House Drapes, RO: A House on the Seaside
Private Commission / 2023
awarded 1st Prize in Portfolio Architecture / Residential
at the Annual Architecture Show, Romanian Order of Architects 2023
nominated for Visionary Project Award,
National Romanian Biennale, Romanian Union of Architects 2023
exhibited in the Architectural Model Festival, Budapest, 2024
Stuff Studio
House Drapes is a vacation home perched on the edge of the Black Sea coastline on a lot measuring 15 m x 90 m. It is structured on the intersection of two grids - one oriented cardinally and the other aligned with the lot edges. The intersection of the grids allow three volumes to emerge, which each capture a different and compelling view (the sea, the coastline, the garden, respectively). The tripartite organization is tied together by two corridors that enclose a small courtyard and a parking nook. The grids allow the visual extension of the volumes through a landscape strategy that frames exterior rooms, commanding the entire depth of the site. Wrapped in wooden shingles all around, the composition reads as monolithic facing north, with the wrapping interrupted for light access to the south. The monolithic reading on the north is occasionally disrupted by three operable apertures located in loggias on three corners to allow views towards the sea from the bedrooms. Their opening from underneath a shingle drape registers as turrets on the northern envelope. On the southern long face of the building, three elongated scuppers frame the procession towards the entrance.