Four Houses Four Stories - Flipbook - Page 7
A
FRONTYARD
SECTION
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
F
“The Tree”
Oval planter
Entry walk
Curved masonry wall
w/slit glass windows
Foyer/glass wall
2nd gallery wall
Guest suite
D
G
E
B
C
The exposed front
courtyard
concept
is a powerful idea
by itself. Yet, proudly
growing off-center in
the front is a not-to-beoverlooked mature oak
tree. The scale, density
and form of the tree dominates the front landscape
and feels as if it is gentlemanly
standing aside—being strong
and gracious at the same time.
We had to acknowledge the
tree as more than “a tree.” A
familiar observation emerged—reposition the idea of the tree to be a
warm sculptural element that asserts
itself as the initial view element from
off-site. At the same time, it serves to
screen views of the two-story living wing.
How to do this? Design the house wall behind
the tree as a prop to showcase both the house
and tree’s structural forms like the bare walls of
an art gallery. Gallery walls aside, we also wanted the tree to embrace
the house and the house to embrace the tree. Upon detailed examination, the canopy of the tree defined the “out-of bound” zone that is the
closest inward limit line for the building foundation. The circular outline
of the tree drip-line became the form for the front building wall as if to
gently hug the tree—welcome it. A final important experience lay in the
“processional event” for someone as they traveled from street to house.
The relationships with the tree as “sculpture” and as “tree” would subtly
evolve if the trip went below the canopy, adjacent to the trunk and if the
experience was fluid rather than meandering. To convey the fluidity of
this concept, a broad arcing walk was extended from the street and
subtlety narrowed as it swept to the destination target—the main entry
door. Along the way, a defining oval planter wall is filled with a mass planting of blooming shrubs as the “floor” of the “sculpture gallery” and as a
graphic design feature mirroring the adjacent curved building wall. As
protection for the tree’s root crown from suffocation due to the import
of soil, a copper colored metal cover plate spans the walkway over the
natural grade of the site below. Small air circulation holes are drilled in
the metal cover and at night are illuminated from below creating small
points of light that will glow like stars. The tree becomes a sculpture,
building screen, “experience,” climate moderator and actor. Through
this relationship, the building becomes a sculpture, gallery wall, and is
recessive and dominant at the same time—both become more through
this marriage of nature and man.
2
DESIGN
SOLUTION
