Unique Casa Kopche by Grupo Arquidecture

Casa Kopche is a private residence designed by Grupo Arquidecture.
It is located in Mérida, Yucatán, México.

Casa Kopche by Grupo Arquidecture:

“This residence is a contemporary home with pure lines, in whose design the outside-inside integration has been the priority achievement, getting wide spaces with several views, full of light and natural ventilation.

The project stands a clear zonification by separating social area from private area to generate courtyards and gardens that are enjoyed by all spaces of the house.

A stone wall marks the entrance leading into the house providing a protective screen to the inner courtyards as well.

The use and management of apertures is essential: wide open to the hall and narrow to the bedrooms, allowing both spaces to have outside participation without exposing the privacy of the family.”

Modern Chiltern House by WOW Architects | Warner Wong Design

Chiltern House is a project completed by WOW Architects | Warner Wong Design 2013.
The home is located in Singapore and covers an area of 5,306 square feet.

Chiltern House by WOW Architects | Warner Wong Design:

“The spaces in this family home on Chiltern Drive in central Singapore were crafted like a garment, woven around the needs and desires of its inhabitants. The home aspired to be deeply rooted, connected to the surrounding environment, the history of its development, as well as the family’s lifestyle.

The house was constructed as a single monolithic concrete structure. The woven steel reinforcement and raw timber formwork into which the concrete was cast have imprinted the process of building into its surfaces, with rugged lines in the concrete and hints of steel reinforcement in the walls and ledges. As the early morning sun casts shadows across the textured horizontal bands left behind in the concrete where the timber formwork once was, the memory of the construction process itself marks the passing of time and reminds the family of the effort, desire, and realization of their dream.

The spaces within and around the house were designed for each family member to enjoy their own privacy and commune with nature, as well as spaces where they could meaningfully come together in the creation and continuation of family rituals around meals, greetings, and homecomings. The house is articulated around a square geometry in plan, but the spatial arrangement within this straightforward framework is a complex interplay of large and deep spaces and connections that stretch across the length of the house in various directions. These elongated rooms draw the eye across them, at times relating to the views of the garden, across extended windows that skirt the skyline and horizon or to focus the exaggerated perspectives on select elements within a room. These visual connections within the rooms as well as from space to space help to unite the inhabitants and make them aware of each other’s movements within the house as well as strongly link the house to its surrounding environment.

The living and dining rooms are connected in one continuous space with a swimming pool at one end and a rear garden at the other. Along the length of the room, a low bay window ledge cast into the folds of the wall and a long horizontal window opening provide an intimate and direct connection to the landscape, as well as casual seating that can comfortably accommodate one or many people. Similarly, the expansive kitchen island that extends across the tall and grand kitchen runs parallel to a broad view of the rear garden and makes the kitchen a bright and pleasant room that is just as much a social space as a working area.

With this architectural language of deep spaces and extensive windows, dramatic linear vistas of the gardens that surround the house are framed. The views to the greenery provide a sense of serenity and reflection to the inhabitants and ground them to their environment. The culmination of these views occurs in the master bedroom that runs across the entire front façade of the top storey with a singular horizontal opening across its frontage. This broad window takes in a spectacular and uninterrupted view of the suburban skyline beyond.

Although the house was designed as an integrated experience of the architecture, interior and landscape design, each discipline has its unique expression and concept; the architecture with its rugged concrete aesthetic and expressed construction process, the landscape with four levels of distinct solutions for different spatial objectives using a variety of tropical landscape strategies, and the interiors with a tapestry of personal artifacts that subtly convey the history of the family.”

Modern Through House by Dubbeldam Architecture + Design

Through House is a private home located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The 1,450-square-foot home was designed by Dubbeldam Architecture + Design.

Through House by Dubbeldam Architecture + Design:

“Situated on a small lot in a dense downtown neighbourhood, this narrow 127-year-old residence required a complete overhaul to fulfill the owner’s desire for modern living in a home filled with light and open spaces. To preserve the intimate rear garden, the design challenge was to expand the interior space without increasing the footprint of the house.

The dark, cramped interior was carved out to create bright, airy spaces connected by an open plan. Custom, built-in elements such as the stacked felt-clad fireplace delineate space without closing off one room to another.

Materials and built-ins emphasize linearity, create the perception of expanding and stretching the space, and direct the eye through the house toward the garden. Large floor-to-ceiling glass panes dissolve the boundaries between inside and outside, extending the ground floor living space into the backyard.

The interior flooring material is carried through to the exterior, and paired with an overhead wood and steel trellis, defines an intimate outdoor room. Fragrant lavender, colourful grasses, climbing vines, and Japanese maples are positioned within an urban courtyard that wraps the backyard in whitened wood.

The result is an intimate outdoor courtyard that changes with each season, complementing this light-filled, serene retreat for a busy urban professional.”

Awesome Natural Geometry by HYLA Architects

Natural Geometry is a home located in Singapore Gardens and Green Fields, Singapore.
Designed in 2013 by HYLA Architects, the home is bright and luminous.

Natural Geometry by HYLA Architects:

“A geometric screen inspired by nature fronts this western facing semi-detached house. Between the screen and the house is a two-storey outdoor covered space with a pond and a timber deck.

The living, dining and dry kitchen extend beyond. On the 2nd storey, a family room has a TV-shelf dividing it from the staircase.

The master bathroom cantilevers dramatically into the outdoor space with its sunken bath and shower. At the top, the attic bathroom is made with cantilevered elements – shelf, sink, mirror and light.”

Classic Vivienda Ciudad de las Artes by Hernández Arquitectos

Vivienda Ciudad de las Artes is a project completed by Hernández Arquitectos.

The home is located in Valencia, Spain, and was finished in 2013.

Modern Cabbagetown Residence by DUBBELDAM Architecture + Design

Cabbagetown Residence is a renovation project carried out by DUBBELDAM Architecture + Design in 2014.

The home is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Cabbagetown Residence by DUBBELDAM Architecture + Design:

“The renewal of this 125-year old small Victorian home presented a typical challenge in Toronto – altering and updating the existing residential urban fabric while preserving the historic character of heritage neighbourhoods. The interior layout was opened up to connect the house both in plan and in section, which in conjunction with expanded window openings, washes the formerly dark interior with natural light and views from all angles. The design also focuses on connecting the indoors with the outdoors, allowing an awareness of the changing seasons to pervade the interior.

Passive sustainable strategies were used in order to minimize environmental impact, while remaining sensitive to cost. In conjunction with a new operable skylight over the open stair, the open plan facilitates the movement of air throughout the house. The skylight also draws natural light down into the heart of the house, significantly reducing the need for artificial lighting. In addition, the glazed rear façade takes advantage of a southern orientation, maximizing passive solar gain for heat and light in cold winter months. During the warmer months, deciduous trees and operable blinds help to regulate temperature and allow for visual privacy.

The project introduces a new ‘two-faced’ building typology applicable to historic contexts in need of renewal, satisfying both the heritage preservationists and contemporary design enthusiasts. While the integrity of the traditional Victorian two-storey street facade is preserved to reinforce the neighbourhood’s historic streetscape, the redefined rear façade and cleverly positioned third floor addition, are boldly modern.

Termed ‘two-face’ by area residents, the house is a study of contrasts – old and new, Victorian and modern, discrete and bold, brick and glazing, peaked and flat, outside and inside – that negotiate with one another in a seamless marriage. Exhibiting the merits of reusing and refurbishing existing buildings and addressing the challenges of working with an existing building and a tight budget, the design demonstrates the value of ‘greening’ old buildings, while proving that innovative architectural solutions can be financially accessible.”

Modern House Migdia by Sau Taller d’Arquitectura

House Migdia is a private home located in Granollers, Spain.

It was designed in 2014 by Sau Taller d’Arquitectura.

House Migdia by Sau Taller d’Arquitectura:

“The project starts from two client’s requirements:

– A house with plenty of natural light.
– A house with the possibility of increasing in size through the years.

To comply with those requirements SAU Taller de Arquitectura proposes a clear action: to bring services and storage areas to the blank walls leaving a central core which articulates the space around it. With this decision we get the street and courtyard façades free of program. Those façades are facing north and south so they can become a light and ventilation filters. Another consequence of this decision is getting a free and flexible section which will aloud future light slabs to be built if the inhabitants need them. With this aim, concealed anchorages where left into the concrete to aloud simple timber structure to be built in the future.

A multifunctional garage space is located at ground floor level, related to both, street and courtyard, is a space to have familiar meals or courtyard related activities. Facing south at first floor level we find the dinner area, next to it, and facing north we find the kitchen. The bedroom is linked to the living area through a double sliding door that gives different levels of privacy. At roof level and thanks to the section flexibility we find two terraces, the first one, protected with a vegetal pergola is more private, the second is an open one and works as a solarium.

The two side concrete walls are not perpendicular to the main façade, so in order to organize the plan the remaining spaces are used as a service and storage areas.

Integrated with the core we find the bathroom, and slightly moved to the north-east corner we have the stairs, this layout defines spaces with different proportions around the program which improves the relation between them. A small internal patio is located in the core to illuminate the central areas and the bathroom, in the future can contain the lift.

The two main façades had been thought as a triple skin. They act as a filter to improve internal light, temperature and comfort conditions. The outer skin is made of 4cm cellular polycarbonate and the inner one is made of double glass, movable aluminium louvres are located between those two layers. Facing south, we have the possibility to open or close the chamber between the polycarbonate and the glass depending on ventilation requirements: during winter time this chamber will remain closed and louvres will be orientated towards the interior to get more radiation, during summer time the chamber will remain opened and louvres will face exterior, that way we stop direct radiation exposure. If needed, is also possible to totally open the inner glass layer to ventilate the whole space from south to north. The house is been designed to get the best comfort using passive techniques. We only use 3 climate mechanical elements: one ventilated hearth, a fan system, and a thermostat with ducts that brings the worm air accumulated in the higher areas of the double height down to the lower levels and a heat pump as an additional support.

We have worked with neutral and rough materials: concrete, glass, polycarbonate, maple timber… trying to create a non contaminated space which allows the inhabitants to bring their own colour and personality with the chosen furniture, vegetation, paints, lamps, racks… in a way we are trying to project a daily life support.”