Platinum Winner of the Architecture & Design Collection Awards 2023

A House

Architecture
Renovation and Restoration

Architect / Designer:

Ryan Kuo

Studio:

ClearSpace Architecture and Interior Design

Country:

Taiwan

This is an old but new, technical but natural green building! On one hand, this work is revitalized with a series of transparent and ventilating curtains and brick walls, giving the originally destructed old building a new breathing exterior and allowing the best light into the office space to improve the space quality.
On the other hand, this work re-initiates community co-creation and makes the exterior a recognizable natural living landscape.

Three main appeals: Comfort, Energy, Environment
Comfort:
Daylight is the main design feature of this building. It employs not only facade windows, but also skylights in the atriums, which improve the daylight environment in the inner area. The GAINKER resin curtain walls are applied to the west façade and interior partitions, which make daylight more gentle and indoor seeming. The curtain wall towards the east maximized the daylight level of the office area. The average daylight factor is above 4.2%. The openable windows and skylights make natural ventilation possible in the colder seasons. The outdoor fresh air system can keep the CO2 level and humidity low indoor during conditioned seasons.

Energy:
It enhances the thermal performance of its envelopes by adopting high-quality insulation materials and low air leakiness glazing. This is along with a southern orientation. The manual opening windows and intelligent opening skylights keep the indoor comfort while reducing energy demand. Energy-saving lamps and automatic lighting systems are used for saving light energy. As calculated, the energy consumption of the building is expected to reach 43kWh/m2a for cooling, heating, ventilation, plumbing, and lighting annually.

Environment:
This building is refurbished following the 3R (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) principle. It is part of the old structure and walls are conserved. The demolished bricks and concrete are applied to the construction. The recycled materials, such as bearing steel frame structures, metal roof, glazing curtain walls are used in the project. At the same time, this project wants to use environmentally friendly materials. For instance, this includes FSC wood, the GAINKER building resins, low VOC paint, and so on. The water-saving and sanitary appliances are used in the project.

A small farm in front of the building makes a joyful and harmonious living space for the employees. It implies the concept of the building “grains and towns”

ClearSpace Architecture and Interior Design

Eco Natural X Contemporary Art X Humanities Fashion
Design focused on the overlap between “sight, touch, hearing, taste, and smell” ─the five senses of life.

Ryan Kuo’s designs have won many international awards such as the Germery iF Design Award ; Andrew Martin International Interior Design Award; Golden Award from France IDS•La Créativité Pierre International Green Space Category; Golden Award from US IDA International Design Awards of INTERIOR DESIGN-RESIDENTIAL (the first designer from Taiwan to win this prize); The Japan Good Design Award; the Itality A’Design Award; the Best Annual Green Design Award from Successful Design Award; Golden Award from TID Award and the best design of Golden Pin Design Award. He exclusive interviewed Architect master Toyo Ito. His professional designs and talents have earned a lot of admiration from everywhere in the world.
Ryan Kuo was respected Chinese Designer by Hurun Report of China 2018.

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