distinct from the wall and scaled to the body.

226

Model

Glass Fins The glass fins establish a crystalline backdrop for the garden and form a porous barrier between the interior and exterior.

Model

227

228

Model

formwork

Model

229

garden

230

Model

wall : garden

wall : cellar

room

cellar

Model

231

1

2

4

5

3

1 2 3 4 5

232

Model

cellar room garden living garret

Model

233