Open Form Architecture Blog

Im­pos­si­ble to ex­press in plan due to the cons­trai­ned size of the site, this 2400sf re­si­dence di­ver­ges from the pre-established res­ponse to front and back yards by ba­lan­ced ar­ti­cu­la­tion of the skin on all fa­ces in the ver­ti­cal di­rec­tion.

A sim­ple ma­te­rial, ce­ment fi­ber board, has been in­no­va­ti­vely used in con­junc­tion with th­ree ty­pes of gla­zing. This allows a po­wer­ful com­men­tary on sur­face ma­ni­pu­la­tion, de­fi­ning archi­tec­ture th­rough the en­ve­lope of a vo­lume rather than th­rough the vo­lume itself.

The state of hy­bri­dism in the sur­face for­ma­li­zes the ex­pres­sion of a sim­ple box while res­pon­ding to the site res­tric­tions. Ver­ti­ca­lity is again ex­pres­sed in the cen­tral stair core, which ex­tends be­yond the roof for views of the Pa­ci­fic Ocean, only th­ree blocks from the site.

To ma­xi­mize usa­ble square foo­tage, the site li­mi­ta­tions have been pushed to the li­mits in both plan and height re­qui­re­ments, for­cing the li­nea­rity of the de­sign on pa­per to be trans­la­ted in built form. The steel mo­ment frame frees the skin from struc­tu­ral res­traints, allo­wing an un­res­tric­ted rhythm of gla­zing, chan­nel glass and so­lid pa­nels. The skin illus­tra­tes the dis­pa­rity of struc­ture and en­ve­lope af­fec­ted by dif­fe­rent yet mer­ging po­si­tions of ex­te­rior glazing.

Most simply, one idea cou­pled with and rea­li­zed th­rough ma­te­ria­lity de­fi­nes the archi­tec­ture of this re­si­dence. The im­pact is both po­wer­ful and artistic.

Text cour­tesy of Lor­can O’Herlihy Architects

Pu­blished by Ma­xime Moreau