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Tuscany Barn House by Julian King Architect
A house centred around a bathroom representing the womb, designed by Brooklyn studio Julian King Architect, is under construction in Tuscany, Italy.
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Called Tuscany Barn House, the project involved converting a barn into a residence for a retired writer.
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The interior leads visitors on a spiraling route through the building, culminating in the bathroom.
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A skylight at one end of the bathroom's curved ceiling forms the focal point of the project.
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Completion is expected in July 2010.
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The project was awarded first prize in the Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition 2009.
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The text below is from Julian King Architect:
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Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition 2009
The winning design was the renovation of an old barn in Tuscany, Italy, into a place for the client (a writer) to retire in, and [re]write her life story, which investigates how perception, and the manipulation of it, can be used to convey meaning.
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Perspectival illusions are used to imply an ulterior status of the structure-irradicating corners, bending walls, and re-locating the viewer between what the villa appears to be, and what it actually is.
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Moving between the imagined and the real, the owner's life story is re-told, ultimately returning to a womb shaped bathroom, where, submerged in water, a small oculus reveals itself at one end of the amorphous vaulted ceiling, as more than a skylight, but as an idea incarnate-at its very inception.
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