Gehry Residence Floor Plan __exclusive__ 95%
Overview
The Gehry Residence is located in Santa Monica, California, and was designed as a renovation and expansion of a 1922 bungalow. The house serves as both a residence for Gehry and his family, as well as an office for his architectural practice.
Floor Plan
The floor plan of the Gehry Residence is a complex, multi-level layout that reflects Gehry's interest in deconstructivist architecture. The house has a total living area of approximately 2,300 square feet.
- Ground Floor:
- The ground floor features an open-plan living area, including a living room, dining area, and kitchen.
- A staircase leads to the upper levels, and a doorway connects to the outdoors.
- A small office and storage spaces are also located on this level.
- First Floor:
- The first floor contains four bedrooms, including Gehry's studio and a guest room.
- A bathroom and additional storage spaces are also located on this level.
- Second Floor:
- The second floor features a mezzanine-level office and a small library.
- A staircase connects to the roof deck.
Notable Features
Some notable features of the Gehry Residence floor plan include:
- Deconstructivist design: The house features a deliberately disjointed and fragmented design, with irregularly shaped rooms and levels.
- Multi-level layout: The floor plan incorporates multiple levels, with changes in elevation and floor-to-ceiling heights.
- Open spaces: The living areas are characterized by open, flowing spaces that blur the boundaries between indoors and outdoors.
Innovative Design Elements
The Gehry Residence incorporates several innovative design elements, including:
- Asymmetrical facades: The exterior facades of the house are asymmetrical and feature a mix of materials, including wood, steel, and glass.
- Steel framing: The house was one of the first residential projects to use steel framing, which allowed for greater flexibility and experimentation with design.
Influence and Legacy
The Gehry Residence has had a significant influence on contemporary architecture, and its innovative design elements have been widely studied and emulated. The house has also been recognized with several awards, including the American Institute of Architects' (AIA) National Honor Award.
Additional Resources
If you'd like to learn more about the Gehry Residence and its floor plan, I recommend checking out the following resources:
- The Getty Research Institute's collection of Frank Gehry's architectural drawings and documents
- The Canadian Centre for Architecture's (CCA) collection of Gehry's architectural works
- Various architectural publications, such as Architectural Record and House & Garden, which have featured the Gehry Residence in their pages.
Would you like to know more about a specific aspect of the Gehry Residence or Frank Gehry's design philosophy? gehry residence floor plan
The 1978 Gehry Residence in Santa Monica is a foundational deconstructivist project featuring a house-within-a-house design, where a new, industrial structure wraps around a 1920s bungalow. The floor plan merges interior and exterior spaces across two levels, utilizing corrugated metal, chain-link fencing, and exposed framing to blur traditional architectural boundaries. Explore the detailed floor plans and architectural analysis at WikiArquitectura. Gehry House - Data, Photos & Plans - WikiArquitectura
Part 2: The Vertical Circulation – The "Silo" Staircase
The most unique element of the Gehry Residence floor plan is the circulation core. Traditional houses hide the stairs. Gehry puts them front and center.
In the plan, you will find a chain-link cage wrapped around a raw wooden staircase. This "silo" is located near the center of the old house. As you move from the ground floor to the upper floor, the staircase cuts through the existing roof trusses.
What is remarkable is the floor plan's negative space. Gehry cut a massive hole in the second floor to allow the chain-link cage to rise two stories. This creates a visual vertical connection rarely seen in residential architecture. From the second floor landing, you can look down into the ground floor kitchen. The floor plan thus prioritizes voyeurism and overlapping vistas over privacy.
The Primary Bedroom (The Cube)
At the west end, hovering over the garage, sits the primary bedroom. On the Gehry Residence floor plan, this is distinct because it is the only room wrapped entirely in glass block and corrugated metal. It functions like a modernist cube dropped onto a wreck. The bed sits facing a wall of glass block that turns the morning light into a pixelated haze.
The Bridge
Connecting the master bedroom to a small study is a narrow bridge. On the floor plan, this bridge looks like a thin rectangle floating over the chain-link void. Walking across it, you realize you are suspended above the dining room. Again, the floor plan collapses the distinction between "upstairs" and "downstairs." Overview The Gehry Residence is located in Santa
The Site Context: Orientation on the Lot
To fully grasp the Gehry Residence floor plan, you must look at the property line. The house sits on a corner lot. The street wraps around it.
- North/West Facade (The Face): This is the famous view of the plywood towers and the tilted glass. Here, the floor plan pushes the kitchen right up to the property line.
- South/East Facade (The Back): This remains the original Dutch Colonial face—shingles, shutters, and a chimney. From the alley, the house looks normal.
- The Carport: Unlike any other house in the neighborhood, the carport is not a driveway. It is a stage. The floor plan shows cars parking literally underneath the primary bedroom's glass cube.
Gehry took the traditional "front yard/back yard" binary and turned it into a Möbius strip. The "public" face of the house is the chaotic, industrial one. The "private" face faces the public sidewalk.
The Strategy of Wrapping
To understand the floor plan, one must understand the existing structure. Gehry did not build a house from scratch; he wrapped a modest, existing 1920s Dutch Colonial bungalow. The floor plan reveals a "house-within-a-house" concept.
The original bungalow remained largely intact in terms of footprint, but Gehry stripped away its siding to expose the framing. He then surrounded this core with angular volumes of glass, metal, and wire. On the floor plan, this creates a fascinating dichotomy between the "old" spaces (the traditional rooms of the original house) and the "new" spaces (the interstitial zones created by the outer shell).
The Walkway
This is the primary circulation spine. It is narrow—barely 4 feet wide. One side is a glass balustrade looking down into the old living room. The other side is the original exterior siding of the house, now an interior wall.
Gehry famously said, "We ripped the drywall off to expose the studs, and it looked beautiful." The floor plan confirms this: no closets line this hallway. The "storage" is the void. Ground Floor:


