Landa Residence

In Architecture

Posted: Apr 3rd, 2009 / Last Edited: Jun 1st, 2010 Print

Description

This project is a reminder of the opportunities the design of a small house contains for the exploration of profound architectural issues. In this particular case, techniques of establishing and expanding volumetric boundaries are juxtaposed with methods of vertical spatial organization. Each of these has, in turn, its own relationship to the modified existing house and its site. Volume is the primary means for the definition of boundary in this house, in opposition to a project like 6th Street House, where the technique of surface was extensively used to define boundaries.

The architectural devices explore ideas of surface, volume, and boundary conditions, maintaining a tenuous dialogue between the existing house and the new intervention. A distorted cube hovers above the existing plinth of the first floor volume. It acts as a primary site/volume boundary of the new addition, acknowledging the limits of the given property. This splayed orthogonal wall surface of concrete panels wraps around three sides of the newly enclosed second and third floor volume, with a single piece folded down for the main entrance. A second surface element, a fragment of a truncated cone, also sits above the first floor, inside of the splayed surface boundary. A distorted cylinder, it provides another layer and type of enclosure, intersecting and penetrating the splayed walls of the cube creating voids of natural light and ventilation in the rooms below. It's geometric construction begins from a center point shifted from the axis of the site, implying a larger boundary than the legal property description.

An awareness of this larger boundary critiques of the legal definition of the site, adding both topographic boundaries and social concepts such as neighborhood. The interior truncated cone is the more pure of the two geometric figures and as such, provides a platonic internal world for the house, in opposition to the specific contingent surfaces that the immediate site imposes upon each side of the distorted cube.

Two vertical elements sit within the confines of both surface structures; a wall of steel shelving along the centerline of the cone, and a stair. The shelving wall divides the studio from the stair and bedroom above, while the stair itself is a kind of hybrid tower incorporating fragments of foundation, HVAC, structure, and storage. At the third floor, it expands as a horizontal plane to become a bedroom loft. These two elements anchor the new surface volumes to the body of the existing house below, thereby linking the exigencies of daily life to the modified idealism of this contemporary villa in which strategies of connection and randomness produce a series of idiosyncratic moments.
This project is a reminder of the opportunities the design of a small house contains for the exploration of profound architectural issues. In this particular case, techniques of establishing and expanding volumetric boundaries are juxtaposed with methods of vertical spatial organization. Each of these has, in turn, its own relationship to the modified existing house and its site. Volume is the primary means for the definition of boundary in this house, in opposition to a project like 6th Street House, where the technique of surface was extensively used to define boundaries.

The architectural devices explore ideas of surface, volume, and boundary conditions, maintaining a tenuous dialogue between the existing house and the new intervention. A distorted cube hovers above the existing plinth of the first floor volume. It acts as a primary site/volume boundary of the new addition, acknowledging the limits of the given property. This splayed orthogonal wall surface of concrete panels wraps around three sides of the newly enclosed second and third floor volume, with a single piece folded down for the main entrance. A second surface element, a fragment of a truncated cone, also sits above the first floor, inside of the splayed surface boundary. A distorted cylinder, it provides another layer and type of enclosure, intersecting and penetrating the splayed walls of the cube creating voids of natural light and ventilation in the rooms below. It's geometric construction begins from a center point shifted from the axis of the site, implying a larger boundary than the legal property description.

An awareness of this larger boundary critiques of the legal definition of the site, adding both topographic boundaries and social concepts such as neighborhood. The interior truncated cone is the more pure of the two geometric figures and as such, provides a platonic internal world for the house, in opposition to the specific contingent surfaces that the immediate site imposes upon each side of the distorted cube.

Two vertical elements sit within the confines of both surface structures; a wall of steel shelving along the centerline of the cone, and a stair. The shelving wall divides the studio from the stair and bedroom above, while the stair itself is a kind of hybrid tower incorporating fragments of foundation, HVAC, structure, and storage. At the third floor, it expands as a horizontal plane to become a bedroom loft. These two elements anchor the new surface volumes to the body of the existing house below, thereby linking the exigencies of daily life to the modified idealism of this contemporary villa in which strategies of connection and randomness produce a series of idiosyncratic moments.
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