Andrew Reach Found Freedom In His Architecture – House That Wants to Fly

This is a student project that my spouse Andrew Reach did at Pratt Institute. I marveled at his focus and creativity when he was creating it. He looks back and reflects on it, realizing that it was not only a poetic statement translated in architectural form, but also an early example of art therapy to escape his pain.

Andrew says:

I find a kind of freedom in my art that helps me escape pain. As I look back on a project I did at Pratt, I realize that I was doing the same thing with my architecture. The curvature in my spine in my twenties caused intermittent episodes of pain. The conception of this house, about the desire to escape gravity, TO FLY, TO BE FREE, but not being able to, always tethered to earth, was a metaphor for the human condition. But perhaps subliminally, it was a metaphor for my deformed spine, wishing I could escape it.

I was honored when I was notified in 1987, a couple of years after graduating, that this project was selected to be in the book published by Rizzoli FORM; BEING; ABSENCE, Pratt Journal of Architecture

click on images to enlarge

opposite_houses_fly_01_highresSite Plan & Floor Plans

opposite_houses_fly_02_highresAxonometric, Section & Elevation

HouseThatWantsToFly_model1
HouseThatWantsToFly_model2Model

pratt_journal_housethatwantstoflyFrom the Book “Form; Being; Absence – Pratt Journal of Architecture
Published by Rizzoli 1987

pratt_journal_coverFront Cover of “Form; Being; Absence – Pratt Journal of Architecture
Published by Rizzoli 1987