TT Villa

NAME OF PROJECT: TT-Villa
ASSIGNMENT: Private assignment
TYPE: Private villa
CLIENT: Classified
SIZE: 450 m2
LOCATION: Phuket, Thailand
YEAR: 2009
STATUS: World Architecture Award 2009
COLLABORATORS: Uwe Wuterich
TEAM: Marc Jay, Julie Schmidt-Nielsen, Hochung Kim

Designing the perfect surroundings asks for a building which gives an optimal experience of the environment. This is the case with TT-Villa which is situated on a west facing hillside near the sea, among vigorous vegetation spanning from tall palm trees to rhododendron.

We have tried to create a building where both interior and exterior has equal contact to nature and sea. An inhabitable oasis in the midst of the wild, with the commodities of modern living. As a stair, sometimes hovering above nature, sometimes carved into the rock, the building steps down the hill providing interior and exterior access between the arrival on the top of the building and the beach below. Along these paths the layout of the house provides terraces connected to the different functions of the building.
Nature can grow unobstructed between the building volumes. 

We have chosen to divide the program of the house into three categories. These are divided on three floors with the most public functions on top, close to where you enter the building. Semi private functions in the middle and the most private functions at the lower level. By offsetting the three floors from each other we create additional terraces. Rotating the floors opens up the house towards the sea and maximizes the area of terraces. Instead of having a backside as in a traditional cliff-side villa, the building is now placed with views both towards the sea and the green rocky slope. The vegetation grows between the different floors of the building, blurring the notion of what is inside and outside. Completely opening up the blinding system gives you picturesque views without allowing the sun to enter the house. The living, dining or bedroom is converted into covered terraces.