Articles by Andreas Luco

In the entrance hall, visitors are met with a view of the stairs. The original setting out of the stairs was retained, but it was rebuilt in solid oak with the addition of sweeping, wider steps at the bottom to give a more generous approach. A small internal opening provides a snapshot view through the living room to the conservatory. Crossing the entrance hall, visitors are presented with an axial view through the library to the dining hall and kitchen. As they move along this axis, they pass into the cocktail library, a new space formed by the reconfigured circulation and at the new heart of the house. Shelves and seating areas are carved from an oblong or pill-shaped form. The materials are solid and veneer oak, naturally finished or washed with a blue stain on the inner curved surfaces. In one corner, a cocktail cabinet, concealed within the curved walls, gives the space the function of an entertainment space for the sociable owners. From this centre point is an axial view of the conservatory through the living room with the landscape beyond, framed by the library doors.

On the basis of the former Chengde Industrial Park in Zhongjiang County, the Deyang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government established Deyang Kaizhou New City, and decided to pool the city’s strength and focus resources to advance the development of the new city. Kaizhou New City has become another industrial pearl on the eastern foot of Longquan Mountain, following Huaizhou New City, Jianzhou New City and Airport New City. Developed since the Han Dynasty, the Renmin Canal fully demonstrates its evolution from an ancient water conservancy project to a modern large-scale irrigation area. It showcases the technological achievements of water conservancy construction and commemorates the historical memory of the joint efforts of educated youth and local residents.

MVRDV’s pixelated façade design brings variety and identity to prefabricated modular towers in Singapore. At Irwell Bank Road in Singapore, two 36-story residential towers have been completed, with a lively, pixelated façade design contributed by MVRDV. Taking as a base the highly efficient, prefabricated, modular building design by Singapore-based ADDP Architects, MVRDV’s variegated façade adds liveliness to the buildings’ external appearance and highlights the green communal spaces on the buildings’ 24th floor and roof. The design is the latest in MVRDV’s oeuvre to show that efficiency and cost-effectiveness can happily coexist with character and individuality.

Near Aroeira, where the Atlantic breeze tempers the pine forest and low density preserves quietness, this dwelling arises from the clients’ desire for a private, simple, and refined atmosphere — a discreet house that does not impose itself on the act of inhabiting, but instead nurtures it. A retreat from the bustle of city life they once knew, capable of embracing a calmer, slower rhythm. Rooted in an idea shared by the couple, the project takes form as a contemporary reinterpretation of the Mediterranean and Islamic courtyard house: an introverted ensemble of spaces that open inward, articulated through patios that regulate light, air, and temperature, weaving an intrinsic dialogue between interior and exterior — not through rigid boundaries, but through subtle thresholds.

“Xuebei Home”: The Native Homeland in an Urban Village，This project involves the reconstruction of a 44-square-meter collapsed ancestral home in the old city of Qiaodong, Huizhou.

Developed along the banks of the Babahoyo River in Ecuador. Two hundred years ago, the river was home to more than 250 floating houses; by 2010, over 80 families had been displaced to municipal housing developments located six kilometers away, disconnecting them from their commercial, social, and cultural ties, as well as from their traditional ways of life. Today, barely twenty-five homes remain afloat on the river, under conditions inadequate for community development. Given this situation, the project proposes a public and private space (for local inhabitants) that revalues the floating ecosystem by recovering traditional building techniques for the preservation of the river’s social and natural habitat.