Rachofsky House

Set in a suburban landscape, this house/private museum is anchored to the ground by a podium faced in black granite that extends both in front of and behind the main body of the building. The white form of the house hovers on pilotis above the podium like an opaque plane, pierced by a number of discrete openings. A succession of spatial layers recedes from this taut surface to accommodate the house’s principal volumes. The metal-faced front elevation that shields the living volume gives way on the north and west elevations to taut curtain walls that, together with the opaque front, inflect the interior layered space toward a small body of water to the southwest. Two separate stairs provide access to the three floors of the house: an enclosed spiral stair to the south and an open switchback stair to the north. This contrast between private and public circulation is echoed consistently in the organization of the volumes within.