Obstructures

The HH3 had two previous designs. Due to dire circumstances both had to be scrapped. Even what has been built is a compromise; but every design’s intent is compromised when it emerges from the drawing and begins the long painful process towards reality. What started as an attempt to show every block and every lentel has by default turned into an exercise in plasticity and purity.

There was no tolerance for gratuitous form making and conceptual play in this project. It is what it is—bare, utilitarian and sparsely articulated. It is a container for a couple that wants to live with less stuff, less walls, and less maintenance.

The house’s interior space serves as the divider of surrounding exterior space into two courts, one for entry and public interaction and one in the rear enclosed by screen walls for private use. Translucent glass punctuates all sides of the house for privacy resulting in an introverted space withdrawn from its surroundings. The house is a bunker shielding the occupants from the banality of the suburban landscape. Ironically the bunker itself is banality formalized. At least it was intentional.