Sheet 4 matter

Plan and elevation

The structural resolution is a slender, low strung building embedded
in the earth, where bamboo is utilised as a structural and non-
structural element and the positioing of bamboo poles heightens
verticality.
Constrains of site:
- Not much Privacy
o Lots of people walking/driving past and parking out the front
o Tall building to the west and north of site
o Right next to public park
- Noise from cars/car parks straight outside
- Narrow block
- Bottom of hill (could flood)
Opportunities:
- Tall building to the west block the afternoon sun
- Long side of block is to the north
- Can use views of the park or golf coarse
- Don’t need a car park because it is in such a central location
- Prevaling winds come from south west of site

Sheet 5
Architects: Kengo Kuma & Associates | Kengo Kuma Bibliography &
Profile
Typology: Hotel + Private Residences
Location: The Great Wall at Shui Guan, Bada Ling Highway, Beijing,
China
Client: SOHO China Ltd., China
Material: Bamboo
Collaborators: ARUP China, Rocco Landscape Design
Project year: 2003

“There are several reasons we chose bamboo as the principal

material. First of all, we thought charm in the material’s weakness.
The Great Wall built with solid stone and brick had been a device to
sever the world of civilization and savage, while the bamboo filter
would on the other hand allow light and wind to pass through. Also,
the bamboo filter could work as a connection between the worlds.
Historically been brought to Japan from China, the bamboo is a
symbol of cultural interchange between those two countries.”

– Kengo Kuma Architects

6 small pictures
In centre wall detail
One quote

Sheet 6
Cabin design
Site plan
Exterior prespective
Floor plan
North elevation
South elevation

Along with bamboo, rice paper, slate, and glass are all
materials that have been used to connect the house with the
site. With the bamboo as the skin of the house, placed at
different intervals allows for the outside environment to
break through into the midst of the house, “but not as a
guest”. The landscape looks to have an immense connection
with the home to the point that Kuma’s design is one with
the surrounds (Oddo, 2011).
Slate tiles were also used to “fasten” the house to the earth
and creates a “Strong, exclusive, unique, relationship with it”.
Francesca Oddo wrote that “the natural elements take over
the architecture, surround it and embrace it, reaching into its
heart, where the slate floor gives way to an expanse of water
reflecting the image of the hill” (Oddo, 2011).