Sapphire Gallery : Los Angeles Residential Architecture

Sapphire Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA - XTEN Architecture Architect: XTEN Architecture Principals: Monika Haefelfinger & Austin Kelly, AIA Client: Julie and Frederick Reisz Project Name: Sapphire Gallery Project Location: Los Angeles, California, USA Rendering Credits: XTEN Architecture Project Description Sapphire is a gallery addition designed to display a growing art collection while providing for glass facades and views to surrounding hills. The new structure is connected to the existing circulation/ gallery of the main house, extending it up to a second story for light and views. The building geometry is articulated as a large tapered double cantilever, allowing for three separate galleries and a delicate connection to the main house. Lightweight, factory built braced frames comprise the building structure, designed to be assembled on site in a day. The resultant minimal footprint maintains the gardens and continuity of the landscaping around the house. Sandwiching the steel frames is a building façade system that was developed to provide solar protection for the art while still allowing for visual connections to hillside gardens. The South façade and inclined roof are clad in photovoltaic solar cells that are customized into a diamond array, a pattern that continues on the East and West facades of the building as a lasercut aluminum screens. This pattern is echoed in a ceramic frit gradient applied to the glass and specialized façade shutters further modulate the daylight and protect the artworks. The gallery partitions are independent from the building structure to allow for flexibility in staging the galleries in the future. Thermal conditioning is achieved through a radiant floor embedded into the concrete decks. Rainwater is collected from the roof runoff and recycled as gray water for the irrigation system and other recycled materials are used throughout the new building. The monocrystalline solar array is designed to produce 15kWh per day – a sufficient energy supply for both the new gallery and a surplus to be directed to the main residence. Sapphire Gallery Los Angeles images / information from XTEN Architecture 030209