Info from MZC Architettura:
A big apartment in the outskirts of the city, near the railway. The principal floor is for everyday functions. The upper floor is for the body, for relax, for playing.

A central part is rounded by a black wall/furniture/wall. This black wall/furniture/wall is like a scenic curtain, a filter between day and night and viceversa.

A big space living-kitchen is completely white: walls, furniture, ceiling, lamps etc. The flooring is like a water surface where white colour reflects itself.

The interior concept is that every part has a individual life: every part contains space, light, colour and is composed by elementary volumes. All the surfaces reflect natural and artificial light giving to the space an overexposure effect.

Crossing the black filter we enter to the night part of the house where the effect is similar to the day part. The difference between the two pars is the flooring: grey resine for day, cool grey wood board for night. Going up throught the grey stairs we arrive on the upper floor.

On a side we find the pool with a big wooden solarium around; on the other side a concrete outside kitchen with a concrete table.

Photography: Marco Zanta
Studio: MZC Architettura
Architects: Mario Marchetti, Fabio Zampiero, Giuseppe cangialosi
Collaborators: Elena Jodice, Alberto Buso, Vittorio Massimo

Info from i29:
This residence at the Singel, Amsterdam (NL) exists from one open space where several functions have been put into freestanding objects. The kitchen and wardrobe are placed near the entrance and combined into one single volume.

The bath- and bedroom is hided into a volume which is placed at back of the house. From the open living area you look alongside the volume towards the vertical garden and the entrance stairs to the roof terrace. The view on the green wall holds a promise in itself which will be redeemed once you enter the bed/bathroom. The small measurements of this combined bed and bathroom are in contrast with its spacioucesness, while containing a private and personal feeling.

The panorama on the overgrown plantwall and the contrast with the minimalistic white bed/bathroom provides an intense experience. Integration of nature is an important aspect of traditional culture in Japan, the homeland of the client. The integrated in-house vertical garden is an example of this. Other features where simplicity and minimalist details.

Design: i29

The wooden bars you see in the images of the Stand Up desk and chairs above and below can tilt up to function as a backrest or an instant bookshelf.

Design: Philliip Don

Architectkidd is an architecture & design practice based in Bangkok, Thailand and is coordinated by Udomsak Komovilas, Jariyawadee Lekawatana & Luke Yeung. The building project began as a transformation of an existing shophouse into a showroom and office for lighting products. Converting this building type to provide new retail functions was a significant challenge that required extensive modifications to the interior planning.

The resulting approach was to insert new spaces that could connect all the existing floors to provide a continuous circulation and movement. These new elements use steel as their primary structure and were designed to be supported and cantilevered from existing concrete structures, thereby creating a new space that combined old and new elements of the renovated shophouse interior.

The development of the exterior facade followed the interior modifications. The idea of creating an “accidental facade” was inspired by the resourcefulness of shophouse owners and the ways they adapted their buildings in a hot tropical climate. Owners would use low-cost and lightweight metal materials that are cut into panels to create ad-hoc facades. Despite these simple modifications, these shophouse facades can sometimes provide intriguing and surprising results.

While most building facades aim to project the function of their interior spaces towards the exterior surfaces, in this case the opposite approach was needed. However, we wondered whether it was possible to design a facade that can still possess some permeable qualities while mostly functioning as a solid layer to block direct transmission of heat and outside light. After experimenting with different materials and techniques, the resulting facade was developed that attempted to create an in-between condition were daylight would be filtered from the outside, reflected off the facade and “spill” into the interior spaces.

Architects: Architectkidd

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Info from Supersudaka: This house located in the Central Valley near Talca is almost a statement of how to accomplish architecture in Latin America.

As the design and building process were so unsteady, starting from the site -located in an almost impossible steep hill-, to the budget limitations, a very basic grid configuration evolved to a much multifaceted formal result; both simple and complex at the same time.

Curiously, the principal façade when arriving to the house is the roof, designed as a complete terrace to a 360º view of the valley but also as a structural complement underneath the deck that overtakes the horizontal forces in case of earthquakes, which allows to avoid cross-bracing in the windows towards the appealing views. This wooden “envelop” is extended and returned to block excessive sun exposure in the hot summer of central Chile zone, although lets the sun to enter in the fresh early morning and in hard winter in a more inclined angle.

Plus, natural cross ventilation through opening of all the glass planes through the patio and external façade permits a regulation of temperature in a passive mode. Unexpectedly, this calculated geometry relates almost candidly to the nearby hills topography.

Beyond demanding technical issues, the project spatial organization outcomes -as it was never determined- in a open space around the patio which includes the kitchen and could displayed as the inhabitant wishes, switching dinning room to living room or any other instance as desired.

A more stable programme is the principal bedroom with a private bathroom and terrace towards the view since residents could enjoy it more during the morning and late night rather than the day. Plus, an optional studio and/or guest room in the opposed side is available aligned with a more “public” shower, toilet and laundry facilities. All fits in less than 104 M2, nevertheless all spaces connect to each other in exterior or interior ways: a continuous promenade with no dead ends as is to integrate all the spatial qualities and views of living in a steep and almost non urbanized area, nevertheless 5 minutes to the city.

All this was reached rather than in a quest for certainties, through a trial and error modus operandi whereas all design resources at reach where unconsciously or more rationally implied: from Corbusier’s 5 points for a new modern architecture, to nearby Smijan Radic’s Copper House 2, or/and references passing through Mies structural explicitness through OMA and PLOT experiments (All apologies).

The result? A mix, a bastardized design, a fusion, like a crossbreed dog, as named in Chilean: A Kiltro (mixed-breed dog).

Architects: Supersudaka [nggallery id=87]