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XS,  | International Design Awards Winners
XS,  | International Design Awards Winners
XS,  | International Design Awards Winners
XS,  | International Design Awards Winners
XS,  | International Design Awards Winners
XS,  | International Design Awards Winners
XS,  | International Design Awards Winners
XS,  | International Design Awards Winners
XS,  | International Design Awards Winners
XS,  | International Design Awards Winners
XS,  | International Design Awards Winners
XS,  | International Design Awards Winners
XS,  | International Design Awards Winners
XS,  | International Design Awards Winners

XS

Lead Designers
Entry Description

The design&development project is located at a quite residential area near Boston where most of housing is built in worker?s cottage or New England style. To meet the extremely low construction budget and tight zoning regulations, materials and forms are born of necessity and pragmatic functionalism with low cost design. Instead of hiring contractors, we undertook our own construction to show that with the most basic building materials and skills, clever plans can make something interesting. For instance we bought many DIY books, spent hours on the Internet researching affordable materials (cork flooring, Polycarbonate, plywood, left-over marble tiles), and spent weekends and nights doing most of the work ourselves.

XS
Size: 990 square feet (2 bedroom, 2 bathroom)
The final piece to the residential compound, XS, what the hell is this is, three rotated 16-by-22-foot boxes with four-corner-skylights, giving rooms natural light with minimum windows and maximum privacy, something that is all too important when there are four houses on just two lots, especially when the designs draw as much attention as they do. The house is finished in marine plywood, usually used in boat-building. The grain is broad and pronounced, creating the appearance of a huge piece of furniture. Each floor of XS has a different look and feel (marble on the first floor, oak plywood on the second), but all are connected by a pared-down wooden staircase that threads through the space.

Bio

UNI is a design/build company founded by Chaewon Kim and Beat Schenk in Cambridge, MA in 2003 and acts simultaneously in the roles of architect, builder, owner and developer, seeking innovative design solutions, while addressing economic and zoning pressures. The company?s most recent projects include four houses- XS, S, M, L- either renovated or newly built on a small lot in Cambridge, MA, that test and explore design solutions to housing problems, while using affordable and sustainable materials. The innovative project has been widely published. Kim and Schenk both received bachelor of architecture degrees from Southern California Institute of Architecture. Kim received her master degree from Harvard University Graduate School of Dsign, and Schenk received his master degree from Columbia University.