Olnick Spanu House

Alberto Campo Baeza – Olnick Spanu House, Garrison residence, NY, USA, 2007

A place where sunsets are a thousand colors when the water bursts into a thousand reflections. A place where the air is clean, calm and temperate. A place that seems to be very close to paradise.
In this impressive place, we decided to establish a plan, a platform, which by emphasizing the landscape that appears in front of us, will try to improve the landscape.
To achieve this, we built a large box with strong concrete walls that accentuate its relationship with the earth. The roof of this box is flat and made of stone, travertine, to settle on top.
And to protect us from the sun and rain, we raise a light roof over the stone floor supported by 10 cylindrical steel pillars arranged in a regular grid. And to condition that space, we closed it with a glass case. This glass box houses the rear pillars inside and leaves the front uprights outside, to further accentuate the transparency.
This construction on the platform resembles a large table with 10 legs. Three areas are created inside divided by two white boxes inside that do not reach the ceiling and that contain stairs and services. The central space is the living room and dining room with a large white table. On one side, closer to the pool is the kitchen and on the other side, as a thought, the fireplace area.
And inside the concrete box, bedrooms and bathrooms. In its central hall that connects the main entrance and the direct exit to the garden, a gallery is created where, as in other areas of the house, pieces of contemporary Italian art of Arte Povera are exhibited.
So, once again, the cave cabin. The tectonic piece on the stereotomic piece.
Alberto Campo Baeza