Living in a cave? Only a few millenniums ago it was prestigious. So how would it be to go back to the roots? How different are prehistoric cavemen from those with smartphones?

Brick Cave is an urban cave resembling house made of bricks. Different brickwork in the walls, unexpected angles, connected different shaped spaces are main characteristic that vindicate the concept of a cave in the house design. Connection to nature and surroundings is another thing that is present all around.

The house has a double brick wall for a façade, making a corridor on the ground floor. The walls connect at the top as the outer wall leans in, in different angles. First layer wall façade openings are perforated brick wall parts through which the light comes in well enough to light the space, but they also serve as a shield from the heat. Perforations are smaller on upper floors to create more privacy, opposite to those in the ground floor living area, where they are bigger, seen as a connection to the street. On some parts, they are also designed to let the rain through, making this unusual connection with nature.

The cave effect continues inside as all interior walls are also done in brick and additional materials are wood and glass. Spaces are connected and movement through the house finishes finding an exit from the cave to the garden roof. It resembles the garden that was there before the house but also gives an illusion of going out to the natural ground exiting the cave. Continue reading Brick Cave

Squeezed between two traditional houses on a residential area street, this house is nothing traditional. At the same time, it is just what it is. It accommodates all “traditional house” spaces such as living space area, bedrooms, parking lot, garden and even a pool. All that is designed on a 7x20m meters plot.

From the street, the house looks like a group of terraces one on top of the other. And they are filled with plants. This first impression does describe the house. It was supposed to provide a natural environment with lots of green open space. The design is a floating space of open and closed areas in a continuing garden. Its track starts from the entrance gate and ends on the roof terrace. It goes through terraces and different closed space volumes connected with a central staircase.

Instead of a garden on the ground or roof, the garden is all-around. It gives an image of a vertical garden with plants appearing on different levels terraces. The plants are also technically contributing to the house as shades and insulation and more importantly providing a desired natural environment that puts a house inside a garden and not a garden around a house.

This garden doesn’t stop at the entrance door. It engages the whole house. Interior surfaces are done in wood, concrete and mostly in local brick, chosen to cut the expenses. But also this gives an “outside feeling “ inside, and with indoor plants and those seen through big window surfaces a complete impression of living in a garden is accomplished. Continue reading Ha House

What is the central part of a house? The roof is the right answer for the Roof House. This particular family had a special joy in spending time together on the roof, and that was the first input for the architect in the process of design.

The roof has its own table, chairs, kitchen, shower, and a stove. This makes it comfortable and an equal part of the house comparing to the inside spaces. It is accessible from every room in the house through the skylights. Every skylight becomes an access point to the roof through a ladder, and each family member has one of their own. This describes a clear concept of the Roof House and the importance of the roof for every family member so as the family by itself.

Even if the roof is a central gathering place of the house it is also the continuing part of the living room. They share the simplicity in design and also have in common the fact that they are both accessible from any other room. This provides full freedom of movement through the house.

Wooden minimalist interior design follows the Japanese philosophy about living space environment and connection to nature, also through the roof. What separates this roof form any other roof terrace is that it is not plain. It is a “proper roof” without parapets. This is another thing that underlines the clear design concept of the architect. Continue reading Roof House