Excerpt: Butterfly House designed by Alexis Dornier is an architectural experiment that features a four-bedroom off-the-ground structure on stilts. A circle encircling a cross serves as the house’s plan figure. The cross is the primary component of the building, while the circle is the secondary element. Programs like the atelier, sound studio, pool, and back of the house are contained in this circle.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] Architecture as an experiment in the form of designing a four bedroom off the ground structure on stilts. The plan figure of the house is a cross that is surrounded by a circle. The cross is the primary building component, whereas the circle is the secondary. This circle holds programs such as the atelier, the pool, the sound studio and back of house program.
The living room becomes the continuous landscape brought through the underneath of the sculpture, and is the heart of the circle. The primary building component is the elevated cross, where each of its four ends hold rooms that point into different directions, framing specific views into the vicinity.
Each of the four bedrooms is crowned by a specific roof shape that seamlessly blends into the other extremities of the building. The designers blend vernacular roof silhouettes into something new, combined and transmuted architecture and visually connected this design to neighboring roofs- not to stand out, but to continue the rhythm of built shapes on the horizon.
The bedrooms face towards the inside and can be opened to become visually connected to the inner atrium. The visual relationships of the distinctive building components add to a certain significance and atmosphere and manifest a built, out-of-the-box experiment. The bedrooms can be accessed by two central staircases that complete each other in the form of a helix. Underneath these staircases a sunken sofa area defines the heart of the home.
The material palette is dominated by the appearance and use of reclaimed wood of different kinds. Intricately textured walls through different patterns, sculptures, artwork and plants create an artistic environment. The oft-like character makes a lively, scenic built and curated landscape in the context of tropical modernism.
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