Wail Majeed, the owner and building designer, along with architect Ken Schaumburg both conceptualized Villa Quantum, a Fort Worth, Texas magazine Modern in Mira Vista home tour back in 2011 and are now excited to see their schematics are becoming a reality.
The 8,000-square-foot house is under construction at 6805 St. Andrews Court on a lot overlooking the golf course. "Great design starts with a sense of purpose," Majeed says, and that began when his wife desired every room in the house to have views of the course.
"Since the site was relatively pie-shaped, a radial design concept to capture panoramic views made perfect sense," Majeed said. But angled walls and irregular room shapes did raise a concern for furniture arrangement.
"We went through multiple design studies and case scenarios and were pleasantly surprised.After comprehensive design due diligence, we were still able to keep rooms functional and intensifythe modernliving experience," Majeed says.
But that design also presents challenges for the builder, Joe Ragon of Bezcon General Contractor.
"The entire house design is based from a single point that had to be transferred to all levels and is the basis for the layout of all interior spaces," Ragon said. "It's not at all a typical residence."
Visitors to the home will get to see cutting-edge modern design throughout.
"The trend in Fort Worth has not been for modern design elements," says Jon Wallace, Fort Worth Showroom manager for Morrison Supply Co. "We are beginning to see movement in that direction, and many of the leading designers believe we'll see even more of it in the future. … This will be on the front edge of modern design."
Morrison handles a wide variety of plumbing fixtures, as well as door and cabinet hardware and other items, all visible in the company's showrooms.
"We love to have them in Dream Homes where people can see them work and touch them," Wallace said. "When you are dealing with very special items as these are, you can't look at a picture in a catalog or on the Internet. They are very unique, highly designed items with beautiful finishes, and to really see them and touch them is critical in really seeing the beauty in their design." Working on the home is a blast, he said.
That holds true for other trades as well. Bret Westbrook of Overhead Garage Door says the work on the garage door is a departure from the more traditional cedar doors his company usually builds. It's a treat.
"The design draw is a lot more difficult to put together, and the engineering process on the doors is just a little more complex," he said. "The traditional homes are cedar doors. The modern-style home, the contemporary stuff, we work on aluminum and material like that. We definitely enjoy it."
One of the challenges in working with the site was protecting adjacent structures during excavation. "More timewas spentin engineering and design contemplation for the retaining walls than I can remember for any structural element," Ragon said. "It's constructed using a series of soldier piers bearing about 16 feet below grade and about 3 feet apart."
Majeed says that to him and his wife, modernliving is simply a refreshing and healthy environment. "The open-plan concept allows good flow throughout the house, and spaces within become an experience as opposed to being there strictly to just serve purpose," he said. "Architecturally speaking,modernis timeless because it is based on mathematical geometry."
And that brings us back to the radial design in the house. "These radials converge to and from a single point on the site, hence this single point became chief origin and the birth of our concept," he said. "Metaphorically, I identify this point with quantum physics (hence the name Villa Quantum), defined as "minuscule quantity of energy proportional in magnitude to the frequency of the radiation it represents." "
However you describe it, this house makes a strong statement from all angles.
"I consider it a privilege to be involved with this project and am excited to see the finished product," Ragon said. "I think this house is singularly unique, and what's more, it will be the home of some outstanding people."
2014 Modern Dream Home Partners
Cantoni
Bezcon General Contractor
Morrison Supply Co.
Overhead Garage Door
Wail Majeed
Modern Dream Home
6805 St. Andrews Court
Mira Vista
Opening in the Spring
