A View With A Home.

PROJECT:     Germann House
DESIGN:        Marte.Marte Architects
LOCATION:   Feldkirch, Austria
DATE:             2008

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Approaching the house, it seems monolithic, almost hermetic. Two incisions divide the building, which sits prominently on a relatively level hill, guide guests to a small entrance niche and offer a view of the introverted courtyard to the north. The hard shell opens up towards the valley and the south side, and the extensive glazing reveals the scenery and mountain panorama. The terrace faces the pond and small integrated stream, which blend in with their natural surroundings, lends the courtyard a sense of an open air living room and connects the entrance floor to the grounds via a ramp.

The main functional areas are arranged in flowing spatial transitions from the garage to the master bedroom, and from the studio style kitchen to the living/dining room. Due to the diagonals and axes, the visual relationships amaze and suggest size and expanse. On the lower level, the rooms are compact and more defined. Children’s rooms, a study, a utility room, a bathroom, a sauna and a music room round off the range of rooms

Materialisation and detail reveal elegant restraint. The smooth exposed concrete surfaces find their counterpart in the interior in the tactile and optical softness of the white pine floors, built-in furniture and walls. The character of the house turns out to be bright, inviting and almost homey. Windows and doors in white aluminium bring robustness into play and add to the powerful appearance of the concrete. 
  
The structure with its notches and recesses sits on the hill like a meteor that has just landed. The adjacent litter meadow embraces the natural bathing pond and brings the cultivated green zone right up to the house. An unpretentious bathhouse built on the foundation of a small barn is an additional atmospheric and useful link to the surrounding agricultural. 

Oh Is That Lambo?

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: 
KRE House designed by Takuya Tsuchida is located in the posh Shirokane area of Tokyo. In case you wonder who owns so many cars in the middle of Tokyo: the client of this 9 car garage house, who is in his 40s, runs a clothing and restaurant business. Cheers to the Lamborghini Countach Anniversary edition.


Site Area: 2,108 square feet (195.84㎡)
Construction Area: 1,249 square feet (116.00㎡)
Total Floor Area: 3,560 square feet (330.73㎡)

  

Between The Lines.

PROJECT:    Freshwater House
DESIGN:       Chenchow Little
LOCATION:  Sydney, Australia
DATE:            2008

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: 
The Freshwater House developed the idea of the operable façade to mediate between the requirements for privacy and shading on a relatively public site adjacent to the beach.  The resulting building is made up of three distinct parts; a podium base, a garden/ living space, and a bedroom volume clad with operable screens; each designed with unique spatial and material qualities.

The basement podium level is introverted and enclosed, concealing a deeply recessed entry vestibule and garage within the natural topography of the site. The podium is clad with vertical weathered timber battens, which wrap around the entire level and extend to the ground floor, to form a balustrade at the periphery of the site. The timber battens of the balustrade are angled on each façade to allow direct views to the beach below. 
  
The living level on top of the podium is open and expansive, in contrast to the contained basement foyer below. Sandwiched between the upper and lower volumes, the living space is almost without definition. This level is conceived as one fluid horizontal landscaped space, taking in the whole area of the site and connected visually to the landscaped areas below and above the site. 
  
The top bedroom level floats above the landscaped living level and is veiled with custom- made external bi-folding shutters anodised dark bronze. The shutters are constructed of vertical battens to maintain views to the beach below. The shutters provide privacy, enclosure and dappled light to this level. The detailing of the shutters is purposefully simple such that the building reads as an abstract sculptural form in the landscape when viewed from the beach. When the shutters are open the appearance of the building, and the experience of the interior, transforms. The client’s occupation of the dwelling registers in the operable facade of the building.