Annual|Design Studio|DETAIL’22
Olivier Ottevaere
1975 Born in Tournai, Belgium
2001 Graduated with a degree in architecture from the Cooper Union in New York, with an
MSc in Adaptive
2008 With an MSc in adaptive architecture from the Barlett in London
2012 Established Studio Double (o) studio
2015 Received the Best Residential Future Award from the Architectural Review/MIPIM
2019 With a PhD from RMIT in Melbourne

The detailing strategy for Casa Trevo was to erase any presence of details or visual breaks which could distract from the perception of a holistic monolith. To render the spatial experience and scalar concept active in the house, an important detailing consideration was to retain the reading of the overall built mass. A little visual interference as possible had to be sustained in order to avoid the breaking down of volumes into disparate planes and surfaces. A cast-in-situ concrete structure is graded by the quality of its exposed concrete. A close scrutiny to formwork design and its proper implementation was essential in the control of its concrete surfaces. This required placing attention, effort and resources on the temporary elements; that is on the formwork itself which will eventually vanish while still leaving a trace. Where these traces are located vis-à-vis one another becomes crucial if an ambiguity of scales based on continuity and material fluidity between elements had to remain operative in perceiving the mass of the house as one singular entity.
The provision of blank canvases inside the elemental patios makes room for something else more intricate to occur at a detail scale. Progressively folding in and out of the wall thickness of the patios, and calibrated to the specific lighting context, concrete corrugations are made into devices that delay the passage of time through a game of light and shadow. This is where a shift from material to spatial responsiveness is considered most acute in the project. First, these fluctuating shadow lines are extending the vertical reading of the hollow shafts, accentuating a feeling of vertigo and a perception of monumentality. Second, their gradual incisiveness pushes the subject away from the patio’s inner surface, creating a peculiar sense of resistance within the space of the shaft; a form of pressured space, rendered by void and matter channeling in the mass of the wall and out of the space of the patio. Above all, the physical articulation of these surfaces manifests a life of their own in tune with its environment as though existing before inhabitation; a time instrument prolonging the autonomy of the project.
三葉草之家(Casa Trevo)在設計上採用了不會在細節和視覺上影響整體一致性的細膩處理。此外,為了提升房屋內的空間效果和純量設計概念,建築在整體上保留了原本的尺寸。同時,為了避免空間被分裂成不同的平面和外觀效果,視覺上的處理也盡可能保持細緻。裸露混凝土的品質決定了場鑄混凝土結構的等級,而要掌握混凝土外觀效果,就必須嚴格把關支模的設計。設計者必須投入專注、精力和資源在臨時結構上;這種臨時搭建的支模雖然隨後會拆除,但仍舊會留下痕跡。如果要把房屋整體看作一個單一的實體,那麼必須仔細拿捏設計元素的一致性和建材之間的流動性,而殘留的痕跡位置也相對變得極為重要。
毫無妝點的露台成為了設計師的畫布,讓設計師能在這空間內創作出其他更精緻細膩的細節。利用露台的牆壁厚度製造彷若內外折疊的混凝土波紋,在特定的光照環境下,變成延遲光影映入室內的遊戲裝置。在這方面,房屋設計中最關鍵的地方在於將建材元素化為空間的回饋感。首先,波紋的陰影擴展了天井的向上延伸感,更突顯了有如紀念碑的壯觀以及身處高處的暈眩感。其次,牆壁厚度的不同形成漸進式的尖銳感將陽光推離了露台的內牆,在天井內營造出一種特殊的阻塞感;空隙、牆體以及露台空間的氣流,在天井內形成了一種空間壓迫感。最重要的是,這些外觀上的連接體現了建築本身與周遭環境的協調性,彷彿在入住之前就存在已久,大大延長了這棟房屋在視覺上的觀賞壽命。