Architectural Studio I included designing a residence for ourselves on a specific site. The residence had to resemble ourselves in a profound way while relating appealingly to the immediate surroundings.

The site is located in a mountainous landscape of North Carolina next to the Nantahala River. The steep slope around the ridge makes a challenging site with characteristic topography.

Since water largely, in one way or another has helped shape me as a person, water should also shape the house I would live in. At the mountainous site, where a small but significant stream floats, an interesting relationship between the flowing river and the static mountains is formed. This relationship has therefore a direct link to me where water has helped me find a way around numerous obstacles in life. The house is hence an exploration of how the natural flow of a river can be seamlessly incorporated in the building circulation and can be used as a transitioning tool of a human experience of a residential space.

A further examination of the relationship between the river and the mountains suggests that the river has shaped the landscape as an effect of accommodating its own natural flow. In a similar way, this house is shaped to accommodate a natural flow of its inhabitants.