The Shingle Style Today, Today

The synthesis of our studio's precedent research, presented at final review.

Studio: Precedent Study (The Pool House)

In studio we were asked to discuss how a particular precedent dealt with water. This was my presentation on RoTo's Carlson-Reges House:

RoTo’s Carlson-Reges Residence was built in downtown Los Angeles in 1992 (completed in 1996) for clients Richard Carlson, an industrial contractor, and Kathy Reges, owner of a show-dog kennel, both of whom were involved in LA’s contemporary art scene. The couple wanted an industrial living space suited to its surroundings (highways, train tracks, junkyards and a complex of industrial buildings converted into art studios and lofts). The project itself was actually a remodel, in which the architect, Michael Rotondi, took the shell of an old power generator factory and constructed a secondary, structurally independent volume that penetrated and extended the space and form of the original building.

The project was constructed by the clients themselves and Carlson’s onsite construction staff with materials found in his nearby scrapyard. With no real detailed construction documents, the design evolved fluidly to accommodate found materials and even mistakes made during construction.

The pool itself was made from a halved cylindrical fuel storage tank found on the property, which starts inside the main gallery and projects out into space. Reges had asked for a pool to swim and view the sunset, but the only way to take advantage of the surrounding vista was to elevate the water plane 16 feet above grade. 

So Rotondi constructed a continuous, elevated ground plane that penetrated the living space to accommodate it. And because the pool was made using a found vessel, the length of its extension was somewhat predetermined. Thus, the inclusion of the pool became a decisive move in the design of the whole scheme. The contiguous line of the raised plane and the lap pool establish a datum that unifies both interior and exterior spaces, as well as the existing shell with the added volume. 

scans: ROTO BOOK

You can also see in plan how the pool is cantilevered at an angle to rest on an existing exterior brick wall, and how on the other end, it juts into the living space.

Aside from its very slight enclosure the pool is fully surrounded by outside air (which is not problematic in this climate). Here you can see the green space underneath and a walkway that connects from the first floor entrance out to a set of stairs which lead up to the deck or out to the public street.

This view also indicates the structure of the pool and the elevated ground plane. Because the pool is made of a structural vessel designed to carry the load of this amount of water, most of the structure is found under the adjoining deck. You can also see here evidence of the sort of improvisational construction process, with the added supports.

In all, I think this in an incredibly fascinating project, particularly in regard to how the pool was handled. For the purposes of this study, a criticism might be that many of the moves were either formal gestures or simply structural opportunism. Environmentally, the pool doesn’t seem occupy the “air” of the living space, but can simply be accessed from the interior. Perhaps that transition doesn’t read as clearly in what I was able to gather in my research.