The House With No Head or Tail / Experience Studio

Architect: Experience Studio

Place: Isfahan, Iran

Year: 2021

Photographer: Deed Studio

The project, designed by Experience Studio, was defined by its client as a small Villa for their weekend recreation with a swimming pool to be used as water storage and bathing as well. A place where its closed area can be used in winters, whereas in summers, the open parts play the canopy role. The garden’s view was the most remarkable client’s demand during the process of design. The vegetation texture and existing types of trees in the garden led the architects towards preserving the existing texture as much as possible and trying to keep the project to be considered more as a garden rather than a Villa.

The initial concept of the project was formed from the client’s preferences, the site’s shape, and the existing trees in the garden. Box as a simple symmetry with the capability of eliminating two elements (bottom and head) made the project transparent at both northern and southern sides and gave a full view to all spaces. It seemed like a box has been placed inside the garden and the garden has moved through it.

Small functions seeking more privacy were defined by more rigid boxes inside the main transparent one and the spaces between them created the entrance aisle. The box without a bottom and head comes with a self-standing structure with neither any column nor holding parts and continuity of form, space and material were undeniable facts in this project.

The 11 meters opening, spatial coherence, material honesty, and the form of the project were the bases that shaped an exposed concrete structure. The project from the garden entrance towards the entering hallway and interior spaces is an attempt to create various spatial experiences, dual intertwined areas (inside and outside, open and close, transparent and matt), recognizable and unrecognizable narrow versus thick borders which all of them continuously try to place the user in their defined spaces. Users are not able to distinguish the entering borders and experiences of various spaces. The project’s main space is the one that can be altered from a closed area to an open one besides the semi-open porch by a layer of glasses.