Kansas Thom Faulders Architects on "Deform House"

Deform House build by Thom Faulders Architect was brought on to consult on an efficient method for production and to then process and fabricate the individually pieced ceiling patterns.

The variegated ceiling and rear wall lining is composed of a series of milled patterns that modulates throughout the space, wrapping, bulging and aligning in continuously unique ways depending on the viewers position.

When Bay Area architect Thom Faulders was hired to renovate and enlarge a faux French house in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood in 2004, he received only one directive. “He said he needed walls, walls, walls for the artwork,” Faulders says of client Jeff Dauber, a Silicon Valley technologist with a sizable art collection. “Given that, I thought I’d take over the ceiling.”

Deform House is a third level addition and extensive renovation to an existing two level single-family residence in San Francisco. The function of the top floor is for a Private Art Gallery, with a new Master Suite considered as an integrated extension of this space. The addition is approximately 1,200 sq. ft., and is constrained by existing structural walls and neighboring structures.

With the need to maximize vertical wall surfaces for art, the design emphasizes the ceiling plane with a pattern of optically shifting grooves. Sheathing the entire top floor ceiling and rear wall, this lining unifies the spaces and is in contrast with the architectural neutrality of the smooth walls. An entry gate is perforated with a security warning written in binary code text.

The project is a third level addition and extensive renovation to an existing two level single-family residence in San Francisco. The function of the top floor is for a Private Art Gallery, with a new Master Suite considered as an integrated extension of this space.

The addition is approximately 1,200 sq. ft., and is constrained by existing structural walls and neighboring structures. With the need to maximize vertical wall surfaces for art, the design emphasizes the ceiling plane with a pattern of optically shifting grooves. Sheathing the entire top floor ceiling and rear wall, this lining unifies the spaces and is in contrast with the architectural neutrality of the smooth walls. An entry gate is perforated with a security warning written in binary code text.