The space of the house is defined by the sole act of removing. Taking away cladding materials and superfluous partitions, the result is to live close to the original structure of the building.
The will is to erase the contrived bourgeois image of the house and to bring it back to its foundation, which resembles more the one of an infrastructure. The original plan, characterized by a rigid spatial arrangement, is broken by the creation of punctual openings in the structural walls. The space is now open in multiple directions. The enfilade is dismantled, as well as the distinction between servants and served spaces. The result is one continuous open space exposed to the city.
The principal new addition consists of a burnished aluminum cross beam that runs through the public spaces of the house. The beam is the main lighting element of the house. It acts like a thread that connects and keeps together all the rooms, emphasizing that they are one space.
This element reverses the relationship between what is structural and what is not. A cross-shaped pillar signs the beginning of this system, it is symbolically rooted in the dark concrete ground and defines the entrance space of the house. Text description by the architects.
