Bella Casa

The building, located in a boundary between office and residence area, was used to be a two-storey restaurant and now converted into a showroom for European imported tile. Due to the environment's monotonously repetitive pattern, the project tries to intervene with a more active rhythm to delight the atmosphere, but still in a humble way. By shifting various tilting angles on different levels, the architectural masses are crisscrossed against each other to create multiple visual dimensions on the site. On the ground floor, in order to response to the turning corner, an extra mass, like an unfolding fan, moves outwards that transforms the original L-shaped footprint into a triangle mass. The first floor remains the same and a folded decorative facade is installed on rooftop. Together all three interlaced levels compose a dynamic rhythm, like a cut-and-fold paper sculpture existing in the urban context.

The notion of multiple axes originated from the paper sculpture extends from exterior to interior space. In contrast to the original structural system, both the newly added triangle extension and the rotated mezzanine present alternative dimension that intervenes the orthogonal system. Especially the mezzanine, positioned at a visual focus as a critical core that leads to the upper floor, creates a winding circulation and several cut off zones. This benefits a wandering experience within the showroom and its various perspective angles subsequently towards the product on display along the visit path. More importantly, each show zone is arranged spatially, located deliberately right on the encounter of various axes rather than exhibited conventionally subordinated to an axis, which provokes more dynamic activities within the space and no longer as static showcases. Thus, visitors experience the product as well as the space simultaneously that enriches a more intimate relationship. Thus, the whole building is not just a traditional showroom but a virtual villa where life events could happen during the visit trip.

Category: Showroom
Location: Taipei City
Size: 490M2(interior), 241m2(exterior)