assign | three

Unlike the 4 different houses in my previous assignment, this one is completely unprecedented in design.

But being said so, some concepts however were brought forward to further reiterate the window man.

Throwing away moving parts in my design (movement path occupied too much space), I maximized the floor area, nearly breaching its capacity. The idea was also to imagine yourself being trapped in the air gap between a huge double glazed window.

At this moment in life, I'm leaning towards minimalism. Nothing spectacular, I know. This is deliberate for my character to draw attention on everything else except the building. An attempt to create a wall of volatile paintings. To expose the user to the exterior as well as to make the surroundings known to the user.

He's a man of integrity. What you see is what he is. Nothing to hide.

The level of exposure was taken into considerations, especially private spaces.

I've started off being highly inspired by the Loducca headquarter by Triptyque.

I was going along the line of a huge shoe box with large windows. And it seems like many people are going the same direction, but it doesn't really matter, does it?

I've did some preliminary facade sketches, a few iterations to begin with. Gradually from brain to sketch book, I came out with the following.

Besides, I have a neighbour who's very near. I mean, very. | superintendent(construction superviser)

We decided to amalgamate our site, specifically to define the corner.

Initial idea was to create a dark alley between the 2 dwellings (just because we saw an example in a book which we thought was fantastic), but soon we noticed our characters have different extremes in personality, in which the dark alley appears to be a clash between them.

Briefly speaking, the result was a V-shaped building, with the tip of the "v" pointing the corner of the site.

But we have a problem. Due to my neighbour's persistence to have a empty garden, we faced the issue of private/public space definition. Hence, we agreed to both lower our site down by half a meter and with ramps going down.


Over the week, I've made some changes.

Sean said choose a better tree, which I thought my previous one was quite hideous. and so I did.

I also added different materials to the floors which instantly defined the space better.

The sustainabilty of the house has put into considerations nevertheless. Louvres in the middle part of the building releases the hot air out, maintaining a good air flow. The house will be equipped with high performance glass throughout to further minimize heat gain due to large openings.

My end product looks something like this.

submission one | equus

Why windows?

Ralph's childhood habit which consequently turned into an adult passion: Obsessed with volatile frames, ever changing views, each view carries significance. The idea is to create a way to work with nature to manipulate, to capture a moment in time.

There is a sense of anticipation, longing, waiting for an appointed moment.

A moment uncontrollable by human manipulation, a moment beyond the earthly being, a Godly moment. In Greek, we call it Kairos.

the Beginning.

Framing a view starts with a normal window, then wait upon mother nature to change the view passively. I began to realise if the window faces a tree and the mountain, reality is they will be there for a long time and changes aren't evident enough to satisfy the thirst for the different. The solution came about when I notice the movement of the sliding window, the motion of sliding it sideways. As shown in my sketch, the moving window frames a different view every time it moves, initiating an active decision to modify the framing content. This is what I call working with nature to frame a moment.

attempt one.

Acquiring the rectilinear shape of the sliding window, and resembling "tracks" of the sliding window, the forms were directly translated into the shape of the building. Each block moves slowly and individually in different direction on the track, hence changing the inhabitants look out every minute. Design is kept as minimal as possible to allow the view from the outside to take control.

Ralph is an expressive person. He is deliberate in expressing his life to others, to share his joy to strangers. That description nicely fit into the "transparency" of the building, with floor to ceiling windows, portraying his bare nature.

attempt two.The rectangular first attempt was some what, boring and well planned. It loses flexibility and being unpredictable. The only non linear, ever changing direction shape I could thought of was a circle. In which not to change the shape of the individual blocks into spheres, but to modify the path of the individual blocks to the perimeter of a circle, every position faces the tangent of the circle. I broke the circle into 5 and placed them right behind each other in a planned random order.

birth of Kairos.To wait upon and appointed time, which only can be defined through a supernatural sense. Kairos, a God appointed time.

Each individual blocks will move in random order, from left to right, but there will be a time when they all meet up.

the inhabitant would constantly wait for the kairos, similar as waiting for a miracle.
No tangible signs of wonder when this is achieved, though.

from binary to reality.
The contrast between white and grey card board seems alright. Looks similar to the sketchup model, in a more enclosed fashion and without the rear "tower".

The rear tower was replaced by a mirror tower in unit 7 as shown above. The mirror tower is 4 full length mirrors held together by a pillar.
When Kairos happens, you'll be able to see your reflection from the outside at the mirror tower, to reiterate the fact that you are naked standing before God. When the second Kairos happens, people from the outside would be able to view the reflection of the inhabitant through the mirror tower.

final one.

The design has evolved back to the more exposed version, full length windows. The final one has been enhanced in the complexity of the design and planning. The fourth block from the front had adapted a new form of sliding mechanism, and the last block has been elevated to improve visibility. The final one is more unpredictable with reduced reoccurring forms, feels more fluid, the curves are more evident, the height is not the same, creating a contour of lines from above and more spatial movement.

The model is done, just waiting for the kairos moment.

design Idea.

Ralph the window man.

How inappropriate if the design ideas were not drawn out from windows.

Being diplomatic with the window man.


Reconciling sliding windows with architecture.

random Ralph | Windowman

Ralph is in his mid thirties and a computer genius with a so call mediocre life. He's a canadian with blonde hair, signs of balding seem evident. He lived in China for almost a century, speaking fluent mandarin now. As a young child, he used to sit by the window every morning to witness the break of dawn. The mark of a new beginning every day is like a gift from heaven, his dad used to say, that's why today is call the present. Windows were always his volatile frames, his memories, his past. Looking out the ever changing frame, anticipating a different scene, every effort seemed to successfully manipulate his emotions. He is known today as the computer geek windowman. His outlet for windows features from windows with oriental surrounds to contemporary designs. Business is better than during the 90s with main exports to china. Even the governor of the state buys from him. He likes chop sticks and asian food, quite unlikely for a Canadian geek. He likes muscle cars and especially the colour red. Red of prosperity, he believes. He’s a church go-er, and attends a house cell group every Friday nights. He believes in the window selling ministry, reaching out to endless clients every week, hoping someone would ask him why he is always joyful every day. And yes, he is always joyful whenever, wherever. Desperately wanting to tell everyone his secret, he sets up an extra window at his shop front with a note saying, a window opportunity to discover the secret of joyful living, ask owner for more information. He likes gadgets and sophisticated machinery. Ironically a minimalist himself, his shop has minimal design components. He cannot bear not matching colours and shades. He suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder, everything must be precisely, inch to inch aligned and organized. His wife and 3 boys similarly grew to accommodate his disorder, the kitchen and kids’ room are always in tip top condition. He enjoys solitary time doing Chinese calligraphy in his study, but also enjoys hosting people in his place. Extremely hospitable, is what people note him to be. He needs a new name for his shop, replacing the old, Willy Windows. Besides, it’s time for a change in new perspective after 8 years. He needs a bigger car, a family car and also a new toothbrush. He wants a chain of franchise in china, and preferably in the Middle East as well. He wants the new Apple Iphone 3G. He wants to be a cool dad, and attempts to catch up with contemporary music. He’s a family orientated person and the next thing he wants, is a wooden horse?

horse latitudes.

horses made from wood.