WINTER NEWS / BAR > 2010 JOEB MOORE + PARTNERS is … MOVING On February 15, we will open our new STUDIO/WORKSHOP at: 20 BRUCE PARK AVENUE GREENWICH . CT 06830 Our new phone number is > 203. 769. 5828 RECENT AWARDS: 2009 WOOD DESIGN AWARD > Cutting Edge Design Innovation in Wood: Sponsored by the North American Wood Council SPIRAL HOUSE 2009 INTERIOR DESIGN AWARD > “Best of Year” Award > Free Standing Residence Category: SPIRAL HOUSE 2009 CUSTOM HOME DESIGN AWARDS > Outdoor Spaces > Grand Award WINDING LANE SANCTUARY > Greenwich . CT   FEATURED PROJECT:   SPIRAL HOUSE > Old Greenwich . CT   Situated along the Connecticut shoreline of Long Island Sound, the Spiral House seeks to engage, enhance and reflect the surrounding coastal micro-climate and its atmospherics of light, air, water. Formally and spatially, the house is a direct and pragmatic response to the strict environmental (FEMA and flood elevations) and local zoning restrictions and regulations (height, building setbacks, FAR, footprint) imposed on the building and site (see sectional diagram). Overall, the house (and its underlying dueling geometries) operate precisely and creatively within the found and prescribed social and environmental boundaries of the site to produce a dynamic, experience-oriented dwelling.   FEATURED INTERIORS: WINDING LANE SANCTUARY > Greenwich . CT   Conceived as a nature sanctuary for the Owner, this outdoor addition affords a retreat and refuge for both owner and quiet, meditative views that commune with the surrounding natural environment and wildlife.  A series of cascading screened and covered teak/mahogany terraces are cantilevered and negotiate the immediate surrounding wetlands and changing topography. These perches afford 180 degree views of the adjacent small lake, waterfall, rolling river, and  man-made pond.  Each of the three different elevations of terraces promote different perspectives and intimately connect views of the various bodies of water all within the overall prism of a large 24′ tall, mahogany + teak, open, screened structure.   The simple, but elegant contrast between the all-teak/mahogany interior planks, in their warm color hues + tones and stain-lacquer finishes both echoes and provides a gentle repose to the surrounding natural ecology of water and plant-life.  This unique outdoor space may well be one of only a handful of two-story screened in and covered porches in the United States.  It is certainly one of the most inviting and beautiful from our perspective. ON-THE-BOARDS:   RETHINKING / REWORKING A MODERN MASTERPIECE > Back-country Greenwich . CT   We are currently completing construction documents for a multi-phase addition/alteration project of an existing mid-century modernist house designed by Raymond C. Giedraitis. EXISTING FRONT + REAR VIEWS > PROPOSED DESIGN > BUILD:   BRIDGE HOUSE > Kent . CT   The bridge house is located in Kent, Connecticut along a 300′ ridge that parallels the Housatonic River and Kent Falls State Park.  The most obvious feature at Kent Falls is, of course, the falls. Actually, they are a series of falls and cascades. The overall impression of this dynamic geological and ecological system; however, is the gradual and cascading flow of water and rock that seems to ebb and flow over time and slowly slide down past the more stable, rooted, and upright surroundings of trees, vegetation and earth.  We took these impressions of the Falls and the  “historic covered-wood bridge” that spans one of the falls as both inspiration and conceptual trigger for the design of the Bridge House (see Falls photo below).   We invented a broad conceptual site-section diagram and operation where the house becomes a kind of vessel or “rhizome” that literally pops out of the natural landscape and the sloping topography (not unlike the active stream of water over the gradual flow of bedrock below).  As the house-vessel takes on form and volume it turns and bridges across the very landscape that is rolling directly under it and down the hillside the house itself is embedded into.   The house proper (the wood structure) is anchored on top and into the hillside on either side of the “bridge” chamber by two opposing concrete buttress / chimney structures with dual “hearths” (see sectional perspective below). The house, notably the dual, open-ended living/dining chamber and the vertical stair-light wells are a wonderful example of a kind of camera lucida or viewing chamber that makes continuous adjustments of internal relations (functions, activities, rituals) with external conditions (natural site, views, changing weather, light, and air). In these chambers, the house  creates a life-world suspended between land and air. This feeling of suspension, we hope, produces just enough of a “loose fit” and play between nature and convention for unexpected alliances to emerge. The house oscillates between a treehouse, a campground and a cave all in one > in other words, a perfect vacation escape. ENVIRONMENT:   NEW CANAAN TOWNHOUSE > New Canaan . CT CONCEPTUAL MODEL >   COMPLETED CONSTRUCTION > The New Canaan Townhouse is located in New Canaan, CT.  Home to the “Harvard Five,” a group of architects who had settled in New Canaan and established a new model for modern single-family residential life and design. During the 1950’s these mid-century “good-life” modernists promulgated an experimental residential design theory and program for modern, single-family residential life.  The Harvard Five included, as its founders, Marcel Breuer, John Johannsen, Philip Johnson, Landis Gores, and Eliot Noyes.   All built homes in New Canaan and several, including Philip Johnson’s Glass House, Eliot Noyes’ Courtyard House and the Breuer House, have become icons of Mid-century American Modernism. Socially, historically, and aesthetically this project seeks to extend the experimental legacy of the Harvard Five and the mid-century, good-life, modern house into the new millennium and directly into the town of New Canaan – two boundaries that modernism had not ventured into before.   Conceived from the outset as a speculative in-town-house set in walking distance of Main Street, the train station and the library, the project took seriously the idea of social and environmental sustainability as a generator and incubator for the townhouse project. The key perceptual operations involve bifurcation and attenuation.  A long, narrow lot required a program and spatial strategy that deployed a vertical organization and sectional strategy so that we could optimize and maximize the narrow front, side and rear yards for parking, outdoor gardens, natural light and views.  The key spatial device and invention was to produce a sectional cut by “flipping” the bi-nuclear plan of a mid-century modern house on its side (see Noyes’ Courtyard House). This intentional displacement and provocation allowed us to re-organize, connect and even further attenuate the living spaces of the house by producing a vertical slot or gap that progressively splays open as the structure moves deeper towards the rear and south-facing end of the lot.   The progressive splaying of the gap in plan promotes and attenuates the flow of natural light, air, and atmospheric views both across the vertical glass windows in the slot between the bifurcated living spaces and the outdoor garden space, but also allows light and views deep into the interiors of the house.  The vertical light/view slot puts nature to “work” and “in play” so to speak, with unexpected perceptual effects that give the interior spaces of the house a more open, elastic and polymorphic feel. The Townhouse is topped off with a large roof terrace/garden with pool, outdoor hearth, garden, shower, and kitchenette that replaces some of the lost outdoor spaces typical of suburban living and housing. The project is due to receive Silver LEED Certification this Spring. Please feel free to contact Dave Prutting @ Prutting Construction if you are interested or would like a tour of this extraordinary and exquisitely-detailed house.   20 BRUCE PARK STUDIO > Greenwich . CT We are working on making our new office space a LEED Certified Commercial Interiors project.   PUBLICATIONS:   TASCHEN BOOK PUBLICATION Taschen Books to publish PL 44 House and the Spiral House in the 2010 > ARCHITECTURE NOW book, to be released in late Spring 2010.   MONACELLI BOOKS PRESS PL 44 House will be published in the NICE HOUSE book, to be released in June 2010.   RECENT MAGAZINES:   DECEMBER / INTERIOR DESIGN MAGAZINE “Best of Year” > SPIRAL HOUSE > Old Greenwich . CT   DECEMBER / CUSTOM HOME MAGAZINE COURTYARD HOUSE > Greenwich . CT FALL / AIA  NEWS AIA NEW ENGLAND Honor Award > PL 44 HOUSE > Greenwich . CT GREENWICH POST November 5, 2009 > REAL ESTATE/DESIGN “A House Apart.  Architect gets accolades for Modern Masterpiece”   UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS:   2. 5. 2010 Recent Work J+P/A > Columbia University > Nexus Gallery UPCOMING LECTURES:   4. 21. 2010 Public Architecture Lecture > Roger Williams College, Bristol  RI > “Elegance + Intricacy” > Recent Work by J+P | A COLLABORATE: Adaptive Architectures / Responsive Environments > Joint Studio with Karen Fairbanks.  Design III Studio at Barnard / Columbia College, Undergraduate Architecture Department See the course’s blog here >   ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY > HAITI Learn about the work of Architecture for Humanity in Haiti.  Follow this link: TRAVEL: AUSTRIA > Bregenz Kunsthaus > Peter Zumpthor (2009 Pritzker Prize Recipient) A brilliant built and cultural work situated at the operational and conceptual boundaries between architecture and minimalist sculpture.  In fact, it is kind of a “non-building, building” in the tradition of Mies’ Barcelona Pavilion and Rachel Whiteread’s Room Castings. It is one of the most powerful and stunningly original built-works I have encountered in many years.  The only other recent built-work that has similar impact and originality is the Seattle Library by Rem Koolhaas/OMA.  I admire the way both works resist their own status as a “building.”