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morton family project |
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| The proposition of an Institute for American Studies located on the final frontier of American westward expansion, places the Morton Family Foundation on the crest of history and place. The institute consists of five buildings: three structures to house four people each, a communal meeting hall to engage the various visitors, and a pole barn to house the necessary services and horses. The center of the institute is an enormous horizontal plane. The pole barn as the only building embedded in the earth, establishes the threshold of arrival. An elevated path carries the visitor to the horizon plane. The only building that inhabits the plane proper is the communal meeting hall, housing a great fireplace, a wrapping library, and the horizontal vista of the American landscape. The three residences, each engage the plane in their unique relationships. Pavilion one wraps a corner edge, pavilion two slides along a face and pavilion three hovers above. The harshness of the environment confronts the desires of the openness of the structure. A flexibility of construction must adapt to the intensity of the seasons. The structure breathes with the life of its inhabitants and surroundings. Three conditions are created by the transition: in, on and out. Canopies, decks and partitions are formed by the movable barriers that protect the house during harsher conditions. The three pavilions each utilize their protectants differently: flip, slide, lift and fold.
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