Chameleon House by Anderson Anderson Architecture

May 02, 2010 Category: house

A very unique design by Anderson Anderson Architecture, a tower-like house called “Chameleon House” will be built near Lake Michigan. The site is located on a cherry orchard and rises above the trees to peer out over
the landscape. From this building, you can see beautiful view of Lake Michigan and the surrounding agricultural landscape. The site is minimally disturbed, other than the mounding of two earthen enclosures adjacent to the tower, created from the excavated earth of the foundation and offering a ground to contrast the tower experience above the treescape. Due to the slope of the site, the family enters at the third level, descending down to the kids’ bedrooms and bath or moving up to the main living spaces.

A site would appear as an unsympathetic intrusion in this pure landscape, and with its singular vertical presence rising above the orchard, the tower is intended to reflect the austere, scaleless non-particularity of the occasional farm buildings dotted elsewhere on the hills. To help mask the scale, the building was designed as a single volume with a skin cladding made from recycled translucent polyethelene slats, standing two feet out from the galvanized sheet metal cladding of the wall surface on aluminum frames that serve also as window washing platforms and emergency exit ladders . The material gives the structure an ever-evolving appearance that reflects the landscape around it. This chameleon-like functionality is the home’s signature trademark and namesake. The double skin creates a micro-climate and thermal differential around the structure creating a rippling mirage updraft that in the summer sends steaming condensation or in the winter drips melting icicles.

Inside the home is very open and warm, thanks to light wood panelling which covers the walls and ceilings. The layout is staggered giving the home many floors. The living area takes precedence with a floating room on the upper-most floor looking directly out the double height front windows.

In order to keep costs and on site labor to a minimum, SIPs panels compose the exterior walls. A steel moment frame allows for the height of the structure and for loft like spaces within the main living area. With the use of common materials and industrial detailing, a commercial contractor expects to build the home in six to eight weeks.