House of the Week 142: Corallo House

(c)Paz Architects

The Corallo House in Santa Rosalia, Guatemala city, Guatemala designed by Paz Architects is a three level concrete residence completed in 2011. Located in a dense hillside forest the penetrates the home, merging nature into the daily activities of the users. The glass façades reinforce the connection to the landscape. The main structural element is fair-faced concrete that bears the texture of the formwork, creating a dialogue between the man-made and the natural.

New Work : Ten Bangkok

images via gotarch

Designed by CASE Studio (Community Architects for Shelter & Environment) the group takes a humanitarian and anthropological approach to creating appropriate housing in informal settlements. The projects undertaken by this collective often involve community members as participants in the process of improving their shelter and environment from community surveying to group meetings and workshops. This alternative housing option for the middle class, features 10 units for a variety of persons including some of the architects. The volumes are staggered, interspersed with gardens and courtyards creating common spaces for physical and visual respite and blurring public/private boundaries. The process, as well as the aesthetic has conjured a community identity and a relationship between dwelling and context - the result is an architecture that is the fruit of cooperative design where the architects are also the clients; the clients are also the architects