House of Textures by Frank Tjepkema

Frank Tjepkema
House of Textures, 2005

The project reimagines a house as a stack of layered surfaces, where materials like brick, wood, fabric, ornament, and even graffiti aren’t just finishes but actually shape the design itself. Created as a 1:20 scale model, it’s made from precisely laser-cut acrylic sheets, each etched with patterns that suggest different textures. When these layers are combined, they form a structure that feels both solid and see-through, letting light filter through and revealing subtle glimpses of the interior.

In House of Textures, architecture is treated almost like jewellery: rich in detail, expressive, and meant to be experienced up close. The idea is that surfaces can tell stories and carry emotion, turning the house into a kind of three-dimensional narrative. Instead of smooth, minimal finishes, the project embraces variation, depth, and the sensory qualities of materials.

It also reflects early experimentation with digital fabrication, using CNC and laser-cutting techniques to achieve a level of precision and layering that would be difficult with traditional methods. In this way, it sits between architecture, design, and technology.

While it wasn’t designed to be built, House of Textures acts as a prototype for a different way of thinking about architecture, one where texture, perception, and storytelling are part of the structure itself. This idea was later extended into furniture with the Chair of Textures (2006), applying the same layered approach to a functional object.