该项目是为一对夫妇和他们的两个年幼的孩子在米尔谷的一个1962年的住宅进行的改造性建筑和景观设计。该项目被称为 “中间的一半”，极大地重新配置了住宅的核心部分，以创造一个开放的、光线充沛的内部空间，并与景观直接连接。原始的、有质感的材料，如镀锌钢、粗锯雪松护墙板和现浇混凝土，定义了这个项目，并强调了其意想不到的、有层次的几何形状。

The project is the transformative architectural and landscape design of a 1962 home in Mill Valley for a couple and their two young children. The project, known as The Middle Half, dramatically reconfigures the home’s core to create an open, light-flooded interior and direct connection to the landscape. Raw, textured materials like galvanized steel, rough-sawn cedar siding, and cast-in-place concrete define the project and accentuate its unexpected, layered geometries.

高度拥挤的核心。虽然房主很喜欢它适度的水平立面和直接的材料使用方法，但他们认识到了老化和组织缺陷的影响，这些缺陷使家庭生活模式分化，并将内部与场地的景观分割开来。SAW的设计将住宅扩大到3457平方英尺，释放其布局以创造一个开放的中央生活空间，并加强其与戏剧性景观的联系。在整个住宅的内部，固定装置和装饰品是由SAW和屋主之一的室内设计师Kina Ingersoll合作设计的。Ingersoll还选择了所有的家具。

highly congested core. While the homeowners were fond of its modest horizontal facade and straightforward approach to materials, they recognized the effects of aging and organizational flaws, which bifurcated family living patterns and severed the interior from the site’s views. SAW’s design enlarges the home to 3,457-sf, unlocks its layout to create an open-plan central living space, and enhances its connection to the dramatic vistas. Throughout the home’s interior, fixtures and finishes were designed collaboratively by SAW and one of the homeowners, Kina Ingersoll, an interior designer. Ingersoll also selected all of the furniture.

设计的定义是，当人们从房子的前面（沿街的一层）移动到房子的后面（向下的两层），面对一个陡峭、郁郁葱葱的山谷时，有一种扩张感。

The design is defined by a sense of expansion as one moves from the front of the house, which is one level along the street, to the back of the house, which carves down to two levels and faces a steep, lush valley.

从街上走来，房子的正面是低矮的，并且在风景中接地气。横向的粗锯西部红柏覆面增强了它的水平性，而板条状的花架则滑出屋顶，并在车库的指导性斜墙边框住正面入口。进入住宅后，一种悬空的感觉迅速占据了整个空间，一条新的流通路径穿过扩散的核心区，从前门到悬空的后甲板和远处的景色，形成了一条清晰的视线。

Approaching from the street, the facade is low-slung and grounded in the landscape. Lateral rough-sawn Western Red cedar cladding enhances its horizontality, while slatted trellises slip beyond the roof and frame the front entrances against the guiding angled wall of the garage. A feeling of suspension quickly takes over upon entering the home, where a new circulation path crosses through the diffuse core, drawing a clear sightline from the front door to the suspended rear deck and views beyond.

这条路径沿中轴线连接了住宅的公共空间（厨房、餐厅、客厅、家庭室和室外平台），而更多的私人区域（卧室、浴室、办公室和客人套房）则向左右两边延伸。穿过前门，一个高而窄的入口走廊迅速打开，进入一个宽大的开放式厨房和用餐区，在暴露的梁柱天花板下，天窗打孔，似乎要把屋顶的一部分剥落下来。清晰的白色石膏墙和从地板到天花板的白色木制品增强了浮力和轻盈感，微妙的长柄吊灯悬挂在一个最小的灰色厨房吧台和一个由屋主之一设计的活边餐桌上。

This path connects the home’s communal spaces (kitchen, dining area, living room, family room, and outdoor deck) along a central axis, while more private areas (bedrooms, bathrooms, office, and guest suite) peel off to the left and right. Through the front door, a tall, narrow entry corridor opens quickly into a wide, open-format kitchen and dining area beneath exposed-beam ceilings, which are perforated by skylights that punch up and seem to peel back portions of the roof. Crisp white gypsum walls and floor-to-ceiling white millwork enhance a sense of buoyancy and lightness, as subtle long-stemmed pendant lights suspend over a minimal gray kitchen bar volume and a live-edge dining room table, designed by one of the homeowners.

虽然整个住宅是一个模糊内部和外部区别的练习，但这在后面达到了最充分的表达。厨房-餐厅区域不受干扰地延伸到客厅和家庭室，这些房间的落地窗和玻璃门通向悬空的上层甲板，暗示着分层的连续性。室内天花板上的横梁延伸到室外空间，在后甲板上形成一个板条状的花架，使这种感觉更加强烈。

SAW的设计确保了即使是住宅中比较私密的房间也能与景观相融合。一扇新的、宽达16英尺的推拉门在主卧室的前墙上开出。这扇门通向重新设计的前花园，花园里种植着茂盛的杜鹃花、百合花和草。与之相连的主浴室也同样围绕着一扇窗户，可以看到前院的香樟树。

While the entire home is an exercise in blurring distinctions between interior and exterior, this reaches its fullest expression at the rear. The kitchen-dining zone spills without interruption into living and family rooms bordered by floor-to-ceiling windows and glass doors that open to the suspended upper deck, implying layered continuity. The sensation is enhanced by interior ceiling beams that extend into outdoor space, forming a slatted trellis over the back deck.

SAW’s design ensures that even the home’s more intimate rooms converge with the landscape. A new, expansive 16-foot-wide sliding door carves into the primary bedroom’s front wall. This opens onto the redesigned front garden, planted with a lush array of azaleas, lilies, and grasses. The connected primary bathroom is likewise organized around a window that reveals the front yard’s camphor tree.

从厨房-餐厅的右边延伸出来，一条短的走廊将住宅的主体量与向西倾斜的儿童翼连接起来。在这个门槛上的窗户，创造了一个贯穿各体量的视觉连接，揭示了住宅的分层、滑动的几何结构。在厨房的另一侧，一个楼梯间在家庭室的开放式书架后面巧妙地滑向下层的酒吧/休息室、客房和办公室；以前，楼上和楼下之间没有内部连接。休息室还设有从地板到天花板的玻璃推拉门，通向下层甲板。

Extending from the right of the kitchen-dining area, a short hallway stitches the main volume of the home to the kids’ wing, which angles to the west. Windows lining this threshold, create a visual connection through the volumes, revealing the home’s layered, slipping geometries. On the other side of the kitchen, a stairwell slides subtly behind the family room’s open bookshelf down into a lower-level bar/lounge, guest room, and office; previously, there had been no interior connection between the upstairs and downstairs. The lounge also features glass floor-to-ceiling sliding doors that open onto the lower deck.

SAW设计的后部景观是体积化的，由与建筑设计共享的几何形状定义。宽阔的上层甲板与阶梯式的下层甲板相连，有一个轮廓鲜明、厚重的红柏楼梯和由镀锌钢柱和不锈钢电缆制成的栏杆。位于最低层甲板上的游泳池在一侧是无缝的，是景观中的空隙，而在另一侧则是山坡上的一个坚实的直线块。在下面，梯田作为 “景观室 “在斜坡上错落有致。

SAW designed the rear landscape to be volumetric, defined by geometries shared with the architectural design. The wide upper deck connects to the stepped lower decks with a sharply defined, hefty cedar staircase and railing made from galvanized steel posts and stainless steel cable. The pool, located on the lowest deck, is seamless at one side—a void in the landscape—and yet a solid rectilinear block in the hillside from another. Below, terraces stagger as “landscape rooms” across the slope.

Architects: SAW // Spiegel Aihara Workshop
Year : 2022
Photographs :Mikiko Kikuyama
Structural Engineer : GFDS
Civil Engineer : Benjamini Associates
Geotechnical Engineer : Nersi Hemati
Interior Design : Kina Ingersoll
General Contractor : Perfection Construction
Millwork : Marco Hernandez Custom Cabinetry
City : Mill Valley
Country : United States