Shotgun Over and Under Residential House

Press Kit

Unique Properties

The project is conceived as two Shotgun houses, stacked atop one another. With this variation, access to natural light, cross ventilation, flora, fauna, and economization of framing materials are maintained. The idea of the Shotgun house is not to replicate the typology but to use its concepts as a way to explore issues around cultural and environmental sustainability. The nature of the thing emerged from the willingness to search for ideas and methods gained from the typology.

Dimensions & Packaging

-Plot is 278 sqm -Landscape Area is 92 sqm -Building Area is 278 sqm -Floors are 1st and 2nd -Height is 7m -Width is 7m -Length is 26m

Tags

shotgun house, shotgun house over and under, bill price brown endowed chair, pvamu, bill price inc

Production Technology

Main Structure: Wood Framing, Laminated Veneer Lumber Beams, Three Steel Moment Frames, and a Concrete Structural Slab with Piers - Main Architectural Finishes: Polished Concrete, Washed and Pickled White Oak, Blackened and White Stucco, Blackened Steel and Galvalume Siding

Design Challenge

Shotgun House - Over and Under challenges the limited ways of thinking about residential design today as it relates to environmentally and culturally sustainable solutions. Under the umbrella of cultural and environmental sustainability, the house attempts to reinterpret an existing typology and provoke thought regarding how our relationship with nature and living with one another will evolve as we live longer in cities.

Project Duration

The project design process into typologies associated with Shotgun Houses started in January 2008 with the application of research occurring in 2016 with construction in 2020 in Houston, Texas - USA.

Operation Flow

The lower volume accommodates private functions and uses the wall to mediate inside and outside. Here, nature is broadcast into the spaces as if televised. It remains blurry and in constant flux as light moves towards you and through it. The upper volume accommodates public functions and is an open floor plan with two micro-climatic decks at either end. Here nature is curated, less wild and sharp. Like a stage set, nature is handled cinematically and asks you to move towards it as light falls on it. This stretching and cinematic effect further emphasize the Shotgun House - Over and Unders relationship to its history.

Research

The idea of the Shotgun House - Over and Under is not to replicate the typology but to use its concepts to explore issues around cultural and environmental sustainability. The nature of the project emerges from the willingness to search for and experiment with ideas and methods gained from typology and energized by contemporary ecological and cultural concerns.
Shotgun House - Over and Under attempts to bring together the best of the shotgun house while in essence bypassing its limitations. It is a living space that takes advantage of the attributes of typology radically modified in light of the overriding and timely concerns of our time.

Inspiration

The project is a reinterpretation of Houston’s Shotgun Houses located in the Freedman’s Towns (African American municipalities or communities built by freedmen, former slaves who were emancipated during and after the American Civil War). This type of building is a long narrow one-story house with rooms lined back to back. Various theories as to the origin of the name exist. One theory for the name comes from discharging a shotgun through the house and the bullets moving freely from front to back

Image Credits

Image #1 : Kennon Evett, Image #2 : Bill Price, Image #3 : Kennon Evett, Image #4 : Ben Hill, Image #5 : Bill Price

Colors of Shotgun Over and Under Residential House