Further research: Blades Residence (please note: this was not one of my original exemplar houses as the three I had researched are being studied by others in my tutorial group)
Architect: Morphosis
Location: Santa Barbara, California, USA
Completion date: 1996
The intent of design in the Blades Residence was to “activate land surface” and to react with nature on an unusual scale. Making the garden space the main element was the strategy of Morphosis, achieved by creating a dynamic interplay with inter-weaved indoor and outdoor space.
The wall types played a major part in this aspect, with curved walls framing and encircling the garden space and the orthogonal walls responding to the geometry of the neighbouring houses.
The building uses a mix of the three materials that are often considered as the three main “modern” materials; concrete, glass and metal, which enhances the visual delight and reflects the client, who is an artist who focuses on metal sculptures.
With the blurred effect of interior and exterior, the design incorporates a sequence of spaces, rather than distinct rooms. To allow this, reveals and recesses have been cut away, flooding the area with natural light and organic views.
A house is an environmental filter:
- The garden space is the dominant area
- Indoor/outdoor experience allows light and breezes to flow through the house
- Orthogonal walls relate the house to the neighbourhood, whereas the curved wall and roof shape gives the house an unique quality.
A house is a container of human activities:
- Open plan living - loft style
- Zones rather than rooms - the house is separated into public and private zones
- The boundary between indoors and outdoors is inter-weaved
A house is a delightful experience:
- Smooth and rough textures and tough materials elaborate the broken and chaotic form
- Value on space and light rather than materiality
- The eye can travel great lengths due to the open plan living
Morphosis
The “design director and thought leader” of Morphosis is Thom Mayne, who helped found the company in 1972. He is well known for his architectural work and has received over 100 architecture awards, including the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Throughout his career, Mayne has not only focused on his work, but has helped educate inspiring architects through his career as an academic at many top tier American universities and other educational facilities worldwide.
Being true to the 21st century, Mayne’s style of design is very digitalised, even the early conceptual drawings were produced on design programs (as seen below). Mayne’s style is very different from the standard technical drawings. The floor plans look “2D” and therefore are very difficult to analyse and comprehend; there is also a lack of documentation of doors and windows in the floor plan (which increased my confusion in trying to replicate these). Another element which makes his floor plans unclear is how he layers the floor plans, e.g. on the third floor plan you can see the implied ground floor and second floor plans as well.
References
Mayne, T. 1989. Morphosis: buildings and projects, 1993-1997. essays by Thom Mayne, Tony Robins, Anthony Vidler. New York: Rizzoli International Publications inc.
Morphosis. 2011. “Blades Residence”. http://morphopedia.com/projects/blades-residence (accessed March 13, 2010)
Site plan
When designing in the Northern hemisphere, as the exemplar is, the ideal aspect is South. However, the architect has challenged this by having the main living areas and the emphasised garden facing North East, which is the ideal positioning for a Brisbane site. I feel that this is an odd choice... however, perhaps this has been done to shade the outdoor courtyard and pool, creating a more pleasant environment.
Aerial view of the site:
Virtual Globetrotting. 2011. “’Blades Residence’ by Morphosis”. http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/blades-residence-by-morphosis/view/?service=1 (accessed March 21, 2011)
Floor plans
Although the drawings provided by Morphosis don’t show line depth, I have chosen to included different line types to add some depth in an attempt to clarify the individual levels
First floor
First floor plan from Morphosis
My ink interpretation
Second floor
Second floor plan from Morphosis
My ink interpretation
Third floor
Third floor plan from Morphosis
My ink interpretation
Critical section
Critical section from morphosis
My ink interpretation
Critical elevation
Three Dimensional representation
The following link shows a video with virtual tours and computer programmed images. Relevant footage can be found at 1:15-1:45, 2-2:55 and 3:05-3:20.
These stills have been taken from the above link:
All photographs, floor plans, conceptual sketches and sections are from the Morphosis website.
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