Swallow House / UrbanCarve

Swallow House / UrbanCarve - Image 2 of 36Swallow House / UrbanCarve - Image 3 of 36Swallow House / UrbanCarve - Exterior Photography, WindowsSwallow House / UrbanCarve - Interior PhotographySwallow House / UrbanCarve - More Images+ 31

Yilan, Taiwan
  • Architects: UrbanCarve
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  284
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2016
  • Photographs
    Photographs:mwphotoinc
Swallow House / UrbanCarve - Exterior Photography, Windows
© mwphotoinc

Text description provided by the architects. The client is an elderly couple, retired from Taipei, wants to begin their new life at their country hometown, Yilan. They, who grew up at Jhuangwei, Yilan, has great nostalgia for the sloping black terracotta roof, red brick walls, and the scenic view of Gueishan Island's. Their experience, the small road wandering through the rice field and the passage across the watering ditch, has been discussed constantly and become the core of this project’s concept, related to home.

Swallow House / UrbanCarve - Image 3 of 36
© mwphotoinc

Design Strategy

- Glazed gable void

By shifting two solid masses backwards and forwards, a void is generated and set as the core of a “home”. It functions as household alter of family’s ancestor. And we want to redefind this space’s relations in Taiwan’s family.

-The Rooftop overlooking Gueishan Island

Through the ritual of drinking teas and appreciating the sun rising, we want the client to live again in the nature. Architecturally, we create several roof terraces to provide various sceneries, such as the rice field, the mountain in the distance, and the sun rising from the sea horizon.

Swallow House / UrbanCarve - Exterior Photography, Windows
© mwphotoinc

- The portrait of home

In architectural design, we imagined the house as an abstract swallows’ nest, so the characteristic feature can be identified in the vast rural field, from far away. And more to the function of these two shifting solid masses, which are planned for client’s two sons to inhabit, it is generated a flowing space that is more flexible and can be multi-functioned.

Swallow House / UrbanCarve - Image 23 of 36
Plan

- Integrated landscape and spatial experience 

There are the wandering small country roads, the irrigating ditches amidst the paddy rice field, and the rolling hills in the distant, which we transform into a spatial experience: the curvilinear staircase in the living room, suspended platform along the axis on which one can sit on or lie down, the stairs changing with the gables, and the attic space shaped by the folding walls. All these elements integrate together and generate another spatial experience. 

Swallow House / UrbanCarve - Image 20 of 36
© mwphotoinc

- The use of light-well motivating the flow of the space

Designed strategically, we shifting the viewpoint to make the space more interesting and have the quality of flowing. Therefore, the light-well on the top of the balcony, the skylight atop the attic, and the clerestory of the household alter all increase the fowling quality. 

Swallow House / UrbanCarve - Interior Photography, Windows, Beam
© mwphotoinc

When the night comes quietly, the flowing void of the household alter becomes the safe harbor for the family to come home to. 

Swallow House / UrbanCarve - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade
© mwphotoinc

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About this office
Cite: "Swallow House / UrbanCarve" 22 Dec 2016. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/802063/swallow-house-urbancarve> ISSN 0719-8884

© mwphotoinc

燕子归巢 / 术刻建筑师事务所 UrbanCarve

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