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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. Ant Farm House in Taipei, Taiwan by XRANGEJuly 5th, 2017 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: XRANGE Xrange wraps a new layer of 80- 177cm wide by 7m high living spaces around an existing indigenous stone house to create an “extreme” new house of outrageous living proportion. The newly added programs of pantry, bar, study, library, dog house and bathrooms are new “rooms” averaging about 4m2 in footprint, but with soaring 7m headroom. The new house becomes a sequence of small narrow vertical spaces that interlock like the spaces within an ant colony.  Image Courtesy © Scott Morgan
 Image Courtesy © XRANGE The form strategy creates a “found interior” for the new house from the “internalized exterior” of the old house. New usages are assigned to the original window, door and air conditioner openings, transforming them into actual exterior windows, interior windows, doorways or display cubby holes depending on their location and orientation. Views of surrounding mountains and the city below are revealed through the overlapping of new/external and old/internal windows. The resultant irregularity gives an unexpected spatial signature to the house.  Image Courtesy © Scott Morgan  Image Courtesy © Scott Morgan Constructed out of two steel box-frames attaching onto the front and back of the old rusticated stone house, the new house also act as a lateral structural reinforcement as well as its privacy screen wall. The design concept also works to reinforce the lateral structural stability of the old rubble walls built entirely from the stacking of 40cm thick rough granite blocks with poor seismic performance.  Image Courtesy © Scott Morgan  Image Courtesy © Scott Morgan Within the old stone walls, the den- a built-in 9m2 upholstered crib nick-named the “ashtray”- is a favorite party hang out that turns into a movie tray once the black and green leather panels between the living room and the den are drawn.  Image Courtesy © Scott Morgan  Image Courtesy © Scott Morgan The 3m2 study is accessed through a set of 7m tall “cross-hatched” wooden doors with authentic Porsche GT3 exhaust pipes as door handles. Inside this soaring reading space with an entirely upholstered “floor”, there is a work desk and tall transparent Perspex shelves for books and artifacts display. On the edge of the study are rubber seats that open onto the foyer bar which serves as the main connection space of the house. The foyer bar opens onto a generous deck outside, a third of which is actually a giant operable roof for the 5-car garage below.  Image Courtesy © Scott Morgan  Image Courtesy © Scott Morgan The new 4.5 m2 bathroom with an outrageous dimension of 80cm(w) x 550cm(l) x 700cm(h) holds a guest bathroom (1F) and the master shower and tub (2F). The master bath tub is integrated with the wood lining that wraps the entire bathroom section which also extends out onto the 2F balcony decking. Within this continuous flow of wood hangs the tinted glass box of the master shower. Above head is a sliver of glass ceiling that creates a seemingly outdoor yet surreal bathing experience suspended in space.  Image Courtesy © Ruen Wei-Min  Image Courtesy © Scott Morgan The ant farm house is a multitude of intricate living spaces carved out between the old and the new houses with a simple and uncluttered clarity that is intentionally kept understated and raw. The exuberant spatial irregularity of the new narrow living spaces resulted in an intimate and modest dwelling without any of the expected convention for luxury.  Image Courtesy © Scott Morgan  Image Courtesy © XRANGE About xrange xrange, based in Taipei, Taiwan, is a multi-disciplinary office founded by architect Grace Cheung and industrial/interactive designer Royce YC Hong in 2003. Combining strategic consulting and creative services, the work of xrange encompasses masterplan, architecture, environments, products and concepts. Operating between the largest (+) and the smallest (-) of project scales, xrange consolidates aspects of business, technology, culture and design into an award winning body of work with a unique Asian point of view.
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Categories: 3dS Max, Autocad, House, Residential |
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