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Reconsidering odernis he incessale rchitecture of lterstudios i ouses R Miami University Our times of change and transition do not permit big gestures. his article elores the rosect of incessale There are only a few remaining common values left upon which we architecture through the lenses of si lterstudio can build and which we can all share. I thus appeal for an archi- houses their alues and the uestions the ose such tecture of common sense based on the fundamentals that we still as How should we live? and How should we build? know, understand, and feel. hile aoiding retense and rescrition the si -- Peter umthor, Thinking Architecture, 1999 houses reind us of architectures caacit to render us as our ideal selves and explore architectural beauty as a aterial articulation of certain ideas of a good life The (in)Excess(able) experiences of six Alterstudio as a ision of hainess ituated aart fro ecess houses adance an alternatie ethic of restraint that this ursuit of hainess results fro seeing the resists an excess frequented by contemporary archi- enduring alues e ant to lie that transcend ere tecture theor and ractice Rather than ursuing the aearance hile aoiding nostalgia through a critical ecstatic or sueraundant as suggested in the atin root resonse to their region and its ernacular fors the ecessus incessale architecture is largel asent (in)Excess(able) architecture of the six houses revisits of signication nstead it focuses on isceral eeri- the values and experiences of the mid-century modern ences of a fundamental nature that can be known, house with emphasis upon its honesty, ease, and lack understood and felt that arise fro contact ith things of inhiition realied eans of tectonic eression and the eories and associations rought aout and a redenition of insideoutside and ulicriate their aing hile ain to ecess in its dearture fro relationshis s such the incessale architecture custom and reason, the (in)Excess(able) architectural of the six houses advocates a uniquely American sense traector dierges to reeal the sile hule and of aiai here the ig gesture is aoided and eheeral as discoered in nature in things and in eressie reticence is consistentl ried aoe and ourseles choing uis arragns call for an authen- against the gratuitous aniulation of for3 while tic architecture created in a sulie act of oetic still eoing a faith in the future and ourseles iagination1(in)Excess(able) architecture manifests The six houses and the Alterstudio oeuvre presuppose itself in the serene and intiate here desite the that architecture has the caacit to challenge our indi- rofessions antiath toards the ter eaut idual and collectie understanding of the orld s enters eaut in this sense is not an aritrar set of catalsts the houses oer the otential for eaningful aesthetic standards or tastes ut an aet to reeal change in resonse to ne ersecties discoered hat eter uthor ould refer to as architectures and eeriences garnered through an incessale hard core iscoering this core resages a sense of encounter ith the or lterstudio change coes elleing that erhas is est eressed through ag not through coercion ut an initation to engage in aarslds deel held elief that e all hae a ore eaningful aern of liing through contact ithin us a center of stillness surrounded silence2 ith eole and nature sace and aterial ll of the houses contriute to their situations elicit a sense of OPEN-II Brooklyn Says, “Move to Detroit” 259 Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4 Image 5 Image 6 Figure 1: Alterstudio Six Houses. Image 1: The Scout Island Residence; Image 2: The Lakeview House; Image 3: East Windsor Residence; Image 4: Avenue G Residence; Image 5: Hillside Residence; Image 6: Bouldin Residence. Courtsey of Alterstudio Archives. satial freedo and are condent and oised in their Grounded in post-war optimism, the experimental efforts of these iconic technical and aterial eression hile adancing a architects and the design outcomes of the Case Study House Program sense of ease that coes fro an instinctual aare- posed essential social, economic, technical, and aesthetic questions. These questions were aimed towards discovering the values and devel- ness of elleing oping the design practices that would shape contemporary American ulturall and site secic the si houses that include architecture at mid-century and beyond. Avoiding formal exhibitionism he cout sland Residence age he aeie and thin detailing, the values and design outcomes that emerged from ouse age ast indsor age enue the program instead exhibit a deep concern for place and human experi- age illside age and ouldin Residences ence within the framework of modern life. In this spirit, they underpin the (in)Excess(able) DNA structure that pervades the values and work of age sillfull situate theseles ithin the Alterstudio expressed in the following six themes: ustin eas enirons at ties uietl and at other ties oering challenges to eisting uilding conen- 1. Edge Space: The Redefinition of the tions and assutions ig he signicance of the Relationships, Boundaries, and Edges houses as suggested here hile sustantial is erel 2. Wabi-Sabi and Expressive Reticence an introduction to an eerging narratie that ill 3. Transforming the Familiar: Regionalism and Modern Vernacular chronicle how the lives of their residents are impacted by the (in)Excess(able) architecture of the six houses 4. Site integration, Natural Encounter, and Well-Being and its rosect for their hainess and elleing 5. Lightness, Minimalism, and the Tell-the- Tale Detail: Beauty’s Hard Core RR 6. The Spatial Articulation of the Good Life: R R R Modernism’s Unfinished Legacy When asked about America’s most significant contribution to world architecture, Gnter Behnisch, one of Germany’s foremost postwar prac- R R titioners, replied without hesitation that it was the ennobling qualities in R American residential architecture.4 Not only did he refer to iconic twen- Frank Lloyd Wright’s first built Usonian exploration, The Herbert Jacobs tieth century American examples found in the work of Wright, and his House or Usonia 1 (Madison WI, 1936), set the stage for a unique redefi- European American migr peers such as Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, nition of the relationship between inside and outside as well as the scale Rudolph Schindler, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, he also cited the and spatial relationships between the public and private realms of the 1945-62 Arts and Architecture magazine “Case Study House Program” American domestic dwelling. Wright himself argued this point about that would continue the exploration of Wright and the European cohort the Usonian living room stating “We can never make the living room big with particular regard to affordable residential design and construction. enough, the fireplace important enough, or the sense of relationship 260 Reconsidering Modernism ceiling/light shelf, projecting the space further into the landscape while creating an edge space that is both inside and outside. Reminiscent of this gesture, at the East Windsor second floor, the box window at the bedroom projects while the guest suite box window is coincident with the faade plane that, together, balance the large ipe, screen which the- atrically reveals the second floor dining room and inverts the reading of the faade day to night. It should be observed that these carefully cho- reographed spatial transitions exist not only in relation to inside-outside but also between spaces such the living and dining areas, recalling a key Usonian construct as John Sergeant points out at Jacobs House: The space in the Jacobs House is not static. Its boundaries are complex and ambiguous. There is always an area of overlap - a part of the space for sitting is also a part of the dining area or even kitchen, lobby, or terrace.6 Figure 2: East Windsor Residence Living Room. Courtesy of Alterstudio Archives. Translating this sophisticated layered transition to the ground plane, at the Lakeview living room a planter masks the elevation change from the between exterior, interior and environment close enough”5 in an effort to living room to the patio, shifting scale from the intimacy of its plantings concretize his domestic spatial vision of a democratic Usonia. to the contrasting extended view to the Southwest as it relaxes inside- outside distinction and extends the sight line over the patio elements INSIDE/OUTSIDE AND THE DEMATERIALIZED CORNER kindred in spirit to Saarinen’s Miller House (Columbus IN, 1957) and At Alterstudio’s Lakeview House, the family room corner detail recalls Mies’s Farnsworth Houses’ (Plano IL, 1951) dining-terrace transitions. aspects of the Usonian inside/outside experience in a refined, minimalist manner. The corner window wall detail transitions from inside to outside ITCHNDININLIIN IN LIN ARRANMNTS by means of a stepped molding at the ceiling that “breaks the box” and The Lakeview and Scout Island Residences advance this Usonian spatial advances the renowned Schindler-Chase House (West Hollywood CA, construct in the horizontal plane as found in the kitchen-dining-living lin- 1922) glass corner detail to another level by removing the vertical mullion ear in-line arrangements where the narrow, largely transparent spaces to completely open the corner. This graceful transition calls to mind the interpenetrate each other usually mediated by means of service islands, exceptional layered inside-outside transition of The Jacob House’s east cabinetry, and hearths. One of the more exuberant Post-Usonian, mid- elevation. Approaching the Jacobs House’s east elevation from the south- century sequence precedents of this nature can be found in Pierre east corner of the living room, one discovers rich experiences in mass and Koenig’s Stahl Residence (West Hollywood CA, 1960). As a pavilion house light.

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