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Unusual Apertures in This Industrial Designer/Mechanical Engineer Couple's House

By Rain Noe - November 26, 2014

in Architecture

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Flipping through architecture blogs, I'm used to seeing modernist houses with the de rigueur Le Corbusier chaise longue and the Eames chairs inside. But this particular one jumped out at me because it's owned by an industrial designer married to a mechanical engineer. San-Francisco-based ID'er Peter Russell-Clarke and mech-eng wife Jan Moolsintong contracted architect Craig Steely to design their house, with some input, and the resultant structure has some very unusual apertures.

First off the garage. You've seen bi-fold doors before, but none like this:

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Photo by Ian Allen for Dwell

And a shot from the inside, where you can see the yellow webbing on either side attached to a crankshaft and the motor:

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Looking upwards from the garage is more coolness:

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I've seen wall-to-ceiling glass lots of times, but never interrupted by those cool porthole windows.

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They look even better from the inside.

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Going up to the roof, you could argue the whole thing is one big aperture. Check out their sweet indoor/outdoor kitchen, with half of it left unroofed:

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A large sliding glass door seals the space off, so that you can conveniently end marital arguments by literally and figuratively leaving one person out in the cold.

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Here's a video walkthrough of the entire house:

Peter's House from craig steely on Vimeo.

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There are more details on the design, and the story of the collaboration—"I rarely went to the Peter-Craig design sessions...you don't really want to get in the middle of two excited artists...." says Moolsintong—over at Dwell.

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Sam H

10 years ago

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Looks pretty cool.

No curtains or haven't been built yet?
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Ken J

10 years ago

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I love the idea of the bi-fold scissor garage door! It looks plenty sturdy with the metal framing. I would've tried hard to get the drive mechanicals off the door and in the space available to the right and have the shaft up top. Also, perhaps back the open slots at the top and bottom with some screening to prevent ingress of critters. It should be able to do that without detracting from the doors function and aesthetics.

I'd like to see what the privacy shades look like. I see some "projector screen slots" up in the ceiling by the windows and assume that's where they reside.

With all the money put into the beauty of the house, I'd spend a little bit extra and pay to have the neighbors, unsightly chimney stack replaced :p
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Toby

10 years ago

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Fancy, but with some caveats. The bifold door is cool, but looks a little flimsy (not that most garage doors would stand up to, say, a cordless sawz-all), seems like it could have been made out of square steel tube without losing much visual punch. The portholes are striking, and their metal frames do seem to have some kind of gasket around them, but I would worry about expansion and contraction causing them to crack the panes they are punched through...
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Mofoco

10 years ago

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Beautiful doors. Look like they'd chop you into bits.

Then the inside shows the modern reality. Lots of steel, motors, sensors, and all the requisite safety warning stickers.
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