A
Gi Architects have written a manifesto about their
design of the house, ���The Secret,��� in Shuwaikh, Kuwait.
In it they describe Kuwait���s urban fabric as a ���city sprawl���
that sounds rather like that of Los Angeles���neighborhoods of detached single-family houses with minimal,
shaded spaces between them. Los Angeles has hills
and valleys as well as a large plain. Kuwait has a desert
plain and the Gulf. The challenge posed by this urban
landscape at the edge of a desert is to create both privacy and views, as well as protection from the sun.
The Secret is a house which from the street appears
severe, a pure fa��ade hiding an inner labyrinthine world
of public and private space, of surprise vistas, startling
angles and mysterious passageways. The sense of
mystery is compounded by a machine which produces
a mist that surrounds the house at intervals.
The sheer architectural audacity of designing, let alone
implementing, an entire fa��ade comprising a windowless
wall, albeit one that floats ingeniously one story above
HYLAND
