Kwong Von Glinow

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House, Some of This, Some of That is designed through the reinvention of borrowed architectural tropes: from the free plan to the raumplan.

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Project

House, Some of This, Some of That

What

Vacation Home

Size

3,100 square feet

Client

Enjoy Architecture Development

Status

Concept 2018, land acquisition - current

Team

Lap Chi Kwong, Alison Von Glinow

All architecture is borrowed. This vacation house is designed by two acts of borrowing in plan and in section. Scale, repetition, and difference make for the re-invention of these two borrowed architectural tropes.

Act I. Borrowing the Planar Organization
The program of the house no longer requires rooms separated by walls. Soft divisions persevere in contemporary lifestyle. Likewise, walls as load-bearing elements are replaced by steel channels in the envelope. Such is the liberation of the free plan in Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House and Philip Johnson’s Glass House. These homes are internally organized by the bathroom, utilities, and storage as shapely interior elements. Act I uses a “Storage T” as the internal organization and structure for the cantilevering roof.

Act II. Borrowing the Sectional Organization
The program of the house is organized by divisions understood in plan and in section. In the Muller House by Adolf Loos, he uses the home’s section to effectively borrow depth from another space beyond. The transition from one space to the next implies movement and vista. Borrowing from Loos and nature, Act II uses the raumplan to negotiate the slope of the site. Residents will ascend and descend within the home.

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A series of T-shaped volumes organize the private enclosed spaces of the home.

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Each “T” joins adjacent spaces within the residence, such as closets with full bathrooms for the bedrooms, and a powder room with storage cabinets for the kitchen for the dining area.

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The plan of the home is articulated by a series of “T”s that define both the soft and hard spaces between them.

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The sectional organization of the home uses the raumplan to negotiate the slope of the site. Residents will ascend and descend within the home.

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The cantilevered roof is structurally supported by the Storage Ts.

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The Storage Ts - sprinkled throughout the house - serve as room partitions to create a variety of niche spaces to be used both individually and collectively.