The S Cube Chalet comprises three small houses connected by walkways and a central staircase, each with private terraces overlooking the sea.

Two of the houses are mirror images of each other and are separated by the staircase, which leads up to the third house on the upper level.

The buildings have been situated to limit their exposure to the sun on the south facade and increase shaded space on the north side which looks out to sea.

The floors, stairs and a dividing wall between two of the houses are clad with Indian sandstone.

Photographs are by Nelson Garrido.

Here's some more information from the architects:

S Cube family chalet is made up of three intertwined beach houses. The owners - two brothers and their sister each with their own families - want to continue enjoying the same exceptional environment in which they grew up, but with complete independency and privacy from each other.

For these reasons, the design of these three small houses calls for a duplicated programme that maintains privacy while benefiting from outdoor areas and sea views by the use of several terraces.

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Architectural solutions proposed by AGi
In order to create private and independent houses for each family - comprising three young couples with two small children each - AGi architects have divided the plot into two units composed of two houses that are mirror images of each other, named S2 and S3. These units are separated by a staircase leading towards the third house, located at the higher level. The third house is positioned on top and across from the two residences, enjoying a large roof terrace with direct views towards the sea. Each of the three houses enjoys an individual outdoor area that is open to the sky, privacy from its neighbor, and extended sea views.

The highly dense programme in the intertwined houses is manipulated to create outdoor spaces which harvest the prevailing winds and enhance their circulation within the courtyards, allowing people to comfortably reside in them. The building is carefully situated to protect its exposure to the sun on the southern façade, whilst increasing shaded space on the northern side to frame views out to the sea as well as create a pleasant outdoor environment.

The outdoor spaces on the ground floor and the roof terrace of the third house on the upper level are the main distinguishing elements and spaces of this project; from which the three houses are organized around them. They are beach houses designed to optimize and enhance the outdoor experience.

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Programme
S Cube chalet is developed into three levels:
S2 and S3 houses comprise mirrored programmes, occupying two levels:
Ground floor: Main bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room and a large courtyard open to the sea.
First floor: Two bedrooms, bathroom and a terrace with side views to the sea, designed as a playing area for children.
The terraces of both houses are visually separated by a grid.
S1 house is developed in two separate levels:
First floor: Main bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room, and a terrace connected to the S3 terrace.
Second floor: Two bedrooms, bathroom and a large terrace facing the sea.

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Materials
The flooring, stairs and dividing wall between S1 and S2 are all are clad using Indian sandstone. Interior walls and ceilings are finished using plaster and paint, while handrails are cladded with wood.
The interiors have been designed by AGi architects. All materials used in the S Cube project are locally manufactured. The loose furniture produced by Spanish brands, supplied by Gunni & Trentino.

Design Team: Joaquin Pérez-Goicoechea, Nasser B. Abulhasan, Salvador Cejudo
Architectural team: Robert A. Varghese, Abdul Hafiz, Mohammed Mónica Marqués, José Á ngel del Campo

Project Name: S Cube Chalet
Type: Residential 750 m2
Location: Kuwait
Date: 2007-2011

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The curved wings of this house in Kuwait converge around an outdoor swimming pool (photos by Nelson Garrido).

Designed by Spanish-Kuwaiti studio AGi Architects, the three-storey house comprises two curling blocks, each with cantilevering upper storeys.

An access corridor creates a spine through the centre of the building, providing entrances at both the front and back.

Other projects by AGi Architects include a house that emits a cooling mist - see more here.

Here's some more text from the architects:

Mop House

The site can be accessed from either side of the surrounding streets to allow for both a private and a public entrance. After moving along a curved wall that guides the visitor from the exterior of the plot into the center, one reaches the main entrance into the house.

Upon entering through the main door frame, the space opens up to reveal the swimming pool and the public living areas of the house.

The form of the residence is reminiscent of the movement patterns of a mop, from which flexible volumes are organized diagonally around a central axis.

This axis twists upwards to generate spaces that are channeling the vision in different directions: the front side of the house, side gardens and angles of the back street.

The circulation surrounding the patio on the first floor contrives of a succession of living spaces, which not only communicate to one another, but also relate visually the interior of the patio to the exterior.

The first floor overhangs to shade the rooms on the ground floor, and the patio is designed to define a break in between the volumes of the house, which subtly reveals a side garden.

The residence was originally planned to house one family with two small children, however in the future it could be divided into two units. The structure of the house and the distribution of the circulation, as well as the positioning of the entrances and lift allows for guaranteed privacy between parents and children in the prospective future.

Type: Housing | 1300 sqm
Location: Kuwait
Date: 2006-2011
Client: Private
Cost: Confidential

Design Team: Joaquin Pérez-Goicoechea, Nasser B. Abulhasan
Architectural team: Gwenola Kergall, Georg Thesing, Lucía Sánchez Salmón, María Eugenia Díaz, José Ángel del Campo, Daniel Muñoz Medranda, Hanan Alkouh, Nicolás Martín
Engineering: Babu Abraham, Abdul Hafiz Mohammed
Drafting: Robert Varguese, Naseeba Shaji
Consultants: Arturo Macusi, Joseph TomasInterior Design: AGi architects
Supplier: Gunni & Trentino

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Mist cools the courtyard of this house in Kuwait City while also shielding it from prying neighbours (photos: Nelson Garrido).

Named Secret House, the detached residence by Kuwaiti firm AGi Architects is located in the densely developed Shuwaikh district.

The mist operates on a timer, surging up around the house both to keep it cool and to mask it from the street.

Living areas and bedrooms inside the house are distributed across the ground and first floors while a garage occupies the basement.

The body of the house circles the steaming garden while bridges and staircases cross it from the first floor.

A covered terrace on the second floor overlooks the Kuwait City skyline.

Architecture and mist have been popular partners lately on Dezeen - see our earlier story about a mist-releasing water feature by Tadao Ando.

More stories featuring Nelson Garrido's photography on Dezeen »

The following information is provided by the architects:

Secret House

Kuwait’s urban fabric mostly consists of detached single-family homes highlighting a clear example of city-sprawl. To adapt to the desert climate, the distances between the built volumes are minimal, resulting in shaded spaces between houses. These spaces that work well as temperature regulators result in facades with little privacy and limited views. This creates an added challenge to create projects with personality that are not based purely on an exercise in façade design.

Given these circumstances, our focus was to design a home that expresses the clients’ needs, clearly marking the buffers and transitions that any guest could understand. There are guided routes, hidden areas, exposed areas that are all expressed through the architecture, rather than signage. We want the house from the street to be seen as a resounding permeable volume, that is not transparent, however friendly yet private.

Physical barriers can be seen in varying degrees impeding passage or vision to reach the large opening on the upper terrace that allows you to see through the house. From the inside, the barriers become the volumes that open onto the guests, the rooms that dominate the spaces on the upper levels, defining the spaces below them.

The search for an understanding of the nature of an Islamic family culture living with a Western lifestyle has shaped the overlap of concepts and is reflected in the relevance of the major pieces in the facade, privacy and sun protection.

This house was a very peculiar request. Typically the client has a specific program and an actual site, and our job is to make the two complement one another. In the case of the Secret House, the client was occupying the given site in a house that neither met their aesthetic desires, nor their programmatic needs. This design thus becomes a personal expression of their present conditions, and at the same time creates a space capable of holding their hopes for the future.

It is a place with great potential, with wonderful views of the city, and a family who wants privacy. We plan to design a system that would unify these requirements: a house that looks towards the inside and only at the top level opens up to views towards the skyline of the city.

In this case we had only one street-facing facade, and only from there could one look onto the horizon without being seen. We have placed more public activities on the ground floor, where as you enter, you find a guest living area that is away from the other rooms. On the other side, after a circulation buffer, you find access to a family living area that connects the backyard with the central garden.

On the upper floor, rooms are positioned according to privacy and importance, alternating with areas for daily family use. From this level, a staircase runs through the courtyard and leads up to a more private space with a large covered terrace that opens out on the main façade. This allows you to enjoy both the city skyline and the sea view at the horizon in a private, shaded and lush landscaped area.

Type: Housing | 2600 sqm
Location: Shuwaikh B, Kuwait
Date: 2010
Client: Private

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Photographer Nelson Garrido has sent us some images of  a house designed by AGi Architects located next to a beach in Bnaider, Kuwait.

Called Star House, the side of the house facing the beach has floor to ceiling windows, affording panoramic views of the sea.

The design was initially for three detached houses, but the client decided on a single residence with two bungalows and a boathouse.

Photographs are courtesy of Nelson Garrido.

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The following information is from the architects:

Nestled into the landscape, this beach house blends with the natural topography of the coastline of Kuwait. It slowly unfolds itself to the visitor, as it is approached from the desert.

Upon entry, one gets glimpses of the sea whilst going down to the public space of the chalet. On this lower level, the house extends into the landscape and the sea, accentuated by an infinity pool in the garden.

The private side of the house, located at the entry level, is concealed from the visitors by a bamboo wall. Bedrooms and private living spaces remain isolated from daily activities.

A three-way stair, placed at the center of building, organizes the different flows of family, friends and guests.

The organizational and formal structure of the beach house is dictated by the ability to maximize views to the sea.

The initial design was master planned for three detached dwellings, each with extensive sea views while simultaneously achieving privacy from one another.

The client, instead, opted for a single house, two bungalows and a boathouse, with possible plans for expansion in the future.

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Project Name: Star House
Type: Housing | 5000 sqm
Location: Bnaider, Kuwait
Date: 2007/2009
Client: Private

Design Team: Dr. Nasser B. Abulhasan, Joaquin Perez-Goicoechea, Georg Thesing, Bruno Martins, Alfonso Gomes, Daniel Muñoz Medranda,
Robert A. Varghese, Abdul Hafiz Mohammed, Moyra Montoya Moyano

Company Profile

AGi architects is an international design firm providing comprehensive services in Architecture, Planning, Urban Design, Interior Design, Design Research and Consulting. An integration of skills allows the creation of places that provide lasting value for clients through distinctive and imaginative solutions. AGi architects was established in 2005 by Joaquin Perez-Goicoechea and Nasser B. Abulhasan.

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AGi architects has introduced exceptional design, management and technical approaches to its projects in the Europe and the Middle East from its offices in the cities of Madrid and Kuwait. With a multidisciplinary staff of over 30 professionals including architects, planners, landscape architects, interior designers and other specialists, individual members of the design team can be carefully selected to reflect the necessary skills for the scope and scale of the project. Great emphasis is placed on continuity so that work is client driven rather than project centered. Clients work with architects they know and over time, the team is able to develop a thorough understanding of the clients’ business objectives and priorities and is able to make more effective contributions to their projects.

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See also:

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Black & White House by AGi architects	More photography by Nelson Garrido	More photography on Dezeen

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Photographer Nelson Garrido has sent us his photographs of this building by AGi architects of Spain and Kuwait, comprising three homes clad in white stucco and three homes in black stone. 

Called Black & White House, the project in Kuwait uses the two tones to differentiate between the six properties on three plots.

Residences are separated by terraces in between and pools on the ground floor.

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The information that follows is from the architects:

These six houses on three adjacent plots should be noticed for their bold black and white facade with far from being a decorative element reveals the very nature of this project.

Not a solid block but a labyrinth of outer spaces communicated with the dark stone cladding ribbon flowing from one to the other in 3 directions and provide natural light and cross ventilation in the houses at different levels.

Located on a main highway in Kuwait, the houses differentiate themselves from their surroundings by their stark façade design.

With two contrasting colours, the façade is designed to define the individual houses, while achieving unity amongst all six.

White stucco material is used as the base for all the houses, while dark grey bands of stone turn corners, go indoors, and climb up and down, creating flow and continuity throughout the project.

Each of the three adjacent plots divides to accommodate two houses: the front, facing the inner neighbourhood street and the back, facing the 5th Ring Road highway. Services shafts and exterior light wells separate the 2 houses on each plot.

The front villas are introverted courtyard houses. Large windows of the main spaces overlook this courtyard that create dramatic light and shadow contrasts, while smaller strip windows face the street. Various outdoor spaces are located at different levels to provide ample light into the adjacent spaces, in addition to creating outdoor terraces and a pool area on the first floor.

The back villas overlook a garden facing the highway. Volumetric spaces and dramatic light wells drive the visitors into the main entrance of the house, and lead them onto the garden, which not only extends the space to the landscape through large windows, but also acts as a buffer between the houses and the busy road.

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The landscape separates the houses from each other through different levels that ultimately create privacy and independence from each other.

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Natural light and ventilation are an important aspect of the design. Each house has a certain level of complexity in terms of spatial organization and relationship between indoor and outdoor. With every visit to the houses, one discovers new spatial and visual experiences.

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Different levels and careful program layout were studied to achieve maximum privacy from each other.

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Project Name: Black & White House
Type: Residential / 3,415 sqm
Location: Yarmouk, Kuwait

Design Team: Dr. Nasser B. Abulhasan, Joaquin Perez-Goicochea, Georg Thesing, Sharifa Alshalfan, Robert A. Varghese, Naseeba Shaji, Germana De Donno Lucia, Sanchez Salmon

See also:

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Interpretation Centre by Paulo Gomes	Casa Areia by Aires Mateus Architects	Aeroport Lleida-Alguaire by b720 Arquitectos

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