The douglas house :

Architect Richard Meier

Location Harbor Springs, Michigan   map
Date 1973   timeline
Building Type house
Climate temperate Subscribers - login to skip ads

Context lakeside slope

Style Modern
Notes white massing rising from evergreens.

http://www.richardmeier.com/current/PROJECTS/Douglas.html

The Douglas House is dramatically situated on an isolated site that slopes down to Lake Michigan.
So steep is the fall of the land from the road down to the water that the house appears to have been
notched into the site, a machined object perched in a natural world. The entry to the house extends
beyond the building envelope. Here, as the sharp downhill grade of the land requires the house to
be entered at roof level, it takes the form of a flying bridge that seems to shear off the top of the
frontal plane. The east side, facing the road, is the private zone, protected by a taut white
membrane pierced by square apertures and horizontal strip windows. The unimpeded flow of space
between this wall and the hillside is accentuated by the roof-level bridge, and experienced as an
activated void that further seals the private zone from the road. Once inside the entry vestibule, the
view opens to the West, down to both the living and dining levels, and out to a large roof deck
overlooking Lake Michigan. As in the Smith and Hoffman houses, the living-room fireplace is located
directly opposite the entry, but in this case it is two stories below. At roof level, its stainless-steel
smokestacks act as a foil to the entry and frame the view. Horizontal circulation moves along four
open corridors, stacked one above the other behind a screen wall. Internal and external staircases
provide vertical passage at the corners. A skylight running nearly the full length of the roof-deck
focuses sunlight into the living room, reinforcing the separation between the public and private
sectors of the house.The living room virtually hovers in the landsape within three glass walls. The
fireplace anchors the room, binding the floor to the lake's horizon as if the water itself were
cantilevered from the bricks. The house's levels can be traced in the mullions of the glazing. The
dramatic horizontals of the lake's surface, the horizon, and the shoreline elide into these
articulations. Vertical mullions fan out from the corners, carrying with them the lines of the great
trees alongside the house. The unimpeded flow of space from inside to out, so powerfully inscribed
in the Smith House, is rendered more profound.Photo 1: ©Scott Frances/EstoPhoto 2: ©Ezra
Stoller/EstoPhoto 3: ©Scott Frances/Esto

http://www.coroflot.com/syrahsimon/autocad/4
http://www.archdaily.com/61276/ad-classics-douglas-house-richard-meier/flrplan/

entry floor plan

http://www.archdaily.com/61276/ad-classics-douglas-house-richard-meier/
Hovering over the shores of Lake Michigan, the Douglas House was built by Richard Meier
in 1971-1973 for Jim and Jean Douglas. The house is gently placed on a steep slope over the
water, almost as if it is floating amongst the trees. As Meier stated about the house, “So steep
is the slope to the water that the house appears to have been dropped into the site, a machine-
crafted object that has landed in a natural world. The dramatic dialogue between the
whiteness of the house and the primary blues and greens of the water, trees, and sky allows
the house not only to assert its own presence but to enhance, by contrast, the beauty of its
natural environment as well.”

More on the Douglas House after the break.

Due to its location, Meier layered four floors and anchored the house into the hill.  The entry
is on the east side of the house facing the road, which Meier considers the “private” zone
and is expanded by a roof-level bridge. Once inside the entry vestibule there is a continuation
to a roof-deck, and the living room and kitchen are seen two stories below with the fire place
in view across from the entry, typical in homes designed by Meier.

© Flickr / joe83ltu

The “public” zone of the house, including the living room and dining room, faces Lake
Michigan and gives the impression of a completely different place when compared to the
deceiving one-story entry space. The living room is open to the surrounding landscape with
three large floor-to-ceiling windows, which was heavily used on the western side of the house
to take advantage of the view. It also receives sunlight through a skylight that further
separates the public and private zones. The bedrooms were designed small and cabin-like,
intimate for their private function. The layers of the floors are read on the exterior through
these window mullions, and the interior public and private zones can also be determined
depending on the number and sizes of the windows.
© Flickr / joe83ltu

Circulation through the house is primarily horizontal with the open floor plans except for two
staircases, one interior and one exterior, on the corners of the house. Their placement was
intended in order to not interrupt the horizontal views towards the outdoors.
© Flickr / joe83ltu

As is typical of Meier buildings, the house is completely white made with reinforced

concrete and glass except for two steel pipes that extend from the chimney up to the roof,
framing views at the entry level. The white of the house allows it to stick out as a man-made
object on the landscape during the changing colors of the seasons, which can be experienced
inside through the large glass panels. These natural surroundings were also taken into
consideration during the construction of the house where as few trees were removed as
possible in order to leave the landscape in its most natural state while forcing the house to
integrate with it.
After a three year construction period, the Douglas House was completed. Meier furnished
the home with furniture designed by Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and himself, and
when completed it needed no ornamentation other than the nature it was designed around.
Meier’s work enabled the house to extend with the natural horizontals of the shoreline, the
lake’s surface, and the horizon while following the pattern of the trees with vertical mullions,
creating generous spacious continuity from interior to exterior.

Architect: Richard Meier

Location: Harbor Springs, Michigan
Project Year: 1971-1973
Photographs: Depending on the photograph: AIA or on Flickr and seen on
WiredNewYork, joe83ltu
References: RichardMeier.com, MyNorth, WiredNewYork
elevation

floor plan
 west elevation

http://cubeme.com/blog/2008/02/15/douglas-house-by-richard-meier/
 The Douglas
House design by one of our favorite architects, Richard Meier is based on the shores of Lake Michigan. The
house is one of several spectacular residences Richard Meier completed early in his career and that helped to
solidify his reputation. The whiteness and pure geometry of the house stand in sharp contrast to the pine trees
that surround it. The openness of the plan and the glass elevations ensure dramatic lake and shoreline views

throughout

http://www.essential-architecture.com/ARCHITECT/ARCH-meyer.htm

Richard Meier's Douglas House

1971-73
Harbor Springs, Michigan USA
On a steep and obviously isolated hill in the Michigan town of Harbor Springs sits the
Douglas House, one of my personal favourites of Meier's private homes. It looks larger than
it really is, because of all the glass, but I can assure you its footprint is small, and its multi-
leveled "wedding cake" design is carefully executed to anchor it on this hill:

House on a Hill - The "Public" Sector of the Douglas House

© k-NAP
The "public" sector of Douglas House - "public/private" are Meierian expression - faces Lake
Michigan. To get there, however, one must drive, walk or cycle along a narrow road and
enter on the eastern or "private" side. That side looks like it is not part of the structure at all,
with few windows and the look of a white wall. This rear entrance is actually to the roof of
the building, via a “flying bridge”. After descending into the building, which is essentially a
summer retreat, imagine relaxing in this interior space:
Douglas House - Interior

(complete with chairs that are designed by

Le Corbusier)

Closed Blind View from One Direction

View of Area from Reverse Direction with Blinds Raised
 © flickr / joe83ltu on left, k-NAP on right
More on Douglas House - the 'Private Side' exterior

Quote:

"So steep is the slope to the water that the house appears to have been dropped into the site,
a machine-crafted object that has landed in a natural world. The dramatic dialogue between
the whiteness of the house and the primary blues and greens of the water, trees, and sky
allows the house not only to assert its own presence but to enhance, by contrast, the beauty
of its natural environment as well."

— Richard Meier, Richard Meier, Architect, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976)

We have already noted that the "front entrance" is seldom shown on either the Smith or the
Douglas House. Further, that Meier prefers to call this side - the "private side" (or "private
sector," if there are two or more sides involved). Why does he do that? Let's take two views
of the Douglas House on the private side:
 Private Side of Douglas House:

left is entrance via the "flying Bridge"

right is view from that bridge on the northeastern side

© flickr / joe83ltu
There is no attempt to dress this side up. For Meier, this is a private side that is meant only
for service and entry functions. The flying bridge, which is a vaguely Medieval phrasing,
evokes the image of a moat and crossing into a protected castle.
Below is a black-and-white view of the public sector, photographed by the AIA. The house
actually sits on a seamless pedestal, that is the same width and depth of the visible part of the
structure. Those pipes you see are stainless steel, and are connected to a white box because
they are flues to a fireplace that lies primarily within this white box.

Public Sector of Douglas House:

 © AIA

Please review the top of the building, above, As reference points, note that the roof deck has
a single tubular bar for railing, and the tops of the flues ascend beyond that rail before
terminating. With these references,you can easily transition to the closeup pictures that
follows:

Roof/Deck of House
© flickr / joe83ltu

There are two sets of staircases - the interior staircase if you look at the prior post's overview
picture is on the left side; the exterior staircase is on the opposite side. The staircases are
deliberately placed on the edges of the structure to avoid any obstruction to Meier's
directional viewing plan.

These photographs were made as the photographer came down two storeys of the exterior
staircase:
all images derived from: © flickr / joe83ltu

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http://www.objetdeco.com/suite_home/immo.php?id=193&type=part&typeid=13

http://www.fbe.unsw.edu.au/exhibits/Rayshade/ca1-93s2/images/lim4.jpg