Doug Aitken

Artist DOUG AITKEN designed his new house, which he calls ACID MODERNISM, in Venice, California like a geometric nest, an architectural artwork tuned into the coastal environment. Seismic microphones convey the tectonic sounds of the earth and ocean into the house; windows and mirrors bring the daylight deep inside its walls; tables and staircases can be played like instruments; flora merges from exterior to interior; organic and inorganic materials are carefully combined. it is a machine for living — and a model for environmental architecture. photography by MAX FARAGO  text by JEFF RIAN   The artist Doug Aitken and his partner Gemma Ponsa built a house in the hills of Venice, California. Not just a house, it’s an art- work, a creation, a kinetic environment, a generator of experience, a projector of architectural possibility. One might think of Kurt Schwitters’s improvised Merzbau, pieced together over a 14-year period, but that was…