Double House

The program is a house for two families located on an elongated plot of limited size and quite narrow proportions. The clients were very clear from day one, that although the site is challenging, the program should incorporate all the elements of a modern villa; including a completely open space on the ground floor, an elevator, three ensuite rooms on the living floor and a mini-studio on the roof surrounded by balcony and garden. The first design question we asked ourselves was how to design the two units so as to feel like one cohesive whole and not merely glued together by the common parti wall. The horizontal language achieves this result by organizing the mass and materials by program and not by unit. The living spaces are suspended on the first floor in a white prism with deep openings articulating black steel windows. The ground floor is then separated by mass and material via setback and exposed concrete faces, with a clerestory window used to elevate the floor above. The elongated site dictates a linear organization of functions on the ground floor, from kitchen in front towards the main living room in the rear. This organization combined with the full height windows allows us to see through the complete length of the house, creating long views and making the site appear larger that it really is.