Residence Floor Plan — Gehry

For architecture students who want to model the Gehry Residence floor plan in Revit or SketchUp, start with the 1920s box. Then:

The result is not a machine for living, but a machine for looking at living.

A standard floor plan tells you where walls are. The Gehry Residence floor plan tells you what those walls are made of, because the material is the spatial divider.

Gehry’s genius was in treating the floor plan like a collage. He cut pieces from industrial sites (asphalt, chain-link, plywood) and pasted them over the polite geometry of suburbia.

One of the most misunderstood elements of the Gehry Residence floor plan is the vertical circulation. There is no grand staircase. gehry residence floor plan

Gehry installed a steep, wooden "ship's ladder" that climbs from the original living room up to the new mezzanine. On the architectural drawing, this ladder looks like an afterthought. But in practice, it is the hinge.

This ladder forces the resident to physically adjust their posture. You cannot ascend this casually; you must commit. This intentional "friction" is what separates the Gehry floor plan from a developer's open-plan layout.

At the center of the floor plan lies the original 1920s kitchen. Unlike the chaotic exterior, the kitchen retains a conventional layout—cabinets, a sink, a stove. But Gehry deliberately left the ceiling open, exposing the old wooden rafters. In the floor plan, this room is the anchor. It is the "normal" point from which you depart into madness.

Perhaps the most innovative aspect of the Gehry Residence floor plan is that circulation is not defined by hallways. For architecture students who want to model the

For the true floor plan enthusiasts, here are the raw metrics of the Gehry Residence floor plan:

Window to Wall Ratio: Nearly 80% on the new facade; 15% on the old facade.

| Zone | Area (sq ft) | Ceiling Height | Floor Material | |------|--------------|----------------|----------------| | Living/Dining (new) | 650 | 18 ft (max) | Concrete | | Original Bedrooms (2) | 120 each | 8 ft | Wood | | Original Kitchen | 100 | 8 ft | Linoleum | | Gehry Studio | 150 | 9 ft | Plywood | | Entry/Carport transition | 200 | 9 ft | Concrete |

1. The Deconstructed Perimeter Unlike a normal floor plan that draws a single, clean outer wall, Gehry’s plan shows fragmented boundaries. He removed the rear wall of the existing living room and extended the house outward using unconventional materials (plywood, corrugated metal, chain-link fencing). The floor plan looks like a house that exploded and was hastily put back together.

2. The Glass "Gap" Look closely at the plan. There is a deliberate two-inch gap between the old house and the new sculptural additions. This isn't a mistake; it's a functional skylight. On the plan, this appears as a thin, continuous void that slices through the kitchen and dining areas—bringing sunlight into the core of the old structure. The result is not a machine for living,

3. The Kitchen: The Angled Hub While most suburban floor plans use 90-degree corners, the Gehry Residence kitchen features acute and obtuse angles. The countertops jut out like the bow of a ship. The floor plan forces you to move diagonally, creating a tense, energetic flow. You cannot passively walk through this space; you must negotiate it.

4. The Master Bedroom "Cube" Upstairs, the floor plan reveals a glass-enclosed master bedroom that protrudes out over the driveway. It acts as a transparent observatory. On paper, it looks vulnerable (glass walls on three sides), but in function, it offers a panoramic frame of the mundane suburban street—turning neighbors’ lawns into art.

5. The Chain-Link "Room" One of the most radical elements on the plan is an outdoor eating area enclosed not by drywall, but by chain-link fencing. The floor plan labels this as a "room," even though it has no roof and porous walls. Gehry was asking: Does a floor plan require solid lines to define space?