The above image is the texture map applied to the bottom face of the Intervention's geometry on the 3D model. It is composed of images extracted from the internet, assumed to be part of the public domain.
Excerpts from the Competition Rules:
"[The House, M.D.] television series has enjoyed critical and public acclaim since its launch, transforming the show into one of the most-watched television programs in the United States and around the world. It has received several awards and nominations, including a Peabody Award, two Golden Globes Awards and three Primetime Emmy Awards. It was the most-watched television series in the world in 2008, with an average of 82 million viewers in 66 countries. In the United States, the sixth season began with a two-hour episode on September 21 2009, and ended at the beginning of June 2010. The seventh season ended recently.
The challenge, therefore, is to create a Home-Office for House so that when the next series ends he will be able to move to Manhattan and enjoy a private practice set within an architectural design in keeping with his intelligence, good taste and sense of humor.
The project must be a new “pavilion”, located within the Fuller Building at the corner of Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan."
Considering the above, we aimed for three things: 1. To conceptualize architecture and propose new uses, not just design a domestic refurbishing, 2. To revive the controversial spirit of the Flatiron Building a century after its construction, and 3. To comment, through architecture, about the elusive but intimate relationship between consensus reality and fiction. Ironically, the answer to all three objectives came upon questioning the competition’s premise itself. We asked ourselves: ‘Why are we designing for a fictional resident?’ If he is relevant, then so should his real counterpart be, i.e. the actor who interprets him.
We decided to provide space for both realities: we proposed that only in the existing space, within the building, could the real actor Hugh Laurie live. And that only in a completely new, perhaps never previously imagined space, the House character could come to life. We wanted to acknowledge the existing building, but also antagonize it. And we wanted to express that fiction occurs on a plane separate from reality, but not on one parallel to it, but perpendicular.
In a brutal gesture, we snatched the triangular space assigned, rotated it 90 degrees, and wedged it back across the building. Suspended 70 meters above street level, our fiction is now matter, a slice of the Flatiron naked to the city. It is deliberately intrusive, necessarily audacious. In accordance with the spirit of the historical Flatiron, it seeks conspicuity in the skyline proactively, maybe effecting shock in those who see it.
The Flatiron originally incited bewilderment by simply taking its form from the angles of the surrounding urban weave. Here we follow suit as we clone and quarter-turn the already famous floorplan shape of our host.
Eventually, initial shock may turn into appreciation or disgust, rarely indifference.
We believe that the formal simplicity and conceptual clarity of the intervention can ultimately nurture a positive reception, as observers “get” the design.
The architectural gesture produced the three conceptual zones we seeked: a) Within the building, set for reality show about actor Hugh Laurie and family, b) Within new intervention, set for House: The Movie, and c) Internally where both zones overlap, a platform from which tourists can watch both productions in real time.
Project Data
General :
Proposal Type : Competition Entry
Competition Name : Conceptual Competition - House's Loft - Consultancy/Home in Manhattan
Proposal Name : Of House and Hugh - Flatiron Building Intervention in Manhattan
Author(s) : Adolfo Samudio
Organizer : Arquitectum
Competition Sponsor : NA
Year : 2011
Result : Competition winner
Competition Name : Conceptual Competition - House's Loft - Consultancy/Home in Manhattan
Proposal Name : Of House and Hugh - Flatiron Building Intervention in Manhattan
Author(s) : Adolfo Samudio
Organizer : Arquitectum
Competition Sponsor : NA
Year : 2011
Result : Competition winner
Brief request :
Use : Residential
Construction type : Interior refurbishing/Addition
Location : The top three floors of the Fuller Building, corner of Madison Ave. and Fifth Ave., Flatiron District, Manhattan, NYC, USA
Basic program :
Construction type : Interior refurbishing/Addition
Location : The top three floors of the Fuller Building, corner of Madison Ave. and Fifth Ave., Flatiron District, Manhattan, NYC, USA
Basic program :
Home
Social area: A space (or spaces) where social relations may be enjoyed comprising at least: entrance hall, guests’ bathroom, living room, dining room, main bedroom, guest bedroom, two bathrooms, a laundry and a kitchen.
Recreation area: A space for relaxation –visual or physical– associated with the piano, contemplation or reading.
Doctor's Office
Hygiene areas: Spaces for personal hygiene before the actual doctor’s office.
Operating area: An operating room for minor or major surgery.
Consulting room: An office with a gurney.
Requested Area (gross m2) : 1,500sm
Basic premise : Excerpts from competition's bases: "[The House, M.D.] television series has enjoyed critical and public acclaim since its launch, transforming the show into one of the most-watched television programs in the United States and around the world. It has received several awards and nominations, including a Peabody Award, two Golden Globes Awards and three Primetime Emmy Awards. It was the most-watched television series in the world in 2008, with an average of 82 million viewers in 66 countries. In the United States, the sixth season began with a two-hour episode on September 21 2009, and ended at the beginning of June 2010. The seventh season ended recently.
The challenge, therefore, is to create a Home-Office for House so that when the next series ends he will be able to move to Manhattan and enjoy a private practice set within an architectural design in keeping with his intelligence, good taste and sense of humor.
The project must be a new “pavilion”, located within the Fuller Building at the corner of Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan."
"House’s home-consultancy is located in downtown Manhattan. Given that this is an emblematic and historic neighborhood, a way must be found to meet the innovative purpose at the root of the competition, while at the same time respecting the scale of the context, or causing it to stand out against the surrounding architectural volumes..."
Social area: A space (or spaces) where social relations may be enjoyed comprising at least: entrance hall, guests’ bathroom, living room, dining room, main bedroom, guest bedroom, two bathrooms, a laundry and a kitchen.
Recreation area: A space for relaxation –visual or physical– associated with the piano, contemplation or reading.
Doctor's Office
Hygiene areas: Spaces for personal hygiene before the actual doctor’s office.
Operating area: An operating room for minor or major surgery.
Consulting room: An office with a gurney.
Requested Area (gross m2) : 1,500sm
Basic premise : Excerpts from competition's bases: "[The House, M.D.] television series has enjoyed critical and public acclaim since its launch, transforming the show into one of the most-watched television programs in the United States and around the world. It has received several awards and nominations, including a Peabody Award, two Golden Globes Awards and three Primetime Emmy Awards. It was the most-watched television series in the world in 2008, with an average of 82 million viewers in 66 countries. In the United States, the sixth season began with a two-hour episode on September 21 2009, and ended at the beginning of June 2010. The seventh season ended recently.
The challenge, therefore, is to create a Home-Office for House so that when the next series ends he will be able to move to Manhattan and enjoy a private practice set within an architectural design in keeping with his intelligence, good taste and sense of humor.
The project must be a new “pavilion”, located within the Fuller Building at the corner of Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan."
"House’s home-consultancy is located in downtown Manhattan. Given that this is an emblematic and historic neighborhood, a way must be found to meet the innovative purpose at the root of the competition, while at the same time respecting the scale of the context, or causing it to stand out against the surrounding architectural volumes..."
Proposal :
Use : Mixed
Construction type : Same as requested
Location : Same as requested
Basic program : Same as requested, plus the following:
Intervention: House’s Loft/”House The Movie Set:”
(Public Areas)
House’s Reading Room
(Private Areas)
Wilson's Bedroom
Vicodin Vault
Wilson’s Gym
Hookers’ Lounge
Hookers’ Bathroom
TV Room
Interior refurbishing: Hugh and Jo Laurie's Loft/Reality Show Set:
(Social Areas)
Entrance Hall
Guests Bathroom
Living Room
Dining Room
Kitchen
(Private Areas)
Hugh And Jo's Bedroom
Charlie's Bedroom
Bill's Bedroom
Rebecca's Bedroom
Guest Bedroom
Laundry
Office
Shared Program/Visitors' Area in interior area where Addition and Refurbishing intersect:
Level 1: House/Laurie Shared Interest Zone:
(Social Areas)
Motorcycle Showroom
Music Room / Guitar Showroom
Bar
Level 2: Visitor’s Area:
Tour Area / Observation Deck to production areas
Production Offices and Storage/Maintenance
Actual Area (gross m2) : 2,300sm
Basic premise/intention : To call out what we regarded as an unresolved duality in the competition's premise, as it stated: "The challenge, therefore, is to create a Home-Office for House so that when the next series ends he will be able to move to Manhattan and enjoy a private practice ..." How could fictional Dr. Gregory House, at the snap of a finger, jump existential planes and suddendly appear in consensus reality to inhabit his new Manhattan loft? Project Statement : House’s loft? ?The “House’s Loft” conceptual competition asks participants to design a consultancy-home in Manhattan for Dr. Gregory House, M.D., a doctor at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH) In New Jersey, USA. But both the PPTH and House are, of course, fiction: they exist only in the fictional plane of the tv series, not in consensus reality. So how could we, then, in the real life plane, plan a home for a person in a different plane of existence? To us, the competition’s unconventional request brought into play from the very outset an interesting dichotomy, the acknowledgement of which soon became the main theme of our proposal.
Of House and Hugh
During research and initial brainstorming we quickly realized that if we were to address not one, but two planes of existence - one real and one imaginary – then the proposal could not just be about a loft for the fictional Dr. Gregory House, as the bases call for. What about house’s real life persona, actor Hugh Laurie? To address the real life plane, a new home for someone cast in the TV show also had to be considered ... And by overlapping both zones, other very interesting posibilities emerge.
As real-life dwellers, thus, we see the proposal not so much as a fictional loft for fictional House, but - betting on the show’s immense popularity - as a slightly irreverent, self-advertising, brand new tourist attraction for Manhattan..
Observer 1: Tha hell is that?
Observer 2: House's loft
Observer 1: Who's what? ?Observer 2: House's. Loft.
Observer 1: House the TV doctor?
Observer 2: Only one I know of...
Observer 1: Ok ok ok ok. He's not real. That thing up there is. Explain!!
Observer 3: It’s like the Flatiron. Just like... rotated…
Observer 4: WOW…
Observer 2: "That's the set, man. House The Movie. They also got the actor living next door to that with his entire family, and that's also being filmed.
Observer 5: WTF?!?
Observer 6: Another reality? ?
Observer 2: Hugh's House I believe it's called.
Observer 7: It’s slashing diagonally through the Flatiron! Just like Broadway through Manhattan!Observer 6: Not another reality!!
Observer 2: And you can watch both live for 25 bucks…
Observer 8: So that's what that line's for!
Observer 9: Dude, like..House’s bikes..are.. Laurie’s bikes!
Observer 2: Supply and demand, guy. Supply and demand.
(Public Areas)
House’s Reading Room
(Private Areas)
Wilson's Bedroom
Vicodin Vault
Wilson’s Gym
Hookers’ Lounge
Hookers’ Bathroom
TV Room
Interior refurbishing: Hugh and Jo Laurie's Loft/Reality Show Set:
(Social Areas)
Entrance Hall
Guests Bathroom
Living Room
Dining Room
Kitchen
(Private Areas)
Hugh And Jo's Bedroom
Charlie's Bedroom
Bill's Bedroom
Rebecca's Bedroom
Guest Bedroom
Laundry
Office
Shared Program/Visitors' Area in interior area where Addition and Refurbishing intersect:
Level 1: House/Laurie Shared Interest Zone:
(Social Areas)
Motorcycle Showroom
Music Room / Guitar Showroom
Bar
Level 2: Visitor’s Area:
Tour Area / Observation Deck to production areas
Production Offices and Storage/Maintenance
Actual Area (gross m2) : 2,300sm
Basic premise/intention : To call out what we regarded as an unresolved duality in the competition's premise, as it stated: "The challenge, therefore, is to create a Home-Office for House so that when the next series ends he will be able to move to Manhattan and enjoy a private practice ..." How could fictional Dr. Gregory House, at the snap of a finger, jump existential planes and suddendly appear in consensus reality to inhabit his new Manhattan loft? Project Statement : House’s loft? ?The “House’s Loft” conceptual competition asks participants to design a consultancy-home in Manhattan for Dr. Gregory House, M.D., a doctor at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH) In New Jersey, USA. But both the PPTH and House are, of course, fiction: they exist only in the fictional plane of the tv series, not in consensus reality. So how could we, then, in the real life plane, plan a home for a person in a different plane of existence? To us, the competition’s unconventional request brought into play from the very outset an interesting dichotomy, the acknowledgement of which soon became the main theme of our proposal.
Of House and Hugh
During research and initial brainstorming we quickly realized that if we were to address not one, but two planes of existence - one real and one imaginary – then the proposal could not just be about a loft for the fictional Dr. Gregory House, as the bases call for. What about house’s real life persona, actor Hugh Laurie? To address the real life plane, a new home for someone cast in the TV show also had to be considered ... And by overlapping both zones, other very interesting posibilities emerge.
As real-life dwellers, thus, we see the proposal not so much as a fictional loft for fictional House, but - betting on the show’s immense popularity - as a slightly irreverent, self-advertising, brand new tourist attraction for Manhattan..
Observer 1: Tha hell is that?
Observer 2: House's loft
Observer 1: Who's what? ?Observer 2: House's. Loft.
Observer 1: House the TV doctor?
Observer 2: Only one I know of...
Observer 1: Ok ok ok ok. He's not real. That thing up there is. Explain!!
Observer 3: It’s like the Flatiron. Just like... rotated…
Observer 4: WOW…
Observer 2: "That's the set, man. House The Movie. They also got the actor living next door to that with his entire family, and that's also being filmed.
Observer 5: WTF?!?
Observer 6: Another reality? ?
Observer 2: Hugh's House I believe it's called.
Observer 7: It’s slashing diagonally through the Flatiron! Just like Broadway through Manhattan!Observer 6: Not another reality!!
Observer 2: And you can watch both live for 25 bucks…
Observer 8: So that's what that line's for!
Observer 9: Dude, like..House’s bikes..are.. Laurie’s bikes!
Observer 2: Supply and demand, guy. Supply and demand.
