Tris Interiors and Exteriors World

Tama's Tee Home | Luigi Rosselli HOUSES, REFURBISHMENT• TAMARAMA, AUSTRALIA Architects: Luigi Rosselli Year : 2018 Photographs :Prue Ruscoe, Edward Birch Builder : Building With Options Pty Ltd Structural Consultant : Rooney & Bye Pty Ltd Assisting Architects : Gianfranco Panza, Sean Johnson Interior Designer : Raffaello Rosselli Joiner : BWO Fitout and Interiors Council : Waverley Council Design Architect : Luigi Rosselli Project Architect : Raffaello Rosselli City : Tamarama Country : Australia Tamarama is a Sydney beach district known for its hedonistic surf culture that is slowly being gentrified by a populace that trades stock market advice while sprinting barefoot to the water with a surfboard tucked under their arms. The name "Tama" is an abbreviation for Tamarama. The homes that cling to Tamarama's hillsides are a mishmash of ticky-tacky boxes left by the previous generation of beach bunnies, who are now dwindling due to skin carcinomas. Tamarama is geographically characterized by steep escarpments that surround the beach (far narrower than its close neighbors at Bondi and Bronte). Tama's Tee Home was built using the sturdy, reusable materials from the previous residence. About 50% of the original building was preserved, including the substantial sandstone retaining wall at the front of the house and the garage below. This explains the "unipod" shape of the front façade of the home and the requirement to provide it with a sturdy concrete structure. The new concrete "Tee" structure to the front of the house was designed so that it would rest on the single point of the garage structure below that would bear the weight. The salt, humidity, and wind are unstoppable agents of quick degradation, thus buildings near the ocean must be designed and built with materials that are extremely weather resistant. Concrete may withstand such beach assault if applied properly. In this situation, marine grade roofing materials and stainless steel fasteners are required. The house has four stories since it was designed to fit the slope. The main living room, which is on level three, enjoys views of the ocean to the northeast as well as a terrace that is shielded from the strong coastal gusts to the northwest. Raffaello Rosselli, the project architect, incorporated natural materials, exposed roof framework, and light finishes that are washed by dappled and ever-changing light that seeps through specially made shutters for a sophisticated beach house.

Welcome to Yangsan Panorama House in South Korea SMxL Architects HOUSES•YANGSAN, SOUTH KOREA Architects: SMxL Architects Area : 114 m² Year : 2022 Photographs :Hanbit Kim Manufacturers : American Standard Korea, Haemil Kitchen Furniture, KIM JONG CHUL TILE, THE JOHN TECH Lead Architects : Sangmin Lee Structural Engineer : Archfeel Structural Egineering Construction : Tae Young Engineering&Constructin Manager : JeongHoon Shin Staff : JeongIn Kim Landscaping : Jogyeongsanghoi Program / Use / Building Function : Single Family House City : Yangsan Country : South Korea The Yangsan Panorama House was constructed on a piece of rural land that was once covered in trees. Reinforced dirt blocks were used to level the plot and remove it of debris. The land had a 4-meter elevation dip before, but it is now at a constant height. The Yangsan Panorama House boasts a breathtaking view of the mountains that cannot be viewed from the road and looks out over the Dangchon reservoir. The house's interior and exterior were constructed with sturdy materials in accordance with the owner's requirements, resulting in a rather straightforward and minimalistic style. The Yangsan Panorama House appears big and spacious from the outside. Surprisingly, the overall ground area is less than 214m2 when the underground floor is excluded. On the subterranean level next to the driveway is where you'll find the main gate. The bedroom, living room, and kitchen all provide panoramic views of the mountains and the Dangchon reservoir after ascending the staircase from the underground floor. Depending on the room they are in, massive concrete louvers extend from the wall in varied lengths above the front window. The entire first floor and the front patio are shielded from direct sunlight by these louvers. The three bedrooms are located on the second story. Each bedroom includes a patio where you may unwind and take in the view of the surrounding area. There are two courtyards at the Yangsan Panorama House. The first is a courtyard with glass windows that can be seen from the living room. The living room's views are improved by the courtyard, which is situated between it and the master bedroom. To keep the view of the stunning landscape from the front window clear, the garden is level and devoid of any trees or other vegetation. The shadows made by the louvers can also be used to infer the time of day and the season. Although there are no trees in the garden, the courtyard is covered in moss and miniature trees, which helps to create a sense of nature in a sophisticated setting. The main bedroom's shower is located outside the small, triangular second courtyard. This courtyard's concrete walls provide solitude while preserving the feeling of being outside in the open sky. Sandwich Insulation, Exposed Concrete, and Chipped Concrete - Because the owner appreciates the firm, sturdy quality of concrete, the walls were built using the sandwich insulation exposed concrete method, making the concrete exposure evident from both the inside and outside of the house. The exposed concrete in the house was built with various textures to meet the peculiarities of each region. First, the structure is supported by the ground level near to the road, which is built like a stereobate. The owner wanted the home to appear solid, therefore the ground level has a texture like stone. The ground floor's outside concrete walls were chipped to give them a rough look. The texture of the cracked concrete wall was applied by hand. The concrete was cured in an EPS mold (depth 35mm, width 20mm) before being manually chipped and textured. In order to maintain the use of concrete while creating a wood grain appearance, the exterior of the first and second floors were constructed using board-formed concrete. To retain the concrete appearance across the entire building, raw concrete was used for the inside walls. But in order to give the concrete a touchable surface, this concrete was finely polished. To preserve a harsh appearance without being overly uniform, the Yangsan Panorama house was created using a range of concrete textures. Concrete Louvers - From the front of the house, a stunning, expansive view can be seen through the huge, linking windows that connect the main bedroom, living room, and kitchen. The owner's demands were taken into consideration when designing this. The house's large south-facing windows may let in brilliant displays of sunshine. The ability to regulate the amount of sunlight passing through was required since too much sunlight inside the house could be uncomfortable. Therefore, above the panoramic window and attached to the upper portion of the terrace, massive concrete louvers (7.5m long at their maximum length) were built. In addition to regulating the quantity of sunlight that enters the building, the louvers also add to its sterile, concrete look and create a variety of shadows. #trisarchdaily #archdaily #yangsanPanoramahouse

Welcome to Harrierfall Hostel in Beijing, China by DL Atelier HOSTEL•BEIJING, CHINA Architects: DL Atelier Area : 207 m² Year : 2021 Photographs :Yumeng Zhu, Xi Youji Studio Manufacturers : Armstrong, LG Design Team : Yang Liu, Yewen Ding, Mohuai Hu Structural Design : Xuemei Gao, Ping Li Electrical Design : Yanming Hou HVAC : Haifeng Guo Owner : Xiaoxi B&B City : Beijing Country : China Games and B&B. We simultaneously built three concepts for Xiaoxi B&B along the Great Wall at Shuiguan in Huairou, Beijing, at the end of 2020; perhaps it would be more accurate to refer to them as rural hotels rather than B&Bs. I've created and managed similar hotels in the past, and I'd love to live a lifestyle that emphasizes the "now and now" and "breaking away from regular life." Because it contains so little of the owner's real life and memories, architecture, as the bearer of this conception, is not really a "home building" in the first place. Instead, it resembles a "theme park" with the traits listed above, a game that alternates between reality and fantasy. There must be guidelines because it is a game. Simple character preservation is all the owner asks for in her three existing homes. We will also establish the rules. The Danger and the Great Wall. The Ming Dynasty's Great Wall is nearby, making the location special. I'm more or less reluctant since the attractive qualities have developed into a force that cannot be resisted. I have a tendency to look for the emotional connection between objects and people. How does the Great Wall touch, though? by virtue of its superhuman status. Like the Egyptian pyramids or the Nasca Lines, it was not created by a human being who was willing to communicate with God. "Danger" is where the Great Wall came from. We picked the most "hazardous" mountain out of dread of "danger." Harrierfall, Act I The Great Wall was extended by Harrier Castle during the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty. These winding roads are necessary for the "Beijing knot" route. Its name comes from the many hauntings of raptors that have occurred there since antiquity. More than a dozen families continue to reside there despite it no longer serving a military purpose. Despite the numerous times the houses have been rebuilt, the 300-year-old ancient locust trees and 600-year-old castle stone continue to evoke images of bygone eras in our memories. The stone castle wall may be seen in the distance along the three meter wide country road. With an arched doorway on the south, the wall is four to five meters high. Although the ancient locust tree faces the castle gate directly, it is difficult to locate our home. It conceals at the end of a narrow path; turn left and right. In a game, the initial "risk" should also be concealed, and the initial feeling should be one of comfort and confidence. Scene 1: Turn Off the Light. The gate to the courtyard lies at the end of the little alley, and behind it is a tiny attic constructed on the roof. The attic appears to be a lamp waiting kindly between the gate and the beacon tower when the pink inner wall reflects the red light in the evening. Every time Ye Wen returned home after a late night out in The Grand Master, he would invariably notice a light that his wife had left, indicating that someone was there. This tacit understanding also stands for "life" and "home." Scene 2: Lying Back and Observing When we entered the gate, the original courtyard was unoccupied, so we let the building's eaves to spread out to create a roomy hallway that is appropriate for sitting beneath. On the one hand, the lowered eaves provide a more stable environment and divide the upper and lower inside perspective. The solid wood open fans below provide warmth and a link to the yard, while the top frame view looks out over the Great Wall. In order to provide a tranquil view out the window, indoor furniture is lower in height and the area where people sit or lie down even descends to be closer to the ground. Reduce your posture, alter your viewpoint, and appreciate the beauty of your body's additional potential. Scene 3: The Ancient Locust Tree's Invitation. I'm willing to let the old locust tree in the castle's courtyard into the yard because I particularly appreciate it. The eaves on the west side were raised to a level that both covered the debris and revealed the tree's crown. Silver metal corrugated perforated plates that cover the surrounding structures cover them in a way that purifies the background while flickering hazily. On the east side, a modest two-story structure totally opens up above the corrugated metal. The ancient locust's green shadow in the glass curtain wall becomes more noticeable in the absence of any other plant decorations in the courtyard, luring people to climb the building to take in the view. #trisarchdaily #archdaily #harrierfallhostel Music by : Bensound - Ukulele Please Subscribe, Like, Comment and Share!!

Framework House by Studio McW HOUSES•LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM Architects: Studio McW Area : 172 m² Year : 2020 Photographs :Rory Gardiner Manufacturers : panoramah!®, Havwoods, Hexagon, Poggenpohl Structural Engineering : Blue Engineering Design Team : Greg Walton, David McGahon? Joinery : Hexagon City : London Country : United Kingdom An significant renovation of a terraced property in Clapham, London, including a concrete frame addition has been finished by Studio McW. For a family leaving an apartment who wanted to keep a sense of lateral living, Framework House was created. In order to assist in its purchase and improve the remodel, Studio McW sourced the property and collaborated with the clients. According to the customers' requirements, the house had to be beautiful, practical, and have a flexible floor plan for living, entertaining, and working from home. Their desire to live in a home that blends fluidity and rigidity with natural materials served as the inspiration for the interior's concrete, steel, and wood color scheme. The existing, thermally improved shell, as well as the additional windows and roof lights located in the loft and back additions, provide each with plenty of natural light. With the dining in the front and the living in the back, joined by a central open kitchen, Studio McW inverted the layout of a conventional terraced ground floor plan to suit the lateral living brief. With a smooth transition from entering and eating to relaxing after meals, the resulting ground floor plan makes entertaining simple. The largest portion of the plan is made use of by a living room in the back, creating a bright, spacious area that opens up to the sizable courtyard garden. A wall of expansive matte white cabinetry connects the dining room to the modern Poggenpohl kitchen, which is located within the bay. Two bedrooms and a bathroom are located in the existing volume up a concrete stairway next to the kitchen, and an office is located in a dual-aspect addition. There is a visual connection between the levels thanks to a hole in the office floor that views back into the living room. The main bedroom suite and bathroom on the upper floor have bespoke joinery throughout that carries the tactility introduced elsewhere. An artistic concrete framework unites the old and the modern by repairing damaged portions of the house, creating thoughtfully designed new volumes on the ground floor, and creating spectacular voids that rise through the property. The warmth of the herringbone wood floors, custom joinery, and matte black metalwork contrast with the skeletal structure's exposed, unfinished state. By exposing the sturdy and long-lasting concrete frame of the building, praising the raw materials and unique shapes it offers, the objective was to celebrate and highlight the new structural components. Recognizing the negative environmental effects of concrete construction, Studio McW sought to reduce the amount of extraneous building materials and finishing touches. They also dedicated wall and ceiling infill to hide unsightly elements like insulation, cabling, and pipes. We were able to lessen the waste generated during the structure's formation by cleaning up and reusing some of the concrete formwork. Studio McW extended the aesthetic and functional potential of the materials by selecting a sophisticated palette. In order to create a thorough frame that "demonstrates what can be achieved with good detailing requirements that contain minutiae that can go ignored," the practice worked with a contractor who had never worked with concrete before. The monolithic concrete stair was created by Studio McW to rise next to the home's new brutalist frame, which is top-lit by overhead glass. The first-floor landing was built on-site while the staircase was installed in three precast components. Cranes were used to bring in the off-site components. A space that appears straightforward but actually filled with hidden features and plenty of storage thanks to the exact joinery, stairs, metalwork, exposed structure, and intersecting volumes. The client's current needs are excellently met by the clarity and fluid spatial flow of the contemporary scheme, which also offers a floor plan that is flexible enough to accommodate any future adjustments that may be required. #trisarchdaily2017 #archdaily #frameworkhouse Music by : Bensound - Perpection Please Subscribe, Like, Comment and Share!!!

North Perth House | Jonathan Lake Architects HOUSES•NORTH PERTH, AUSTRALIA Architects: Jonathan Lake Architects Year : 2014 Photographs :Robert Frith Manufacturers : Hettich, Pozzi Ginori Structural Engineer : Scott Smalley Partnership Builder : Michael Bradshaw City : North Perth Country : Australia The goal of this project was to show how a large family home may be built on a small inner-city lot. Its goals were to dispel the myth that architecturally designed homes were beyond of reach for the average family and to demonstrate how a tiny block could still include a good amount of outdoor living and gardening area. Finally, we aimed to create a home that gave people's spaces the upper hand than automobiles'. This design only had a two-car parking area off the rear right of way, not a lock up garage. The project's location is an inner suburban Perth block that has been rear subdivided. The block is reachable via a rear right-of-way. Due to the site's limited space, it was necessary to design a straightforward two-story home with a close connection to the location and the surroundings. The structure of the home is simply a box made of wood that is situated atop walls made of stabilized recycled concrete. The substantial walls, which separate the interior from the exterior living spaces, are buried in the ground. The openness and elegance of the areas within are hidden by the walls, which solidly delineate the right of way. The private portions of the house are located in the wooden box on top of the walls. These areas project above the concrete walls below, indicating the upper level's box-like aspect. Each room is placed to maximize its relationship to the environment, framing views of the City and treetops, for example. Through the use of fewer materials and a more straightforward form, the project explores concepts of restraint. A limited budget necessitated creative material and design choices. The walls made of stabilized concrete didn't need to be painted or finished. By using a clear finish to showcase the natural color and texture of the wood, the wood has been highlighted. #trisarchdaily #archdaily #northperthhouse Music by : Bensound - Ukulele Please Subscribe, Like, Comment and Share!!!

Welcome to Aayi House in Sao Jse De Area, India HOUSES•SAO JOSE DE AREAL, INDIA Architects: Collage Architecture Studio Area : 280 m² Year : 2019 Photographs :Harsh Kamat Structural Consultants : Rays Consulting Engineers Carpentry : ALPS Interiors Landscape Consultants : SPACELAB Contractor : HEGDE Constructions Project Design Team : Swapnil Valvatkar, Rohit Mohite City : Sao Jose de Areal Country : India The Marathi word for mother is aayi. Aayi is an effort to design a traditional-looking Goan home that was constructed as a memorial to the client's parents. The concept satisfies the objective to be modern and minimalist while blending in with the natural surroundings of the site. The development is located in the upper left corner of the property, tucked away among a luxuriant clump of coconut trees, and is situated in a corner plot that is bounded by a main road on one side and a village road on the other. The home has a South-West facing structure, and it is surrounded by two other buildings: one on the East of the land and one on the North of the neighboring property. Aayi's simple design seamlessly blends into its environment as it sits atop a portion of the lush, green fields. The site faces south-west, so we ornamented the building with sweeping overhanging verandahs and included pockets of landscaping to make the spaces airy and breezy while also shielding the occupants from the scorching sun. Furthermore, we experimented with skylit courts to create an interior microclimate while simultaneously keeping seclusion in order to blend the structure with the buildings it is straddled by. One of the courts serves as the structure's center node and sits on two perpendicular axes that cross the entire area laterally, giving the interior a sense of mobility and connection while seamlessly blending with the exterior. The home is a two-story building with three courts on the ground floor that showcase how tradition and modern architecture can coexist. The third court is a closer encounter with nature and a more private place made out of a water body. The entrance starts with the warm embrace of a traditional Tulsi court leading onto the center court, which is a double-height space with a connecting bridge on the upper level. These three courts, which are arranged along a single axis, symbolize the movement of spaces through the house as it widens in the middle and gets smaller at the ends. One axis is constrained by courts, while the other starts at the stairwell's double-height central court, flows into the living area, and eventually opens onto a terrace that leads to the garden. The central court and this double-height living area appear to be the home's "heart," connecting all the other rooms and acting as an extension of the living room to serve as a multifunctional gathering place for the residents. A bridge connecting two opposite bedrooms on the upper floor, which is more private and overlooks the gathering area below, is bordered on either side by the family living and the covered terrace/cum-bar area. Self-rotating exhaust turbines that are twice topped on the roof provide a stack effect that lets hot air leave and keeps the internal ecology cool. Similar to this, the rooms have French windows with louvers on top to aid with ventilation. We have dived into minute details of creative inspiration, such as the acrylic tubes on the ceiling to allow for perforated intermittent light suggestive of stars, in addition to the clean spatial design that incorporates passive-cooling techniques. The pastel interiors and the cozy wooden furnishings blend with the adaptable whites and greys, which then speak to the green surroundings, giving the impression that Aayi is an embodiment of our mothers. #trisarchdaily #archdaily #AAyihouse Music by : Bensound - Ukulele Please Subscribe, Like, Comment and Share!!

The Running Wall Residence | LIJO RENY architects HOUSES•THALASSERY, INDIA Architects: LIJO RENY architects Area : 507 m² Year : 2012 Photographs :Paveen Mohandas The brief from the client was simple and short “a fort like house that one can’t scale”. As the site sat right in the middle of one of the rougher districts of Kerala the client wanted a house that looked intimidating. In fact that is the very feel that one gets as one stands outside trying to get in. The form is a combination of plastered walls and exposed laterite wall. Laterite stone, once commonly used in Kerala architecture, has a direct visual appeal and a connection to the immediate surroundings, because of its earthy colour and tecture. The usage of this familiar stone in a new language, without losing its inane nature, would immediately root the design, at the same time, acknowledge the presence of a change, bridging this huge gap that has come about in the contemporary architectural practice that prevails in the state now. The exposed laterite stone wall starts from the compound wall and winds through the landscaped yard into the building. More than as a wall or as an enclosure, it is like a flowing sculpture through the landscape. The monotony of the huge walls is broken by the various voids given at random on the laterite wall. The laterite stone was sourced from two different quarries for the two distinct colours that from a pattern throughout the wall .The vertical joints between the laterite stones were filled with a paste of white cement and powdered laterite stone, thus visibly accentuating the horizontal lines. The continuous horizontal lines give more fluidity/direction to the meandering wall. The long drive way leads one to the sit out from where a sneak preview is given of hidden courts and landscaped spill out areas. From here one steps onto a clear glass bridge, over a water body that spills out as a cascade below the main door into an internal pool. So as the main door is opened one continues to walk on the clear glass, with the visual of the cascade below the feet. From here one can choose to go to the living or the dining, both these rooms opening out into a huge landscaped, spill out area enclosed by the meandering exposed laterite wall. The dining has a long lap pool with a corridor leading one to the bedrooms. The kitchen also lies just beyond the dining. The kitchen too opens up into another landscaped yard at the back with a badminton court. The 3 storey high internal court with banana plants, ferns and many tropical plants, has the stairs taking one into the home theater below and the study above. The corridor above has several circular skylights competing with the circular ceiling lights to light up the area. Most of the rooms have a play of levels with the ceiling, in the form of a combination of barrel vault and flat slab at the higher level with vents to expel the hot air. This combination has brought a marked difference in the room temperature compared to other regular forms. Each and every bit of the site was considered during design and as a result it’s heartwarming to know that each of the members finding the various levels and areas in the house a new function and a new meaning.

The Regimented House | LIJO RENY architects HOUSES•INDIA Architects: LIJO RENY architects, LIJO RENY architects Year : 2017 Photographs :Praveen Mohandas, Suneesh Suresh This project seemed like an Architect’s dream at first but upon closer understanding, of the site and the brief, revealed its complex nature. The seemingly large plot of 2.45 acres, populated with a variety of trees - small and large, was to be shared between the client and his brother, who had an existing house on site, without any compound wall in between. However, an informal pedestrian path, allowing the plot at the back an access to the main road, literally cut the site into two. Moreover the extending site towards the south, marked aside for the future commercial activity further reduced the buildable site to a linear strip. The clients, like many, worried about security and privacy, wanted a strong sense of ownership and exclusivity even without building any walls separating neither the pedestrian path nor his brother’s house. Adding to the complexity was their deep desire for an inside-outside feel for ther house, with the inclusion of nature as much as possible. The result was ‘The Regimented House’. The simple yet formal nature of this built form, with the extended frontyard and backyard demarcated by hard landscape grids established a notion of a boundary, subtle nonetheless potent. Moreover the grid layout was designed to accommodate landscaped courts of various types to ensure the essential blending in with nature as well as soften the otherwise bold presence of the built mass. The layout consisted of two simple, yet robust, blocks placed one above the other, separated by a large double height landscaped courtyard acting as a buffer between them. A landscaped entry court was added to blur the transition between the verdant landscape and the seemingly rigid building. The ground floor of the primary bay houses the formal and semiformal functions of the house and the secondary bay has the two bedrooms, one ach floor accessed by a staircase. An open dining and a bridge placed in the central court informally connect the two. The layout of the house is designed in such a manner that each room in the house enjoy perfect cross ventilation, making the best of seasonal shifts of winds, keeping the internal temperature at a possible low throughout the year. The large grid like openings puncturing the shell of the building, were strategically screened with perforated corten steel and G.I pipes to facilitate both privacy and ventilation. When lit up at night, the house looks like a lantern glowing in the woods. Internally, all rooms around the central court open into it by means of large sliding doors that ensure an open layout when desired. This possibility of engaging with a fairly large internal landscape, with trees that may grow to touch the ceiling, gives one the feeling of being outdoors with the elements, enjoying each season, each moment. The material palette and decor of the house was refined towards simple minimalist possibilities in order to enable an unadulterated experience of the volumertic spaces that connect with the landscape. A combination of carefully curated framed black and white abstract naturescape photographs and mirrors extend this experience to a surreal dimension. Often, simple designs create warm, everlasting memories. The kids see the house as a large playground enabling them with exciting new experiences each day, and the owners have already slipped into these secure yet comfortable spaces, enjoying the simple pleasure of life.

The House Within the Grid | LIJO RENY architects HOUSES, HOUSES INTERIORS•ANDATHODE, INDIA Architects: LIJO RENY architects Area : 811 m² Year : 2019 Photographs :Praveen Mohandas Manufacturers : BoConcept, Hansgrohe, Hafele, Legrand, Ligne Roset, Muuto, NATUZZI, Nitco Limited, Osram, Toto, Alfriday, Art, Berger Paints, Better Life, Blue Loft, Corvi, Defurn, EBCO, Englander, Fanzart, +16 Lead Architects : Reny Lijo, Lijo Jos Structural : Ummer P Hydru Door, Wardrobes And Other Carpentory Work : Karpento, P.A. Mani and 1000 kitchen Landscape : Unique Garden Decor, Naveen and Ragesh Lighting : Zion, Thrivandrum Interiors : LIJO.RENY.architects Landscape Concept : LIJO.RENY.architects Civil : Mohamed Pattabi, Siddeque, Siju Painting : Purushotham Architects : LIJO.RENY.architects, Thrissur, Kerala Client : Dr. Shammer and Family Electrical And Plumbing : Prof ismail Anodiyil Supervisor : Ummer, Manu Mani Flooring : K.N. Chandran Home Automation : Arcnet, Sapians Automation, Smak Enterprises Swimming Pool : French Pools Glass Supplier And Installation : Crystal-Thrissur and Suresh Steel Fabrication : Star Steels Metal Doors : Chemmanur Metals Solar Panels : Wukud Power Soft Furnishing : Art Legend- Calicut Water Treatment : Greenteck Site : 2114.32 sqm. (0.52 acres) Electrical : Prof ismail Anodiyil Plumbing : Prof ismail Anodiyil City : Andathode Country : India Located in a leafy neighborhood, ‘The House within the Grid’ sits on a slightly elevated plot accessed by a silent road.Designed for a doctor couple and their 4 children, based in Sharjah, this house was meant as a place for relaxation, rejuvenation and bonding during their frequent visits to Kerala. The sprawling house and its many rooms were designed to accommodate and entertain the family as well as several relatives and friends who may join them during such occasions. Eventually, as this house was meant to become their permanent home, it was designed as one than just a holiday home. The house is composed of 2 distinct parallel bays connected in between. Each of these bays consists of a set of defined functional areas and a linear circulation spine that dissolves into the parent room wherever possible. A mix of primary and secondary functions, with its two different room widths, creates a visible repetitive spatial pattern throughout the house. This project was an exercise in exploiting the spatial possibilities offered by the surprisingly flexible modular grid. Juxtaposing the rigorous but serene geometry of the house with the incoherent landscape of its site, a distinct spatial language evolved to become a subtle stage for the contemplative daily activities. One enters the house through a shaded sit-out area, trapped in an external courtyard, which connects itself to the formal sit-out to the left and the office space to the right.The single storied bay on the eastern side of the site, composed of undulating volumes, houses the public and semiprivate zone, such as the visitor’s lounge, formal living, common prayer area, dining, powder rooms, etc. towards the front and more private zone, like the kitchen, work area, kitchen court, utility, etc. towards the back. The double storied volume on the western side of the site houses the six bedrooms along with their attached toilets and a compact office space with a patio overlooking a shallow pool. This bay extends towards the north to house an open and a closed car porch, both accessible from the paved front yard. The two main bays were detached from each other to offer the bedroom block its much needed privacy. However, connecting these two bays, while strictly adhering to the grid configuration of the house, is a family/ space each on either of the floors. The staircase was positioned in this zone to make the circulation far more efficient. This central space, while creating an access between the main bays, becomes a casual lounging area encouraging communication between the family members. Two large courtyards trapped between the parallel bays to enhance the ventilation and the circulation in the project. The entry court towards the north acts as an extension of the sit-out. While the larger court towards the south, an extension of the ground floor family space and the dining, with a dining patio and a swimming pool becomes the much needed spill out space. The dense vegetation outside these courtyards contrasts with the sparse regimented landscape,placed within the grids of the house, to create an enjoyable medley. The strategically laid out plan while providing privacy to the family members also facilitates thorough cross ventilation by channeling the seasonal shift of the predominant wind through its spaces by the virtue of its orientation. This keeps the rooms as airy as possible, maintaining the internal temperatures at a possible low. The undulating volumes along with the several cantilevered slabs shade each other in the shifting tropical sun. These floating roofs also help efficiently collect rainwater which then runs through a series of custom designed stainless steel rain water drain pipes, populated across the project, to the designated water collection chamber. A series of solar panels positioned on these large roofs helps produce the necessary power for the house to be self-sufficient and keep the house off the grid. A series of solar panels positioned on these large roofs helps produce the necessary power for the house to be self-sufficient and keep the house off the grid.

KS Residence | Arquitetos Associados HOUSES•NATAL, BRAZIL Architects : Arquitetos Associados Area : 410 m² Year : 2016 Photographs :Joana França Manufacturers : Vulcano, Deca, Ello Esquadrias, Tijolaria Uruau, Vitrine Vidros Architect In Charge : Alexandre Brasil Team : Alexandre Brasil, Paula Zasnicoff e Raquel Araújo Authors : Alexandre Brasil, Paula Zasnicoff e Raquel Araújo Structural Project : Engecal Plumbing Project : AMD Engenharia Electrical Project : AMD Engenharia City : Natal Country : Brazil The initial desire for privacy and the consideration of local conditions guided the design of this residence, closed out, but open to a large internal space of three floors with the purpose of establishing spatial wealth with a variety ceiling heights, large air volumes and better environmental comfort as a consequence. The created volume explore to the maximum the parameters that regulate the construction of the condominium buildings: minimum setbacks of five meters at the front, four meters at the bottom, two meters at the sides and a maximum of seven meters and a half height from the level of the first floor [since it is at a maximum height of one meter and twenty-five centimeters from the level of the natural ground]. In this way three floors were created. In the underground (semi buried) are garage and ateliers; At the ground level (semi elevated), the social and living areas; And upper, the intimate areas. The deliberate search for greater spatial variety and better arrangement of the program to the volume, it was sought to vary the design of floors rather than simply stack them. Above the void rise the other floors. On raised ground two slabs extend in the transverse direction of the construction from one side face to another, interconnected by a footbridge. In the slab closest to the street are the living rooms and tv / cinema. In the bottom slab, integrated to the yard, are dining room, kitchen and service area. In the second floor the slabs extend in the longitudinal direction from the facade to the bottom, interconnected by a transversal footbridge, whose are the rooms and bathrooms. The differentiated pagination of the bricks establishes small openings in the facade that allow the illumination and ventilation of the internal spaces. To ensure greater thermal comfort was created in the upper part of the house a permanent ventilation strip and windows next to the floor, providing the Venturi effect. The construction would have as a first step the soil excavation and its containment by a prop wall, generating the necessary space for the future occupation. On this void rises the residence volume, with pillars and slabs in reinforced concrete and cover in metallic tiles on metal structure. Finally, the closing plans and external sealing in glass and solid bricks are aggregated to this frame, giving the final appearance of the residence.

Korokoro Bush House | Parsonson Architects HOUSES•LOWER HUTT, NEW ZEALAND Architects: Parsonson Architects Area: 169 m² Year: 2017 Photographs: Paul McCredie Manufacturers: Australian Sustainable Hardwoods (ASH), Colorsteel, Mohawk Flooring, BBI Wood Products, Color steel, Hutt Valley Garage Doors Products used in this Project ENGINEERED WOOD FLOORING Hardwood Flooring - GOODWOOD Australian Sustainable Hardwoods (ASH) Hardwood Flooring - GOODWOOD The house sits at the end of a narrow road,perched on a steep hillside, looking down a bush-clad valley to the Korokoro Stream with views out to Wellington Harbour through a V in the hills. It is two storied with bedrooms upstairs and livings spaces below. A covered walkway steps down beside the garage leading to the front door with diagonal views out to the north facing deck, lawn and hill views. From the entry, passage through the house follows the line of the hillside in a procession of gentle steps down to the main living spaces, that look over the valley and wrap around a private north facing deck. The house is designed as a private and peaceful retreat with colouring and materials that comfortably sit amongst the verdant surroundings. In contrast the garage door becomes like a lantern lighting up at night.

Kobiler House | Architextit- Einat Erez-Kobiler HOUSES•KFAR AVIV, ISRAEL Architects : Architextit- Einat Erez-Kobiler Area : 230 m² Year : 2017 Photographs :Hagar Doppelt Manufacturers : AXOR, Hansgrohe, Gaya, Items, Toppins, Vollach Lead Architect : Einat Erez-Kobiler Products used in this Project FAUCETS Bathroom Collection - AXOR Uno Interior Design : Einat Erez-Kobiler, Limor Sadka-Nagar Wood Construction : Eric J City : Kfar Aviv Country : Israel The architect designed her own family house in a small village, located between wheat and chickpea fields. The geometry and the contours of the house continue the long, extending lines of the agricultural area, open to the view and the landscape, that is interacting with the indoors, facades and the movement through the house. Raised above ground level over a concrete slab, due to the site limitation, the volumes are divided into 3 parts that are connected with transparent glass joints that allow one to walk and look through from the street directly to the fields beyond the house. The main central volume was created as a place for family togetherness, the heart of the home, and includes the living room and the integrated eating-cooking area. The two other volumes provide privacy between the parents and children. The volumes are plastered with mineral plaster and partially covered with wood planks. In the future, the separated volumes will allow to make changes and modify the structure relatively easily for the convenience of the older tenants. On the front and back of the house, resting on a concrete slab there are balconies to allow direct access from the interiors to the outdoors and vice versa. The main front balcony is enclosed, separating the house from the street, and allow a relaxing, more private, graduated access into the house. The back balcony is opened up completely to the fields and landscape. From the front to the back, a wood shading pergola was built through the main volume of the house.

Welcome to Kennels | Atelier GOM HOTELS, ANIMAL SHELTER•QINHUANGDAO, CHINA Architects: Atelier GOM Area: 4682 m² Year: 2021 Photographs: CreatAR Images, Zaiye Studio, Huijin Zheng, Shengliang Su Lead Architect: Jiajing Zhang Design Team:Wenbin Xu, Qicheng Zhang, Cong Xu Construction Drawing Team:Bin Chen, Rong Zhao Construction Drawing Design:BEIJING CCI ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN CO.LTD. Interior Design:SYMMETRY Design Interior Designer:Y|Design Private Design Studio Lighting Design:Tungsten Studio Landscape Design:FANU Landscape Architectural Design CO.LTD. Coating Supplier:SpecChem City:Qinhuangdao Country:China Project concept. The architect and client had been thinking about people and dogs ever since the triangular-shaped "corner" site at the southern-most of Aranya was defined as a pet hotel. Usually, the design model of a small hotel is either a low-rise veranda, or scattered detached building, or the very popular "one big pallet with a bunch of small boxes" complex. From human standpoint, these models are all feasible. But as anyone who has ever owned a dog knows, dogs are happy when they meet other dogs from time to time, but people are not happy because of the panic. Therefore, dog-to-dog encounters should be avoided as much as possible at non-essential times. So, at the beginning of the program, the porch layout was avoided, and there was some torn between freestanding and townhouse style. The characteristics of the two models were combined to design a staggered top and bottom stacked model with a total of thirty boxes. Entrances and exits are independently separated from each other, which creates a very different architectural shape in addition to solving this problem of excessive dog-to-dog encounters while pulling apart between the houses to deal with the stairs and provide natural lighting for the basement cafeteria. On the other side of the box, since forward and backward exist, some of the guest rooms create a drop-step façade shape in order to avoid the stairs, while also providing the basic frame for the leap stairs in the interior of guest room. Since the site is triangular-shaped, in order to avoid dog-to-dog eye contact, the design has the primary orientation of the guest rooms facing outward on three sides and the second orientation enclosed on the inside, while the internal expression is dominated by solid walls and equipment spaces, so that the non-parallel layout and the inner courtyard with fewer openings strengthen the sense of perspective in one direction and become the most intriguing and important perspective after completion. Structural design. Architects who pursue perfection have an almost fetishistic pursuit of the construction logic of spatial forms, that is, this kind of non-frame building shape does not want to appear in the initial design of the structure of aligned frame columns, but preferably all by the slab structure (hating beams and columns and obsessed with thick plates, a unique preference of the architects and I don’t know since when it was started). The vertical shear walls and diagonal structural roof panels form a box laminated "slab frame", as suggested by the original structural consultant, Zhang Zhun. Although perfect, this non-aligned structural system requires high design and construction requirements, as well as structural overrun review of construction drawings, which is time-consuming and not always possible. Considering that I did not take the job of a "small spiritual building" where Ma Yin did not care about time and cost, but a commercial building which time and cost were important, I hesitated and gave up the so-called extreme pursuit of architects and chose the hidden frame structure, using the tiny overlap of the upper and lower boxes to Find the position of the frame column, and then use some architectural ways to make the column basically fade into the space of the lower guest room. The above-ground frame part is only structurally transformed at the basement roof slab. Equipment piping and drainage design. Since the overlapping part of the upper and lower guest rooms is very small, and the through frame columns have to be solved, the space to provide the pipeline aligned with the upper and lower is very narrow. In this narrow space, we have to solve the pipe shafts with insulation requirements, and at the same time, in order to avoid seeing too many overlapping parts on the facade and to keep the sense of separation between the upper and lower volumes, we recede the outer edge of the pipe shafts a little bit inward and hide them in the shadow, so that the overlapping of the upper and lower volumes will appear to be still lightly. At the same time, in order not to notice this abrupt tube well when going up the stairs, we poured an extra-long triangular beam, so that the so-called "cover-up" will not be noticed much. The rooms are supplied with centralized hot water, but each room is equipped with an independent VRV air conditioning system. The location of the external unit is generally the more invisible the better, but we did the opposite this time by deliberately enlarging the equipment platform, not only to dissipate sufficient heat but also to facilitate future maintenance and installation, and at the same time to provide a canopy for the ground floor entrance, which itself has become an important architectural symbol of the inner courtyard space. Due to the specificity of the shape, we adopted the design of free-falling water, the rainwater from the roof is discharged through the narrow ditch reserved on both sides of the second-floor access and staircase, and the condensation and frost water from the equipment platform is discharged freely by the metal rainwater outlet located at the corner of the wall in a position that does not affect people walking. The lightning protection design, lighting design, and cafeteria equipment were all precisely considered to eliminate all factors that would have a negative effect on the building's perception. At the conversion of the tube well directly below the guest rooms, which is at the top of the cafeteria, a concrete integrated pipe corridor was reserved to loop through above the cafeteria based on our years of practical experience, in order to cope with a variety of unforeseen piping changes in the future, a foresight that served us well when the guest rooms were later converted to central heating. According to the commercial building code, each evacuation staircase must have a fire hydrant, which is particularly boring in our layout, but there is no choice, more than a dozen fire hydrants must be found, so we designed a light wall at the lower entrance of each staircase to hide those fire hydrants, and this light wall makes the staircase space look more subtle, and also becomes an important architectural element in the whole inner courtyard after completion. Fair-faced Concrete. At the beginning of the project, we were always wavering between doing paint or fair-faced concrete regarding the material of the facade. Although the architects had the desire to do fair-faced concrete, there was already a lot of Aranya and we were prepared not to do it, even-textured paint, silicone paint and washed stone were all under consideration. With the process of construction drawings, due to the special nature of the structure, the parts that can do infill walls on the facade are already minimal, so almost all concrete cast-in-place structure is a foregone conclusion, then it is better not to install it, or to do fair-faced concrete. However, after some arguments about appearance and cost between ordinary plywood or small wooden forms, we finally chose the simpler and cheaper plywood form. The general contractor was very experienced and recommended a 1.8m long special formwork. We separated the façade according to 450 modules and kept communicating with the general contractor about the location of the construction joints and the treatment of complex shapes at the joints. Vertical wall pouring has no problem, but the pitched roof vibrating will be more complicated, experienced several real samples of pouring experiments, and ultimately can not solve the problem of a small number of bubbles on the surface of the concrete, I later advised the general contractor do not care, as long as the procedure is completely done, bubbles do not matter - since it does not affect any structural, seepage resistance and other issues, the bubbles are also objective and sincere. We also did a large scale concrete experiment at the south entrance of Aranya, which was conceptualized as a guest house box that would not go to waste and could be used as a gatehouse for the south entrance in the future. When we poured the pointed roof, we found that we had underestimated the difficulty of pouring this kind of non-horizontal and vertical shape, for example, the "tip" of the house was very difficult to pour and had to be wiped. After discussing technical measures such as whether to prefabricate the roof, I finally gave up on the pointed roof and replaced it with a small flat trapezoidal roof, so the final kennel rooms have two roof shapes, one is a large flat roof and one is a small flat roof. All the later concrete repair, waterproofing, and seepage resistance as well as internal insulation, solid samples of doors and windows, air conditioning louvers, and railings were passed on this one-to-one large sample and continued to be tested by time in the more than one year of formal construction that followed. Guest room design. Since the initial design limited the size of each guest room box to a basic type of 6m x 9m, the 30 guest rooms were basically divided into four basic types, with different interior spaces derived from different influences of entrance directions and façade drops under this size control. During the design process, the slight variations in location and access and retreat outside the four basic types led to more design results. As mentioned before, the influence of the outdoor staircase on the shape of the guest room basically determines the direction of the indoor staircase, so the subsequent design of the indoor staircase basically finds the convention on several elevations to calculate the size, so that the staircase becomes an indoor device, not only becomes the core of transportation up and down but also connects several small spaces for people and dogs to produce interesting stops. The bed was torn between the side and the center, but in the end, the conventional arrangement of the side was chosen. In addition to the large bed upstairs, a tatami space was also arranged downstairs to provide a variety of family structures and human-dog relationships. Both guest rooms have bathrooms, but on the second floor, due to the sloping roof, some of the site dimensions would not be exactly the same as the drawings, so the location of the bathroom and toilet were adjusted before completion to ensure normal human use. The design of exterior windows is the most complicated process of change, from the first full-opening windows to the later consideration of the installation of curtains and flush opening windows, to the latter due to the upper outdoor staircase fire spacing of 2 meters, resulting in the need to change part of the window position to a step-like solid wall generated by the small window, all "form follows the regulations". The final presentation is the result of natural evolution according to energy saving, fire protection, cost, and operation factors. In addition to the glass part, the exterior window design also includes an aluminum opening fan to match the 300 modules of the facade. Waterproofing Design. The slope of the roof of the clear concrete building, the need to slope the visual coherence of the roof and walls, so that the roof waterproofing is much more difficult because the most insurance commonly used coil waterproofing has failed. Then the common practice is to use penetrating crystalline waterproofing agent on the facade concrete under the premise of internal insulation, coupled with its own slope if such a roof waterproofing in the south is basically no problem, but the winter freezing and swelling in the north will make the concrete cracking, then the waterproofing agent will fail. At the repeated prompting of the project manager, I began to look for possible new materials. After the transparent matte polyurea waterproofing coating was found, we did a lot of experiments. From small concrete sample blocks to concrete walls and finally the whole experiment on the janitor, we finally settled on this waterproofing material which has never been used on the building facade before. We decided to spray and paint the whole concrete box through and through, just different parts with different thicknesses so that besides waterproofing, it also prevents the corrosive air from the seaside from affecting the life of the concrete, and it also prevents dog urine. Of course, the polyurea had to be applied after all the concrete repair and finishing work was completed. Before the construction started on the wall, it was still prudent for everyone to start with the roof which was not easily seen. I have written about the story of polyurea yellowing in other articles, so I will not repeat it here. In the end, after all the silicone topcoats for the concrete repair were done, the polyurea still achieved the results we initially set. When dealing with the staircase part, due to the complexity of the construction process, we first brushed a polyurethane waterproofing coating before the polyurea for insurance purposes, and the mortar protection layer was done once before the polyurea was put on to form a coherent film with the wall, and then finally the stone was laid. After the completion, we also used the way of painting to add paint to the leakage point in the narrow ditch on both sides. Other parts of the design. Railing design is often easy to be ignored part, those who are not careful to be quoted by the design institute shiny stainless steel railing details and no one feels bad story in the previous government projects repeatedly occur. This time we consider the special climate of the seaside, all the use of brushed stainless steel surface fluorocarbon spraying, and for the perfection of fair-faced concrete, all the use of the practice of post-embedding, for which we also drew a detailed drawing for each embedding practice, and the railing section fully considered the standardized design, which can reduce the probability of worker error. There is also stainless steel corrugated perforated panels to cover the air conditioning units, stainless steel expansion joint covers custom-made for fair-faced concrete, some small hardware to be rectified after completion, and floor drains with inappropriate elevations due to paving, and even stainless steel air vents bought on Taobao for the general contractor to match the style of the kennels - outside of the backward standard drawings without any sense of design, some unconventional nodes can only be done by the architect. Conclusion. After the final presentation of the building, people tend to talk about the scheme idea, talk about anthropology, sociology, philosophy, literature, psychology, and other you know all kinds of science, "talk about everything but design". In fact, design is more about technique, and this boring process about technique is the real beginning of design, which makes the program rich and full. When an architect enjoys the honor, he or she should not forget the assistance and cooperation of the client, local design institute, and constructor. The architect is supposed to do technical work, and technology is also an important condition for the iterative development of architecture, which produces beauty by itself. Since architecture is somehow academically, there must be both theory and practice. Without talking about practice, architecture is void. On the National Day of 2021, which was also the trial period of the kennels, I took my old dog Diamond and drove more than 2,700 kilometers back and forth to live in Aranya Kennels for five days to examine the building I had designed for three years from the user's perspective. In the end, Diamond and I were basically satisfied with the design, construction, management, and operation of the kennels.

Greetings from KAP House, ONG&ONG Pte. HOUSES•SINGAPORE Architects: ONG&ONG Pte Ltd Area: 917 m² Year: 2016 Photographs: Derek Swalwell Manufacturers: KStone, Perswood, SKK Quantity Surveyor: CCL Chartered Surveyors Mechanical & Electrical Engineer: PTA Consultants Pte Ltd Main Contractor: Straits Dredging Architect In Charge:Diego Molina, Maria Arango Project Team:Eleazar Manahan, Tomas Jaramillo, Ryan Manuel, Julius Caramat, Lee Cheow Yeh, Amos Lau, Lim Yan Qing Client:Vista Realty Pte Ltd C&S Engineer:KKC Consultancy Service M&E Engineer:PTA Consultants Pte Ltd Civil Engineer:KKC Consultancy Service Structural Engineer:KKC Consultancy Service Country:Singapore Reclined within a well-heeled residential enclave, KAP-House reposes behind wild grassland that grows from the remains of the old Malayan Railway. Placed on a plot that was once the sprawling garden of a classic colonial black and white bungalow, the home was imagined as a paradigm of modern tropical living. The defunct railway, now a preserved green corridor, provides a backdrop of natural tropical terrain. Seeking to capitalize on the beauty of the home’s splendid surroundings, the design team adopted the Japanese design principle of Shakkei, or borrowed view. Their intention was to create a home resplendent in the “likeness of nature, capturing nature alive to create a spectacular vision”. Fully attuned to the environment, KAP-House is predicated on capturing its marvelous natural milieu, as the architects carefully aligned the home to emphasize borrowed views of the green corridor. Elemental considerations were prioritized as the design team accounted for factors such as wind direction and solar positioning, introducing a sustainable design framework that allowed the implementation of passive environmental controls within the house program. Simplicity reigns as clean lines and bold structural elements manifest into an elegant design. Architects deployed a programmatic approach when conceptualizing the home. KAP-House features a series of rectilinear volumes placed in interlocking juxtapositions. Individual volumes were conceived in accordance with how their space would be utilized. Underscored in KAP-House’s overall design was the optimization of the borrowed view, as the architects tried to ensure that spaces within the house would benefit from the surrounding natural splendor. A holistic approach was employed in order to achieve intrinsic integration between architecture, interior design, and landscaping. Further accentuating the overall design is a meticulously curated material palette - reflected in the stone and timber facades, placid blue pools and waterways, and lush gardens greenery, which bestow KAP-House undeniable aesthetic quality. The home includes four bedrooms together with an additional guest room. The front section of KAP-House that contains the guest room was imagined as a semi-private transition space, where a myriad of colours and textures greets the eye at the home’s spacious driveway entrance. An L-shaped slab of textured reinforced concrete frames a façade of gray zircon wood strips, neatly stacked atop a lower plane of champagne limestone cladding, which stretches into KAP-House’s manicured garden. The entrance foyer leading to the shared common space reveals a system of fully retractable floor-to-ceiling glass windows encasing the living and dining areas. The windows, together with the timber screens found on the upper floor, provide natural cross-ventilation and overall versatility to KAP-House. The Architects’ intention was to allow the greenery of the garden exterior and the borrowed view of the rail corridor beyond to traverse into the refined spaces of the home’s interior. Private spaces within KAP-House reside within the upper-most volume that holds the bedrooms, as well as the subterranean space that conceals the multimedia room. The gray zircon wood façade from the house entrance extends along the length of the home, forming a system of timber screens that veils the upper-level spaces, while the subterranean zones are distinguished by robust tobacco-colored Cohiba stone. Lending character and a supremely natural feel to KAP-House, planted plots of green space are strategically placed to further emphasize the naturalistic motif established within the property. The upstairs family room opens to an elevated garden belvedere, reconnecting the private zones with the exterior green spaces. The private spaces are characterized by treated wood and white stone, where passive environmental controls come in the form of screens and overhangs. Product Description. Material selection was vital to the project’s underlying concept. Volumetric elements within KAP-House are subtly differentiated through the material that predominates each section. From the champagne limestone façade at the entrance, to the white plaster and glass that frames the main living area, and even the fair-faced concrete that lines upper volume, each material utilized helps create a seamless transition between spaces.

Welcome to BAK Arquitectos' House On The Beach HOUSES•VILLA GESELL, ARGENTINA Architects: BAK arquitectos Area: 950 m² Year: 2009 Photographs: Guillerme Morelli The Place: The land of 20mx47m where we have to intervene is placed a few meters away of the dune wherethe beach ends. In spite of it, the land is near a house of big size which clogs in some parts the views to the sea.The rest of the views, free of near buildings, allows the enjoyment of smallvegetation, acacias and tamarinds, that overlooks the sea on one side and the forest insinuates on the other. The land has the particularity to present, in the center and along its length, a 3 meters crest elevation in relation to their sides. This singularity and the need to elevate the building over the natural line of the lot to gain sea views were fundamental issues in the proposal. The commission: The clients, a young couple with 3 little children, arrived to ourstudy asking for a house of concrete -as it seems to has a lowmaintenance and we love the design of the others houses you have already made - they said – we need a big house with five or six bedrooms and large spaces of meeting but to berealized in two stages – they add. We suggest that, as the existing regulations allows it they can consider building two different housing units, one of them the principal house in a size that allows us to built it in one stage and then another for guests. Satisfied with this proposal and with the aesthetic and constructive solution that the studio had already done in the forest, the clients only conditioned the project requiring us that we should take advantage out of this location so close to the beach to enjoy the sea views from the main rooms of the house, as well as from its expansions. The program: The commission for the first stage was a house with a main bedroom with bathroom en suite, two bedrooms to the sons with a shared bathroom and a service bedroom for guests, with its own bathroom. It was also required adining room with integrated kitchen, grill and expansion terrace, a semi-covered garage and an enclosed place to be used as a general deposit and for saving the quadricycle. The proposal: We focus our search for solutions trying to accommodate this program to this topography and particular environment, looking for gaining views to the sea without making significant changes to the dune. In relation with thepath of the sun and the dominant winds, the house must be open to the NE and control its openings to the SO. The lateral facade to the SE, despite of been exposed to strong rains and winds, should have big openings to provide views to the sea. With this premises and working in the transversal section of the land, we note that if we put the principal floor plan of the house like a prism perpendicularly over the crest of the dune, we reach, in one end, views to the sea, while in the other end and under it, we can create an access plan at the same level of the street; and in the same place but over the principal prism we could create another floor which can be the main bedroom and its bathroom with a big terrace providing generous views to the whole land. Decided that the stairway, which logically organizes the three levels, was transformed into a leading place, hence its strategic location and its studied spatial treatment with an emphasis on light entrance and the views generated in its path. The proposed afforestation, following the principle of minimum intervention in the landscape consisted of projecting retaining walls of quebracho sleepers to help contain the dune to allow the regrowth of the zone’s pastures. The functional organization: After saving the difference of height between the street and the access level with the help of wood planks, it is accessed to the house by a semi-covered (which can be used as a garage) where a quebracho tables’ wall is highlighted formed by the gateway that closes the storage and also the entrance door. In this level it is placed a small hall, the guestroom with its bathroom and the internal entry to the storage and the laundry. Going up the stairs between concrete walls you get to the main floor of the house. It has a living room with integrated kitchen, with expansions to the front and the back of the lot, and two bedrooms for the children with a bathroom for this level. In parallel to the first staircase develops the stairs leading to the top floor of the house. By this one, you reach a small hall from which you can access a large terrace to the front and one to the back, and also the main bedroom with bathroom en suite. This room has outstanding views towards the beach and through a generous opening can go out to the main terrace from which one can enjoy views of the whole landscape. The structural solution: The entire house is solved by reinforced concrete partitions and slabs. The versatility of this constructive system allows us to solve the important overhang of the semi-covered access as it doesn’t have any support in one of its extremes, as we consider relevant for the project that the three levels of the house were not expressed in the front. We also use a significant cantilever on the opposite end, where the dune falls abruptly, so that the house lean without altering its natural profile. The construction: It was used the same concrete of the other works in Mar Azul (H21 with fluidizer) a mixture with low amount of water that when forge create a concrete with a lot of compactness. As a result of this process, it is not necessary to employ any kind of facing,achieving a lowbudget in its terminations and a minimum or non posterior maintenance. The adaptation of the constructive system used in the forest for this place, consist in the use of “decks as umbrellas”. They are made by braces of wood seated to the slab on which the tables rely so that between them and the concrete ceiling is a space through which air flows. On the other hand , to improve the thermal insulation of the exterior walls it was build, in the interior part, a wall of air bricks revoked and painted, and also it was thought, in the whole locals, cross ventilation to make the maritime winds cool in the days of high temperature and to avoid using air conditioning system.The openings are made by aluminum; it was used open windows instead of sliding windows in order to avoid the accumulation of sand in the guides, and it was used double glass with air chamber to optimize the thermal insulation. The heating system, because of the fact that there is not natural gas in the zone, was resolved with a system that agreed salamander, bottle gas stove and electrical resistances. The whole interior septums are made by air-bricks revoked and painted with white latex. The bathrooms have ceramic facings in the walls which are not made by reinforced concrete. The floor is made by smooth cement divided by aluminum’s planks. The encounter between walls and floor was resolved with an aluminum profile as a socle. Furniture: It was design by the study; it is an agreed between immobile furniture made of concrete and mobile furniture made of recovered Canadian wood pine which comes from boxes of package’s engines. The table (resolved like a slab united to the septum which divides the kitchen and the living room), the closets, and the woodshed are made of concrete.

Welcome to House of the Nuns | Mário Martins Atelier HOUSES•LAGOS, PORTUGAL Architects: Mário Martins Atelier Area: 452 m² Year: 2020 Manufacturers: AutoDesk, BRUMA, Cortizo, Fassa Bortolo, Margres, Saint-Gobain, Sanindusa, Weber, Algarstone, Impermeabilizações, JJ Teixeira, Jdias Lead Architect: Mário Martins Project Team:André Coutinho; Mariana Franco; Rita Rocha; Sónia Fialho; José Furtado; Gonçalo Guimarães; So Yeon Lim; Thais Bressiani; Helder Lima Engineering:Nuno Grave Engenharia Landscape:F|C Arquitectura Paisagista Construction:Marques Antunes Engenharia City:Lagos Country:Portugal The house was built from scratch on the degraded space of a vehicle workshop. A new building appears behind a really massive, powerful wall that is more than a meter thick, guarding the memories of successive occupations and that now plays the role facing onto the street. The wall provides ancestral tranquility for the patio house, a common design in the surrounding area because of the long Moorish occupation. In a more reserved area, there are 4 bedrooms that open onto the garden. A central patio is a pivotal point for the entrances, a source of natural light and mainly a privileged zone for socializing outdoors. The way that was found to show the wall's character was through the contrasting lightness of the house, which hides and seeks shelter through the force of the wall. Therefore, large glass walls provide a tenuous frontier between the inside of the house and the garden patio, because all of this is the house. There are four bedrooms, a large lounge and kitchen, but there are also small, discreet patios and the large garden patio arranged around the pool. The bare concrete covers the few remaining walls to stress the sobriety of the building and articulate it with the grey finishes, as the stone of the pavements and the plaster coat of the ceilings. The rest is urban landscape, built over years and years of history in which this intervention will just be a mere passage. If it managed to add anything positive it is because the architecture is fulfilling its role.

Welcome To 2 Conesa Houses | BAK Arquitectos HOUSES•BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA Architects: Bak Arquitectos Year: 2013 Photographs: Daniela Mac Adden Collaborator:Leandro Pomies Text:María Victoria Besonías Architect In Charge:Bak Arquitectos Design Team:María Victoria Besonías, Luciano Kruk City:Buenos Aires Country:Argentina Did you collaborate on this project? The commission was proposed by members of two families who shared a narrow and deep lot in Colegiales, an area of the city of Buenos Aires which is changing as a result of the significant amount of multifamily housing built in recent years, but which still maintains certain neighborhood characteristics. The owners established both a program and maximum costs for each home as well as the location of each of the units in the lot: one in front and one behind, both with a courtyard and pool. The required materials and form were consistent with what we have defined in several of the houses built by the office: simple volumes of exposed concrete, with minimum maintenance over time, and generous openings to facilitate a smooth interior and exterior relationship. Another requirement was the need for the project to appear sufficiently closed to the public highway or to ensure the safety of both houses. In addition, the project should allow parking for at least four cars. The proposal was defined with the decision to release the ground floor of the first unit to allow a smooth passage to the back unit and allow for the required parking spaces. From this decision we designed a set of two houses that achieve independence from their location in plan and in section from their yards. Each house is designed in a compact volume of two levels to release as much ground as possible. The main rooms are oriented towards the back seeking the north and service spaces are designed toward the facade (in the case of the front unit) achieving the required opacity with respect to the street and, in the back unit, into the open space generated between the two built volumes. The built mass that determines each unit is perforated so that a small courtyard is is designed, providing double ventilation and lighting effects to all environments, introducing vegetation inside the house.

The Breathing Wall Residence | LIJO.RENY Architects HOUSES•THRISSUR, INDIA Architects : LIJO RENY architects Area : 2200 ft² Year : 2015 Photographs :Praveen Mohandas, Suneesh Suresh , LRa Structure : Rosmy, Keystone Engineers Interiors : LIJO.RENY.architects Landscape Design : LIJO.RENY.architects Design Team : Ar. Reny Lijo, Ar. Lijo Jos City : Thrissur Country : India It was difficult to know if it was day or night or for that matter rain or sunshine, while inside the client’s previous dingy home that stood on this site and they craved for a new lease of life! The plot was narrow with an equally tight public road to the west, a private road on the north, a house that abuts the boundary on the south and the client’s brother’s residence at the back. While designing within the possible, 6 x 16mts, foot print for the building, it was clear that a central ventilating volume was necessary to redeem the clients off their misery. The linear foot print was divided into two east-west bays of 3.3mts and 1.8mts each to which functional spaces were allocated in the possible logical order. The central volume thus achieved was assigned as a landscaped skylight atrium with a stair that connected the two blocks to the east and west. However as the north and south was open, it was necessary to find a solution for a ‘wall’ that was secure, robust, resistant to the harsh tropical weather, perforated to facilitate the much needed ventilation. The ‘Breathing wall’, in corten steel, became an aesthetically pleasing solution to all the functional issues posed by the situation. The design of this project was developed as a prototype for narrow plots. Though by the virtue of the site condition, minor opening have been provided on the south and north in this project, it is entirely possible to avoid the same and ventilate those areas by opening them into the central volume.

The House Within the Grid | LIJO RENY architects HOUSES, HOUSES INTERIORS•ANDATHODE, INDIA Architects: LIJO RENY architects Area : 811 m² Year : 2019 Photographs :Praveen Mohandas Manufacturers : BoConcept, Hansgrohe, Hafele, Legrand, Ligne Roset, Muuto, NATUZZI, Nitco Limited, Osram, Toto, Alfriday, Art, Berger Paints, Better Life, Blue Loft, Corvi, Defurn, EBCO, Englander, Fanzart, +16 Lead Architects : Reny Lijo, Lijo Jos Structural : Ummer P Hydru Door, Wardrobes And Other Carpentory Work : Karpento, P.A. Mani and 1000 kitchen Landscape : Unique Garden Decor, Naveen and Ragesh Lighting : Zion, Thrivandrum Interiors : LIJO.RENY.architects Landscape Concept : LIJO.RENY.architects Civil : Mohamed Pattabi, Siddeque, Siju Painting : Purushotham Architects : LIJO.RENY.architects, Thrissur, Kerala Client : Dr. Shammer and Family Electrical And Plumbing : Prof ismail Anodiyil Supervisor : Ummer, Manu Mani Flooring : K.N. Chandran Home Automation : Arcnet, Sapians Automation, Smak Enterprises Swimming Pool : French Pools Glass Supplier And Installation : Crystal-Thrissur and Suresh Steel Fabrication : Star Steels Metal Doors : Chemmanur Metals Solar Panels : Wukud Power Soft Furnishing : Art Legend- Calicut Water Treatment : Greenteck Site : 2114.32 sqm. (0.52 acres) Electrical : Prof ismail Anodiyil Plumbing : Prof ismail Anodiyil City : Andathode Country : India Located in a leafy neighborhood, ‘The House within the Grid’ sits on a slightly elevated plot accessed by a silent road.Designed for a doctor couple and their 4 children, based in Sharjah, this house was meant as a place for relaxation, rejuvenation and bonding during their frequent visits to Kerala. The sprawling house and its many rooms were designed to accommodate and entertain the family as well as several relatives and friends who may join them during such occasions. Eventually, as this house was meant to become their permanent home, it was designed as one than just a holiday home. The house is composed of 2 distinct parallel bays connected in between. Each of these bays consists of a set of defined functional areas and a linear circulation spine that dissolves into the parent room wherever possible. A mix of primary and secondary functions, with its two different room widths, creates a visible repetitive spatial pattern throughout the house. This project was an exercise in exploiting the spatial possibilities offered by the surprisingly flexible modular grid. Juxtaposing the rigorous but serene geometry of the house with the incoherent landscape of its site, a distinct spatial language evolved to become a subtle stage for the contemplative daily activities. One enters the house through a shaded sit-out area, trapped in an external courtyard, which connects itself to the formal sit-out to the left and the office space to the right.The single storied bay on the eastern side of the site, composed of undulating volumes, houses the public and semiprivate zone, such as the visitor’s lounge, formal living, common prayer area, dining, powder rooms, etc. towards the front and more private zone, like the kitchen, work area, kitchen court, utility, etc. towards the back. The double storied volume on the western side of the site houses the six bedrooms along with their attached toilets and a compact office space with a patio overlooking a shallow pool. This bay extends towards the north to house an open and a closed car porch, both accessible from the paved front yard. The two main bays were detached from each other to offer the bedroom block its much needed privacy. However, connecting these two bays, while strictly adhering to the grid configuration of the house, is a family/ space each on either of the floors. The staircase was positioned in this zone to make the circulation far more efficient. This central space, while creating an access between the main bays, becomes a casual lounging area encouraging communication between the family members. Two large courtyards trapped between the parallel bays to enhance the ventilation and the circulation in the project. The entry court towards the north acts as an extension of the sit-out. While the larger court towards the south, an extension of the ground floor family space and the dining, with a dining patio and a swimming pool becomes the much needed spill out space. The dense vegetation outside these courtyards contrasts with the sparse regimented landscape,placed within the grids of the house, to create an enjoyable medley.

Villa Courbe | SAOTA HOUSES, HOUSES INTERIORS•SWITZERLAND Architects: SAOTA Area : 3827 m² Year : 2018 Photographs :Adam Letch Manufacturers : Boffi, AAV Contractors, Art Kern, Cerutti Toitures, Gyger, Lardi, Xyloforme Architect of Record : SRA - KÖssler, Morel Architects HVAC Engineer : E.G.C. Chuard Ingénieurs Conseils SA Architect In Charge : SAOTA Design Team : Phillippe Fouché, Stefan Antoni, Greg Truen, Mias Claassens, Ayanda Ntsingana Interior Designer : Thierry Lemaire Civil Engineer : T. Ingénierie Facade Engineer : Bureau d'Ingénieur Fenêtres et Façades SA Landscape : Martin Paysage Country : Switzerland Just as its alpine setting has been formed by many forces over time, Villa Courbe is a residence shaped intuitively and alliteratively by many hands – from sun and topography to brief and local zoning regulations. Seen from the water, the house appears almost at one with the wooded hills that rise gently out of the lake and, at the same time, very different to the traditional suburbia that surrounds it. The need to respond to the topography that came before, drives the design to contrast with the neighboring houses that appeared only after the glaciers and ice had done their work. Entering the property from the street, the design negotiates the lakeside slope in a series of full width “slices” that contours across the wedge-shaped site. The first of these is a triple-storey light scoop that houses a gallery space and creates a threshold to the more private parts of the house beyond. Responding to a critical requirement of the brief, guests can circulate vertically down to a top-lit basement art space which opens up into an entertainment area. Functionally separated in the “slice” closest to the lake, the principle living rooms are on the Ground Floor – a sequence of dining, kitchen and family rooms are sheltered below an upper storey housing the bedrooms whilst a double-height living room noses towards the lake creating shelter from the cold north wind. Entry is on a mid-level below a suspended canopy that further parts the slices into two wings and, in doing so, opens up a view across the lake to the mountains beyond. Swooping down between these wings, a sculptural planted roof both echoes a distinctive fold in the distant alpine skyline and responds to prescriptions in the local zoning scheme. As fundamental as the sharp peaks and soft hills that characterize the views from the plot, sunlight, that precious commodity on the 46th parallel, is the other guiding hand which shapes the spaces and sculpts the forms. The site responds to its north-west orientation, and every effort was made to bring south light into the house. Carving the program into parallel “slices” exposes two south elevations. The first of these – at the entrance – is largely closed up with zinc cladding to provide privacy, but high-level clerestory windows scoop art-friendly light deep into the basement gallery. The fissure between the slices creates a generous and private south-facing courtyard in the center of the plan and this, in turn, has a light-well cored out into the basement below. The roof is punctured with strategically placed skylights whilst the impact of the summer sun is moderated by a laser-cut aluminium shading screen that follows the curves of the roof and plan and provides a datum for glazing and window treatment. The pool is also used as a sort of lightbox with a glass wall bouncing light into the basement. The result is a series of luminous spaces characterized by varying types of light – from soft art-friendly illumination that filters down to the basement gallery to the generous daylighting that suffuses the principle living spaces. Materials were chosen to respond to these bright spaces. Zinc-clad on the outside, the entrance appears robust and opaque; whilst within the deep light scoop, the basement areas are lined with white walls and ceilings. In the main living spaces, rich timber ceilings and natural stone walls combine to add warmth and texture. Black marble shot through with white veins, and limestone layered in horizontal bands, echo snow-clad peaks and sedimentary rocks, whilst front door and gates open up in Bond-like copper-clad clockwork. Concrete is also used in a variety of ways - from heavy board-formed panels in the entrance hall, to the monolithic curve of the pool cabana, to the curtain-like walls of the basement pool and spa which were cast using a proprietary elastic mould system. Triple glazing (some of it curved), solar water heating, geothermal heat pumps and an insulated, planted roof combine unobtrusively to raise the performance of the house to a level suited to its environment.

Mirai House of Arches | Sanjay Puri Architects HOUSES•BHILWARA, INDIA Architects: Sanjay Puri Architects Area : 920 m² Year : 2022 Photographs :Dinesh Mehta Manufacturers : Gessi, Siematic, Burberry Grey Marble, Flex Stone, Ledos, Modular Kitchen, Olie Living, Suco, The Wicker Story Lead Architects : Sanjay Puri , Nina Puri City : Bhilwara Country : India Designed on a small corner plot of 622 sqm within a residential villa layout, Mirai is a contextual house in response to the hot desert climate of Rajasthan, India. Based on the location, the southern & eastern sides have minimum open space with adjacent villas on those sides to be built in the future. The northern and western sides fronting a road junction have more open spaces with garden areas & existing trees. Planned for a family with 3 generations living together, the house has 3 levels with 4 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, a gym, and a study. Sectionally the heights within are varied with an interesting play of volumes in each part of the house, bedrooms of a single volume, dining area of a double volume & a living area of an intermediate 1.5 level volume. A curvilinear punctuated envelope surrounds the house creating interstitial semi-open spaces all along the perimeter with deeper recesses on the garden-facing sides. This envelope reduces the heat gain substantially whilst providing sheltered open spaces around the house to each room. Designed to mitigate heat gain in response to the hot avid climate of its location, this envelope keeps the entire house cool in the hot summer months with temperatures in excess of 40°C for 8 months of the year. This sculptural house is contextual to its surroundings, the climate & the owner's needs creating an interesting play of volumes, open enclosed & semi-enclosed spaces at every level. The design creates energy-efficient spaces with reduced heat gain & indirect natural light in each part of the house. Built of locally sourced bricks, sandstone & lime plaster with local craftsmen & contract labor from the immediate vicinity, water recycling, rainwater harvesting & solar panels for energy generation. The house is built sustainably & is climate responsive.

Welcome To Aqua Grid House | Mindspace HOUSES, HOUSE INTERIORS•PUNE, INDIA Architects: Mindspace Area: 14500 ft² Year: 2020 Photographs: Hemanth Patil Manufacturers: AIS, Greenlam, Nolte, Porta Finestra Landscape Designer: Ravi & Varsha Gavandi Landscape Architects Electrical Consultant: Abhiyanta Consulting Engineers LLP Lighting Designer: Light Vista Interior Design: Mindspace HVAC Consultant: R.S.Kulkarni HVACR Consultant Structural Consultants: Rays Consulting Engineers MEP Consultant: UNICORN M.E.P Consultants Private Limited Architect In Charge:Mindspace Design Team:Sanjay Mohe, Yatindra Patil, Mira Interior Design Team:Amit Swain, Hithesh Thamkane, Gladson Daniel PMC:Kalpesh Hojage, Sagar Pandit Pool Consultant:Viraj Envirozing India Private Limited Project Management Consultancy:Kalpesh Hojage, Sagar Pandit City:Pune Country:India Did you collaborate on this project? This house is located in a quiet neighborhood in Pune. Abutted by two roads lined with large banyan trees, the site had an existing art-deco house, set amidst large trees. The program was to demolish the old house and construct a new one. The idea was to preserve most of the trees; hence the new house predominantly occupied the area of the existing house and started responding to the surrounding trees. The presence of nature around was so strong that indoor and outdoor got integrated effortlessly, almost every room opening in three directions and connecting with the trees all around. A cobbled arrival courtyard with blank wall as a backdrop creates a layer of privacy. The journey into the house starts from this court and is directed by series of water courts which culminate into the swimming pool nestled behind the blank wall of the arrival court. The entire house sits around these water bodies which are edged with rough granite stone steps, reminiscent of temple tanks. It starts from the deck next to the dining on the east, goes through the house, comes out on the other side under the trees and then joins the pool. In the process it creates a strong link with all the interactive zones of the house which are connected yet have their own space, defined through level differences, varying volumes and water bodies. Reflection of the skylight and tree foliage in to water adds a different dimension to the experience. Every single room, either on ground or on the first floor has an outdoor connect in the form of a veranda or a deck, linking shade under the veranda and the shade under the foliage. Material pallet revolves around beige colored rough Granite on the walls, black floors and wood as accent for bedroom floors, doors and skylight. Lawn towards the south, edged by huge Banyan trees, is designed for entertaining a larger group. Power is generated through P.V. panels that also create insulating layer of shade on the roof.

Tramonto Residence | ShubinDonaldson HOUSES•LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES Architects: ShubinDonaldson Area: 18700 ft² Year: 2018 Photographs: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG Photography Manufacturers: Ecosense, FSB Franz Schneider Brakel, Lucifer Lighting, Miele, Subzero/Wolf, Dombracht, International Flooring, Magni Home Collection Lead Architects: Russell Shubin - AIA, Robin Donaldson - AIA, Bradford Kelley General Contractor: Winters-Schram Associates Landscape: AHBE Landscape Architects, Calvin Abe Civil Engineering: Fuscoe Engineering Lighting Consultants: HLB Lighting Design Structural Engineering: John Labib & Associates Interior Design: Magni Kalman Design Acoustical: Newson Brown Acoustics LLC MEP: Vision Mechanical Services Clients:Stonemark Construction Management Audiovisual:Audio Command Systems Woodwork:Miller Woodworking City:Los Angeles Country:United States Nestled in the Pacific Palisades foothills, the Tramonto Residence is a contemporary single-family home which integrates the natural beauty of an adjacent state park. The placement of the home captures vistas overlooking the canyon, the surrounding Santa Monica Mountains, and the California coastline meeting the Pacific Ocean. The diffusion of the built form defines the approach for this 17,000 sqft home into the surrounding landscape. The two-acre site embraces steep topography and contends with the context to inform the building’s siting and orientation. Each portion of the home is terraced into the natural contours of the hillside, breaking up the overall building mass while using its sub-grade structure to reinforce the hillside. The program consists of two principal masses terracing with the natural contours of the site defined by a limited material palette of limestone, high-performance glazing, and dark ipe wood. Tramonto’s design appropriates two open terraces, one outward semi-public and another inward and private. A feature stair triangulates the circulation around a reflecting pool leading to a mezzanine and bridge mirroring the sculpted assembly and balancing the dialogue with the building’s geometry. Tramonto Residence negotiates the challenging topography through defined massing and a natural, elegant material palette. The design of the residence exemplifies the principles of indoor/outdoor living afforded by embracing the temperate climate and natural beauty of the landscape and surrounding coastal bluffs.

LILITH House | DCDSAA Architecture Office STORE•SHANGHAI, CHINA Architects: DCDSAA Architecture Office Area: 350 m² Year: 2021 Photographs: Qingshan Wu Manufacturers: Nippon Paint, NVC Lighting, Shanghai Yi Die Horticulture Lead Architect: Hao Wang Interior Design: DCDSAA Architecture Office Landscape Design: DCDSAA Architecture Office Construction Unit: Shanghai DCDSAA Architectural Design Co. Ltd. Design Team:Zhengliang Yuan, Chao Tang and Bingkun Yan Owner:LILITH City:Shanghai Country:China DCDSAA Architectural Design Office has completed a very important architectural planning and design project in Shanghai this year- Lilith House (Cat House Garden); Architects hope to build a harmonious relationship among architecture, courtyard, and nature through minimalist geometric deconstruction and calm symmetry. "Architecture is an open natural relationship with rhythm and clear facade. Mr. Wang Hao, the presiding architect of DCDSAA Architecture Office, said: "Rigorous planning and design, thanks to our in-depth study and discussion of future architecture, is an open private space with a sense of ceremony. Architecture is connected with courtyard and the interaction between them creates unique experience fun.” In Yunjian Granary Cultural and Creative Park, Songjiang, Shanghai, there are a group of old granary buildings with a long history, which are located on the banks of the people's river. As an original granary land, the mission of this location is to create a harmonious symbiosis with the surrounding landscape and become a part of the site-building. The inclined special-shaped frame of the entrance floating BOX is used, and the interesting upper and lower façades are formed. The façades are designed with large floor-to-ceiling glass. The three-dimensional structure of each BOX echoes the waterscape of the outside garden like a sculpture, creating the fluidity of the space. The whole indoor beige minimalist structure design, the semi- circular sinking leisure experience space has beautiful lines and sense of body, the tolerance and width of natural lighting, and more interaction and contrast between light and buildings. After the space has the natural attribute of light, it is full of the contrast between fantasy and reality, and it is endowed with the pure modern temperament like an architectural art museum. The rich and varied landscape environment creates diversified interesting experiences for the building. Each open space in the room not only provides people with an excellent vision but also closely connects the outdoor space with the independent indoor space. In the design of the site and the building, the changes of scale and storey height are skillfully used, which form a rich volume contrast relationship and create a unique space and visual experience. Each symmetrical direction of BOX lighting is a pure form of architecture, which leads the space to a more intriguing artistic direction, and also leads to the "natural attribute" of architecture, thus creating a natural feeling of visibility and satisfying our pursuit of experience quality and ideal. The patchwork appearance and posture create a series of continuous landscape scenes. The public space in the building is organized around the outdoor garden platform, and the boundary between indoor and outdoor becomes smart because of these gardens. The overall planning consists of two small buildings, and an outdoor punch-in terrace is formed in the upper part of the building. The terrace is planted with green vegetation, just like a hanging garden, floating above the site and the riverbank, creating a natural and harmonious indoor and outdoor atmosphere. The two-story sky garden structure floats on the first floor, forming a wonderful floating posture; Interact with the waterscape below, and the overall facade of the second floor shows various shapes, sometimes delicate and sometimes quiet, which can create a natural, soft, beautiful and smart picture for the space, and become a beautiful photoshop viewing platform. In addition, the architectural design of another cat house adopts the upper and lower floors of open-ended integration design, with large areas of glass and transparency, emphasizing the comfort of space, following the light and nature. The unconscious harmonious relationship between cats and nature is the best expression of "unconscious architecture". In the rear area of the building, the inward outdoor garden is the most exciting realm to create inner silence. The inner courtyard echoes the natural waterscape to show the beautiful garden and modern poetry.

Six Ramsgate | Wallflower Architecture + Design HOUSES•SINGAPORE Architects: Wallflower Architecture + Design Area: 1200 m² Year: 2009 The client's desire for the home to have a perception of substantial private space has resulted in the development of a spatial program that internalizes spaces such as pools and gardens normally regarded as external to the envelope of the house. By zoning spaces such as the bedrooms and servants' quarters on alternative levels, i.e. 2nd storey and basement levels, the ground plane is freed from walls that would have been required if public and private programs were interlaced on the same plane. The site is approximately 25m wide by 48m deep, and because of the intermingling of internal gardens and column- free vistas, there is a continuous and unbroken visual depth of 40m that ties together the entrance foyer, swimming pool, formal living area, internal garden court and formal dining areas. These are perceived to be within the built enclosure of the house, yet a very obvious public to private hierarchy assists in the intangible zoning and spatial orientation within the house. This is simply achieved by classical use of symmetry, with important areas axial to the center line of the house, and with increasingly private space implied by the distance from the main entrance. The environmental transparencies at ground level and between courtyards are important in passively cooling the house. All the courtyards have differing material finishes and therefore differing heat gain and latency (water, grass, water, granite). As long as there are temperature differences between courtyards, the living, dining, and pool house become conduits for breezes that move in between the courtyards, very much like how land and sea breezes are generated. The use of thick masonry walls on either side of the house keep temperature gradients small within the house and also act as enormous ‘ducting' in guiding air currents between courtyards. At the second storey, solid hardwood louvers that can be adjusted by hand allow the desired amount of breeze and sunlight to filter through. And at the 1st storey, substantial trellising minimize sun entry into habitable areas. The planning strategy releases substantial volumes of perceptual as well as tangible space that is normally not experienced if traditional architectural space planning norms are not reinterpreted in our local context. Environmentally, the contiguous and interconnected space encourage the slightest breezes, whether they are prevailing and therefore air-movement is horizontal, or convectionally circulated, which the courtyards help generate. For the owner, it is the experiential serenity that unencumbered space, a gentle breeze, dappled sunlight and the hush of water rippling on a pond that is priceless in our dense and busy urbanscape.