The history of modern architecture is strewn with boulders. Albert Frey, Oscar Niemeyer, John Lautner– these legends and many others have all delighted in the constraints of igneous obstacles, embracing existing landmasses as the defining elements of their interiors. Continuing in this tectonic tradition is Christian Wassman, a Swiss-born talent at the epicenter of New York’s art and design scenes. For him, this geological allure is metaphysical. “Everything I design is meant to connect individuals to each other, to themselves, and to the cosmos,” says Wassmann, who views his projects as liminal spaces defined by people and place. “The ingredients are the site and the customer.”
For his last job, the clients happened to be his own family. Seven years ago, he and his wife, nonprofit development consultant Luisa Gui, began scouring upstate New York to find a plot of land on which to build a home for themselves and their two children, Kiki and Lorenzo. Their wish list was short: a view and a rock. Told of land for sale at a former quarry, the family piled into the car, driving up the Palisades Interstate Parkway and eventually onto a mile-long gravel road. “There was this incredible feeling of slowing down,” Wassmann recalled of arriving at the hilltop site, which overlooks the Hudson Valley. At the center of the property was a glacial erratic, its monumental form deposited by retreating prehistoric ice. “We called the real estate agent before we even got out of the car.”
This awe-inspiring rock is the centerpiece of the family’s new home, an enduring feat that is one with the earth and the heavens. To determine his unexpected form, Wassmann spent weekends there sleeping in an Airstream, studying the terrain and gazing at the galaxy. He finally returns to his initial sketch: the rock surrounded by the house, the roof a sculptural funnel tiled with photovoltaic panels. However, this elegant solution includes complex geometries and astrological clues. The shape of the roof, for example, is optimized for maximum sunlight. Inside, a hollow railing doubles as a viewing device for locating Polaris, the sky’s reliable North Star. The slope of this staircase also echoes the plot’s 42-degree latitude while paralleling the Earth’s north-south axis, which Wassmann mapped using a laser level to align the rock. with Polaris.
