Spiral House by Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

The Spiral House by Joeb Moore + Partners Architects, is situated along the Connecticut shoreline of Long Island Sound. Built in 2009, the house seeks to engage, enhance and reflect the surrounding coastal climate. The building is a direct and pragmatic response to the strict environmental (FEMA and floor elevations) and local zoning restrictions and regulations (height, building setbacks, FAR, footprint) imposed on the building and site.

Image © Jeff Goldberg/ESTO, Todd Mason Halkin Photography LLC, Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

Conceptually, the building was developed as an interface and tension between two systems of geometry, one projective (fixed) and one radial (dynamic). There is an overlapping system of spatial and geometric progression growth that give this building its dynamic nature. The public and private areas, interior and exterior, house and landscape, are all intimately connected and entwined.

Image © Jeff Goldberg/ESTO, Todd Mason Halkin Photography LLC, Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

We sought material and formal operations that might mirror and even celebrate this atmospheric ontology of the sea and its operatic arrangements of light, air, and water. We selected cedar wood siding (to respond and innovate upon the cedar-wood shingle and clapboard houses in the surrounding neighborhood), large panel glass window/door systems to promote extraordinary views of Long Island Sound (35’ away), and concrete because if its durability and strength to resist the coastal New England storm surges over time.

– Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

Image © Jeff Goldberg/ESTO, Todd Mason Halkin Photography LLC, Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

The contrast between the spiral wood structure, its vertical wood-fin skin, against the concrete plinth and ramp, and the 11’ tall transparent / reflective glass curtain wall system sandwiched between all combine to produce a rich and complex range of shifting perceptual effects that again mirror and re-present the house within the context of the coastal surroundings and atmosphere.

Image © Jeff Goldberg/ESTO, Todd Mason Halkin Photography LLC, Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

An example of this strategy at the micro-tectonic level, where we blur the perceptual boundary between building and environment, is the vertical cedar batten/louver system designed for the skin of the wood structure of the building. A system of 3/4” x 3-1/2” vertical red-cedar wood fins with stainless steel clips and trim that emerged as a material/tectonic detail and formal/spatial device to unify the disparate parts and elevations of the building but also as a technique to accentuate and amplify the temporal, diaphanous, “moray” effects of sky, water, and building to produce both literal and phenomenological transparency.

– Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

Image © Jeff Goldberg/ESTO, Todd Mason Halkin Photography LLC, Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

“It is an extraordinary and constantly changing experience on the site, a spatial-temporal collide-a-scope that has its center in the house itself. Just as the collision of waves creates an interference pattern, one key node within the project interjects a disruption into the flow of the spiral—the interior bridge that links the two different floors heights upstairs. The relationship of the bridge to the interior stairway and exterior courtyard conveys the performative nature of the spiral as a vortex and the interface and tension between two systems of geometry, one projective + linear and the other, radial + dynamic”, reveal the architects.

Image © Jeff Goldberg/ESTO, Todd Mason Halkin Photography LLC, Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

Image © Jeff Goldberg/ESTO, Todd Mason Halkin Photography LLC, Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

Image © Jeff Goldberg/ESTO, Todd Mason Halkin Photography LLC, Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

Image © Jeff Goldberg/ESTO, Todd Mason Halkin Photography LLC, Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

Image © Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

Image © Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

Facts:

Architects: Joeb Moore + Partners Architects
Location: Connecticut, USA
Structural Engineer: Robert Sillman Associates
Mechanical Engineer: Tucker and Associates, Inc.
General Contractor: Frank Talcott, Inc.
Landscape Architects: Joeb Moore + Partners Architect and Owner
Consultants: Concrete Architectural Works, Inc., David Roggero, Custom Architectural Concrete Shower, Tub and Vanity
Project Area: 3,900 sqf
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Jeff Goldberg/ESTO, Todd Mason Halkin Photography LLC, Joeb Moore + Partners Architects

*All images and information courtesy of Joeb Moore + Partners Architects.