Category: Art

Villa Polo, Driss Kettani Architecte
370 m²
Casablanca, Morocco

The Villa Polo in Casablanca is projected on a 250 m² plot in a residential area. The constraints of the neighbourhood and the north orientation on the street have directed the design towards creating an inner world that is both open, intimate and mysterious. Urban regulations have defined the general layout, the house having two adjoining houses on both lateral sides and being open on the street to the north and to a south-facing garden. The layout of spaces on the ground floor emphasized the fluidity and efficiency of the location of service spaces in order to retrieve the most beautiful and larger space possible overlooking the garden and the pool to the south. Thus, a compact area includes the kitchen, staircase, entrance and an office/bedroom space. The rest of the space is dedicated to a large, generous and versatile living room space extended by the terrace outside. A fireplace composed by a game of superimposed plans animates the large living room and creates an anchor point. Upstairs, the north orientation is the pretext to install a concrete protective wall/screen hiding a linear garden and a planted patio around which the common areas of the floor are articulated when the 3 bedrooms benefit from the south orientation. The parent’s bathroom overlooks this intimate landscaped space open to the sky. This screen is punctuated with perforations that bring a theatrical light to the small family room as well as a slot facing the parent’s bathroom. This screen defines in a certain way the volumetry of the project by giving it an abstraction enhanced by the concrete material and the recess created by the patio upstairs.

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So. Many. Stairs.

(But at least there’s an elevator.)

thestudioofchristopherphelps: “Yeah, just like Jagger, start me up and I never stop!

I was thinking about how many professional chefs actually don’t want to cook in their spare time. They really love what they do, but they associate it with work. I’m a little unique in that way. I love what I do, but I continue to draw in my spare time. I keep coming up with new ideas, like this one.

So, I gotta draw it for the fun of it! Ha!

As city lots get divided into smaller parcels because of demand for executive housing near workplaces, the idea of giving up luxury because of these constraints is a creative challenge I enjoy tackling!

In this concept, I call it the “Baldwin Ave City Home”; I attempt to design as narrow a house as possible while retaining decent room sizes and layout. The result is a 21-foot-wide home, featuring all the bells and whistles a luxury home should have: four full-size bedroom/bath suites, an elevator, a study, a club room, a golf simulation room, and a pavilion.

Sure, it is proportionally challenged, but it always draws a surprised reaction when I show it.”

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And it has its own kitchen!

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And all this can be your’s for only $30.950!

First off, I’d rip out that hobby room and let it be a dining area. I’d block off about 10 feet on the right side of the multi-purpose room with a door to the space from the foyer, and turn it into an office. The multi-purpose/family room would still be plenty large enough and it would still get plenty of light. I might ditch the carport and enclose the area to create a full two-car garage.

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No. Just no.

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The sunken living room dates this from the early 70s.

I wouldn’t want to live there (way too big), but I still appreciate it for what it is.

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…although I can’t say I like the direct line-of-sight to the toilet as you walk in the front door.

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