JV House

The brief from the client was quite simple: to design a compact house for a small family of three on a 450 sm site in Surabaya. The client wished for lots of spaces for recreational activities, both exterior and interior, to be used by the whole family and close relatives.

From the street, the house is perceived as a pavilion, where, apart from the garage, it hovers above the ground with only a small part touching the ground to provide a point of entry, from which a ramp leads to the main entrance of the house. The brief for a compact house leads to the arrangement of all living area and bedrooms on the first floor. The main living area opens fully to the internal court, a space dedicated for the swimming pool. An emphasis on the horizontality can be seen in the design of the house, in reference to mid-century modern architecture.

The second floor of the house is dedicated fully for recreational activities and games. A ramp that connects the two floors of the house becomes somewhat a distinctive element of the house, as it breaks the horizontality commonly visible throughout the house. The ramp, a vertical space flanking the central courtyard, continues the horizontal lines by a glass opening to the central court, but makes reference to the sky as it is lit via a skylight filtered by a metal screen. The 3 dimensional metal screen becomes an aperture from which light decorate the wall and floors of the ramp, slowly changing throughout the day according to the position of the sun.

The wood siding on the front facade of the house marks the transformation of the white box, as the white box is pushed in or expanded out to create shading necessary in the tropical climate. The stainless steel mesh above the internal court protects the house from mosquitoes and provides shading from excessive solar gain.