Q House - Asensio Mah + J.M.Aguirre Aldaz

The house is a conscious exercise in developing an alternative domestic environment to the surrounding villas of the new suburban neighborhood. The solutions for the development so far have typically been compact villas located on abruptly leveled gardens, irrespective of the complex topographical condition of their sites.

Our ambition for producing an alternative domestic atmosphere is developed by constructing a more explicit relationship between the house and garden with the existing conditions of the steep site.

This organizational strategy for the house sought to register the difference in topography within the parcel by organizing a series of terraces that configure the framework for a landscape with differentiated characters. This deliberate geometric configuration affords multiple readings of the outline of the house while facilitating a rich experiential lifestyle within its volume and landscape. Specific organizational and material strategies were developed to produce different volumetric and perceptual readings that change with the different vantage points towards and within the house.

The building is organized in three bands that are arranged around a central circulation core. These three bands maintain a prevailing orientation in the northeast-southwest direction to secure maximum daylight in every room.

While the bands configure and organize the different rooms, the circulation core underpins a switchback pattern of shifting orientations with the gradual vertical movement through the house.

The house is clad in dark “composite” panels that have been customized with digital fabrication techniques. These customized panels are used to articulate sections of the house volume in order to introduce legibility to the overall form. These panels offer a range of different surface consistencies and patterns to the house that reflect the sites changing light conditions in multiple ways, producing an ever changing range of texture and tones.

Architects: asensio_mah J.M.Aguirre Aldaz

Location: North of Spain
Project team: Diego Repiso, Jennifer Chuong, Kaizen Chen, Jon Aguirre
Construction managment: In collaboration with Satie Arquitectos S.L.
Structure: Egitur S.L
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Ricardo Loureiro

Riverhouse - Zerafa Studio

The principal feature of the 1.85 acre site fronting the Niagara River just upstream from the Horseshoe Falls is the long unobstructed river views across the full 164 ft width of the property.

The 4700 sq.ft of interior living space and 1200 sq.ft of covered terrace were crafted to embrace this feature and find a balance between the relative transparency encouraged by the views and the privacy concerns of the owners.

The house is comprised of three distinct horizontal volumes. The building’s north south massing is defined by 2 overlaid rectangular shells within which the glass, cedar and granite clad volumes for the interior living spaces are placed and a series of voids create covered exterior terraces.

The shells are clad in silver metal panel and are mostly opaque to provide privacy from adjacent properties to the north and south. The open east and west ends of the shells reveal the River and garden views. All exposed interior surfaces of the shells are lined with t&g cedar siding to provide a warm interior transitional environment. The ground floor shell floats 3 ft above the ground elevation to accommodate the long horizontal views to the River across the primarily flat site and give the building a delicate footprint in the landscape.

The upper level shell is offset from the one below to create an exposed roof terrace to the north and a dramatic 17 ft cantilever to the south. The large cantilevered volume creates a covered entry to the garage area. The third volume clad in charcoal quartzite is a single story shell that slips under to support the cantilever and extends west into the rear garden.

The ground floor is comprised of two primary program groups separated by an east west glazed circulation space that bisects the house and extends the river views through to the rear garden.

The service and ancillary spaces, garage, storage, guest suite and access to the basement level area contained within a single-story bar that runs east to west to minimize the obstruction of views.

The primary living spaces are distributed in a linear bar across the width of the site to maximize exposure to river views. The home office, kitchen/dining room and double height living room extend the full width of the north south bar to mediate the front and rear gardens and establish a strong visual connection to the outdoors.

The more private spaces including an expansive master suite, two additional bedrooms with ensuite bath and laundry facilities are distributed in a parallel bar on the second floor accessible by a dramatic sculptural stair. The master suite extends the length of the River view façade bridging across the circulation space below and extending out to a large covered terrace.

The kitchen by Bulthaup Toronto features a combination of grey aluminum and kaolin laminate faced cabinetry with the integrated “multi-function” glass wall system.

The kitchen counters are engineered quartz and st. stl with integrated sinks and wet areas along with an 8′ long island unit with a walnut veneer slab breakfast bar.

The custom designed “museum” stair was engineered and fabricated locally of steel-reinforced maple and has a furniture-grade walnut finish and structural glass railing.

Architects: ZERAFA STUDIO LLC

Location: Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Architect of Record: Chapman Murray Associates Architects Inc.
Structural Engineer: ACA Engineering
MEP: Hallex Engineering LTD.
Client: Withheld at Owner’s Request
Facility: Private Residence
Project Area: 464.5 sqm
Project year: 2009
Photographs: Tom Arban

Corner house - Masahiro Kinoshita

The purpose of this project was to remodel an apartment suite that is attached to a landowner’s house. Before any remodelling took place, the apartment’s layout was a common, Japanese –style “2DK”, which consists of two private bedrooms, a dining room that is connected to the kitchen, a bathroom, and a rest room. This is the standard layout for a large number of Japanese apartments in Tokyo, but is far too outdated and rigid for modern urbanites.

With this concept in mind, KINO architects proposed two spaces to break down the rigidity of the 2DK apartment – “White Space” and “Wood Space”.

White Space
The “White Space” consists of a wet area (kitchen, toilet, bathroom, and washing basin) and a closet. The volume was based on three factors – the wet area facilities, the overall storage space, and the user’s body size. Unless you have lived in Tokyo before, it is difficult to imagine the spatial limitations we go through everyday. It is necessary to design both highly functional and densely compact apartments – hence, the high number of “rigid” 2DKs. By combining all the daily “necessities” into one space, we were able to break out of this old-fashioned layout to create an area that suits the modern generation’s needs.

Wood Space

The main theme of the “Wood Space” is flexibility, which is why we chose to use an L-shape. While it is only a single room, the L-shape allows the area to be divided into two or three distinctive sections, depending on how the user sees fit. Therefore, the apartment can become acclimatized to several activities at any one time – it becomes a more natural environment because the areas created by the user will not impede upon one another.

It is uncommon for living spaces to contain the two key characteristics of this project, Functionality and Flexibility. It is through the combination of both the “White” and “Wood” Spaces that make it possible to have these two traits co-exist, augmenting the overall desired effects within a small space.

Remodelling as a Tool for Sustainability

Ise-jingu, one of the most famous wooden shrines in Japan, is torn down and rebuilt once every twenty years. This does not seem like a sustainable practice, considering stonemasonry or poured-concrete last much longer. Wood does not last as long as the aforementioned materials, but can be just as sustainable because it has the flexibility to be constantly reformed or remodelled to whatever design we desire. This concept was applied to the “Wood Space”, making future plans for remodelling the landowner’s attached house quite flexible. Once the entire building is remodelled under this theme, it will “melt” away any rigidity of the previous floor plan, as the owner can adjust the balance between spaces as he sees fit.

VIA: BLOGYDECO