James Florio

OBJETIVO

Three objectives guided the design.

1. Design something new with familiar forms and materials.

Privileging the ordinary has several benefits. In general, it makes a project more accessible aesthetically, intellectually, and economically. More people can relate to it, understand what makes it new or different, and afford to live in it. For architects, working with common building stock can establish a new architectural genealogy, a canon of everyday architecture. Plus, producing novelty from familiar materials is often more compelling than relying on exotic form or technology.

2. Give the house its qualities through abundant repetition.

Because of its stripped-down facades, the Ungers House is usually described as a minimalist project. But the interior is defined by a relentless repetition of the same doors, 172 in total. This use of repetition breaks with the modern concept of standardization and more recent approaches to combining repetition with difference. Repetition without economy or variation—copying identically and excessively—is a strategy that we thought we could advance.

3. Make idiosyncrasy methodical, rather than loose, accidental, or a one-off feature.

Although none of the neighboring houses are architectural masterpieces, a closer look reveals idiosyncratic façade compositions, material arrangements, and site strategies that break unwritten rules of design. They embody an American architectural practice that is bored with tradition and eager for improvisation, in contrast with the stability that is often assumed to be essential to architecture. We wondered if we could develop a deeper application of idiosyncrasy in our house.

CONTEXTO

Three contexts shaped the project: one physical, one historical, and one personal.

The house’s immediate surroundings are ordinary. It is located on a boundary between two typical neighborhoods. One has brightly colored Victorian homes that were built in the early 20th century and the other is lined with casually quirky houses from the 1950s and 60s. We thought that we could work with this everyday architecture rather than against it.

In contrast with the project’s ordinary and anonymous physical context, its historical genealogy is particular and reasonably well known. After studying a number of canonical villas, the Ungers House in Cologne became a central reference. Its ambition—to be as devoid of qualities as possible—was totally at odds with the common assumption that every house should be unique. At the same time, its plainness could be seen as the apotheosis of unremarkable architecture.

On a professional level, the project was part of another lineage—an early career house built for an architect’s mother. Before you’ve built a lot, your mother is the only person who believes that you can do whatever crackpot architecture you’re into. My mother is a retired Denver Public Schools librarian who put her savings up to build this house. It needed to be worthy of her confidence and generosity.