This is a small house with a total floor area of 50 square meters in a densely populated area in Tokyo. As the surrounding houses close in, we set back the outer wall and lowered the roof as if to counter the smallness of the house. It is a home that comes with a small outdoor space that is not exactly a roof terrace, but is designed to have no specific function.
The client, a couple in their 40’s, got hold of this land and requested to build a house for two. However, it is not to be a permanent residence, but a temporary abode that would accommodate their near-future plan to return to the countryside where their parents live, and possibly give up this Tokyo residence. While the couple are both full-time workers, they also like to enjoy such things as going to the public bath and eating out often. They wanted an open and compact house that is designed to take advantage of the city life.
The Rice Barn House design is largely driven by responding to the site’s environmental condition and by embracing the inherited local construction methodology. Our approach seeks to fuse Indonesia’s vernacular architecture with contemporary building technology to accommodate today’s living lifestyle. Thus, we incorporated traditionalism by using distinct cultural form typologies, synthetized with modern materiality selections.
After acquiring a 592 sq/m site on one of the most characteristic avenues in the city of Oporto, the clients approached us with the intention of designing a collective housing building for the upper middle class, with two basic premises: the valorization of the site, and that all apartments be complemented with generous terraces. As always, and understanding that architecture is part of an economic and social mechanism bigger than itself, we sought to develop a timeless building that would add value to the site and ensure the highest possible economic profitability. Considering that all architectural interventions express themselves as cells belonging to a larger organism, and as such, depend on a good synergic relationship with their surroundings, we proceeded to the analysis of the site’s constraints.
Songlou is located in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, China’s Tao Capital: Yixing. The surrounding natural environment is very superior. It is located in the Longchi Mountain Scenic Area in the scenic Yangxian Tourism Resort. Not only is the base surrounded by lush bamboo forests, but you can also see the farmland and the temple in the mountain.
“Chamfer house stealthily integrates a first-floor addition to an existing federation style semi-detached dwelling located in Sydney’s inner-west. The ‘chamfer’ was inspired by the 45deg geometry of the existing tiled roof and allows the building to minimise its presence to the streetscape whilst maximising its orientation to take advantage of summer and winter sun angles. On the lower level, the ‘pop-up’ window over the kitchen and dining zones cleverly frames a view to a mature and very present tree canopy in the rear courtyard. A double height void serves as a central internal connecting device, providing much needed light to the living, kitchen and dining zones below.
In the south of Toulouse, in the Empalot district, 90 housing units for sale and 20 social housing units are located in two volumes, a vertical one: «the belvedere», and a horizontal one: «the prairie building», sliding against each other and showing light facades with sun protections and generous balconies.
Selva Alegre was created to take inspiration from the surrounding environment, the Andes Mountains in Ecuador. This wooden house is located away from the city, in an open landscape ideal for a retreat space. The idea was to make a house that would be unified conceptually and visually with the surrounding natural scenery. The dwelling sits at one end of the lot, near the edge of a creek, allowing uninterrupted visuals throughout the project. The strategy was to leave the ground floor as open as possible and the programmatic divisions clear, so that the design resembles that of a typical “hacienda house” but with a modern twist. We wanted to reinvent the user experience of these centuries old weekend escapes, a typology that has historically dominated the mountainous landscapes from Colombia to Peru. Our concept was to return to the roots of the hacienda in terms of form and material. Bring back the use of wood, stone and clay but with a contemporary mindset, one that felt light and airy. This strategy resulted conceptually in a continuous wavy blanket which gently protects the program below it.
July 2021 – A young family was searching for a home in their favorite Seattle neighborhood when they stumbled upon a quaint bungalow with a unique history: an original houseboat that had been relocated to land during the early 20th century. Nestled in Seattle’s Madison Park neighborhood one block from Lake Washington, the quaint Boathouse Bungalow checked every box for homeowners Justin and Dean in their pursuit of the perfect place to raise their daughter.
The Cookillage Apartment was designed by the Studio Insayn Design Society based on the open concept inspired by the landscape and atmosphere of the beach, in order to promote the daylight into the spaces and the fresh feeling of the sea.
This project was created for a young and very special client and her baby on the way, excited to have her apartment adapted to her needs and those of her baby too. Cookillage was designed according to her personality discovered after some meetings together and filled questionnaires.
The defining conditions of Villa Hovås is an extraordinary view and a distinct idea of the organization of daily life.
The response is a two-story house where two contrasting plan layouts and an expressive play of volumes, openings and slatted facade screens creates a special relationship to the surrounding world.
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