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The Binocular House  Hudson Valley  New York  2007  The slow approach to the house is the initial phase of movement that instigates the organization of movement . . .



 
 

 
Binocular House 2018: Assembly and Components
Work in progress: the Binocular House, Hudson Valley, New York. Originally completed in 2007 the Binocular House is being updated and its grounds newly designed by Field Operations.
A post construction study of the assembly and components with a focus on assembly process, part count, weight and materials. 

 

 
 

 
 

 
 
 
Michael Bell Eunjeong Seong Binocular House Glass House Richard Press Philip Gefter Ghent NY Mies van der Rohe
Binocular House 2008 Photograph by Richard Barnes
 
Michael Bell Eunjeong Seong Ghent New York Binocular House Gefter Press Kenneth Frampton
Binocular House 2018
 
 
 
 
michael bell architect
Photograph by Richard Barnes
michael bell architect
Photograph by Richard Barnes
michael bell architect
Photograph by Bilyana Dimitrova
michael bell architect
Photograph by Richard Barnes
 
Michael Bell Mies van der Rohe Richard Press Philip Gefter Farnsworth House Film
Photograph by Richard Barnes
 
Michael Bell, Eunjeong Seong, MoMA, Temple Terrace, Architect, Columbia
Photography by Richard Barnes
Michael Bell, Glass House, Philip Gefter, Richard Press, Bill Cunningham, Gefter-Press, Ghent, Rochtester Insulated Glass
Photograph by Bilyana Dimitrova
 
Michael Bell, Glass House, Philip Gefter, Richard Press, Bill Cunningham, Gefter-Press, Ghent, Rochtester Insulated Glass
Photograph by Bilyana Dimitrova
 
michael bell architect
Photograph by Bilyana Dimitrova
Michael Bell, Glass House, Philip Gefter, Richard Press, Bill Cunningham, Gefter-Press, Ghent, Rochtester Insulated Glass
Photograph by Bilyana Dimitrova
michael bell architect
Photograph by Bilyana Dimitrova
michael bell architect
Photograph by Richard Barnes
michael bell architect
Photograph by Bilyana Dimitrova
michael bell architect
Photograph by Michael Bell
michael bell architect
Photograph by Michael Bell
Michael Bell Architect Gefter Press House
Michael Bell, Glass House, Philip Gefter, Richard Press, Bill Cunningham, Gefter-Press, Ghent, Rochtester Insulated Glass
Photograph by Bilyana Dimitrova
michael bell architect
Photograph by Michael Bell
 
Michael Bell Eunjeong Seong Philip Gefter Richard Press Glass House MoMA Mies van der Rohe Mark Armenante Young Sohn
Binocular House
Michael Bell Architect Glass House Metropolitan Home
Michael Bell Architect Glass House Metropolitan Home
   


Michael Bell Design

Gefter-Press House  Hudson Valley New York  2007  The slow approach to the house is the initial phase of movement that instigates the organization of movement . . .



The Gefter-Press is sited on a twelve-acre property accessed by crossing a quarter mile expanse of farming fields before passing into a forested site. The slow approach to the house is the initial phase of movement that instigates the organization of movement and time in the building. A series of planar organizations, the pictorial depth of the approach and view through the house, is counter to the shallow spaces and movements of the interior where the buildings is as narrow as ten feet.

The programming of the building is coordinated with the visual depth—social relations are coordinated by floor heights, relations to grade (above, at or below grade) and diagonal vistas though the house and across the courtyard. The buildings structural glazing system—nine by fourteen foot wide insulated glazing units—allows a gaze to pass through the private as well as public spaces. The glazing has two details: it is either flush with the building volume and projected inboard of the structural framing (on the east/west elevations) or six inches outboard of the structural framing (on the north/south elevations). The sills are recessed two inches below floor level. The effect it to project the interior margins of the building volume outward and to asymptotically flatten the exterior view against the interior surfaces—the background is elastically pulled to the foreground and the sense of a middle-ground is diminished. The interior is precisely defined but also it dissolves  into the extended spaces and clearings in the forest. Vision is immediate and close and also distant. The simultaneity brings the space of the forest into the immediate circumstances of private life. The house can be opened to form a single volume: the two bedrooms open with interior sliding doors that match the glazing systems and form two oculus opening: when approaching the house they form a binocular effect that bifurcates the singular vantage of the house. The minor dimensions of a relatively small building cross a threshold opening to the wider field of the site. 


Design Architect: Michael Bell Architecture 

Project Team: Michael Bell, Thomas Long, Stephen O'Dell

Architect of Record: Stephen O'Dell

Structural Engineer: Nat Oppenheimer

Mechanical Engineer: Alteiri Sebor Wieber LLC

Photographs by Richard Barnes and Bilyana Dimitrova