Spatial Differentiation

The project is a guest house for a visiting evening lecturer to the School of Architecture. Using Venturi’s passage from Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture as a point of departure: “the expressive differentiation of the inside and outside,” the project explored two ideas: One, spatial nesting as a tactic to create ambiguities between inside and outside, and two, how openings and apertures can facilitate this ambiguity.

Formally, a simple shed roof was constructed over the existing concrete structure. Two large openings are introduced, channeling air and light into the building, and defining a garden and courtyard below that’s open to the sky. Beneath the oversized hip roof, a loft structure containing integrated service spaces and built-in furniture is situated within the larger volume. Transparent and opaque folding and sliding doors are used extensively to hide programmatic components and heighten the sense of ambiguity between inside and outside space.