A square wall covered in plants announces the presence of this concrete housing block in São Paulo by Brazilian architecture studio TACOA (photos by Leonardo Finotti + slideshow).
Entitled Vila Aspicuelta, the terrace of eight compact houses sits perpendicular to the adjacent street, but its north-facing end wall provides a growing area for a variety of bushy plants and shrubs.
Rodrigo Cerviño Lopez and Fernando Falcon of TACOA chose to plan the building as a series of maisonettes rather than as a simple housing block, meaning that each residence would have more than one floor and its own private access.
“The eight houses that compose Vila Aphins challenge the logic of vertical buildings: the different units are disposed side by side horizontally, and function vertically,” said the architects.
The building is raised off the ground to create parking spaces at ground level. Eight separate concrete staircases lead up to each of the residences, creating a zigzagging volume along the western edge of the block.
The first floor of every house is a living area with a kitchen counter and enough space for a dining table.
A second row of staircases leads up to bedrooms and bathrooms on the next level up, while a third set of stairs ascends to private gardens on the roof.
Wooden screens cover a wall of windows in the bedroom and bathroom of each home, but fold back to reveal a row of balconies at the rear.
The east-facing orientation of these windows ensures that the houses are filled with sunlight in the mornings but are shaded during hot afternoons.
The eight houses that compose Vila Aphins challenge the logic of vertical buildings: the different units are disposed side by side horizontally, and function vertically.
The street continues through the villa, partially covered by the building, and gives access to the staircase of each individual unit. The parking lot, gardens and common areas are also placed on this street.
On the first floor of every house, one single area provides space for the kitchen, dining and living. The second floor was conceptualised as a private area, a bedroom with a balcony and garden and a bathroom. Finally, on the rooftop, an open air plaza is set, with individual spaces.
The eastern orientation of the villa enables the houses to enjoy sunny mornings, shady afternoons and crossed ventilation. The western facade hosts the access stairs of the houses and unifies all the units, providing the vila its wavy project identity.
Paris studio Atelier Zündel Cristea has added a glass-walled extension that projects from the rear of this hundred-year-old house in the Vincennes suburb (+ slideshow).
Atelier Zündel Cristea was asked to reorder and optimise the interior of the early-twentieth-century property and began the renovation by removing existing annexes and interior walls that were reducing the usable living space.
“The distribution of spaces was very awkward, and any rapport between the house and the garden was nonexistent,” said the architects, who claimed that the original layout had restricted the potential 120 square metres of useable floor space to just 90 square metres.
Adding the extension and opening up new spaces including the attic and basement increased the home’s total occupied area to 220 square metres.
Annexed rooms at the rear of the house were replaced with the glass-walled addition that projects out towards the garden and incorporates full-height doors that can be slid open to connect the open-plan living area with the outdoors.
A roof terrace on top of the new extension can be accessed through doors from the master bedroom and incorporates two skylights that provide additional daylight to the dining room and kitchen.
The en suite bathroom of the master bedroom also opens onto the roof terrace so the occupants can look out at the garden from the bathtub.
A corridor leads from the front door past the living room and staircase to the dining area, with its glazed doors providing views of the trees in the garden from the entry.
A staircase connecting the entrance corridor on the ground floor with bedrooms on the first and second floors features curving walls and banisters, and is naturally lit by dormer windows at the top of the house.
The wood-panelled living area at the front of the house features a corner sofa and a fireplace built into the fitted cabinetry that continues along one wall into the kitchen.
Stairs leading from the living area to the garden continue down to a basement that houses an office with a window squeezed in under the extension.
A geothermal heat pump was installed in the basement at the front of the house to extract warmth from the ground for heating, while a double air flow ventilation system helps control air circulation and provides additional energy savings.
The house’s dilapidated front facade was updated and painted white, with additions including a second dormer window, new ironwork on the windows and a canopy above the door completing the new look.
The object of our renovation work is a house located in Vincennes, within the radius which surrounds the Château de Vincennes, a radius monitored by architects of historical monuments.
Before the renovation
The building seems to have remained largely in its original state since the beginning of the 20th century, and has not been renovated at all for at least thirty years. The distribution of spaces was very awkward, and any rapport between the house and the garden was nonexistent. In regards to an energy plan there was no insulation (neither within the walls nor within the attic spaces), and only single, non-waterproofed windows. The means of heating the house being individual gas burners. Almost a caricature.
In brief, the project consisted of: – the demolition of annexes damaged beyond repair – the completion in their place of an RDC extension around the preserved area of the house, which will open entirely upon the garden by means of a large bay window – the general overhaul of the house with restoration of the cellar and attic spaces
If the successful execution of a high-efficiency project, one that sought low emission levels, was in clear evidence of being pursued, we never forgot the primary aim of an architect that is to conceive of a beautiful structure with quality spaces in which people feel good. There is also the fact that a project seeking high-efficiency is not something readily apparent, that all the elements contributing to such efficiency are almost invisible, yet remain perceptible.
According to set buying and selling property regulations the house originally consisted of an inhabitable 120m², but in fact only 90m² were liveable. After the completion of work, thanks to attic spaces, a semi-recessed basement, and an extension, there will be approximately 220m² in which to live.
The heating is geothermal, with the installation of a heat pump. Interior comfort is ensured by double air flow ventilation. On the roof we envisioned solar panels as a means to produce clean, hot water.
Built: 2010 Client: private Architects: AZC Consultants: Choulet Construction cost: 0.3 M€ (ex VAT) Gross area: 220 m² Mission: Conception + construction Project: House
Dublin practice GKMP Architects has added two tiny extensions to a nineteenth century terraced house in the city, one of which incorporates a wooden window seat looking out onto the garden.
GKMP Architects was asked to renovate and extend the three-storey house in the south of Dublin by replacing an existing bedroom and scullery with an enlarged kitchen, dining room and play room.
Instead of adding an extensive new structure that would have imposed on the garden at the rear of the property, the architects proposed two single-storey extensions with a total footprint of just seven square metres.
“The main architectural problem we identified with the existing house was the great disproportion between living and sleeping areas,” architect Jennifer O’Donnell told Dezeen.
“Since the existing area of the house was considered sufficient to meet the needs of the family, we decided that the challenge in this case was to build as little as possible, to the greatest possible effect,” the architect added.
The new additions are constructed from concrete, which O’Donnell said “was chosen to act as a contemporary addition to the hard cement render of the existing rear facade.”
Bright blue tiles introduce a hit of colour and are used for the surface of a bench built into the concrete of the extension closest to the garden.
“The glazed Italian ceramic tiles were chosen in consultation with the clients and are used as a lining in those places where the wall thickens to form a seat or sill,” O’Donnell explained.
The tiles also appear inside the playroom, which adjoins the new kitchen and dining area and features windows that wrap around two sides.
A corner bench with upholstered sofa cushions is fitted below the windows, while new glazed double doors lead from this room out to the garden.
Both of the new extensions feature large skylights that introduce natural light into the open-plan lower ground floor.
The window seat in the dining area is built from iroko wood, which contrasts with the pale interior walls and frames views of the garden.
The architects also added an oak staircase to connect the new kitchen with an existing living room on the upper ground floor and a new den on the first floor.
The staircase is lined on one side with a bookcase and wraps around a utility room tucked away in an otherwise dark and redundant space at the centre of the house.
The architects sent us the following project description:
House Extension at Belmont Avenue, Donnybrook
This project involves the restoration and extension of a three-storey terrace house built towards the end of the 19th century, which has a red clay brick finish in a Flemish bond to the front elevation and a hard cement render finish to the rear. It is one of 6 identical terraced houses, grouped in handed pairs and with identical roof lines, eaves and architectural treatment both to the front and rear.
The existing layout of this house did not lend itself to providing kitchen/dining/living space that was proportional to the rest of the accommodation and so it was proposed to address this imbalance through modifications and a small addition to the existing house rather than through building a large extension in the rear garden.
The new addition consists of two small single-storey extensions, one to the rear of the main part of the house and the other to the end of the existing return on the footprint of the existing lean-to kitchen, that open the lower ground floor of the house to the garden. The new-build is made of cast in-situ concrete with blue glazed tiles.
Inside, a large corner window brings light into the play-room, while a new oak stairs forms a second, more direct connection between ground and first floor living spaces. A new utility space is built into the dark central section of the house, with the new stairway wrapping around and above it as a discrete element, hidden between the old house walls.
Architects: GKMP Architects Contractor: Sheerin Construction Engineer: David Maher & Associates
This apartment conversion in Bilzen, Belgium, by C.T. Architects is designed as a stylish home for a wheelchair user and features practical storage including shelves built into either end of an angular dining table.
Local office C.T. Architects adapted a space which was previously used as storage for an apartment block into a compact home that incorporates several accessible features.
Architect Nick Ceulemans wanted to create a home “that does not look at all like a dwelling for a physically challenged person.” Ceulemans said: “In fact, while many of the design solutions were inspired by necessity, they would all be welcome in any urban small loft.”
The first thing to be done was to adapt the building’s main entrance by adding a ramp to the owner’s front door and provide a new communal entrance to the other flats.
Inside the small apartment, a bright living and dining area is connected to the bedroom by a corridor that is wide enough to comfortably accommodate a wheelchair.
Wet areas and storage spaces are grouped together to free up as much floor space as possible inside the 80 square-metre apartment, which also includes a small terrace accessed through sliding glass doors from the bedroom.
As well as the shelving incorporated into the dining table, the headboard of the bed functions as a desk with integrated storage.
A specially designed hybrid lighting fixture and electrical hub on the desk in the bedroom features a rotating beam that can direct light towards the work surface or the bed and provides convenient charging points.
Materials and finishes used throughout the interior were chosen to enhance the apartment’s bright and relaxed feel, with the textured floors and doors adding warmth and tactility.
“A sense of unity and calm is created by using white walls and ceilings combined with rough-sawn oak floors and sliding doors hiding the storage space, bathroom and toilet,” explained the architects.
Electrically height adjustable kitchen units drop down to make the cupboards easier to reach, while the position of a lamp in the living and dining space can be adjusted by swinging it away from the wall.
Here’s some more information from C.T. Architects:
A home without boundaries
The project includes the conversion of a ground floor apartment, previously used for storage, into an accessible and wheelchair friendly living space for an accident victim. The result is an apartment that does not look at all like a dwelling for a physically challenged person. In fact, while many of the design solutions were inspired by necessity, they would all be welcome in any urban small loft.
To create an accessible residence, C.T. Architects changed the main entrance of the building block to create a ramp to the client’s front door and a new communal entrance for the upstairs neighbours. The apartment itself was transformed completely.
By clustering the wet areas and storage space into two compact volumes, the architect was able to bring natural light into the long and narrow canyon- like layout that is organised into a conventional succession of increasingly private spaces: living room and dining area near the main entrance, a central corridor – at a comfortable width for wheelchair passage – and with an efficient kitchen on one side and the bathroom on the other side, and then the bedroom/study in the rear.
Sliding glass doors lead from the bedroom/study onto a small back terrace. A sense of unity and calm is created by using white walls and ceilings combined with rough-sawn oak floors and sliding doors hiding the storage space, bathroom and toilet. The kitchen designed by C.T. Architects is electrically height-adjustable which provides a wheelchair-bound user with the ability to reach everything easily.
Nick Ceulemans from C.T. Architects also designed key pieces of the furniture to meet the client’s specific needs and preferences and to comply with Belgian disability codes. He designed the dining table with built-in shelves at both ends and a flexible swing-arm wall lamp above this table (also presented at this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan).
In the bedroom, Nick Ceulemans designed the double-duty bed with a desk at its head, an adjacent wall of bookshelves and a hybrid light fixture/electrical hub that swivels to illuminate both bed and work surface and to provide outlets at a convenient height for the user.
Melbourne practice Architecture Architecture has altered the orientation of a house in the Australian city so the main living areas get the best of the northern sunlight (+ slideshow).
The young couple who own the house initially intended to extend it along one boundary only, but Architecture Architecture convinced them to utilise the space at the rear of the plot by removing an existing bathroom to make room for a north-facing courtyard.
The additions surrounding the courtyard increase the interior dimensions of the Victorian house and provide a new bathroom and small study, as well as an open-plan kitchen and living area with folding windows that can be opened to connect it to the courtyard.
“Constructing along this rear boundary maximised the solar orientation, blocked the neighbouring townhouses from sight and provided a private internal courtyard that could be enjoyed from many vantage points within the house,” architect Nick James told Dezeen.
Architecture Architecture added a steeply pitched roof that bypassed planning restrictions and allowed them to introduce high ceilings and louvred clerestory windows to increase light and space inside the new rooms.
As the clients like to entertain regularly, the architects designed the living and kitchen space as a social area with benches in the windows providing seats where guests can sit facing inside or outside.
“The outdoor courtyard has the feel of a room, with bench seats on two sides and a fireplace that allows for outdoor entertaining on cooler evenings,” said James.
The fireplace was revealed during the demolition of the bathroom and the original brick was uncovered by stripping back a layer of plaster which had been concealing it.
Brick is also used to clad walls surrounding the courtyard, and the architects said they chose recycled bricks to add character and to reference the industrial history of Melbourne’s Abbotsford district.
“The exciting thing about these bricks is that every palette you receive is different, so no two walls you construct will appear the same,” explained James. “They vary slightly in colour, size and imperfections, so there’s a real character and history within each one and bringing them together creates an extremely interesting patchwork.”
White timber boards contrast with the red textured surface of the brick, with both materials recurring inside the house to enhance the connection between indoor and outdoor spaces.
A concrete slab floor used in the living areas was specified for its thermal efficiency as it absorbs and releases heat, helping to maintain consistent temperatures in summer and winter.
Here’s some more information from Architecture Architecture:
THE ‘TURNAROUND HOUSE’ TURNS TO FACE THE SUN
This project is an extension to a Victorian‐era house in Abbotsford, Melbourne. The brief called for new open‐plan living areas, a new kitchen, bathroom and study nook. Against the odds, this modest extension has turned a dark, cramped residence with little backyard to spare, into a light‐filled house with fantastic indoor and outdoor entertaining areas.
The existing house was south‐facing, casting itself into shadow, with unsightly neighbouring buildings imposing on all sides. By creating a U‐shaped extension along the property boundaries, Architecture Architecture has turned everything around. Now the house enjoys a generous private courtyard, with great northern sunlight throughout the year.
From the outside, the steep, raked roof deftly negotiates planning regulations, allowing for generous ceilings and high‐level clerestory louvres. In stark contrast with these windows, an unapologetic blank brick wall hovers over the courtyard, boldly declaring a distinction between the two sides of the living areas within. One side, more intimate, opens up to the courtyard, the other, with views to the passing clouds, admits northern sunlight in the wintertime.
Along both sides of the courtyard, a pair of long bench seats soften the threshold between indoors and out. One serves the living areas, the other serves the courtyard. At the back of each bench, bi‐fold windows draw back, allowing the house to throw itself open to the outdoors or to close‐off – adapting as required.
The material palette further assists in relaxing the otherwise clear geometries of this house. Exposed recycled brick (an echo of Abbotsford’s industrial heritage) and white timber boards (a staple of the modest residential extension), subtly breach the delineation of indoors and outdoors, weaving the two together.
The optimised solar orientation along with the use of brick walls and a dark concrete slab for thermal mass ensure that this is a high‐comfort, low‐energy house all year round, ideal for entertaining. A true turnaround.
A sweeping, sculptural staircase extends through the centre of this monochrome inner-city loft apartment in Melbourne, Australia, by Adrian Amore Architects.
Adrian Amore Architects renovated the apartment interior for an investor to create a stark, modern space.
The building was originally used as a butter factory and converted into apartments in the 1990s. The architects removed a steel truss through the centre of the space and replaced the roof to make room for additional bedrooms.
Adrian Amore told Dezeen the twisted staircase, that is made from steel and covered with plywood and plaster, was constructed and tested on site.
“I wanted to dramatise the form of the stair, to give it more movement than a conventional circular stair, almost as though it had been pulled or stretched at its mid point,” Amore explained.
“This was challenging to build, to distribute the loads evenly, as the stair naturally wanted to flex at at its mid point, and so we were worried about it bouncing,” he added.
The stair treads are covered in a dark-stained hardwood.
The ground floor features a bathroom, laundry and pantry space are concealed behind more curving plaster walls. The kitchen, living room, dining room and studio are all open-plan.
Grey marble covers benches and splash backs, while low-hanging lights are fixed above the kitchen table, which is also covered with marble.
Sliding doors between the downstairs areas also mean the space can be separated or left open for entertaining.
A pair of bedrooms upstairs sit across from a bathroom and another large studio space, while a wooden roof deck offers views over the city.
Walls tear, bend and converge in this sleek loft apartment interior housed in a former butter factory, in West Melbourne, Australia, by architect Adrian Amore.
A sculptural stair sits at the converging point in the space, twisting dramatically, and soaring up towards a recreational roof deck which overlooks the city of Melbourne.
The original apartment contained a steel truss which sliced through its centre, polarising, and its removal, together with the removal of the existing roof generated accessible space for addition bedrooms.
A monochrome palate of white on white with charcoal and black, plays with the abundant natural light which is drawn in from the large north facing windows and ceiling void.
An essentially open ground floor plan is defined by bending, wrapping walls which contain a bathroom, laundry and storage spaces.
Sliding doors further create the opportunity for expanding or containing, depending on how the ground floor space is used, whether it be as a studio, bedroom or for entertaining.
Japanese architect Shimpei Oda has reworked the dark interior of a humble 1920s house in Kyoto to bring natural light into living spaces and create a small gallery that opens to the street (+ slideshow).
With a width of just 4.1 metres, House in Shichiku is typical of the long and narrow houses built in many of Japan’s dense urban districts, nicknamed “eel beds”, and the challenge for Shimpei Oda was to work out how to bring daylight inside.
“Because the next building was way too close, the inside of the house was so dark, even in the daytime,” said Oda.
The two storeys of the house were re-planned to ensure each of the main rooms received natural light, whether from a window or through openings in the walls or ceilings.
According to Oda, the house had suffered several poor quality renovations in the past, so missing walls and pillars had to be replaced.
“The existing structure was arbitrarily shifted and newly inserted structures and reinforcements were painted with white colour,” he said.
The small gallery is located on the ground floor and is fronted by a square grid of nine windows, some of which fold open to provide a direct access from the street.
The main entrance sits alongside and leads through to a generous open-plan space that functions as a living room, dining space and kitchen.
Bathroom and toilet facilities were considered least in need of natural light, so are grouped together in the space between the living room and gallery.
A lightweight steel staircase with a zigzagging profile leads directly up to a home office with bedrooms on either side. Exposed wooden columns and joists support the roof, while large openings help to bring light through each space.
Photography is by Shinkenchiku-sha.
Here’s the project description from Shimpei Oda:
House in Shichiku
This was the renovation of a house which was built in the 1920s and the house was surrounded by old rows of houses. The house with a frontage of 4.1 metres and depth of 12.8 metres was like so-called “sleeping places of an eel”.
Because the next building was way too close, the inside of the house was so dark even in the daytime. The house had been illogically renovated at several times before so that important pillars and walls were missed.
A resident hoped to live with furniture and paintings. A studio, sanitary, and home office were inserted as volumes of the structure. Those intended not only to reinforce the house but also to softly divide spaces to up and down and left and right.
The whole image was glimpsed from openings and slits which were widely opened and the volumes itself were painted with white colour so that the texture could visually stand up to indicate the depth and extent.
The front of the studio opened to alley was changed from a shutter to windows. To change to the well reflective material of lean-to roof, it functioned as a reflector and could get the natural lightning to the inside so it diffused to bright all. Also, it was concerned the transition of brightness by time.
The existing structure was arbitrary shifted and newly inserted structures and reinforcements were painted with white colour. Those were created the context of time but functionally which meant to indicate those things mixed naturally without any conflicts. The softly divided space may be able to use by any discoveries for the living, studio, and home office as extension with the factor of furniture and paintings which may increase in the future.
Project name: House in Shichiku Location of site: Kyoto, Japan Site area: 83.50 sqm Building area: 53.60 sqm Total floor area: 91.00 sqm Type of Construction: wood Program: house
This asymmetric Alpine cabin by Austrian architect Peter Jungmann has been named Ufogel because its owners think it looks like a cross between a UFO and a “vogel” – the German word for bird (+ slideshow).
Located on a grassy slope in the East Tyrolian village of Nussdorf, the small shingle-clad structure is a rentable holiday home that sleeps up to four people, but contains only 45-square-metres of floor space.
The building is raised off the ground on metal feet, but is otherwise built entirely from wood. Larch shingles clad the outer walls and roof, while the interior surfaces are lined with timber panels to create a distinctive smell.
A gentle staircase leads up into the main floor of the house, which features a small kitchen and a dining table that can seat between six and eight people at a time.
A small lounge area filled with cushions sits half a storey up, beside a long window that angles upwards to frame views towards the peaks of the Lienz Dolomites.
Stairs continue up to a bedroom level with a curved ceiling, containing both a double bed and a separate bunk. The shower and washroom are also located on this floor.
Underfloor heating helps to distribute warmth throughout the space, but can be supplemented by a wood-burning stove.
Here’s some more information from the Ufogel website:
Ufogel
Explore the difference in our house UFOGEL in Nussdorf/Debant near Lienz in East Tyrol!
Our exclusive and bizarre holiday house – Ufogel in the picturesque Nussdorf near Lienz has an unusual architecture. It is built on stilts and floating above the meadow in a peaceful and unspoiled nature. The panoramic windows offers a unique view of the breathtaking Lienz Dolomites, the Val Pusteria impressive mountain peaks and the so-called “Carinthian Gate”.
Your exclusive holiday home for your unforgettable holiday is a compact building, made entirely of wood, both inside as well as outside. The smell of wood flows through the room. A generous, as the only access bridge-like connection to the seemingly floating building. Almost like at home standing in the entrance area with slippers.
Following you will find the kitchen with a spacious kitchen, sink and hob. A stove with optional hotplate complements the kitchen and spreads warmth throughout the house. The cantilevered table can comfortably accommodate 6-8 people. For more generosity, the seat can be folded down. The huge panoramic window with a lawn on the mezzanine bridge the gap to the surrounding nature. A feeling like the convenience of Inside Outside. Natural materials, coupled with quality products – the best of the region. Substances (Villgrater nature) not far distant from the production Ufogel give more softness and comfort. Whether you relax comfortably watch TV, play, sleep, cook or just want to switch off – nothing seems impossible.
Upstairs there is a spacious double bed in pine, which can be transformed into a bed when needed. Another, separate bunk offers the special recreational value for two. An open glass cabinet with a view into the shower creates sufficient space for luggage. The barrier-free bathroom, overlooking the East Tyrolean mountains makes the shower experience. The Ufogel has a floor heating, which can optionally be supplemented by the stove. A refrigerator and a storage box with several areas are available. For hot summer days, a fully automatic sun protection system is installed, which can be operated manually. Experience the extraordinary – in Ufogel.
Yo Shimada of Tato Architects decided to base the two-storey House in Kawanishi on the archetypal Australian dwelling known as “The Queenslander” after coming across photographs of the buildings in construction.
“Since then, I have been interested in the form of this style of house,” said Shimada, explaining how he was later able to visit Australia and see the houses for himself. “It’s a design solution that mirrored my own thinking,” he added.
The stilted structure of the house, comprising a system of exposed steel I-beams, allowed Shimada to recess part of the ground floor to allow ample room for a public walkway that runs alongside the property.
The first floor still continues to the edge of the site, sheltering part of the walkway but also framing the house’s entrance lobby – a transparent glass box containing a cabinet for storing shoes before entering.
According to Shimada, this space is intended to highlight the boundary between the public space of the walkway and the privacy of the domestic interior. “It sits reminiscent of a bus stop containing furniture brought there by neighbours,” he said.
Square in plan, the house has a non-symmetrical grid that defines the sizes of rooms contained within. Living, dining and kitchen areas occupy a large open-plan space on the ground floor, but are loosely separated by a boxy white bathroom.
Two large voids in the ceiling allow views up to the floor above. One of these openings also functions as a stairwell and ascends up over a storage area at the front of house.
A landing halfway up the stairs creates a sunken seating area for a study above, allowing the floor surface to be used as a desk.
The entire first floor is lined with lauan plywood. Internal windows allow views between rooms on this level, while skylights bring extra daylight in through the sloping roof above.
The house’s balcony stretches across the entire south facade. A garage is positioned underneath and can be accessed by sliding back an industrial metal door.
Concrete-block walls with occasional perforations enable a system of natural ventilation, with hot air released through a chimney at the rear.
Photography is by Shinkenchiku-sha.
Here’s a project description from Tato Architects:
House in Kawanishi
Layered Boundaries
The project presented an unusual challenge: A public walkway ran adjacent to the western boundary of the house. It narrowed awkwardly from a three metre-wide road on approach from the north to a mere seventy centimetres on the eastern border to the southern corner of the site. If walls had been built to the boundary of the site to protect the residents’ privacy from the many passers-by who used this path, the path would narrow oppressively and become more difficult for the area’s residents to use.
Instead, the ground floor was set back from the boundary to give space to the path and to give the impression that the full width of the path continued through. Then the second floor of the house was built back over the path, out to the boundary of the site and its border with the road. There is a glazed entrance area containing a shoe cabinet that appears to sit beyond the border between the public and private spaces. It sits reminiscent of a bus stop containing furniture brought there by neighbours.
This theme of crossing borders between road and site is carried through the entire house design. Using the line of the neighbour’s concrete block wall, a new block wall has been built through to the south, crossing an interior space to become the wall of a storage space. This harnesses the height differences originally found in the site.
The area above the storage space then forms a landing for the stairs, and the level of the first floor has been adjusted to function as a desk sitting over the landing. This creates a space that is partly a border between a floor and partly a desk. Seen from the street, the ground floor, the first floor, and the interior and the exterior all appear to cross over.
The interior walls of the upper volume are all lauan plywood, which creates a singular space that lives in clear contrast to the ground floor, which contains a variety of materials and features. The whole design suggests an evolving living space with features that appear to cross beyond boundaries yet control them at the same time.
Gaining anonymous knowledge
The house style called a “Queenslander” is a stilt house with a wooden structure and a balcony design specific to Queensland in Australia. While some researchers in Japan have studied it, I had little knowledge of it until I encountered photographs of Queenslander houses being lifted during their conversion and renovation from one to two-story structures. Since then, I have been interested in the form of this style of house.
By a curious coincidence, last year I received a request from an Australian man to design his house. I flew there in June in 2013 for the site research, where I found the city space was surprising. Most of the Queenslanders I saw had hipped roofs with overhangs that covered all of the exterior space of the house. These roofs were clad in corrugated iron, painted white or silver to reflect the heat. To facilitate ventilation, which is normally difficult with a hipped roof, ventilators were installed on top. During their conversion to their two-storey form, various additional house features were being built in under the lifted volumes.
It’s a design solution that mirrored my own thinking in the design of this house, which was under construction at that time. While I design my architecture, I am sometimes encouraged by the knowledge I gain from anonymous predecessors who have had to deal with similar matters beyond time and regions. It is a wonderful moment to be able to touch an unbroken line of history in architecture and accumulate knowledge from it.
The plan is defined by a grid, with four squares slightly shifted off centre, and a modified square hipped roof formed by raising it at the centre. The simple, slim rigid joint frame structure consists of 125mm×125mm square steel columns and 200mm×100m H section steel beams. It realises its strength through its stiffness, by the low ceiling height and by the column bases buried in the foundation.
On the edge of the eaves, small section flat steel pipes are inserted to channel the steel rafters around the structure. The concrete block wall on the ground floor stands without counterforts through the support of flat steel bars inserted into some of the block holes.
Location of site: Hyogo, Japan Site area: 120.54 sqm Building area: 59.84 sqm Total floor area: 107.73 sqm Type of Construction: steel Program: house Project by: Tato Architects Principal designer: Yo Shimada Structural engineer: S3 Associates Inc.
A massive concrete frame wraps over the top of this house in South Korea by A.M Architects and shelters a traditional narrow porch (+ slideshow).
The house near the town of Bongsan-myeon also features an assortment of freestanding walls and projecting canopies.
“The concept of ‘architecture like promenade’, which accumulates spacial experience is well expressed in piled walls with sequential views of the interior and exterior, serving as an element to add a sense of depth and the direction of entry,” said A.M Architects.
Beginning with a straightforward cuboid, the architects removed boxy sections to create voids in the building’s facades and reduced these volumes to surfaces that act as a backdrop for three trees planted around the boundaries of the site.
The rectangular frame that surrounds the front of the building casts dynamic shadows onto the toenmaru – a narrow wooden patio that can be accessed from the study.
A freestanding concrete wall signals the main entrance to the house, which is accessed via a short flight of wooden steps.
As well as the front steps, wood is used for the terraces and to clad one section of the building’s front facade, providing a warm contrast to the stark cast concrete walls.
From inside the entry hall a window directly opposite provides a view of one of the trees at the back of the property.
A corridor traversing the house from east to west culminates in a window on the east elevation that looks out at another tree.
The house’s bedrooms, study and living room are arranged off this central corridor, which incorporates a skylight to introduce natural light into the space.
The main living room at the west end of the corridor connects to the kitchen and dining area and to a large wooden deck that projects into the garden.
Low windows provide additional daylight and views of the gardens outside, while a tall window looks out towards a distant mountain that is framed by the large concrete rectangle.
Photography is by Kim Jae Kyeong.
Here’s a project description from A.M Architects:
MUN JEONG HEON
Architecture like Promenade
The concept of Architecture like Promenade, which accumulates spacial experience, well expressed in piled walls with sequential view of interior and exterior, which servers as an element to add sense of depth and the direction of entry.
The controlled form of the entrance placed in the entry part is an objet for moving toward another space. On going into the entry space, the house, surrounded by horizontal free-standing walls floating in the air, appears overlapped. Free-standing walls of exposed concrete to emphasise horizontal stream are used as a method to attract people’s eyes and become visually magnified.
The light of nature falling long in dynamic angles through the cantilever decoration beam protruded from the flat surface of the wall, the light of nature falling is naturally ushered to the deck in front of the entrance with the property of concrete, and makes the place of main entrance recognised with free-standing walls. Also, the glance extending long along the stream of free-standing wall stays a little far in the foot of the mountain passing over spindle tree fence.
Enter the inside, over the transparent window, we can see a tree in the back yard along the grass extending the floor all in one, which is the architectural element to induce boundless horizontal extension of the space visually.
As soon as we go into the living room along the corridor, we can feel the energy of the extended light going down softly through the ceiling. The composition of walls repeating solid and void serves as an element of architectural promenaded which makes us feel the outside and inside space sequentially with the natural light, and guides the direction of entry with tension.
The inner garden seen from the living room expressing the changing seasons with free-standing walls for selective view keeps an indirect eye on the landscape of distant mountain hanged at the end of exposed concrete free-standing walls through toenmaru connected visually with the study. Such architectural element becomes a device to draw nature selectively, and to makes a metaphoric communication between interior space and exterior space possible.
The domain created through a layer and a layer communicates with nature along with various forms of walls controlling the visual and spatial movements. Organic setting up of interior and exterior spaces connecting to corridor, back yard, living room, inner garden, study and toenmaru creates the architecture of incessant relationship and stream.
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