Depth of Fields House

The overlapping of domesticity and work has lead to a condition wherein we are never fully private or public, and that we are always working. Instead of an architecture that confirms this condition, we ask how architecture might in fact reaffirm these spatial distinctions to ensure the tasks of domestic life, work, public appearance, and privacy are maintained and protected. We propose a house that begins with simple geometric orders that create distinctions within the domestic/ work realm to preserve their fundamental roles. We then link these diverse spaces more precisely through exterior rooms that enable an integration and separation of these realms. Our project begins with a simple separation of the natural and artificial world through the outline of a circle. This world is bisected with two axes that organize labor—immaterial and domestic—with equal hierarchy. Around these two axes, the project is organized into quadrants, each for an element of living. The use of a destabilizing triangular geometry not only separates the house into introverted and extroverted spaces, it produces difference within the coherent whole of the organizational framework. The superimposition of the three geometric orders — the circle, cruciform, and triangle — are linked together by a field condition of solids and voids. The voided rooms act as mediators between the distinct spaces and increase the usable footprint of the house. Within this way of life, relationships are clarified internally while always put in reference to the complexity of everyday life. The house is simultaneously structured, geometric, and hierarchical while being ambiguous, atmospheric, and a distributed field.