Paul Rudolph’s Green residence:
Built in 1968-72 when the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis were hot, 3,931 square feet (365 m²). It’s big and still impossibly futuristic in 2024. Those panels above the openings are not solar panels.
In architecture, people see this and are like “I see, Paul was mixing this influence and that knowledge. Interesting.”. I just have a gazillion questions:
- Who are the clients and what’s up with them? How did it feel to live in this house? It’s in Pennsylvania, how did it do through the seasons?
- How did it feel growing up in this house? Which part of the house was the best as a child? The worst?
- Greenhouse, yay! There’s a palm tree in there, how does it feel to have a giant garden inside? How does it smell? Does it create a micro-climate? Bugs? Vegetables? Rodents?
- It was supposed to be prefab in factory and assembled on site. What happened? Why did it go the traditional route?
- How did it pass building code? What where the contentious points?
- How people reacted/react to it? Stories around that incredibly unique house?
Tons of questions. Meanwhile all I can think looking at these pictures is iterating on this design:
- At the very least twice as small. 365 m²? In this economy? Hell no.
- But if I had to keep the size, instead of stairs I’d go with a ramp going through the greenhouse. I’d use it to get some lighting on the plants in the evening.
- Solar panels, obviously. Extremely precise calculation of the sun’s position to determine the angle on the house. I’m sure they did fine, but I’m sure we can do slightly more accurate these days and catch the absolute optimum angle.
- Maybe a couple more skylights. I think I would open the living room to the kitchen, with a screen instead of a wall. Add some built-in benches in the garden, and voilà.
- I’d definitely try to do the prefab, foldable segments type of construction.
It’s a super interesting design which deserves more than being used once. I hope this stunning home is taken care of.