The 23.2 House by Omer Arbel
Canadian designer Omer Arbel has designed the 23.2 house located near Vancouver, Canada.
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The 23.2 House by Omer Arbel
Designed by Omer Arbel, 23.2 is a house for a family built on a large rural acreage outside Vancouver in the West Coast of Canada. There is a gentle slope from east to west and two masses of old growth forest defining two “outdoor rooms” each with a its own distinct ecology and conditions of light; the house is situated at the point of maximum tension in between these two environments, and as such acts at once to define the two as distinct, and also to offer a focused transition between them.
The design of the house itself began, as a point of departure, with a depository of one hundred year old Douglas Fir beams reclaimed from a series of burned down ware- houses. The beams were of different lengths and cross sectional dimensions, and had astonishing proportions – some as long as 20 meters, some as deep as 90 cm. It was agreed that the beams were sacred artefacts in their current state and that they would not manipulate them or finish them in any way.
Because the beams were of different lengths and sizes, the designer needed to commit to a geometry that would be able to accommodate the tremendous variety in dimension, while still allowing the possibility of narrating legible spaces. He settled on a triangular geometry.
He folded wood triangular frames made of the reclaimed beams to create roof which would act as a secondary (and habitable) landscape, drapping this artificial landscape over the gentle slope of the site. Folds were manipulated to create implicit and explic- it relationships between indoor and outdoor space, such that every interior room had a corresponding exterior room.
To maximize ambiguity between interior and exterior space, he removed definition of one significant corner of each room by pulling the structure back from the corner it- self, using bent steel columns. Also large accordion door systems were introduced in these open corners so that the entire façade on both sides of each significant corner could retract and completely disappear.
Visit Omer Arbel’s website – here.
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Jordaan on 16 Jan 2011 at 6:11 pm #
This is such a masterpiece of architecture. CRAZY !!! I wonder where in rural BC it actually is ?? I kick-ass view would really make this place.
Jimw on 16 Jan 2011 at 7:22 pm #
Very intriguing design. Reminds me of a fusion between Bruce Goff and Gunnar Birkerts.
Rube on 16 Jan 2011 at 11:54 pm #
Meaningful, beautiful and fresh.
Congratulations to those involved.
squid on 17 Jan 2011 at 7:31 am #
wow wow wow! krazy and perfect!
looks like it should be Adama’s house (from Battlestar Galactica) in the year 2219.
neko on 17 Jan 2011 at 8:19 am #
i hope they’re happy with it.
Matt on 17 Jan 2011 at 8:19 am #
Wow, most impressive house i’ve seen on here. This is the reason to have money
matt on 17 Jan 2011 at 11:29 am #
really cool design but im so over those bocci lights. not surprised this house is full of them, doesnt arbel own bocci?
CWR on 17 Jan 2011 at 2:31 pm #
It’s a shame Nic Lehoux’s pictures couldn’t be better. The OAO website has better pics than these that at least make the house look less chaotic. Or maybe the house just is chaotic. Project looks really, really interesting, but looks like there is almost too much going on.
Snib on 17 Jan 2011 at 2:50 pm #
I appreciate the fact that the architect is trying to do something original, but ultimately it’s a mess.
Trung Tran Quang on 18 Jan 2011 at 7:24 am #
My God!
I’ve finished technical design of 1 Villa which start 6 months ago.
Its spirit’s quite similar with yours.
very strong IDEA.
Byron Dowler on 18 Jan 2011 at 11:05 am #
Notice the massive wood beams (that came from the owner’s old factorywarehouse) on the ceiling. The architect worked the design around them and only cut the ends slightly to make them fit together better. This is why the house has such unique shape. All in all, very cool, but there’s just too much going on.
suli on 18 Jan 2011 at 3:35 pm #
Impressive on the outside, messy on the inside.
Nik on 23 Jan 2011 at 7:00 pm #
Stunning if a little busy. I’d need to see the private zones to judge practicality though. Living in a stunningly beautiful house myself I know that pretty quickly you get used to it. What you do notice every day is practicality issues, which, in our case are numerous.
This is a piece of art but I’d really be interested in whether or not it’s a great space to live in.