INSPIRATION: The commodity in terms of Karl Marx's critique of political economy as an object or good produced by human labour was the driving idea behind the design concept.
The customer defined the desired outcome as keeping the mountain context, without emitting stereotypical rustic remembrances of existing mountain residential typologies. It involved a major renovation, of a common mountain house. The aim was to create a space where everything would be manufactured on site, using basic materials metal, pine wood, mineral aggregates, human labour and expertise. The main idea behind that was to let the objects acquire use and sentimental value when the owners would start feeling them as useful and pleasant.
The house has 3 levels, accommodating en-suite bedrooms, guest rooms, bathrooms and autonomy in daytime activities. The Desire was clearly to accommodate the family’s extrovert lifestyle allowing for co-habitation and mobility for daytime and night-time zones. The need was to allow for guest families and their children to make creative use of space different hours of day and seasons.
Emitting the architectural feeling of black burnt metal and volcanic stone. Constructions and levels of nigh time and basic traffic patterns were defined by black metal; mineral aggregates defined the floor plans, wet areas and main elevations while pine wood defined the storage areas. The colour palette was reduced to minimum contrast and low saturation in order to let the materials and textures define the context of the project redefining prevailing mountain houses of rustic country feeling.
Research was done in prevailing mountain typology, availability of materials in the vicinity that would allow for easy access, minimum transportation and manufacturing costs. Pigmentations and stains also were selected in terms of reduced VOC emissions, low cost maintenance and taking into consideration the building life cycle and reusability of materials.
The project following sustainability and bioclimatic values in house remodelling, had to utilise maximum natural daylight, a design lighting scheme using only led lighting sources and emitting the feeling of light candelas using very low light colour temperatures. This had a serious impact since the customer desired to leave the existing shell and openings intact.
