The Vertical House created by Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects, occupying a tight site in Venice, California, is a taut, kaleidoscopic tower that blurs boundaries between walls and floors. Clad in multicoloured fibre-cement boards, the flat facades are punctuated by 105 windows.To maximize usable square footage, the site limitations have been pushed to the limits in both plan and height requirements, forcing the linearity of the design on paper to be translated in built form.

The steel moment frame frees the skin from structural restraints, allowing an unrestricted rhythm of glazing, channel glass and solid panels. The skin illustrates the disparity of structure and envelope affected by different yet merging positions of exterior glazing.

Most simply, one idea coupled with and realized through materiality defines the architecture of this residence. The impact is both powerful and artistic. [via]