Canal House

View of the raised studio from the street.

Words from the Architect

The Canal House is composed of three cubes: one raised at the street as a studio, two together at the canal side as the residence. In its concept and execution, the house is informed by two ideas, one embracing the possibility of the poetic, the other a more specific kind of material formation.

The bedroom and bathroom walls are created by the sanded acrylic panels.

1. Metaphor: In its separate masses, the house sets up an opposition between studio and residence: work/live, sky/earth, idea/body. An attempt is made to keep this discussion covert and nuanced rather than overt or obvious. The studio is a raised, pure space, marked by horizontal steel fins providing indirect light through three transparent walls. The residence might be considered solidly grounded, mostly opaque, somewhat inward-looking. As the studio might further take on aspects of thought, connoted by simplicity and purity of form, the residence is all body; torqued, stepping, winding.

Curved 'mobius strip' of sanded acrylic encircles the atrium.

2. Tectonics: Within both volumes, surfaces have been folded, warped, wrapped, and while there are few interior walls per se, space is divided sufficiently, both horizontally and vertically, to allow place and hierarchy. A 'pseudo' mobius strip of 1" sanded (horizontal) acrylic forms a divider / wall / handrail, which wraps around and through the upper house level, encircling the central atrium. This starts as four ribbons, each 2' tall, then becomes two (handrail), then one (guardrail fill), passing beneath itself at the origin. Stair treads are formed from folded 1/2" steel plate, as is the fireplace mantle / facing / hearth. The kitchen island is cantilevered sheets of Wavecore Panelite, 'folded' into an 'L' section. Parachute nylon wraps the first floor living and dining areas.

The Canal House won the "Home of the Year" award in 2004

Credits

• Text: Whitney Sander
• Photographs: Sharon Risedorph

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