House with 3 Facades – Private Residence in Yilan

House with 3 Facades – Private Residence in Yilan

Winner of iF Design Award 2022, Muse Design Awards Platinum Winner 2021

The clients are a married couple who left their jobs in Shanghai to relocate to their childhood home of Toucheng, Yilan, a town on the northeastern Pacific coast of Taiwan. They were excited to find a small plot that was at an equal distance between the nearby mountains and the magnificent Turtle Island (Guishan Island) to build their family home, and their request for the design was simply to be close to nature without being too far from urban conveniences. The neighborhood is a somewhat ambiguous mix of nature and city, and while its location afforded the clients both environments, there is in reality little in its immediate vicinity. Without a park or beach nearby to directly engage with, the design team had to create a new kind of relationship with nature.

SLOT

The site is a vacant lot slotted in between two other similarly zoned houses. While this is a typical urban condition throughout Taiwan, the constraints of limited access to nature requires a rethinking of how we can engage with the environment, especially with stunning views on all sides.

SITE

The strategy for the site was to maximize the possibility of using the building as an aperture for views not just of the mountains, the island, but also the sky. Yilan is relatively rural, and hence the lack of light pollution allows for stunning views of the night sky.

SHADE

The immediate design problem was to address the challenge of the uncompromising westerly sun. The building front faces the west, where the mountains are coincidentally located. How do we preserve the views while also protecting the house from heat gain and glare? The solution was to create a conceptual veil that provides more shade in the upper floors’ bedrooms, where the clients would be less likely to spend their afternoons, and conversely, to enlarge the viewing window towards the mountains on the lower floors, where the family is more likely to spend their daytimes.

SIGHT

The final result is a happy compromise between the desire to meaningfully engage with Nature’s solar cycles, and the economics of building a simple-budget home. The easterly facades are not impacted by the morning glare, and hence pushed in just enough for optimal shadow cover. The result is full glazing towards Turtle Island. The roof performs as a facade for both day and night. During the day, its sloped green roof is angled away from the western sun, while its buildup provides effective insulation from both winter and summer temperatures. Its angle is also perfect to lie upon, for views towards the ocean as well as the sky.

Impact from the Solar Environment

1.    The diagram indicates solar pathways during the hottest day on July 21st. This reflects the worst possible scenario for the house in the face of the summer sun.

2.    The morning sunrise is angled just enough to prevent glare during dawn.

3.    The glazed facade is set in approximately 1.2 m, sufficiently enough to reduce the effects of late morning sun and glare.

4.    The roof bulkhead is open on the east and west sides. There is access to the interior from here, which is usually kept open. This allows for all warm-air buildup within the house to escape. The prevalent natural breeze and principles of convection negates the need for any mechanical ventilation here.

5.    The impact of the hottest sun in the early afternoon is mediated through a series of highly recyclable mesh fabric. Its fine perforations only slightly affect the transparency from the interior to the exterior. On the other hand, the mesh fabric provides powerful shading against the sun, and also functions as a privacy screen.

6.    The late afternoon sun sets behind the mountains in the west, so the lower floors have larger openings (less shade necessary) for stunning views.