The Stretto House, designed by Architect Steven Holl was designed in 1993 and has received the AIA New York award. The design of the house was triggered via a ‘Stretto’ form of music piece by Bela Bartok – Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste. This piece of music is separated into four main sections which consisted mostly of the use of overlapping heavy percussion and light string movements (Newby, 2010). Holl decided to follow suit and create four sections in the Stretto House and linking them by overlapping the flow of light and materials. According to Arnardóttir (2011), Holl integrated the ‘Stretto’ design by dividing space in a way that each part was important for the next.
Environmental Filter
Steven Holl has used materials which seem to replicate the flow of water; using large expanses of glass, light coloured slabs of concrete works and the fluid movements of the roof. Holl has used many facades based on glass to allow sunlight to filter through into the interior space. The facades are also shaped to frame its surrounding environment. Because of the glass facades, most of the rooms in the house have a great view to its surrounding nature and the existing dam; only spaces for intimacy and privacy have used brick layering. “Sited adjacent to three ponds with existing dams, the house projects the character of the site through a series of concrete “spatial dams” with metal framed “aqueous space” flowing through them. Pouring over the dams, like the overlapping stretto in music, water reflects the landscape outside and the spaces overlapping inside” (Holl, 2010).
Container of Human Activities
As seen in the plans, there is an Art Storage space available as this house was designed to house expansive art collections from the Clients. The Clients has grown up in a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, which they have become aware of living in a piece of art. The house needed to have a view of its surroundings as well as to store pieces of art. Arnardóttir (2011) states that the room is further divided into two units as ‘the first is rectangular heavy masonry which makes reference to the concrete dams on the site, and the second is of light and curvilinear metal which covers the various rooms – living room, art storage room, office, dining room and breakfast corner. Each of the rectangular masonry contains a service zone for the house – the staircases that lead to a bedroom and a sitting room, bathrooms, library and the kitchen. The last section of the house is a partially covered pond, a flooded room’.
Delightful Experience
The exterior of the house alone is very aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Steven Holl has designed the house so that upon arrival, overlapping of spaces occurring can be evident. The interior roofing defines the interior space. The materials used in the Stretto House captures unique sensory experience as it consists of using curtain walls of glass and concrete slabs to create such an outstanding piece of art. There are also strong contrasts of light and shadow within the house created by the strips of light from the overlapping in the roof structure.
Reference
Arnardóttir (2011) Stories of Houses; The Stretto House in Dallas, By Steven holl. Retrieved March 25, 2011 from http://storiesofhouses.blogspot.com/2006/04/stretto-house-in-dallas-by-steven-holl.html
Holl, S. (2010) Stretto House. Retrieved March 24, 2011 from http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?type=houses&id=26&page=1
Newby (2010) Architecturally Significant Homes; Stretto House. Retrieved March 25, 2011 from http://www.dougnewby.com/Architecture/Architecturally%20Significant/strettohouse.asp
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