The Coral Gables Times

Thursday, June 7, 1962, page 32 (of 64)

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Privacy OUTDOORS

House walls are extended by pierced masonry screens to surround this Texas roof garden. You can see out, but no one can look in. Domes light interior pool and planted area.

House Around a Garden A distinguished architect's solution for the too-public back yard

BY EDWARD DURELL STONE architect of the U. S. Embassy in New Delhi, U. S. Pavilion for Brussels' Fair, etc. AS TIME HAS PASSED, the area of land available for housing has dwindled in many suburban towns, as it did in the cities before them, until now we often attempt to have an individual dwelling on a 50 x 100 lot. With the current enthusiasm for outdoor living this means that houses opening widely to terraces have no privacy. Your neighbor's life is perforce conducted within 20 or 30 feet of your own-you can hear the steak sizzling on his charcoal, the door slamming behind his child. My solution is to build the house around a garden room or atrium. This room can be lighted from above and in turn open on one side to the out-of-doors. It can have air, planting, and fountains, and do away with space-consuming hallways. As the photographs show, the all-weather garden room can be a dominating feature, alive the way every garden is, with light and air and growing things, and in addition the further charm of privacy will be restored. In the past, it was difficult to make top lighting practical, as skylights were usually leaky and accumulated dirt. Today, however, with the advent of plastic, and perfected waterproofing, an interior garden, lighted from above, employing plastic bubbles, can be a charming and useful element. All my houses are now planned according to this principle. Recently I did one in Texas, enclosed by high walls and all the rooms open to courtyards; all the floors are white marble. There is a swimming pool within the house, too. Masonry, marble floors, the use of fountains, lagoons, courtyards, enclosed gardens-all these are characteristic of my present work. In designing such houses it is my hope to provide a client with a beautiful building, and above all, one that he will be able to live in contentedly, under today's crowded and strenuous conditions.

House is built around an all-weather garden, a dramatic free space under its translucent ceiling, where people and plants can flourish in peace and privacy.