June 2, 2010

House of the Week 71: Norman Fisher House

Located on a gently sloping site in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, the Norman Fisher house designed by Louis Kahn built between 1960 and 1967 consists of two interconnected cubes and third smaller independent one. The cubes house the bedrooms and living areas, and together with the existing trees and land features form the outdoor spaces

7 comments:

  1. Judging from the floor plan, this house seems to have some straaange spaces... Why does the main (or at least front) entryway takes you past the bedroom *before* you get to the living room??? Granted, there does look to be another, separate and more direct entrance, but it's still an odd configuration.

    The narrow pinched entrance from the sleeping area to the living room also looks like an uncharacteristic afterthought. The fact that Kahn would tilt the house's volumes at such an angle that they look as though they had an unplanned collision with each other is a curious departure from his typical classical symmetry. His buildings are a lot stranger and more contradictory than I think most people give them credit for being. (in a good, intriguing way.)

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  2. Hello :)
    I'm a French student in architecture and i was wondering if you had the second floor plan of the Fisher House ? I can't find it on the internet.

    By the way, (@ Trouble in xanadu) you can see here the first idea for the fisher house,(http://www.design.upenn.edu/archives/majorcollections/kahn/fisher1.gif) which wasn't about separated volumes ... strange uh^^.

    With the second floor plan, you can see that the function in this house are separated like the two cubes. (public / private)

    (I need the second floor plan because i have to learn it by heart ... don't ask me why --")

    Thank you !

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  3. Xandu I agree, there's little appreciation for Kahn's quirks most times we get lost in the severity of forms and texture.

    Camille, you can try this link for more on the Fisher house http://en.wikiarquitectura.com/index.php?title=Fisher_House

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  4. Anonymous7:48 AM

    Thank you so much!!!
    (I'm Korean student in architecture^^)

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  5. Anonymous5:38 PM

    Hi my name is Sean, and I'm an architecture student looking for help getting the floor plans to scale for the Fisher House. I've really becoming a fan of Kahn and his work and I'm doing a model of this for school. Please email me at sean.ballantine@gmail.com if you have anything that can help. Thanks!

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  6. Great house , I love seeing the unique homes, both in terms of building and location, full of inspiration :)

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  7. I Like, I've really becoming a fan of Kahn and his work and I'm doing a model of this for school.

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