Triangle House is a love letter in brick, wood, glass, and plant life. It is a home dedicated to helping all who enter it feel loved.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks taught, "In the 1960s the Danish architect Arne Jacobson designed a new college campus in Oxford. Not content with designing the building, he went on to design the cutlery and crockery to be used in the dining hall, and supervised the planting of every shrub in the college garden. When asked why, he replied in the words of another architect, Mies van der Rohe: 'God is in the details'." (Source)
It is in this spirit that we focus meticulously on the details, each an act of care and love. Each to help the residents and guests feel special.
Plants & gardens
Because the muse who inspired this house loves plants, and can never have too many, it is a place designed to hold them and be held by them.
As Frank Lloyd Wright taught, it serves to be seamlessly with nature without those inside feeling contained.
A glass entryway and staircase wraps around an outdoor garden and tree allowing guests to experience the garden from all heights and perspectives.
Glass walls open to and overlook gardens, mossy walls, and atrium.
Architectural woodwork contains built in planters throughout the home.
A room dedicated to the care of plants is adjacent to the garden entrance.
The front pathway takes family and visitors through a rainbow of flowers.
The backyard and side pool area contain plantings and curated moss walls.
Making Space
Because the couple loves “making space” for family and friends, the home has an expansive kitchen with plenty of seating, and an adjacent large dining table, with nearby sitting areas.
A guest suite allows family and friends to stay longer without feeling intrusive.
A hidden work kitchen hides messy prep (and the husband's cooking!)...
Children's rooms contain bunk beds and trundles for friends.
Play, Read, Explore, and Climb
A built in playroom has places for kids of all ages to climb, explore, experiment, and even to retreat and read quietly.
Like the rest of the home, it is accessible so that a child or adult in a wheelchair can access any level.
Pray & Learn
A library whose architectural woodwork resembles a tree, is built around the line from Proverbs 3:1,18, “It is a tree of life for those who grasp it...” Here, the tree is a metaphor for the Torah (Hebrew Bible), but also continues to honor the mother's love of plants.
Handsome cats and fluffy dogs
Triangle House is also the home of handsome cats and fluffy dogs, and includes built in automated feeders, grooming areas, and even a cat walk.
Home offices
Home offices and a conference room overlooking the great room allow the couple to pursue their work and philanthropy while staying close to their children, while having their own quiet spaces to focus.
Family floor
The family bedrooms and living spaces are on the 3rd floor, so that guests do not accidentally or purposefully wander into them without permission, and so the family can maintain privacy even while entertaining guests.
Grill and Chill
Behind the kitchen is a grill area allowing easy pass-through of food and materials.
Thank you, John Lautner
Triangle House began in part as an homage to the great John Lautner, whose work endlessly fascinates and inspires me, a student and apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Thank you, Team
Thank you to Yohanes and Zenabator for your incredible work modeling Triangle House and Sunflower Center (SunflowerCenters.com).
Early Sketches
This house is an ongoing project which began about four years ago during COVID lockdowns, through pencil and marker sketches -- an analog art form serving as a break from constant screen time video chatting with my girlfriend and family overseas. Sketching became A meditation and a way of seeing to the future through difficult times. I fell deeply in love with planning and designing buildings (see SunflowerCenters.com for one other example) and cars (we also designed the Jovari EV Hypercar during COVID).
In dark times, designing the future and thinking of ways to delight and comfort others has brought me great hope and joy
Here are some sketches over the past few years. You may spot elements the team pulled into the current models from my instagram or pinterest.
![Ari leading a JCorps volunteering group [Credit: JCorps]](img/ari_teman_jcorps.png?randImgNum=629?s=3)
![Ari Painting Dave Portnoy [Credit: Elena Zoppolato]](img/ari_painting_dave_portnoy_elana_zoppolato.png?randImgNum=629)
![Ari joking for President Obama [Credit: The White House]](img/ari_teman_obama.png?randImgNum=629)