layer house

Jim V-Lock Building Project
(Team G Proposal)

Date:
1st Year Core Studio
Spring 2014

Critics: 
Alan Organchi
Andrew Benner
Peter de Bretteville
Joeb Moore
Amy Lelyveld

Team:
Kiana Hosseini
John Wan
Michelle Chen
Dov Feinmesser
Anne Householder
Jean Chen
Eugene Tan

The house within a garden concept allows us to make the house almost translucent, blending interior and exterior spaces to expand the inhabited space. Set back from the street to create a front communal patio, the form of the house references the vernacular of the neighborhood while softening the rigidity of the gable roof with trellis that wrap around the living spaces, admitting light while providing privacy. Private gardens adjacent and surrounding the house provides an added layer while allowing the interior to expand out.

The house itself is conceived as layers of space that wraps on to itself similar to that of a mobius strip. From the most basic and micro aspect of living- the bedroom, the house extends out into its periphery through discrete framed openings giving the impression of a porous all expansive environment from the inside out.

The house is intentionally single story to accommodate the flexibility of elderly living and handicap accessibility.  A single parti wall that separates the tenant space (front) and owner (back) also functions structurally such that it is seamless as a privacy barrier while being flexible for future adaptability in events where family growth warrants more space.

 Full height sliding glass doors allows the eye to lengthen the indoors to the outdoors, significantly enlarging the perception and feeling of the space.

House steps up from the ground. Different material treatments of the ground further suggests spatial layers bounding and extending the house.