This is an individual house project, designed with special enthusiasm for a family of 5 in Tirane, Albania.
The house is organized around an internal garden to secure its privacy and visual warmth, onto which every main function picks. The house is organized around an internal garden to secure its privacy and visual warmth, onto which every main function picks. The garden is south oriented.
The external walls are designed to close off the house from the main roads and the main crossroad to ensure intimacy and have a contemporary fortress like look. Materials are combined in a way to maximize the dramatic effect of the play of volumes as to emphasize the first floor master-bedroom block above the gym. Oak wood is used to make a warm and light contrast with the rough white rough plaster finish of the walls.

Ground floor envelopes the entry, the living room the fireplace, kitchen with dinning, the gym, the office with external entrance, the garage, laundry and the restroom. The first floor represents the heart and soul of this piece of architecture. It is organized around an openspace area of re-creativity where house members and guests can rest and relax in the outside living, fireplace, dinning and barbecue zone enjoying the look at the pool and the garden while exploiting the coverage and intimacy created by the second floor volume.
The second floor representing a straight rectangle holding the three children bedrooms, the bathroom and the home studio with the black photography room. The studio has access to two balcony’s, one south to exploit the winter sunny days and one north for the shade comfort during the hot summer days. The south windows of the bedrooms are shaded by vertical ‘Brie's sole-is’ to help crate a more interesting and playful light inside. The green rooftop serves as a rain water collector during the wet season and as a good thermal isolator during the dry one.
Hope you enjoy it.