Gerendák

A couple steeped in the Charlotte, NC, art scene had approached their architect Toby Witte of Wittehaus with images of the Netflix series “The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes”.
With the need for soaring cantilevers, a desire to enjoy the home when climbing stairs might be at issue, and big eyes and open ears about the process of design, they were ready for their own modern home.
Together they went on a tour to understand themselves and their needs, dreams, and desires as well as their site, and the potential inherent in the art of architecture itself. Over the course of eight months they talked, sketched, explored, flushed out a long laundry list of practical concerns, and inched ever so carefully through the development of their ideas.
Two main forces shaped the design. To resolve the issue of cantilevers sticking out high over Lake Wylie without the use of any stairs, they decided to cut a set of stone walls into the hill, creating a platform, and then placed the house proper on top. Careening precariously across the edge of this artificial cliff, the homeowners would be able to enter their home on ground level on one side and lift off into thin air on the other.
The most important spaces were selected to benefit from the stunning views such created. Three volumes emerged housing the main living space, the primary bedroom suite, and a studio office. All three offered views on three sides and towards each other. Being separated from one another they also offered privacy for life taking part in each.
Equally important was the couple’s love for music, especially their baby grand piano. Such the music room was born and became the nucleus around which the spaces of the entire building organized themselves. Even the floating staircase, descending to a guest wing below, engaged with this heart of the home. With screens of vertical room-high metal rods serving as balustrades for the stairs and sliding panels surrounding the piano, the music room was able to be sequestered for private practice or opened for when the sounds of music were to fill the residence.
This careful attention to the homeowners’ lifestyle was symptomatic throughout the entire design process and extended into every nook and cranny of the house. After the couple had moved into their home, they revealed to their architect that he “captured everything we were looking for, even if we couldn’t put it into words. It is simply breathtaking.”