Jenchieh Hung and Kulthida Songkittipakdee’s own home and studio space is a careful redesign of an existing structure in a residential suburb of Bangkok. Passive cooling through shading, insulation and natural ventilation plays a big part in managing the house’s energy consumption. Inside, local building techniques, crafts and materials, such as stone and marble, were used to enhance the building’s relationship with its locale, as well as support the region’s economy. The home’s seemingly austere, orthogonal appearance is balanced by a pergola which, wrapped in leafy climbing plants, offers an organic spatial juxtaposition. This way, it sits harmoniously in its setting, at home in the region’s traditional architecture as well as topological characteristics. ‘A hybrid between a building and an earthwork, deciding what to reveal and what to hide underground was a balancing act between the human experience, and environmental and cultural preservation,’ says the architect. The house’s main, clean and white volume was designed to bring to mind a retaining wall – a common feature across the Greek islands.
Appearing monolithic and abstractly sculptural at first glance, as well as relatively small, due to clever design and hidden, underground areas, this is in fact a generous structure, containing a rather large programme: the main house and a guest house (seven bedrooms in total), two pools, generous exterior areas, and substantial auxiliary spaces. Located in the idyllic, compact island of Antiparos, the house offers a contemporary take on housing in the Cycladic archipelago. Its setting between two gorges (‘avlakia’, in Greek) helped inspire this house’s name. The glass ceiling, with a wide bench beneath, offers a chance to stare up at the sky no matter the weather while large sliding glass doors span the extension’s width, allowing the space to open to a natural breeze, and welcoming natural light throughout the day. Perhaps this home’s most prominent feature is its visual exposure to the elements. The angled top edge of another joinery element showcases Ghorbanalinejad’s attention to detail and skill in granting personality to each detail within a space. Meanwhile, a nearby timber partition showcases Ghorbanalinejad’s craft- and simplicity-driven style. Gentle colour tones throughout complement the original light grey concrete of the outside patio, and a matching concrete finish on the interior flooring creates continuity between new and existing elements.
A box sitting under a skylight, for example, adds nook-style seating and storage to maximise the room’s potential.
In doing this, wires and pipes were left in place and clever bespoke joinery now artfully hides these elements of the building’s original infrastructure. Aiming to keep construction times to a minimum, the architect crafted the extension to the existing building without doing any structural work on the original house. Tasked with adding a 20 sq m ground floor extension to a recently renovated three-floor home in Nanterre, Saba Ghorbanalinejad’s studio created a soft, minimalist space brimming with light and personality.
0 kommentar(er)
