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Olnick Spanu House by Estudio Arquitectura Campo Baeza

“In a place of profound silence, after a day of fog and mist, an intense light is mirrored off the still, deep waters of the majestic Hudson River. This is a place where the sunsets are a thousand colors and where water sparkles in millions of reflections. It is a place where the clean air is calm and mild. It is a place that seems very close to heaven. In building here, we wanted to create a structure that would be worthy of its surroundings, something that would not intrude on this space but only serve to enhance it. Since we would not attempt to embellish on this landscape, we decided we would simply underline it. To do so, we built a large box, measuring 122 feet long x 54 feet wide and 12 feet high, with strong concrete walls that have a solid relationship to the earth. Bedrooms, bathrooms, mechanical and service rooms reside inside this concrete box. In the center of the box and connecting the main entrance with the garden, there is a large luminous hall. The lid of the box is a stone and concrete platform with a roof measuring 100 feet long x 40 feet wide and 9 feet high. This is supported by a 20 feet x 20 feet framework consisting of cylindrical steel pillars—the entire roof projecting out 10 feet. On top of this platform, we created living space by glassing in a surface 25 feet wide x 94 feet long that resembles a large table with 10 legs. Three areas have been created inside this space by boxes of white plaster that do not reach the ceiling. They contain the stairs, the elevator, the powder room and the wet bar. The central space is the living room and the dining area; the south side is a pensatoio, a meditation room with a fire place; the north side is for the kitchen. The main idea of the house is the creation of this underlining plane, conceived primarily to contemplate and at the same time be part of, this incredible landscape, and–in addition–to house a collection of contemporary Italian Arte Povera.”
- Alberto Campo Baeza

Olnick Spanu House, by Estudio Arquitectura Campo Baeza

Buy the Book: Alberto Campo Baeza: Idea, Light and Gravity Available at Amazon

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

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