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Tree House
樹
屋
Most traditional Taiwanese apartments feature long and narrow rooms, with only windows on the short side and no illumination on the long side, resulting in poor lighting in the center of the space. Situated in a quiet alley of Tianmu, the original house was old, leaking, dark, and fragmented. However, the designer, Szuti Tsai, recognized the unique characteristics of the surrounding lush green mountains and forests and therefore wanted to restore the innate potential of this space throughout his design.
With only one person living in the space, the layout was simple. Only needs one main bedroom, and the rest of the space was designed to meet essential living functions such as living room, dining room, kitchen, and bathroom. By removing all the partitions and redistributing the layout, two parallel corridors were created with the advantage of front and back windows. The first corridor connects the bedroom with the dining room and living room following the entrance door, while the second features an extended balcony at the rear of the house. Between these two corridors, the kitchen, bathroom, and main bedroom are arranged with double-sided entrances, which allow for circulation throughout, creating a green landscape that reflects nature.
After entering the entrance, the first space is where the best sunlight and view of the house are. The designer desired to reserve the best view for the most valuable hours, that is, work and dining, and therefore planned this area as a dining and working area, enabling the homeowner to enjoy the most comfortable space when reading work-related research reports at home. Unlike most living rooms in Taiwan, this living room is located behind the dining room and adjacent to the main bedroom. With the gray flooring on the concrete wall and the round carpet that the owner brought back from India, everything in the home gradually begins to take on the occupants' flavor.
"It is not a stylistic challenge. It was meant to look like this,"
said Szuti, illustrating the symbiotic connection between the space and the environment and how by opening up the original layout, the facade of the home emerged. The spacious interior features pure white and concrete walls, with plywood panels on the surface of the cabinetry, whose native wood texture caresses the spaciousness, while a broad beam is balanced on the ceiling of the living room, with angled sloping wood panels sliding down toward the windows, directing the view to the luxuriant landscape outside, where the natural world is symbiotic with the interior.The color scheme of the entire residence is simplistic, but Tsai is not afraid of the blandness of the space, as no one's life is entirely empty, and there are bound to be many daily necessities or collections that will contribute to the depth of life and create visual focal points in the space, just like the colorful paintings painted by the homeowner on the walls creating punctuation. The room is simply a white canvas, waiting for the occupants to fill in their own colors little by little.
台灣的傳統公寓，房屋多半呈狹長型，只有短邊開窗、長側沒有採光，空間中心光源晦暗，然本案正好是比較少見的理想房型，長邊都有開窗且朝向良好的戶外景觀。基地位置座落於天母靜巷，原始屋況老舊、漏水、陰暗，格局零散，設計師蔡思棣鑑於周圍環繞翠綠山林，擁有得天獨厚的居住條件，因此，於設計核心上，希望能還原這個空間與生俱來的潛力。
由於居住成員只有一人，空間格局需求很簡單，只需要一間主臥房，其餘則滿足基礎生活機能如客廳、餐廳、廚房、衛浴等。拆除所有隔間後重新佈局，利用前後開窗的優勢，在室內創造了兩條平行的長廊。第一條長廊是在玄關入門後，穿越餐廳和客廳連結臥房的走道；第二條則是位於住宅後方的長陽台。座落在這兩條長廊之間的廚房、衛浴和主臥房皆安排雙面入口，貫穿動線也流通空氣，使綠景交映，打造與大自然一起呼吸的住宅空間。
玄關入門後的第一個空間，是全屋陽光與景觀最好的地方，設計師希望將最棒的景留給最珍貴的時間，也就是工作與用餐，因而將此處規劃為餐廳暨工作區，讓屋主在家閱讀工作相關的研究報告時，可以享受到最舒適的空間感。不同於台灣大多數一進門都是客廳的習慣，本案客廳配置在餐廳後方，與主臥房相鄰，搭配水泥牆的灰色地坪，鋪上屋主從印度帶回來的圓地毯，家的一切也漸漸開始有了居住者自己的味道。
「不是在挑戰什麼風格，它本來就應該要長這個樣子」思棣述說著住宅空間和環境共生的連結性，打開原有格局之後，家的面容變得更加清晰。寬敞的室內空間，以純白和水泥牆面構成為主軸，使用於收納櫃體表面的夾板，其木板的原生紋路輕撫空間，同時在客廳天花板平衡一堵寬矮的大樑，以帶有角度的斜木板向著窗戶緩緩下滑，將視線引導至窗外的蓊鬱，讓大自然與室內共生。整體住宅的色彩計畫簡單，蔡思棣不怕空間平淡，因為每個人的人生都不是乾淨的，一定會隨著需求有許多生活用品抑或收藏，此些東西會為生活製造深度，製造空間的視覺重點，正猶如牆上幾幅屋主揮筆描繪的繽紛畫作，在白牆中畫龍點睛，設計師只消處理完需求，空間就像一張白色畫布，留待居住者一點一滴的填滿屬於自己的色彩。
