Phanteric House

MIT Fall 2020
Course: 4.154 / Matter to Data
Instructors: Anton Garcia Abril
TA: Jaehun Woo


Responsive image

Starting in the early 19th century, central coastal Maine served as a major source of granite for the United State building industry. Skilled workers flooded the region, primarily from Scandinavia and the British Isles to harvest, cut and dress stone in the quarries. Once harvested, it was brought to the shore where it was put on ships to travel down the Atlantic Coast and ultimately throughout the United States. In the early 20th century, however, as advances in steel and concrete revolutionized the construction industry massive stone construction fell out of favor and eventually Maine’s granite industry would collapse. Today, coastal Maine is scattered with dormant quarries. One quarry remains active, however, and that is the Crotch Island Quarry in Stonington, ME. The quarry has been in operation since the 1870s. Over the course of 150 years, the quarry has produced a massive amount of waste rock that is built up on the island, creating a secondary landscape on top of the bedrock.

For the construction of a new home, readily available waste rock on Crotch Island will be brought to Scragg Island, an uninhabited piece of land, roughly two miles away. In the absence of the skilled labor that once saturated the region, this waste rock is simply stacked, forming a pixelated topography or inverted quarry. Amongst this loosely orthogonal pile of rocks, the comforts of home are all embedded. Composite columns serve as anchor points for a concrete shell roof composed of intersecting catenary sections.

Granite is a phanteric rock, meaning it has a course-grained crystal structure, visible to the naked eye. This is the result of a slowly cooling magma that allows the crystals to grow. Like the geologic structure of the granite, Phanteric House is a course-grained interpretation of a masonry structure. A home made of stone for an age without masons. .


Responsive image
Scragg Island, ME.

Stacking granite to form Phanteric House.
Responsive image
Roof plan.

Responsive image
Main floor plan.

Responsive image
Section cutting through kitchen and workspace.

Responsive image
Section cutting through elevated dining and sleeping spaces.

Responsive image
Section cutting through sleeping space, root cellar and workspace.

Responsive image
Section cutting through entry and bathroom.

Responsive image
Typical roof connection detail.

Responsive image
Operable window detail.

Responsive image
Bathroom window and floor detail.

Responsive image
Utilities diagram.

Responsive image
Approaching Phanteric House on foot.

Responsive image
Phanteric House interior.



© 2022 Gil Sunshine. All rights reserved.