A HOUSE TO GROW IN
PROGRAM:
DESIGNER:
YEAR:
STATUS:
DESIGNER:
YEAR:
STATUS:
MULTI-GENERATIONAL HOUSE, LANDSCAPE
JOEL HOLLEY
2024
SPECULATIVE
JOEL HOLLEY
2024
SPECULATIVE
While the complexities of contemporary life have many considering a rural relocation, the current American imagination of a desirable rural life has contributed to uninformed urbanite settlement and a lack of population growth in agricultural rural communities. The thesis seeks to write promise and adventure back into these agricultural communities by proposing a contemporary re-pioneering of current farmland. In Clinton, Iowa, a new farmhouse typology and site strategy will aid in the incremental establishment of the former Iowa prairie and a pioneering family; this will become the foundation of a new rural narrative based on the resources of rural America: ecology, tradition, and the transcendent. In this reformed rural narrative, the transcendent value of stewardship will guide the design and is made manifest through the hidden abundance of the native prairie and a contemporary reimagining of traditional building and agricultural practices.
CONCEPTS:
The house is an evolution of the early American Settler “I-house.” The house is designed to accomodate growth - both of the land and of the family. The house is designed in three phases; the first to accomodate an individual, the second to accomodate the nuclear family, and the third to accomodate in-laws. Inspired by the original I-house - the house begins with a through passage flanked by a living space. Inspired by the tendency of early American Iown’s to spend as much time out on the covered porch as possible, a semi-enclosed “porch” with operable sliding windows is placed on the south facade to connect the living space to the exterior beyond - particularly to the kitchen garden. Rather than expanding along the entry foyer passage like the original I-house, the house expands along the axis of the porch to accomodate a growing family without sacrificing the permeability of the original North-South passageway through the home.
Original “I-House/Passage House”
highlighting use of porch
highlighting use of porch
Living and Porch
semi-enclosed Porch axis
for additions, North-South Axis
free for circulation out into the land.
Original “I-House/Passage House” Section
and aid in watershed of Bark shingle cladding
PHASE 1:
Ground Floor
Living space connection to garden and semi-enclosed porch
Ground Floor
Living-space Section:
Master bedroom enclosed
Master bedroom enclosed
Through-passage maintained
PHASE 3:
Ground Floor
Courtyard Section: