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Frank Gehry

Buildings and Projects

Essay by Germano Celant

Text by Mason Andrews


Spiller House
sheathing-in this case corrugated metal as well as The owner's house has, at ground level, a garage
Venice, Ca/1/omia 1980 glass, plywood, and sheetrock--does not entirely and entrance court. The small court is dominatC"J
cover the wood framing of which the building is by a large wooden entrance stair. Access to the
On a tiny lot in Venice, one block from the ocean, constructed. Rather, the framing is exposed in master bedroom is at the first landing, at the
stands a house that is actually two houses-a order to exploit its warmth as a material, the second level. The second run of the stair lands at a
two-story rental unit toward the ocean with a sculptural modulation of its serial elements, and trellis-covered area on the roof of the guest house
four-story house for the owner at the rear. Given the geometric richness of shadows thrown from it. from which u bridge leads back to the main
the extremely tight site size, the strict zoning The complexity and frequency of exposed frame entrance of the house. This thirJ-floor front door
stipulations governing the allowable floor area to elements, and their appearance inside and outside, opens onto the two-story living, dining, and
site area ratio, and the attraction of the ocean creates a kind of layered latticework which kitchen area. By the door, an angular, glass-roofed,
nearby, the planning and form tend toward a kind subverts a definitive understanding of the physical plywood-clad "bay window" breaks out beyond
of vertical expansiveness. In the words of one limits of the house: the interiors of the small the metal box of the house. The internal stair of
critic, "The interior spaces aspire to their houses profit by the ambiguity, and appear more the house winds up through the volume of the
skylights." But as with a corset cinched against too expansive. living area to a roof deck around the glass light
ample corpulence, mass and gravity seem to resist The guest house is accessible from the adjacent monitor. Having arrived at this uppermost reach of
and reassert themselves. A bay window, solar ocean-side street. Its living and dining area is on the compound, a view is available of solar panels.
panels, and skylights seem to have popped through the ground floor, which is open near the center 10 glass-and-frame roofs, trellises and stairs, spilling.
the walls of the houses. Other elements seem the skylight story above. Above the second-story as it were, Jown toward the ocean.
wracked by forces resisting orthogonal trussing: bedrooms and light well is a roof deck populated
stairs twist and cascade, a trellis sprays up over an by solar panels and the skylight monitor, the latter 1.Venice 2.Sketches 3.From guest house tou:arJ
angled screen wall. truncated by a privacy wall shielding the roof deck main house
Pursuing ideas explored with the Familian House from the owner's house behind. Panels, monitor,
and Gemini G.E.L's workshop building, and wall obey different geometries.

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I I.North elevation 2. West elevation ] .South elevation 4.East elevation 5.3.r,,l il, or 6.2nd floor 7.Ground floor 8.Roof deck 9.Upper living room

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