Project Details
Project Description
Crook | Cup | Bow | Twist (categories of wood deformation) refers to the latent potential energy of all natural systems towards movement. The project’s intent is to harness both the physical and ephemeral sense of this latent gestural movement in the architecture, as a way to promote the open-ended, exploratory qualities the surrounding landscape inspires. The low-slung, elongated mass of this ecologically low-impact new residence compliments the rolling ridges of the surrounding landform and places it in scale with the expansive site. The forms and materials reference the typology of agrarian service buildings in the area and were developed through a careful analysis of the movement of natural systems, such as water flow, vegetation, and solar path. Across the southern side of the main façade is a wood solar screen. The timber trusses of an existing outdoor riding arena provide the recycled wood for the screen. The re-milled lumber of the screen connects to the long history of milling in the valleys of the area and the construction references the mill’s methods of stacking lumber to dry. More abstractly, the movement of the wind through the site’s open grasslands is one of the most salient images of the ranch landscape. These two strands of thought --lumber stacking patterns and the fluid movement of open grasslands-- combine in the construction of the screen. The wood is milled and coded according to its predominant warpage tendencies: crook, cup, bow, and twist. It is then stacked by threading sections of varying length onto vertical tie rods secured in a frame. Stainless steel spacers of differing depths encourage the wood’s natural warpage. The system allows for loose ends with the expectation that with age and weather its latent deformity will create a palette of movement similar in spirit to the adjacent grasslands.
