Articles by Andreas Luco

Our rural site is located in Victoria’s High Country, Australia. The Ancona Valley is characterised by rolling pasture and river flats set to a backdrop of surrounding mountain ranges. At 450 metres above sea level, winters are cooler and summer temperatures higher than average for Victoria. Sheep and cattle graze this idyllic and picturesque landscape, a perfect place to retreat and rejuvenate. The romantic notion of a country escape spirited the purchase of this blank canvas property, the same promise informing the style, arrangement of structures, material compositions and integration of garden surround, within the existing rural setting.

This residential home resides atop Mt Pleasant in Christchurch, New Zealand overlooking the natural landscape of the mountain and the waters of the Estuary. Designed to the landscape and surrounding environment, the building’s form stands honestly with purpose. MC Architecture Studio was fully aware of the surrounding environments impact on the building and vice versa. The Wall House has been formed to address, and exist alongside, its exterior world. Its fragmented northern façade splits open for maximum sun contact, while protecting a sheltered outdoor living area from the prevailing winds. The shape creates two alternative wings, one reaching out to the North Eastern corner of the site, while the other leans to the North West directing out towards the view.

The House “La Reserva” adopts its name from the place where it is located, it is the result of a series of design exercises that were shaped by developing the architectural modelling in collaboration with the client. The terrain is no larger than 128.0m2 and is located close to the principal arteries of the city of Xalapa, which benefits the project, considering that the urban area of the city expands in an accelerating and uncontrolled manner towards the periphery. The central idea of the project emerges from being inspired by, or, why not calling it a tribute to, our vernacular architecture, inherent to the region, the same that has been displaced by new concepts and doctrines of a globalized architecture lacking identity.

The House “La Reserva” adopts its name from the place where it is located, it is the result of a series of design exercises that were shaped by developing the architectural modelling in collaboration with the client. The terrain is no larger than 128.0m2 and is located close to the principal arteries of the city of Xalapa, which benefits the project, considering that the urban area of the city expands in an accelerating and uncontrolled manner towards the periphery. The central idea of the project emerges from being inspired by, or, why not calling it a tribute to, our vernacular architecture, inherent to the region, the same that has been displaced by new concepts and doctrines of a globalized architecture lacking identity.

Tiny Home was commissioned by RACV as an exhibition piece with the agenda to be an exemplar of sustainable compact living. RACV as an organisation acknowledges that society is moving away from the motor vehicle and is therefore steering part of its business to the home arena. The configuration of Tiny Home, its transport, materiality and content was open for us to freely interpret. The brief was to incorporate as many sustainable features as we saw appropriate, embody high design principles and exude a sense of joy so as to engage the general public.