Gerendák (Part I)
The design for Gerendák, a villa on Lake Wylie in Charlotte, NC, has wrapped up. Construction is about to begin.
A couple steeped in the Queen City’s art scene had approached me with images of the Netflix series “Extraordinary Homes”, a budget, the need for soaring cantilevers, a one inch thick tome of neighborhood guidelines, the desire to enjoy the home when climbing stairs might be at issue, and big eyes and open ears. They were ready for their own modern home.
And so we went on a tour: understanding them, understanding the site, understanding architecture. We talked, we sketched, we explored, we flushed out a long laundry list, and inched through the design process. When everything was said and done we came up with this:
Along the way we assembled a great team of local specialists, whose expertise helped form the home:
Buddy Edwards of Lynn Luxury Homes - Construction
Geri Eaker of Freespace Design - Interiors
Intelligent Design Engineering - Structure
The Integrated Home - Smart Home Technology
The Design Process took us through several stages and lasted eight months.
Concept
After we had gone through the basics in the course of several meetings, had taken notes, and researched zoning and neighborhood restrictions, we sat down for a design charrette to flush out the first initial ideas together.
One of the napkin sketches offered this.
The idea of a one story home jutting out from over a cliff had been born. As well as the consideration of grouping private pods around a central communal space.
It checked off several points on the top of our list:
How to capture views of the lake from various sides of the most important spaces of the house?
By having separate pods, each could be individually oriented, having multiple exterior walls.
How to incorporate the topography?
The cliff idea allowed us to “pull out“ a 12’ contour line to create a plateau while otherwise orienting the structure to the natural slope.
How to create a handicap friendly home on one level, while being in the tree tops, soaring high in the air?
Plopping the house on the cliff, could give us level access from the driveway side. Making use of the cliff’s flat top. On the other side the house could be sticking out from above the cliff.
How to have an open floor plan for the more public activities, yet private spaces for certain functions? All the while some of these are changing and overlapping.
By secluding the 3 more private spaces, namely the office studio, the bedroom, and the music room, we had the opportunity to provide privacy. Having them overlap with and react to a central living space would allow for measures to blur the boundaries and adjust during the day or a life time.
Integrate outside spaces with the interior.
The pod idea would give us intermediate courtyard spaces on the cliff’s flat top, on the same level, offering a connection to the ground
Make use of the prescribed HOA material palette while sticking to our design ideas.
The cliff was destined to receive a stone finish, yet be sleek modern and cool. The whole setup was exciting enough formally to take the onslaught of any material requirement.
Capture day light, but don’t have it bake in the heat.
That was the trickiest one. Since the major views were right to the sun setting west. Which makes for inspiring sunset views but also would roast the house with the low sun. By having pods, we hoped to introduce, at the very least, the perfect southern sun in some areas and allow for opportunity for one pod to block the western sun to another.
We took our initial ideas and precedents to the HOA for initial feedback.
With their blessing at hand we took a closer look and developed the concept further. We introduced more issues from our check list. For example square feet in relationship to an expected building cost to keep the budget in sight. As well as a sense of rough sizing for certain uses, adjacencies of functions, flow and ease of circulation. We looked at the approach from the street, the intricacies of the topography, available septic field areas, keeping of existing trees, how to have a pool but no unsightly protective fencing, and the like.
We zoomed in further and developed conceptual floorplans. As we did we introduced more ingredients to the roux. The functions of the household and their relationship to each other was considered more closely.
At some point the music room emerged as the central space around which the rest would pinwheel. The heart of the house. (No pun intended , but the grand piano sure was telling.) The room was to open up for when the music should fill the house and be sequestered when privacy was needed for practice. It should also have some filtered views in the open state.
We also introduced a lower level for guest quarters and a workout room. To do so we fragmented the cliff a bit.
And lastly a structural system and exterior expression started to emerge. The house was born.
Schematic Design
Between the dreams of my clients, the specifics of the site, the budget considerations, the programmatic needs, and HOA gudiines the building had created itself. It felt like the perfect fit and checked off well against a long list of considerations.
One major headscratcher mentioned before was how to open up the views to the west which also was the direction for the worst solar gain. By partially using the structure as a buffer screen, we hoped to have found a solution that would also aide in the structural expression of the house, as well as providing wood post and beam elements to meet the design guidelines.
We were off to the races.
Next I started to hide a little and began to turn our ideas into real floorplans and elevations.
We continued to meet regularly to look at the work, trouble shoot and make changes. Confronted with the reality of an actual home, a finished design, new questions arose. Even the most granular concerns and wishes were allowed in at this point.
Design Development
Next we wondered how to build the madness in detail. I started looking at I-Beams, 2x4’s, and stone and played until things started to make sense. As I did, the aforementioned team was assembled and welcomed in. To make sense of it all. As the work became increasingly more technical I became more of a recluse, geeking out over one too many details.
My clients and I did not stop to meet regularly. Their attention also started to expand into the outboxes of the builder, the interior designer and smart home folks, while the structural engineer and I duked it out.
Construction Drawings
Lastly I shut my door and turned all of this into a thick set of construction drawings. 46 pages worth to be precise. The construction set’s purpose is to communicate everything we had figured out to each other as well as a host of other entities. Such as the HOA, Mecklenburg County for a plan review, subcontractors and the like. This last phase was entirely on me and the structural engineer. But I did continue to incorporate changes as they came in.
And now that the design work is done all eyes are on Buddy Edwards, the builder. I am looking forward to helping him out, turning lines into a built reality. I hope to entice you soon with fun pictures from the work as the boots are starting to get muddy.
~ Toby