House NO:2 / SarSayeh Architectural Office

Curated by ArchDaily

Architects: Sarsayeh Architectural Office: SarSayeh Architectural Office
Area: 1130 m²
Year: 2015
Photographs:Farshid Nasrabadi

Text description provided by the architects. The House NO: 2 is located in city of Isfahan and is built on 300 sqm plot of land with 4 residential units And 5 Levels as client general demands :

Ground floor for parking area , entrance and lobby , yard and mechanical room.

Basement as a saloon for ceremonies and some storage rooms .

First floor should divided into 2 small unit for client’s guests settlement.

Second and third floor for client own use.

Because of client’s past bad experiences of living in dark and damp house , we understood quickly that the most crucial issue is providing the maximum possible light and fresh air inside the house especially in living and sitting rooms of two upper floor.

So we tried to locate all living rooms along south side of units with maximum size of openings . even in 3rd floor we decided to break the roof and push the living roof upper, therefore we could have more openings and better ventilation by the side windows in the east and west .

But the solution in north were the family rooms were located was not as easy as in the south. Because according to municipality limits in Isfahan ,all the buildings must block the view in the north façade up to 175cm height in every stage. And surely masonry materials should be used to fulfill this rule in lower 110 height and between 110-175 frosted glass is allowed .

House NO:2 / SarSayeh Architectural Office - Windows, Glass, Sink, Beam — © Farshid Nasrabadi

With focusing on this rule we understood easily that every stage in our north façade is divided into 3 part :

1- Solid part (lowest level)

2- Semi transparent part (middle level)

3- Transparent part (upper level)

In first step, this separation gave us the basic lines for façade designing, and after that we tried to make more details and to develop the solid part by transforming it into double skin layer. So we could have indirect light and ventilation even in lowest part.

In next step we located a plant case between the layers in solid part with some kind of running plants that it caused more freshness in inner spaces and made our façade alive by connecting outside and inside to each other.

As we believe that the façade in residential buildings should never impose any inconveniency for the people who live inside, so in both south and north we tried to adopt the facade to internal spaces and do not add anything useless on the face of the building.

According to the usage of basement as a saloon for ceremonies and a public space it seemed necessary to have natural light and fresh ventilation in there (as we had it always in our historical architecture), so we created a courtyard in down level of basement with plants and flowed water to make better and more enjoyable atmosphere .