Tapered House

Tapered House
© Hunga Chan
Tapered House
© Hunga Chan

TAPERED HOUSE

Index Architecture

ARCHITECTS
Index Architecture

DESIGN TEAM
Yung Sai Chun, Bart Kwok, Ronnie Chui

CLIENT
Withheld Per Client’s Request

CONTRACTOR
Zhong Lan Construction Limited

DESIGNER
Anderson Lee

LOCAL DESIGN INSTITUTE
Shunde Architectural Design Institute

LANDSCAPE CONSULTANT
TDH Design

PHOTOGRAPHS
Hunga Chan

AREA
670.0 m²

YEAR
2012

LOCATION
Foshan, China

CATEGORY
Houses

Text description provided by architect.

The client wanted to build a small vacation house in the suburb area of Shunde, P.R.C.

Tapered House
© Hunga Chan
Tapered House
© Hunga Chan

He would like to display his collection of Bruce Lee memorabilia, whose family history originated from Shunde as well.

The trapezoidal site tapers out from the west to east totaling 670 square meters. It is the last parcel of land to be built upon for an exclusive residential community.

Tapered House
© Hunga Chan
Tapered House
© Hunga Chan

There is a sharp terrain drop of over 9 meters along the south edge of the site, forming a miniature “cliff”. Beyond this point are two-storey vernacular houses and modern residential high-rises. The north side faces back to this tranquil residential community.

With the short-term accommodation (vacation house) and the semi-public nature (display gallery) in mind, the housing mass is divided into two distinctive yet connected parts.

Tapered House
© Hunga Chan
Tapered House
© Hunga Chan
Tapered House
© Hunga Chan

The gallery space is placed along the south to form a visual anchor to define the edge of this community with a landscaped garden in front.

Since the displayed items, mostly the first- edition movie poster, are all very sensitive to natural lights, window openings are carefully placed along this telescopic gallery to allow natural light entering discreetly. The windows also frame distant views beyond.

Adjacent to the gallery is the living studio. The master bedroom overlooks the double height living room which provides direct access to the garden.

Tapered House
© Hunga Chan
Tapered House
© Hunga Chan
Tapered House
© Hunga Chan

The openness of the garden is somewhat balanced by a sense of enclosure and privacy from the elongated concrete mass, It is a visual buffer and back-drop for the garden and the community.

Exterior is of raw board-form fair faced concrete to reflect Bruce Lee’s fundamental belief in “being no rule is the rule; being no limit is the limit.”

Tapered House
© Hunga Chan


Tapered House
© Hunga Chan
Tapered House
© Hunga Chan
Tapered House
© Hunga Chan


Tapered House
First Floor Plan
Tapered House
Second Floor Plan


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Site Plan