Four – Lutyens Enters from Stage Right

Updated: Oct 7, 2019

The first floor came together pretty quickly, but I struggled with the upstairs bathroom. I tried all these cute dormers and layouts, but nothing felt quite right. The guys in Santa Barbara even gave some suggestions.

Two influences from my architectural studies came through in the end. I have always admired the idea of nine square houses and this version by Isozaki has stuck with me for decades.

House of Nine Squares

Concept
“The division of a square into nine equal squares is one of the most primitive human attempts to represent the cosmos two-dimensionally, as it appears on the mandala drawings. This symmetrical, centripetal ordering is seen to make the cosmos structurally stable, which is the reason for its application in the design of a house. Historical examples include the Kokonotsu-madori (nine room planning system) of the Japanese house and the spatial organization of the villa as developed by Palladio and others in more recent times. They follow quite the same pattern and are coincident with the anthropological view that house architecture has attempted to conceive the microcosm within itself.” (From Houses for Sale, pg.46)

This is kind of a highfalutin description, but I believe that my attraction to nine square houses and this one in particular is this absorbed on a visceral level. Years later I keep getting pulled back to this book and Isozaki's Nine Square House.

I also love having a conceptual idea, because it gives one a way to decide if decisions make sense or not. It provides an organizational principle for the house.

Here is how this played out in real life. When I realized the house was divided into three 12’ bays on the side it was another hallelujah moment. I started thinking of it as 9 squares upstairs even if it was squished on the front.

I was quickly reminded of Lutyen’s three-gabled and sometimes two-gabled elevations (what I have always thought of as his signature treatment). For nearly as long as the nine square house I have been drawn to these grouped gables. They just speak to me for some reason.