The challenge asks for a design starting from a shell that consists in two rectangular boxes on top of each other, each one being extended by a small protuberance. In very general terms, I interpreted the shell you sent us as a “box within another box” theme. The two protrusions were seen as a porch and the spot to place a stairway. Taking a pragmatic stance I decided to design a house or perhaps a second home, as the footprint is very small.
The essential requirement of the exercise was to keep the initial walls and volume, as if it was an unfinished building that one must take into account in a new design. Moving or removing walls and slabs was not permitted. The goal was to start from that shell and make something out of it. One could add any small elements but no new walls or slabs. The use of the new building could be anyone and there should be an interior.
The total area of the existing structure was 146m2, being 100 m2 on the ground.
The house proper occupies the inner box, the exterior one being treated as a permeable layer whose role is to protect the interior from excessive sunlight. The space between the two layers can be occupied by plants, verandas or small service spaces (laundry, washroom, entry hall) as is the case.
The ground floor is one single space dedicated to living, eating and cooking activities. On the top floor there are two bedrooms with their respective bathrooms. Off the main bedroom there is a balcony that also gives access to the garden created on top of the lower box.
Outside there are two other structures: a car porch embedded in the terrain and a pool at the site’s lower level.
A very interesting exercise, in which the limitations open the doors to invention. All in all, lots of fun doing this fast exercise.
My model can be found here.
