Madison House by XTEN Architecture

Architects: XTEN Architecture
Location: La Quinta, California, USA
Area: 10,650 sqm
Year: 2012
Photos: Steve King, Art Gray, Jeremy Bittermann
Description:

The Madison house is roosted on a meadow in La Quinta, California, close Palm Springs. Keeping in mind the end goal to shield the house from great desert conditions, the massing and materiality are designed to secure against the sun and solid Northerly winds.

Simultaneously the house opens totally along an East-West hub coming full circle in a tremendous indoor-outside living space with full tallness glass dividers that slide away to grasp the desert scene, light and mountain sees.

The undertaking was considered as a progression of unsupported volumes set underneath and between anticipating flat pieces. These unsupported volumes in stone, cement and oak are dispersed and designed to make the diverse sizes of indoor-open air space that stream between them.

Toward the South a huge volume containing administration spaces cushions the house against the sunlight based pick up, and opens to the yard, the kitchen range and at both finishes. Toward the North a volume containing rooms makes a windbreak to extreme winds that can reach 100mph. These volumes outline a patio, the fundamental passage entryways and a progression of glass turn entryways, the primary section to the house.

An East-West move in these volumes makes the space for an open kitchen/feasting/living range that grows along the side over the whole West rise. This is the principle space of the house and it opens totally to the scene. Glass entryways on three sides rotate and slide away and vanish into shrouded divider openings. The terrazzo floors and white mortar roof develop the space evenly out the scene. Separate auxiliary volumes – a stone chimney, a dim oak kitchen, a 30-foot long wood and marble island, an oak cupboard and drifting cast terrazzo stairs — grapple the space and hide all the structure and frameworks required for the vast compasses and cantilevers.

A fractional second story connects the lower volumes and contains the main room suite and an outside patio/chimney zone. The spaces on this floor are likewise arranged with solid volumetric, strong/void connections to make a free streaming indoor-outside arrangement of spaces opening to the scene.

While the arrangement is balanced and orthogonal, one navigates the space at a slant, with element corner to corner perspectives between the volumes opening space in different bearings. The volumes stamp the space however don’t characterize it, permitting the scene to wind up an essential and element a house’s piece.

The Madison house was intended to be more than just latently ecological. Building parts, congregations and apparatuses were chosen to accomplish natural objectives. Protected Concrete Formwork (ICF) dividers were utilized all through the undertaking, making super-protected R60 congregations. Four-foot thick stone and solid dividers, profound coating breaks and vast cantilevered shades were figured to shield the house from gigantic desert sun based addition. The house opens in each course to draw air during a time story warm smokestack. The yard reflecting pool and fundamental pool give evaporative cooling to the ground floor zones. Elite glass, high productivity mechanical frameworks, installations and photovoltaic boards further decrease the vitality profile of the house.

Like the desert atmosphere itself, the Madison house is a study in dualities. Expansive transparent spaces are encircled by enormous strong and altered components. Light white terrazzo floors and ledges are limited by dim break oak wood cabinetry. Harsh stone dividers outline openings of exact metal and glass entryways. There are eighty sliding glass dividers in the house, all arranged to slide away and vanish totally into concealed divider pockets. There are couple of materials utilized all through the house however they are utilized as a part of an assortment of ways inside and outside all through the house.

The outside dividers of the house are intended to mix into the desert scene. The stone dividers are quarried locally, and tying down the building to its site and to the adjoining mountains. The white level rooflines glide above and cantilever past these dividers, a progression of solid sculptural lines that identify with the scale and the desert’s horizontality, joining the house to its normal environment.