Douglas House

Douglas House's Information

        The Douglas House is located in Harbor Springs, Michigan, at a steep surrounded by a landscape full of conifer trees. The house was designed by the architect Richard Meier for the Douglas and construted in 1973. One important fact of its location is the view at the west side that it has to the Lake Michigan, at the steep land. 

Characteristics

        In this project, Richard Meier applied his most important approach in architecture, as the color and the contrast of the house with its surroundings. First of all, Meier´s favorite color is white, but this is not mainly the reason why the Douglas House is white, it has to do with the contrast of the house with the nature that surrounds it and the great effects of light that can be appreciated with this color. Meier makes the spectator to concentrate on his "master piece", without mixing it with its natural surroundings, but using this scenario to emphasize the house. The house is basically made up by flat surfaces painted with white and huge glass windows, the other open spaces of the house includes the  terraces, one at the south ending of the house and the other at the roof. Meier didn´t made emphasis on the relevance of the materials that were used in the construction of the house, as every close space is made up of flat white walls or covered with glass.

Plans

Top View

Section

External Images

Internal Images

Top-real image of the place

Reference:

Davies, Colin. Key Houses of the Twentieth Century. New York: Laurence King Publishing , 2006. Impreso.

Image taken from: http://en.wikiarquitectura.com/images/thumb/1/1f/00dou.jpg/300px-00dou.jpg

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