A project of mine on the upcoming Homes By Architects Tour exemplifies an elemental material palette of stone, steel and wood that I like to employ. To me, it contains the fundamental building blocks of architecture in their most basic state, with two being natural and one man made. Each one represents a response to three basic forces involved in structural assemblies, namely compression, tension and bending.
But all of that aside, I simply love their innate beauty and how they complement each other in their vast range of color and texture, sometimes crude and other times refined. There’s also an historical resonance that somehow pulls at the heartstrings, bringing warmth and comfort to the user. It’s a march through time with stone first employed, then wood and finally steel. In unison, they seem to draw from the collective memory of human habitation, striking a complex but soothing chord.
Each group can have multiple manifestations, such as concrete and tile for stone, and endless varieties of metal and wood. This house sports stone surrounds and tile floors interacting with fir screens and maple cabinets all held together with black oxidized iron columns and door hardware. If you let their natural essence shine through, then all you have to do is step back and let them dance.
