Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SYNDESIS INC.
VENICE CA.
DESCRIPTION:
The house is located on a small 32x80 urban corner lot, in Venice California. The lots narrow
width demanded a rigid economy of materials and a reduction in layers of construction to a
minimum. The clients wanted to maximize the internal space to host a permanent guest, a
grandparent, themselves and their two teenage children. They also wished for separate studies to
conduct their business. The sites urban context also demanded greater privacy and separation
between the noisy alley and the house
DESIGN:
Fourteen six-inch thick concrete panels were designed to line up facing each other along the
longitudinal edges of the site, thus creating an elongated interior space. Eleven panels were
poured off site and trucked to the site, while three panels were poured
on site and connected to the structural steel. Through this
construction method, it was.
TIT-UP CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUE:
It is a two step process: First, slabs of concrete, which will comprise
sections of wall, are cast horizontally on the building floor slab, or separate
casting slab. Then, after attaining proper strength, they are lifted (tilted)
with a crane and possible to erect all panel in just 10 hours set on prepared
foundations to form the exterior walls.
These large slabs of concrete weigh 40 tons or more and average only 6" to
8" thick (152mm-200m). There is little formwork, since to contain the concrete only perimeter forms are
required. When they have attained sufficient strength, usually a week to 10 days, a mobile truck crane is
brought to the job site to lift and set them on prepared foundations.The erected panels are temporarily
braced, connected, and the joints between them caulked. The roof stucture is then constructed and
attached to the walls to complete the building shell.
For improved ventilation, windows and doors are customized storefront aluminum which, when opened,
completely disappear from inside view projecting entirely to the outside. Radiant heating in the concrete
elements
of the
floor, powered through the rooftop solar panels, allows the house to maintain idealDifferent
interior living
.
faade doors, windows
The concrete panels are
opening etc.
individually designed to
allow for windows
opening and to
articulate different
elements of the faade
The design aims to capture the feeling of a impure structure by mixing concrete and steel. The
hybrid condition creates an interesting possibility which moves forward from the modernist idea
of identity of structure with space. It moves more towards the idea of building material and
technology.