Shotgun House - Over and Under is a house type conceived as two Shotgun houses, stacked atop one another. With this variation, access to natural light, ventilation, flora, fauna, and economization of wood framing materials are maintained. The ground floor houses all functions related to sleeping. It is enclosed and partitioned by a series of walls that move from interior to exterior to create an extension of the private gardens into the sleeping spaces. The second floor houses all public functions and is an open floor plan with vegetated micro-climates at either end.
“Over and Under” is in the Lower Heights neighborhood of Downtown Houston, Texas. It is situated to the south of the White Oak Bayou and to the north of the rail line to Chaney Junction. The site is bound by the edge of an industrial zone to the south and the Olivewood Cemetery to the East with two and three-story residential development to the west. The Olivewood Cemetery marks where the First and Sixth Wards meet. It is a resting place for freed slaves and is the first African American cemetery in the Houston city limits.“Over and Under” draws its inspiration from Houston’s Shotgun Houses located in Freedman’s Town.
Bio Bill Prices' career has spanned three decades, during which time he has practiced and produced work in eleven different countries. He has practiced professionally in Switzerland and the Netherlands, where he spent four years with OMA/Rem Koolhaas. There he acted as Research and Development Director and saw the Villa Bordeaux (Time Magazine called this house the most important private residence of the twentieth century") through to completion. Bill collaborated with Ai Weiwei in China, after which Ai Weiwei picked Bill's work to include in Phaidon's 10 x 10-3 Monograph.
