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Continuing quest to figure out how to do it right in Biloxi ... Last week I gathered these images of elevated housing in other parts of the world. A picture is supposed to be worth a thousand words but hopefully these will also be as rich in ideas.
Traditional Thai Elevated Housing
Vernacular Elevated Housing (mostly south east asia)
Typical Elevated Beach / Resort Housing
Biloxi Elevated Single Family Housing (since the storm)
Last week I tossed together a visual run down of the FEMA flood insurance program requirements for elevated housing on the gulf coast. Its a fun read - nothing like government documents for a little lighthearted entertainment. Just thought I'd share with the class.
Knocking together some little elevation studies for my site I was interested and a bit appalled to note how Corbusian the elevated floor plate looks next to the existing vernacular of Biloxi. Deep breath. I need to remind myself that I don't hate modernism. So ... here's a little visual tribute to Eileen Gray again. I love her stuff. I can deal with this design condition without doing sterile white boxes or cutsie cottages on stilts.
Gray was a furniture designer before she was an architect and she kept designing all types of household items her whole life. Not only did she draw these pieces up but many of them she manufactured herself in her Paris workshop.
Mindfull of the lessons of de Stijl, she often drew folded out elevations of each room to really get a sense of the interior space rather than just focusing on facades and floor plans to create form. Like Loos, she was interested in the experience of being inside a space and really focused on materiality to produce her desired effects.
