Style of Design

© Timothy Hursley

Architects: Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design
Location: Northridge, California, USA
Design Principal: Mehrdad Yazdani
Principal in Charge: Craig Hamilton
Project Manager: Martha Ball
Planning Principal: Tom Harvath
Senior Designers: Craig Booth + Philip Ra
Project Architects: Jessica Yi + Larry Taniguichi
QA/QC: Jim Peschl
FFE: Jack Poulin
Project Area: 90,000 sqf
Budget: $44,800,000
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Timothy Hursley

The building opened last fall and serves students from throughout the College of Science and Mathematics who have greater access to new and improved lecture halls on the first floor and computer labs throughout the building. The building is home to the Department of Biology’s office as well as much of the department’s offerings, including teaching and research activities. Chaparral Hall includes 18 research labs, nine introductory teaching labs and 13 lecture rooms in addition to a DNA sequencing lab and a microscopy suite. The building has two computer labs equipped with high-speed “hard wired” and wireless connections. The building also supports fiber optic data transmission required by high-bandwidth instruments like the new confocal and electron microscopes.

first floor plan

© Timothy Hursley

The complex encompasses a four story outdoor lobby and plaza and a three-level outdoor public staircase which facilitates circulation to the teaching labs located on the upper floors, serves to orientate visitors, and promotes social interaction.

© Timothy Hursley

A plaza facing the Botanical Gardens offers the students quiet space for study and reflection. A continuous outdoor covered walkway enables pedestrian circulation around the facility while visually connecting the Science Complex and the campus.

© Timothy Hursley

Architects: Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design / Mehrdad Yazdani
Location: Northridge, California, USA
Principals in Charge: Craig Hamilton & Martha Ball
Project Manager: Tom Harvath
Planning Principals: Craig Booth & Philip Ra
Senior Designer: Jessica Yi
Project Architects: Larry Taniguichi, Jim Peshl, Jack Poulin
Consultants: Structural Engineer: saiful Bouquet structural engineers, Mechanical/electrical/plumbing engineers: Bard rao + athanas consulting engineers, landscape architect: pamela Burton & company, laboratory Design: research Facilities Design, cost estimators: Davis langdon, civil engineering: Wheeler + Gray engineering, Telecom + Data: p2s engineering
Project Area: 90,000 sqf
Budget: $44,800,000
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Timothy Hursley

The building opened last fall and serves students from throughout the College of Science and Mathematics who have greater access to new and improved lecture halls on the first floor and computer labs throughout the building. The building is home to the Department of Biology’s office as well as much of the department’s offerings, including teaching and research activities. Chaparral Hall includes 18 research labs, nine introductory teaching labs and 13 lecture rooms in addition to a DNA sequencing lab and a microscopy suite. The building has two computer labs equipped with high-speed “hard wired” and wireless connections. The building also supports fiber optic data transmission required by high-bandwidth instruments like the new confocal and electron microscopes.

first floor plan

© Timothy Hursley

The complex encompasses a four story outdoor lobby and plaza and a three-level outdoor public staircase which facilitates circulation to the teaching labs located on the upper floors, serves to orientate visitors, and promotes social interaction.

© Timothy Hursley

A plaza facing the Botanical Gardens offers the students quiet space for study and reflection. A continuous outdoor covered walkway enables pedestrian circulation around the facility while visually connecting the Science Complex and the campus.

© Vito Stallone

Architects: L3P Architects
Location: Regensberg, Canton Zurich, Switzerland
Project Architects: Boris Egli Arch.FH, Rolf Lüthi Arch.SIA
Light planning: Vogt + Partner, Winterthur
Exhibition: René Kindlimann, Aathal
Historian: Dr. Bruno Meier, Baden & Dr.Dominik Sauerländer, Aarau
Cantonal historic monument preservation: Beat Stahel
Client: Foundation Castle Regensberg
Gross floor area: 47.4 sqm, 6 floors
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Vito Stallone

The castle-tower is under historical monuments’ protection and is a distinctive landmark in the region of Zurich. The tower is 21 metres high, the walls being up to 3 metres thick, and the interior radius averaging about 3.5 m.

As old as the hills and rusty fresh: rusty steel is used for all fixtures; the archaic expression of the castle-tower is underlined.

section

All existing technical installations have been removed, integrated in the walls or disguised in the timber work hung with rusty wire meshing. This pacification of room lends a marked accent on the stonework of the walls and the mounted objects exhibited on them. The medieval atmosphere has been reinforced with indirect and diffuse lighting.

© Vito Stallone

The exhibition wages through local history vertically. As one ascends the levels, the exhibition themes become younger in their historical development: from mediaeval times on the ground floor, to the 20th century on the 5th floor.

As the battlement is ascended, one is ultimately confronted with the modern era. The weather-proofed exit is in reference to the interior free space of the upper castle. The materialisation with fibre glass, as well as the volumetry reminds one of a snail shell discovered petrified in the battlement cover. Information signs on the flat roof illuminate the modern era view.

© Vito Stallone

The outdoor lighting of the tower has been renewed with a contemporary projection technique, which completely reduces light pollution and brings a 12-fold reduction of energy use.

© Vito Stallone

Architects: L3P Architects
Location: Regensberg, Canton Zurich, Switzerland
Project Architects: Boris Egli Arch.FH, Rolf Lüthi Arch.SIA
Light planning: Vogt + Partner, Winterthur
Exhibition: René Kindlimann, Aathal
Historian: Dr. Bruno Meier, Baden & Dr.Dominik Sauerländer, Aarau
Cantonal historic monument preservation: Beat Stahel
Client: Foundation Castle Regensberg
Gross floor area: 47.4 sqm, 6 floors
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Vito Stallone

The castle-tower is under historical monuments’ protection and is a distinctive landmark in the region of Zurich. The tower is 21 metres high, the walls being up to 3 metres thick, and the interior radius averaging about 3.5 m.

As old as the hills and rusty fresh: rusty steel is used for all fixtures; the archaic expression of the castle-tower is underlined.

section

All existing technical installations have been removed, integrated in the walls or disguised in the timber work hung with rusty wire meshing. This pacification of room lends a marked accent on the stonework of the walls and the mounted objects exhibited on them. The medieval atmosphere has been reinforced with indirect and diffuse lighting.

© Vito Stallone

The exhibition wages through local history vertically. As one ascends the levels, the exhibition themes become younger in their historical development: from mediaeval times on the ground floor, to the 20th century on the 5th floor.

As the battlement is ascended, one is ultimately confronted with the modern era. The weather-proofed exit is in reference to the interior free space of the upper castle. The materialisation with fibre glass, as well as the volumetry reminds one of a snail shell discovered petrified in the battlement cover. Information signs on the flat roof illuminate the modern era view.

© Vito Stallone

The outdoor lighting of the tower has been renewed with a contemporary projection technique, which completely reduces light pollution and brings a 12-fold reduction of energy use.

© Aitor Ortiz

Architects: ACXT
Location: Boroa, Amorebieta-Etxano, Biscay, Spain
Project Architects: Javier Pérez Uribarri, Xabier Aparicio Ortega
Client: AIC Fundation
Project Team: Jose Cavallero, Nuno Lobo, Roberto Fdez De Gamboa, Roberto Aparicio, Cristina Lamikiz, Oscar Costa, Marc Rips, Jose Cavallero, Nuno Lobo, Fernado Ortega, Marina Duran, Oscar Malo, Arrate Achalandobaso, Ziortza Bardeci, Francisco García, Angel Gómez
Engineering: Amaia Lastra, Oscar Malo, Rafael Pérez, Francisco García, Angel Gómez, Ibai Ormaza, Igor Udaondo
Site Supervisors: Javier Pérez Uribarri, Xabier Aparicio Ortega, Oscar Malo, Rafael Pérez, Amaia Lastra, Mikel Presilla
Contractor: Balzola
Total Floor Area: 19,006 sqm (Phase I)
Project Year: 2006-2007
Construction Year: 2007-2008
Photographs: Aitor Ortiz

Scheme and Conditioning Factors

A complex of 3 buildings and landscaping destined for R&D+i in the Automotive Sector.

Two of the buildings are intended for use as Development Units (halls) with laboratories and small-scale production.
The third, the Main Building, houses research units of various companies in the automotive sector, a laboratory (for common projects among the resident companies) and the social block of the complex, comprising: main lobby, auditorium, training classrooms, classrooms for projects in cooperation with universities, and the offices of the centre’s management.

axo

The site was flat when the project was drawn up. The landscaping plan for the industrial estate has strongly altered the original topography. Due to the reduced height limit permitted on the estate, and the elevated ground level of a large part of the site boundaries, the roof of our buildings has a great visual impact. In addition, the presence of a large Combined Cycle Power Station beside the East façade has to be added.

This research centre has nothing to do with a Technology Centre as far as usage is concerned. A Technology Centre is run by an institution and provides services. The AIC was born from the idea of it being the same companies as set up the complex that have their own research spaces in it, but that there are other spaces for projects carried out jointly with them, and the management is a mix of both public and private.

Compositional Solution

The Development Units are set in isolation for functional reasons and for future versatility.
A triangular landscaped area articulates the space between the Development Units, the Main Building and the spaces reserved for future expansion.

© Aitor Ortiz

The complexity of the main building’s facilities is unified under a large silver aerodynamically-shaped roof inspired by the bodywork of prototypes and racing cars.

The main building is composed of two fundamental parts: the social area, set around the main lobby; and the area for R&D projects.

In the transverse section of the R&D area, the functional layout is understood in the solution that has been given to the problem of the confidentiality of the activities in the centre (those specific to each company and those shared with others). Continuing from West to East, we have the garden, a landscaped fold in the terrain generating a patio alongside the façade which we call a “burladero” [literally “the barrier behind which the bullfighter takes refuge in the bullring”]. It is serves as a screen so that small machines can be installed for the laboratories of each company without any visual impact. Company laboratory downstairs, offices upstairs. Continuing at the ground floor level, an internal access “street” with the laboratories off it, for the companies one side and on the other side those in common. Above it, at the first floor level, a passageway fulfils the same service for people to access the offices of the companies. And finally the area of the shared laboratory, the highest enclosed space in the building. The lower parts of the roof are reserved for future “units” of the shared projects. At the end, the East façade is designed like a fold of the roof down to the ground, negating the presence of the combined cycle power station.

© Aitor Ortiz

The “street” is covered in order to reinforce the image of unity the centre wishes to convey; not to mention the advantages in standing up to the Vizcaya climate, as well as facilitating the control of some habitually untidy spaces (the accesses to any premises, full of boxes and rubbish that “aren’t anybody’s”).

The social area is planned at the head of the building. A large lobby facing South forms the end of the internal “street”, surprising those entering it. Some huge glass doors make this connection possible: a car can get in as far as the lobby (for presentations of new models, prototypes, etc). The training areas are integrated into an aluminium box: an auditorium downstairs, training classrooms upstairs.

perspective section

The management is located in the most aerodynamic element of the roof: a fold inspired by the air intakes of racing cars. It facilitates a generous access porch and gives the centre’s management to have a commanding view of all the facades.

Urban Insertion

The complex is located on an industrial estate away from the urban nucleus. The design strategies have been geared, on the one hand, to making the building visible from the bordering motorway (the aspect of the South facing lobby), and on the other, to avoiding the constant view of the Combined Cycle Power Station from the work spaces. This is achieved by orientating them towards the West, where a garden provides a rest for the eyes, something that is atypical on such an estate.

The triangular garden articulates the space between the Development Units, the Main Building, and the spaces reserved for future expansion.

© Aitor Ortiz

Constructional Characteristics

Special care has been paid so that the necessarily elevated number of outdoor machines and equipment that a centre of this type needs, have the least visual and acoustic impact. To that end various patios have been planned, both let into both the façade (“burladeros”) and the roof (see transverse section). The solar panels are installed over the roof patios, contributing to that idea of concealment.

The structure is of steel at the head (social area) and prefabricated concrete in the rest. The facades are of kalzip and curtain walling.

© Aitor Ortiz

Architects: ACXT
Location: Boroa, Amorebieta-Etxano, Biscay, Spain
Project Architects: Javier Pérez Uribarri, Xabier Aparicio Ortega
Client: AIC Fundation
Project Team: Jose Cavallero, Nuno Lobo, Roberto Fdez De Gamboa, Roberto Aparicio, Cristina Lamikiz, Oscar Costa, Marc Rips, Jose Cavallero, Nuno Lobo, Fernado Ortega, Marina Duran, Oscar Malo, Arrate Achalandobaso, Ziortza Bardeci, Francisco García, Angel Gómez
Engineering: Amaia Lastra, Oscar Malo, Rafael Pérez, Francisco García, Angel Gómez, Ibai Ormaza, Igor Udaondo
Site Supervisors: Javier Pérez Uribarri, Xabier Aparicio Ortega, Oscar Malo, Rafael Pérez, Amaia Lastra, Mikel Presilla
Contractor: Balzola
Total Floor Area: 19,006 sqm (Phase I)
Project Year: 2006-2007
Construction Year: 2007-2008
Photographs: Aitor Ortiz

Scheme and Conditioning Factors

A complex of 3 buildings and landscaping destined for R&D+i in the Automotive Sector.

Two of the buildings are intended for use as Development Units (halls) with laboratories and small-scale production.
The third, the Main Building, houses research units of various companies in the automotive sector, a laboratory (for common projects among the resident companies) and the social block of the complex, comprising: main lobby, auditorium, training classrooms, classrooms for projects in cooperation with universities, and the offices of the centre’s management.

axo

The site was flat when the project was drawn up. The landscaping plan for the industrial estate has strongly altered the original topography. Due to the reduced height limit permitted on the estate, and the elevated ground level of a large part of the site boundaries, the roof of our buildings has a great visual impact. In addition, the presence of a large Combined Cycle Power Station beside the East façade has to be added.

This research centre has nothing to do with a Technology Centre as far as usage is concerned. A Technology Centre is run by an institution and provides services. The AIC was born from the idea of it being the same companies as set up the complex that have their own research spaces in it, but that there are other spaces for projects carried out jointly with them, and the management is a mix of both public and private.

Compositional Solution

The Development Units are set in isolation for functional reasons and for future versatility.
A triangular landscaped area articulates the space between the Development Units, the Main Building and the spaces reserved for future expansion.

© Aitor Ortiz

The complexity of the main building’s facilities is unified under a large silver aerodynamically-shaped roof inspired by the bodywork of prototypes and racing cars.

The main building is composed of two fundamental parts: the social area, set around the main lobby; and the area for R&D projects.

In the transverse section of the R&D area, the functional layout is understood in the solution that has been given to the problem of the confidentiality of the activities in the centre (those specific to each company and those shared with others). Continuing from West to East, we have the garden, a landscaped fold in the terrain generating a patio alongside the façade which we call a “burladero” [literally “the barrier behind which the bullfighter takes refuge in the bullring”]. It is serves as a screen so that small machines can be installed for the laboratories of each company without any visual impact. Company laboratory downstairs, offices upstairs. Continuing at the ground floor level, an internal access “street” with the laboratories off it, for the companies one side and on the other side those in common. Above it, at the first floor level, a passageway fulfils the same service for people to access the offices of the companies. And finally the area of the shared laboratory, the highest enclosed space in the building. The lower parts of the roof are reserved for future “units” of the shared projects. At the end, the East façade is designed like a fold of the roof down to the ground, negating the presence of the combined cycle power station.

© Aitor Ortiz

The “street” is covered in order to reinforce the image of unity the centre wishes to convey; not to mention the advantages in standing up to the Vizcaya climate, as well as facilitating the control of some habitually untidy spaces (the accesses to any premises, full of boxes and rubbish that “aren’t anybody’s”).

The social area is planned at the head of the building. A large lobby facing South forms the end of the internal “street”, surprising those entering it. Some huge glass doors make this connection possible: a car can get in as far as the lobby (for presentations of new models, prototypes, etc). The training areas are integrated into an aluminium box: an auditorium downstairs, training classrooms upstairs.

perspective section

The management is located in the most aerodynamic element of the roof: a fold inspired by the air intakes of racing cars. It facilitates a generous access porch and gives the centre’s management to have a commanding view of all the facades.

Urban Insertion

The complex is located on an industrial estate away from the urban nucleus. The design strategies have been geared, on the one hand, to making the building visible from the bordering motorway (the aspect of the South facing lobby), and on the other, to avoiding the constant view of the Combined Cycle Power Station from the work spaces. This is achieved by orientating them towards the West, where a garden provides a rest for the eyes, something that is atypical on such an estate.

The triangular garden articulates the space between the Development Units, the Main Building, and the spaces reserved for future expansion.

© Aitor Ortiz

Constructional Characteristics

Special care has been paid so that the necessarily elevated number of outdoor machines and equipment that a centre of this type needs, have the least visual and acoustic impact. To that end various patios have been planned, both let into both the façade (“burladeros”) and the roof (see transverse section). The solar panels are installed over the roof patios, contributing to that idea of concealment.

The structure is of steel at the head (social area) and prefabricated concrete in the rest. The facades are of kalzip and curtain walling.

This villa is located in plot #43 of the ORDOS project.

Architects: Iwamoto Scott Architecture
Location: Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China
Principals in Charge: Lisa Iwamoto & Craig Scott
Project team: Blake Altshuler, Keith Plymale, Magda Melo, Sean Canty, Ryan Golenberg, Christina Kaneva
Projects Assistants: Jason Chang, Manuel Diaz, Ashley Li, Alan Lu, Doron Serban, Wei Huang, John Kim
Design year: 2008
Construction year: 2009-2010
Curator: Ai Weiwei, Beijing, China
Client: Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd, Inner Mongolia, China
Constructed Area: 1,000 sqm aprox

The design of Villa 043 derives from exploring certain formal/spatial/material preoccupations while engaging the pragmatic realities of the project brief. Some of Plot 043’s key site factors include substantial southerly and easterly views afforded by a raised elevation and sloping topography, as well as a high degree of exposure to adjacent public buildings and open spaces. Accordingly, Villa 043 aims to conflate two inverse spatial paradigms: the Chinese courtyard house, with its inward focus towards a central exterior space, offering sanctuary and protection; and the Western villa, with its outward orientation and potential to capture views to the surrounding landscape. During our first trip to China, we were also intrigued by the discovery in various built examples of an oblique spatiality that enriches an otherwise strict orthogonal order. Villa 043 melds and transforms these archetypal spatial concepts, evolving into an adaptational site-specific architecture.

Inspiration came as well from examples of landform and built form that merge together via the logic and materiality of masonry construction. The overall form of Villa 043 is conceived as a twisted stack of east-west oriented bricks, strategically carved out by exterior void spaces. The villa’s base geometry originates at the ground as a square footprint rotated five degrees off the recommended building footprint from the master plan by FAKE Design. This square then subtly shears counterclockwise toward the roof, resolving at the top as a parallelogram realigned with the site’s edges, and tilted in section to follow the site’s slope.

In response to the suggested use of local construction techniques, the villa’s structure is reinforced concrete, meeting local seismic requirements; and the exterior cladding material is variegated brickwork, offering a visual and tactile complexity, plus shelter from the frigid winds and snow of winter and the scorching heat and sandstorms of summer. The brick envelope’s coursing and bonding patterns adapt to the villa’s specific geometry. The technique of corbelling allows the brick to assume the supple geometries of ruled surfaces, while the bonding patterns vary according to the formal logic of the walls: the twisting south and north walls are clad with corbelled, stacked stretcher bond; whereas the vertical faces of the east and west facades receive staggered header bond, adapted to the walls’ five-degrees-off-vertical leaning edges.

Villa 043’s program is configured with large living room, dining, kitchens and study all located one level above entry, in a ‘piano nobile’ arrangement. At this raised height, views of the surrounding landscape are pulled in by the geometry of the house. The entry level contains small living room, bedrooms and the workers quarters and attaches to the garage. Each bedroom has direct southern exposure, while the master suite is distinguished through its position at the uppermost level. The pool, gym, sauna, home-theater and guest suite form the base of the villa and connect to an outdoor pool terrace to the east.

Vertical circulation wraps around the central void as a double helix that intertwines interior and exterior stairways, dynamically linking the villa’s major interior program with five interconnected exterior spaces: a central courtyard which connects all levels; a covered terrace positioned opposite the main entry to face the eastern view; a large south-facing terrace opening directly off the main living room, and forming a circuit of movement via access from the study; an open rooftop terrace above; and a small winter garden situated between dining and living rooms. These five exterior spaces also serve to bring sunlight and cross-ventilating breezes into and through the interior spaces of the villa.

This villa is located in plot #63 of the ORDOS project.

Architects: Polaris Architects
Location: Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China
Principals in Charge: Jean & Luc Larnaudie
Design year: 2008
Construction year: 2009-2010
Curator: Ai Weiwei, Beijing, China
Client: Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd, Inner Mongolia, China
Constructed Area: 1,000 sqm aprox

Villa #63 by Polaris Architects is entitled Showcase Study House. The building aims to meet the expectations of an art collector, a gallery owner or an artist.

The user’s profile is described by the architects in a manifesto entitled « House for Mr. and Ms. X ». The user’s profile looks somewhat like the architects, who are themselves modest contemporary art collectors.

Some 10 European artists who contributed to the architects’ own collection kindly lent illustrations of original artworks to support the idea of a coherent private exhibition. These artworks are not part of the design by Polaris Architects and remain their respective authors’ property.

The main exhibition hall constitutes the core of the villa. All other functions are located in two wings, one on each side of the main hall. The master bedroom, dining and living rooms are oriented southward. The other bedrooms, the kitchen and the garage are located in the second wing. The underground level, open to the garden, includes an indoor swimming pool, a gym and a sauna. The garden is foreseen to serve as an additional exhibition and event space, and also features an outdoor swimming pool.

All bearing walls are made of cast-in-place concrete. The design offers a continuous envelope made of thick rigid insulation in order to achieve « low » to « passive » energy performance. The facade is strongly insulated, covered by coating and painted according to a specific pattern. The roof is made of wood carpentry, insulated and covered by zinc.

Architects: Jarmund/Vigsnæs AS Architects MNAL
Location: Sognefjellet, Norway
Client: Ole Drægni
Project Architects: Einar Jarmund & Håkon Vigsnæs
Collaborator: Roar Lund-Johnsen
Project Year: 2001-2002
Constructed Area: 1,500 sqm
Photographs: Nils Petter Dale

The old Turtagrø Hotel, which has been the starting point for climbing in the Hurrungane Mountains for more than a hundred years, burned down in 2001. The owner wanted to create some of the atmosphere of the old building – a recognisable scale, spatial sequence, colours and materials, relating to a nearby timber annex. Outside of this the requirement was for a hotel with a new architectonic expression and an efficient layout.

All communal functions have been placed on ground or basement floor around a small reception, with all guest rooms on first and second floor. It was a challenge to combine large capacity with the necessary intimacy in the communal areas. The guest rooms differ from conventional hotel rooms in that they have no ante-space, and are shallower and wider than normal. This gives the opportunity for a more open connection between bed- and bathroom. The interiors are robust and simple.

The architectonic expression of the building ties it visually to the surrounding mountains, and allows the three ascending tower suites. The architecture sets up a dialogue with the landscape, while the stonewalls, carves panels surfaces and the recessed glazing talk with the existing annex.

The hotel is built with a steel structure and prefabricated decks spanning between the external walls, giving the plan full freedom. It is clad with timber panelling, felt shingles and natural stone externally, with lime-washed panelling, painted wooden floors and oiled oak in the interior.

This villa is located in plot #47 of the ORDOS project.

Architects: Preston Scott Cohen
Location: Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China
Project Team: Preston Scott Cohen (Design);  Hao RUAN, David Shanks(Project Assistants); Yair Keshet(Model)
Design year: 2008
Construction year: 2009-2010
Curator: Ai Weiwei, Beijing, China
Client: Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd, Inner Mongolia, China
Constructed Area: 1,000 sqm aprox

For architecture, the large contemporary house poses a problem of proportionality and character. Big houses tend to become little buildings imbued with an institutional character. Too often, they are comparable to small museums with interiors more suitable for exhibition than for dwelling.

This house at once concedes to and intensifies this tendency while proposing an alternative.  While it appears to be an unusually miniature, monumental building, it nevertheless provides interior spaces that are unexpectedly domestic in character. The surrounding neighborhood of houses does not allow a contextual sense of belonging.  Thus, the miniature building acts like a buoy – anchored and adrift – without the usual moorings of a house. In lieu of a significant architectural context, surrounded by an arid landscape and subject to severe weather conditions, the house needs to establish its own setting in order to provide an oasis within it.

Initially, the house appears to be a small, townhouse-like urban dwelling with an overgrown roof garden.  In fact, this is the least of it. Below it is a large, rambling entertainment and guest villa, organized around two courtyards.  Between the two is a tumultuous landscape-like form that unmoors the townhouse and ostensibly causes it to lean.

Inside the tower, the inhabitant will feel the tilt.  The building envelope will seem to be independent of the interior, with the stairs binding all levels from top to bottom in a coil-like fashion, leading from the lowest public living room to the garage (the garage is located between the upper and lower houses), and winding its way around the leaning tower all the way up to the private roof terrace on top.

In the villa below, the primary interior living spaces alternate with the exterior courtyards, thus overcoming the underground condition.  A railing/fence surrounds the whole house, protecting it from uninvited scrutiny. Where people are able to look down, from the driveway and entry, they will see the pool, not the living room or private bedrooms. Being skewed, the courtyards create a sense of expansiveness and drift as opposed to confinement or containment.

The house is a rough, poured-in-place concrete frame and infill structure clad in gray brick and tile.  The tower cantilevers from a reinforced concrete base frame that is supported by two large reinforced concrete structural arches and from tension rods cast in the diagonally opposite linear edges of the hyperbolic parobolas.