Cleeve Horne House
A Winged Summer House
Designed by Michael Clifford and Kenneth Lewis architects, it was built at 1959 Ontario Canada. It was a private summer house of Canadian portrait painter Cleeve Horne.
When it was commisioned by Mr. Horne and his wife Jean Horne, they gave two rules. Rule No.1: It has to cost $20,000 or less. Rule No.2: There are no rules; let the imagination run wild. Since the couple were both artists they wanted an unusual house.
The main structure and component of the house was the unusual roof design. Unlike traditional houses, the roof went up before the walls and floor since it would flex a little when temperatures changed or the wind blew. The window-walls would be assembled underneath the roof afterward and attached to a movable dowel and pocket system between the roof and window casements.
One of the Architect was passionate about the notion of using concrete shells and suggested the hyperbolic paraboloid shell-form referring to a self-supporting style of roof made famous by Spanish architect/engineer Felix Candela working in Mexico around the same time.
The roof soars and takes on the appearance of a winged bird (like Eero Saarinen’s famous 1962 TWA Terminal at JFK International Airport).
Two opposite corners of the square are folded down and anchored to the ground by massive concrete abutments; the other two corners lift up 13 feet above the ground, forming a roof that’s vaguely saddle-shaped. The roof is edged with steel I-beams, painted white, which resist the compressive and tension forces by turning them into thrust that travels down into the abutments. Except at the edges where it joins up with the steel beams, the roof is a wafer-thin shell of concrete two and a half inches thick. To ensure the roof doesn’t tip over (from the various loads acting on it and even from the wind), it’s tied down at the high corners as well: hidden in the window mullions are adjustable ties that come down vertically and anchor into the ground.
Walking in, one could immediately feel the sheltering effect of the concrete roof. The gentle double-curve of the hyperbolic paraboloid creates two cozy low points, two breathtaking high points and a dome-like area in the middle of the space. It’s like a cool, bright, crystal cave with a panoramic view of the valley.
Originally, I’ve got to know this house from one of my favorite tv shows “Hannibal”. It was introduced as Hannibal’s Cliffside house and played an important role in the final episode “The Wrath of the Lamb”.
In the tv show, actually the house is on a tall cliff next to the sea using cgi. It made the House feel much more odd and deserted. Which made an image of Hannibal’s secret owned house. After the tv show ended, the Cleeve Horne House became a famous place for Hannibal fans.
