Gehry Residence Floor Plan <VALIDATED – EDITION>

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).

Entering through the traditional front door (which Gehry kept intact), you find yourself in a conventional living room. This space is drywall, hardwood floors, and a fireplace. It feels like 1920s nostalgia. However, looking at the floor plan, you notice something odd: This room has been bisected. gehry residence floor plan

Gehry cut a massive skylight into the roof and inserted a wooden walkway that hovers above this original living room, connecting the new addition to the kitchen. Thus, the "formal" space becomes an atrium for the chaos above.

When the Gehry Residence floor plan was first published, critics called it "an eyesore." Neighbors demanded it be torn down. But today, it’s considered the birth of Deconstructivist architecture. To understand the floor plan, one must understand

That chaotic floor plan did something profound: It proved that a home doesn’t have to be a box. It can be a collision of time, texture, and perspective.

The next time you sketch a floor plan, ask yourself: Where is the gap? Where is the collision? At the west end, hovering over the garage,

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 heart of the floor plan is a double-height, open-plan living and dining space located entirely within the new addition.