ORDOS 100 #35: Christ & Gantenbein
This villa is located in plot #58 of the ORDOS project.
Architects: Christ & Gantenbein
Location: Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China
Project Team: Emanuel Christ, Christoph Gantenbein, Cloé Gattigo, Hugo Mesquita, Sven Richter, Andrea Sauter, Kai Timmermann
Design year: 2008
Construction year: 2009-2010
Curator: Ai Weiwei, Beijing, China
Client: Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd, Inner Mongolia, China
Constructed Area: 1,000 sqm aprox
The 058 villa is at the same time a simple house following the rules of the masterplan, as a surprisingly rich spatial system offering unexpected relations of the interior and the exterior, creating a private labyrinth to live in. To the outside the fragmented geometry of the volume and the mirror cladding create a distance; the house is present and absent at the same time.
The project deals about privacy within a dense urban settlement. Nothing reveals from the outside, that 058 is a courtyard house. The living spaces are organized around an enclosed space whose mirroring surfaces, similar to the external ones, give it an infinite appearance. The mirrors chimerically open the courtyard into the wideness of the inner-Mongolian landscape. One single tree planted in the centre is multiplied into a forest. So the 058-villa has a secret mystic private space completely different from the urban public space around the house.
The courtyard is formed by a folded façade with sharp polygonal edges, most parts consist of filled walls with a cladding of mirroring glass, other parts have floor-to-ceiling windows. The mirrors reflect the sunlight, mainly in winter, when the sun is low, into the courtyard. The floor is covered by irregular broken natural stone.
The system of the house consists of slabs of walls and windows. As the inner and outer façade are similar, and the geometry of the floor plan non-rectangular, the rooms create a labyrinth-like system of spaces. In this system the outer world, once the surrounding, once the courtyard, appear unexpectedly like images in the interior.
In a maximum contrast to the crystal-like sharp exterior, the interior is a down-to-earth-architecture: white plaster (walls), terrazzo (floor) and concrete (ceilings) are the only materials. They express the present space, the architecture’s task to create a protected space.
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- situation plan
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- basement floor plan
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- ground floor plan
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- first floor plan
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- section AA
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- section BB
It’s defenetly not a hype….a pitty that they choose for a geometric exertion in and same time outside the house. If you see the outside, the magic is over, because inside conceptionally happens the same….
what excatly is the quality of the courtyard?? is there sometimes no wind but any sun? I guess not…
BOOOOOOOOOOOORING!!!!!
Nice reflections on those renderings. Otherwise this house is kind of scary with all the pointed geometry. It also reminds me of an above ground version of the last Ordos house posted – the jagged courtyards are almost identical.
Boring, yeah!
Well I for one like it. I was just thinking the other day about the intrigue that a labyrinthian living space would have. Too many people are too comfortable in their environments, and such a confusing and complicated space might force them to pay more attention. Thinking back to what little I know of Greek (roman?) mythology, the story of the labyrinth fits well with the architect’s idea of a protected space, offering psychological distance from the world. That being said, I will concede that such a space might function better as a public than as a private space; once you got to know the space, it might loose much of its effect.
Whatever. It’s a cool house.
Spencer
What makes you think people are ‘too comfortable in their environments’? That’s a pretty strong assertion without much empirical data.
What worries me with all of this jagged geometry is that the architects are not showing us what influences it. I’m hoping that it is contextual, but I see a lot of work happening there that doesn’t seem to do much.
Spatially, I think this would make a great gallery, but it would drive me nuts as a residence.
And what happens when sun enters into the courtyard and reflects off of all the facets. I can’t even imagine how uncomfortable that glare would be.
The over geometric rooms are probably very easy to put furnitures – that they can do with clients without an owner (not yet) tsss
the reflections in the interior garden seems like great concept, but i don’ understand why do’it the same with the exterior… pseidoinmaterial architecture
This is more architecture than it is a home.
The angles of the house kind of destroy the courtyard
it is good, just plenty people too talk rubish