In 2006, the Princeton Architectural Press Introduced the first monograph on the work of Tom Kundig, of the Seattle, Wash. firm of Olson Kundig Architects (then Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects). Tom Kundig: Homes featured just five distinctive homes, a small number for such a job. However, what it lacked in numbers it made up for in depth, with drawings, sketches and photos that explored the details of Kundig’s highly-crafted and often kinetic designs.
The newly published screenplay, Houses 2, expands upon the initial publication in just about every way, with more jobs (17), more photos and a bigger format. Large color photos superbly capture Kundig’s “refined and elegant, but at the same time tough, rough and matter-of-fact” structure, as Finnish architect and author Juhani Pallasmaa puts it in the book’s introductory essay. Most of the jobs have been in Kundig’s home nation; the rest are located in California, Spain and Idaho. Regardless of where their location, every one these jobs are prime examples of the designer’s industrial domesticity and his competent hand that provides warmth to steel and sometimes even turns a home into a literal machine.
Princeton Architectural Press
The Pierre, located on Lopez Island, Wash., was “conceived as a retreat infused into the stone.” A quick glance gives the impression that the home is literally melded together with the outcropping that drew the owner to the website. Reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright’s decision to construct Fallingwater upon that waterfall in Bear Run, Penn., Kundig’s similar strategy combines the home with the stone.
But nestling a home into a massive outcropping of stone isn’t easy. Dynamite was one of the tools required to excavate and smooth the stone.
Princeton Architectural Press
The stone’s presence continues to be felt within the home. Excavated portions of the stone were utilized as an aggregrate for the concrete floors, so they are literally created in the rock where the home sits. In addition, a powder room is carved from the stone outcropping found in the foreground of this photo’s portion. The living area is capped by a cylindrical skylight drilled through the stone.
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The layout of the home is quite easy, an L-shape together with the bedrooms in the brief leg and also the living area occupying the extended leg. The linear living area, revealed here, runs across the concrete wall found in the prior picture. In addition, we see another component that roots the construction in the landscape: a substantial green roof caps the home.
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When designing this new home in Montecito, Calif., in Santa Barbara County north of Los Angeles, Kundig designed to get another climate and circumstance.
The fire-prone nature of the canyon website directed the architect to choose fire-resistant concrete, steel and glass for the exterior. The steel was made to oxidize, giving the building a burnt appearance that allows it blend into its surroundings.
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Since the home overlooks the Pacific Ocean with views toward the Channel Islands, the south facade is all glass, shaded by a massive overhang and operable perforated shutters (the large boxes mounted to the peak of the columns home the mechanisms). These shutters also protect the home in case of wildfires.
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The 100-foot-long corridor that starts in front door culminates in the glass box shown here and in the previous photograph. The expansive stretch of glass, with its consequent views, provides a clear directionality for the home, which can be then further strengthened by the roof’s energetic shape.
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The entrance corridor is designed to funnel breezes into the home. To encourage this, the front door is a oversized dutch door, activated and calibrated by a system of locks, gears and chains. This is 1 illustration of how Kundig turns the home into a machine. The monumental size of the doorway requires a mechanical system layered across the home’s walls and other surfaces.
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A door from a live/work project in Spain is another illustration of how Kundig makes perceptible parts of a home even more specific by confounding expectations about how they operate. A stainless steel pivot door is inset with a pilot doorway, allowing for varying levels of openness between the indoor and outdoor spaces. It also remembers the grand doors using smaller inset doors that can be seen in church architecture.
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Another live/work studio, this time in Idaho, sees Kundig demarcating a very long rectangle on the expansive website to create both indoor and outdoor spaces. The enclosed indoor portion occupies roughly a quarter of the rectangle and is put at the northern end so the consequent courtyard receives plenty of sun.
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Built mostly of cinder blocks (CMUs), the main living area is raised to about the elevation of their courtyard walls and can be accessed via the stair found in the middle of this picture, which is also the middle of the plan. This layout lifts this distance over the winter snowpack and can be a clear sign of how Kundig visually reacts to climate (recall the funneled breezes of the Montecito residence).
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The north elevation is more closed-off compared to other faces, however it does include a little balcony (the secondary entrance when the snowpack is large?) .
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The inside is basically an open living area with a mezzanine for the bedroom over; the studio/office and utility room is downstairs. The publication’s description memorably describes it as “a Tootsie Roll Pop: tough on the outside and soft on the inside”
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The last few projects featured here demonstrate the kinetic elements of Kundig’s homes that make his designs so unique. Shadowboxx can be situated on Lopez Island in Washington State, but unlike the first home mentioned here, its website is a clearing in trees instead of an outcropping. “Changing doors, shutters, walls, and roofs always regulate the threshold between inside and outside,” a concept that is easily evident in the varying angles of their exterior walls here.
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From the closed position, the corrugated steel walls rusty such as the roof along with other walls — closed off the home from its surroundings. Though an improbable situation when the home is inhabited, this nevertheless makes it to be protected from the elements when required.
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In between fully closed and completely open is that the “variable” option: the amount of openness can be varied by adjusting the positions of three wall panels underneath the large overhanging roof as well as the ones of the sliding panels around the corner.
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In the open position, inside and outside are closer to being cut– an impact that is furthered when the sliding glass walls have been opened as well. The open position takes advantage of views towards the ocean and the Olympic Mountains beyond.
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About San Juan Island in Washington State is the False Bay Writer’s Cabin, a 500-square-foot glass box that serves as a writer’s retreat.
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This glass box may also become a timber box. The timber decks on three sides of the cabin lift “via a system of hydraulic winches, wire rope [ visible extending from every corner down to the deck ], pivoting sheaves, and lead blocks.”
Princeton Architectural Press
Kundig maintains, “It is intended to be a refuge of extremes, open or closed.”
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“In order to feel cold, you have to feel sexy; in order to feel secure, you have to feel at risk,” he adds.
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Kundig notes, “Contrast is the true measure of a comprehensive experience.” In its transformation into a closed box, the cabin offers the author a totally introspective atmosphere as well as a feeling of safety when he or she is away.
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The last examples would be the aptly called Rolling Huts, situated on a forty-acre floodplain meadow in Mazama, Wash.. Because of zoning restrictions that did not allow permanent constructions, Kundig designed these huts to be put on wheels to increase them over the indigenous grasses, floodwaters and, in this case, snow.
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Seeing one Rolling Hut is intriguing; viewing a group of these together is a joy, like they aren’t meant to be alone. Collectively they “are grouped as a herd,” glancing in the same general direction but not at each other.
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The exterior of every hut is covered in Kundig’s substance of choice: stainless steel. This substance provides the huts, and all his homes, a solid year-round presence in their natural surroundings.
Princeton Architectural Press
A closeup of one of those wheels seems in order. These hefty steel wheels certainly work with the palette of the rest of the design, but their size also signifies that the weight of the hut above.
Princeton Architectural Press
For fans of Tom Kundig’s homes, both of the books published by Princeton Architectural Press are must-haves. The first is famous for presenting the details of his kinetic designs. The sequel makes it crystal clear that his design skills are consistent across close to 20 jobs, irrespective of size, scale or size. Homes 2 also has plenty of interior photos. All these prove that Kundig both excels at crafting interior spaces that are acceptable for every home and customer and are as varied as his exteriors are kinetic.
Learn more about Homes 2 and purchase here.
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