Architecture
Daring Cantilevers: Architecture Takes Flight
See What Happens When You Lift a Living Space Off the Ground
What is the purpose of cantilevered volumes in contemporary residential architecture? Are they worth the added expense in structure, materials, and insulation? Or are they purely expressions of structural bravado and formal creativity?
Certainly expression contributes to incorporating cantilevers like the ones that follow into residential architecture, but the best justification for them is the outdoor space that is gained by lifting a volume off the ground. A backyard space that might otherwise be too small or of an awkward proportion becomes more generous, and more interesting to boot. Additionally the cantilevers provide shade and serve to define outdoor "rooms." The following examples illustrate these and other benefits that come from lifting living spaces up high.
Certainly expression contributes to incorporating cantilevers like the ones that follow into residential architecture, but the best justification for them is the outdoor space that is gained by lifting a volume off the ground. A backyard space that might otherwise be too small or of an awkward proportion becomes more generous, and more interesting to boot. Additionally the cantilevers provide shade and serve to define outdoor "rooms." The following examples illustrate these and other benefits that come from lifting living spaces up high.
Supported by exposed steel columns and beams, this cantilevered second story is raised quite high due to the generous height of the living space. An outdoor terrace sits under the projection, capped by a very nice wood ceiling. The second story's exterior walkways in metal grating allow people upstairs to sense the cantilevering volume.
A wood ceiling also defines this outdoor seating area adjacent to a lap pool, yet here the wood continues to the sides of the cantilevered volume, making it appear predominantly solid. The "room" underneath has an intimate scale, and of course some shade from the hot sun. A glazed end of the cantilever (facing right, not visible) seems to reach beyond the pool, as if to look beyond the perimeter wall rather than at the swimmers below.
This cantilever works similarly to the previous photo, yet it is wrapped in metal panels instead of wood. Here the scale is also intimate, at about the height of a door. The yard and concrete pad mimicking the projection are in need of some landscaping and furniture, to enliven this glass and steel Modernism.
...yet it is revealed in this view. (The previous photo's cantilever is on the left here.) That resistance is an extension of the second floor on the opposite side, working like a balanced teeter-totter. A closer look at this photo (and the additional photos on the architect's web page) also reveals that a brick fireplace provides additional support underneath the projection. And it looks like a cozy place to hang out on a chilly Hamptons night.
This small project is basically two rectangular volumes, but instead of being stacked the top floor is pinwheeled and cantilevered over the yard and pool terrace; the L-shaped pool actually sits between the ground floor's glass walls and the column propping up the second floor. Why not stack the floors? Here the 90-degree rotation reduces the structure required, allowing the lower floor to be very open, defined on both sides by sliding glass walls.
In the distance a cantilevered volume seems to be doing something now familiar: defining a seating area adjacent to a pool. While that is certainly the case, why does the teak facade cover the side facing the pool? Why not look back towards this water feature? Perhaps another view of this Hollywood Hills house is needed...
...This elevation of the house (the pool is on the plinth to the left) reveals that the cantilevered room is looking to the right. As are the balcony above the three-car garage and the teak-clad volume at the top. There must be a dramatic view of Los Angeles in that direction.
This view of a house in Portland, Oregon shows a split-level design (three stories in the front, two in the back) built into a hillside. A wood volume in the middle angles out towards the fir tree on the right, apparently sitting over the entrance walkway. Another view reveals more about this cantilever...
...This angled projection doesn't cover usable space, like the other examples above. It reaches out over a steep hillside that would be very difficult to build upon. Hence a cantilever is the logical choice. Here it houses a kitchen/dining area and an adjacent outdoor deck overlooking the tree-lined hillside.
If the previous example uses a cantilever to minimize its footprint on a difficult site, this house in Australia by Ian Moore takes a similar approach, if not very apparent at first. This view of the entry walkway shows a rectangular bar cantilevering on both ends; a symmetrical composition lifting the house above the land sloping away from it.
A closer view of Ian Moore's design reveals a small foundation anchoring the house to the site, one of two concrete block storage areas on both ends that extend into the house as service cores. This house treads lightly on its dramatic site near the top of Saddleback Mountain, thanks to the decision to cantilever it on a lightweight steel structure.
This weekend retreat in Oregon technically doesn't cantilever like the previous examples, but the dramatic overhang of the second story volume makes it feel like it belongs. The Hood River site necessitates, like the two houses before this one, treading lightly. All living spaces are lifted up, with a service core in concrete and a deck under part of the projecting volume.
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