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:
1. Public and private zones must be clearly defined.
2. The image of the original bungalow (now demolished) needs to be preserved.
3. 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.
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