1998 lyle klein residence

[ware]house for lyle klein 01.11.98

ken r. koense randy brown architects

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[ware]house:ware: 1. watchful, wary, or cautious. 2. aware;conscious. 3. to be aware of (usually used in theimperative).

In today’s media dominated culture, society lacks astable reference to reality. It is precisely this instabilitythat leaves us with a pseudo-psychological conditionof schizophrenia. Because of the endless tabloid talkshows we no longer have a sense of public andprivate. One’s private eccentricities, or sexualdeviations have now been laid open for the public towitness and criticize. The once public has now beenreduced from the realm of the openly scrutinized tothe unwitting background babble that fills therecesses of the mind. Because of this cross-violationbetween the realms of the public and private, we areleft with anxiety, overtly cautious, a[war]e with ourimmediate condition. This schizophrenic societyforces one to disengage from the public realm,refusing to plug-in or download into a world, a society,a neighborhood that will try to denigrate or destroyone’s private self for the sake of fifteen minutes ofinfamy. Forcing one to recede from the publicconsumption of the soul, demanding one to becomehermitized and disconnect from the once ideal senseof community. Due to this cognizant condition ofdealing with a society that is addicted to knowing allabout everyone, one becomes a[ware] of the needto restrain, the ability to control what is seen in thispostmodern psycho-societal state of being. Incontrolling one has the capacity to lose control, andconversely control what is lost.

“Control, control you must learn control!”

This project then becomes an exercise in control, anexperiment of one’s conscious ability to control his/herenvironment, and one’s cautious capacity to losecontrol, and control what is lost. The underlyingtheme of control is movement. Control exists onlywhen there is movement, whether it is

predictive or chaotic, control relies on movement inorder to become active. It is here where we departinto the differing modes of control.

Control of urban pattern: Omaha is a city basedupon a Jeffersonian grid, a system for controlling howa city is to be laid out, a predictive grid system that tothis day determines much of “Old” Omaha. The needto move away from this constraining, dictatorial figureground system, is the need to lose control. The desireis to break from the norm, to be a[ware] of the orderthat binds, to search for inextricable movement that isanti-Jefferson.

Control of zoning: Omaha, not unlike most otherAmerican cities is bound by certain zoning restric-tions, zoning pattern, and zoning laws. This idealsystem for controlling where industrial, commercial,and housing is relegated to areas of the city isconfining, and as has previously been notedelsewhere a device that has been criticized at lengthfor failing to bring together differing types, programsand cultures into a mixed use format. The[ware]house uses the industrial zoning type againstitself, exerting its own movement, controlling whatprogram will exist inside the self-possessed buildingtype. This controlled loss of control seeks toundermine the dictatorial zoning processes.

Control of context or site: Further stepping intorealm of control, is the idea of controlling the existingcontextual issues. By using context against itself, wehave the ability to undermine the external contextualmeaning. The immediate environment suggests arugged industrial fabric, filled with steel doors,corrugated aluminum panels, unfinished concrete, aswell as unfinished and corroding metals and othermaterials. This iconography exists in the industrialworld, and by using these materials in a domicile —[ware]house — it has the adverse effect on the waycontext is controlled.

Control of space: In the existing conditions ofthe warehouse, materials, goods and functionsare laid out according to the building envelope.Typically orthogonal layouts with the need forpacking as much of product “X” in one space aspossible, and with a total loss of awareness interms of what the space should dictate. In the[ware]house, space is not relegated to theconfining formal condition of the envelopingstructure, the [ware]house seeks to “break thebox,” or even “cut the box.” These two conditionssuggest a violence inherent to relieving one’s selffrom the existent controlling factors. This premiseis accomplished in a few ways, first by usingplanes of differing thickness, angles and materialsto loosely define programmatic elements therebyallowing one’s perception of public and private tobe understood differently depending on theposition one takes relative to the desired space.Secondly, by using elements of protrusion andintrusion we have a different understanding ofhow the client wishes to maintain issues ofcontrol, and we can furthermore understand howthe cross-violation of public and private effect theclient. Examples can be found in the shower, anobviously private function that protrudes into thepublic realm, yet we realize that the protrusionitself happens on the most private side of the site,again the private becoming public becomingprivate. The example of intrusion in two areas,first we have the exterior walls of the South andwest the public side pealing back and into the[ware]house private to reveal the exteriorconditions or context — public, now the publicintrudes on the private to reveal the public. Theseidea’s exemplify client’s ability to become a[war]ewith his surroundings.

Control of image: The ideal represen-tational type for a controlled projectwould be floor plans, sections andelevations, but this project type seeksto reflect the dual conditions of publicand private, a[ware]ness and control.How do we represent a project thatresides in this arena of thought?



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Design

1998 lyle klein residence