Edward Ogosta: Four Eyes House

Los Angeles-based firm Edward Ogosta Architecture has designed a weekend desert residence for a family and their dog. Titled Four Eyes House, the volume is an exercise in site-specific experiential programming. Rather than planning the house according to a domestic functional program, the building was designed as an instrument for intensifying a number of onsite phenomenal events.

Four "sleeping towers" are oriented towards four specific viewing experiences, which are different throughout the day: morning sunrise to the east, mountain range to the south, evening city lights to the west, and nighttime stars overhead. Each tower contains a compact top-floor bedroom, sized only for a bed, and each has a unique aperture directed towards the view. These bedrooms are equally-sized and unassigned, such that the family's sleeping locations can be rotated based on each individual's desired viewing experience. Vertical circulation within the towers is similarly particularized (ladders, spiral stair, switchback stair, or shallow-riser stair). Ground-floor common spaces form a loose connective field between the discrete tower volumes, and offer a more permeable relationship to the landscape.

The sensations of sleeping and waking are inflected by the building's intensification of onsite experiential events. By sleeping in a room elevated off the ground and open to the stars, one might inhabit a deep pocket of silence for a few moments, and perhaps even perceive the movement of the Earth, as it slowly rotates beneath the stars.

Edward Ogosta Architecture: Four Eyes House
Architect: Edward Ogosta Architecture, Los Angeles, California, USA
Project Location: Coachella Valley, California, USA
Area: 353 square metres
Date: 2010—ongoing
Renderings: Edward Ogosta Architecture