| | Wow, I'm really bowled over by your generous comments. Thank you everyone. :-)
I'll post shortly for you interest some more detailed comments on materials etc., but I'll try and answer you other questions now.
"You wouldn't have plans for a Monadnock Valley, would you?" asks Num++. Funny you should ask that - you wouldn't know a place here in NZ called Raglan, would you? :-)
The house was modelled in a great CAD programme called ArchiCAD - Hungarian software I would highly recommend to the serious student or practitioner of architecture. (It ain't cheap though!) :-) The story of the development of the software is itself an inspiring story that began with the smuggling into Hungary of two primitive Apple computers through the Iron Curtain in the back of a Skoda, and now sees it as perhaps the world's leading architectural software. I believe you can read about it the company's website, www.graphisoft.com
Graphisoft founder Gabor Bojar is another real-life Hungarian hero like our own Tibor Machan. You might try also http://www.time.com/time/europe/specials/eeurope/people/bojar.html
Michael, as always your own comments are inspiring. I'm glad you mention the complexity: I like to try and achieve something that offers a 'variety in unity' as Frank Lloyd Wright used to call it. When done well, as I humbly think I have done here, it offers the unusual situation of both simplicity and complexity combined. For example, I've really been enjoying 'walking through' the house in 3d and smiling at all the inter-relationships created between parts and between spaces, and how the spaces themselves are interrelated, and are 'massaged' and moulded by the 'kit of parts' of the building.
The carport itself is, I think, an ideal expression for a holiday home. It shoots out into the landscape and helps 'capture it alive' as the Japanese say. It is of course balanced by other parts of the house, including of course the cantilevered deck. It forms part of the 'pinwheel' of elements that radiate out from the house's centre.
Parking itself at a holiday home should be informal and relaxed and separate from the house's main social areas, and there should always be some undercover parking available for the inevitable classic cars which arrive. A gravel court can accommodate the former, but a sheltering roof is really essential for the latter.
The 'secret' of the carport structure is two steel beams that tie the whole house together - thus making the carport a real expression of the house; the primary beam extends the entire length of the house, some 21 metres long (about 69 feet) and is tied down by the weight of the brightly coloured entertainment unit, and the 'Nook.' The second beam runs some 13.6 metres, and is 'weighted' down by the upstairs bedroom. It's important for the 'seesaw' to all be in balance for course, both visually and structurally - the most lively appearance comes when
I too love the way the sheltering carport roof hovers over the ground - and I do like your use of the word 'hover': it suggests that the roof is in motion, which is another thing I like to try and have a building express: motion, combined with purpose - motion and purpose: as Rand said, the two essentials of a rational life.
And neither the motion nor the purpose should be dour - it should be bold, and exuberant, as he description of Halley's 'lost' concerto demonstrates: "It was a sunburst of sound, breaking out of hiding and spreading open. It had the freedom of release and the tension of purpose. It swept space clean, and left nothing but the joy of an unobstructed effort."
That's how I'd like you all to feel about this house. :-)
John: You're so right to stop and look and digest when you are struck by something. And I too love watching construction of buildings - and too often the 'covering' of the structure comes as a major disappointment: the structure is often the most interesting part, and in bad architecture sometimes the only interesting part. :-)
Regarding your comment about whether architecture should be considered art, might I perhaps point you to my own article on the subject at www.solohq.com/Articles/Cresswell/What_Is_Architecture.shtml
I think you'll also find the subsequent discussion informative.
Enjoy! And thanks again. :-)
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Project: Holiday Home
