Porch House

The Calistoga Porch House continues an extensive conversation about the often obscure intersections of public and private spaces as well as the thresholds that are often meant to define them. Sitting comfortably within the eccentric and community centric Cedar Street, the house was tasked with building and nourishing relationships within the clients family, those who lived in the same street and those who didn't, neighbors and the street who form the bonds that make living in Cedar Street so attractive. Beyond observing the quaint homes filled with character, tree lined streets and the eclectic demographic of neighbors, it's hard to miss that the porch is the hub that celebrates the often serendipitous moments of community interaction.

With this essentially community driven premise, the Calistoga House attempts to reinterpret and extend this threshold provided by the porch to further obscure the delineation between public and private spaces. The front porch is not only expanded to consume a much larger face of the building but the porch is also extended inward in a band that facilitates the fluid transformations of spaces from porch to threshold to dining and into the open deck (Is there a better word?). This constant tension between private and public allows for an indoor/outdoor living experience whilst pushing and pulling at the layers of privacy and security. The final result of this interaction is a space open for a myriad of human interactions, connecting not just the clients' family but extending that connection with the street and its inhabitants into the house to create more spaces for gathering. A public space with private implication, the porch, becomes a private space with a level of collective interaction. The rest of the program now starts to orient around this extended seam of the porch. At the end of this extended porch the building materials also interlock along the seam creating three conditions, wood, white and the transparency of the porch itself. Like the porch, the warmth of the wood has implications of house, private, but also a welcome and this transformation of materials wraps into the porch with its glass transparency and weaves weave into the white. A reflection of how public becomes a much more complex interpretation of private and public(possibly unnecessary?). The result of this movement is the porch condition molds the program and materials to create the sense that the house is welcoming you in, to live but also to gather and to connect with new friends and loved ones.

4,200 SF

Project Team: Mike Mahmoudian & Associates Structural Engineers, BKF Civil Engineers, Wright Residential Builder