Beginning with the most rudimentary elements ofarchitecture, the wall, the column and the beam, or in this case a truss, thehouse starts with the idea of using those distinctive structural elements as abasis for its existence. How can form be born out of their expression, theiramplification, and a dependence on their basic primary functions, as structure?

The answer to this question lies in the house’sability to navigate a sloped terrain, we saw this as a balancing act betweenstructural solidity and effortless lightness, firmitas and venustas. The twoload bearing walls of the house’s pitch are firmly planted parallel to theslope, acting as retaining walls for the soil. Perpendicular walls work tocarry the spaces above and the extended exterior canopy. Columns accentuate theverticality and also work to brace the pitched roof. The truss carries thepitch on two sides, the diagonals of the truss creating the angles of thepitched roof itself. All of this is working in harmony as a structural machinethat creates something familiar but destabilizing. A house that at once feelsso solid and yet like at any second it could also blow over in the wind. Utilizingstructure not simply because we must but distilling the elements down to their purestructural function, allows us to then see these elements as the basis of agame for creating form and space, a kind of Calder balancing act.

The concrete of the house is a homogenizingmaterial, allowing all structural elements to be discretely expressed, butuniform. The main actor then becomes light and the subtle accents ofmateriality in more pragmatic functions like cabinetry, tables, a cushion, acurtain. This also allows the focus to always radiate outward to the incrediblelandscape, with precise views on the sides and in the courtyard of the house,distinct vistas of the forests of its context. The slope also works its wayinto the house as a series of terraces that subtly work to create rooms withoutusing walls as partition, maintaining that all walls of the house are strictlystructural. A true example of how the creation of limitations can haveboundless consequences.

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