Movable walls

Custom Home, March, 2004 by Shelley D. Hutchins

"How do you take something as common as a door and give it expression of unique character?" asks San Francisco-based architect James Zack. The projects below offer several innovative solutions. These movable walls transmit light while maintaining privacy, transform a room's look and purpose, and take a homeowner back to childhood fun. Sliding, swinging, hanging, and pivoting door-walls keep their surroundings flexible and seamlessly integrate into the architecture, whether open or closed.

Classy Curves

This San Francisco live/work loft can morph from sleek city office to airy weekend retreat with the swing of a door. The magic door spans 10 feet across and stands 7 feet tall. Its curved maple panels conceal a compact kitchen with concrete countertops and steel cabinets. The door's stainless steel, C-channel frame also supports a small glass shelf for extra eating space, while the sinuous shape conceals hiding space for a stool or two. Heavy-duty ball-bearing pivot hinges are masked by a full-length stainless sheath. At the open end, a rubber wheel rolls the door smoothly along a steel track. Architect George Jewett selected a limited palette of materials that reflect the converted warehouse's location beneath a bridge. Jewett's ultimate goal for the door, as well as the test of the space, was "simplicity and functionality." He says, "If it's a challenge to use, it'll never get used." Builder: Ryan Associates, San Francisco; Architect: Brayton + Hughes Design Studio, San Francisco; Metalwork: West Edge Metal, San Francisco; Photographer: John Sutton.

Screen Dream

Aluminum-framed Kalwall panels float between this Canton, Mass., home office and dining room. When closed, the translucent screens transfer diffused light into the dining room while masking the work space during social events. Slide the hanging, stacking screens open and the dining room becomes an integrated conference space. A stainless steel ball-bearing track system with adjustable hangers suspends the panels. The artistic owners like the way the swaying screen wall reflects light and color. "The fulcrum of the house is this wall," says architect Mark Hutker. "It's a metaphor for how integral work is to life--the idea being that you can screen work a little, but you can never completely separate it from your life." Builder: Douglas G. Brownlow Associates, Barrington, R.I.; Architect: Hutker & Associates Architects, Vineyard Haven, Mass., and John McKee, AIA, Boston; Photographer: Tom Wedell.

Covert Corridor

"From the beginning the client asked for a Scooby-Doo door," says architect Jim Zack of this San Francisco house. What appears to be an innocuous hallway wall on the third floor landing pivots open for a quick escape and silently glides closed for a perfect disappearing act. Behind the disguised door is a mezzanine home office overlooking the living room below. The 6-foot-by-7-foot maple plywood door gives the open office a sense of privacy. A balsa wood frame allows the behemoth to be pushed open or closed at a touch. The door spins around a custom pivot-hinge-and-rod system made by Zack's firm, who also set up a spring-action ball bearing mechanism to make sure the door stays put when being used as a wall. "In the end," says Zack, "it was about having a fun object that makes a statement and serves a purpose." Builder: Hakewill Construction, San Francisco; Architect: Zack/de Vito Architecture, San Francisco; Photographer: Roger Casas,

Bathed in Light

"The general spirit of the interior of this house is for it to be open and flexible" says architect Dan Rockhill. "So we have this free-flowing open space, but what do we do with the bathrooms?" What they did in the master bedroom was design and build sandblasted glass partitions that stop short of the ceiling and floor to create a light-filled but private bath. Glass shingles are bolted to 1-inch-thick steel tubing welded to forma grid. The same shingle technique is applied to suspended birch cabinets and custom-made doors throughout the home. Diagonal crossbars offer stability and break up the rectangular geometry of the sliding glass wall. The steel tubing continues along the same lines across the bathroom. The tubing supports the vanity, a lighted mirror, light switches, and outlets, plus it serves as a multilevel towel rack. The shower door directly opposite is the bathroom door's twin, so the grid comes full circle or, in this case, full square. Builder/Architect/Metal fabricator: Rockhill & Associates, Lawrence, Kansas; Photographer: Paul Bardagjy.