Articles by Hana Abdel

“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”_Michelangelo

“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”_Michelangelo

The house sits at the foot of Mount Macedon on an acre block one hour north of Melbourne. The vacant site presented an opportunity for a simple cost-effective building form with a long glazed north facade with a deep eave to control sunlight and view the garden and mountain in the distance. The house sits close to the south boundary to maximize the garden space with a predominantly solid south facade for privacy from the street.

Envision an ideal living space within a tropical urban environment such as Jakarta. Due to high pollution levels and security concerns, many homes in the city are designed to be tightly enclosed, leading to living conditions that are less healthy and far from ideal. Yet, as Jakarta remains the epicenter of business and the nation’s capital, it continues to attract a large influx of residents from other regions.

Bloom designed this collection of 3 small houses in 2019, with the aim to create a surprising green environment, a haven in disconnection from one of the most dynamic streets of Phnom Penh. Inside a colonial residential block, the project creates a sense of place by turning the challenge of accessing through a narrow alleyway into the opportunity to create a small residential community. It was critical to keep a village scale, a unique feature in the city center of Phnom Penh, hence the shapes of the houses were inspired by the preexisting vernacular wooden Cambodian houses sitting there.

A house located on a hill in Miyagi, Japan. The plan, which runs in a crisscross pattern across the site, aims to create an intimate relationship with the garden. The garden is divided into four functional gardens: a bright and spacious garden with a field where children can run around, a quiet garden that can be viewed from the bathroom and bedrooms, a garden that decorates the façade, and a parking space.

The Quarry house is a residence nestled 70 meters above the coastline of the Philippines. Not only is it located in a very remote area, but the entire property is tilted at a 40˚ angle, making conventional construction difficult. So instead of a boxy volume containing the entire program, the architecture divides the core spaces into shared and private villas and then scatters them throughout the site, closely following the existing topography.