Michael Bell ¦ Design

Vittorio Plastici ι Maryland ι The title Vittorio Plastici is in reference to a journal to which the painter Giorgio de Chirico frequently contributed. . .

Prior to 1920, De Chirico’s work frequently portrayed urban spaces that were occupied by a lone subject and were defined more by shadow than figure. De Chirico’s subjects provided a context in which to imagine a space where daily life could be revealed against an architecture whose plastic presence was palpable but remote. These three studies for a minimal or one-room house were done for a client who initially wished to renovate an existing house in a suburb of Washington, DC. As the project progressed, it became clear that the new building would serve as a separate private space, adjacent to the domestic life of the existing house but apart from it. The first proposal emphasized shape and color. The second—the Torus House or Court House—offered a succession of spaces that led through the house. The final proposal—the J-Shaped Glass House—used steel and glass as both surface and structure. In all three proposals, the houses were a form of domestic life and architectural still life.