Four Houses Four Stories - Flipbook - Page 75
FAMILY ROOM/BRIDGE SECTION
E
C
B
F
E
G
F
A
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
Courtyard
Bridge area
Glass guard rail
Storage
Hanging fixtures
Rear glass wall
Shade fin
Curved sliding wall (beyond)
Indoor/outdoor fireplace and chimney
Rear patio
I
H
D
I
J
The family room and pool
patio area become one.
If there were a
way to occasionally
remove half the walls
of a home so that
many of the interior
spaces could merge
or co-mingle, would you
do it? Without question, the clients wanted
their new house to be the
functional equivalent of a
sport utility vehicle. How?
We merged the primary interior gathering rooms with
the rear pool/backyard patio
through a series of openable
sliding glass walls. These doors
can slide completely out of sight into
a central pocket within the fireplace/
chimney. With the house wall open, the
family room unites with the pool patio
to become a centralized “outdoor room”
that includes an exterior fireplace, outdoor
kitchen and expanded seating areas. Both the
interior and exterior kitchens are conveniently connected at the exterior
building wall with pass-thru windows
and common plumbing. This simple
configuration supports three-season
family and guest entertainment uses.
In a similar way, a unique copper
trimmed reinforced concrete second
floor access ramp spins its sculptural oval down to the swimming pool
and back yard. Not only functional,
but it is an ingenious “spatial device”
that powerfully extends the reach
of the house into the backyard and
around the pool as a modern substitute for the California ubiquitous
trellis. The ramp warmly defines the
pool and patio area like a wide-open
outdoor amphitheatre imparting the
already familiar feeling of a larger
outdoor room. The entire rear of
the home is openable—bathed in the
warm south and western exposures
of Sacramento’s beautiful climate.
DESIGN
SOLUTION
