House 3R

In an arcadian wooded setting overlooking the vast Kvarner Bay and its islands on a cramped corner site sits an old run-down boat-engine service workshop, which was first extended, and then deserted. Behind the shabby front with a tripartite roof is a ternate enfilade of gloomy introvert rooms, each accessible by a large opening. The front bay, which overlooks the sea, has a horizontal concrete ceiling with a suspended hoist, while the other two are open up to roof level. The back bay is in toto a reinforced concrete addition to the otherwise brick-wall structure of the original house.

Situated in the center of a large family estate on a hill slope, this structure is situated on the corner of the private driveway. With no front yard on the site, the program is simple: two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a large single space consisting of a living/kitchen/dining area open to a deep loggia overlooking the sea. The whole integration of structure and construction presumes a simultaneity of structure and space. The form should acquire its designation through the exclusivity of materials, whose articulations are not a compositional adaptation of parts but a structural distribution of elements. Since the design gives shape to such an order, as a space defined by its making process, each room must include inherent instructions for use. The substitution of the transverse walls and the front facade with laminated beams under a tripartite roof creates both a single room with a night-box inserted, full glass screen/door with a deep cross-traversable loggia.

By replacing the transverse walls, the concrete slab, and the front facade with three 12-meter-long laminated beams, a new single room emerges. In order to preserve the structural integrity of the enclosure, the loose ends of the gable walls are fortified with concrete portals and flanked with a concrete infill of the eaves. The emphasis is on 3R - reduce, reuse, recycle. Both out of financial prudence and against the culture of waste, we only removed or added materials essential to the structure and the concept. The reused waste included the majority of the roofing tiles, the old steel frame and the stairs for the construction of the night-box and gallery, used formwork and cardboard tubes for furniture and formwork and steel for the long front planter box. To reminiscence previous use, the industrial air-conditioning unit hangs from the ceiling, and a white cement floor screed is generally applied. The underfloor heating is powered by a heat pump.