Stacking House

Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng

Stacking House 

Hsuyuan Kuo Architect & Associates

ARCHITECTS
Hsuyuan Kuo Architect & Associates

PHOTOGRAPHS
Jin-ming Zheng

PROJECT TEAM
Hsuyuan Kuo, Effie Huang, Mingyuan Wang, Chungting Lai, Liuyin Lin, Huichieh Kang

AREA
466 M²

YEAR
2013

LOCATION
Taipei City

CATEGORY
Housing

The project is situated in a quiet alley within Zhongzheng District, which is an old neighborhood in Taipei City.

Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng
Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng

Due to the overdevelopment of urban areas, the distance between the buildings across the street is only four meters wide.

Since the site is hidden in the alley, this area still keeps its serenity in the bustling city.

Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng
Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng

Opening up the common space not only augments the street width, it also provides more interactions between the users and the surroundings.

However, such transparency does not affect the resident’s privacy because the pond in the lobby sets a boundary between public and private.

The main concern is to capture the history of this neighborhood in the design principle. Our design evolves from the idea of slowing down busy lives of the urban dwellers by adding more green spaces to each and every resident unit.

Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng
Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng
Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng

Its form naturally occurs by stacking the modules on top of each other. Instead of having the usual one large unit per floor, a double height, two units per floor type is adopted.

The front door of each unit is located at alternate levels, therefore making each unit having its own entry lobby.

To solve the issue of privacy from the building across the road, the windows for the living room are facing inside, looking out at the balcony next to a solid wall.

Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng
Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng

The double height balcony provides ample of sunshine to the living room. Looking at the balcony from the lift lobby is a reminder of such nostalgic experience of going home through a garden.

The private lift opens up to the sky garden in every unit. This mimics the traditional Taiwanese housing and thus responds to the history of the surroundings.

Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng
Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng

The main feature of the façade is formed by the combination of various slabs- the roughness of masonry cladding on the exterior wall speaks to the texture of the street while the white-pebbled wall brightens the sky garden from the reflection of the sun.


Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng
Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng


Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng
Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng
Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng
Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng
Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng
Stacking House
© Jin-Ming Zheng


Stacking House
Diagram 1
Stacking House
Diagram 2


Stacking House
Site Plan
Stacking House
First Floor Plan
Stacking House
Fourth Floor Plan
Stacking House
Fifth Floor Plan


Stacking House
South Elevation
Stacking House
East Elevation


Stacking House
Section 1

Stacking House
Section 2