[John Hejduk]

With a history unlike any other, Wall House 2 redefines the limits of architectural design as a function of context in both time and culture. Designed in 1973 and built in 2001. The house is a study of the relationship between inside and outside and is reminiscent of Corbusian architecture, although a bit more eccentric.

Wall House 2 is admired for its fusion of Surrealist sculpture, Cubist paintings and architecture, which reflect John Hejduk’s identity as an artist, poet, educator and architect.

The residence was initially designed by American architect John Hejduk in 1973 for a fellow faculty member at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union in New York, to be constructed in Ridgefeld, Connecticut. Due to the high estimated costs of construction in the wooded area, the project was put on hold.

Organized around a central axis of horizontal and vertical plane, a three-dimensionality allows for experiencing the spaces. Accompanying these, a two-dimensional plane disconnects but at the same time groups the functional spaces which appear separate from one another while emphasizing the poetic nature of the residence.

“The wall is a neutral condition. That’s why it’s always painted gray. And the wall represents the same condition as the time of the hypotenuse in the Diamond Houses – it is the greatest moment of repose, and at the same time the greatest tension. It is a moment of passage. The wall heightens that sens of passage, and by the same token, its thinness heightens the sense of it being just a momentary condition… what I call the moment of the present.”

Photography by: Liao Yusheng

Text by: Megan Sveiven

Source: www.archdaily.com