Both projects are high-end residential. Dune house, at the top, is for a family of five in Amagansett, NY. Downtown Loft is a high-end residential loft for a couple in NYC.
Dune House was developed to be built with state-of-the-artgreen technologies, to allow the house to be constructed within a fragile dune reserve area. The base of the house is an existing building, and all water use, electrical, and materials are state of the art green, to give the house a less than zero-carbon-footprint. The builder for the house has agreed to use best practices to protect all native species on the site. The Owners have also hired a Landscape Architect to remove all non-native invasive species, and replace them with native plant species.
Dune House is a courtyard design, with the house and out-building arranged around a new, free-form pool, with glass sides. It is possible to look into the pool from the East and South elevations.
Both projects feature extensive woodwork, including cabinetry inserts by hMa collaborator, Miya Shoji, located in NYC.
Shown above: the magazine cover, featuring the entry area, into hMa's Won Buddhist Retreat in Claverack, NY.
Victoria Meyers architect, of hanrahan Meyers architects, is featured in Konsept Projeler (translates to Concepts Projects), Turkey's premier design magazine, in their December issue. Meyers was in Turkey, as the International Juror for the 2013 Turkish Archiprix. After judging the Archiprix, Meyers gave a public lecture, describing her firm, hMa, and how she and her partner, Hanrahan, have developed new typologies, studying ideas for Hacker-Maker spaces. Meyers is currently studying Hacker Maker in her design studio at the University of Cincinnati's School of Architecture, where she is teaching a design studio, with the concept of a Hacker-Maker. Meyers is the David Niland Chair at the University of Cincinnati School of Architecture
Meyers also discussed her upcoming book, Shape of Sound, during her interview with Concepts interviewer, Baran Danis, and the effect that the study of sound as a formal issue, has also affected the development of hMa's designs.
The article is reproduced below. I hope they had nice things to say! They gave hMa a beautiful spread, including extensive views of Won Buddhist Retreat, Holley House, DWi-P, and Infinity Chapel. You can find out more about the magazine, here: www.konseptprojeler.com.
Shown above, hMa's DWi-P, a new public building by hMa, featuring a first, Digitally Interactive Facade. The building had a soft opening in November 2013. The building is planned to have a formal opening, in 2014, after the DWi-P App is published, and the facade comes 'online' as an interactive public space.
Above: More images of hMa's DWi-P (Digital Water i-Pavilion). During her talk at the conclusion of the Turkish Archiprix, Meyers discussed the work of hMa, and how the firm's investigations into contemporary space include Bio-Morphism, and self-replicating systems. DWi-P is a building that shows this research, as it is a self-replicating system, repeating details that hMa developed in earlier projects, mostly at Infinity Chapel.
Above: hMa's Infinity Chapel. Infinity Chapel investigates Sound, through the firm's concept of Snd.BX-2 sound boxes. Infinity Chapel includes five Snd.BX-2 sound boxes, which act as sound and light transmitters, connecting a lower level Sunday school to the upper level Chapel and Reading Room.
Above: hMa" Snd.Bx-2 Diagram, showing how sound and light form the sequence from MacDougal Street to a rear, outdoor Garden Chapel.
Another detail shot of the entry sequence into the meditation hall at Won Buddhist Retreat. Again, hMa applied ideas that the firm has developed around sound as a formal design element. The Meditation Hall is designed as a space of 'silence'. The Hall features state of the art sound dampening details. If the Buddhists close the doors to the hall, the main hall is completely sound isolated from the surroundings.
Above: hMa's Holley House. Holley House is two Pavilions that float in a landscape, separated by a walled structure. The walled structure acts as a primary support wall for both pavilions, but also creates a separate zone of entry to the two pavilions.
Holley House: two pavilions floated in a landscape; a Stone Wall (inspired by artist Andy Goldsworthy) creates a zone of Entry and Circulation between the two pavilions.
Above: more images of Won Buddhist Retreat. hMa won an AIA Honor Award for this project. The project included a 550-acre site, where hMa designed the Master Plan, as well as the design of five buildings. hMa designed the site (which was a Brownfield site), and the five new buildings, to have zero-carbon-footprint.
Above: Won Buddhist Retreat: All woods in the project are FSC woods. The image, directly above, shows the Buddhists in morning meditation practice, at sunrise.
The mirror analogy above, is from Meyers' lecture, discussing how hMa uses the concept of 'mirror' on hMa projects. By replicating details and ideas from earlier designs, hMa projects form an eco-system, based on principals similar to concepts of design in the work of Skylar Tibbits. hMa's work is a 'self-replicating system'.
Credit for much the contents of this lecture goes to the insightful writing of Martin E. Rosenberg - an Independent Scholar, living in Pittsburgh, Pa.. I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in the contents of this blog post, go to Martin E. Rosenberg's posting on Inflexions: www.inflexions.org/n4_rosenbergthml.html.
For session 5, we look at the works of Xenakis and Le Corbusier, and contemporary influences on their works. This would include the incredibly rapid changes that occurred both socially technologically, fueled by World Wars I and II.
The music of that time reflected many of these changes, especially Jazz, and the work of artists such as Thelonious Monk. Martin Rosenberg relates many of these changes not only to technologies of mass production demanded by the wars, but also to concepts of 'complexity and emergence' in physics and cognitive science.
Le Corbusier and his atelier, including the amazing Iannis Xenakis, could not help but be strongly influenced by these changes. This would include Le Corbusier's direct reference to factory produced cars such as the Citroen (Maison Citrohan).
The fascination with the machine is also reflected around the same time, in the sound works of Pierre Schaeffer, who invented the idea of 'Musique Concrete'.
In addition to changes in architectural design related to industrial practices, Le Corbusier and Xenakis spent a great deal of time trying to solve issues related to climate in their buildings. Thus Le Corbusier's fascination with the development of new ideas about windows and window design (the brise-soleil; the aerator; the vision area of the glass). This compares to today's practitioners who are focusing on the development of several new ways of conditioning space, with hvac technologies asserting strong influence on the language of architectural design.
Le Corbusier and Xenakis study the 'climatic grid', above, at the Villa Shodhan in India, above.
Rensellaer Polytechnic's CASE (Center for Architecture Science and Ecology, above.
Scientific advances, in turn, have affected sound, and composer's interpretations of sound and music. In 1967 composer Istvan Anhalt composed the 'Symphony of Modules'. In 2008, architect Steven Holl used Anhalt's base composition as the determining geometry for a new house in Seoul, South Korea.
Again, we return to the original piece that I referenced by Martin Rosenberg. Rosenberg also references the composer John Cage's decision to foreground the interdepences between music and noise in a careful considered deconstruction of the calculus of music notation in the 20th century.
These formal overlaps and references that connect music, architecture, and culture in the 1950's are the subject of lecture 5, for architect Victoria Meyers' seminar: Sound Urbanism/ Sound Ecology.
A house in nature should recognize and respect the presence of that landscape.A retreat in nature should allow the silence of the forest to enter into the domestic realm.The choice of site is the most important decision for placing a house within any landscape.
A house should incorporate the materials of nature:
There is a fundamental relationship between the perception of sculpture and the presence of the human body.Sculptors think with their bodies and sense their presence in the world.The world-space is the raw material in which the sculptor inscribes the human presence.
The minimalists and the process artists have tempered our views of what defines sculpture.Their emphatic use of unaccustomed spaces such as floors, ceilings, fields, and even water and volcanoes (in the case of Turrell) has brought the surveyor’s view of the world into the art of sculpture.
Landscape
Land has so much potential
The scale of American nature was grander than anything that the Europeans who settled it had ever experienced.A house in nature should recognize and respect the presence of that landscape.A retreat in nature should allow the silence of the forest to enter into the domestic realm.The choice of site is the most important decision for placing a house within such a landscape:interior space can acknowledge and enhance one’s sense of the landscape without.
Plumb Run:Equal Elevations
Richard Serra, 1983
hMa's practice is based on the fundamentals of architecture:light, space, and materials.In 2002 we published a monograph of our work:the four states of architecture, a bookdivided into four sections that address this approach to the fundamentals of architecture:horizon, light, atmospheres, and ground.The four states of architecture is a reference to our attempt to weave interpretations of the natural world through our projects.Our projects range in scale from individual residences to buildings for institutional clients, galleries, and performing arts.In 2006 designing with light was published by Laurence King, documenting Victoria Meyers and hMa’s research into light.Designing with light was the first in a series of books mapping Victoria’s research into natural phenomena.Future publications include shape of sound (Spring 2014); and atmospheres.
In 2006 we completed Holley House in Garrison, New York.Holley House rests on two stone landscape walls that grow out of the ground plane.The two walls define an interior space.To either side of this ‘three-dimensional wall’, pavilions project into the landscape. The house is designed as an atmosphere of nature:an ancient stone wall in the landscape becomes a centering device for dwelling.Dwelling occurs in wall-less pavilions that project out from this central wall.
We build houses that connect people with natural phenomena.
hMa, Victoria Meyers architect, are known for their senstivity to landscape and site. This attention to site and landscape is evident in the images of the firm's Upstate New York residence, above. The house is sited on twentry-five acres in Garrison, New York.
hMa used a combinatio of wood and stone to create the reading of the house. In this case, the wood, a light-colored exterior ash siding, took on a similar coloration to the cut limestone used in two 65-foot long landscape walls that were used as major generative elements of the house design
hMa cut holes in the roof at various locations, to create framed views of sky. The house also has a relationship to water: in the pool beyond the stone landscape wall in the photo, above. And in the architectural promenade through the house to the lake, to the west.
The house was designed with openings that frame views of the house, in this case, the view from the porte cochere of the garage, toward the main living room space. The entry porch in the foreground.
Projects that were reviewed with the client during the design process include Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House. Above: custom screens were built, and create scrim views toward the landscape. View west, overlooking the pond.
Above: Landscape frames a living room, looking north. The house sits surrounded by old growth trees. Water to the north, and to to the west. Stone, water, wood, wind and light.
View looking east toward the living room, up the hill, with the pond, behind the person taking this shot. The pond is approximately forty feet below this location in the landscape.
View looking east, living room pavilion in foreground; master bedroom wing visible above the limestone wall, to the east, above. precision cuts in the formal rendering of the house frame views from one wing to the other.
Victoria Meyers: Designing With Light
New York Architects Victoria Meyers and Thomas Hanrahan believe that architecture is an environment, 'pure space', manifested in nature. The principals of hanrahanMeyers architects (hMa) have established themselves as unique visionaries, incorporating light and sound into their arresting designs of pure forms. Founded in 1987, the firm specializes in residences, art centers, and community spaces. They design spaces from a vision that connects visitors with the natural world.
www.designingwithlight.us
Victoria Meyers: Shape of Sound Architect Victoria Meyers analyzes the shape of sound; architecture and sound; form; materiality; windows; the urban sound scape, its politics, aesthetics and social character; reflection; virtuality; sound art; and silence.
Shape of Sound on Amazon
Victoria Meyers: Shape of Sound Victoria Meyers architect (Los Angeles, Ca.), principal of hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) explores sound as it effects architecture, urban spaces, and landscapes. Contributors include hanrahan Meyers architects (featured on the book cover), Stephen Vitiello, Michael J. Schumacher, David Mather, Neil Denari, Bruce Pearson, Howeler and Yoon architecture, and Joseph Ketner.
hMa : Green Initiatives / Sustainable Architecture
United Nations Environment Programme "Environmental Knowledge for Change" this site is an incredible resource on environmental and social issues around the world
Greenopia NY hMa is proud to be featured as a "Greenopia Distinguished Business"
41 Pounds A campaign to stop junk mail (named for the number of pounds of junk mail the average American adult recieves in 1 year!)
The Conservation Fund As part of our nature based vision for architecture, hMa gives a percentage of the firm’s annual revenues to nature initiatives. This year, hMa funded ‘Wildlife Corridors’, through the Conservation Fund. ‘Wildlife Corridors’ provide natural zones through cities and towns that link animals with adjacent nature preserves. This initiative is one of several cutting-edge planning initiatives that forward thinking architects will be adopting as we seek to harmonize human habitats with nature and create sustainable development.
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