House

Steven Holl House Black Swan Theory

Princeton Architectural Press New York 1

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10 11 12 13 14 15 House: Black Swan Theory 10

1 The Swiss Residence 2 3 , 0 0 0 f t 2 2 0 0 1 – 2 0 0 6 22 2 Stretto House 7500 ft2 1 9 8 9 – 1 9 9 1 30 3 Writing With Light House 5500 ft2 2 0 0 1 – 2 0 0 4 44 4 Oceanic Retreat 5400 ft2 2 0 0 1 56 5 Porosity House 5400 ft2 2 0 0 5 – 64 6 Sun Slice House 3800 ft2 2 0 0 5 – 68 7 Y House 3500 ft2 1997–1999 74 8 Planar House 3320 ft2 2 0 0 2 – 2 0 0 5 88 9 House at Martha’s Vineyard 2800 ft2 1 9 8 4 – 1 9 8 8 100 10 Implosion Villa 1830 ft2 1 9 9 2 106 11 Little Tesseract 1500 ft2 2 0 0 1 110 12 Nail Collector’s House 1200 ft2 2 0 0 1 – 2 0 0 4 120 13 Turbulence House 900 ft2 2 0 0 1 – 2 0 0 4 130 14 Tower of Silence 512 ft2 1 9 9 2 144 15 Round Lake Hut 80 ft2 2 0 0 1 150

Deceleration: A Collapse of Plastic Space by Michael Bell 158 Project Credits 168 Bibliography of Published Writings and Monographs 172 Acknowledgements 174 Image Credits 175 House: Black Swan Theory

The Insignificant and especially the architecture of What is more appealing than an the house, can be seen as a complex azure sky if not the docile clarity phenomenological problem that of a cloud? This is why I prefer any would benefit from a phenomenological theory whatsoever to silence, and description. even more than a blank page a piece Architects and artists create in an of writing that passes as insignificant. attempt to make people perceive, to make This is my whole exercise, and something visible. As an instrument of my health-restoring sigh. the experience of time, light, and place, —Francis Ponge1 the house has the potential for poetic language and relative autonomy. It has the Form to Experience potential “to speak of something other” In the seventeenth century, the study of that grounds or precedes the architecture. knowledge—epistemology—first began Nicolas Pople categorized this attitude to replace metaphysics. It was the as “one-off houses” but he elaborates: twentieth century that shattered previous paradigms with modernism in painting, Holl’s intention has more than one sculpture, architecture, music, dance, theoretical position to support it: and literature. Radical experiments as described, it is a cosmology in space-making, free association, and which sees architecture as a dynamic experimentation would later develop process whereby we constantly into styles. Modern architecture of the reinvent our relationship to the world house became institutionally formalized of the senses, including our sense (in the Museum of Modern Art’s 1932 of time and space. This mission exhibition The International Style). has an intention rooted in metaphysics Necessarily, styles go out of fashion and and is a foil to what Holl seems will be replaced and in turn rejected again to read as the ever more dominant (postmodernism, deconstructivism, etc). role of materialistic and scientific Rather than on-going cycles of “isms” thinking and the resulting loss and their replacements, the conception of diversity and specificity in local of architecture could enter a paradigm cultural environments.2 shift toward a more open-ended position informed by a phenom­enological interro­ As any personal reflection might be prone gation. Rather than inherited dualism, the to retrospective justifications, many have experience of interrelating body, brain, elaborated upon this discussion. As Carole and world could frame and provide for a Rifkind indicates: new position. This three-dimensional triad is always a unique position. Not unlike Increasingly concerned with Dedicated to Solange Fabião a scientific paradigm shift, architecture, architectural theory, Steven Holl

10 visualized an architecture of strange Today the term has taken different and mysterious beginnings with the meanings. A black swan glossary has hope of original and unique meanings been published by Professor Nassim in each place. Holl’s 1991 Stretto Nicholas Taleb of the “Sciences of House in Dallas broke out of the Uncertainty” department at the University modernist fold to enter fully into the of Massachusetts, Amherst. Among realm of sensation.3 others, Professor Taleb takes inspiration from Benoit Mandelbrot’s methods for An Ideal Exists in the Specific; thinking about deviations. An Absolute in the Relative This book collects houses (built and Site: Maximum Compression unbuilt) designed from 1986 to 2006 within Maximum compression of architectural the framework of intentions originally thought might yield domestic simplicity outlined in our first bookAnchoring . in variation in the design of a house. Seeking an alternative to ideology-laden Intensity can be brought to bear on works of the time, yet seeking a stance a simple project that forges a manifold more theoretical than an attitude of relation of place, space, materials, and linguistic historicism, each house was light. When realized, delight in meditative developed from what we had thought of spaces and inspiring details holds the as a “limited concept.” We referred potential to alter our daily lives. to this position as “Black Swan Theory”: One house in this collection begins with a musical analogy developing ... an Architecture based on limited the concept of “stretto” (from a 1937 concept begins with dissimilarity and composition by Béla Bartók) with purely variation. It illuminates the singularity architectonic means. A house on of a specific situation. The universal- Martha’s Vineyard is developed from a to-specific order is inverted to particular passage of Herman Melville’s become specific-to-universal. Moby Dick that takes place on the The critic will observe that this island. The idea develops from a whale strategy of inversion may become skeleton becoming an exoskeleton an ideology in itself. This is not the balloon frame of typical wooden house intention here, but even so, this would construction turned inside-out. Another be an ideology forever changing, house on Lake Champlain is raised a black swan theory, mutable and on the ruins of an eighteenth century unpredictable.4 nail factory and develops from oblique readings and a skin of cartridge How many white swans does one need to brass. A Long Island house begins in observe before inferring that all swans are a 1949 Jackson Pollock painting There white and that there are no black swans? Were Seven in Eight.

11 Of the fifteen houses in this collection, Unexpected changing intensities and none can be viewed as typical or proto­ consistencies drive sunlight in the typical. Each of these houses is an attempt counterpoint of moving shadows. Black at building into and with the site, an against white, blurred against crisp, attempt to enhance and reveal its unique dissolving against knife-sharp edges, qualities. The aim at condensed meanings the subtle music of light plays out in space. in these houses is a resolution to illuminate Porous light and shadow, like the dapple experience and phenomenal dimensions. of the sun’s rays penetrating dense foliage, Perhaps these houses should is often ordered in elliptical shapes. have been grouped chronologically, or This phenomenon is due to the fact that they could have been grouped according the sun is not a point; it is like a sun to materiality: wooden houses, concrete- picture on a sheet of paper. block houses, metal houses, etc. Instead Shadow, sunlight, and geometry are they are ordered according to scale— interlocked in experiential phenomena. largest to smallest. As this book is being Looking at my own shadow on the ground developed with its counterpart, Urbanisms, I notice that the shadow of my head is the two books form a pair. The focus blurry while shadows of my feet are sharp. here is on the “micro” scale, in the latter The shadow of a porous plane, like one it is on “macro” scale. One focuses the shadows of wire mesh, can exhibit on inner space, the other outer space. curious properties. For example, a The rural house overlooking ten or rectangular mesh at certain sun angles more acres might stand like a guard only shows vertical shadows. In his 1954 preserving landscape from encroaching book Light and Color in the Open Air, sprawl. Around metropolitan centers the physicist M. Minnaert writes about the rising global tide of sprawl and its nature’s phenomena, exclaiming, “It is “jammed traffic to more freeways to more very difficult to see new things, even when cars to more pollution” chain reaction they are before our very eyes.”5 has unforeseen consequences. Collectively The distance of the shadow to the held natural landscapes and densely plane of its projection drastically alters packed pedestrian-oriented towns might its character. To see this phenomenon, ensure the continuation and preservation simply hold a perforated plane imme­ of remaining green forested land. diately in front of a piece of blank paper then move it farther away gradually. Porous Light If the architect engages this natural light Natural light is an essential force inter­ phenomenon, these very different shadow locked with time. The sun arcs through patterns might be created by a certain the sky each day at a different angle; the architectural space. season’s change plays out in the vessel The phenomenon of doubled shadows of the house like a volumetric sundial. can be seen in winter through leafless

12 House: Black Swan Theory

trees when shadows of two parallel the reflected landscape in the building branches are superimposed. When the facade. The north facade windows of distant blurry shadow is superimposed the Little Tesseract House are projected on the crisp near one, a bright line out on steel flanges so as to “float” can appear in the middle of the sharp pictures of the adjacent landscape over shadow. Junichiro Tanizaki’s 1977 book the patina of the weathering charcoal In Praise of Shadows describes “an stucco. Transparency in the soft light of inexpressible aura of depth and mystery an obscure channel-glass facade can of faint light. Shadow in traditional yield a wonderful diffused quality. Japanese rooms presents an uncertainty... The shade and shadow pattern created and ... dreamlike luminescence.”6 at the transparent entry way of the Planar The hope of opening our eyes to see House is an homage to shadow and the changing phenomena of the light of day shade in the hot Arizona sun. and the seasons is a central aim. A clear Light—from the rising sun to the concept driving geometry, structure, and reflection of sunlight off the water to material shapes new spaces in light. the potential for shadows of moonlight To overcome the prosaic domestic clichés through a skylight—is a major focus requires a new openness, which can in each of the houses in individual ways. rouse and project inspiration. The New Mexico sun at the Turbulence House is narrowed into L-shaped slices Refraction/Reflection/Transparency of skylight at the roof, connecting The refraction of sunlight by a pool roof and wall and animating the white of slightly undulating water is a delightful curved plaster interior without creating phenomenon visible in the Stretto House’s unwanted heat. The linear strips of “Flooded Room” and pool court (1991). sunlight that animate the Writing With To establish the ripples of late afternoon Light House are exactly at the heart sunlight on the dining room ceiling of of the idea of that house. the Little Tesseract House, the cooling pond was positioned as a rectangle on Chromatic Duration: Extended Time the southwest elevation. The visual drama In a domestic setting, color intensity, of refracted and reflected sunlight can hue, tone, and saturation need to be taken bring a seasonal and daily change—music into account. The extended time spent to any carefully designed room. in living spaces and the possibility of To set a window far back into a wall subtle coloration changes occurring from elevation is to put its glass in shadow— the natural phenomena outside are also good practice for shading in a south ele­ important factors in design. For example, vation. On the contrary, to project window the blue-white light reflecting off snow glass outward on a north elevation is a outside requires a white ceiling next to way of capturing and framing sections of a glass wall to fully appreciate its subtle

13 power. The iridescent glow of sunlight on interlocking with the voids, becoming ice outside a window would go unnoticed windows. In the hot Arizona sun this struc­ without a simple background frame. When tural concrete, with its deeply shadowed, an orange-red sunset glows in channel south-facing porch, is cool grey at its glass, the structural thickness orchestrates temperate best. a pattern that can only be fully appreciated On the island of Kauai’i, where it in a white or off-white surrounding wall. isn’t heat but wind force that is the In some situations, a bright exterior determinate element, the Oceanic Retreat color is a site-connective strategy. The construction is board-formed with green- red color of the Y House is a link to the stained poured-in-place concrete. Due ancient lead-red paint used for hundreds to the persistent rain, the penetrating stain of years on barns in the surrounding could contain agents to seal the concrete Catskill Mountains. The interiors in white and yet the natural weathering color would and natural ash only pick up a pink-red merge with surrounding moss green. glow from exteriors when the sunlight is in The Nail Collector’s House in Essex, certain positions. New York, constructed of a simple ply­ Just as site and circumstance are wood diaphragm and frame, is skinned blank canvases for a fresh look at the form in cartridge brass with stainless steel and geometry of a house, so color—or nail-heads exposed. This recycled a colorless approach—is always uniquely economical material has unpredictable considered. natural weathering properties, which allow the house to fuse with the various Structural Abstraction: sun exposures and wind-blown facades Material Potential unique to the site. These houses are the result of an abstract concept driving a simple geometric Proportion: Number, Scale, opera­tion in an integral relation with the and Intuition materials of construction. Out of time, What Lucioli Pacioli called the “Divine they are resolutely modern. The balloon- Proportion” and what Leonardo da Vinci frame wood construction of the Martha’s called the “Golden Section” in modern Vineyard House, aligned with its site scientific life continues as the ratio 1:1.618, concept, becomes an exoskeletal building comparable only to 3.14 in its irrational of linear shadows and developed linear number magic. All the houses in this characteristics. Its structure rests collection were subject to proportional delicately on its fragile site; vertical 6x6 adjustment according to a “fine tuner” columns terminate on point foundations. relating the main proportions to 1:1.618. The Planar House in Phoenix is You might say they are all Golden Section structured in tilt-up concrete, exposing houses; like a piece of music, their its raw, thick, planar structural parts spaces have a volumetric harmony that

14 House: Black Swan Theory

is played out in different ways depending passive solar house in Manchester, on the entering light and the passing of Washington, in 1974. The most successful time and the seasons. experiment has been the Solar Stack Ideas and numbers have always wall of the Little Tesseract in Rhinebeck, been at the core of architecture. New York, 2001. The eighteen-foot wall For the Greeks, proportion—which they of south-facing channel glass heats called “analogia”—achieves consonance the upper studio to 75 degrees on a sunny between the whole and every part. winter day with outside temperature at Epinomis argued that “numbers are the 15 or 20 degrees. Alternately, in the highest degree of knowledge.” summer, with upper cavity flaps open In his seminal 1946 book The and pond cooling intakes open, cool air Geometry of Art and Life, Matila Ghyka circulates over the special adjacent water connects Greek and Gothic canons pond, cooling the cavity considerably. of proportion to the harmonious growth If the sun is stronger, more air is drawn in geometry of the logarithmic spiral in over the pond, resulting in more cooling. flowers, shells, living organisms, and The high electricity rates in Hawaii crystal lattices.7 The “Golden Section” and the fact that the islands run on dirty defined by (1 + 5)/2 = 1.618 is one of coal-fired plants prompted an HVAC the most remarkable algebraic numbers. design for the Oceanic Retreat completely Theodore Cook addresses this ratio powered by a roof array of advanced in his book The Curves of Life, and he P.V. cells. demonstrates its multiple qualities for living organisms.8 It is found in the Previously New and distribution of branches in trees, leaves, New Building Techniques seeds, etc. More recent scientific The definition of constructional elements investigation found this ratio in the in new technologies carries house design solar wind. into the twenty-first century. New integral With today’s computer-charged forms begin from construction. There design and fabrication, key numbers of were no tilt-up concrete constructed proportional relations might find new houses in Paradise Valley, Arizona, but projective geometric and spatial relations. now, even before our Planar House However it is not a matter of automatically has been completed, others are using this inserting ratios into digital processes. technique. The Turbulence House was Scale, space, and form in any architectural digitally driven prefabricated construction. composition must be guided by intuition. Drawings went from New York computers to the Kansas City manufacturer Zahner Cyclical Thermal Mass & Co. with the first 32-piece shell being Maximizing natural energy has been our assembled for an exhibition in the Palladio concern since the construction of a Basilica in Vicenza, 2002. For the second

15 addition at Abiquiu, New Mexico, the Condensed Meanings 32 parts from Kansas City were bolted One of the most immediate vehicles to together on a site-poured concrete slab. advance the experiment that a building Local craftsmen completed the interiors can be a spatial representation of an idea in New Mexican natural plasterwork is the small house. While this intellectual with Santa Fe curved techniques. Steel hope drives the design process, the work in raw local steel with exposed interior experience of the realized con­ welds further connects this house in struction is its larger aim. The joy of material and spatial feeling to its desert living receives new zest, new awareness, mesa site. and new perceptions within inspired interior spaces. Parallax Inversions in Space The project of a house is one of Parallax is the dynamic change of spatial architecture’s immediately accessible volumes due to the moving position of the doors to the poetic language of space. body as it experiences space. The house In the present is its daily zeal, a container is not an object; it is exper­ienced in a for the day’s light from the pale yellow dynamic relationship with the terrain, the of dawn to the deep blue of twilight. The angle of approach, the sky, and light, house is a box for the existential objects with focus on internal axes of movement. of life. It is a vessel for the imagination, The change in the arrangement of surfaces for laughter and emotion and a silent place defining space due to the change for the poetic, a room of reverie. in position of a viewer is the essence of parallax. Spatial definition is ordered Anchoring by angles of percep­tion. The idea Today we must reinvent Anchoring— of a facade is too limiting. The angle new communications, new global views, of movement, organized by the path, new technologies, changing spaces—and forces a spatial definition with the body are forced to make even more critical engaging the stationary building. This the concept. line of movement engages the other dynamic forces of sun and shadow Architecture is bound to situation. and the reflectivity or transparency of Unlike music, painting, sculpture, materials. When we pass into or through film and literature, a construction a small building, the exhilaration of (non-mobile) is intertwined with interior perspectives open up, close, shift, the experience of a place. The site and open up again. Even in a small house of a building is more than a mere we can experience an exhilaration of ingredient in this conception. It is its overlapping perspectives while interlocked physical and metaphysical foundation. in a web of relationships with movement, The resolution of the functional parallax, and light. aspects of site and building, the

16 House: Black Swan Theory

vistas, sun angles, circulation, and with events of history and myth. Today access are the basic “physics” the link between site and architecture that demand the “metaphysics” of must be found in new ways, which are architecture. Through a link, an part of a constructive transformation extended motive, a building is more in modern life.9 than something merely fashioned for the site. Anchoring; the criticality of this concept Building transcends physical has become even more evident as and functional requirements by architects continue to work internationally. fusing with a place, by gathering the Currently we focus on works under meaning of a situation. Architecture construction in Beijing, Nanjing, and does not so much intrude on in Shenzhen (China). With further work a landscape as it serves to explain going on in Copenhagen and Herning it. Illumination of a site is not a (Denmark), Biarritz (France), Beirut simplistic replication of its “context”; (Lebanon), and at Lake Garda (Italy), to reveal an aspect of a place may along with several sites in the United not confirm its “appearance.” Hence States. Anchoring a work of architecture the habitual ways of seeing may to its site in this world, the specific well be interrupted. climate, culture, and immediate site Architecture and site should history becomes an urgent argument. have an experiential connection, Any architect caught up with the a metaphysical link, a poetic link. current speed and globalization of When a work of architecture today’s architecture realizes that this is successfully fuses a building and an unprecedented time in the history of situation, a third condition emerges. architecture: requiring an unprecedented In this third entity denotation and philosophical commitment. connotation merge; expression Unless an architect is willing to is linked to idea, which is joined to depreciate his or her works by recycling site. The suggestive and implicit are designs regardless of site, culture, manifold aspects of an intention. and circumstance, the challenge of A building has one site. In this extremely diverse lands, cultures, and one situation, its intentions are climates and their urban conditions collected. Building and site have set unparalleled obligations for been interdependent since the architecture today. Reflected in the beginning of architecture. In the past collection of these diverse houses, this connection was manifest without a theory reversing specific to universal— conscious intention through the a black swan theory—suggests an use of local materials and craft and aim for larger, more complex building by an association of the landscape types. A twenty-first century position

17 that strives to reframe the inherited 1. Francis Ponge, 6. Junichiro Tanizaki, In dualism of the last century’s suffixes might Selected Poems, Praise of Shadows (New ed. Margaret Guiton Haven, Conn.: Leete’s spark a paradigm shift toward a new (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Island Books, 1977), 21. focus on architecture’s potential to shape Wake Forest University experience, interrelating body, brain, Press, 1994), 12. 7. Matila Ghyka, The Geometry of Art and Life and world. 2. Nicolas Pople, (New York: Sheed and Experimental Houses Ward, 1946), 124–55. (London: Calman & King, Ltd., 2002), 199. 8. Theodore Cook, The Curves of Life: Being 3. Carole Rifkind, A Field an Account of Spiral Guide to Contemporary Formations and Their Architecture (New York: Application to Growth in Plume Books, 1998), 50. Nature, to Science and to Art: with Special Reference 4. Steven Holl, Anchoring to the Manuscripts of (New York: Princeton Leonardo da Vinci (New Architectural Press, York: H. Holt, 1914), 88. 1988), 12. 9. Steven Holl, 5. M. G. J. Minnaert, Light Anchoring, 9. and Colour in the Open Air, trans. H. M. Krenner- Priest (London: G. Bell and Sons Ltd., 1959), vi.

18 House: Black Swan Theory

19

The Swiss Residence

This scheme placed first in the competition of ten Swiss-American teams’ designs for the replacement of the Washington, D.C., residence of the Swiss Ambassador. It is not only a private house but also a cultural gathering place on which the standards and self-image of a country are measured. Sited on a hill with a direct view through the trees to the Washington Monument in the distance, a diagonal line of overlapping spaces drawn through a cruciform courtyard plan was the conceptual starting point. Official arrival spaces and ceremony spaces are connected along this diagonal line on the first level, while private living functions are on the level above. Materials are charcoal-colored concrete trimmed in local slate and sand- blasted structural glass planks. Constructed according to Swiss “Minergie Standard,” the south facades use passive solar energy. The roof is sedum green. The existing natural landscape is clarified with new trees, while the plateau of the residence defines an arrival square, a reception courtyard, and an Site plan 100'

0© 25©50© herb garden in an urban precinct. ft 0510 15 20 25 50 m

opposite Entrance court right View of Washington Monument

23 top Charcoal-stained concrete and white grass: a memory of the ice and snow against rock in the Swiss Alps bottom Model opposite A lake-like pool within the courtyard

24 The Swiss Residence

25 M1

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right Diagonal cuts through overlapping orthogonal spaces opposite, top Main entry hall opposite, bottom Stairway to ambas­ sador’s private space and guest rooms

26 0' 10' The Swiss Residence

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Second-floor plan

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2 2 1 Main entrance hall 5 2 Dining and recreation 3 Service 6 4 Herb garden 2 5 Reception terrace 6 Reflecting pool 7 Caretaker house 8 Private quarter 9 Guests First-floor plan 20' 10 Staff

0' 10' 27 above Green sedum roof right View of entry from living level opposite Reflecting pond

28 29

Stretto House

Situated adjacent to spring-fed ponds similar to the inversions of the subject in served by existing concrete dams, the the first movement of the Bartók score. Stretto House projects the character of In the main house aqueous space is the site in a series of concrete block developed by several means: floor planes spatial dams with a metal-framed aqueous pull the level of one space through to the space flowing through them. Flowing over next, roof planes pull space over walls, the dams, like the overlapping stretti in and an arched wall pulls light down from music, water is an overlapping reflection a skylight. Materials and details continue of the space of the landscape outside the spatial concepts in poured concrete, as well as the virtual overlapping of the glass cast in fluid shapes, slumped glass, spaces inside. and liquid terrazzo. The form of the house parallels a Arriving at the space via a driveway particular score rich in stretti: Bartók’s bridging over the stream, a visitor passes Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste. through the overlapping spaces of the In four movements, the piece divides house, glimpsing the flanking gardens distinctly between heavy (percussion) and arriving at an empty room flooded and light (strings). Where music by the existing pond. The room, doubling has a materiality in instrumentation its space in reflection and opening both and sound, this architecture attempts to the site and the house, becomes a similar relationship: the asymmetrical center of two sequences of aqueous space and is the connecting material × sound material × light point between the literal aqueous space— = time space the pools of water outside the house— and the philosophical aqueous space. The building is formed in four sections, each consisting of two modes: heavy orthogonal masonry and light curvilinear metal. The concrete block and metal recall Site plan 50' Texas vernacular. While the plan is purely orthogonal, the section is curvilinear. The guest house inverts this scheme with a curvilinear plan and orthogonal section,

right Early concept sketch opposite The flooded room reflected in the existing pond

31 above Models opposite The prefabricated magnetic induction- pipe structure gives the roof its shape.

32 Stretto House

33 above Axonometric of curved roofs, linear steel windows, and concrete block spatial dams opposite Ramp to terrace over the flooded room

34 Stretto House

35 36 Stretto House

left Melting ice fountain at entry right Existing pond opposite Reflections on ceiling of flooded room

37 1 Garage 2 Entry 12 15 3 Living room 4 Art storage room 5 Library 6 Study 11 7 Dining room 8 Breakfast area 9 Kitchen 10 Walled garden 11 Pool 15 12 Flooded room 13 Bedroom 14 Sitting room 14 15 Roof terrace 8 9 10 7 6 13

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opposite Fluid terrazzo floor pours through

38 39 40 Stretto House

above Bronze entry handle on reddened brass door opposite Entry hall and living room

41 left Curved window in library right Guest house opposite The flooded room

42 43

Writing With Light House

The concept of this linear wooden beach house evolved from the inspiration of the site’s close proximity to the studio of the painter Jackson Pollock. Several free-form designs were made based on the 1949 painting There Were Seven in Eight. Opening up the interior to the free expanse of the bay and the north view of the Atlantic Ocean required closing the south side for privacy from the street. The final scheme brackets the internal energy into an open frame, which the sun shines through in projecting lines. The strips of white light inscribe and seasonally bend internal spaces dynamically with the cycle of the day. The wooden balloon frame construction is comparable to the strip- Site plan 20' 20 wood sand dune fencing along the ocean. Several guest rooms swirl around the double-level living room from which one ascends to a pool suspended over the garage. From this upper pool court, the distant ocean is visible.

right Early concept sketches opposite Pool court over garage visible through cedar slats

45 top View from the bay bottom Model opposite Stairway to swimming pool deck

46 Writing With Light House

47 right Stairway to bedrooms

opposite, right Strips of sunlight move throughout the day.

48 Writing With Light House

1 Entry 2 Living 3 Kitchen 10 4 Dining 5 Library 6 Guest 1 8 7 Garage 8 Master bedroom 9 Guest 2 10 Guest 3

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Second-floor plan

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49 above and right Views of arrival alcove opposite, right Views from dining room with double-fronted fireplace; concrete floor the color of wet sand

50 Writing With Light House

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1 Basement 2 Utility room 3 Library beyond 4 Living 5 Kitchen 6 Kitchen porch 7 Guest 3 beyond 8 Master bath 9 Pool porch 10 Basement 11 Library 12 Living 13 Guest 3 14 Guest 4

51 52 Writing With Light House

above View from pool deck opposite Screened porch at kitchen

53 above, left Ocean at distant east horizon above, right, and opposite Entry elevation screens interior for privacy from Flying Point Road

54 Writing With Light House

55

Oceanic Retreat

The site on the northwest prow of Kauai’i, Hawaii, prone to extremely strong winds, is on the leading edge of a tectonic Pacific Ocean plate which has moved across a volcanic hot spot at a constant rate of 3.5 inches per year. An imaginary datum, parallel to the horizon, strikes the mass of the concrete house, which is then carved out below for the best views and flow of space. Like two continents separated by tectonic shift, the imaginary erosion forms two L-shaped forms, one a guest house. The crenellated section of the large room in the main house is in increments of 3.5 inches (one year/ one step). Roofs of the stained-concrete structures are covered in photovoltaic solar panels, which reverse meter into the Kauai’i power grid. The lap pool courtyard terracing is built of volcanic stone from near the site. After the horizontal datum, space is like water; the plan and section contains, drops, embanks, and then releases the space down the curvilinear path through the natural gardens and finally to the ocean.

top Map of Hawaiian Islands showing volcanic hot spots (red dots) and direction of tectonic plate movement bottom Concept sketch opposite View from Ocean Beach, Kauai’i

57 right Site plan with Ocean Beach opposite Guest and main houses envelop a courtyard Site plan 20'

OOR

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OW L

0 10 20' 58 Oceanic Retreat

59 right and opposite, top Moss green stained- concrete structure exposed opposite, right Concept sketch

60 Oceanic Retreat

South–north section 20' 0 10 20 SOUTH NORTH SECTION

61 1 Lap pool 2 Dining 1 3 Studio 4 Guest 5 Living 2 6 Kitchen 7 Guest 3 8 Yoga

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Second-floor plan

7 1 6 5

7 8

First-floor plan 20'

0 10 20' LOWERFL OOR

opposite Pacific horizon view; solar cells cover roof of house and guest house

62 Oceanic Retreat

0 10 20' LOWERFL OOR

63

Porosity House

The physics of light is evident in nine in all. They are screened outdoor Highway shadows. The boundary between light rooms furnished in wicker. The wood and shadow—usually the gray area frame structure is sheathed in white- of “penumbra”—is filled with the mysteries stained cedar boards complemented of the mathematics of light. Arguments by water jet–cut marine plywood, also for the fusion of architecture, urbanism, stained white. These porous water and landscape can be reinforced jet–cut walls provide the armature to with a testament for the fusion of spirit hold screens for the porches. Along and matter as well as fusion of light the highway edge an 18-inch-wide with form, shade, and shadow. Natural sound-absorbing fence is constructed light and shadow have the psychological in a similar white porous material. power to inspire and encourage. The speed of shadow is vibrant. When the seasonal change of the sun angle is multiplied by variations from sunrise to sunset, porosity, when fused with light, attains choreographic phenomena. This Long Island, New York site— adjacent to the busy road connecting Watermill and the Hamptons—embraces the concept of porosity. For this two-family weekend retreat, a central inner pool courtyard is the point of focus. Protected from highway sound and catching Site plan 0 50' 20' south sun, this courtyard is like a little urban precinct. Existing large trees are to be saved via cut-outs in the plan. Each elevation is developed in screened outdoor porches that were specially requested by the owner. Every sleeping room has an adjacent large porch, totaling

right Concept sketch opposite Pool court

65 1 Entry 2 Reception 9 9 9 3 Dining 7 7 9 4 Living 5 Kitchen 6 Breakfast 7 Bedroom 7 9 8 Maid area 9 Porch

Second-floor plan

8 9 7 9 9 1 9 5 4 2

6 3

First-floor plan

Section 20'

0 20' ROOF PLAN opposite

South facade, 0 120' ENTRROOFY PLAN porosity detail, and 2 RECEPTION soundproof wall 13 ENTRDININGY 24 RECEPTIOLIVING N 35 DININGKITCHEN 46 BREAKFASTLIVING 6657 BEDROOKITCHENM 86 GUESTBREAKFAST 97 BEDROOPORCH M 8 GUEST 9 PORCH

Porosity House

67

Sun Slice House

This weekend house on Lake Garda for an Italian lighting company owner and his family is organized to frame slices of sunlight. While the owner’s profession revolves around artificial light, slices of natural light and their change in space throughout the day and year is the focus of the house. While south elevations are simple rectangles strategically sliced and cut for the play of light within, the north facade is made entirely of glass with views of Lake Garda. In order to emphasize the bends and changes in the strips of sunlight, simple cubic volumes form the basic building Site location with Lake Garda geometry. These are loosely joined in topological sheet rubber–like geometry, which also inscribes wind-protected courts on both sides of the house. Changes of season and weather allow different courtyard opportunities. The steel frame and concrete struc­ ture is skinned with an alloy of copper, steel, chromium, and nickel, which weathers to a leathery red color. Interiors are white plaster with terrazzo floors on the ground level while bamboo floors cover the second. Natural ventilation and geothermal heating and cooling are part of the energy plan.

right Concept watercolors opposite View with Lake Garda in distance

69 6

7

6

8

Second-floor plan

3

1 5

2

4

First-floor plan

9

1 Entry 2 Kitchen 3 Dining 4 Studio 10 5 Living 11 6 Bedroom 7 Master bedroom 8 Master bathroom 9 Garage 10 Storage 11 Technical space Basement plan 5'

70 Sun Slice House

above Model studies of sun slice movement opposite Model studies of exterior

71 4 5

3 1

6

East–west section

4 5

2

1

6

South–east section 2'

1 Entry 2 Studio 3 Living 4 Master bedroom 5 Bathroom 6 Garage

above Exterior studies opposite Facade detail with sliding sunlight

72 Sun Slice House

73

Y House

On a hilltop site of eleven acres with a Steel framing and steel roof panoramic view to the Catskill Mountains are iron-oxide red, siding is red-stained toward the south, the Y House continues cedar, while interiors are white with PROPERTY LINE the ascent of the hill thrust into balconies ash floors. splitting into a “Y.” The slow passing of time from early morning to sunset is to be a primary experience in the house as different areas become activated with the movement of the sun. The geom­ etry allows sun and shadows to “chase still time.” The Y, like a found forked stick, makes a primitive mark on the vast site extending its view in several directions. The geometry of the Y contains a sectional flip of public/private or day/night zones. On the north half, the day zone is above Site plan 100' and night zone below while the south half is reversed. All of these are joined in section by a central Y ramp. The house occupies the hill and site through three primary relationships: in the ground, on the ground, and over the ground. The portion over the ground is suspended, cantilevered above the portion in the ground, which opens to a stone court. Various slopes of the metal roof channel rainwater to a single water cistern to the north of the house. A passive solar collection of winter sun occurs through the south glazing, protected from summer sun by its deep porches.

right Concept sketches opposite Branching form from one-story entry

75 1 Living room 2 Master bedroom 3 Lower foyer 4 Foyer 5 Bedroom 6 Dining room 7 Veranda 8 Reflecting pool

Roof plan

0510'

1

2

Second-floor plan

0510'

7 5 3

8 5

4 opposite, top left Catskill barn–red stain on cedar siding 6

opposite, top right Kitchen porch below bedroom porch

opposite, bottom Study models First-floor plan 10'

0510'

76 Y House

77 right Living-room porch over bedroom terrace opposite Y space catches the sun

78 Y House

79 right Double door entry opposite Y ramp to living room

80 81 82 Y House

1

4 4 5 3

Section Section

2 1

6 6 5 3

7 7

Section 10' Section 0510'

1 Living room 2 Master bedroom 3 Lower foyer 4 Foyer 5 Bedroom 6 Dining room 7 Basement

opposite Kitchen and Y stair

83 right View to Catskills opposite, left Rain scupper opposite, right Folded windows

84 Y House

85 right Bent-glass corner opposite South elevation

86 87

Planar House

Sited in Paradise Valley with a direct vista to Camelback Mountain, this house is to be a part of, and vessel for, a large contemporary art collection. Great twentieth-century works by Bruce Nauman, Robert Ryman, and Jannis Kounellis are part of the collection, which includes important video artworks. Constructed of tilt-up concrete, the nature of the walls merges with the simple orthogonal requirements of the interiors for art. Light and air chimneys connected to cooling pools articulate the planar geometry. From a courtyard experienced at the entry sequence, a ramp leads to a rooftop sculpture garden—a place of silence and reflection. Site plan 50'

right Concept sketches opposite Ramp from pool court to rooftop

89 above, left North facade above, right Main entry at courtyard opposite South porch

90 Planar House

91 above Sun screen of laser-cut steel at entry opposite Main entry door

92 Planar House

10 2 9 1 11 5 3 13 6 14 12 8 7 15 4

First-floor plan

18

16

17

Roof plan 22' GROUND FLOOR PLAN

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

1 Living 2 Kitchen 3 Dining 4 Study 5 Gallery 6 Entry 7 Library 8 Outdoor court 9 Bedroom 10 Bathroom 11 Cool pool 12 Garage 13 Camelback porch 14 Pool court 15 Lap pool 16 Ramp to sculpture terrace 17 Sculpture terrace 18 Terrace

93 right Interior at entry

opposite, clockwise from top left Main exhibition space, cool pools, kitchen cabinet detail, door handle, library

94 Planar House

95 right Ramp to roof opposite Pool court following spread Porous light

96 97 98 99

House at Martha’s Vineyard

The site is a hill overlooking the Atlantic inside and out, meets the undisturbed Ocean as it meets the Vineyard Sound. sand dune on point foundations rather A strict planning code determines than the more common perimeter that the house must be set back from footing. The house is clad in a natural the marshland as well as from a no-build weathered gray wood. Roofing is zone on a hill and that it should have composed of a rubber membrane a one-story elevation when viewed from unrolled over the frame, analogous to the beach. the skins over the whale skeleton. In the locally inspired novel Moby Dick, Herman Melville describes an Indian tribe that made a unique type of dwelling on the island. Finding a beached whale skeleton, they would pull it up to dry land and stretch skins or bark over it, transforming it into a house. Elevated over the undisturbed natural landscape, the house is like an inside- out balloon-frame structure: the wooden “bones” of the frame carry an encircling veranda, which affords continuous ocean views. Along this porch, wood members receive the natural vines of the island, which transform the straight linear mode of the architecture. The plan is a simple set of rooms set perpendicular to the view within Atlantic Ocean the setback lines of the site. Beginning with a mud and recreation room off the Site plan 100' entry, there are two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a dining room in a protective bay. The living room drops down according to the site. The structural frame, exposed

right Original concept sketch with Melville stamp opposite Gravel foot path approach

101 2

Second-floor plan

5 1 4 2 2 2

3

First-floor plan 10'

1 Entry 2 Bedroom 3 Dining room 4 Living 5 Kitchen

Section

above Skeleton shadows

opposite West facade Section 10'

102 House at Martha’s Vineyard

103 top Planar glass lamp bottom Concept sketch right Kitchen stove cut into fireplace opposite View into dining room

104 105

Implosion Villa

Sited on the edge of a canal, the villa is part of a group of eight villas by eight different architects. Rather than emphasize the house as an object, the courtyards are proposed to maximize the outdoor areas in a variety of spaces. The Implosion Villa is an inversion of the modern courtyard house type, one in which interior space is thrust outward by large panes of glass and walls that continue with the same material into the garden. In this villa, courtyard space implodes: exterior spaces are pulled inward, making fissures into the body of the building. The fissures are warped counter-clockwise into the body of the house beginning at the entrance court. The counter-clockwise rotation of four courtyards picks up the clockwise Site plan 50' rotation of the sun over and around the building, maximizing reflected light. The muted colors of the stained exterior brick are projected by the sun through the fissures into an interior of white plaster and white woodwork. Windows of bent glass chart the inward sucking N of space in detail. Rubber floors and high-gloss white ceilings draw the outside light in reflection.

right Concept sketch opposite Courtyard opens to canal edge

107 7

1 Water court 2 Studio 8 3 Utility 4 Entry court 9 5 Entry 6 6 Kitchen 5 7 Kitchen court 8 Garden 9 Dining room 1 10 Garden 11 Living room

10 4

11

First-floor plan

1

2 3 opposite Implosion within walls Lower-level plan 5' 1M

108 Implosion Villa

109

Little Tesseract

A hollow charcoal cube is warped by distorting forces opening a triangle of light from above. This cubic wooden structure is linked by an exoskeletal steel “L” to an existing stone “U.” The link, like a porch, is a temperate zone with operable glass. From the central room of the stone U, one moves down a slight ramp in the steel L; space then overlaps diagonally, connecting upward toward the triangle of light. This central spatial connection fuses outwardly contrasting materials. A solar-stack wall in structural glass planks heats the cube in winter and cools via stack effect in summer. PV cells assist the electrical expenditure. Steel windows slice through the dark stucco on steel plate blades, forming special viewing frames from the interior with unified white plaster heads/jambs/sills.

Site plan 50'

right Concept sketch showing winning entry for Cornell School of Architecture as compared to Little Tesseract House opposite The new facade of the three-part building

111 right View from west opposite, left View from pond opposite, right Steel L and Black Tesseract cube

112 Little Tesseract

113 top Model: Stone U, Steel L, Black Tesseract cube bottom Concept sketch right Steel blade–extruded windows

114 Little Tesseract

1 Studio 2 Bedroom 3 Dining 4 Solar-stack wall 5 Cooling pond 6 Existing stone U

1

4

6 Second-floor plan

2

3 5

6

First-floor plan 5'

115

1. STUDIO 1.2. STUDIO BEDROOM 10 20 2.3. BEDROOM DINING ROOM 10 20 3.4. DINING SOLAR STROOMACK WALL 4.5. SOLAR COOLING STAC PAKD WALL 5.6. CO EXISTINGOLING PASTDONE HOUSE 6. EXISTING STONE HOUSE left View from dining room right Existing trees preserved opposite Stairway to painting studio

116 117 left Steel channel 3½ × 3½–inch steel tube structure opposite Solar-stack wall and cooling pond

118 Little Tesseract

119

Nail Collector’s House

Overlooking the expanse of Lake Champlain in the nineteenth-century town of Essex, New York, this 1,200-square- foot (111-square-meter) house for a writer is sited on a former nail factory’s foundation. The owner has a collection of antique square-head nails gathered over the years on this site. Windows in the house correspond to the twenty-four chapters of Homer’s Odyssey and are organized to project “fingers of light” into the interior volume. The main northeast wall has fourteen windows; the southeast and southwest walls contain five windows; and the northwest wall is blank. The largely open interior ascends counter-clockwise through a series of spaces pierced by the light of the Site plan windows. A “prow” thrust toward Lake Champlain completes this upward spiral of space. White plaster walls, hickory floors, and “cartridge brass” siding nailed in pattern over a wood frame create a tactile weathering for this structure, a poetic reinterpretation of the industrial history of the site and the pre–Civil War architecture of Essex.

right Watercolor concept drawing opposite Sheathing of cartridge brass with exposed walls

121 above Model right Pivoting front door opposite Autumn leaves and cartridge-brass skin

122 123 1 Entry 2 Living 3 Kitchen 4 Studio 5 Loft

5

Loft-level plan Roof plan

3 4

2

1

First-floor plan 8' Studio-level plan

opposite 1 ENTRY View from the top of the 2 LIVING spiral of platforms 3 KI1 TCENTRHENY 048 16 4 S2TUDIO LIVING PLAN NORTH 5 L3OFT KITCHEN 124 048 16 4 STUDIO PLAN NORTH 5 LOFT 125 1 Entry 2 Living 3 Kitchen 4 Library 5 Loft 5

1

SECTION LOOKING SOUTH SECTION LOOKING WEST South section 048 16

LEGEND 1 ENTRY 2 LIVING 3 KITCHEN 4 BATH 5 LIBRARY 6 STUDIO 5 7 LOFT

4

above Hinged walls open all rooms 3 2 opposite Vertical library along stairway following spread View from LakeSECTION LOOKING SOUTH SECTION LOOKING WEST Champlain West section 8' 048 16

LEGEND 1 ENTRY 126 2 LIVING 3 KITCHEN 4 BATH 5 LIBRARY 6 STUDIO 7 LOFT A Nail Collector’s House

127 128 A Nail Collector’s House

129

Turbulence House

Adjacent to adobe courtyard houses built by the artist Richard Tuttle and the poet Mei Mei Berssenbrugge, this small construction is sited atop a windy desert mesa. The artist’s friend Kiki Smith calls it a “brooch pinned to the mesa.” Its form, imagined like the tip of an iceberg indicating a much larger form below, allows turbulent wind to blow through the center. The house was produced in thirty- two prefabricated parts for two locations simultaneously—one for the artist couple in Abiquiu, New Mexico, and one for an Italian entrepreneur who owns a sculpture park in Italy.* The interior of the Abiquiu house is finished according to local needs and specificities. The second Turbulence House, made for an exhibition in Vicenza, Italy, was construc­ ted temporarily inside the Basilica Palladiana and then moved permanently to a private sculpture park in Schio, Italy. The majority of the construction documents were generated electronically through three-dimensional computer- aided-design software. The combination of prefabricated structures, skin, and local Site plan 200' interior finishes yields a hybrid technique with connections to the specific sites. 050 100 200 400 NORTH

*This was our second prefabricated house design, the first, was the Z house for Millbrook NY, 1992.

right Concept watercolor opposite View at mesa entrance road

131 F E D C B A

Exhibition plan 25'

01 510 FEET top, right Construction with prefabricated panels bottom, right Moving the Turbulence House into the Basilica Palladiana opposite, top Model with roof sloped for optimum solar panel angle opposite, bottom Thirty-two prefab­ ricated panels merge structure and skin (by Zahner metals, Kansas City)

132 Turbulence House

133 right Stairway to writing loft and bedroom opposite View to east horizon (furniture by Richard Tuttle)

134 135 1 Sleeping loft and bath 2 Open to below 3 Study 4 Kitchen 5 Dining 1 2 6 Living 7 Storage

2

3

Second-floor plan

01 510 FEET SECOND FLOOR PLAN FIRST FLOOR PLAN 01 510 FEET

4 5 6

7

above and opposite Kitchen prefabricated in Austin, Texas First-floor plan 5'

01 510 FEET SECOND FLOOR PLAN FIRST FLOOR PLAN 01 510 FEET

136 Turbulence House

137 right Kitchen, stairway, shower

138 Turbulence House

1 2 3

4 5 6 4 7 8

Section Section

3 2

8 7 4

Section 5' 0 1 5 10 FEET

0 1 5 10 FEET

1 Sleeping loft beyond 2 Sleeping loft 3 Study 4 Kitchen 5 Dining 6 Living 7 Open breezeway 8 Storage

139 right Writing loft, hand plaster work and round edges by local New Mexico craftsmen. opposite The desert mesa

140 141 right Turbulence wind portal opposite Werner Heisenberg on his deathbed asked God, “Why relativity? And why turbulence?” God, Heisenberg guessed, would only be able to answer the first question.

142 Turbulence House

143

Tower of Silence

Sited next to three 150-foot-tall Douglas fir trees, which form a vertical, cathedral-

like void, this wood-frame studio for Tower painting and writing is sheathed in local natural cedar boards. The 16-square-foot plan is stacked in two rooms of 256 square feet each. The cantilevered porch faces east with Puget Sound, Blake Island, and

Seattle in the distance. 30 Existing 1920 Cabin 1920 Existing Existing 1974 House 1974 Existing

Site plan 30'

right Sketch opposite Corner opens to 150-foot-tall Douglas fir trees

145 right Douglas firs beyond cedar tower with a redwood tree at north facade opposite, left Porch opposite, right Staircase

146 Tower of Silence

First-floor plan 5'

01 5 FEET 147 above Built by one carpenter in 1996 for a total cost of $17,000 opposite A geometry of two stacked cubes; all wooden construction

148 149

Round Lake Hut

Creative and imaginative work begins in the solitude of the connection of the mind/eye/hand. This solitary room with a table and a chair is a functional drawing studio. The wood-framed, 80-square-foot space, sits on four legs at the edge of Round Lake. The north and south elevations are glass in cedar frames. The sides are black tar paper with wooden battens. There is a one-by-four- foot window at the floor facing east toward the sunrise. There is no plumbing, no electricity, and no insulation.

Site plan 50' 010525 0

right Round Lake, a 10,000- year-old spring-fed body of water, is the focus of the hut. opposite South view

151 Section

01 5'

Plan 5'

01 5'

right Interior view opposite East-facing window at level of pine board floor

152 153

157 Deceleration: A Collapse of Plastic Space

by Michael Bell The essay “Out of Time and Into Space” Hedjuk fabricated his connections to by John Hejduk was first published in the Le Corbusier through writing and journal Cable in 1969.1 It was reprinted and to explore the similarity in how Holl also surely more widely read in the context of builds his work in and through writing Hejduk’s own compendium of architecture, even as he prolifically builds in the literal poems, writing, and interviews—Mask of sense of practice. Medusa—published in 1985.2 Like most of It is possible to ask if Hejduk would Hejduk’s writing, it was partly influenced have pursued an analysis of Le Corbusier’s by an unfolding of space(s)—either work to the depths that he did if it architectural or literary. In some sense had not unlocked some aspects of his Hejduk’s entire career was played out in own architectural production, and this way—the thesis of one Hejduk project similar questions apply to the references was made possible only by the realization provided by Steven Holl in this book. of space in the project that preceded it. Holl’s references to material, site, color, Conditions were set that once understood and ultimately to duration, time, and could be made newly malleable or more space (in architecture). In the context of poignantly difficult, tenuous, and at times this book of houses designed by Holl, ineffable. The essay “Out of Time and it is not a surprise to refer to Hejduk as a Into Space” did stand on its own as foundational figure—a component of Holl’s a ground-breaking interpretation of the work—and indeed the aspects of work work of its subject—Le Corbusier and his on volume, mass, and space that Carpenter Center at Harvard University— have always driven Holl’s work make but the essay never assumed a status him somewhat singular in the degree to equal to Robert Slutzky or Colin Rowe’s which he, like Hejduk, does still cultivate writing on Le Corbusier even though and recast themes that were central it observed and delivered as profound a in the work of Le Corbusier. Yet well into reading of space, and in particular Cubist an era when new means of fabricating space in architecture. The essay did, architecture that were not available however, serve as a key to understanding to Le Corbusier—a range of dynamic Hejduk’s work by way of Le Corbusier; media systems, semiotic and linguistic it signaled a break in understanding what controls now half a century past the potentials might be possible if you entered Carpenter Center, modes of space based Hejduk’s work through a re-reading in the organizations of attention, rather of Le Corbusier or vice-versa. The same than the use of literal volume or mass— trajectory today leads from Hejduk’s all of these modes of space in some work into that of Steven Holl. While the sense have superceded architecture’s connections Hejduk made to Le Corbusier deep history of work on mass and volume. apply directly to Holl as well, it is Yet Holl, like Hejduk before him, to a perhaps as important to examine how surprising degree does still base his work

158 in concepts that can be directly linked these circumstances a palpable sense back to Le Corbusier; Hejduk’s essay on of acceleration and deceleration— Le Corbusier, however, did add a powerful these forms are products of motion and shift in what might have evolved from the gradients of speed and change. For Carpenter Center’s achievements, and it the twenty years prior to the Carpenter seems to have almost not registered on the Center’s emergence, Cubist concepts map of our collective architectural itinerary of simultaneity, implied and literal diagonal even as it deeply affected the work of tensions, and conflations of central Hejduk and arguably Holl. Both architects and peripheral generative energies— have in some ways not fully claimed the the core material of Cubist spatial breakthroughs they have made—masking techniques—had been explored widely them in language that allows concepts to in architecture and also explicated by be lodged but not fully understood. Rowe and Slutzky in the context of their Hejduk’s analysis of the Carpenter Perspecta essays on transparency. Center began with what one could see as The techniques were and are well expected readings of the Carpenter known, and this has perhaps short Center as a Cubist work of architecture. circuited or hindered a closer reading of Its volumes, spaces, and centrifugal Hejduk’s essay and his findings, but more mass—and in particular the temporal so what invention is still to be found organization of the entry procession in the connections to and departures from (its promenade) stands as the passage Cubism? Did Hejduk writing about of time that suggests a somewhat clear Le Corbusier seem too familiar in 1969 evolution of Cubism in architecture. and again in 1985? In this regard you could Similar paradigms had proliferated misread Hejduk as a Cubist architect who in architectures related to Cubism and was directly relying on Le Corbusier’s Le Corbusier’s own production, of course, Cubism. Holl, too, can be easily misread and Hejduk had crafted architectural in terms he supplies to the reader; is Holl exercises designed around Cubist painting a phenomenological architect relying in the core studios at Cooper Union; on a combination of typology as memory indeed a famous photograph of Hejduk device, and point/line/plane as the the professor showed him holding a book means of extending volume and mass— of Juan Gris’s work. Holl’s work to date to extend perception as form of parallax? has also been consistently staged The messages of both architects are in Cubist techniques: see the imploding far more complex than the antecedent facets of the Turbulence House, the references foster—Hejduk attempted to in-folding surfaces of the Implosion unfold a reading of the Carpenter Center Villa, or the un-framed reflected images as a corollary to his own intentions. It in the projected glass of the Little was not an illustration of technique or a Tesseract House. Holl adds to each of spatial/historical foundation, but instead a

159 polemic; one which was presented architects. The linking occurs by way of as a form of spatial crisis that seemed the house’s program—and by way of space to be unheeded despite the obvious understood in the context of a home. reverence paid to Hejduk. Holl and Hejduk “Out of Time and Into Space” intersect sometime around the date concludes with the incantation of a of 1985 in the literal context of New York potential new space that could be said City: “Out of Time and Into Space” is to emerge as a form of after-effect a juncture that when republished in of Cubism pushed beyond its limits: Mask of Medusa coincides with the first it is a form of space that Hejduk did not prominent work by Steven Holl—the attempt to name but he clearly expressed Metz House and other small works its possible presence. It was a space including the Pool House are completed that was derived not from allowing and presented in relation to theories Le Corbusier’s innovations to stand, but of typology as they are simultaneously instead by suggesting that they might presented as works of spatial abstraction be toppled or better yet plastically (hence Cubism, El Lisitzky’s, etc.) exceeded. Hejduk felt that Le Corbusier based in planar and linear reading of had pushed the Cubism he employed space. Hejduk’s essay on the Carpenter at Carpenter Center to its plastic limits; Center similarly masks the potential he suggested more than stated that it was of what he read in Le Corbusier’s work. possible for a new form of architectural To understand this, look closely at space to emerge at the outer limits of Hejduk’s writing and in particular its the Carpenter Center’s cohesion as a suggestion about a limit, or a threshold, plastic composition. In short the tensions to the boundaries of what constituted and compression of space in the building’s the accepted plastic qualities of Cubism— spatial logic had been pushed beyond and of Cubist space. This is where recoverable limits. In this context is Holl and Hejduk meet conceptually— it possible that much of what John Hejduk the year 1985 and the Manhattan location achieved, and similarly much of what are the ephemeral locations. Their Holl has achieved, is somewhat masked work does not share formal similarity— by suggestions that these are architects or appearances—but in 1985 the who continued work begun within spatial attributes, or more accurately the canon of modern space. That they top the attributes of what can be called began within the modern movement is Metz House a Post-Cubist space—a space that clear; so too are the reflections of Cubism (1980, Staten Island, pushed Cubism to unseen limits (rather as more direct sources—but Hejduk’s New York) than simply ceasing to operate within little-read and thus republished passages bottom Cubist techniques). It is in some ways provide a key to the depth of his goals Walls within Walls (Pool House, 1980, a post-plastic space—one based on and link Hejduk and Holl in a commonly Scarsdale, New York) limits surpassed—and it links these two stated, but I think often misunderstood,

160 Deceleration: A Collapse of Plastic Space

relationship. “The tension and of houses in half a century. Yet Holl works compression, the push-pull may have in ways that are similar to Hejduk, and therapeutic value to the docile,” wrote the comparison brings certain key themes Hejduk about the Carpenter Center, to light. Holl, like Hejduk, has continually but “the question remains, at what provided his reader with a listing of point do the harmonic fluctuations crack his influences; self-provided directions causing dissolution and failure of the offered in a shorthand poetic writing style, spatial organism.”3 Hejduk’s text was they usually are based as part semiotic, testing the limits of the composition’s yet equal, incantations of physics and the Cubist coherence—his analysis described material. Holl’s writing is part description Le Corbusier’s spatial enterprise of building process and materials, as on the brink of dissolution, and with part description of program and use— it the dissolution of a wider and more often based in themes of everyday life catastrophic disintegration of the and use, they also are poignantly generative plasticity of building spaces. existential and as such it is houses that It seems possible, even probable enough have been some of his most successful that such a comparison requires almost works. Holl firmly ties words and concepts no follow up—Holl’s spaces are “soulful,” to material and to space—ultimately as are Hejduk’s. But the comparison to perception and to a user who has often is more accurate than people might been understood as a kind of latter-day realize, and it is in this breaking of plastic humanist subject—someone who is held boundaries that it is more potent and comfortably in the directness of lived most profitable. Here they are related experience. Holl, like Hejduk, seems to as architects, but their work is profoundly strive to create a literary equivalent to the different in application and evolution. actual experience of his built works—here Both have based their most innovative material and space are not only described work on exploring a form of space that but become palpable and take on did not so much alter the course of cubism attributes of weight and mass more than or replace its techniques; instead they sign or signal. In this volume Holl’s text have pushed it to some unresolvable limits is titled “Black Swan Theory”—his writing and built a new architecture and space refers to a wide range of themes and in the aftermath—they have occupied more complex attributes of space that his a form of space and used it as the source phrases strive to condense; the ambitions to build new concepts. of his architecture when printed in It is of course possible to view books are carried in part by photographs, the work of Steven Holl independently— in part by words—always both. as separate from his writing and his In “Black Swan Theory” see his influences and colleagues—no one has terms such as “Porous Light,” “Chromatic built such a deeply independent collection Duration,” “Site: Maximum Compression.”

161 These titles are highly specific and of the expected holes or figure/ground indeed are presented in the book as literal (the shadows) are not distinct or at all experiments and didactic exercises— persistent but instead varied and gradient. yet ultimately if their poetic role as spatial What aspect of modern dialectics remains concepts is to be imagined as much here? Some formal figures to be sure, as actually lived as built works, that forces but the spaces are still new today and as the reader to become the author of the unexplored as they were when Holl first qualities of space that Holl only instigates. began to make his breakthrough works. They beg to be realized in physical space, John Hejduk also offered carefully and they are in his houses—but what, titled spatial themes when his work was for example, is “porous light?” Is it light formally presented and published. Hejduk’s with holes in it? Can light have a hole in it? writing and his spatial references and Holl, in some way it seems, would prefer phrases, like Holl’s, are deeply influential we understand the phenomena more than in their own right; that is, they portend actually witness it in his houses—he qualities of space even without providing has frequently stated he likes ideas more literal examples. In Hejduk’s writing than buildings. In “Black Swan Theory” there are terms that seem to have strong Holl offers a means to play out the parallels to those of Holl. References experiment in Porous Light separate to color by Hejduk suggest a “‘density’ from his houses. He writes: “To see this of pigmentation”; references to space phenomenon, simply hold a perforated offer an image of “harmonic fluctuations” plane immediately in front of a piece and “dissolution.” Hejduk wrote numerous of blank paper then move it farther away times of turning space “inside out.” gradually.” The experiment yields a Hejduk’s spatial ambitions, perhaps gradually softening shadow edge—it is more than his actual architectural works, space, not so much light, that has holes provide insight into Holl’s architectural in it—light forms a hole in the spaces. goals—more so than any other architect. Yet if the space itself is light as we slowly These are works that are derived from realize it is, and it is light forming the an exploration of mass and material after holes then indeed this is porous light it is unframed—after a spatial operation or light with holes in it. The improbable has opened space as it re-densifies matter. but ultimately powerful phrase leads In the houses published here Holl gives to comprehension—slowly. Holl’s space space physical properties, and like Hejduk seems non-plastic—unframed, and in it is a concept of thought made physical Hejduk’s words, dissolute—positive and that often is asked to produce architectural negative volumes are here relieved of their space. In “Black Swan Theory” Holl compositional dialectics and historical writes that “maximum compression of authority—space now has holes in it, architectural thought might yield domestic light is penetrating light, and the edges simplicity.” A house can be the “spatial

162 Deceleration: A Collapse of Plastic Space

representation of an idea” writes Holl— spaces; they recall Cézanne to Braque, his work is intended to be understood as dealing with problems of depth and it is occupied. flatness, but also produce an interior for Though Holl refers to a house as living, a space that is within, or perhaps “vessel,” he sees the vessel as a container more accurately, beside the tensioned within which phenomena yield challenges work of the facades. to the very stability of the enclosed space. Holl has frequently invoked a sense Passages of time leave only the “existential of place and site in his work—and he objects of life.” Holl has written continually has always posited works with the eye, about the need to anchor architecture and the body of a witness; a slowed to site, yet he has continually unfolded presence whose experience dilates space, the spaces he creates and he has remained and is dilated by space—an opening is existential about the project of producing made in an otherwise tight and continuous an interior—of making a house. Holl’s envelope of space. But Holl has also vessels themselves remain (they must continually pushed space to its elastic as architecture) but it is the duration limits—planar spaces that never provide of that life that is the work’s reality; the depth leave the body unescorted (see persistence of material itself under the Planar House and indeed much of transformation is a clue to this ultimate his work with planar space); volumes are goal. His Turbulence House is perhaps the stacked to imply weight but are hollowed most potent example of this to date— out from within to suspend mass but the “domestic simplicity” that remains imply collapse of the volumes that their as the facades fold inward in all directions, emptiness encloses. Rooms are flooded sculpting an exterior torus space that (see the Stretto House) to reveal their passes through the building, is adjacent prior emptiness or our inability to occupy to the massive energy witnessed in the them; bodies are carefully positioned, building facade and mass. More so these but the full occupation of space requires facades exhibit a tendency to both fold constant movement—or an intuition based inward and remain flat—this is not the in duration. ruled surfaces and the smooth transitions Holl’s references to history are of prefabrication or manufactured surfaces less overt, and far fewer than Hejduk’s. often discussed today. Instead this They seem less exacting in terms of building only reluctantly produces interior specificity to the architect, and his book is volumes by way of curvatures that seem less of a compendium than Hejduk’s. He is to prefer flatness; the curves no doubt also less willing to operate exactly from an do produce a full-bodied plastic form but architecturally historical vantage; instead, they do so from a series of striated and I would argue he has resorted to a poetic ribbed surfaces that recall a lineage but intuitively potent form of physics to of flattened and simultaneously curved express his concepts of space.

163 Yet of architects working today it seems Holl’s and to John Hejduk’s work is based that Holl, like Hejduk, would welcome in this pushing past plastic limits; here the stories of Le Corbusier or Mies van spaces can be turned inside out, bodies der Rohe to the debate about his work, as the visible denominator of a presumed and his work persists in operating latter-day humanism (at least in Holl’s at its most experimental at the edge of case) are indeed vividly present here. evolutions that begin still in modern space. But if they are not in crisis, they are Holl leaves clues about his intentions in some troubled yet ecstatic place: Holl in various ways, though; texts that writes that the “internal core of a room often reveal a connection to astronomy is a reverie” in this book. He is suggesting and physics also speak as much to the that at the core of a room’s emptiness everyday. Weight persists in his work as a is a space derived not from the bounding knowable presence, but it is often pushed closure of its walls but from its deep to find its bearing against an unknown but absent source of palpable energy. plateau—he invokes the framed knowledge Holl’s Pool House and the Planar House of material as well as spatial limits— are examples that unfold an idea across Holl deconstructs as well as constructs twenty years—planes that relieve space the verifiability of material. Light folds into as much as momentarily join it. These itself as often it is revealed against a are spaces generated as frames are solid or fixed form in Holl’s work—weight withdrawn, as space is imploding. The that has been alleviated is first shown Hejduk analysis of the Carpenter Center and then removed—these attributes was written at least ten years before are revealed via the slow occupation of Holl’s work emerged in the press— use. As he notes this is uniquely possible and Holl’s early work was formally based in a house and perhaps not so in a public in rural and urban typologies (not the building. Like Hejduk this is an architecture Corbusian syntax of the New York Five)— based in perception—but it is based in but Holl and Hejduk share the closest perception at its limits—perception that consistency in how space is conceived must exceed the location of the body and in a post-Corbusian era. If work by Charles enter the wider space that has no limits. Gwathmey and Peter Eisenman or Michael Hejduk’s text was in some ways an Graves shared the syntax and even unmet challenge—it was the “docile” the semiotic tautology that Manfredo Tafuri that he suggested might find “therapeutic” enunciated in “the Five” it was actually comfort in the reciprocity of push and Holl who more closely shared a concept pull—in the joining of plastic space; but it of space and indeed moved a concept above Pool House was those willing to press the dialectic of space past the historical antecedents of to extremes and past that he invoked but Cubism’s alluvial and viscous presence.4 opposite Wall House, did not quite describe. What were the uses These adjectives refer to the writing of John Hejduk of this space? My own relation to Steven Robert Slutzky; but here they stand in as a

164 Deceleration: A Collapse of Plastic Space

less complex reference to space that is as things shown in the spaces, and ultimately Hejduk stated “harmonic” and witnessed at the literal or imagined extended as fluctuations in a continuous field. Holl’s landscape of internal and external space. work, I would argue, has actually often Here Holl invokes and relies on the done the opposite; it has drained space of immediate to create the extended. Holl its palpable viscosity and instead revealed quoted Emerson early in his career to in space moments of uneasy turbulence— give context to his goals: “the eye never topological turns to space that trouble tires so long as it can see the horizon.”5 comprehension based on easily identified He consistently reaffirms the interiority of frames or clear material physics. In an each work, showing us a city of atomized era where architecture is more frequently lives, interiors, and private stillness— understood as an attribute of larger and yet he also places the comprehension more mobile and virtual forms of power of space into a wider expanded landscape. (i.e., economics) to involve architectural Holl’s horizons are topological even space (as volume and mass) in these as his buildings are often typological. a-plastic moments is difficult, perception Just as likely to derive expansion by way is to reassert architecture’s ability of compression, they are also as likely to speak even against the most troubled to open vistas by closing down vision and circumstances of its own weakness. instead creating material depth. These are My understanding of Hejduk and forms of architectural space that are at Holl’s work was situated at the conflation their core forms of spatial comprehension. of their writing but also against the You do of course occupy the space backdrop of Hejduk’s Diamond and Wall of a Holl building, but it is the means by houses. Mask of Medusa was published which these spaces, like Hejduk’s, portend as Steven Holl’s Pool House (actually extending horizons that gives them deep a form of wall house according to Holl) value. These works provide vision that and the generational aspect of their returns to a late modern subject a relationship was diminished. Hejduk’s work quotient of weight and time that verifies after the Carpenter Center essay was their presence, and also undermines now fully a decided form of post-Cubist the power of commodity procedures as the composition. It was still work that took the predominant organizer of contemporary form of a still life, but it now stood in front space. Hejduk and Holl do recoil from the of the picture plane and the work found “therapeutic”—they do leave the subject its plastic resonance without the easy very much on his own and seeking a new sourcing of a bounding frame. In the case set of social relations, communications of Holl and of Hejduk you found yourself born of the new conditions. continually looking at the periphery of their Certainly a sense of melancholy is in drawings—at the surreal aspects of the this work, but ultimately I think it is a sense drawn trees, the furniture and everyday of weighted and corporeal subjectivity

165 that is implied and realized here—it is, 1. John Hejduk, “Out of 4. Manfredo Tafuri, as Holl writes, a form of reverie. It is Time and Into Space,” “European Graffiti: Five × Cable (1969). Five = Twenty-Five,” the precision of Holl’s formal work and Oppositions 5 (Summer his tectonics that give these spaces their 2. John Hejduk, Mask of 1976): 41. amazing palpability—but, like Hejduk, Medusa: Works 1947– 1983 (New York: Rizzoli 5. Ralph Waldo Emerson, it is Holl’s teaching, his writing, and Press, 1985). “Nature,” in Essays (New the degree to which his architecture York: Westvaco, 1978). 3. Ibid. is the source of his insights that is most of value. This is perhaps what invites the comparison between Holl and Hejduk but ultimately between Holl and Le Corbusier as the ambition of the work is based in the degree to which space and perception are capable of carrying tremendous ambitions for social life. It is the concept of space that precedes all work—written or architectural. It is the effect of space and the means by which it is ultimately perceived if not born of a perceiving subject. In the end this means that architecture instigates changes in perception, but that perception then changes the intuited limits of space— we exit the expected boundaries of time— and enter space. It is both harrowing and thrilling, but it is ultimately the only possibility after the limits of the harmonic fluctuation have been passed—we are no longer able to be docile. The normal attributes of a still life are here infused with properties of acceleration and deceleration as limits are approached. Hesitancy sustains a pause for fear of elastic limits passed, and finally boundaries are irrecoverably crossed. A center is voided; a new terrain opens at the former outer edge of space opposite Golden section and, as Holl has so often written, a place detail is revealed.

166 Deceleration: A Collapse of Plastic Space

167 Project Credits

The Swiss Residence Stretto House Writing With Light House 2001–2006 1989–1991 2001–2004

location location location Washington, D.C., USA Dallas, Texas, USA Long Island, New York, USA program program program residence including living spaces private residence private residence for ambassador, staff quarters, and client client representational spaces withheld withheld client design architect design architect Swiss Federal Office for Buildings Steven Holl Steven Holl and Logistics [BBL] project architect project architect design architects Adam Yarinsky Annette Goderbauer Steven Holl (SHA) and Justin Ruessli project team project team (Ruessli Architekten AG) Peter Lynch, Bryan Bell, Mathew Karlen, Martin Cox, Irene Vogt, Christian associates in charge William Wilson, Stephen Cassell, Wassmann Stephen O’Dell, Tim Bade (SHA) Kent Hikida, Florian Schmidt, structural engineers project architects Thomas Jenkinson, Lucinda Knox Silman Associates, P.C. Olaf Schmidt (SHA) and Mimi Kueh (RA) local architect general contractors project team Max Levy, Dallas Koral Bros. Inc. Arnault Biou, Peter Englaender, structural consultant Annette Goderbauer, Li Hu, Irene Vogt Datum Engineering (SHA), and Andreas Gervasi, mechanical consultant Phillip Röösli, Rafael Schnyder, Interfield Engineering Urs Zuercher (RA) contractor structural engineers Thomas S. Byrne Construction A. F. Steffen Engineers, Robert landscape consultant Silman Associates, P.C. Kings Creek Landscaping mechanical engineers B+B Energietechnik AG, B2E Consulting Engineers interior designer ZedNetwork Hannes Wettstein landscape architect Robert Gissinger

168 Oceanic Retreat Porosity House Y House 2001 2005– 1997–1999

location location location Kauai’i, Hawaii, USA Southampton, New York, USA Catskills, New York, USA program program program private residence weekend house weekend retreat client client design architect withheld withheld Steven Holl design architect design architect project architect Steven Holl Steven Holl Erik Langdalen project architect project architect project team Martin Cox Rodolfo Dias Annette Goderbauer, Yoh Hanaoka, project team project team Brad Kelley, Justin Korhammer, Arnault Biou, Jason Frantzen, Cosimo Caggiula, Ernest Ng Jennifer Lee, Chris McVoy Steve O’Dell, Olaf Schmidt local architect local architect Peter Liaunig Peter Vincent & Associates structural engineers engineers Sun Slice House Robert Silman Associates, P.C. Guy Nordenson and Associates 2005– lighting consultants contractors L’Observatoire International Krekow-Jennings Inc. location contractor (Steve Farrell, PM) Lake Garda, Italy Dick Dougherty program furniture private residence Face Design client withheld design architect Steven Holl project architect Alessandro Orsini project team Francesco Bartolozzi

169 Planar House House at Martha’s Vineyard Implosion Villa 2002–2005 1984–1988 1992

location location location Arizona, USA Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA The Hague, The Netherlands program program program private residence private residence private residence client design architect design architect withheld Steven Holl Steven Holl design architect project architect project team Steven Holl Peter Lynch Janet Cross, Mario Gooden, project architect project team Terry Surjan, Tomoaki Tanaka Martin Cox (Tim Bade, Schematic Design) Stephen Cassell, Ralph Nelson, project team Peter Shinoda Robert Edmonds, Annette Goderbauer, structural engineer Hideki Hirahara, Clark Manning Robert Lawson Little Tesseract general contractors contractor 2001 The Construction Zone Doyle Construction structural engineers custom steel/brass work location Rudow & Berry Alvin Cooke Metal Works Rhinebeck, New York, USA mechanical engineer program Roy Otterbein solarstack prototype civil engineers design architects Fleet Fisher Steven Holl, Solange Fabião electrical engineers project architect Associated Engineering Chris Otterbine, Laura Sansone landscape architect project team Steve Martino & Associates Makram El-Kadi, Anderson Lee, Christian Wassmann, Urs Vogt fabricator The Orchard Group

170 Project Credits

Nail Collector’s House Turbulence House Tower of Silence 2001–2004 2001–2004 1992

location location location Essex, New York, USA New Mexico, USA Manchester, Washington, USA program program program private residence guest house architectural retreat client client design architect G. Alan Wardle R. Tuttle and M. Berssenbrugge Steven Holl design architect design architect project team Steven Holl Steven Holl Janet Cross, Todd Fouser project architect project architects fabricator Stephen O’Dell Anderson Lee, Richard Tobias Ray Lorio structural engineers project team Silman Associates, PC. Arnault Biou, Matt Johnson fabricator local architect Mitch Rabinew Kramer E. Woodard Architects Round Lake Hut structural engineers 2001 Delapp Engineering metal panel fabricators location A. Zahner Company Rhinebeck, New York, USA program watercolor retreat design architect Steven Holl fabricator The Orchard Group

171 Bibliography of Published Writings and Monographs

Holl, Steven. Hybrid Instrument. Iowa ——. Steven Holl Architect. Milan: Electa Architecture, vols. 1–10. New York: City: The University of Iowa School of Art Architecture, 2002. Princeton Architectural Press, 1998. and Art History, 2006. ——. Idea and Phenomena. Edited ——. “Twofold Meaning.” Kenchiku Bunka ——. Luminosity/Porosity. Tokyo, Japan: by Architekturzentrum Wien. Baden: 52, Aug. 1997. Noto Shappan, 2006. Lars Müller Publishers, 2002. ——. Intertwining: Selected Projects 1989– ——. “Alvar Aalto: Villa Mairea, ——. Written in Water. Baden: Lars Müller 1995. New York: Princeton Architectural Noormarkku /Porosity to Fusion.” Publishers, 2002. Press, 1996. In Entrez Lentement, edited by Lorenzo Gaetani, 186–207. Milan: Lotus Eventi, ——. Steven Holl 1998–2002: thought, ——. Steven Holl 1986–1996. Edited by 2005. matter and experience [El Croquis 108]. Fernando Marquez Cecilia and Richard Madrid: El Croquis Editorial, 2001. Levine [El Croquis 78]. Madrid: El Croquis ——. Steven Holl. Edited by Ji-seong Editorial, 1996. Jeong. Contemporary Architecture 62. ——. “Density in the Landscape.” In City Korea: CA Press, 2005. Fragments: Seven Strategies for Making ——. Stretto House: Steven Holl Architects. an Urban Fragment in the Hudson Valley. New York: Monacelli Press, 1996. ——. Experiments in Porosity. Edited Columbia Books of Architecture. New by Brian Carter and Annette W. LeCuyer. York: Columbia University Press, 2001. ——. Steven Holl. Interview with Yushio Buffalo: University at Buffalo, School of Futagawa. Edited by Yukio Futagawa. Architecture and Planning, 2005. ——. Parallax. New York: Princeton GA Document Extra. Japan: A.D.A. Edita Architectural Press, 2000. Tokyo, 1996. ——. Simmons Hall. Edited by Todd Gannon. Source Books in Architecture, ——. The Chapel of St. Ignatius. New York: ——. “Pre-Theoretical Ground.” In vol. 5. New York: Princeton Architectural Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. D: Columbia Documents of Architecture Press, 2004. and Theory 4, edited by Bernard Tschumi, ——. Steven Holl 1996–1999. Edited by 27–59. New York: Columbia University ——. Steven Holl: Competitions. Edited Fernando Marquez Cecilia and Richard Graduate School of Architecture, Planning by Yoshio Futugawa. GA Document 82. Levene [El Croquis 93]. Madrid: El and Preservation, 1995. Japan: A.D.A. Edita Tokyo, 2004. Croquis Editorial, 1999. ——. “Questions of Perception.” A & U ——. Steven Holl. Edited by Francesco ——. “Intertwining With the City: Museum Tokyo 2.94 (Apr. 1994): 25–28. (New Garofolo. New York: Universe-Rizzoli, of Contemporary Art in Helsinki.” edition 2006 William Stout Architectural 2003. Harvard Architectural Review 10 (1998). Books)

——. Steven Holl 1986–2003. Edited by ——. Kiasma. Helsinki: The Finnish Building ——. “Intertwining / Verweben.” In Fernando Marquez Cecilia and Center, 1998. Color of an Architect, 12–57. Hamburg: Richard Levene. Madrid: El Croquis Galerie Fur Architektur, 1994. (exhibition Editorial, 2003. ——. Exactness of Doubt. Pamphlet catalog)

172 ——. Steven Holl. Zurich: Artemis Zurich Architecture, vol. 7. New York: William and Bordeaux: arc en reve centre Stout Architectural Books, 1981. d’architecture, 1993. (exhibition catalog) ——. The Alphabetical City. Pamphlet ——. Edge of a City. Pamphlet Architecture, Architecture, vol. 5. New York: Pamphlet vol. 13. New York: Princeton Architectural Architecture Press, 1980. Press, 1991. ——. “USSR in the USA.” Skyline (May ——. Anchoring: Selected Projects 1975– 1979). 1988. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1989. ——. “The Desert De Retz.” Student Quarterly Syracuse. New York: ——. “Within the City: Phenomena of Syracuse School of Architecture, 1978. Relations.” In Design Quarterly, vol. 139. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, ——. Rev. of The Blue Mountain 1988. (exhibition catalog) Conference. Skyline, Nov. 1978.

——. “Teeter Totter Principles.” In ——. Bridges. Pamphlet Architecture, Perspecta 21. New Haven: Yale University vol. 1. New York: Pamphlet Architecture Press, 1984. Press, 1977.

——. “Foundations: American House Types.” In Precis IV, edited by Sheryl Kolasinski and P.A. Morton. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.

——. Rural and Urban House Types. Pamphlet Architecture, vol. 9. New York: William Stout Architectural Books, 1982.

——. Anatomy of a Skyscraper: Cities, the Forces that Shape Them. Edited by Liza Taylor. New York: Cooper-Hewitt Museum, 1982.

——. “Conversation with Alberto Sartoris.” Archetype (Fall 1982).

——. Bridge of Houses. Pamphlet

173 Acknowledgments

Architecture is the most fragile of arts: These works depended on great collaboration of all the energetic and creative people listed with each of the projects of this book: from clients, and consultants to the architects in our office.

Special thanks to: Solange Fabião, and Michael Bell, Molly Blieden, Priscilla Fraser, Hollyamber Kennedy, David van der Leer, Kevin C. Lippert, Ruth W. Lo, Adam Michaels, Lauren Nelson Packard, Yehuda Safran, Brett Snyder, and Christina Yessios

174 Image Credits

Bilyan Dimitrova: 110, 112, 113, 116, 117.

Solange Fabião: 84, 85, 86.

Steven Holl: 20, 21, 31 (bottom), 33, 35, 36, 39, 40, 41, 43, 45 (middle and bottom), 57 (top), 61 (top right), 65 (bottom), 69 (middle and bottom), 75 (middle and bottom), 89 (middle and bottom), 101 (bottom), 104 (left bottom), 107 (bottom), 111 (bottom), 114 (left bottom), 121 (bottom), 131 (bottom), 134, 135, 145 (bottom), 156.

Andy Ryan: Cover, 4, 6, 21, 23 (bottom), 24 (top left and right), 25, 26, 27 (right top and bottom), 28, 29, 46 (top), 48, 49 (top right), 50 (right), 51 (right top and bottom), 52, 53, 54, 120, 122 (right), 123, 126 (left), 127, 128–129, 136 (left), 138, 141, 142.

Paul Warchol: 19, 30, 44, 47, 49 (bottom right), 50 (left), 55, 74, 77 (top left and right), 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 87, 100, 103, 104 (right), 125, 130, 137, 140, 143.

Bill Timmerman: 88, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95 (top left and right, middle, bottom left), 96, 97, 98–99, 155, 157.

All other material has been produced and is copyrighted by Steven Holl Architects.

175 Published by Princeton Architectural Press 37 East Seventh Street New York, New York 10003

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© 2007 Princeton Architectural Press All rights reserved Printed and bound in China 10 09 08 07 5 4 3 2 1 First edition

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Book design by Project Projects

For Princeton Architectural Press Edited by Lauren Nelson Packard

Special thanks to Nettie Aljian, Dorothy Ball, Nicola Bednarek, Janet Behning, Becca Casbon, Penny (Yuen Pik) Chu, Russell Fernandez, Wendy Fuller, Jan Haux, John King, Nancy Eklund Later, Linda Lee, Katharine Myers, Scott Tennent, Jennifer Thompson, Joseph Weston, and Deb Wood of Princeton Architectural Press —Kevin C. Lippert, publisher

For Steven Holl Architects Production by David van der Leer, Priscilla Fraser, and Christina Yessios

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Holl, Steven. House : black swan theory / Steven Holl.—1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-1-56898-587-9 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-56898-587-8 (alk. paper) 1. Holl, Steven. 2. Architecture, Domestic—United States—20th century. 3. Architecture, Domestic—United States—21st century. I. Title. NA737.H56A4 2007 728’.37092—dc22 2006032629