Diller and Scofidio: Slow House

slow house 1991

This project was designed for a japanese art investor.

'Our client came to us and said he wanted a house with a view,' Diller recalls. That request provoked them to explore the very notion of a view -- for instance, the evolution of the picture window and the terminology in real-estate ads. 'Why is architecture a technology that creates a view?' Diller recounts. 'Because it mediates it with a window frame.' The couple argued that the picture window represents a more advanced technology than the video display -- 'because it strips away the hardware that you have on a TV monitor and leaves only the effect.

Although ''Slow House'' does include certain necessities (like a kitchen and guest bedrooms), it is essentially a retreat with a view. The design has a clarity that architectural lingo, including the discourse of Diller + Scofidio, usually lacks. Knowing that the client would arrive at his weekend hideaway after an automobile trip (with its own windshield-framed view), the architects extended the journey with a long driveway up to a narrow building facade that was just a doorway. The house curved like a banana; once you were inside, the shape prevented you at first from seeing the window in the back. When you finally got to the window-framed view, it was partly obstructed by a video monitor, displaying the same vista. In a revelation worthy of Duchamp, you realized that while the sea has always been there, only man can make a view.