Stretto House: Steven Holl Architects

by Steven Holl (Introduction)

The Stretto House, built near Dallas, Texas, in 1992, exemplifies the poetic nature of his architecture, as well as his method of following an initial concept to its fullest realization. The need for protection from the scorching Texas sun led the architect to explore the ideas of shadow and overlap; the bold overlapping stretto between heavy percussion and light strings in Bela Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste proved fertile for the form and construction of the residence. Like Bartok's score, the house has four sections, each consisting of heavy concrete-block "spatial dams" with light metal-roofed "aqueous space" flowing between. Orthogonal floors pull one space through to the next, while curvilinear roofs stretch space over the walls. Essential to the sequential balance are rich details and carefully selected materials, including glass slumped or cast in fluid shapes and liquid terrazzo.

80 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1996

About the author

Steven Holl (born December 9, 1947) is an American architect and watercolorist, perhaps best known for the 2003 Simmons Hall at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the celebrated 2007 Bloch Building addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri,[1] and the praised 2009 Linked Hybrid mixed-use complex in Beijing, China.

Holl graduated from the University of Washington and pursued architecture studies in Rome in 1970. In 1976, he attended graduate school at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and established his offices New York City. Holl has taught at Columbia University since 1981.

Holl's architecture has undergone a shift in emphasis, from his earlier concern with typology to his current concern with a phenomenological approach; that is, with a concern for man's existentialist, bodily engagement with his surroundings. The shift came about partly due to his interest in the writings of philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty and architect-theorist Juhani Pallasmaa.