New Mexico, United States
Anderson Anderson Architecture
Post By:Kitticoon Poopong
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| Photo © Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
Designed for an anthropologist and a
concert pianist, retiring from
Phoenix, Arizona, to this small New Mexico town on a desert site fronting the
Rio Chama—not far from Georgia O’Keefe’s famous home on the bluff above this house uses several relatively standard
prefabrication systems.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| Photo © Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
SIPs are used for the wall panels only, while the roof and floors are constructed of prefabricated 2×4 long-span
trusses. Although it was originally intended to use panels as the roof and floor structure as well, the house was switched shortly before construction to a truss system to simplify the assembly and to reduce the structural lumber splines required in the long spans of the panels.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| Photo © Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| Photo © Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
The owners have a number of animals, dogs and cats and occasional injured strays that they were concerned with protecting from the prevalent local hawks, eagles, coyotes, and rattlesnakes. Rather than compromise the design with the addition of a retrofitted
chain link dog run, we developed a thoroughly integrated animal house. For budget reasons, local contextualism, and appropriately barnyard practicality, we settled on chain link as a major material system for the house, protecting domestic animals and people from other animals or from accidental falls from the upper terraces.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| Photo © Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| Photo © Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
Chain link is an ingenious prefabricated system that can be rolled out and hung from above like curtains, stretched and bolted to the walls and frames with large, round, specially cut steel washers that can be inexpensively manufactured in quantity and made available as modular parts in the system. In some places the chain link stands away from the house, providing enclosure to exterior living spaces, and in other areas it hugs tight to the steel-siding-clad wall surfaces, providing visual continuity and textural relief to the large flat planes while at the same time providing a trellis for creeping plants that will grow up from the ground to further soften the profile of the house.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| floor plans--drawing Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| elevations--drawing Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| exploded axo--drawing Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| construction detail axo--drawing Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| daylight analysis 01--drawing Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| daylight analysis 02--drawing Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| daylight analysis 03--drawing Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| sketch concept--drawing Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| model 01--drawing Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
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| model 01--drawing Courtesy of Anderson Anderson Architecture |
The people
Architects: Anderson Anderson Architecture
Location: New Mexico, United States
Collaborators: Birgitte Ginge, Madeline Williams
Project Area: 1,900 sq ft
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: Anderson Anderson Architecture
