The T-House stands nestled in an olive grove in the Aegean town of Mordogan in Western Turkey. Rather than being a weekend retreat to be occupied occasionally and for short periods of time throughout the year, the T-House is an indication of the owners’ determination to engage with life and ways of doing things in the countryside. It is designed as a family home to be used all year round and thus incorporates generous work and storage areas to accommodate the varied activities the couple absorbs themselves in (curing olives, canning, jam-making, etc.).

The house is approached along a country lane that leads to a hilltop village. The site faces the sea to the east and the neighboring hills to the west. The building sits within the tight grid of the olive grove and remains barely discernible through the thick foliage of trees if it weren’t for its steeply pitched roof—a curious feature, one that leaves a gentle mark on the landscape and invites further exploration.

The T-House is meant as an “unobtrusive novelty” in a bucolic landscape. 

2017    Mies Ven der Rohe Award, T-House, Nomination

2016    Arkitera Young Architect Jury Special Award, Winner

2016     World Architecture Award 22nd Cycle “Realized”,  T-House, Winner  

2016    XV. National Architecture Awards, "Building", T-House, Winner                    

2016    European Architecture Award, most important and emerging young architects"Europe 40 Under 40”, Winner  

2016    Concrete Architecture Awards, T-House, Finalist

2016    Aga Khan Award for Architecture, T-House, Nomination

Now entering the final design stages, this extra-virgin olive oil production facility reflects the clients’ ambition to approach the growing market in the region by focusing on quality rather than quantity.

The new olive oil mill is a rhythm and proportion driven building, whose form is intimately bound to the materials that blend with the surrounding context – a recurring theme in our practice. At the same time, every element of the building relates to the human scale.

The mill is carved out from the steep hillside in a simple, linear gesture. It is approached by walking through an olive grove, and at a distance, the structure does not reveal itself as a whole. Only as one enters the full volume of the building is unraveled.

Production and storage facilities are situated below ground to facilitate temperature, humidity and lighting control, all crucial parameters for the quality of the final product.

The interior of the building is organized as a sequence of stepped, descending levels,  to adapt to the inclination of the ground and to reflect the functional division. The water garden faces the mountain slope and the rocky landscape in the background.

The main structural walls of the mill are monolithic blocks of post-tensioned stone: an attempt to arrive to a time-tested appearance through using advanced technology. The desired result is a serene, timeless, geological simplicity, an impression that the building has grown from the ground, that it has always been there.

Adapted to the site and existing trees, the house unravels as a series of pavilions along a central axis. The large external decks offer expansive views across the Mediterranean landscape and towards the Aegean Sea. Spaces are designed with attention to the local wind conditions and sun movement.

An obsolete industrial facility belonging to a well-established company in the Piemonte region is transformed into a state-of-the-art research and development center. The intervention focuses on refurbishing an existing industrial building to create a new space that matches the needs and requirements of the leader in the industry. The environmental strategy unfolds on several levels. First, a choice to refurbish an existing building is a way to conserve the embodied energy of its original materials. Second, an array of renewable energy systems is designed to lower the new facility’s consumption. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the innovative façade shading system is designed to be produced by the local manufacturers, thus feeding back into the local economy of which it is an integral part.

The transformed building is situated on a relatively large industrial lot at the banks of a local river. The building is a simple volume, roughly 40m by 15m in plan, its longer side oriented towards the south-east. It is a reinforced concrete structure with brick enclosure and simple glazing. The roof structure consists of prefabricated concrete elements, shaped as inverted barrel vaults. 

The transformation of this building starts with stripping down its aged and poorly performing envelope and reinforcing the structural elements. The new envelope on the long sided of the building will consist of high-performance glazing and an external shading system designed to be produced by the local manufacturers.

The grand internal volume of the building will remain open, with three sub-zones that correspond to the new functions. The central area of the plan becomes a platform for product testing. To either side, an enclosed volume with a mezzanine will contain additional program, such as office and archive space and basic services. 

Adjacent to the north-west side of the transformed building, a new covered space will accommodate additional flexible functions. These added spaces will open towards an internal sculpture garden. 

The Modular Unit (MU50) is a small-scale, modular, off-grid structure, designed to be recyclable and adaptable to a wide variety of sites. Through its simplicity, flexibility and choice of materials, this structure is intended to bring beauty to the users’ daily lives; to allow them to incorporate it in their quotidian landscape and to connect with the surrounding nature reducing at most its carbon footprint.

A single module consists of two untreated Larch timber frames and the enclosure between them. The structural frames and the enclosure define the shell of the project, while its interior core consists of a separately constructed service pod with amenities and storage space.

The pod includes the bathroom and kitchen as well as necessary storage space. Glazing on all sides of the building allows visual transparency and creates a sense of openness and continuity between the interior and the surrounding landscape.

The exterior decks, protected at different times of the day by manually operated timber shades, offer a variety of micro-climatic outdoor experiences generated by the sun and wind conditions that change as one moves around the unit.

The structural Larch-wood frames and the enclosure panels were prefabricated and then easily mounted on site reducing the installation time. Details of the steep gable-roof cover were developed for three possible building materials – wood, aluminum and copper; the latest material was used to cover MU50. This is a multi-layered passive climatic control surface: while the thermal insulation and water proofed panel finish above the laminated wood roof structure provides the function of a conventional system; copper surface mounted above the actual roof surface provide an efficient passive control andreduction of heat gain, by creating continuous air movement and shading above the unit. This roof also house the photovoltaic and solar panels, making them an integrated component of the design language.

The enclosure of MU50 is double glazing on all building sides, except for an enclosed structural bay on the south façade which contains all the mechanical and electrical equipment. This includes a ground source heat pump for the custom designed underfloor heating and cooling system integrated into the timber frame. The glass enclosure helps establish a feeling of openness and connection to the surroundings. However, other materials could be chosen as the building skin, to match different spatial functions or climatic conditions.

The unit incorporates technologies that reduce its environmental impact. A simple, open plan allows natural lighting and facilitates cross ventilation. The transparent surfaces designed to receive maximum daylight into the interior spaces minimize the necessity for artificial lighting. The high pitched gable roof houses the photovoltaic panels to produce electricity and solar panels to heat water. Ground source heat pump and underfloor heating constitute an efficient system that makes use of minimal energy.

The floor of the unit is raised above the ground, which allows air circulation below its surface. Building orientation, custom made double pane glazing and piston-operated pine sunshades all protect the interior from direct sunlight.

The modular system used to build MU50 was designed to allow a wide range of building uses, reduce environmental impact and maximize site flexibility.

The elements of this modular system – the structural frame, the enclosure, and the service pod – can be varied in number and materials to house different building functions. As more structural frames are added, the building becomes larger; it can remain a singular, simple, rectangular space, or it can be subdivided by one or more service pods. Thus, a simple act of repeating and combining a small number of relatively simple building elements can produce a wide variety of spaces fit for different uses – from a small meditation room to a dwelling.

As a basic principle, regardless of the building use or choice of site, the modular system elements are designed to be constructed in reusable and recyclable materials which are easily available and can be assembled by local builders on any specific site. This fundamental design choice ensures reduced environmental impact for any specific building size or use. Simple spatial configurations that result from repetition of the basic elements facilitate natural lighting and ventilation. Water collecting and energy producing systems can be added to the basic units to make them completely off-grid.

Lightness and simplicity of the elements used to build the units ensure considerable flexibility when choosing a site – modular units could be constructed anywhere, from a mountain slope in the Alps to a rooftop in New York.

The project is situated in a coastal town. The building consists of two residential units and is designed as a prototype of low-impact, off-grid living.

The mix of interior and exterior spaces and the landscape that permeates the domestic boundaries evoke a treehouse feel. Energy-savings are achieved through a mix of passive strategies and advanced technologies.

The building is situated in a residential neighborhood close to the sea where the most popular building typology is the two-, tree- or four-family villa surrounded by a narrow garden planted with trees and local vegetation.

The project site is a 20 by 14 meters rectangle facing the street on one side, and the still vacant lots on the other.

The conceptual idea is to spread the traditional compact internal space in order to let the landscape come in and merge with it, redefining the relationship between the inner and outer spaces. The result is a sequence or a composition of rooms and gardens, terraces and trees, some of them on the ground, some underground and others above the ground. Vegetation is the catalyst of the project and an essential element of the architecture. The building itself is a structure for plants to grow on, like a naked body dressed in flora. 

The mixed structure consists of two concrete longitudinal walls carrying transversal steel beams. Service areas and the staircase are placed between the walls, while rooms and terraces are suspended from the beams. Underground spaces are interjected by a courtyard that allows the light to enter and hosts a tree which grows throughout the full height of the building.

This simple, almost diagrammatic, but bold structural scheme allows for different layouts and flexible spatial organization. Thanks to this adaptability, the project can be thought of as a prototype that could be replicated in different configurations.

The mix of suspended and detached spaces forms the basis of the energy-saving strategy. It facilitates natural ventilation by letting the breeze flow throughout the building, it defines shaded areas and allows vegetation to grow between the volumes, filtering the incoming sunlight. 

Rainwater can be harvested from the entire plot surface and used for irrigation.

The horizontal roof surface hosts solar and photovoltaic panels that provide hot water and electricity for the building.

A multifunctional furniture piece which allows all living functions to co-exist in a micro space. Conceptualized as a fixture for dwelling in a space as constrained as a boat, the cabinet contains storage space, a kitchen and a passage to the bathroom. 

Tropical tree houses adapted to the site and local climate conditions.

A floating exhibition space which maximizes the public areas on the ground floor.

A swimming pool nested under the sloping green roof which connects the existing buildings and restores the link to the river and the surrounding landscape. The new pool complex and its public park increase the green areas of the city and mend the fragmented urban fabric.

Book stacks are placed in the central courtyard and all activities revolve around this central seed.

Prior to establishing TAO, Onur Teke spent 15 years working across Europe and the USA, as architect and associate at Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Eisenman Architects in New York City.  He designed and was responsible for a variety of internationally recognized projects captured in different scales, managing complex and multi-disciplinary working groups. From 2007 to 2013 he was in charge of Kimbell Art Museum Expansion in Fort Worth, Texas, and led the design team from early concept sketches to the building completion.  His design experiences with RPBW and Eisenman Architects include:

Expansion of Kimbell Art Museum - Fort Worth, USA, for RPBW

Requalification of the historical district Ex-Fiera - Milan, Italy, for RPBW

Museum of Contemporary Art - Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, for RPBW

Expansion of Isabella Steward Gardner Museum - Boston, USA, for RPBW

Pediatric Hospice - Bologna, Italy, with RPBW

Façade system for the Luna Rossa Team Base, 32nd America’s Cup - Valencia, Spain, for RPBW

Whitney Museum of American Art - New York, USA, for RPBW

City of Culture of Galicia - Santiago de Compostela, Spain, for Eisenman Architects

Share

RPBW