November 2019

Happy Thanksgiving from in situ studio! We sincerely appreciate continued opportunities to work on unique, challenging, and meaningful projects. A huge thank you to our clients who trust us with this work and our many collaborators who help make the projects real!

Two of our projects – the Corbett Residence and the Yamato Philbeck Residence – have been included in our favorite online catalogue of architecture – Divisare! Here’s why we love the site, in their own words: “Divisare is the result of an effort of selection and classification of contemporary architecture conducted for over twenty years. Patient work, done with care, image after image, project after project, to offer you the ideal tool with which to organize your knowledge of contemporary architecture. Instead of a quick, distracted web, we want a slow, attentive one. Instead of hastily perused information, we prefer knowledge calmly absorbed.” We’d recommend subscribing here. Photography credits to Richard Leo Johnson and Keith Isaacs.

 

  

The Merkel Cooper Residence was recognized with an AIA Charlotte Housing Merit Award earlier this month! The house is located on a steep slope above Lake Norman near Troutman. Executed to the finest detail by Kelly Custom Builders, the house is simple in form and uses a spare material palette. Zach and Matt had a fun, rainy trip to attend the awards event at the Bechtler Museum, accept the award, and catch up over beers afterwards with Marc Manack of SILO and the UNCC School of Acrhitecture. Thanks, AIA Charlotte, for another great event!

We’ve had two projects featured on ArchDaily this month – the Kimball Residence and Yamato Philbeck Residence! Both of these project were designed on highly constrained sites near downtown Raleigh and built by Aiello Builders. We appreciate the years of support afforded us by ArchDaily, who first featured our work in 2012. Photography credits to Keith Isaacs.

Work continues on the 24-acre Taylor property in Chapel Hill. For the past two-and-a-half years, we’ve been working with out-of-state clients to plan improvements to this historic modernist site that was the childhood home of James Taylor. Part of the project is the refurbishment of a Matsumoto and Latimer designed main house. Since completing a design collaboration with Gregg Bleam Landscape Architect, we’ve been working with Build Sense to navigate the Town of Chapel Hill permitting gauntlet and get the project underway. Demolition is complete, and new work has begun on the main house, a guest house, and pool. We can’t wait to see this one take shape in the coming months!

The book of the month is Projects 2009 – 2017: Valerio Olgiati – a monograph about one of Switzerland’s most renowned architects. Olgiati, son of Swiss Modernist Rudolf Olgiati, has created a body of work that can, at first blush, seem pure, oversimplified, and set in the world without care for context. Looking deeper, however, one can sense a conductor at work, orchestrating the spatial sequences of a powerful architecture. Pure forms begin to erode, shift, change, and disappear. Perceived simplicity is enriched by a play between solid and void, light and dark, and inside and outside. Entirely surprising atmospheres are created. Please take some time to study the work of Valerio Olgiati! We’d recommend starting with Villa Alem, Atelier Bardill, or House in Laax.