PROJECT TEAM:
- Architects: Aras Burak
PROJECT INFORMATION:
- Location: Lamerwood, United Kingdom
- Type: Competition
- Client: Bee Breeders
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Beauty is a Curse
The adjective; beauty is the most basic level of engagement one can have with an object, a sculpture, a building. A beautiful house is typically a cottage, a villa in nature with a triangular roof and fireplace.
However, the triangular roofed cottage is not subject to competition. Its plan can be found by a non-architect online, and the project can be executed on-site by a contractor and the client with no architect’s involvement. Its specification sheet is an Amazon Shopping cart.
The traditional understanding of beauty for architecture is a curse. The conventional definition of beauty brings the expected and the boring into any relationship. We believe performance and experience bring beauty, and this has almost nothing to do with the traditional understanding of beauty, often described by the golden ratio or symmetry.
The Programmatic Gravity
The design of the house is purely based on a gravitational point punching through the basement, ground floor, and first floor. This gravitational point is the central circulation for the dwelling. It is an elevating platform that reaches 12 meters, giving an elevated view to its occupant. The elevated platform and a ramp tie the car park, ground, and first floor of the building together. This space is an elevator, a room for resting, or potentially a meeting space.
An alternative circulation not relying on technology – in the form of the ramp – is also introduced around the internal garden. The inner garden starts from the basement level providing daylight for minus one level and has no enclosure to the ground floor of the house. Therefore it is exposed to the living space, and the garden is part of the living space.
Program of the Building
The living space/ground floor is a flat concrete disc with no interruption. On the first floor, private rooms are distributed on the axis rotating from the circulation – taking the elevated platform as the center. The nurse has access to the young adult’s room and the main circulation at the same time and is treated as a member of the family equally. The two daughters and the guest room are on the eastern side of the building. The buffer space between the adults and the children’s area is the dining room space. Which is also expressed as a unique room cantilevering out of the concrete disc. This pop-out space is the open room at the first floor, where the family comes together. Separate from the kitchen on the ground floor. Mancave has its private entrance and is wrapping the building, merging into the triangular master bedroom – bridging into the house. The pool with the Olympic length (50m) cantilevers from the roof into the landscape. At the edge of this swimming pool, one can experience flying and swimming at the same time.
The gunroom is envisioned on the other side of the lake and the circular drive around the lake connects the house to the gunroom. The circular driveways, running tangent to each other, fill the site creating island conditions. The entrance of the existing site is preserved.
