Articles by Andreas Luco

Kaggeboda is a small and unique summer house located in the forest of the Stockholm Archipelago. Three cabins are placed in strict relation to one another, creating a  diversity of spaces  outdoors as well as inside. The blackened plywood of the facades give a strong character and relate to the surrounding pine trees, a part of the Swedish building tradition using wood. Generous windows create openings to the warm bright inside with its birch plywood walls, ceiling and floor.

A landmark site, a radical client willing to take risks and a sensational builder, the dream commission. The south facing riverfront allotment was occupied by a very charming but exhausted 1940’s worker’s cottage. The cottage was casually nestled between two mature trees, one to the street and one to the river, the secluded, sheltered feel needed to somehow remain. Surrounded by High-rise construction either side this would be the only house left in the street, it had to be excellent, not wasting a single inch of the expensive development potential site.

Located in a Dublin suburban estate, which typically features modest 2 storey terraced houses with ostentatiously large and deep rear gardens, this project propose a model for horizontal densification. Here we see how “Back to back” typologies and land subdivision have generated vast areas of under- utilized landlocked stock throughout the country. The owner was given the opportunity to build a house in the back garden where once stood the tree house he used to play in as child.

The Irish countryside is divided into parcels of land called townlands. This  house is situated in the townland of Killan and is built on a hill on the client’s farm. The house is square in plan, the footprint being approximately 12m x 12m. It takes references from the Casino at Marino, the 18th century Neo-classical house by Architect  William Chambers. Though much smaller ‘The Casino’ (small house) is a derivation of Palladio’s Villa Rotunda.  both being  square Greek cross plans, and both offering four equivalent elevations to the surrounding open landscape.

Ephemeral Edge is a weekend retreat and retirement home located three hours north of New York City. As a retreat, the goal of the project was to contrasts the rapid sense of time and pressure of the city and extend the enjoyment and sensuousness of the everyday passage of time that is often highlighted in the open landscape. The sense of extended time is accomplished by taking advantage of the site—a forested hillside which contains a constructed pond and overlooks a distant view. The design is informed by four site conditions: the curving edge of the pond, the torqued banks necessary to construct the pond, the spindly edge of the forest clearing, and the quiet beauty of the distant view.