Edge House
Raleigh, North Carolina
By definition, an edge is a place where something begins or ends. Sited at the boundary of the city’s beltline loop freeway, this house for an owner/builder occupies the edge – not only by geographic location, but because of the immediate site and building concept. Located at a topographical fringe, the land of the site itself is a steep cliff, thus an edge. Given such a context, the project responds formally as a structure on the brink; it is rooted to the site using a series of parallel walls or edges that terrace the landscape, allowing habitation of a once derelict parcel of land. Like many buildings with a modern aesthetic, the Edge House is on the verge of being familiar and different: the use of masonry walls as well as wood framing and cladding are indigenous crafts to the area, while the flat roofs and steel superstructure are more common to commercial buildings.
