House H is located on a corner of an urban residential area. The rectangular shape of the building lot is slightly slanted and irregular, due to the cut-off of the northeast corner. The requests from our clients are simple:
- Public and private zones must be clearly defined.
- The image of the original bungalow (now demolished) needs to be preserved.
- All interior spaces need excellent daylight and natural ventilation.
Our scheme is to divide the plan into 3 parallel zones, the width are 7m, 4m, 5m respectively, from east to west. The 7m-wide zone holds up the public function such as living, dining and kitchen. And the form of this public building is a one storey pitch-roofed volume with a front porch, which resembles the original bungalow. The 5m-wide zone contains two floors of bedrooms and study. In between of these two volumes is a 4m-wide reflecting pool with a plumeria tree, which mediates the micro-climates and also disperses fragrance in the air.
The house is constructed of reinforced concrete frame system, we separate the frame and wall to create a semi-outdoor porch, which benefit the living room with good shading. The pitch-roof canopy turns the chunky volume into a pavilion in the woods. The walls are all painted white, so the daylight and shadow can give the east-and-west facing sculptural walls a dynamic expression. The roof is covered by standing-seam titanium zinc panels, which blends into the neighboring roofscapes.
