Student Work
1∕5
Title
West River House
Project Description
The design stems from an investigation of how a house must protect its inhabitants from exterior conditions while providing internal programmatic relationships. A rigid system creates an arrangement for a typical way people want to live, while a responsive skin highlights the way they need to live to be protected from environmental forces. The internal functions of the house are given an external identity as these two systems mark the gap between inside and outside. The spatial arrangement is marked by three private bedrooms on the second level that translate to the open, yet distinguished zones of the first level. Responding directly to the site, the skin performs functions related to privacy, insulation, solar control, ventilation, and water. In certain instances, the skin begins to merge with the inhabitants at a smaller scale as they move in and around the house, specifically becoming a kitchen table, storage, fence, and trash area.