ABSENT PRESENCE

VIRTUAL SLIDING AND REAL LIGHTENING, SLOPING SITE, 2002.

the landscape's slope is the runway for the substance of the house starting as a solid volume at the access street and dissolving in virtual particles towards the panoramic view. the transition from mass at the entrance to transparency at the south of the house is interpreted as a virtual archipelago, initiated by the landscape.

the project consists of two houses in one, separated and connected by the atrium space in between. the differences in meaning of the the two houses and the stairs are articulated by a shift of the transparent skins, covering one stair while passing behind the other one, making it part of the entrance hall and the public stair. furthermore on the public side the house appears transparent as a consequence of the less private uses.

the asymmetrical symmetry has another expression in the inner facades of the two houses in one. conceived as a basically transparent and sensible skin they reflect the intensity of use by the light used inside and the transparency chosen. the atrium space becomes a conceptual wide open street leading from familiar urbanity towards nature.