— An unbuilt stone villa in the Italian style —
 
In 2003 I was asked to design a stone villa in the Italian style at the edge of the sea. The site was near 200 feet above the water and there was a sea cliff at the extremity of the buildable area. The building program was extensive and included a tower, two complete living spaces, a three car garage and a connecting orangerie with an indoor pool. I completed the conceptual designs but the project was never built, as the owners subsequently sold the property. One of the reasons I was selected for this design was that I have hands-on experience building in stone, as you may see below. — Drawings — — Site photographs — 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. — The Architect’s background in stone construction — — Model —
   In 1976, after I had graduated with my Batchelor of Architecture degree, I spent a year in Italy building in stone. These photos are a construction sequence of a stone stairway that I built. I was in charge of the crew, and that is me in the middle photo, wiping the sweat off my brow. I still have all my stoneworking tools. There will be more information about stone on the Stonework page of my website.
The approach The Building Hill The View
Access to the site was from the north via an easment on the next property. Once you left the coastal highway, the trees rapidly screened it from all view.
I chose this hill on the property for the building site both for its perfect view and because the elevation changes on the building’s footprint allowed me to build the tower higher and still meet the coastal regulations.
To the West the horizon is 17 miles out.  The next landfall is Midway Island, 3,200 miles away.
So far, this villa exists only in the drawings I have made, and could be modified for you. North elevation, daytime
North Elevation
West Elevation
South Elevation
East Elevation
       The site plan, showing the enclosed elliptical piazza in front of the buildings, with a rising grass mound like the oval pavement at the top of the Capitoline Hill. Walls of changing height surround the piazza, but they stop on the west, at a disappearing-edge pool echoing on a human scale the limitless horizon of the sea, and the cosmos beyond that. Thus the enclosed and the open, the human and the infinite, are brought into contact.
A model can generate infinite views in real sunlight. A computer can never do this.
The west fronts of the buildings and the grass mound.
The oval piazza with a gate and a pool between the enclosed and the infinite...
A model is ...
as good as an aircraft.
Site plan
Joe Ødegård, Architect