Towering thoughts.
I was looking over the plans last night when I had a thought about the tower and the approach to its final integration into the design. Guillermo gave me a homework assignment...to think about the purpose of each of the spaces defined as the levels of the tower. How were they to feel, what were they to mean, how where they to be used?
I thought about this a lot. I have finally begun to get some clarity on them.
The mezzanine, the level above the kitchen, should be an intimate gathering space. I am thinking about a low wide table on the ground, its top about the height of the bottom of the window, maybe a couple inches more. Pillows, or low chairs. hanging low lamps. Close friends, drinking tea, or water, or beer, under low light, with the sound of the ocean and the breeze flowing through the space. I picture raised areas against the walls, incidental perches. Occasionally, we will decide to stretch out on the cushions and sleep there. I see 5 people, not more than 7, in this space. Nestled in the tops of the trees. The kitchen should warm the tone from below, and allow for quick trips to refill water bottles and tea pots.
The top space should clear, and open and present. The view should dominate, and even awe. There should be ceiling to floor glass, so that the outside cannot be diminished. The floor should be perfectly flat. Polished wood, oriented running toward the front window. It should feel like a Zen-do, a window on the world, a ballet studio, a looking glass, like consciousness- perfect and breathless in its immediately and simplicity. There will not be much talking in this space. People will look out, and just sit and do nothing extra.
I can see it in my head with fair distinction. The bottom floor reds and blues, candles, sounds, laughter, and warm, this floor, whites and woods, and glass.
So I had a thought...and I like it. Instead of having the outdoor staircase on the right (North) side of the tower, which has always seemed awkward to me and ruinous of the profile of the upward gesture, place the outdoor stair case on the rear, on the street side, on the east side. It feels right. There, people with a fear of heights will look out to the road level and it will not seem as high when they climb. The stairs will be in the back of the Zendo, and the back of the terrace, allowing both spaces to remain focused forward. In the Zendo, nothing will break the lines of the side and front of the space. I like this. In the terrace, as you mount the stairs, you will be completely unaware of the beach view, until you crest the railing. Then...wham. I think the 11.5 foot width will permit the stair case to run here. The only obstacle I see is the water ejection port for the "flat" roof which really has a sloped roof hidden under the deck. If the staircase is Corten and the tower corten, it will add interest to have a spare cantilevered stair case punctuating the tower.
This led me to a second realization. Guillermo had mentioned that he was using spiral staircases for the bottom floors and rungs, or steep stair cases for the tower. He wanted to visually separate them. It makes sense. Still, I could no get my head around the rungs, and I, for some reason totally unknown to me, don't like the spiral stairs in a bedroom. So, I thought, swap them. Spiral Stairs to the Zendo. The railing is on the back side of the zendo. That means from the hole in the floor forward, the ground is perfectly uninterrupted. Looking back, you would see no stairs, just the door to the roof. The spiral staircase, for me, then becomes a Spinal cord for the tower, with the Zendo as the head, the mezzanine/tea room as the neck, and the kitchen as the shoulders. I think it totally works. The stairs to the terrace become a flowing main, and one climbs to the area over the head, the source of the seventh chakra, when one gets to the top. A stretch? Maybe, but tell me that does not work for you? Then stairs, of course, into the bedroom. Stairs to me are intimate in a bedroom way. I don't mind a stair case in a bedroom. One thing I like about stairs, is that they create negative space beneath them. All sorts of things can hide there, like dreams.
The last change I would make the the plans as they are, is the windows of the Zendo. Currently, the front wall is floor to ceiling glass. That is as it should be. The left wall is half glass. The right wall has no glass. I think it should go like this...
Left wall should be about half, or a third, glass. Floor to ceiling. If the building cannot support a jointless corner of glass, then a steel beams width up to 1.5 feet of a wall before the front wall. The front wall, completely glass. the right wall should mirror the left. Without the staircase, it can be done. Woodflooring to the glass. A person, sitting on a cushion before the window, will be surrounded by the view. As if completely out of doors. Like the human head, eyes on each side, and the best view straight forward.
This seems to break the riddle of the tower to me. Tell me what you think.
I was looking over the plans last night when I had a thought about the tower and the approach to its final integration into the design. Guillermo gave me a homework assignment...to think about the purpose of each of the spaces defined as the levels of the tower. How were they to feel, what were they to mean, how where they to be used?
I thought about this a lot. I have finally begun to get some clarity on them.
The mezzanine, the level above the kitchen, should be an intimate gathering space. I am thinking about a low wide table on the ground, its top about the height of the bottom of the window, maybe a couple inches more. Pillows, or low chairs. hanging low lamps. Close friends, drinking tea, or water, or beer, under low light, with the sound of the ocean and the breeze flowing through the space. I picture raised areas against the walls, incidental perches. Occasionally, we will decide to stretch out on the cushions and sleep there. I see 5 people, not more than 7, in this space. Nestled in the tops of the trees. The kitchen should warm the tone from below, and allow for quick trips to refill water bottles and tea pots.
The top space should clear, and open and present. The view should dominate, and even awe. There should be ceiling to floor glass, so that the outside cannot be diminished. The floor should be perfectly flat. Polished wood, oriented running toward the front window. It should feel like a Zen-do, a window on the world, a ballet studio, a looking glass, like consciousness- perfect and breathless in its immediately and simplicity. There will not be much talking in this space. People will look out, and just sit and do nothing extra.
I can see it in my head with fair distinction. The bottom floor reds and blues, candles, sounds, laughter, and warm, this floor, whites and woods, and glass.
So I had a thought...and I like it. Instead of having the outdoor staircase on the right (North) side of the tower, which has always seemed awkward to me and ruinous of the profile of the upward gesture, place the outdoor stair case on the rear, on the street side, on the east side. It feels right. There, people with a fear of heights will look out to the road level and it will not seem as high when they climb. The stairs will be in the back of the Zendo, and the back of the terrace, allowing both spaces to remain focused forward. In the Zendo, nothing will break the lines of the side and front of the space. I like this. In the terrace, as you mount the stairs, you will be completely unaware of the beach view, until you crest the railing. Then...wham. I think the 11.5 foot width will permit the stair case to run here. The only obstacle I see is the water ejection port for the "flat" roof which really has a sloped roof hidden under the deck. If the staircase is Corten and the tower corten, it will add interest to have a spare cantilevered stair case punctuating the tower.
This led me to a second realization. Guillermo had mentioned that he was using spiral staircases for the bottom floors and rungs, or steep stair cases for the tower. He wanted to visually separate them. It makes sense. Still, I could no get my head around the rungs, and I, for some reason totally unknown to me, don't like the spiral stairs in a bedroom. So, I thought, swap them. Spiral Stairs to the Zendo. The railing is on the back side of the zendo. That means from the hole in the floor forward, the ground is perfectly uninterrupted. Looking back, you would see no stairs, just the door to the roof. The spiral staircase, for me, then becomes a Spinal cord for the tower, with the Zendo as the head, the mezzanine/tea room as the neck, and the kitchen as the shoulders. I think it totally works. The stairs to the terrace become a flowing main, and one climbs to the area over the head, the source of the seventh chakra, when one gets to the top. A stretch? Maybe, but tell me that does not work for you? Then stairs, of course, into the bedroom. Stairs to me are intimate in a bedroom way. I don't mind a stair case in a bedroom. One thing I like about stairs, is that they create negative space beneath them. All sorts of things can hide there, like dreams.
The last change I would make the the plans as they are, is the windows of the Zendo. Currently, the front wall is floor to ceiling glass. That is as it should be. The left wall is half glass. The right wall has no glass. I think it should go like this...
Left wall should be about half, or a third, glass. Floor to ceiling. If the building cannot support a jointless corner of glass, then a steel beams width up to 1.5 feet of a wall before the front wall. The front wall, completely glass. the right wall should mirror the left. Without the staircase, it can be done. Woodflooring to the glass. A person, sitting on a cushion before the window, will be surrounded by the view. As if completely out of doors. Like the human head, eyes on each side, and the best view straight forward.
This seems to break the riddle of the tower to me. Tell me what you think.
posted by warnerk at
11:41 AM
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