The One Window House was designed by Architects Olivier Touraine and Deborah Richmond, Touraine Richmond Architects is the residential building that located in Venice, California, USA. The One Window House rises three stories, clad with large expanses of clear glass, polycarbonate, and corrugated-metal panels that shift between horizontal and vertical planes. To address restrictions that require sloping roofs for buildings over two stories, the topmost portion of the house’s east facade takes a sharp incline, which follows the path of the polycarbonate-clad stairway inside. All these elements give the facade its memorable, varied composition of alternating horizontals and verticals, levels and diagonals, and solids, translucents, and transparents.

Further regulations called for 5-to-15-foot setbacks away from the street and neighboring houses, limiting space further. The architects took advantage of this by planting lush native vegetation on all sides. They also maximized usable outdoor living space, creating a patio, a courtyard, and dramatic balconies on upper floors. The lofty, open-plan first floor enhances the connection with the outside through large, clear windows, sliding doors, and high ceilings. Yet despite all the exposure to light, the house stays cool thanks to cross ventilation, shade from surrounding vegetation, and curtains lined with Mylar that reflect heat and glare. Rather than being designed with a checklist of sustainable add-ons, says Touraine, the house is passively green.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Home Design Ideas. Tags: Architects Olivier Touraine, California, corrugated-metal panels, Deborah Richmond, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher, Olivier Touraine, One Window House, Touraine, United States, United States house, Venice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.