Making the Familiar Strange Again

What began for us as a simple exploration of one of architecture’s most familiar tropes, the lap siding, quickly unfolded into a chance to rethink the ordinary.  We asked: what happens when this ubiquitous constructional convention is rotated upright, disciplined by a single horizontal seam, and set into dialogue with itself through subtle shifts in orientation?  The answer revealed itself in a façade that is both rigorously geometric and quietly alive, a surface where apparent simplicity masks a carefully orchestrated rhythm of shadow, proportion, and perception.

We were struck by how the surface resists settling into a single reading.  At times, it holds as an austere, continuous plane; at others, it dissolves into delicate ripples or gathers into fluted shadows that evoke both the weight of classical precedent and the abstraction of contemporary art.

Light, however, became our true collaborator.  Far from being a passive backdrop, it inscribes the siding with daily and seasonal variation, writing and rewriting the façade’s character with an unending temporal script.  In this way, the wall transforms into a register of light and time.  An instrument tuned by craft but played by the cosmos.

Cahaba River House Sun / Siding Study (Under Construction)

Our aim was never to chase novelty or spectacle. Instead, we sought to draw from the most familiar of materials and methods to reveal something quietly extraordinary: to make the everyday strange again.  For us, this is the essence of architecture.  To elevate what is common, to awaken perception, and to reframe how we inhabit the world.