lake house - schematic development

Since our October charrette for the Lake House project, we have met with the client a few times and developed the following sketches.

bird's eye isometric

I really wrestled with the curve; debating whether was a good idea or some purely artificial construct owing to AutoCad. If it was the latter, it was going to have to go away. Anything, really, may be buildable, but we wanted clear answers for what the curve did for the project, how we came to it, and what it meant for costs and other construction issues.

 
 

first floor plan

The curve was generated by a desire to resolve many angles on the site, to bend the home and focus its presence on an arriving party, make the most of the site's best views, gracefully resolve garage access issues, and bend its windward side into what can be severe headwinds - those were fundamentally very good reasons for it.

 

second floor plan

The curve also stretches out the lakeside edge of the home to give a greater than 180 degree view, and seemed to draw one into and through the home...

kitchen from lake room

...while adding a pleasant dimension and character to the interior and exterior. The kitchen evolved to include a banquette or booth for built-in seating to capture sunrises through the forest trees beyond. 

 

 lakeside arcade

History was reassuring with its many historic examples of buildings curved for both formal and fanciful reasons such as St. Peter's square and Marie Antoinette's cottage, Petit Hameau.

 

 lake room

Curves have since become a larger theme here. I'm hoping to use at least 2 trees from the site to make the lakeside posts and exterior braces, and provide a flitch-sawn, curved, overhead girt in the lake room above. A gentle curve on the lakeside window muntins might be very nice, too.

So, we feel that the curve's benefits appear to outweigh the costs. It reflects forms on the site, there were some good reasons for it, it makes fun spaces, and we know we can build the curved walls and roof. We've decided to keep moving forward with it and see how it comes together.

The sketches above are all freehand studies and will continue to evolve especially as I focus next on the structure and details of the home.

And I can't wait to see what the Master Suite's timber frame wants to be...

 

Comments

[-p]

Hi Garth!

It will be new, too. Still not sure how to detail the tower - don't want it to look like a Long John Silver's. Ideas?

The pattern is that the old estate homes along Lake Erie typically had a water tower with a cistern atop to provide water and pressure to the buildings on the estate grounds. The remaining ones are slender, tall, and don't taper. This one will have a very small observation room at the top - no Fresnel. At the second level, there may be a whirlpool/soaking tub facing west.

A rainwater cistern at the lower level or in the basement is a possibility, especially if there's ever going to be a small garden. We have public water, but it would be nice to collect the rainwater.

[Garth Russo]

Your sketches are wonderful, and I think that the house will be stunning. Are you building a lighthouse also, or is that exisitng?