White House｜Far East Design Lab.
Although a suburban residential area with no adjacent buildings may at first appear to offer a more favorable environment compared with densely built urban neighborhoods, the clear sightlines can make residents overly aware of one another. The clients felt that, rather than being private, such a setting might in fact make it difficult to secure their privacy. On this site we planned a house for a family of four (a couple and two daughters) that ensures sufficient privacy while allowing an open, expansive lifestyle not typically available in the city.
As an overall concept, a stairwell suffused with daylight is dynamically linked throughout the house. By orienting the plan inward toward this luminous core, the house remains closed to the exterior yet each floor is bright and allows occupants to look up to the sky without being conscious of the neighboring buildings.
The third-floor private zone includes a roof balcony where the family can pursue kitchen gardening or cultivate plants; the vegetation they grow can be viewed from the living room below, visually extending the domestic landscape upward.
The first-floor theater room functions as a second living room and, owing to high-performance acoustic insulation, also serves as a tranquil guest room where visitors can sleep comfortably.
Although the plan is simple in its geometry, the dynamic vertical and horizontal connections together with the deliberate placement of windows preserve privacy while creating a strong sense of openness that reaches toward the sky.
Structural design:
The principal living spaces, enclosed by columns, are configured as a simple moment-resisting frame, while the surrounding stairwell, washroom/bathroom areas, and terrace are cantilevered from the main volume. To allow flexible floor-height arrangements, eliminate protruding interior column casings, and reduce wall thickness, the first- and second-floor columns are made from solid square steel sections. This approach enabled the installation of beams without relying on diaphragm action and kept wall thicknesses to approximately that of slightly more robust timber-framed walls.
