Topo House in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin by Johnsen Schmaling Architects

Article source: Johnsen Schmaling Architects 

The Topo House occupies a site embedded in the softly rolling hills of Wisconsin’s “Driftless Region.” The project explores how a building can literally merge with its context, blurring the boundaries between architecture and landscape, between tectonics and nature.

Image Courtesy © Johnsen Schmaling Architects

• Architects: Johnsen Schmaling Architects
• Project: Topo House
• Location: Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, U.S.A
• Photography: Johnsen Schmaling Architects
• Structural Engineer: Matt Christianson, Larson Engineering, Inc.

Image Courtesy © Johnsen Schmaling Architects

Two questions inadvertently arise when designing a house for the countryside: first, how to address the visual impact of a man-made structure on its natural surroundings; and second, how to mitigate the inherent environmental consequences of a building removed from the infrastructural amenities of an urban center. Black-anodized aluminum fins with interrelated contracting and expanding shapes organize the rainscreen building skin; depending on the time of the day and the angle from which they are viewed, the fins create a constantly changing veil that subverts the volumetric discipline of the house itself.

Image Courtesy © Johnsen Schmaling Architects

The award recipient addressed the first challenge by developing the building form out of the site’s natural topography, allowing it to become an integral part of the land rather than merely sitting on top of it as an object. The structure doesn’t hide that it’s an artificial construct, but it attempts to moderate the inherent antagonism between man-made building and nature.

The goal to minimize the ecological footprint of the house required a holistic design strategy addressing issues of orientation, thermal performance, stormwater mitigation, and on-site energy sourcing.

Image Courtesy © Johnsen Schmaling Architects

Image Courtesy © Johnsen Schmaling Architects

Tags: Blue Mounds, U.S.A., Wisconsin

Category: House

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