BLACK & WHITE HOUSE BY AGI ARCHITECTS

Located on a main highway in Kuwait, the houses differentiate themselves from their surroundings by their stark façade design.  With two contrasting colours, the façade is designed to define the individual houses, while achieving unity amongst all six.  

White stucco material is used as the base for all the houses, while dark grey bands of stone turn corners, go indoors, and climb up and down, creating flow and continuity throughout the project.

     

Each of the three adjacent plots divides to accommodate two houses: the front, facing the inner neighbourhood street and the back, facing the 5th Ring Road highway.  Services shafts and exterior light wells separate the 2 houses on each plot.

The front villas are introverted courtyard houses.  Large windows of the main spaces overlook this courtyard that create dramatic light and shadow contrasts, while smaller strip windows face the street.  

Various outdoor spaces are located at different levels to provide ample light into the adjacent spaces, in addition to creating outdoor terraces and a pool area on the first floor. The back villas overlook a garden facing the highway.  

Volumetric spaces and dramatic light wells drive the visitors into the main entrance of the house, and lead them onto the garden, which not only extends the space to the landscape through large windows, but also acts as a buffer between the houses and the busy road.  

The landscape separates the houses from each other through different levels that ultimately create privacy and independence from each other. Natural light and ventilation are an important aspect of the design.  

Each house has a certain level of complexity in terms of spatial organisation and relationship between indoor and outdoor.  With every visit to the houses, one discovers new spatial and visual experiences.   Different levels and careful program layout were studied to achieve maximum privacy from each other.  

 

Location: Yarmouk, Kuwait

Architects: AGi Architects

Project Team: Dr. Nasser B. Abulhasan, Joaquin Perez-Goicochea, Georg Thesing, Sharifa Alshalfan, Robert A. Varghese, Naseeba Shaji, Germana De Donno, Lucia Sanchez Salmon

Area: 3,415 sqm

Year: 2009

Photographs: Nelson Garrido

MOP HOUSE BY AGI ARCHITECTS

The site can be accessed from either side of the surrounding streets to allow for both a private and a public entrance.

After moving along a curved wall that guides the visitor from the exterior of the plot into the center, one reaches the main entrance into the house.

Upon entering through the main door frame, the space opens up to reveal the swimming pool and the public living areas of the house.

The form of the residence is reminiscent of the movement patterns of a mop, from which flexible volumes are organized diagonally around a central axis.

This axis twists upwards to generate spaces that are channeling the vision in different directions: the front side of the house, side gardens and angles of the back street.

The circulation surrounding the patio on the first floor contrives of a succession of living spaces, which not only communicate to one another, but also relate visually the interior of the patio to the exterior.

The first floor overhangs to shade the rooms on the ground floor, and the patio is designed to define a break in between the volumes of the house, which subtly reveals a side garden.

The residence was originally planned to house one family with two small children, however in the future it could be divided into two units.

The structure of the house and the distribution of the circulation, as well as the positioning of the entrances and lift allows for guaranteed privacy between parents and children in the prospective future.

Location: Al-Nuzha, Kuwait 
Architects: AGI Architects 
Design Team: Joaquin Pérez-Goicoechea, Nasser B. Abulhasan, Gwenola Kergall, Georg Thesing, Lucía Sánchez Salmón, María Eugenia Díaz, José Ángel del Campo, Daniel Muñoz Medranda, Hanan Alkouh, Nicolás Martín 
Year: 2010 
Client: Private 
Photographs: Nelson Garrido