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Michael Bell ¦ Design

Chrome House ι Houston  ι Texas  ι  “Welcome to the end of the American Dream: an aluminum-clad loft has replaced home on the range,” writes the critic Aaron Betsky, describing the project. “Metal shines in the Texas sun. A wall of doors opens to whatever breeze might find its way through the sprawl of Houston. Everything flows, shimmers, and shines; nothing sits still. The only thing fixing you to a place is a grid of anonymous construction. You are at once free and in limbo. . . 



prefabricated butler building photo realistic
prefabricated butler building photo realistic
prefabricated butler building photo realistic
prefabricated butler building photo realistic
prefabricated butler building photo realistic
prefabricated butler building photo realistic
 

Michael Bell ¦ Design

Chrome House ι Houston ι Texas ι The design makes a domestic space out of a building that appears industrial, and sits comfortably in a rapidly changing neighborhood that accommodates both uses. . . .



This loft and photography studio for a Houston couple was designed to serve as both a residence and a place of business. The single structure also provides an office for a small graphic design studio. The building site is a typical Houston lot of fifty by a hundred feet in a part of the city known as West End, which has been under gentrification pressure as it is adjacent to River Oaks, an affluent residential neighborhood, and the Buffalo Bayou as well as downtown. It is a mixed-use area, with car repair businesses next to housing and structures that range from bungalows to prefabricated metal buildings.

While these kinds of juxtapositions are typical in Houston— there is no citywide zoning—this region of the city is even more diverse and fragmented.

By using a prefabricated metal building system manufactured by Butler Buildings (which featured lightweight materials assembled with simple labor techniques), it was possible to construct more than thirty-five hundred square feet of space on a very small budget.

Other low-cost items such as sliding-glass doors and aluminum window sections were also used, as were simple solar orientation techniques. The design makes a domestic space out of a building that appears industrial, and sits comfortably in a rapidly changing neighborhood that accommodates both uses.

“Welcome to the end of the American Dream: an aluminum-clad loft has replaced home on the range,” writes the critic Aaron Betsky, describing the project. “Metal shines in the Texas sun. A wall of doors opens to whatever breeze might find its way through the sprawl of Houston. Everything flows, shimmers, and shines; nothing sits still. The only thing fixing you to a place is a grid of anonymous construction. You are at once free and in limbo