Being back in the world of architectural practice after the brief graduate school respite, I find myself spending more and more time looking for and at materials and products and their applications. For me the last is the most important, as context is an overriding consideration for how certain pieces come together into a design. So when it came time to find a way to bridge this time spent into material for this blog, I decided to present certain findings as “architectural elements;” by which I don’t mean the usual (columns, porticoes, canopies, balconies, etc.) but the atypical, the apparent threads I see across designs responding to new urban, social, environmental and other conditions. The idea is that other designers can find inspiration in the work of others, but also that the definition of architectural element can embrace the contemporary as well as the traditional.

To begin this new series that will present two or three projects per post (read: not exhaustive) expressing a particular architectural element, here are two residential designs — one built, one in project form — that treat the usable rooftop space via elements filtering sunlight.

[Remsenburg Residence by Kiss + Zwigard Architects | image source]

The residence in Remsenberg, New York by Kiss + Zwigard Architects uses thin bamboo stalks on wood structure to shade both a seating area by the pool and a rooftop seating area. This appealing rooftop integrates a wood bench into a battered wall topped by what looks like native grasses. The sun filter wraps up the adjacent wall (to filter low sunlight) and is built around and upon a concrete-clad chimney that further anchors the small seating area underneath.

[Remsenburg Residence by Kiss + Zwigard Architects | image source]

The tightly-spaced bamboo appears to filter overhead sunlight better than a typical trellis made from 1×4 lumber, which works well for low sun but not particularly well for high sun. The bamboo also provides an interesting overhead surface, where the the reduced sunlight is balanced by a lightness of construction.

[Roof Progresso by Fernando Menis | image source]

In this 2007 project for the rooftop of an existing house in Santa Cruz de Tenerife architect Fernando Menis, like Kiss + Zwigard shades both the sides and the overhead planes, though Menis opts to integrate the two constructions in a way that breaks down the difference between the two.

[Roof Progresso by Fernando Menis | image source]

The construction is a bit more substantial than the New York residence — even though the scale of the space and existing residence is much smaller — but Menis is able to achieve a dramatic cantilever with the larger pieces of lumber. The cantilever seems to reach out to people entering the rooftop and beckon them to sit underneath and enjoy the filtered sunlight.

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