House II is situated on a 100-acre hilltop with broad panoramic views extending for twenty miles in three directions. The design attempts to simulate the presence of trees, which are nonexistent on the barren site, through the use of a sequence of columns and wall. The columns and walls frame the view and provide a transition from the extroverted life of summer to the introverted security of the winter fireplace.
Each of the two support systems – one of columns, the other of walls – is more than sufficient to meet the structural requirements of the house, which forces new readings. Either each system is supporting the house in park, or the two systems are completely supporting the house independently, or one system is only a sign of support. In this redundancy, an architectural sign is created: each system’s function is to signify its own lack of function.
House II sheds its scale specificity by employing conventions of the architectural model in the actual object. The house looks like and is constructed like a model. Built of plywood, veneer, and paint, it lacks traditional details associated with conventional houses. Viewed without the external, scale-specific referent, House II becomes an ambiguous object that could be a building or a model.
