Mask House

Designed by American studio WOJR: Organization for Architecture in Ithaca, NY, the Mask House provides a place of refuge and contemplation, in dialogue with the surrounding environment.

The Mask House provides a place of refuge and contemplation for one who lost his younger brother in the lake that the house overlooks. It is conceptualized as a space comprised of myriad sanctuaries – within the context of this project sanctuary is a place of separation and protection that removes one from the world of the everyday and offers passage to an other world.

WOJR: Organization for Architecture, Mask House, Ithaca, NY
WOJR: Organization for Architecture, Mask House, Ithaca, NY
WOJR: Organization for Architecture, Mask House, Ithaca, NY
WOJR: Organization for Architecture, Mask House, Ithaca, NY

  The transition from everyday to other is drawn-out through a series of thresholds that define a scalar sequence of nested interior – each interior becoming successively more removed from one world and more connected to the next.

WOJR: Organization for Architecture, Mask House, Ithaca, NY

The vertical plane of the mask establishes a boundary across the site that creates a condition of sidedness. Mask House endeavors to provide one in search of sanctuary an abundance of opportunities to find refuge within new interiors in dialogue with the surrounding environment.

WOJR: Organization for Architecture, Mask House, Ithaca, NY
WOJR: Organization for Architecture, Mask House, site plan
WOJR: Organization for Architecture, Mask House, plan
WOJR: Organization for Architecture, Mask House, elevation
WOJR: Organization for Architecture, Mask House, elevation
WOJR: Organization for Architecture, Mask House, elevation
WOJR: Organization for Architecture, Mask House, section
WOJR: Organization for Architecture, Mask House, section


Mask House, Ithaca, NY
Program: single family house
Architect: WOJR: Organization for Architecture
Design Team: William O’Brien Jr., John David Todd, Gabrielle Piazza Patawaran, Justin Gallagher, Kian Hiu Lan Yam, Joey Swerdlin
Visualisation: Alexis Nicolas Basso
Area: 55 sqm
Year: 2013-ongoing