An ultra thin new house built over an old stone house
The Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture

To preserve an existing indigenous stone house, xrange wraps a new layer of 80- 177cm wide by 7m high living spaces around it to create an “extreme” new house of outrageous proportion. Newly added programs are small narrow vertical spaces that interlock like the spaces within an ant colony: the 1.5mx3m study is accessed through a set of 7m tall doors; the 0.8mx5m bathroom holds a guest shower (1F) in which hangs the master shower and tub (2F).

All original window and air conditioner openings were preserved and reassigned different usage: exterior or interior windows, doorways or display nooks. The form strategy creates a “found interior” for the new house from the “internalized exterior” of the old house. The new house, designed as a steel box frame, also acts as lateral structural bracing for the stone house.

scope: architecture
total floor area: 500 sqm
decks area: 330 sqm
design: 2004-2005
construction: 2005-2006