Residential Addition: Nestled Volumes
Florida
2018-2023
This residential addition is inspired by both the extraordinary works of art housed in its interior and by the spectacular natural beauty of a grove of live oaks and banyan trees surrounding its exterior. The design serves these two remarkable contexts by creating a series of vessels that simultaneously display and protect important works of art while engaging the landscape. These vessels are a series of interconnected boxes carefully positioned to form a sculpted pavilion within a garden.
The owner’s extensive art collection prompted the crafting of unique locations to display a pair of glass works and an installation. Three distinct volumes were created to house these important works. The stair volume houses a Dodecahedron Lamp by Olafur Eliasson. The main gallery space houses a Chandelier by Dale Chihuly and the office cupola houses a Web by Tomas Saraceno. All of these artworks define architectural space and were positioned to be viewed from multiple angles. The works were also located to be viewed under controlled artificial light and dynamic natural light. A series of windows in each volume mark the passage of light throughout the day providing each art work with an ever-changing environment.
The site’s secluded lot is defined by two frontages enclosed by a low coral rock wall. This fortuitous situation provides an opportunity to develop a residence with distinct and complementary architectures. The existing one story structure under a single gable serves as the anchor for this architectural composition. Composed of horizontally organized rooms, the original home contains two recesses that engage the site: a front porch and a large rear corner porch. The latter informs the location of the addition and creates an important edge to the garden. Conceived as a series of vertical volumes and low walls, the addition transforms the backyard into an outdoor room. The interior of the addition extends the horizontally disposed realm of the existing house into the vertically inclined world of the backyard’s monumental trees. Seen in this new totality, this home instigates a variety of spatial dialectics: the horizontal versus the vertical, compressed versus extended, opened versus closed and frontal versus oblique.
Project Team
Jason R. Chandler, A.I.A., Zalmy Meyer
Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Engineering: Franyie Engineering Inc.
Structural Engineering: De Los Reyes Engineering Inc.
Civil Engineering: Zamora and Associates, Inc.
Lighting: Max Ferrarati
Photography
Michael Stavaridis