APERTURE HOUSE

An opening is a fundamental component in building design. In addition to its function for lighting and ventilation, often an architect also considers designing an opening that can improve coherence between the interior and the exterior of the building.

Aperture House is commemorated by the 2016 Gold Medal Awards of The Association of Siamese Architects (ASA). Mr.Chanasit Cholasuek from Stu/D/O Architects, the company that designed this house, has commented about the openings that are dedicated to light and shadow and is the signature of this house, making it a popular work.

“If asked about the overall concept of the house, it starts from the home owner: a landscape architect and designer specialized in photography. Thus, we come up with the idea involving frame, perspective, light and shadow. Then we think of the photography term ‘Aperture’, which means an opening through which light travels into the camera body. The term ‘Aperture’ is also paired with the word ‘house’ and literally called ‘House Opening’, and is the origin of this building style, which is to play with space and openings.”

 

“As for the details of an aperture, we think of the Ronchamp church of Le Corbusier, a French architect. He designs a trapezoidal cube opening, meaning that the outer frame is narrow, but the opening tunnel is larger on the interior side. This is so that the daylight shining into the church has a soft effect. However, our project is a reverse of that. The cube opening is enlarged towards exterior because we want a focused light shining into the house, and at night, soft light is illuminated from inside out.”

The design of Aperture House also takes into account the size and proportion of openings. Each opening block appears to have similar size when looking from the outside. On the other hand, if looking from the inside out, their sizes differ. Blocking the unique openings of the house, therefore, results in an interesting combination of light, shadow, and variation.