Crook|Cup|Bow|Twist Facade Details

Two distinct elements that stand alone and work together comprise a façade of varied materials and styles. The judges singled out both the home’s board-form concrete wall and its wooden solar screen for “expressing design ideas that are both retro and of our time.”

Crook|Cup|Bow|Twist takes its name from the four ways in which wood is deformed by natural elements. That concept is stated up front to the right of the façade’s entryway, by a sun screen whose wooden slats are intended to bend and torque. Rather than fight nature, why not take advantage, wondered architect Neal Schwartz, who searched for the wood most likely to deform over time. He settled on eucalyptus (a non-native species that arrived in California in the late 18th century from Australia), letting the green wood bend and shift with time. On a light steel framework, builder Bruce Hammond used loose pin connections to affix 5/8-inch strips of wood that become more sculptural as time passes.

On the left side of the entry is a board-formed concrete wall that was “a bit of an experiment,” admits Schwartz, giving his client credit for signing on. The team, which included a structural engineer and a master mason, built a full-scale mock-up before proceeding, finding a section of wall where most of the vertical rebar could go to either side. Horizontal rebar was used in between the spots where acrylic is placed. In citing both the screen and the acrylic-embedded wall, the judges appreciated the contrast between “rigid, geometric shapes and soft, organic ones.”

On Site “It took a village,” says Neal Schwartz of getting the board-formed concrete wall just right. In addition to figuring out where most of the vertical rebar could go to accommodate the horizontal acrylic strips, there was the pour: concrete, of course, has to be vibrated to get rid of bubbles. Panel wire was installed to hold the acrylic in place, and the wall was built in sections—shaken and constructed piece by piece.