Art School Residence
Nominated for the Mies van de Rohe European Architecture Award, 2017
Completed 2016
The project is situated in remote farmland accessible thorough unpaved roads mostly used by farmers. The brief called for a small art school and a nearby residence. There should be easy access between the two through a covered and safe passage. The barren and relatively remote landscape called for a private and safe outdoor space that could facilitate both the Art School and the Residence. An interior yard is proposed which offers a central space that could serve both the house residents and the students on alternative hours. This central courtyard, which will be planted with trees, could become a place of interaction between the more permanent residents and the transient students of the school. The common spaces within the residence have an immediate relationship with the central yard, while the bedrooms have adjacent private outdoor spaces along the perimeter of the house. A dirt road leads to the front of the building and the two entrances, one being the entrance to the house and the other to the school. The entrance to the house leads to a sequence of common spaces organized around the central courtyard. A corridor as an extension of the common spaces leads to the doors of the bedrooms. At the end of this corridor, which faces the yard, a glass door leads to an outdoor covered space and the more private entry to the school. The orientation of the house is mostly South in contrast to the school that faces North.