Architecture Wednesday: Aviator’s Villa

I've heard of bringing your work home with you, but this takes it to a whole new level.

The house, designed for a retired pilot, er, Aviator, is organized as an analogical continuum of disassembled flight components. Similar to how the ‘Air Body’ wraps an airplane all around, this House is also ‘exposed’ to air on all its sides, in an orbital fashion.

The House, sited on a hill beside a small lake in the New York's Duchess County, plays on the concept of being fully surrounded by water as well, with the swimming pool to the south side of the house mirroring the lake on the north side. The House is imagined as a floating structure between water bodies and fully surrounded by air.

And the architect also used the way a plane would steer through wind currents, aimed at its destination and navigating the prevailing winds, to make the House turn and torque to face the sky, the views, and the lake; the House looks south, north and west predominantly.

Articulated as a vertically extending volume with a cantilevered prow, the main house is oriented to allow maximum daylight in. Large open glazed panes are mounted on riveted metal frames, further screened by perforated metal panelling, or brise-soleils, meant to replicate the texture of clouds, while limiting the high sun rays and allowing shadows within the home's interiors.

The house is three primary spaces: the large 30 feet tall living room and study, kitchen and dining area, a cantilevered 40 feet bedroom, and a library, imagined a ‘Memory Box’ and accessible only through the bedroom. The library's window opening faces the wooded areas outside, while a more secluded area in the rear is lit by a skylight whose view is directed to the cantilevered volume of the bedroom above.

It isn't to everyone's taste and has an almost cartoonish appearance, but it is something to see, before it takes off completely for parts unknown.

via HomeDSGN