House for a Mammy
The site is in a residential community, which has repeated facades. It used to be the activity center of the community, but is now abandoned. Since there are roads connected on both the front and the rear sides, the building has two facades, and the ground floor becomes an important passage for the community.
The architectural elements of the houses in the community have some special features. Two families are juxtaposed in a building, they share symmetrical facade decorations, and become one unit. A single unit can then be divided into upper and lower parts, which are the more public and more private areas; they add up to a complete home. The delicate relationship between the center line and both sides interested me.
I decided to redesign a building here. The ground floor retains the function of the passage and the third floor serves as a personal residence for the mammy. For the second floor located in the middle of the building, contains a nursery space. It is like a half-day home for the mammy and children, which cannot be directly classified as a public or private area.
Taking the architectural structure as the main mean, the nursery on the second floor is enclosed by the turning of the same structure on the first floor and the third floor. The complete square box can be regarded as the sum of the upper and lower halves each belonging to private and public space. It’s like a wide line that separates public and private areas, yet inseparable from the two.
As a response to the ordered community facade, I divert decorative elements of the neighboring building to the real structure of the Mammy house. The inner structure and the outer texture affect each other, presenting the complexity and contradiction between the self and the other, and let the building itself imply multiple meanings.
The architectural elements of the houses in the community have some special features. Two families are juxtaposed in a building, they share symmetrical facade decorations, and become one unit. A single unit can then be divided into upper and lower parts, which are the more public and more private areas; they add up to a complete home. The delicate relationship between the center line and both sides interested me.
I decided to redesign a building here. The ground floor retains the function of the passage and the third floor serves as a personal residence for the mammy. For the second floor located in the middle of the building, contains a nursery space. It is like a half-day home for the mammy and children, which cannot be directly classified as a public or private area.
Taking the architectural structure as the main mean, the nursery on the second floor is enclosed by the turning of the same structure on the first floor and the third floor. The complete square box can be regarded as the sum of the upper and lower halves each belonging to private and public space. It’s like a wide line that separates public and private areas, yet inseparable from the two.
As a response to the ordered community facade, I divert decorative elements of the neighboring building to the real structure of the Mammy house. The inner structure and the outer texture affect each other, presenting the complexity and contradiction between the self and the other, and let the building itself imply multiple meanings.
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