NAIL COLLECTOR'S HOUSE
Essex, NY, United States, 2001-2004
PROGRAM: private residence
CLIENT: Alan Wardle
SIZE: 1200 sf
STATUS: completed
Overlooking the expanse of Lake Champlain in the 19th Century town of Essex, this 1,200 sq. ft. house for a writer is sited on a former nail factory foundation. The owner has a collection of square head 19th Century nails gathered over the years on this site. Windows correspond to the 24 chapters of Homer's Odyssey and are organized to project "Fingers of Light" into the interior volume. The main northeast wall has 14 windows; the southeast and southwest walls contain 5 windows, while the northwest wall is blank. The largely open interior ascends counter-clockwise through a series of spaces pierced by the light of the windows. A "prow" thrust toward Lake Champlain completes this upward spiral of space.
Essex, NY, United States, 2001-2004
PROGRAM: private residence
CLIENT: Alan Wardle
SIZE: 1200 sf
STATUS: completed
Overlooking the expanse of Lake Champlain in the 19th Century town of Essex, this 1,200 sq. ft. house for a writer is sited on a former nail factory foundation. The owner has a collection of square head 19th Century nails gathered over the years on this site. Windows correspond to the 24 chapters of Homer's Odyssey and are organized to project "Fingers of Light" into the interior volume. The main northeast wall has 14 windows; the southeast and southwest walls contain 5 windows, while the northwest wall is blank. The largely open interior ascends counter-clockwise through a series of spaces pierced by the light of the windows. A "prow" thrust toward Lake Champlain completes this upward spiral of space.
'In his latest house project, in the pre-Civil War town of Essex, New York, Steven Holl explores the meaning of place - on the ground and in the imagination'.
-Lyle Rexer, Metropolis, March, 2005
-Lyle Rexer, Metropolis, March, 2005
'Architecture as "transition from the abstract to the concrete, from formlessness to the formed," a metamorphosis of ideas in a gradual process of materialization, in which broken traces of what Holl calls a "limited concept" emerge, or in other words, an idea confined to a site or circumstance: more specifically, a metaphor which, as usual with this architect from New York, triggers off design procedures which can come from anywhere - literature, science, myth ... but inevitably turn into sensitive architecture'.
-Abitare 468, January, 2007
-Abitare 468, January, 2007
CREDITS
architect
– Steven Holl Architects
Steven Holl (design architect)
Stephen O'Dell (project architect)
structural engineer
– Bernard Webb
Bernard Webb
fabricator
– Mitch Rabinew
Mitch Rabinew
architect
– Steven Holl Architects
Steven Holl (design architect)
Stephen O'Dell (project architect)
structural engineer
– Bernard Webb
Bernard Webb
fabricator
– Mitch Rabinew
Mitch Rabinew