The site is located in a picturesque valley in the northern part of Italy, in the Lombard Prealps, somewhere in between the cities of Bergamo and Brescia. This location was chosen specifically in the province of Solto Collina, as it offers the best views of Lake Iseo, mountain landscapes, walnut trees and Franciacorta vineyards. A permanent residence for a large family occupies two floors and a total area of 1150 sq.m. on a relief plot of 0.5 hectares. The symbiosis of exterior and interior environment, the harmony of architecture and nature allow you to live consciously. Safety and comfort are expressed in ageless natural materials, personalised layouts, smart engineering systems, minimalistic landscape design and sustainable interior. Snow-white architectural concrete, teak, natural chipped stone and metal serve as facade materials. The unfolding silhouette is achieved with a help of frameless glazing – the roof line creates a single horizon. Airiness is created due to the contrasting combination of glass and wood volumes. The plasticity of the roof (it is slightly curved in the middle) repeats the motifs of the mountain landscape.
Construction work continues on Mulberry Grove Villas, an integral part of The Forestias masterplan, which is situated on the outskirts of Bangkok. The masterplan has been designed by Foster + Partners, through its local entity F&P (Thailand) Ltd.
Inspired by traditional courtyard houses, the Mulberry Grove Villas development combines flexibility and transparency to create a residential typology that is designed for Thai society. The timber clubhouse and three of the villas are now complete. Another five residences will be finalised later this summer, marking the end of the development’s first phase.
This 1400 m2 high-end freestanding villa in Tehran is built against a mountainside, with a garden that is raised 17 meters above street level. The facade is cladded with natural travertine stone: a famous high quality local product collected from the Iranian mountains. The wish of the owners to park their cars underground, resulted in a 20 meter long tunnel below the garden, leading towards the parking underneath the villa.
Being surrounded by water. A stunning view of the Mediterranean Sea. The residents of this villa enjoy a maximum holiday experience in their holiday villa. In the long-term they could even transform their holiday home into a place to settle down and grow old happily ever after.
To guarantee a certain level of privacy for the owners, the street side facade looks rather aloof. After opening the door in the wall, the visitor would expect a continuation of the defensive atmosphere, but the effect of inversion is astonishing. From that moment on it surprises you everytime. After the first surprising element – the stepping stones in the water – you enter complete spatial openness. A transparent look is created by applying glass and long sight lines. The water and its reflection in different locations enhance this effect.
The plot, an island located in the southwest archipelago, inspires with its precious and sensitive nature, it’s exposed cliffs and wild vegetation. Determined to lose as little as possible, the building volume is carefully divided into a series of dwellings propped on stilts along a trail, bridged together with terraces. The building is more a weaving wall reaching across the site, embracing and drawing the landscape into itself.
This project is the very first “rammed earth” implementation in Costa Rica. We completely used clay soil from the excavations for the construction of all perimeter bearing walls.
Near Uvita town, on a plot of 11,000 square meters at a height of 300 m above the sea, I designed two small villas on a hill overgrown with a jungle. Both villas, partly levitating above the steep southern slope, are designed for short-term recreational rentals. The built-up area of each of them is 90 m2.
Villa DLM is part of a small site in a residential neighbourhood. It is a rational and introverted house, whose apparent privacy dissolves in the internal courtyard towards the garden.
The project idea is the composition of three simple volumes, which modulates the spaces of domestic life and establishes direct connections between the parts. Two parallelepipeds are arranged perpendicular to each other to form an L open towards the garden, the third stands on top of the previous ones maintaining its formal autonomy.
The expressive nature of this three-story house is designed in a continuous movement that suggests, between its different rooms, a walkway from where to explore the landscape that expands in front of it.
Project Team: Fran Silvestre, Andrea Raga, David Cirocchi, Miguel Massa
Architect Partner: Manuel Suárez Arquitectos
Collaborators: María Masià, Pablo Camarasa, Ricardo Candela, Estefanía Soriano, Sevak Asatrián, Carlos Lucas, Jose Manuel Arnao, Andrea Baldo, Miguel Massa, Paloma Feng, Javi Herrero, Gino Brollo, Angelo Brollo, Paco Chinesta, Anna Alfanjarín, Laura Bueno, Toni Cremades, David Cirocchi, Gabriela Schinzel, Lucas Manuel, Nuria Doménech, Andrea Raga, Olga Martín, Valeria Fernandini, Víctor González, Sandra Insa, Gemma Aparicio, Ana de Pablo, Sara Atienza, Andrés Martínez
The project is located in a residential area in North Casablanca on a plot of 1000 sqm. The builtable area was spanning over a rectangle of 20×15. The client who is an artist wanted to have a house with curves, sensual lines, thin but yet discreet, protective without being stifling and many other constraints that defined the house’s architectural approach.
Villa Salam is projected on a north-south orientated plot, in a residential neighborhood in Casablanca. The house is attached to another one on the east side. The plot benefits from a sea view on the north side. The main concept is to have an open, transparent and fluid sense of the space, while maintaining the required privacy, in particular for the service spaces. Thus, the plan is organized around a kind of spine, patella which are the straight stairs.