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Architects: platau
- Year: 2017
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Photographs:Wissam Chaaya
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Manufacturers: Listone Giordano, Porcelanosa Grupo, Vetro vivo
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Lead Architect: Boulos Douaihy
Text description provided by the architects. The Sursok Apartment is defined by a linear split level circulation that is its most interesting architectural feature,fluctuating between a double height reception space andtwo single heights bedrooms’ levels, and extruding out to the balconies in the same scissor-shaped slab to define the façade of the building.
The scheme reinforces this spatial arrangement by revealing the structural concrete wall that runs along the length of the apartment, allowing its linearity to become the backdrop for the apartment’s main feature: a multifaceted steel“spine”.
This newly introduced spine sculpts the circulation, surfaces and spaces that makes the backbone of the apartment: It merges the underbelly of the staircase withthe mezzanine slab, allowing the mezzanine and the kitchen underneath it to open up to the reception. At the reception space, the spine protrudes out in a narrow catwalk that overlooks the living area on one side and a double height bookshelf on the other side. The spine reconnects with the reception floor in a structural ladder. It is topped by a thinsteel handrail that becomes a shelf at the catwalk with a lighting fixture for reading.
Punctual elements like awooden-cladded entrance niche, horizontal wood shelves, and lighting fixturesanimate the concrete wall and steel spine, breaking down their scale into intimate instances without underminingtheiroverall integrity.
