The client made three statements which were all equally important requirements for design. First of all he hated mess but have many collectible to display. Another declaration was his anxiety towards black & white contemporary design. The last requirement was it would have to be partly a house where they could all be together.
In response to the client’s particular demands and possibilities, we design a interior where everything that is necessary in a house surrounded a single space, resulting in a open-space design with a central space where the family could get together if and when they wanted to. Everything other than the central space became an external element or a body where all the organs were on the outside and where the skin is used on the inside.
We conceived a thick layer that surrounded the central space on four sides and these four sides contained all the elements of the house and that to some extent there would be no house there and the tunnel would be a simple focus on the view.
With this design the entire house could also act as a big storage element that allowed the client to hide any mess. Excavated from the storage element however, there would be all the other important parts of the house: a living room, his department, her department, the kitchen… In that way, the house would consist of completely empty, abstract spaces and completely solid, mysterious spaces that contain mess, junk, services and other necessities.
After further discussions with the client we had two options for the house, either the solid could be really solid, so that the spaces were absolute and voided, or the solid could be built of translucent materials, so that you would not sense the mess, but behind it there would be the compacted evidence of everyday life, in the form of dirty linen, books, etc.
