VERTICAL GLASS HOUSE
a project by Atelier FCJZ
longteng avenue, xuhui, shanghai, china, completed 2013
________________________________________________________
Glass houses aren't typically very practical to live in, but the Vertical Glass House differs from most similar structures thanks to a design that combines architectural novelty with a degree of privacy. Though it sports see-through ceilings and floors, a concrete facade ensures occupants are shielded from the gaze of passers-by.
Glass houses aren't typically very practical to live in, but the Vertical Glass House differs from most similar structures thanks to a design that combines architectural novelty with a degree of privacy. Though it sports see-through ceilings and floors, a concrete facade ensures occupants are shielded from the gaze of passers-by.
Located in Shanghai, China, Vertical Glass House was originally designed for an architecture competition back in 1991, before finally being constructed by Atelier FCJZ last year for the Shanghai West Bund Biennial Architecture
and Contemporary Art exhibition. It now serves as an occasional guesthouse for visiting artists and architects. The four-story dwelling has a total floor space of 170 sq m (1,829 sq ft), but a physical footprint of only around 40 sq m (430 sq ft). Its outer appearance is very simple and the concrete facade is broken only by a few small slits which emit light onto the street outside at night.
Except for an occasional panel to support the spiral staircase, the ceilings, floors, and even the roof within Vertical Glass House are all constructed from durable 7-cm (2.7-in) thick tempered glass slabs, which are supported by a large central steel column and framework. This layout enables visitors to view each room in the house from top to bottom by simply looking up or down.
From the architect:
Vertical Glass House was designed by Yung Ho Chang as an entry to the annual Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition organized by the Japan Architect magazine in 1991. Chang received an Honorable Mention award for the project. Twenty-two years later in 2013, the West Bund Biennale of Architecture and Contemporary Art in Shanghai decided to build it as one of its permanent pavilions.
Vertical Glass House is a urban housing prototype and discusses the notion of transparency in verticality while serving as a critic of Modernist transparency in horizontality or a glass house that always opens to landscape and provides no privacy. While turning the classic glass house 90 degrees, Vertical Glass House is on one hand spiritual: With enclosed walls and transparent floors as well as roof, the house opens to the sky and the earth, positions the inhabitant right in the middle, and creates a place for meditation. On the other hand, Vertical Glass House is material: Vertical transparency visually connects all the utilities,ductworks, furniture pieces on different levels, as well as the staircase, into a system of domesticity and provides another reading of the modern theory of “Architecture as living machine.”
The structure erected in Shanghai in 2013 was closely based on the 22-years old design scheme by Chang and developed by the Atelier FCJZ. With a footprint of less than 40 square meters, the 4-story residence is enclosed with solid concrete walls leaving little visual connection to its immediate surrounding. The walls were cast in rough wooden formwork on the exterior and smooth boards on the interior to give a contrast in texture in surface from the inside out. Within the concrete enclosure, a singular steel post is at the center with steel beams divide the space in quarters and frame each domestic activity along with the concrete walls. All the floor slabs for the Vertical Glass House, which consists of 7cm thick composite tempered glass slabs, cantilevers beyond the concrete shell through the horizontal slivers on the façade. The perimeter of each glass slab is lit from within the house; therefore, light transmits through the glass at night to give a sense of mystic for the pedestrians passing by. All the furniture were designed specifically for the rooms inside the Vertical Glass House to be true to the original design concept and keep a cohere appearance with its structures and stairs. Air conditioning was added to the House.
The Vertical Glass House will be operated by the West Bund Biennale as a one-room guest house for visiting artists and architects while serving as an architectural exhibition.
________________________________________________________
text and images via:
Arch Daily: http://goo.gl/uoZQ4I
GizMag: http://goo.gl/DkY0sa
Dezeen: http://goo.gl/dUFUPe
Designboom: http://goo.gl/u6WWCb
No comments:
Post a Comment