Elemental Living - Contemporary Houses in Nature, Phaidon - House on a Stream + the Riparian House
In India, the two houses designed by Architecture BRIO interact with the natural environment in opposing ways. The House on a Stream challenges the convention that in order to engage with the surrounding architecture should be rooted and settled. Instead this project is case entirely in concrete and floats over the steam and hovers over land. By not resting the corners of the building on the ground, it paradoxically strengthens its relationship with it. On the other hand the Riparian House plays the hide and seek with the landscape. As an amphibious creature it settles just below the hilltop while peeking across the perennial river flowing by. By virtue of they way it engages with the topography, it intends to become invisible. At the same time, from within, it thoroughly embraces the fisheye vision of the riverside.