One feels wholly unwelcome walking down this street in Barangay Don Manuel in Quezon City.
Tall, fortress-like concrete walls topped by barbed wire and electrified barriers line both sides of the road, protecting unseen houses from prying eyes and intruders. Driveways and drop-offs are invisible, hidden behind heavy-duty steel gates. Trees and plants are almost nonexistent. There is the occasional clump of weeds growing out of a crack between the sidewalk and the street, and the electric posts that interrupt one’s path on the pavement.
Judging from the cars that come out of the gates, the neighborhood is well to do. And based on the roofs and the second or third-story façades peering over their concrete face shields, the predominant architecture in the area is contemporary Mediterranean and Chinese. The structures are crammed edge to edge on narrow lots, making one wonder how their inhabitants breathe.
“They all have glass windows facing the street, but all the windows are closed,” An Bermejo points out as we stand out on the street, gazing at our surroundings.
Designing a house at this site was a new challenge for Bermejo and partner Benjee Mendoza, the principals of BAAD Studio Architects, which has made a fine practice of designing tropical homes on large lots in verdant valleys with tree-lined streets. But BAAD Studio has succeeded in creating an oasis of good looks in the middle of this featureless, unfriendly, and ultra-defensive environment.
Façade as gate
Instead of designing a beautiful house and hiding it behind a wall, BAAD created a handsome steel mesh and wood façade, which serves as a three-story ‘gate’ for the home. Opening this façade on the ground floor leads one down a driveway to basement parking. A flight of steps takes alighting passengers up to the living room.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Volume 3 2019-Ausgabe von BluPrint.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Volume 3 2019-Ausgabe von BluPrint.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Windows Over Windows
It’s what you do when you’re a green-loving architect like Formzero’s Cherng Yih Lee, and your client isn’t interested in the forest outside
The Office Of New Life Stories
D-Associates Architect’s office building in Jakarta is just how principals Gregorius Yolodi and Maria Rosantina want it— green, creative, and nurturing—just as they want their team to be
Stark Beauty
When you’ve got great bones designed by Park + Associates, the structure should be the architecture
Sunday's Best
Willis Kusuma’s multi-functional Mister Sunday elevates the Jakarta café scene with the timelessness and formal honesty of concrete
Brut Force
Raw concrete is experiencing a renaissance, but how compatible is it with tropical weather? Jakarta-based architect and frequent concrete user Willis Kusuma responds
Workaholics Finish First
Bangkok’s Architectural Studio of Work-Aholic (ASWA) takes their first stab at WAF and counts on the power of spatial storytelling to take home the prize
People Obssessed With Design
Park + Associates: Crafting architecture with good bones and spaces that resonate with individuals
Firm Follows Feeling
Bangkok-based landscape architecture firm P Landscape emphasizes the human experience and feeling through contemporary integration of art, culture, and ecology
Tried and Tested
WAF and INSIDE multi-awardee Hypothesis’ researchintensive approach produces complete design solutions that are anything but formulaic
Crew's Control
Young Thai studio Creative Crews finds a worldwide audience for three very different projects: a rural homestay, a classroom for the blind, and their own office, all indicative of the practice’s adaptive design solutions