Sapphire Gallery / XTEN Architecture
Our friends from XTEN Architecture just sent us one of their latest projects. The Saphire Gallery is a residential gallery addition to a private residente in Los Angeles, California. It is designed to display a private collection of contemporary art while also providing for a home office with views to the sorrounding hills.
More images and architect’s description, after the break.
The owners’ collection includes work by the artists Gregory Crewdson, Uta Barth, Tomoroy Dodge and the video artist Jennifer Steinkamp, and they expressed interest in a new building that would be more than just a container for their expanding art collection. The new building would have be multivalent; with suitable spaces for the artworks, but it would also have to be open to the views, provide for various domestic program spaces, and create a compelling new focal point for the approach and entry to the residence.
The new structure is grafted onto the circulation spine of the existing house and lifted off the ground to provide a minimal footprint. Freeing the ground plane creates a new multi-functional hardscape/landscape area for the family that they use as carport, children’s play area, for art parties and video projections. A structural system of lightweight braced frames was developed. They were factory built and assembled by crane in one day. These trusses rest upon moment frames that clear span the open ground plane in the perpendicular direction, and the floor and roof diaphragms are infilled with typical 2x wood framing. The system proved to be a remarkably simple, flexible and cost-effective way to achieve the program parameters of the project.
The remaining details are simple and direct: casement windows, quartz pebble flooring, steel stairs and railings with perforated panels, infill walls of gypsum board with floor to ceiling pivot doors, full height glass with a ceramic coating for UV and solar protection. An array of photovoltaic cells on the South facing sloped roof produces an average of 15kWh per day, enough to supply all the energy for the new building with a surplus directed towards the main house.
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21 comments »
Xten is making some nice architecture. This isn’t my favorite but there are definitely some great spaces. I would love to sit and read in that chair and overlook the tree canopies
Anyone know who makes/made that leather & wood chair in the 4th photo?
I did.
yum
@ patentpolice
It looks like a CH28 Sawbuck Chair by Hans Wegner for Carl Hansen & Son. The design dates from 1951.
Wow Mr Lucas Gray is back and finds one time something very nice!
Shameless admiration on my part for the work of Austin and Monica. It’s clean and unpretentious architecture.
Would you really live there? I wouldn’t. I mean, it could probably make a good office, but a house? I don’t think so…
I C E
Nice project, but I can see MJ’s point. A better selection of materials would really enhance the project
Let me give some background to the project. The “living area” about which the comments above may refer is in the original house onto which the Sapphire Gallery is attached. The original house was built in approx. 1958 based on a design by architect Edward Fickett. The functional aspect of XTEN’s gallery addition is intended to serve as an office (one room) and a play room (the other) that can display art. The design direction given to XTEN was to created something that does not ‘match’ the Fickett, but instead compliments it and is identifiable as being “50 years later.” The 2-car extremely ugly garage that was added to the Fickett house by the prior owner was knocked down and the XTEN addition was built in its footprint. XTEN was given nearly free reign (within a budget) to design anything it wanted that would function within the intended parameters. The key: find an architect whom you respect and let him or her design without too much interference from the homeowner.
Love the addition, greatly unimpressed with “the view.” :P
one banal question
how functions curtain behind irregular windows?
A curtain was installed in one of the rooms to decrease the heat load from direct late afternoon sun. The slightly recessed curtain track runs along the ceiling at the window. The bottom of the curtain is cut so that it is flat at the floor when covering the window. In other words, the curtain itself is longer at the end of the room where the ceiling is higher and shorter at the end of the room where the ceiling is lower. Another alternative would have been to raise the ceiling and then cut into it so that the curtain track could be installed horizontally. This would have allowed the bottom of the curtain to be uncut. This would have also allowed the installation of a roller into the ceiling so that a scrim could be used.
thanx! Mr.Lives Here i am just wonder if the architect did it for the family or not.
Zarch. I apologize, but I am not sure I understand your question. Please ask again. I will be pleased to answer.
hi Mr. Lives Here, you did answer my question. thanks a lot.
i want to say it needs more detail design for a private and intimate life of a family，such like Curtain :)
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