the ground, that’s just where you enter into the house. You perceive it and then you enter it, which is part of a whole series of events about moving into and through the house. Tom: And along the curtain wall there are different types and levels of screening? Andrew: Sometimes there’s a floor, sometimes not, sometimes there’s a stair. The steel columns are displaced from the curtain wall, so you actually see the structure, whereas the usual strategy would be to line the structure up with the curtain wall. Tom: Is that more expensive? Andrew: When they first looked at it they thought it would be, but actually it isn’t. It’s a very efficient way to use curtain wall in terms of the lengths. This is the maximum length of the curtain wall piece and these pieces of glass are as big as you can get without heat treating them.
Tom: Did this curtain wall system define the length of the house? Andrew: It tuned the length of the house. I have to say, we were not undermined by technical issues at all except for the length of the cantilever which we wanted a bit longer, and there are some sectional qualities that we would have liked to keep but couldn’t because of the mechanical loads on the house. It’s pretty close to the original concept which was a series of sections through the cantilever, through the full two storey space, through the stair, through the open space and how those spaces vary as you move through. As an experience, it’s a series of spatial events about meeting and talking to people in a sequence of spaces that go from a more private condition which is at the entry, oddly enough, to a more public condition which is in the living room, and then to a series of private and public relationships along the stairs and the landing that allow you to view out, view in, and view other parts of the house. It’s almost cinegraphic; that’s how we perceived it at one point. Whether that’s still resonant or whether all the other
être à l’écoute de vos voisins, ils diront qu’ils veulent une maison traditionnelle, et gén- éralement, la ville prend cette position. La résistance de la ville est presque politique, axée sur le fait qu’ils ne veulent pas subir l’opposition de leurs électeurs en ayant laissé passer une architecture inappropriée.
communauté sera.Vous avez, en un sens, critiqué cette idée.
préconiser les limites des arrê- tés municipaux. L’empreinte de la maison est basée sur le fait et les lignes directrices voulant que la fondation est souvent là d’où émanent vos contre- temps. En conséquence, nous avons prolongé le devant de la maison de cinq pieds en encor- beillant. Il y a aussi une ques-
tion de nature conceptuelle, des questions de nature prag- matique et aussi des questions pratiques visant à accorder un plus grand espace au client. Tom: Vous construisez cette maison au sein d’une commu- nauté établie et la ville a déjà une idée préconçue de ce que cette
Andrew : La position de la ville — en lui accordant le bénéfice du doute — est de respecter le contexte et l’opinion des voi- sins. Si vous allez respecter le contexte de façon instinctive, et si vous allez, plus précisément,
T ransformations
O n S ite review
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