ORDOS 100 #33: Scalene Architectes

This villa is located in plot #77 of the ORDOS project.

Architects: Scalene Architectes
Location: Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China
Principals in Charge: Jean & Luc Larnaudie
Design year: 2008
Construction year: 2009-2010
Curator: Ai Weiwei, Beijing, China
Client: Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd, Inner Mongolia, China
Constructed Area: 1,000 sqm aprox

The project Ordos 100 raises the question of an ex-nihilo architecture in an environment governed by an unique urban and constructive principle: a soil shared by all, a mineral reality.

Alone… together.

Should architect anticipate the ways of development for prematured towns?

Should he provokes the usages? We are about to answer the question by using the climatic issue approach of the site through usages. This contextual project represents a common and unique soil for the home of the community: The Tulou Villa.

Alone… together.

At a crossroads point, the built mass reveals and orients the common use of the plot; It provokes a tension with neighbourhood. The soil unity federates the architectures.

Alone… together.

A community building needs privacy. This opposition is forming and deforming architecture: evolution of thicknesses, heights, orientations and density of openings.

Alone… together.

From all of this, we propose a wall-house oriented to its heart, this one composed by two luxurious gardens protected from the environment.

On the outside, the Villa resounds with the surroundings. The roof ofers a panoramic view without visual barriers, and its mass of the project puts into tension the neighbourhood: it fetches the district “ilôt” or remains parallel to the parcels facade.

Its heart is divided in between being freely open in order to seeing and being seen, and preserving residents privacy.

Alone… together.