Top 10 projects 2013

This sustainable residence 1 km from the Pacific Ocean responds to the bohemian spirit of Venice, California, while maximizing volume, light, and privacy on a narrow lot. Raw, honest materials fit in with the grittiness of the local environment; the maintenance-free exterior of Cor-ten steel, Trex, copper, and stucco weathers naturally, while interior surfaces are left unpainted. The house dissolves the barriers between indoors and out, creating flexible spaces that take advantage of the benign climate. Built on an urban infill lot, the compound’s orientation toward its lively neighborhood is friendly while garden courtyards afford privacy. Space is calibrated within the house for maximum efficiency and dramatic impact. The l... More

Twisting out something from the usual line is taken in order to create different perception or to enrich some more quality. This happens to a house that we name it as The Distort House. It is located in the south of Jakarta which is still dominated by lush, tropical village forest in the neighborhood. In the front of the site itself lays a public park with some old big tropical trees. In response to those advantages, the house's mass outline is shifted close to the back perimeter line of the site, and then twisted in 15 degree, leaving vast green area in the front. This is a unique way to open a more huge front space striking back as view and open air to the inside. The front green area brings benefits also as intermediary open space to sof... More

CONCEPT: The site is 2400 sft plot with access road in the west located in Bangalore, India. The brief described a 5 bedroom house to accommodate a single family and a social lifestyle. The surrounding urban landscape was not as healthy as intended so the design concept had to be as inward looking as possible. The process was to keep the external factors at bay and evolve a form which maintains a continuity of the place.The program was designed with interlocking blocks with additions and subtractions to form main spaces and courtyards. Since the plan had to be subjected to an inwards looking design, all the spaces in the upper ground level overlook in to the courtyard with... More

Balancing the introverted nature of a courtyard with the bold personality of an extrovert all while managing matters of privacy, this renovation builds on its solid mid-century roots. Located on a busy boulevard in the state’s capital, the 1,685 sf half-century old ranch home was confined and uninviting, leaving its spaces dark and disconnected from the site. The renovation and 840 sf addition of Midvale Courtyard House adds a proper entry, elevated master suite, and covered parking, but also pierces and stretches the solid forms to create connection between indoor and outdoor spaces. Set back on its lot, the house is buffered from the busy street traffic. But the adjacent neighbors are closely spaced, challenging the notion of openi... More

This work is the result of a process that began in 2004 with the construction of a summer house in the forest of Mar Azul in order to take advantage of this intervention opportunity in a site of significant landscape values to propose design alternatives that take under consideration the protection of the natural environment as an unavoidable premise. The answer was an architecture proposal of minimums resources in the materials and in form, not only as an aesthetic solution but as an ethical principle of recovery the rational use of the different resources available. This stripped-back architecture should be incorporated to the landscape, seeking to be part of the environment that already exists. Thus, it was decided that an outer sk... More

This work is the result of a process that began in 2004 with the construction of a summer house in the forest of Mar Azul. It was about intervening in an area of outstanding natural beauty, owner of a wild strong presence that gradually has been domesticated by the proliferation of constructions with a formal search between a bucolic character and picturesqueness which in no way refer to that environment nor to this present. The project was undertaken as an opportunity to propose shapes, materials and alternative uses, in harmony with that particular environment. The search was then oriented towards a purposeful architecture of a more relaxed housing and whose materiality and formalization was the result of a desire for belonging to t... More

New Building Houses More of Salvador Dalí's Masterworks than any Other World Collection ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — The grand opening for the new Dalí Museum is on January 11, 2011, at 11:11 a.m. Located on a scenic waterfront site in downtown St. Petersburg, Fla., the 68,000-square-foot structure doubles the size of the original 1982 Dalí Museum, a one-story warehouse. Exhibits include oils, watercolors, sketches, sculptures and other works from a 2,140-piece permanent collection. Despite the complex processes required to construct the building, which stands more than 75 feet tall and is adorned by 1,062 unique, triangular glass panels, the $29.8 million building project was completed on time and $700,000 under budget. Construction b... More