Mork-Ulnes Architects has unveiled their completed residential project in Bernal Heights, San Francisco. Named ‘The Silver Lining House,’ the home was commissioned by architectural photographer Bruce Damonte and interior designer Alison Damonte, who sought a “container for the couple’s art and furniture collection, and a laboratory for their work.”
The new scheme replaces an original 1908 wood house, which was damaged by a fire on Christmas Eve, 2017, when the project had already commenced. While the fire caused a reevaluation of the scope and scale of the redesign, the brief remained to “create a home that acted as a capsule for art and inspiration.” A new structure was proposed whose proportions, scale, and exterior massing took cues from the site’s gabled Edwardian neighbors, with an exterior black cedar cladding echoing the local vernacular and subtly referencing the fire that spurred the home’s regeneration.
While sharing a similar silhouette with its gabled neighbors, the building breaks from tradition with its black facade and ribbon windows that visually connect the interior of the home with the neighborhood. The volume of the residence itself is also described as “thoroughly modern; abstracted and simplified,” standing as a large geometric object that offers “a hint to the architectural language and collection of objects inside.”
“For the exterior, the charred black painted silhouette of this Bernal Heights home was intended to take cues from its quintessential San Francisco neighbors,” Casper Mork-Ulnes said about the design. “The proportions, scale, and massing are derived from its gabled neighbors that step up the steep typical San Francisco streetscape but reinterpret Edwardian design cues into more abstract decorative elements like siding patterns and solid-void composition. The intention was that the house would slip into the void that was created when the fire destroyed the former Edwardian home.”
The interiors were designed by Alison Damonte and seek to create a “vitrine for the couple’s art and furniture collection.” At the center, a curving staircase brings light from the third-floor skylight to the ground floor with the aid of half-polished chrome slats that bounce mirrored light through the stairwell.
Elsewhere, the home contains three bedrooms, a disco-inspired music parlor, a photography studio, and a penthouse great room that opens to views of both San Francisco and the Victorian neighborhood. The owners opted for a flipped floor plan with the lowest level providing privacy for a primary suite and a small, sunken garden. The second level contains the entry, guest room, and more intimate rooms for entertaining and leisure, while the new third-story penthouse holds a living space and kitchen.
The home is one of several recently completed schemes to feature in our editorial. Earlier this week, ODA showcased a New York residential building with a glass box facade, while within the last month, Lemay completed a major redesign of an outdoor theater in Montreal. August also saw Zaha Hadid Architects complete an arching bridge across China’s Jiangxi River and robots assemble a domed pavilion in Germany designed by the universities of Stuttgart and Freiburg.
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