Traditional walls are replaced with glass, chain-link mesh, and exposed studs. This makes it difficult to define exactly where one room ends and another begins.
Yes, authoritative architectural floor plans are available in academic sources and publications. The Archweb project page for the Gehry House is known to offer DWG drawings and other detailed architectural documents for the project. Additionally, books like Key Buildings of the 20th Century: Plans, Sections and Elevations contain accurate, professionally drafted scale plans of the Gehry Residence.
To truly understand how this architectural experiment functions, one must look past the chaotic exterior and analyze the Gehry Residence floor plan. The layout is a brilliant masterclass in spatial tension, colliding the traditional past with a radical, fragmented future. The Concept: A House Within a House
The Gehry Residence floor plan is not just a drawing of walls, doors, and windows—it is a story of transformation. It demonstrates how a radical idea executed on a tight budget can change architectural history. By choosing to "wrap" the old rather than bury it, Gehry created a house where the past and present, the raw and the refined, exist in a state of perpetual dialogue. This floor plan remains a powerful inspiration for those who view architecture not as a static shelter, but as a living, evolving work of art. gehry residence floor plan
The in Santa Monica is less of a traditional floor plan and more of an architectural "collision" that redefined domestic space in the late 1970s. By wrapping an existing 1920s Dutch Colonial home in a "slipcover" of industrial materials like corrugated metal, chain-link fencing, and raw plywood, Frank Gehry created a layout that feels like a house within a house. A Review of the Floor Plan: Architecture as a "Live Sketch"
The original 1920s house remained mostly intact, with its interior rooms serving as the core of the new design.
: The most dramatic changes occurred on the periphery. Gehry added a new metal "shell" to the facade and north elevation, creating inhabitable space around the original floor plan. The new spaces are composed of "angular, varied, protruding masses" arranged expressionistically. Glass cubes set on their corners create light-filled, conservatory-like spaces interspersed with solids sheathed in corrugated sheet metal. This addition wraps around the house, most prominently on the ground floor, creating a dynamic, sculptural form that seems to be in a constant state of construction. Traditional walls are replaced with glass, chain-link mesh,
Instead of tearing down the existing two-story suburban home, Gehry left the original structure largely intact. He then built a new, avant-garde outer shell around three sides of it.
“Let it fall where the wall tells it to,” he said, not looking up from his tracing paper.
When the Gehry Residence floor plan was first published, critics called it "an eyesore." Neighbors demanded it be torn down. But today, it’s considered the birth of . The Archweb project page for the Gehry House
Gehry used his own home as a laboratory. He wanted to experiment with materials and prove that architecture could be radical and accessible on a limited budget. It was a personal manifesto that prioritized challenging ideas over conventional comfort.
A standard floor plan tells you where walls are. The Gehry Residence floor plan tells you what those walls are made of, because the material is the spatial divider.
Before delving into the floor plan, it is essential to understand the project's origins. In 1977, Frank Gehry and his wife, Berta, purchased an unassuming, two-story Dutch Colonial bungalow built around 1920 in a quiet Santa Monica neighborhood. The existing house was a typical suburban home, but Gehry had a radical vision. Rather than demolishing it, he decided to use it as the core of an experimental work of art. The following year, with a modest budget of $50,000 and a team including project designer Paul Lubowicki, Gehry began a transformation that would become a landmark of deconstructivist architecture.
The upper level opens up to unexpected, fragmented balconies and decks shielded by chain-link mesh, blurring the line between indoor privacy and the surrounding neighborhood. Kids' Rooms and Additions
This is the primary circulation spine. It is narrow—barely 4 feet wide. One side is a glass balustrade looking down into the old living room. The other side is the original exterior siding of the house, now an interior wall.