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Blades Residence |
To start of this blog, here’s what I’ve summarized from my understanding with my chosen design. The Blades Residence, which is a single family residence which consists of various areas such as the kitchen, dining room, studio, gallery, swimming pool, etc. is located in Santa Barbara, California. Designed by the Morphosis Architects for the couple known as Richard and Vicki Blades, this was designed in 1993 and later constructed and finished from 1993 until 1997. This particular residential building was back then, and still is, one great example of modern architecture during its time of the mid 90’s. Quite extravagantly, its extrovert design complimented with the
urban condition of the garden space which made the garden quite a dominant element in some sort of composition that intertwines both the interior and exterior in such a dynamic way. The initial occupying gesture was constructed by the vast sweep of numerous elliptical walls that encircle the garden space, whereas the house itself would look somewhat like a fragment that carved through in a lateral motion right across the site itself.I’ve noticed that there were two different types of walls which consists the outdoor spaces as I’ve looked at the available pictures of the area. There were the rectangular walls or known to be the orthogonal walls that retort the indifference of the geometry of the design and the other houses within that neighbourhood, and the oval-shaped or elliptical walls that defined the extension of the space in the outdoor room. This is what I thought was quite a bit peculiar with its shape, something rather diverse compared to its surrounding houses which consists of standard residential houses.Designed by Morphosis Architects, they used unusual ways to make the residence unique in its own way back in its erection with the help of the different uses of geometry upon its structure. As stated by Mayne, is that he foresees people are in dire need to perceive architecture in a more creative aspect or in easier terms, a work of art. "They should see it as dynamic, instant and exciting. Like a radical artwork, my architecture will offend some people but there will be those that love it too", he said.
“The Blades Residence in Santa Barbara was an occasion to activate land surface and respond to a natural site on a scale that makes it distinct from houses we had constructed in the past, which tended toward more introverted responses to their urban conditions. Our strategy made the garden space the dominant element in a composition that interweaves interior and exterior in a dynamic interplay. The initial occupying gesture was formed by the broad sweep of the elliptical walls encircling this garden space, while the house itself is a fragment slicing laterally across the site.Two types of walls were used to create outdoor spaces. One set is orthogonal and responds to both the geometry and the community of houses in the neighborhood. The other set of elliptical walls defines and extends the space of the outdoor room. At the two extreme points of departure for this enclosed volume, separate elements anchor the house as it bridges from the road to the inner site. The street end contains an inconspicuous garage and gallery, a modest statement deferring to the character of the neighborhood. At the farther, unoccupied edge of the site is the bedroom, which straddles the boundary wall. It is both a confined and unconfined form that mediates between the interior and exterior worlds.
The curved roof shapes enhance the sense of the structure burrowing within the earth to create a protected sanctuary. A segment of the house’s form lifts away from the earth in a juxtapositioned diagonal, creating a second-story study cantilevered over the pool. Within the house, outdoor and indoor volumes interlock and interpenetrate, creating a sequence of overlapping zones rather than distinct rooms. This play is enhanced by a series of reveals and recesses that have been carved away, punctuating the space with natural light and abundant panoramas.”
Morphosis. 2010. Morphopedia Project Information. http://morphopedia.com/projects/blades-residence(accessed March 15, 2011)
"The blades residence explores the relationship between landscape and the signification of domestic iconography. The house takes the form of a curved roof plane sheathed in bonderized metal and nestling closely into the landscape. In the interior, three main spaces are laid adjacent to five smaller exterior rooms. The house forms intersect with an arcuating concrete garden wall that creates a sixth large exterior room. Instead of merely planting objects directly over the ground, Morphosis transcend the traditional opposition between figure and ground or between passive site and active building, beyond the Corbusian model of machine and nature as a dialectic."Zellner, P. 1998. Tectonics. Pacific Edge. Rizzoli International Publications inc.
"Unlike nearly all other world cultures, the typical American house has been unable to establish a private exterior domain within the undifferentiated suburban landscape. Within these suburbs, it has been traditional to give the house a figural position in the neutral “ground” of the site, in which the “building/machine” is active and the “site/nature” is passive. With the blades house, the intention was to transcend this limited concept, attempting a work that assimilates and activates the site as a whole. The distinction between exterior and interior space was blurred in order to expand the typical suburban boundaries and make the landscape habitable. The space of the garden – the fragment of this site that forms the basis for this work – is meant to be experienced and understood as a dominant component within the overall composition. This elliptical outdoor room us the primary domain of the site: the enclosed volume of the house is subordinate to this gesture of occupation in the earth.
Two types of walls are used to create outdoor spaces. One set is orthogonal and responds to both the geometry and the community of houses in the neighbourhood. The other, elliptical set of walls defines and extends the space of the outdoor room.Walking through the house, walls move inside and out as voids in the exterior walls. The house itself is a fragment or vertical slice of segmented space that extends laterally across the site, engaging the landscape elements in an architectural dialogue between exterior and interior space.
Mayne, T. 1999. Morphosis : buildings and projects, 1993-1997. essays by Thom Mayne, Tony Robins, Anthony Vidler. Rizzoli International Publications inc.
