The defining concept for this house, commissioned by a photographer as both his summer house and studio, was based on developed facade studies which define a simple and smooth building skin varied in height and punctured by openings.
Two volumes define the main living & work spaces, both converge to the North corner freeing up as much space as possible on this small lot and turning all window openings to face South and West. The main space is compressed at the entry and releases up towards the landscape, the fan shaped plan gradually provides more floor area, volume and light. The second volume is exclusively dedicated to the owner’s studio. All rooms and bathrooms are reduced to a bare minimum and provide maximum surface area to living and work spaces.
House QM answers the building regulations in a different and “twisted” way.
House QM is situated in a new allotment that exists out of square plots of the same size, with the same building regulations; houses must recoil 5m of every side of the terrain, have 2 levels and must have a flat or sloped roof.
The house located in the 30 000 populated town in 150 km from Moscow. Private houses area in such places is highly diversified. There are absent any rules or limitations, one street can be place for houses build from trash and 3-storey height brick castle from 90-s. Surroundings full of “architecture without architects”, everything is always in process: if you need new room you construct it, without any project and with material you have for the moment. Belongings are divided by different generations and woodcarving neighbour with their plastic luxury. How to work with this diversified and often revolting surroundings?
The new single-family house was designed as a separate residential unit and can hold its own next to the existing building from the 80s. It is situated on a partly raised plateau in the south-eastern part of the property. The two buildings differ in their roof design and thus emphasize their autonomy. At the same time, the new building paraphrases the existing building’s design: by its polygonal ground plan, which follows the hill’s shape, and expressive cantilevered floors. Wood was used a material to contrast the rather heavy sand-lime brick of the existing structure. Hierarchically, the new building is supposed to subordinate to the existing building and is therefore set slightly to the rear of the site. The new structure appears like a pavilion and, thanks to the flat roof, has a large accessible roof terrace that expands the small plot effectively. The greening of the roofs is intended to give the new building an animated character and link it with nature and the hill.
Flanked between the koi pond and the swimming pool, the double volume courtyard – a fulcrum to the house, was introduced to break the monotony of spaces in this linear house. Horizontal and vertical movements are endless and ample daylight floods the key living spaces. A 3-storey high feature steel staircase floats above the koi pond, with a vertical feature wall of black river pebbles as its backdrop. A slim bridge suspends over the courtyard and ties the front and rear wings of the house.
How to create a new house for twelve families that share the same site but different services? This project aims at redefining the concept of private domestic space within a collective structure. In a 400 square meter rectangular site, the building has three levels, plus one subterranean parking level with service areas and storage rooms. Each level has four apartments, with variations in each apartment, depending on different interior heights and views from the balconies in each room. The rooftop offers four terraces, each belonging to one of the duplex apartments in the last floor.
The brief required a large contemporary family house that would take advantage of the lovely views over the fields and the Solent beyond.
The site lies within an Area of Special Character that is made up of predominantly traditional pitched roof houses, so the design of the new house had to mediate between the clients’ desire for a contemporary house and the planners’ requirements for a pitched roof form. The design also had to appear modest from the front to respect the 2-storey properties either side.
‘A classic and well-judged representation of Architectural Beauty’
The Jurors expressed the view that the Modern Mansion appeared to be a platonic and archetypically beautiful house with a clear presence in the landscape. It represents a simple solution to structuring the requirements of the family, whilst tailoring a response to their specific likes, dislikes and needs.
We’ve featured Dwell Development a number of times for its forward-thinking, green homes. Now, however, it has upped the ante with the completion of a 42-home sustainable micro-community. The houses at New Rainier Vista all boast unique designs and have been built with the potential for net zero-energy living.
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