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For the design of a townhouse on Pine Street in Philadelphia,
Moto
Designshop created an animated
facade -- "deployable according to prevailing functional
requirements" -- that hints at the innovation within.
Behind the wood facades lies a composition of interior and
exterior spaces that combine to bring daylight, air, and landscape
to the inhabitants. That some of these spaces can be shifted
is at the heart of the house's innovation.
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Behind the ground floor's wood
facade is at some times a parking space, at other times a
small garden. In the latter condition, a two-story space is
created, and when the wood facade is slid to the side the
house is primarily open, the antithesis of its masonry neighbors.
What enables this openness is a 2-tier
lift that lowers the parking space to the basement, thereby
shifting the second-story garden to the ground floor. At first
glance this seems like an arbitrary gimmick, but it fits seamlessly
into the design's blurring of inside and outside. |
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The
plan is fairly straightforward, with three bays across
its 60' depth, vertical circulation along one party wall,
and services (bathrooms, kitchen) along the opposite wall
18' away. From the roof deck to the ground floor the exterior
space is at the center, then
the front of the house (the lift), and finally in the house's
backyard. So even though the house is three bays deep, it
is never more than two bays
from the exterior and sunlight
and air. Also, from the ground floor to the third floor,
the stair is a straight run and open to allow more sunlight
into the house. |
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To blur what is inside or outside,
the glass walls between the two spaces are operable, sliding
or raised to make seamless transition between the two realms.
That the lift is sometimes inside (car in the cellar) and
sometimes outside (parking space at grade) is a suitable extension
of how walls peel away to make the outdoors infiltrate the
house's various rooms. Without the lift, the house is still
striking, but its addition enables the landscape to come to
the fore in the inhabitant's lives, the automobile suppressed
to the space of the cellar.
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