Grace Farms New Canaan, Conn. SANAA with Handel Architects

摘要

When the commission for Grace Farms was announced, it was the source of some puzzlement: What exactly was it supposed to be? With SANAA's 80-acre compound in New Canaan, Conn., now open, we have our answer-and the remarkable thing is how mysterious it remains. A parish community center that is also a public recreational facility and a stunning bit of landscape architecture, this project from Japanese duo Ryue Nishízawa and Kazuyo Sejima, who worked with New York-based Handel Architects, is hard to pin down, and not just in terms of its program. A glass-enclosed corridor that snakes down a lush hillside, the building is almost a living organism, widening to accommodate internal organs in the form of functional spaces like a library, dining hall, and gymnasium.