house for a photo lover | napa valley, usa
client:
program:
area:
status:
design:
private
private residence
300 m2
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design development
A house for a woman who enjoys taking photo of everything making up the animate and inanimate world both indoors and out: birds, trees, human beings, the sky. The house is lifted gently off the ground on mushroom-shaped concrete supports that, at the client’s request, keep it from touching the ground, limiting the access of unwanted reptiles. Other visitors are welcomed by its open book-like form that opens around the fireplace, the true centre of the enclosed space.
The exterior is punctuated by an array of apertures that engages the simple flat wall. One opening recalls a German-born American designer popular after the second world war.. The stepped theatre, built in wood on the roof, provides a platform for observing the surrounding landscape and for staging performances on the human condition.
