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The spirit of this house evolved from ideas and experiences in Japan and Italy transmuted into the intimacy of a family home in an old mill village near the Rivanna River.
A couple of Eastern concepts of space provided the conceptual framework for the design of this house. The first, known as MA, refers to the space between two objects or two edges. The second, HASHI, refers to bridging the two edges. These edges can be either physical -- like chopsticks bridging between the plate and the mouth -- or symbolic, spanning between the secular world and the heavenly world. The site is a place between; it feels both urbane (little more than a mile from downtown) and pastoral (the flood plains made it difficult for high-density development). We felt the design of the house should exploit the unique character of this place, acting as the bridge spanning between these two characteristics. To carry this concept further, the house is split in two parts with a bridge spanning over the entry court. The bridge both joins and separates spaces within the house; it is conceived as a place of transition and of connectivity between indoors and outdoors.
The house faces north onto the street, and the site slopes away to the south. We wanted to design a house that opens up the views and light to the south and provides shelter to the north. Arriving at an entry court, a large pivoting louvered gate provides the threshold through which one enters under the bridge framing the immediate landscape of gardens and a nineteenth century church beyond.
Area: 2500 sf
Status: Completed 1999
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