The Tsai Residence by HHF Architects & Ai Weiwei
The Switzerland based HHF Architects, together with Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, designed this house located in Ancram, New York.
From the architects:
House Tsai is a countryhouse designed for two young art collectors. The design reflects their request for a simple abstract looking piece,sitting almost without scale on top of the site, which is located two hours upstate from New York City.
The four equal sized boxes are built as simple wood construction covered with metal panels on the outside and wood and gypsum panels on the inside. The floor plan is based on the needs of a traditional countryhouse. Only partially the organization of the rooms is a direct consequence of the rigid outer form.
The Living Room focuses on the different light conditions needed for an existing and future art collection, while the great view into the nearby countryside is present without being dominant. The sequence of the different rooms reflects the idea of a private gallery. Natural light is coming into the spaces through the openings in between the outer boxes.
Visit the HHF Architects website – here. Visit Ai Weiwei’s website – here.
Photos by Iwan Baan and Nikolas Koenig
Visit the HHF Architects website – here.
Speedmaster on 13 Dec 2008 at 3:37 pm #
Beautiful! My fav. room is the little library.
Sinking Cities on 14 Dec 2008 at 2:31 am #
Very clean and elegant. The third photo with all of the lights on is amazing.
Jimonesco on 15 Dec 2008 at 1:49 pm #
Do somebody know who is the artist who is doing the red t-rex ? And the giant blue asian inflenced painting too.
Evan on 19 Dec 2008 at 4:41 pm #
I kinda love all the cabinets in the kitchen.
Mycroft on 30 Dec 2008 at 3:24 pm #
Could it have killed the builder to put a little something on the outside? It looks like a shoe box.
Dave on 30 Dec 2008 at 4:59 pm #
The exterior is not minimalist by accident or the result of neglect. It looks the way it does because that’s what they wanted it to look like.
Putting “a little something on the outside” would likely ruin the design they were trying to achieve.
Rory T on 13 Feb 2009 at 11:33 pm #
I noted the way the small niches break up the overall massing into four secondary rectangular prisms, thus avoiding the “oversized, unarticulated box in the landscape” effect.
Some nice looking spaces inside too.
The reading room a particular success in material and scale, I felt.
A bit of decadent luxury, though, given the times we live in.
Who on earth truly needs double hand basins in a bathroom, for example?
Nice job though. Well done
ajsmith on 13 Apr 2010 at 12:25 pm #
very nice house. It does give a feeling of being trapped by the walls in some photos. Does not appear to have the open floor plans we see in modern homes.