Peter C. Papademetriou
PORTFOLIO 2 - a New Facade/a New Image
Requirements
This project is the smallest fragment I designed, but incorporates aspects of all design problems I've encountered. The given context was a visually chaotic small scale "ranch-style" house whose front comprised a three-window living room marked by a visually weak gable roof and appendaged on either side by an inadequate entry and an ill-proportioned screen porch, whose roof leaked. ·
The site context located the project at the conjunction of two streets oriented in different grids, such that the primary view was to a small park-like median resulting from their intersection. The owners wanted to reorganize an entry sequence, recognizing both pedestrian approach from the street and vehicular entrance from the adjacent drive. They also wanted to make use of the living room and upgrading the visual image of the house. A major constraint on any intervention was that no interior space could extend forward of the face of the existing living room, although the local Code permitted an unenclosed addition.
Solution
The resolution of all these conditions consisted of a layered zone of exterior and interior elements, activating the entire front area of the house. A regular geometry was superimposed across the facade and a progression of spatial gridding establishes the density of this zone, integrating new and existing spaces as one continuous fabric. The variation in the formal treatment of the entry elaborates this singular element by a rich texture of space, light, and color through minor moves away from the regularity of the basic geometry. In addition to its solution of formal problems, the intervention evokes a sense of outdoor living appropriate to the specific context, climate and culture of having a "neighborly" front porch under the Loggia trellis.
'CLICK' on images for Caption and to review in Sequence.
The new Entry provided a 'threshold' that hadn't existed. The screen porch was replaced by an enclosed "Sun Room". A Loggia was built as a new "layer" between the house and front lawn.
The entire job was described in 2 sheets, 18"x24", this sheet had Location Plan, Foundation + upper Entry vault + trellis, Plan(s), foundation details
ABOVE: Sections BELOW: Elevations A 'butterfly" roof(s) were designed to drain to outer corners; a wall plane meant to screen the existing, its parapet marked by a 'stripe'.
Elevations + Sections, minimal critical Details, such as the roof drains, the double-bay of the Entry being a truss.
Regulating Lines and Square modular units.
The "intervention" was essentially 2 parts: - an Interior 'bookending' the existing center Living Room - the Exterior 'layered' in front, using the allowable non-enclosed space.
A "false front" meant to screen the existing, and by means of a 'butterfly' roof applied to the face of the existing base of the roof gable, provide the draining away of rainwater to either side.
One client wish was to provide a 'niche' for an elf figure she had brought from her previous home. A single bank of lights along the continuous interior furr-down soffit allowed the owners' home to appear occupied.
Any reference to The Alamo is . . .purely coincidental. The "missing bay" was to personalize the Entry as 'unique'.
"Framing" the vehicular drop-off with paired columns was achieved with 'notching' the corner, as seen in the plan.
The loggia was in fact an outdoor room.
An existing space (foreground) and the new room replacing a screen porch. The saltillo Mexican tiles level the floor to that of the existing wood floor
The continuous furr-down soffit provides a visual link between spaces; the new Entry centerline is clearly evident.
The 'rotated' closet defines the centerline of the space, the height results from the pitch of the roof, as well as providing natural light from a window above. Since the space could not be air-conditioned, and due to the adjacent neighbor, the glass block wall solved both issues.
The client removed existing shutters because: the column spacing pulled in from the actual window opening (plus one dead-center) provided a sense of enclosure and the trellis cut down on heat load.
Terrace adjacent to the new Room, outdoor furniture chosen by Client (who thought I might not like them . . .before I told her what the colors would be).
Selected to speak at The Architectural League of New York.