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Arch2O.com - Architecture & Design Magazine
The Douglas House is dramatically situated on an isolated site that slopes down to Lake Michigan. So steep is the fall of the land from the road down to the water that the house appears to have been notched into the site, a machined object perched in a natural world. The entry to the house extends beyond the building envelope. Here, as the sharp downhill grade of the land requires the house to be entered at roof level, it takes the form of a flying bridge that seems to shear off the top of the frontal plane.
Courtesy of Richard Meier & Partners – Photographs : James Haefner
The east side, facing the road, is the private zone, protected by a taut white membrane pierced by square apertures and horizontal strip windows. The roof-level bridge accentuates the unimpeded flow of space between this wall and the hillside, and is experienced as an activated void that further seals the private zone from the road. Courtesy of Richard Meier & Partners – Lower level plan
Once inside the entry vestibule, the views opens to the west, down to both the living and dining levels, and out to a large roof deck overlooking Lake Michigan. As in the Smith and Hoffman houses, the living-room fireplace is located directly opposite the entry, but in this case it is two stories below. At roof level, its stainless-steel smokestacks act as a foil to the entry and frame the view. Horizontal circulation moves along four open co...