The Collignon Residence

• Address

  Council Bluffs, Iowa

• Year Completed

  1975

• Building Type

  Residential

• Architect:

  Neil LaMonte Astle

• Firm/Partnership

  Astle & Associates, Inc.

• Project Description

  An article describing the residence stated that, “Architect Neil Astle was asked to design a house which would play a major part in conforming their surroundings to their new living patterns. But more than that, the project was to be a shared new experience, an interlocking of open planning and vertical spaces, yet a sympathetic place for furniture and objects valued by the family.”¹

  Since ravines surround the house, Mr. Astle decided that “the best answer to both site and spatial requirements was a structural wood ‘cage.’ Allowing spaces to interlock both vertically and horizontally, the ‘cage’ also became the basis for the construction method, supporting scaffolding as the house progressed… Both the structure and the volumes of the house impart a warm barnlike quality, and interior finishes are left natural except for an oil sealer. All walls are rough-sawn western red cedar car siding, and exterior surfaces will be left to weather. Requests for low maintenance applied not only to the house, but the site as well, and it, too, will remain natural.”²



• Sources

  1. “New Priorities,” Progressive Architecture (May 1972), 1. “Misc. Publications,” from The Neil L. Astle Papers. Accn 1930, Box 106, Folder 14. From the Special Collections and Archives Department, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

  2. “New Priorities,” Progressive Architecture (May 1972), 4.

  3. “New Priorities,” Progressive Architecture (May 1972), 1.