Neugebager House Transformation
This project involved analyzing the structural elements of a significant residence, and then following a series of operative transformations to create something entirely new. I studied Richard Meier’s Neugebager House (1998).
Analysis of Neugebager House Structure
This vacation retreat was designed to facilitate easy movement between indoor and outdoor spaces. Its primary spaces are divided in a rectilinear fashion, allowing all of the primary void conditions to open outwards towards the ocean. Skylights on the unique butterfly roof condition illuminate the long longitudinal hallways that pull the viewer into and through the progression of spaces.
In Meier's original design, the main y-shaped rib structure stands upright. Those visiting the residence feel a division of space through the strong columnar progression created by the stalk of the y-shaped ribs. From these central columns, the roof extends upwards on either side, leading one's eye up and outwards creating a feeling of expansiveness.
Transformation of Original Structure
abstraction
rotate
mirror
twist
flatten
re-contextualize
final structural layout
My transformations seek to change this experience. By turning the rib structure on its side and mirroring along what was once the ground plane, the columns become a ceiling rib condition, and the arms of the y-shaped ribs become walls. From there, the twist transformation works with the long lines created through columnar repetition throughout this residence.
The gradual rotation of structural ribs enhances the way the original structure draws one's eye towards the back wall.
Keeping the ribs constant while shifting the orientation and adding torsion creates an entirely new experiential quality of the space, while still deriving from Meier's original spatial condition.
