Highrise of Homes project

James Wines

1981

An ink-on-mylar architectural drawing proposing a “Highrise of Homes” that stacks familiar suburban houses, gardens, and terraces atop a multi-level urban podium to rethink residential density.

The precise black-and-white section reads like a miniature landscape—pitched-roof houses and trees perched on terraces above a deeply sectioned base of garages, pool, and mechanical rooms—rendered with crisp linework that feels both technical and theatrical.

Produced by SITE, this project challenges the impersonal modernist tower by grafting domestic imagery onto urban infrastructure, helping to open debates about context-sensitive design, hybridity, and architecture as social critique.

Palette

Art Terms

Architectural drawing Architecture Section drawing Ink Drawing Built environment Institutional critique

Exhibitions

Architecture in Government Housing

1936

Modern Architecture for the Modern School

1942

Built in USA: Post-War Architecture

1953

Contemporary Architecture in California

1935