The Twin House

The Twin House

An Interdependent Shared House A Cross Section, Santa Monica, CA
Design Studio Project Fall 2016

The Twin House project is a proposal for a new intimate living style. It is a paired house designed for two people to share. The house has two separated lower levels for private use including a bathroom and a bedroom on each side. The third level is designed for sharing including a living room and a kitchen. The formal inspiration of this project is the zigzag shape of stairs. The double-glazed stair patterns are utilized as skylight options. The stair pattern is most obvious in the rooftop garden and the sunken area which are connected externally as shared open spaces.

The project started with the analysis of a feral object, which is a set of shared stairs in the Echo Park neighborhood. I was interested in the quality of the derivative symmetry of this object and other concepts that were observed including the contrast between the massive stair and the light railings.

The conceptual object from the previous analysis was developed as a small house to accommodate the functions of modern domestic living. The goal was to design a rigorous conceptualization of a house as a site for living, form as an inducer of function, and the occupation of a traffic circle as its location.

Based on my previous transformation and analysis, the house that I developed was a set of twin apartments for potential twins to live in. The first two levels are separated by a half-foot gap to emphasize the individuality of each part, including a bedroom and a bathroom for each. The third level embraces the interlocking to celebrate the moment of sharing and functions as kitchen and living room. The sharing rooftop garden and the sunken courtyard further enhance the connection between the two parts.