E-House

Recently I started thumbing through Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language" again after letting it languish on my bookshelf for some time.  This monumental book on architecture, building, and planning was first published in 1977 and remains one of the best selling books in architecture (ranked #19 in Amazon's books in architecture,) though perhaps not so much for current architectural students and professionals. (It was never once mentioned in my graduate career in architecture at UF and was not heard of by my cohorts in the studios, who admittedly were 20 to 30 years my junior at the time.)  I no longer remember how I came across the book but I remember purchasing it from Cody's in Berkeley; it must have been at least 25 years ago.  The book had a profound influence on my becoming an architect, though the event seems to have taken place haphazardly.  


The book is like a manual which gives ordinary people a systematic guide to thinking about a building project from the most abstract level to the most minute details.  The "languages" of the book range from the macro scale of region, town, community, neighborhood, down to the micro scale of individual buildings and rooms, and a considerable portion of it deals specifically with dwellings.  To my unsophisticated eye at the time, it was the last which attracted me the most.  I don't know how many house plans I drew up before I ever contemplated the possibility of studying architecture.  It is said that it's every architect's dream to have built a house for himself or herself that incorporates all the wisdom she has accumulated and the ideals she perhaps has forgotten or given up on.  I have long ago abandoned the thought of ever building a "dream" house for my own, not so much because of financial reality but just in the recognition that "dreams" are essentially unrealizable.  


However, it has never stopped me from thinking about it and doing it over and over again. This post is to show you my latest attempt in designing a house for Kirk and I.  I called it "E-House" because its shape resembles an extended letter "E", a long, thin bar on one side with three short bars (wings) extending from it, separated by two voids (open courtyards.) This is my favorite house design as of now and I wouldn't mind building it and living in it, whether it ascends to the realm of the ideal or the dream is of no importance.


Here are some rendered images and computer-generated walk-through videos.  For more information, please see the E-House page on my website.