Cube House

Cube House, Washington DC

Project Description:
The project is a new construction single-family residence in the Spring Valley neighborhood of NW Washington, DC. The property is a highly visible corner lot fronting Massachusetts Avenue and adjacent to a small triangular park. The clients, retirees, downsized and cohabitate with a wheelchair-bound parent.

Weighted Porous Figure
In a city of iconic civic buildings, monuments, and embassies, the design draws from this lineage with an ideal shape. Up Massachusetts Avenue from Embassy Row, the Cube continues in this tradition as an Urban Villa with similar traits in scale, proportion and object presence. The Cube is set up as a porous figure with framed apertures varying in size and number which are either weighted towards desired exposures to natural light, views and openness or are more limited and protective. The apertures on the house’s Southeast facade are most open with views to the triangular park and oriented to morning light. Those on the SW & NW facades are more reductive in response to their western exposure and as a privacy screen to the street.

The house is organized with its living and sleeping spaces positioned along its Southeast side. Entry, hallways, stairwell and elevator are aligned to the Northwest. The Cube sits on a podium with a geometry which extends out to create terraces at the 1st floor from the Living/Dining/Kitchen volume. The rooftop terrace is the focal point for the house. Intended to be used as a year-round outdoor gathering space for family and friends, its exterior walls provide enclosure and framed views while completing the Cube form which also masks the stair & elevator. A large window at the top of the stairwell serves as a giant light monitor which brings natural light down to the circulation spaces, a zone that doubles as a gallery carrying the couple's art collection. The lower level is apportioned to the elder to have autonomy from the rest of the house. A den on this level will function both as communal and private space. The lower level also has direct connections to the backyard with walkouts at grade.

The exterior skin is flat metal panel in dark grey. The grey serves as a neutral background to the neighborhood and foregrounds the black framed apertures and accent colors. The color accents occur at the most interactive moments of the Cube… the carved entry, the SE façade and the rooftop terrace. The entry and rooftop surfaces in pink appear as a "revealed" underlayer to the primary skin, the purple/orange/yellow panels populate the more animated SE facade.

Bio:
Matthew Pickner worked with world-class architectural firms Anthony Lumsden/DMJM in Los Angeles, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and Richard Meier + Partners in NYC, and Shalom Baranes Associates and Shinberg/Levinas Architects in Washington, DC. Matthew Pickner was Project Architect for Construction Administration of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Headquarters in Manhattan. Mr. Pickner worked with acclaimed artists, James Turrell in Los Angeles on the Roden Crater project, and Vito Acconci in Brooklyn. Mr. Pickner is a Senior K-12 Education school designer in the District of Columbia.