Brooksville, Maine
Here we must think of everything at once:
Lisa Fierstein and her body, her shadow, a big eye opening,
A ritual similar to a strip tease,
To seek for a moment of silence. (The site did offer it), it was too noisy, in spite of the view, and retaining walls, somewhere between the landscape and architecture: these thoughts became a dance, a pentagram, a way to inscribe another topographical accident among those found. An endorsement.
Lisa Fierstein and her body, her shadow, a big eye opening,
A ritual similar to a strip tease,
To seek for a moment of silence. (The site did offer it), it was too noisy, in spite of the view, and retaining walls, somewhere between the landscape and architecture: these thoughts became a dance, a pentagram, a way to inscribe another topographical accident among those found. An endorsement.
More than a project of architecture, this is a landscaping exercise: the initial task was to arrange a sequence of retaining walls to establish the desired relationship between view and rooms, subsequently determining the changes in levels most akin to use and circulation. The rooms are conceived as various frames overlooking the scene and culminating in the living-dining area where the most favorable vistas are exposed through a long, elongated, and oversized arch as a single opening. Since the site is heavily wooded the rooms are generously dimensioned to allow for spaces not available in the natural realm, mostly occupied by trees and shadows. The roof is thin, understood as a soft mantle laid over the walls, which are solid, made of stone, and firmly attached to the topography.
The house is in Maine and was published in a Rockport monograph, pp 106-111.
Elevation from the bay.
In the study sketches, interior spaces understood as "clearings" of the site, and the main framing of the views through the big eye in the living room. Rather than completely opening to the view, it was intended to articulate the openings "in crescendo" toward the living room and the master bedroom.
Floor Plans.
Site Graphics.
Elevations/model showing the relationship of the heavy (stone) walls, conceived as retaining walls in the landscape, and the light (asphalt shingles) folded roof, understood as a soft mantel covering the retaining walls.
Structural walls in relation to the site.
Overall site plan.
Land Side view of the model.
