the schindler shed project

Part of the grand plan is to build a garden shed to (1) house the lawnmower, (2) house the tools of gardening, (3) house an air compressor, and (4) get all this stuff out of the garage. Given how much I enjoyed the deck project and how much I enjoy R.M. Schindler's architecture, building a Schindler-inspired shed would be a good project.

There are several resources to assist. One is that Schindler published two articles about his framing method: "Reference Frames in Space" in Architect and Engineer in 1946 and "The Schindler Frame" in the Architectural Record in 1947. Another resource to help is documented in Steven Mannell's "Architectural Reenactments at 1:1 Scale" published in the Journal of Architectural Education in 2006. Yet another is Steve Wallet's blog posts on the Schindler Frame.

In Schindler's two papers, he describes how he framed his houses to allow for the various cantilevers, clerestory windows, and inside and outside articulation.

The Schindler Frame

The reenactment paper is about an architectural class building a Schindler-inspired structure ("Rudi's Cabana") based on the Schindler Frame:

Rudi's Cabana

test model of the Schindler Frame

interior of Rudi's Cabana

Not too shabby...

And Wallet's posts are about unraveling the secrets of Schindler's framing techniques.

What I've gained from these resources as well as others is this: Schindler's framing method is architectural jazz: it allows a great deal of improvisation as the space comes together, especially with respect to the ceiling.

We don't need anything too fancy for a shed, but I like the idea of clerestory windows. And the shed won't be that large, maybe 4 feet by 8 to 10 feet, which doesn't give too much room for architectural fanciness.

Let the Schindler sheddiness begin!