Articles by Hana Abdel

Inspired by its local craftsmanship of stone masonry, Ang Sila community, concrete and stone has been carefully cut and crafted, forming a unique architectural design. Mason is a hideaway pool-villa resort, located at Na Jomtien Beach, Chonburi, between fishermen’s village and the city of Pattaya. It was intended to be the project that is naturally blended into existing land and seascapes. The resort was designed to create a new experience for relaxing with the stunning ocean backdrop, boasting a private pool in every single villa, exposing sunlight by its large greenery roof-deck, and eventually dining in a romantic sun-setting scenario at beach-side bar.

A Simple House – The owner of this house is a young couple who have dreamt of a relaxed rural life in which their children are free to romp around in proximity to nature outside the urban center. 

The Bellary House is located in the small town of Bellary known for its Iron Ore mines, boulder landscape, historic ruins and its hot and dry climate. The house is located in one of Bellary’s transforming neighborhoods, which is currently seeing a lot of the older modest houses give way to more grander villas. The house sits on a corner site on edge of this slow but steady transformation. The site with  its dimensions of 60 x 40 ft has its longer edge towards the busier west street and its quieter shorter edge towards the north street. The house is designed to stave off the outside heat and create cool currents within it so as to form a convectional micro-climate. The outside walls wrap the house in this gesture of protection, pierced only with small and mass produced precast concrete windows that dot this exterior. The windows are kept small with heavy eaves to keep away the harsh sun.

A rental villa called Private Villa JUGE, is located on a famous traditional tourism spot in Higashiyama Kyoto. The two story with two bedrooms and two tatami-rooms wooden villa is composed of generous private space, full sunlight through three individual gardens and modern interior inspired by Japanese elements. A main purpose of the project is to establish new value by creation a modern architecture incorporating traditional Japanese ethos, because the villa is a new building in especially traditional area in Kyoto where there are already a lot of historical buildings including large temples and small houses. Therefore it is composed of the reinterpretation of Japanese elements with fresh sensibilities avoiding the old traditional method that has remained unchanged.

‘Summmoru’ is a single family house in Jeju, South Korea. It is the southernmost island in South Korea. It is Korea’s the most popular travel spot for nature including ocean and mountain. Driveway to the site follows a sea shore covered with basalt rocks. The site is 140m away from the shore and it is right in front of a small hill covered with bushes and trees. It may seem the mt. Sanbang and the shore is a key from a map. However, a small hill standing beside the site is very strong and it is not very difficult to know that it is a key of this site. In order to understand the site better, team spent a day and night at the site. Through this study, the site almost felt like an orchestra of the nature. It was almost impossible to make this experience better through the architecture. Indeed, while there is a natural orchestra everywhere, it was hard to concentrate on a single subject. Therefore, architecture can value these individual subjects.

House surrounded by the Hedges」 by Studio Velocity is a Housing for married couples and children located in Aichi, Japan. The surrounding area is different from the well-maintained city-scape, and there is a narrow and diagonal road that remains from the old days, and you can see irregular sites. The site was irregular due to the proximity of narrow roads running diagonally. There are many houses around the site with fences and hedges. The issue was how to relate this to the spatial composition.

‘Baan Lek Villa is the house that balancing the tropical vernacular style and modern day’s work-life balance’ The owner was born in Chanthaburi, the East Coast province of Thailand and she occasionally come back to hometown, so this house is tend to be the vacation home for her and family.