This small-scale domestic project was designed as a dwelling for an artist-in-residence at Wave Hill, a public botanical garden and museum. The home was focused on providing a concentrated live/work environment where the artist could interact with the park around them while still retaining a sense of creative privacy.
Fallen leaves taken from the site in early Autumn inspired the initial formal studies. Exploring the natural process of plant decay and disintegration, and the patterns that it creates, directly informed the spatial connections between programs and the skin system employed throughout the home.
Decaying oak leaves found at the site served as a formal precedent for the home, influencing the porosity and materiality of both the interior spaces and facade.
The leaf-inspired striations that cover the facade serve as windows into the interior, dissolving the separation between private and public; artist and audience.
form generation
The final site plan and landscaping. The home slopes with the hill, dipping below the surface and re-emerging at the bottom. Retaining walls offer places to sit along the slope and help funnel pedestrians around the home.
A section view of the home, showing the contrast between the heavy, submerged concrete base and the light, aerated wood used for the roof/facade.
The entry of the home, adjacent to the kitchen, approached through a series of twisted wood louvers.
The bedroom, located at the pinch-point between the concrete and wood surfaces.
An exploded axonometric rendering showing the different programmatic areas within the residence. The underlying structure of the roof is also shown, consisting of dimensional lumber and glulam beams running the length of the home, stabilized in a waffle-like grid.
longitudinal section
level 1
level 0
level -1
The final site and building model, with landscaping in the form of retaining walls that radiate off the edge of the home into the garden.
