E N G A W A . I S H

although the design has no direct relationship to japanese architecture we looked at several examples of 

traditional japanese engawa and nure'en as a model for establishing a flexible threshold between the inside and 

out. the relationship between the 'house' and the 'garden' in traditional japanese architecture is complex and 

while we borrowed elements from it, in no way did we follow any set of rules. namely we took the idea of the 

floating or hovering volume with an attached covered porch (engawa or nure'en depending) that is seamless to 

the interior when the sliding walls (shoji) are open. typically, an engawa is a secondary threshold in a residence 

that serves as a veranda to a visual garden space. while our garden will be more habitable than visual, the 

engawa reads as part of the interior from the exterior and part of the exterior from the interior, effectively creating 

a blurred boundary between the two. we detailed the sliding glass doors in a way to create a seamless transition 

between the interior and exterior floor to emphasize this even more. the fascia of the metal roof and walls 

extends across this porch base to create a thickened graphic line around the entire form of the building, further 

connecting the enagawa to the interior while allowing it to be a seat, a ledge, a counter for the exterior garden 

'room'.*

*our drawings called for this punch to be deeper - a full foot deeper - but unfortunately the concrete footings were built and poured in the 

wrong place and we lost a foot. while the deeper ledge would make this indoor/outdoor relationship more apparent, the spatial concept is 

still there.

M E T A L . D E T A I L S

yes, this metal is dirty, but the seaming and edges are absolutely perfect. we figured out the clip system with 
pat, which slightly varies in depth depending on facade and relation to the roof, in order to avoid all caps, gutters, 
and overlays. it looks like common sense, but getting seams and edges this clean and sharp is not easy - 
especially with our 1' fascia. pat executed everything flawlessly. even the horrid bathroom vent since we weren't 
allowed to vent out the back (he wants to amputate it).

C S # 2 1

a completely independent conversation recently of the divergent formal strategies of establishing indoor-outdoor 
relationships deployed by the first wave of los angeles modernist architects (neutra, schindler, et al) and their 
counterparts versus the second wave (koenig, ain, etc) led to the google-ing of the koenig's bailey 
house (cs#21). 

this was the project we used in first-year to learn digital modelling and therefore the first project i really 
remember studying on a details level. maybe i am the only one who sees the similarities but it seems to have 
sunk in to my subconscious in a very direct way.