Prize�inning modernist home takes unusual insect inspiration

Source: Star-News, Wilmington, N.存倉C.Sept. 20--From the street, John and Roberta Wilson's house at Landfall blends in unobtrusively with the homes around it.Seen from the lake behind it, though, Dragonfly Villa literally spreads its wings, its V-shaped roof seeming almost ready to take flight. But that's just one of the house's surprises."You can't pick a feature you like best," said John Wilson, who's lived in it for nearly six years. "You wake up, and every morning you see something you didn't notice before."Wilson isn't the only one who likes his house. In July, Dragonfly Villa was named first-place winner in the people's choice category of the 2013 George Matsumoto Prize.Named for a longtime faculty member at North Carolina State University's School of Design, the annual competition is conducted by North Carolina Modernist Houses, a nonprofit group that archives modernist residential architecture across the state. Dragonfly Villa was a favorite in online voting at the NCMH website.For Wilmington architect Michael Ross Kersting, the house was a solution to a set of specific problems.The Wilsons relocated to the area from New Jersey in 2005, after a busy life. He was an engineer, she was a schoolteacher and for many years they'd operated a Learning Express franchise. Their children were grown and on their own."They'd purchased an unusual lot," Kersting said, in a section of Landfall known as The Villas intended for townhouse-sized structures. Existing homes loomed very close to their property lines."The Wilsons had always lived in more traditional houses," Kersting said. "I asked them, 'Would you consider being a little more open-minded?'"Turns out, they would.Kersting came up with the idea for a kind of U-shaped design. On either side would be two wings. One side would hold a master bedroom, master bath and a library. The other would have a kitchen and dining area, two guest bedrooms with a shared bath and some utility space. At the end of each wing sit his-and-hers single-car garages.To connect the two wings, Kersting had a glassed-in living room with a sunken floor, offering a spectacular lake view. Between the two wings, Kersting placed a courtyard with a six-sided pool, a raised deck and a hot tub to one side.The basic layout creates the illusion of space. Minus the garages, the villa is slightly more than 2,500 square feet but feels much roomier. Since no windows line the walls on the east and west sides -- the outsides of the wings -- visitors don't realize that the adjoining houses are less than five feet away on either side.Philippine mahogany walls run inside and outside th迷你倉 living room windows, masking mechanical systems and creating the added illusion that there's no barrier between inside and out. Cabinets and much of the interior furniture -- much of it in a blond African hardwood called anigre -- are largely built into the walls.Over the wings, Kersting designed simple shed roofs, sloping outward from the central living area. Playing with his sketches, he suddenly drew in an "X" -- "I imagined the lines just going up," he said -- and the V of the living room roof came to be. The roof drains into rock gardens directly in front of the lakeside and courtyard-side windows.Kersting thought of calling his design "the butterfly house" until he was wandering around the lot one day and saw dragonflies zipping over the lake."And then it occurred to me," he said. "This isn't a butterfly house. It's a dragonfly house."The design left the Wilsons with plenty of room for self-expression. Just off the living room, on one side, is John Wilson's office-workshop, where the photography buff stows his cameras, books and his tennis trophies. Tucked behind the kitchen is a nook with built-in desk and chairs, where Roberta Wilson keeps her computer and her cookbooks.Marking a boundary between kitchen and living room is a stained panel that John Wilson made himself. At first abstract-looking, it turns out to be a depiction of Dragonfly Villa's floor plan.Both Kersting and the Wilsons give plenty of credit to contractor David Leonard for putting the design into practice and solving a myriad of small problems."You're not going to find this house in a plan book," Kersting said. "It's one of a kind."The son of a college professor and piano teacher, Kersting grew up in Las Cruces, N.M., and felt drawn to architecture early."I used to build gas stations and garages for my Hot Wheels cars," he recalled.He earned his bachelor's in architecture at the University of New Mexico, then headed east to get his master's at N.C. State. In Raleigh, he met his future wife, a landscape architect. (Pamela Kersting laid out Dragonfly Villa's grounds and gardens, including the stand of bamboo in the courtyard.) The couple have been Wilmington residents since 1995.Kersting has designed other houses in Landfall, Figure Eight Island and Wrightsville Beach, as well as the Medac 3 office in Porters Neck.As for Dragonfly Villa, "I have heard some people either love it or hate it," Kersting said.But the Wilsons seem to love it just fine.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Star-News (Wilmington, N.C.) Visit the Star-News (Wilmington, N.C.) at .starnewsonline.com Distributed by MCT Information Services自存倉