Introduction

The Smith House is part of a series of single-family homes rationalists that mark a first step in
the work of Meier , when it was part of the group The Five Architects.

The compact, prismatic shape of the house expresses a certain attitude toward the place, besides
being a refuge is also an object, reflecting and refracting the surrounding natural scene. The
house is rooted in the strong tradition of family houses New England self-sufficient units.

Situation

Site

It is located on a wooded hillside sloping comes to water, a plot of 6.070m2 where the house is
inserted into the natural landscape conceived as an artificial object overlooking Long Island
Sound at Darien, Connecticut , United States .

Following the indications of where the approach, entry, access, and the views are organized to
explore the contours of the site offers an unusual perspective of the landscape and water based.

Concept
Located on a hillside, the volume is a white prism that emerges among the trees creating a stark
visual contrast.

Starting operation -in the style of rationalism corbusierano some critics have characterized as a
mannerist cubic main volume, Meier is carving his work based operations of addition and
subtraction.

The back side is treated as a closed facade with small openings, the front face is an open facade
with large glass panels offering sweeping views of the horizon.
Spaces
The spatial organization of the house revolves around a programmed between public and private
areas separate.

Private area '

The private part of the house is in the area looking to the forest and the road and where the main
entrance to the house is located, it is the south facade. With a series of closed cellular spaces,
these private areas are organized through three levels behind an opaque facade pierced by some
windows intermittently placed. The author organizes plants according to criteria characteristic of
his early houses Zoning: at a later rectangular strip groups the service areas on the ground floor
and bedrooms on the upper floors, occupying the entire front with the sequence of living spaces
and reception .

Which gives the back strap to the top of the hill is encased in an opaque box with specific
geometrically arranged openings.

Public area

Contrary to private areas, public spaces, where the family gathers and shares his social life, are in
the back of the house, overlooking the water. In this sector the box is broken down into a large
glazed and laterally staggered front that opens to the downward slope of the hillside. This
scalability is produced by the successive social lag of three plants, phase shift which causes the
appearance of double and triple heights that contribute to the dramatization of the interior space.
From the outside, the ground floor and the upper levels appear as solid slabs studs firmly
attached to the shell white crystal.
The curved staircase that descends from the first floor to the natural terrain, cubic annex small
deposit and the access ramp to the house and the home box with duct adding volumes are
qualifying the central volume, while anchor it to the ground.

"... There is a formal stratification, giving a sense of progression, when the site is traversed from
the driveway, the shore, and the" progression line "identifies the main axes. Perpendicular to this
axis, the planes intersecting at home respond to the rhythms of the hillside, trees, rock
outcroppings, and the coast ... "(Richard Meier, Oxford University Press, 1976. p23)

Circulation

The circulation system that guides the movement through the house extends far beyond the limits
of the building itself. Within the Smith House, joins the horizontal movement of cells deprived
areas and also links them to the public areas.

The vertical movement occurs in the stairwell located within the area enclosed room. The largest
circulation pattern and the activity, related discrete spatial units inside.

The angle of the garage toward the path leading to the main facade and the curved wall on one
side helps draw the open area of the house. The access is located on the upstream side of the
house and the main view is towards the downstream portion of the land.

Structure
It is often thought, wrongly, that this house was built in concrete, when in fact made of wood.
Once it crossed the south facade wooden structure that houses the private areas of the house and
utility appears.
Section

The link between the two contrasting spaces that form the house, the private and the public
expressed through two structural systems. In public spaces, the structure consists of round steel
columns standing free supporting beams and roof, independent elements that describe the
pattern. In the private or closed side of the house, the walls are timbered load. External
construction materials, vertical paneling and glass, also serve to express the contrast between the
open and closed spaces. This abrupt juxtaposition of solid and void, incomplete without the
other, expressing an apparent tension and a dialectic between the two areas.

Suspended between the brick fireplace and structural pillars, the glass wall creates a subtle
tension that leads to who occupies a part of the outer life. The railings of the upper and lower
levels with a setback from the glass, accentuates this feeling.

The fireplace, located opposite the entrance, is pushed outward by a strict framework of uprights.

Materials
The main materials used in the construction of the Smith House are wood and glass, with
structural steel columns in the conservatory area and brick fireplace. Large glass walls allow
subtle reflections and light changes, according to the whims of nature. Natural and artificial exist
as independent, elementary experiences, though impossible to separate one from the other.