EAST HOUSE + WEST HOUSE

• These two houses are presented together because of their intimate and particular involvement with life on large

and remote sloping sites. One site is a densely wooded hill overlooking a private lake in Connecticut, the other is

a sun-drenched foothill (Catalinas) overlooking two isolated and distant buttes in Arizona. Both sites require a

willful response in order to provide a "foothold" for a house (and the life within) in an overwhelming and exotic

environment. Secure placement for each house is achieved by casting "anchors" out into the landscape and by

setting up a movement sequence - up to, in, and through the house - that attempts a specific involvement with

the landscape. The houses are similar in their attempts to appropriate the land around them by coordinating the

framing of "deep space" landscapes with particular processional moments and encouraging a visceral or

physical experience of the land on which the houses sit. Both conditions allow for an extension of life within the

house beyond its literal perimeter. This is achieved less by the free flow of outside and inside ("universal space")

than by the oscillation of inside/outside characteristics through mimicry or commentary.

EAST HOUSE: Fieldstone, White Cedar, Mahogany, Bluestone

Sequence:       
            1. Introduction of general site on long descending driveway
            2. Momentary glimpse of specific site at turn into courtyard
            3. 7' fieldstone wall prohibits views of specific site
            4. Entry spine traverses hillside perpendicular to slope
            5. Rediscovery of hill at transverse stairs
            6. Released compression and major presentation of lake at public spaces
            7. House revealed as "frame" through which the hill passes
            8. Diagonal movement (vector) links public procession to exterior lakeside path

WEST HOUSE: Stucco, Adobe, Cypress, Mexican Quarry Tile

Sequence:                   
            1.  Introduction of general site on long ascending driveway
            2.  Glimpse of specific site at turn into adobe courtyard
            3.  Opaque walls of adobe prohibit views.
            4.  Rotated entry spine descends the hillside toward buttes
            5.  Transverse circulation interrupts the spine and traverses hill
            6.  Introduction of stucco courtyard garden overlooking full landscape.
            7.  House revealed as stepped and rotated podium in "heroic" dialogue with landscape
            8.  Continuation down steps to Pergola into desert landscape ("shallow space").