Nested House

Project Details

Project Description

The Nested House is a guest house for a couple from Kazakhstan, situated in Houston along a bayou. Conceptually the project nests layers of outdoor and indoor program materially and spatially within a standing seam metal clad skin. The outer metal skin wraps from the South elevation, over the roof, and down a portion of the North elevation, framing an exterior landscape between the existing house and the new structure. The light color and reflective qualities of the metal surface help to cool the structure in the summer, while all other exterior surfaces are clad in a Siberian Larch rain-screen facade.

Nested under the outer skin a rectangular bar defines the interior conditioned volume, within which a centrally located bathroom/sauna core define the open living and bedroom programs. The core of the house is clad in grey/white felt, a reference to traditional yurt construction in Kazakhstan. The cantilevered slab and foundation responds to the sites adjacency to a public floodway, floating the slab of the interior program one step above the covered outdoor program. A 30' cantilevered beam allows for a generous amount of indirect light through the recessed Northern glazing. The resultant 24" x 24" soffit, integrates all of the exterior down lights and interior uplighting, while the HVAC is supplied and returned from the core.

As a result, the interior ceiling is completely free of lighting and mechanical fixtures. By nesting successive layers of material and space, the Nested House integrates site, structure, and program as a strategy to extend a small program into a larger context.