AIR
HOUSE
Project:
Guest House, Brentwood, California
Client:
David Blundell, Anthropologist
Architect:
Francois Perrin, Air Architecture, Los Angeles, California
Engineer:
CTW Engineers, Santa Monica
Contractor:
Dante Cacace, Venice Beach
Size: 700
square feet total
Completion:
Summer 2007
Project
Description
The Air House was built for an
Anthropologist based in Asia who needed a living and working space in the
backyard of his family property in Brentwood, California when teaching at
nearby UCLA. It is also a place to showcase the collection he gathered during
the last 20 years and host visiting Buddhist scholars.
The Air House is a prototype for a habitat
that will be built in his other properties in Sri-Lanka and Taiwan. The concept
was to design a simple structure that could be reproduced in different areas
and climates and well adapted to local construction and materials.
This first project had to comply with the
seismic building code for Southern California. The structure is a wooden frame,
the common construction type in California, clad with a clear polycarbonate
skin. The see-through plastic creates an optical illusion with the sunlight
that makes the project disappear at some times like a mirage, merging the
volume with the sky and reflecting the surrounding vegetation, thus creating a
minimal impact on the existing house and neighborhood. Itgives a dynamic aspect to the building as
when you move around the light refracts itself on its surface.
It
is also an economic solution to protect the structure from the rain and
humidity as well as being a low maintenance material, washing itself with the
occasional rain. The building is set on a redwood deck well elevated above the
ground to allow floodwater and local fauna (opossums, raccoons?) to crawl underneath.
Two walls are dedicated to a giant bookshelf from floor to ceiling with a work
desk on the lower level, the other walls are used to hang the collection of
masks and other artifacts. The loft is used as a study and night area, and the
main space underneath is left empty for the practice of meditation or tea
ceremony. The large deck surrounding the building extends the ground floor
towards the garden giving almost twice the surface allowed by the zoning code
and merging the building with its environment.
Ecological
Features
The Air House uses ?air? insulation, a void in between
the wood frame and the plastic skin as a thermal protection. There is a cross
ventilation from the specific position of the openings and the operable
skylights on the roof catching the ocean breeze in the afternoon. The energy is
provided by solar panels on the roof and wind turbines will be added to be off
the grid for the next generation of projects. The Air House was built out of
local material (redwood) and using a technique (wood framing) that are both
specific to California.
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