Bienville House: A Bold Urban Oasis

Architect Nathan Fell's Innovative Design for Urban Living

The inspiration behind Bienville House came from the logistical challenges faced by a working family. Spending too much time indoors, both at work and at home, can be disruptive to one's wellness. Rather than moving to the suburbs for more outdoor space, the homeowners decided to build a new house on a small urban lot that would redefine indoor home life.

Bienville House stands out for its unique configuration of forms that accentuate the transparency between the interior spaces on the first floor and the exterior. The upper floors, which contain private spaces, are wrapped by exterior surfaces forming a series of suspended cubes. The walls supporting these cubic forms are exposed concrete walls, creating a distinct separation between the wall and the cubes. This juxtaposition of static forms against the animated interior space serves as a frame, reinforcing the transparency of the design.

The construction of Bienville House involved innovative techniques and materials. The exterior load-bearing walls are concrete cast in place board formed ThermoMass walls, which help stabilize the temperature through the thermal mass of the inside wall. Due to site constraints, the 30 feet tall wall was cast in 10 feet pours across the site, with the form panels reassembled above only after the floors were framed.

Bienville House is a duplex that maximizes the use of a small urban lot. The design focuses on configuring communal spaces in a way that best accesses outdoor light, air, and volume. The rear unit consists of 4 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, while the front is a rental unit with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. The layout actively engages travelers with the city, while also providing seclusion for the primary unit.

The design process involved extensive research into materials for practical constructability, affordability, and visual appeal. It also had to comply with local flood zone requirements, historic, zoning, and code provisions without a variance. Despite these challenges, Bienville House stands as a testament to the potential of innovative urban living.

Bienville House is a design that challenges the norm in a city that is often slow to change. It uses materials that make sense environmentally, even if they may be unconventional regionally. This innovative approach to design has earned Bienville House the Golden A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award in 2020, a prestigious accolade granted to marvelous, outstanding, and trendsetting creations.