April 2014 – Andrew Reach

Revisiting my archives, here’s a project I did as a Student of Architecture at Pratt Institute in 1985. They were published in 1988 in The “Pratt Journal of Architecture – Form-Being-Essence” published by Rizzoli.
Click here to see the book on Pratt’s website.

House That Wants To Fly

click on images to enlarge (except for mobile phones)

House That Wants to Fly

Along a sheer cliff where the pale between earth and sky is sharply delineated, the house precariously hangs by tenuous cords. Perched with the inflection of motion, it patiently waits to take flight

The body of the house is dispositioned in a symmetrical arrangement as a pretense of stability. The long staircase descending through the earth, leads to the entry of the house, continues again, and is culminated by a bridge cantilevered out in space. Secondary staircases lead to a wing-like observation deck. This assemblage of parts is a clever trick. They construct a “flying machine” imagery so that flyers overhead may be fooled. However, from a more earthly perspective, the house is a mere building.

Like gravity, freedom is a constant endeavor to be maintained. Never will the house be able to escape this earth binding force, but the essence of its form is the quintessential emotion of freedom: FLYlNG.