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The Boat House at Villanova Heights

Grounds surrounding a Riverdale, NY replica of Eileen Gray's E-1027.

  1. Inspiration

    Images of Eileen Gray's E-1027, aka The Boat House, on the Fench Riviera. It is an intimate house, which was doubled in size for this project.

  2. Sketches

    Doodles riffing on design elements found in E-1027 and other nautical themes.

  3. Site Plan

    Based on the design of the house, the landscape would have to reflect the obvious sun worship of its occupants. The property is more or less evenly sloped as one moves away from its edges, lending itself naturally to easy terracing, evoking a Mayan temple or the sundecks of a cruise ship.

  4. Site Plan Detail

    I included one patio at grade with the lower level of the house for cocktails, barbecuing, entertaining; half of it is under the upper level veranda, and half of it is open to the sky, giving the house a fluidity between inside and outside, and inviting the occupants to roll out of bed and onto a chaise. Below this is the pool terrace, with a 10x40’ lap pool, a 5x5’ square hot tub, and a 20x20’ cabana at the north end, plan view.

  5. Site Plan Detail

    Hidden from view but easily accessible is a badminton court at the southwest corner of the property; surrounded by trees and delineated by simply mowing the grass within its boundaries, this serves as a playspace, a sanctuary for those who seek solace in athletics, and an incidental glen in the forest, plan view.

  6. Site Plan Detail

    Back up the hill on the south east side of the property lies the terraced vegetable garden, as much following the existing contours as the terraced patios, which at about 2400 sq. ft. is both able to sustain a vegetarian household such as this and yet not impose itself completely on the landscape. It is in the optimal place for morning and early afternoon sun, and near both the indoor and outdoor kitchens, as well as the compost heap, plan view.

  7. Site Plan Detail

    To the north is a tree house, for kids and adults alike, plan view.

  8. Tree House

    A rendering of the 'Baumraum' tree house, suspended by wires in the birch forest.

  9. Tree House

    A rendering of the tree house from below.

  10. Elevation

    The lowest terrace level is for strolling along, looking at the surrounding evergreen and birch forest (the bark of which mimic the coral-like texture of the walls and house), and the rolling wildflower and grass meadow below, elevation view.

  11. Elevation Detail

    The pool terrace is covered in short-cropped lawn, to soften the hardscape of the 5’ wall above it; along this wall is a small waterfall, the length of the pool across from it, trickling down the surface of the wall beneath the coping of the patio—invisible (but audible) from the patio above and soothing to those who have made it one level down to the chaise by the pool, elevation view.

  12. Elevation Detail

    The terraces as seen from the meadow below, elevation view.

  13. Section View

    A slice through the house to show the many levels, evoking the cliffs of the Riviera where the original house stands, section view.

  14. Section Detail

    A closer look at activities on each level, section view.

  15. Model

    A balsa wood model of the site.