U House / CND ARCHITECT

Curated by Paula Pintos

Architects: CND ARCHITECT
Area: 135 m²
Year: 2018
Photographs:Ernest Siswanto Photography
Manufacturers: BATA GAPIT, Conwood
Lead Architects: Aloysia Dian – Chikman Nadjib

Text description provided by the architects. U House is a Small Urban House built on a land area of 7,5 x 13 meters. It is located in a dense residential area of South Jakarta, off the main road. These things make this site unique and it also poses challenges in completing its design. The challenge is for making a compact house which allows lot of sunlight penetrates through the house, has a good cross ventilation and an interesting circulation pattern, whilst keep maintaining the privacy of its residents.

To allow the sunlight penetrates the entire house, a gap is created in the middle of the U House. The space zones area separated and arranged in a split-level system. This intermediate space creates a void in the middle of the house so that connectivity between spaces is created. The space between the main voids in the middle of the center gives an opportunity for sunlight to penetrates through the skylight.

U House / CND ARCHITECT - Stairs, Handrail — © Ernest Siswanto Photography

The skylight roof is also designed to have a gap that serves for heat exchange, so that cross ventilation is created inside the house and makes the environment in the entire house healthier for its residents. The split-level system is also a solution to minimize the debris from old building debris. The split-level elevation setting is adjusted to the volume of existing housing demolition. The living room level is built slightly higher than the neighborhood road, with a touch of terracotta ventilation brick accent as a breathable wall which also creates privacy for home owners.

The face of the building is made to be distorted because of privacy consideration. The facade serves to provide sufficient distance from the window of this house with the neighboring house next door. On the façade, U House uses granite tile travertine texture material combined with an iron plate and touch of wood for the planter box area. The planter box is placed hanging in front of the window of the main bedroom with the aim to enter the ‘green’ view into the main bedroom. The local impression of Indonesian wall is presented through woven bamboo pattern on the terracotta ventilation brick.

This also serves to maximize natural circulation in the entire house. These bricks are designed with construction as if it were floating on glass. It becomes the first local point when entering the U- House. Green areas are inserted on each floor and made integrated with the inner space. Not only in the living room and bedroom area, the children’s bathroom is also made more playful with the dry garden inserted into the bathroom space. All of this uniqueness creates modern tropical urban house impression for U House.