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The foundational logic of the Gehry Residence floor plan relies on the concept of symbiosis and collision. Gehry did not demolish the original 1920s suburban house. Instead, he left it largely intact and built a new, asymmetrical structure around three sides of it.

He wrote back: Never.

The Gehry Residence floor plan remains a powerful example of how residential architecture can challenge the boundaries of conventional design, creating a "shocking" yet deeply thoughtful space for living.

The entry sequence of the house is a deliberate act of spatial disorientation. Upon entering, visitors find a core circulation spine that provides access to the living areas, the first-floor bedrooms, and the upper level. This strategic layout creates a continuous flow between the old and the new.

Contains a living room and two bedrooms. Gehry stripped some walls to their exposed wood studs and lath , treating the original structure as a found object.

At the time, Gehry was a 48-year-old architect searching for a more expressive language. The 2,000-square-foot existing structure had charm, but Gehry's innovative strategy defied all residential conventions: . Instead, he would construct an entirely new architectural "skin" around it, adding volumes on three sides while leaving the original structure largely intact to act as a visible core within the new design. With a remarkably modest budget of just $50,000 (around $264,500 today), this revolutionary concept began to take shape.

The (1978) in Santa Monica, California, is a landmark of deconstructivist architecture that famously "wraps" an existing Dutch Colonial bungalow in a new, raw industrial shell. Its floor plan is defined by a "house within a house" concept, where the original structure's rooms act as internal volumes surrounded by new perimeter spaces. Core Floor Plan Concept: The "Wrapping"

The Gehry Residence (1978) in Santa Monica, California, is not merely a house but a manifesto. Its floor plan challenges the conventional separation of interior and exterior, old and new, public and private. Rather than following a linear sequence of rooms, the plan is best understood as a series of overlapping spatial conditions—an architectural collage shaped by the constraints of an existing Dutch Colonial bungalow and the radical addition of deconstructed geometries.

The upper levels and roofline continue the theme of fragmented angles, with significant spatial play created by the new envelope.

The floor plan of the Gehry Residence is a physical manifesto of Deconstructivism. It proved that architecture did not need to be clean, unified, or harmonious to be functional and profoundly beautiful. By slicing open a mundane suburban home and wrapping it in a raw, industrial exoskeleton, Frank Gehry created a floor plan that is simultaneously fragmented and cohesive, chaotic and carefully ordered. It remains a masterclass in how to manipulate space, history, and materials within a domestic footprint.

The floor plan also tells the story of the home as an architectural laboratory. Gehry used a very limited budget—just $50,000 at the time—to turn his own dwelling into a creative workshop. The design strategy, as explained by the architect himself, was to discover and reveal new information about the building and its environment with every decision.