Project Details
- Project Name
- Victorian Music Box
- Architect
- CCY Architects
- Project Types
- Guest House
- Project Scope
- Renovation/Remodel
- Size
- 6,800 sq. feet
- Shared by
- Madeleine D'Angelo
- Project Status
- Built
This project was selected as a winner in the 2019 Residential Architect Awards
Special Entry Category: Architectural Design Detail, Honorable Mention
Architects are often handed out-of-the box design challenges, but incorporating Chopin’s “Nocturne in E-Flat Major, Op.9, No.2”—the client’s favorite piece of music—into the façade of a free-standing guesthouse may be a first. Yet it was this conceit that drove the team at Basalt, Colo.–based CCY Architects to develop an elaborate, Chopin-inspired perforated scrim that wraps three faces of the structure, which sits next to an 1880s Victorian home in Aspen, Colo. Dubbed the Music Box, the new building houses the family’s baby grand piano and is used for music recitals when not occupied by guests.
The scrim is made out of Galvalume siding: 4-inch-wide sheathing was perforated with a pattern inspired by the roll that drives a player piano. The architects broke down the Chopin piece into distinct notes and chords and assigned each a variable that corresponded to the hole size and number of holes in each group. The hole size indicates the pitch and the number of holes correlate to the duration of the note. Together, these holes form the perforation pattern that renders the music into graphic form.
The cladding is utilized as a rainscreen, and runs continuously over the façade, regardless of whether what’s behind is solid wall or window. When the scrim fronts glazing, it provides solar shading for the interior during the day; at night, the light coming from inside the glazing renders the scrim pattern visible, generating an ethereal glow. Music Box seems to be what Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had in mind when he called architecture “frozen music”: If only the 19th-century German philosopher could visit Aspen with a large enough player piano, the Music Box’s metaphor could become reality.
Project Credits
Location: Aspen, Colo.
Client: Withheld
Architect: CCY Architects, Basalt, Colo. . John Cottle, FAIA (principal); John Schenck, AIA; Evan A. Barrett, AIA
Interior Designer: Cheryl Troxel
MEP Engineer: Architectural Engineering Consultants
Structural Engineer: KL&A Engineers & Builders
Civil Engineer: Roaring Fork Engineering
Construction Manager: Ryan McGovern & Jim Gohery
General Contractor: Koru Construction
Landscape Architect: Bluegreen
Lighting Designer: Scott Oldner Lighting Design; David Electric
Size: 6,800 square feet (split between two units)
Cost: Withheld
Materials and Sources
Acoustical System: Staggered wood frame; Topakustik (wood finishes); Maxxon (Acousti-Mat)
Appliances: Miele
Bathroom Fixtures: Dornbracht
Carpet: Hibernia Woolen Mills
Cabinets: Benchcraft (custom rift white oak); Bulthaup (kitchen)
Ceilings: Level 5–finish Venetian plaster
Concrete: Cast-in-place
Countertops: Miele
Exterior Wall Systems: Wood frame with batons; reverse standing-seam Galvalume
Flooring: Porcelanosa; Carlisle Wood Flooring; Concrete with acrylic paint
Glass: Low-E glass; Electrochromic glass; Vitro (Starphire ultra clear shower glass)
HVAC: Radiant in-floor; supplemental forced air
Insulation: Spray foam; 1½" Rigid, acoustic batt insulation
Lighting Control Systems: Xssentials; Savant
Lighting: Bega; Micro-K; Light & Green; Klus; No. 8 Lighting
Masonry/Stone: Colorado Buff; Colorado Rose
Metal: Galvalume; Plate steel
Roofing: Formed aluminum
Site/Landscape: Stone pavers
Structural System: Slab on grade with spread footings; steel-and-wood frame
Walls: Level 5–finish Venetian plaster
Windows/Doors: Loewen; Tru Architectural
Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
A family compound designed to marry an 1880’s Victorian residence with a modern, music inspired guest house addition. The Victorian’s guest home, called the Music Box, was designed to accommodate music recitals and comfortably hold the client’s baby grand piano. The design team looked at many iterations of scrims and screen mock-ups that would open up the guest house to the sun, yet still create privacy. The solution was to wrap the sides of the building in a continuous perforated galvalume, a thin aluminum envelope. This skin was inspired by the client’s favorite piece of music, Chopin’s “Nocturne in E-Flat Major, Op.9, No.2.” It stands off the structure through a batten/rain screen system that leaves the perforated melody uninterrupted. The skin allows light to pass through, but it maintains privacy for those inside. “Simplicity is the fluid achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art” – Frédéric Chopin In order to bring the musical composition to life in an architectural facade, the design team broke down Chopin’s composition into its discrete elements, i.e., notes, chords, and how long each is played. Using the same logic that informs a player piano to play music; each note, chord, and the duration in which each are played were assigned a variable – in this case, the hole size and number of holes in a group. The hole size indicates the pitch and the number of holes correlate to the duration the note is played for. Since piano music has a bass clef that is played with the left hand while the right hand plays the treble clef, we combined the two clefs into one music staff, such that all notes are expressed at the same time.
Project Credits:
Project: Victorian Music Box
Architect: CCY Architects, Basalt, Colo. . John Cottle, FAIA (principal); John Schenck, AIA; Evan A. Barrett, AIA
Interior Designer: Cheryl Troxel
M/E/P Engineer: Architectural Engineering Consultants
Structural Engineer: KL&A Engineers & Builders
Civil Engineer: Roaring Fork Engineering
Construction Manager: Ryan McGovern & Jim Gohery
General Contractor: Koru Construction
Landscape Architect: Bluegreen
Lighting Designer: Scott Oldner Lighting Design; David Electric
