The house designed by Julien De Smedt Architects is one of 100 private residences, all designed by different architects selected by Herzog & de Meuron for the ORDOS 100 project, which is master-planned by artist Ai Wei Wei. The project is located in Inner Mongolia, China.

The following is from JDS:

‘A house of 1000 m2 can almost be populated rather than inhabited to the least it can entertain quite a party! We have designed a house around the principle of big brother, a place where one can watch and be watched. A house where the circulation is gathered into an atrium of hedonistic leisure and excess, an unavoidable place of pleasure control, that distributes its visitors and party goers in the confines of protected rooms.

Each room flanked on this panopticon atrium is equipped of a private terrace, or dune, that continues the idea of the original desert over the house. Similarly the desert is trapped inside the atrium to form an oasis of sand.

Climatically the house functions like an igloo: the outer rooms act as a layer of extra protection to the indoor atrium space.

The larger space allows for natural ventilation both of itself and of each individual room.

The programmatic layout allows for maximum publicity on the 2 primary levels while the top floor is dedicated to the master bedroom and attendance, turning it almost into an apartment within the house.’

For model photos visit the architects’ blog.