5500 square foot private residence on the shores of Lake Michigan. (unbuilt)
These spaces are sharp and stoic. Thick
wood slabs, translucent stone and steel, spare furnishings expertly
restrained: They lay bare to the imagined point where Sky meets Sea.
Spent light and color spill from honed ledges, not dying into the
ground, but falling into glass-like pools extending to the horizon and
returning to the infinite lake beyond.The diagram / view in the pictures depicts a wood shading
system. (The house itself is turned off in this image.) It is made of
1x2 and 2x4 lumber for the horizontals, and 4x4 or 6x6 posts for the
verticals (linked 10' segments to achieve greater height). Connections
between the horizontals and verticals, which are at greatly varying
angles, are made with a single, off-the-shlef connector. The whole thing
is very low-tech and very rudimentary in its construction techniques,
but gains an exotic flavor through massive redundancy. It stops being
stick lumber and starts becoming a wood lacework. The system as a whole
is thought of as a "shrink-wrapped" surface that "seals" around the
house, providing shade and privacy to the large windows that sit behind
it, and form the weather-tight barrier (not shown here).