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A neo-Leibnizian definition of the virtual house might then be this: it is the house that holds together the most, and most complicated, different possible worlds in the same container, allowing them to exist together along a constructed plane with no need of a preestablished harmony. - Rajchman, The Virtual House.

With House X, the formal transformations supported a level of detail hitherto unseen in the earlier Eisenman houses. The early houses recorded a simple series of transformations. House X represented multiple transformations, a temporary suspension of strategic formal maneuvers in which space appears to gel. Issues of volumetric solidity are explored that resume later in House 11a and the Guardiola House.

The famous axonometric model represented the last step in the development of House X. This digital version of the project is an opportunity to experience the design directly, and reveals a complex score of unaddressed haptic effects. The design could almost be considered an investigation into how light can enter a space. Varying over the four quadrants, the transformations open a series of slots and breaks that allow light to enter the space in a variety of ways resulting in numerous transparency effects.

While there is little information about materials other than colored and textured stucco with sheetrock interiors, the window details have a syntactic complexity worthy of a larger building. In this respect, House X served as a bridge between the small and large-scale projects.

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Entertainment

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• architecture
• design
• Quake
• III
• Arena
• Peter
• Eisenman
• House
• ZenLux
• Duncan
• Brown