TULA HOUSE BY PATKAU ARCHITECTS

When irregularity repeats nature?

Why would an architectural plan be called irregular when following its natural environment? Since when did we begin considering nature irregular and where did this sense of creating against the environment come from?

Canada-based Patkau Architects explore the full richness and diversity of architectural practice by forming a structure considered out-of-the-norm. The Tula House’s geometry reflects the irregularity of the lands rocky ledges, beach and forest.

Eight times myself, or a bit more, the house sits 44 feet above the Pacific Ocean on a remote island. And there I sit—in my mind—with a view of the Strait of Georgia, the mountain ranges on the mainland of British Columbia and a small tidal basin to the south. I see the moss covered basalt hills snug among vegetated crevices, valleys and swales. The dark Douglas fir forest shines from strands of red alder and big-leafed maple trees. This is no square, no simple makeup of three or four lines.

Low rock walls edge a gravel approach to the house. The architects chose black fiber-cement panels for the walls, allowing the house to recede into the dark forest. Groundwater flows continuously through the site where it is captured momentarily within an entry courtyard. The interior spaces of interestingly placed concrete walls favor the home’s geometric confusion. A small tidal basin is found off the kitchen nook, while a ledge of moss covered rock appears in the bedrooms. Millwork elements float freely within the spaces like the flotsam and jetsam on the beach, and a steel-framed, wooden deck is cantilevered into the air, hanging slightly off the cliff. Now my legs hang off the ledge of the deck, as I sit, and behind me, the house—the environment’s counterpart—breathes in life’s essence.