05 BRONZEVILLE. First and second floor plans.
House 05 presents as a typical set of triple-deckers: aesthetically linked but ultimately siloed.
But past the facade, the party walls diverge from the lot lines.
Presumingly standard-issue, stacked units are abruptly unknown upon entry, as each internally negotiates a singular and dramatic spatial give-and-take with its neighbors.
Ultimately these apartments offer a welcome assurance in their camaraderie, a conspiratorial comfort in their secret spatial exchange. They are not readily mappable, nor, furthermore, may the whole be inferred from any part.
Rather, they are totally known only in the collective mind of their owners.
Submission, The Architecture of Reparations [link]. December 2020.
First floor plan.
Second floor plan.
Third floor plan.
ELEVATION. Crystal is an unexpected ally of the collective.
Panes of leaded crystal glass shatter the image of the people behind them like a kaleidoscope, rendering them dissolute—unable to be pinpointed, targeted, or caught.
High stained-glass transoms filter light into rooms even with the curtains drawn.
Windows may board up if people choose to hole up at flashpoints of peril.
The plywood resembles neatly broken glass.
PARTI. Door for a modest closet-under-the-stairs belies a continuous party wall and conceals a hidden courtyard.
DOPPLEGANGER. Second bedroom confused for the hidden first. The brain reconciles its considerable length with the windowed space observed outside.
Two-way closet.
WATCHDOG. Hidden room.
Mirror at the entry is two-way glass, for undetected observation of visitors. Inside, the opening is concealed by a picture on the wall.
IN/ACCESSIBLE. Basement egress precludes close examination of hidden room from the exterior.