Our clients wanted a glass house.  The difficulty was that they wanted this house placed on a visually exposed 50’ x 100’ city lot that they owned in NE Portland.  This posed the challenge of designing a glass house with privacy.  Our solution was to design a pavilion-like structure in which the body of the house is supported by 4 ten-foot tall “legs.”  The legs are placed strategically to block unwanted views and provide privacy.

These 4 rectangular legs (housing stairs, kitchen, bathroom and storage) support the second story.  Between these legs, the open floor plan expands to outdoor living through floor to ceiling glass and doors.  The polished concrete floor is cast on grade, creating a seamless transition to the surrounding yard.  

Stepping into the north leg the mood changes as the stairway leads up to the bedroom level.  Upstairs the spaces and rooms are more cellular and intimate.  This part of the house is designed for flexible living arrangements (family or house sharing) with 3 compact, self-contained bedroom suites that wrap around a central landing and common study space.

The exterior is clad in standing seam white metal panels of varying width.  The panels wrap the pavilion legs giving the impression that the house has been reductively sculpted from a single mass.

Architect: Waechter Architecture (Portland, OR)
Owner: Kevin Battey
Location: Portland, Oregon, USA
Type: Residence
Size: 2300 square feet
Year Built: 2015

Photographer: Jeremy Bitterman