OBJECT TERRITORIES

LAMINATE
San Francisco, CA

Project
Residential, Retail

Client
Confidential

Size
1,338 sqm / 14,400 sqft

Collaborators
Oliver Pelle

This housing project explores the productive tension between readings of surface and depth.  This duality is developed on multiple scales: the urban relationship to the surrounding buildings – this being inherent to the nature of the site, the depth provided by both bays and terraces, and the performative variance built into the skin of the building. The buildings are situated at the ends of two blocks on very narrow sites facing Octavia Boulevard.  In each building, the ground floor will provide commercial space for neighborhood cafes and small retail to activate the street scene.  The glass panels at the ground level pivot open to take advantage of the mild climate and bring the public into the space. Floors above the street level provide varying scales of residential units ranging from a studio to a 2-bedroom flat.  Subtle shifts in massing are introduced between the two buildings by re-stacking the floor plates of the residential units.  The apartments receive abundant natural light due to the shallow footprint.

Conceptually the design consists as layers of three different types of space: service (bathrooms, stairs, and closets), open contiguous space (living spaces of the units: kitchen, dining room, living room, bedrooms, and circulation), and outdoor spaces (terraces).  These layers in conjunction with the façade negotiate around each other to define a series of zones within the plan that avoid long, attenuated spaces. The west façade is expressed as a series of positive and negative delaminating offsets from the building line that expand the typology of traditional Bay Area architecture.  Bays open up towards the south to scoop light into the interiors.  A series of terraces supply outdoor space to each unit while animating the upper levels with movement.

The skin of the building is made of an inherently active composite material that acts passively - vertical panels of laminated zinc and steel.  Bonding two metals with different coefficients of thermal expansion will cause the louver to bend open in direct sunlight as the zinc expands more than the steel – opening the building to both light and air. The panels screen filtered light while preventing direct views into the rooms from the street.  The variance of the façade relates directly to the local climatic context, passively opening up during sunny days and closing at night when privacy is desired.  The skin both negotiates and represents local climate conditions while creating a sensitive microclimate.