Smith House (interior)
Darien, Connecticut · 1967
Photo · Copyright Scott Frances/ESTO
An iconic precedent of modernist residential design by Richard Meier, demonstrating the use of a multi-story glass curtain wall, slender steel columns, and a white brick fireplace to create a light-filled, open-plan living space that connects with nature.
- What we like about this project
- The fireplace opening is integrated directly into the base of the massive white chimney breast, adjacent to the glass wall.
Materials
- glass
- steel
- wood-flooring
- painted-wood
- brick
Visual identifiers
- double-height-living-room
- cylindrical-columns
- floor-to-ceiling-glazing
- white-brick-fireplace
- coastal-view
Style tags
- modernist
- rationalist
- minimalist
- late-modernism
Visual tags
- modernist-villa
- open-plan
- structural-expressiveness
- coastal-architecture
- daylit-interior
- Geometry
- A multi-level, double-height volume defined by a strict orthogonal grid, punctuated by slender cylindrical steel columns and a massive white brick chimney breast. Large rectangular glass panes frame the landscape.
- Facade system
- Steel-framed curtain wall with large-format glass panels.
- Structural guess
- Steel column-and-beam structure with load-bearing masonry chimney.
- Spatial scale
- Double-height residential living space with a soaring vertical volume.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct daylight floods the space from the multi-story glazed facade, casting sharp geometric shadows across the wood floor.
- Atmosphere
- Luminous, airy, and highly structured, balancing geometric precision with the organic forms of the coastal landscape.
- Environmental context
- Sited on a rocky, tree-lined shoreline overlooking the water.
- Spatial experience
- The space offers dramatic vertical expansion and visual transparency, dissolving the boundary between the interior living room and the rocky coastal landscape outside.
- Composition rhythm
- The vertical rhythm of the slender columns and window mullions contrasts with the horizontal lines of the floor plates and the distant shoreline.
- Style reading
- Late Modernism / New York Five
- Program
- Single-family residential living room
- Perspective
- Interior Spatial
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- glass, steel, wood-flooring, painted-wood, brick
- Visual identifiers
- double-height-living-room, cylindrical-columns, floor-to-ceiling-glazing, white-brick-fireplace, coastal-view
- Style tags
- modernist, rationalist, minimalist, late-modernism
- Visual tags
- modernist-villa, open-plan, structural-expressiveness, coastal-architecture, daylit-interior
- Geometry
- A multi-level, double-height volume defined by a strict orthogonal grid, punctuated by slender cylindrical steel columns and a massive white brick chimney breast. Large rectangular glass panes frame the landscape.
- Facade system
- Steel-framed curtain wall with large-format glass panels.
- Structural guess
- Steel column-and-beam structure with load-bearing masonry chimney.
- Spatial scale
- Double-height residential living space with a soaring vertical volume.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct daylight floods the space from the multi-story glazed facade, casting sharp geometric shadows across the wood floor.
- Atmosphere
- Luminous, airy, and highly structured, balancing geometric precision with the organic forms of the coastal landscape.
- Environmental context
- Sited on a rocky, tree-lined shoreline overlooking the water.
- Spatial experience
- The space offers dramatic vertical expansion and visual transparency, dissolving the boundary between the interior living room and the rocky coastal landscape outside.
- Composition rhythm
- The vertical rhythm of the slender columns and window mullions contrasts with the horizontal lines of the floor plates and the distant shoreline.
- Style reading
- Late Modernism / New York Five
- Program
- Single-family residential living room
- Perspective
- Interior Spatial
- Discipline
- architecture