Thesis Statement:
A home is the best environment for the owner to enjoy living in while rejuvenating her life after a long day of exhausting activities. This private world should provide sources of true comfort and motivation for living. To investigate how to derive such quality, a new concept of space is explored, the concept of vertical living. It is under a belief of the author that verticality is a key element for relaxation that has not been utilized enough to create impressive living space for a home. This thesis is dedicated to giving an example of how a good vertical space can generate mental freedom and unique relaxing experiences to today’s modern homes.

Thought Process:
In the early attempt of design, the definition of vertical living is explored. A scenario is made for a particular type of client who  is a skydiver who appreciates height and aerial viewing.
The approach to the design is, therefore, to design a cliff house that reflects skydiving experiences. This is thought to be partly achieved by integrating a wind tunnel as a thruster for skydrivers to move freely inside the house. This later is realized to be too mechanically focused (not toward architectural solutions), so the emphasis of the design was changed to design a vertical cliff house, with a focus on the qualities associated with verticality such as “gravitation”, “lightness”, and “floating”.

In the next attempt of design, a nine square grid system is used to organize the plan, the smallest planar system of a vertical living space; the small horizontal space forces the functions to be stacked vertically generating a vertical living space. Each floor consists of the main stair at the center grid surrounded by room functions. To make the vertical core connection more interesting, there are two staircases each of which alternately connects to the adjacent floors. In this way, horizontal/vertical relationship between room space and stair would be different between floors. Also, to generate a floating and lightness effect to the house, the walls of each floor are alternately opaque and clear. These two ideas, however, diminish the verticality of the space.

In the final attempt of design, a sixteen square grid system is used to replace the nine square grid system. Being too simple and restricted to a series of horizontal planes stacked on top of each other, the vertical perception of the space is impaired. This new system has a staircase running along the shape of the square between inside and outside space. Each floor is further divided into multiple steps of living spaces blending floor levels together. Vertical planes are integrated to help create a more complex vertical and horizontal connection around the house.

Cantilevered light gauge steel beams along coordinating grids are used to support the load of walls and floors, which in turn transfer to the two reinforced concrete wall columns and into the ground. There are two design features that intend to achieve the sense of lightness of the structure. One is that the length of the wall columns is reduced as the columns step up to the top. The other is that the depth of steel beams is reduced to its minimum, compensated by a supplementary suspension system (side steel trusses) on the sixth floor that helps carry the floors and the north glazing facade.