Minimalist Concrete Slit House by Atelier Zhanglei

October 29, 2009 Topic: Homes Design

A remarkable residential architecture building with minimalist concrete home design style is designed by Atelier Zhanglei located in Nanjing City, China. Designed with a new form of concrete facade, the slit house exterior with almost entire structure even the roof are made from concrete with a 5 centimeter horizontal wood textile strips which share the same scale with neighbor buildings of brick build almost 100 years ago. Showing the transparency of the house in its public part with deep openings, limited on the east and west where the neighbors are. Stail is used in this project to link two parts which has half floor height difference, then made 2 floor height living area and 1.5 floor dining area.

Atelier Zhanglei copied the massing of adjacent garden houses from the 1920s, but abstracted their form and used concrete instead of gray brick. He changed materials, he says, because gray brick is no longer made in Nanjing, but concrete is. He used strips of wood just 2 inches wide for the concrete formwork, giving the material the texture almost of a fine textile. A zigzagging band of glass cleaves the 2,900-square-foot house in two and brings daylight inside.

Minimalist Concrete House by Atelier Zhanglei