Horizontal House

For my first residential project, there were only two rules: it could not be over 1200 square-feet including 300 square feet of exterior space and the house had to accommodate five people. I split the house into three sections, and the main concept of the house was the occupants’ choice and control over transparency. The window placement allows for a person outside of the house to completely look through the entire house to the other side in order to allow for complete transparency. However, through the use of shutters, the occupants could choose to close off that transparency to allow for privacy. The three strips of the house also allow for privacy between the occupants by having the parents separated from the grandfather and two children in the other wing with a patio in the middle. The top third horizontal strip is the common area to allow for private areas to branch out and be separated from each other.