Varga House: An Evolving Home of Art and Design
/My connection with the Varga House spans many years. You could say that it began in the summer of 1985 when George Varga and I were assigned to be freshman roommates at RISD. George majored in illustration, and I in architecture. Sondae, George's wife, and my wife, Caroline, also attended RISD. We’ve stayed close to the Vargas all these years, settling down and raising our kids in the same town. In 2001 George and Sondae bought a modernist interpretation of a Cape House in Needham and set to work making it their own.
Varga House before the renovation
The original designer, an architect and model builder, envisioned the house as a modern take on the traditional Cape House. In 2007, the Vargas enlisted my help for a renovation. This involved converting unfinished space above the garage into two bedrooms for their daughters and adding a bathroom to an underutilized second-floor deck. The process was fun and gave me insights into their ideas about space, surfaces, color and overall ambiance.
Varga House today - George and sondae have carefully shaped the landscape around the house as well
There are a few unique design features to the original house which are at once wonderfully original, as well as challenging, and even somewhat problematic from a design and maintenance perspective. The skylight on the south side of the length of the ridge requires occasional maintenance, but brings light deep into the second floor spaces, the main stair and the kitchen as well. The stair is a kind of “switch back” trail that pulls you up along the underside of the cape style gable, providing a series of unfolding vistas as you ascend and descend. The “slot” is the area of the house that was most problematic. Designed literally as a cleaving of the main gabled volume, it originally housed a roof deck facing south and a long skylit space facing north. To the east of the slot were the second floor living spaces, and to the west was unfinished space above the garage. This shell space, and the "slot" itself, while initially challenging, became the focus of our design efforts to add bedrooms and a bathroom.
Views of the ridge-length skylight bringing natural light into the upstairs spaces
The existing gable end-wall of the shell space was conveniently appointed with two windows on either side of the centerline of the ridge. The space between the windows was the perfect place to add a new stud wall to create two bedrooms, but what to do about the asymmetric skylight at the ridge itself? If the new wall ran all the way up to the ridge, the skylight would bring light into the south facing room but not the north facing room. The solution was to puncture the top of the new wall with small windows corresponding to the spaces between the roof rafters that pierced the skylight cavity, thus allowing borrowed light from the south bedroom into the north bedroom.
During construction and the new bedrooms after construction
The seldom-used deck in the slot area was replaced with a bathroom, and the plexiglass slot roof was upgraded to modern operable skylights, creating a functional home office for George.
“the slot” - a new bathroom and home office replace the roofdeck and storage area
Throughout their home transformation, the Vargas have been avid art collectors, incorporating pieces by me, Caroline, and other artists. This process had a head start of sorts with paintings by Hungarian artists Ezust Gyorgy and Bolgar, gifts from Georges parents. These relatively large works set the stage for an ongoing evolution of the function, look and place of art in their home. Over the years they’ve collected dozens of pieces of mine and Caroline’s work and are often talking about how various corners of their home might evolve and change.
Art throughout the house
There are so many things that I’ve learned by watching the Vargas continue to transform the living spaces, making various architectural modifications and shaping the ambiance of the rooms with careful art and furniture choices and placement. Here are a few things I’ve picked up from them over the years.
Symmetry is not the be all end all. In fact, if you aren’t living in a Palladian villa, its probably easier to achieve an harmonious feel with an asymmetrical approach to room and wall composition. Over the years, they've mastered the art of asymmetry, emphasizing the importance of achieving a dynamic variety without strict symmetry.
asymmetry in grouped pieces
Grouping, grouping, grouping. One of Sondae's talents is skillfully grouping paintings, sculpture, and furniture to create harmony. A large painting meant to convey calm, and help one breath, like my “White Dory” painting in their TV room, may not necessarily be out of place next to a tiny wood block print of bees by Caroline and a modernist textile pattern. A simple building elevation monoprint is transformed next to a collection of sculptural elements. Two small abstracts that suggest small vase-like vessels might be stronger with a vase that echoes the color palette in the room and brings a counterpoint to the rectangular frame of the adjacent abstracts.
by grouping wall art, all pieces have a place
No art is too small for a space and no space is too small for art. Words to live by. Caroline and I occasionally make tiny paintings of say 4” x 4”. Proportionally they are “chunky” and can usually stand up by themselves on a table shelf or desk, acting as both painting and sculpture.
small paintings find a home with sculpture and beloved objects
Where do you want to be? If I have one challenge with the Varga House, it’s that I want to be in every room at the same time. Every corner of it is inviting. Every seat has a purpose. Somehow they manage to pair furniture and art perfectly and it makes me want to grab a book and a coffee and just be.
where do you want to be?…
The Varga’s house will surely continue to evolve, and Caroline and I will continue to make art. Nothing stays the same for long except perhaps our need to find a place to be, if only for a few minutes, in a place that invites us in and holds us a while.