FRENTE- "A Revolutionary House Concept"

Architects: FRENTE / Juan Pablo Maza

Location: Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China

Design year: 2008

Construction year: 2009

Curator: Ai Weiwei, Beijing, ChinaClient: Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd, Inner Mongolia, China

Constructed Area: 1,000 sqm aprox

concept diagrams

The immediate context drove the decision of designing an introvert villa. As a result of the extreme weather, it has been chosen to bury the house taking advantage of the generosity of underground temperatures and therefore neutralizing the harsh winter and summer weather conditions.

On the other hand, realizing the good weather during spring and autumn times, the villa responds to this duality by leaving a part of the construction completely exposed, and therefore completely extrovert. This way, the villa celebrates the duality of an introvert-extrovert house.

section 01

By taking advantage of the apparent duplicity of the required areas, eighty percent of the program has been maintained in a “big villa” (buried), which lives around an internal courtyard, in a scheme that promotes family interaction and emphasizes the sence of community. The duplicate program is separated and put into a mass equals to the size of the courtyard, thus creating a private “small villa” (floating) which gains the views and gives any family member the opportunity of temporal isolation.

By dividing the program (underground and floating), the ground floor is freed allowing it to be used as public space without loosing privacy.

The main landscape idea, is to suggest a forest within a desert environment. This forest is made out of steel columns that act as “camouflage” for the floating villa’s structure, and also gives the visitors a consciousness of trespassing private area.

upper level plan

section 04

section 05

section 02

ground level plan

section 03

lower level plan

section 06