Since we have immersed ourselves in the world of luxury architecture, we find it was appropriate to write on the blog about this subject, with particular emphasis on how certain homes generate current trends. But before we begin, it is important to define what is and what brings luxury for us, an issue that has proven to be anything but trivial.
As we say that the luxury home has some fantasy and artifice, and therefore is criticized and loved in equal measure. We consider that in architecture, luxury is not in materials, nor is it in volumes; Luxury is in the air. It is a purely immaterial concept. The most luxurious house can have multiple forms: it may be the one that dominates the horizon, the one that climbs to the tops of the trees or the one that hides in a rock to not alter the landscape.
For example, 7th Room designed by Snøhetta is a sort of tree house that aims to bring nature to those who have the fortune to temporarily inhabit it, even making the way to it such an experience. It certainly is a different way of understanding the luxury.
So is Villa Vals project in Switzerland, the work by SeARCH and Christian Müller Architects, whose living space is underground, while an elliptical patio on the outside contributes to build a view of the place that leaves no one indifferent.
Let’s talk about materials, because there consider that architecture and especially construction implies a matter, and therefore its components are important; But, better material, or rather a more expensive material, does not ensure luxury. The relationship that it has with the individual who inhabits it is the key. In other words, there are tree houses that are a luxury, there are huts on the beach are a luxury, bare spaces that are a luxury. In short, materials help to create environments, but it is not an end in itself, but they provide character to each space. They can mark the identity of each of the spaces and make them unique.
Extraestudio designed a project in Azeitão (Portugal) that is a refurbishment of an old house where the finishes and materials represent the differential element that characterizes a type of inspirational luxury.
The P house, projected by Studio MK27 – Marcio Kogan and Lair Reis, is developed around three volumes that rotate creating different visual relations between empty and full ones, volumes that open to a pool building a puzzle and a place in which nature’s materiality becomes clear. Thee exposed concrete is the chosen material in this case for the volumes giving the false ceilings a unique identity; Far from downplaying luxury, this common component provides personality to the whole.
We have examples of this luxury immateriality to which we refer among our projects, specifically in two of the houses located in Kuwait.
At the first one, Three Gardens House, whose main feature is the stratification of exterior uses according to the period of the year in three levels, the use of a very simple and economical tile allowed us to draw a pattern in the yard that brings scale to a space that although is ample in size, is destined to a very familiar and private use.
In the second, Nirvana House, a project inspired by Chillida’s sculptures and Anton Stankowski’s geometric games, the vibrant ceramics of the facade brings a rhythm to the trimmed planes and cushions the strength of the lines that define the volume.
Here concludes this small introduction to our vision of luxury. Do you think that luxury is an immaterial aspect of spaces? Or do you consider that there are certain materials and uses that are more closely related to it?
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