Residence 383

In a landscape with an abundance of architectural examples, each piece an attempt at individuality, it is good to come across an element that has a sense of solemnity and crafted balance about it. The honest and direct use of materials establishes a first statement of deliberate gravity. In the world of art this would be a framed Giacometti, in the world of architecture it is about crisp definition. A disciplined volume creates enough stability to then be punctuated with a high level of transparency along the more private long axis. This openness is enhanced through the continuous marble floor that flows uninterrupted from inside into the gardens, where the rugged language of trees comes as a pleasant antithesis to the rigid object. The full height library, on the inside, the slender slices of marble externally serve to accentuate and bind the levels internally. The longitudinal geometry of the inhabited volume allows for a continuous conversation with the external spaces, which also manage, as a result, to maintain a certain ceremonial entity about them. In a world that often seems increasingly difficult to contain and understand this design serves up a comfortable certainty about which one can move with confidence.