Studio (n-1) Architects

The house constitutes a playful entanglement of ancient mythical narratives, modern structural ideals, contemporary infrastructures and everyday local building methods.

The design regime is one of looking at history and using what works, or what through time has proven to outperform other comparative solutions. The dominant structural frame sets up a type of Wunderkammer collection of tectonic delight. This method of organization allows the structural reading of the frame to remain intact.

Client:

The client, part Dutch part Greek, jewelry designer, and place maker. She grew up in the Netherlands but spent her childhood summers in Greece. She imagined a home where her diasporic family and friends could converge.

Shape:

The shape of the house is long and narrow, a mutation of the traditional Greek Stoa building type with a landscaped, dry stacked stone stylobate. It lies parallel to the coastline, optimizing the view while simultaneously sheltering the living space from strong northern winds. The breezeway in the center connects Evia’s Mount Ochi to the north with the Aegean Sea to the south. It lies on axis with the island of Kea which forms its distant view.

Structure:

The concrete structural frame is a grid consisting of 4.8×4.8x3m bays with 30x30cm columns, and 30x50cm beams. A legacy of modernism, the concrete frame is the most common construction method in the region due to its economy and durability. The columns and beams are slightly oversized to protect the steel reinforcement from the corrosive effect of salt. The structure provides a framework onto which distinct raw architectural elements are inserted, stone walls, brass storage walls, glass walls, bathrooms, terracotta roof, solar shading, appliances, furniture…

Roof:

Drawing on 5th century B.C know-how and folklore, the Hip roof shape is a pine wood structure that rests on the modernist concrete frame. It is layered with terracotta tiles that end with an Antefix – an historical roof element still commonly used today. The thickened end piece caps and protects the ends of the tiles from damage. Shaped in the head of Hermes, its ability to protect is extended into a communion with the gods.

Walls:

The North and South walls are made from local Karystos stone, a mix of greens, reds, and greys. East and West facing walls are clad in brass, akin to a protective Linothorax. In a nod to Helios, they glow a golden yellow with early morning and afternoon light, changing color with the passing of time.
Life: Life exists mostly outdoors. The breezeway separates living spaces. To the east are four enclosed bays, each bay a program: cooking, eating, sleeping, and living. To the west are two independent living bays, each with its own entrance. To the south, the open, covered colonnade acts as both outdoor corridor and collective living space.

Team:

Design: Architect: NMinusOne: Christos Marcopoulos and Carol Moukheiber
Construction and Management: Architect: Konstantinos Polychroniou and Maria Tsipoura
Team: Structural (Civil) Engineer: Nikolaos Detsis; Mechanical Engineer: Georgios Mylonogiannis; Excavator: Konstantinos Gouletas; Floors: A&E Babaniotis; Electrical: G&E Magkaniaris; Stone/Masonry: Dimitris Sfiridis; Copper/Zinc cladding: Antonios Pagkratis; Concrete: G&E Stabelos; Glazing: Anastasios Gouletas; Millwork: Nikolaos Togias; Roof: Serwood
Photo Credits: Christos Marcopoulos
Location: Aetos, Evia
Size: 150m2 indoor, 175m2 outdoor

White Out

The proposal asserts its presence by formally negating its figure. By voiding its image, it foregrounds its background: Helsinki.

The proposal consists of a cobblestone plinth and a white fabric object. While the plinth negotiates all ground requirements, the white object mediates the context in which the art is shown. The building takes its cue from the harbor it has settled in. It is both urban and maritime.

THE WHITE OBJECT
The removal of the subject/figure reinforces the environment. Anything placed in front of the white object becomes the focus of attention. The building is an abstract representation, an exacerbation of the white box, an undetermined shape or event, a John Baldessari cutout, a white-out. The white object is simultaneously iconic and subtle; it is explicitly present, yet yielding to its surroundings. The missing figure forms a strong presence through its absence. What initially seems like a non-descript form reveals itself as a finely tuned performative surface. Through its use of PTFE white fabric, the envelope acts as a light diffuser to the interior galleries. The structure enables large, flexible, column free spaces. Deep floors and ceilings allow for all mechanical infrastructure. The top floor is a series of vierendeel trusses from which hangs possibly the largest single solid cross laminated Finnish timber plane. The wood plane is suspended by very slim carbon fibre cables forming the floor of the suspended gallery and the ceiling of the invisible gallery.

The building recognizes lightness as one of the most overlooked approaches to architectural sustainability. The weight of a building is directly related to its carbon footprint. During construction, and possible demolition, lightness will dramatically reduce carbon emissions associated with the amount of manufactured material as well as from moving and installing building material. Because of its pervasive use of fabric, and Phase Change Material for insulation, the proposed building is significantly lighter than one using traditional materials.

“The Thing” is a black box where architecture is turned into a black void. Any object that is placed with this field is precisely illuminated without excess light fall-off. Objects are detected by infrared (IR) beams and illuminated according to their presence and location.

The invisible gallery space is encapsulated in white fabric. Rounded corners generate a type of visual ground zero, a white-out. Here, the ubiquitous white gallery wall typically used for the display of art has become the space itself. The hovering uninterrupted timber plane, the museum goers, and the art itself gain equal conceptual focus…

Carol Moukheiber, Christos Marcopoulos. Team: John Natanek

DropMoss

DropMoss

DropMoss™ is a networked moss culture designed for standard T-bardrop-ceilings. We recognize the ceiling as an untapped site for interior landscapes. It is an undisturbed zone that can be reclaimed by nature and linked to resilient outdoor ecosystem by means of networked embedded technology. The tile consists of a compostable/recyclable coco mat “cartridge” and an aluminum “tray” with integrated sensors, digital readout and wireless communication. The cartridge hosts a variety of common low maintenance moss species including Hypnum, Haircap, Rock Cap, and Cushion moss. They are irrigated by a hand held piston-pump sprayer or alternatively by means of an automated misting system integrated into the drop-ceiling structure. Moisture levels are optimized through embedded humidity sensors.

Internet of Moss

Although discretized as individual elements for stand-alone use or modular aggregation, the DropMoss tiles are wirelessly connected to their neighbors and linked to the Internet. They report individually on their status (humidity, pH) and together on ambient environmental conditions (temperature, ambient light, humidity, C02). They join other networked moss communities around the globe in an ecosystem of live correlated data whose feedback serves their resilience and sustainability.

Web Interface of DropMoss tile: “the Internet of Moss”. In collaboration with Rodolphe el-Khoury
Team: Andrew Piotrowski, Tommy Reslinski, Samar Sabie

X-Stock

X-Stock is a concept for a line of clothing that uses the “deadstock” or “new old stock” of a Fifth Avenue luxury Chinese clothing brand.

New but old, beautiful but hidden, these stockpiled clothes sit, wait and accumulate. While the deadstock problem is symptomatic of the retail industry as a whole, for a luxury brand the usual solution of a sale, or deep discount runs counter to its exclusivity. The clothes are consequently locked up.

Shirt: Hood

Hood involves an add-on procedure that takes a dressy shirt and adds a vinyl, waterproof reflective hoodie. The delicate silk shirt gains weather based performance, previously associated with action gear. The hoodie responds to growing use of the bicycle under any circumstance, as a means of mobility.

Materials: silk, vinyl, reflective strip

Shirt: East / West Shirt: West / East

EW/WE is a cultural and physical exchange, transplanting the formally distinct manifestations of the everyday shirt — with their collars and corresponding button or silk knot stands — from one into the other. Two new and typologically distinct collars emerge.

Materials: silk, cotton

Shirt: Utility Shirt

Utility steals its many pockets from the Inside Out jacket

Shirt: Jersey

Jersey highlights the latent character that the original shirt embodied. Its jersey-like qualities of two-tone fabric with distinct collar and cuffs are aggregated with Nike

Jacket: Inside Out (and Back in)

Inside Out exposes the jacket

Long Coat: Dressed to Kill

Dressed to Kill hybridizes an adventure inspired leisure shirt/jacket and a raincoat. The Muji Freecut, Unisex Raincoat heightens the shirt

Face Gear

Face Gear is a series of sunglasses that hybridize facemasks, security glasses, and sunglasses. They offer maximum protection for the eyes, but also protect portions of the face.

Pleated Masks by Stacie Vos

The design of the mask takes current advanced medical mask technology

Carol Moukheiber and Christos Marcopoulos

Date: 2012-

Team:
Valentina Mele
Erin Holman
Stacie Vos

Janus House

The design emerges from the need to preserve the front, the visible streetscape — while the back is freed of those constraints. The house is split in two, maintaining a Victorian half, and inserting a house in the back that addresses a more contemporary lifestyle. One house with two lifestyles.

Located in a historic preservation neighborhood, the design addresses a double condition emerging from the need to preserve the front, the visible streetscape — while the back is freed of those constraints. The house is split in two, maintaining a Victorian half, and inserting a house in the back that ad-dresses a more contemporary lifestyle. One house with two lifestyles.

: The south facing (contemporary) front is articulated differently along the three levels. While the glazing is aligned on the top two levels, the skin of the building moves forward on the third level creating shade for both. The top level opening is lined with slate. Acting as “Kohl” or black eyeliner, the dark material dampens glare, while taking advantage of its southern orientation for needed heat in the winter.

: The Split: an enclosed, exterior gap between old and new.

: east elevation. exterior cladding: weathering steel

: south elevation

: The open shaft between the two houses, allows for maximum cross ventilation for both houses.

: Southeast view from the adjacent court.

Carol Moukheiber and Christos Marcopoulos

Completed: 2012
Location: Toronto

Team:

Kevin Schorn
Gabriel Fain
Yie Ping See
Thilani Rajarathna
Michael Spatafora
Valentina Mele
Sonia Ramundi
Patty Graham

Structural Engineering
Blackwell Bowick
Luke Anderson

Photography
Maris Marzulis

The Hu-Mannequin

The Hu-mannequin project was initially conceived as a pop-up store proposal for a fashion designer. The proposal attempts to enrich the experience of viewing by engaging the olfactory sense.

The installation is composed of scent-emitting mannequins that release a variety of smells into the environment throughout the day. Seats are placed within the store to harness the scent of sitting individuals. The scent of those occupying the seats is transported through a system of ducts, where the smell is released into the air via perforated mannequins. The person occupying the seat metaphysically wears the clothing through smell. The mannequin, typically a lifeless object, is now animated by human qualities through the production of smells

Christos Marcopoulos and Carol Moukheiber

Date: 2012

Team:
Valentina Mele
Michael Spatafora

Clothes designed by:
Adrian Wu
Erin Holman

IM Blanky

: IM Blanky is a blanket that exists in real space and virtual space simultaneously. If you move the blanket in real space, a virtual mesh moves along with it.

: IM BLANKY is a blanket with an IP address. The basic v. 1.0 is self-modeling, which means that it is wirelessly linked to a digital model that registers and reprocesses its changing state in real time. The built-in capacity to situate and represent itself in space and time points to a most primitive and essential form of cognition — the sense of one

: Blanket:
Materials: green two-tone Taffeta, nickel coated silver fabric, conductive and non-conductive thread, silver plated beads, glass beads, leather (back), resistors, multiplexers, LilyPad (back).

: Blanket Schematic Circuit
The blanket measures 7

: Computational Diagram
The data from each sensor determines the local tilt direction at the reading site; the readings from neighboring sensors establish elevation and orientation in 3D. The mapping of each vector against the entire field completes the overall picture.

: Circuit Schematic
16 Multiplexers receive seven inputs each from the tassel

: Circuit prototype
Hard-wire blanket circuit, prototype with Arduino.

: Conductive soft circuit detail

: Soft tilt sensors:
The shape of the petals and their distance from one another, were calibrated for maximum contact with the tassel

(soft) Hardware:
The blanket measures 7

RAD

RAD (2012-2015) was founded by NMO partners Carol Moukheiber and Christos Marcopoulos, with Rodolphe el-Khoury:

The lab was set up to research emerging responsive technologies. The lab

Farnsworth Curtain

: The Farnsworth Curtain takes its cue from Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House. The famous glass house made its inhabitant uneasy by its complete transparency to the outside. Perimeter curtains were hung to provide opacity and psychological comfort.

: The curtain is composed of 2 separate layers. The outer layer is the supporting structure for the infrared sensors and the LEDs. The inner layer forms the screen upon which the LEDs project light. When an object interrupts the infrared beams, the corresponding LED lights dim, causing a dark shape to emerge on the inner layer of the curtain.

Through the use of electronic noise cancellation technology and sound absorbing materials, the enclosed space will be almost silent, in contrast to the main space. Shadows will seemingly float by, the busier the outside the more hypnotic the experience.

Carol Moukheiber and Christos Marcopoulos

Date: 2011

Team:
Min Woo Kim

Farnsworth Wall

Through the use of solar panels on one side and LED lights on the other, an opaque wall becomes digitally transparent.

The Farnsworth Wall takes its cue from Mies van der Rohe

Carol Moukheiber and Christos Marcopoulos

Date: 2009

Christos Marcopoulos and Carol Moukheiber with Mani Mani

Out-House

The project proposes an inverted McMansion in an arid climate which, in its final act of over-consumption, ingests its own rear yard. However this act leads to its own survival. The ingested yard now becomes an activatedorganic machine for the harvesting and filtration of a single body of water that is perpetually recycled in a semiclosed system.

The original pitched roofs made for shedding water are now opportunistically reconfigured to collect water, and harvest energy. The newly ingested yard/lawn becomes a lush living filtration system cleaning grey and black water for reuse, while offering an Eden-like garden for its inhabitants. Eden is sustained by the toilet; a site for human waste disposal becomes a site for production, providing the necessary nutrients for the maintenance of plant and animal life, which in turn clean the water.

What was once the exterior of the house is now the most private area. The most private moments are experienced in what used to be outside.

In 2004, after five years of severe drought, Las Vegas banned all lawns in any new housing development, allowing

Dual State Room

A space that responds to fluctuating light levels by continuously modulating its surface to enhance light and mood.

The Dual State Room is a systematically constructed deep infrastructure for controlling the most superficial of tectonic conditions: the wall surface – (the wall paper)

The Dual State Room can change its appearance. One moment it is a warm, sound absorbent walnut veneer, and the next, a cool, reflective fluorescent yellow enamel. The space flip flops between these states, responding to light level fluctuations over the course of the day. When the space is too bright, the wall adopts the wooden side, reducing glare, and offering a feeling of warmth. Conversely, when dark, the wall flips to a highly reflective surface maximizing light levels.

RGB Garden

: The garden consists of 850, 6

The Circle

Client: The Circle

Date: Completed 2007

Location: Vancouver, B.C

Domestic Appendix

Heating and Cooling Glass

Heating and Cooling Glass explores the potential for the migration of the central HVAC system into a decentralized modular surface.

The double glazed Heating and Cooling Glass unit is used opportunistically as the site of maximum difference in temperature. Mediating incoming and outgoing air at the envelope takes advantage of the building takes advantage of the building’s skin as the interface between two different climatic zones. That difference is harnessed — through a Peltier device inserted in the glazing unit– to generate heating and cooling locally, as needed by the user, or as necessitated by weather conditions.

The glazing is slumped to form air channels to the heating and cooling unit.

The miniaturized heating and air-conditioning unit consists of a peltier device inserted between two back-to-back mounted CPU cooling sinks. The device cools and heats by reversing the current flow to the peltier device

Diagram of the air-channel infrastructures – showing the airflow in plan section and elevation.

The glazing sandwich. Two sheets of glass direct air in and out through the miniaturized heat-pump

By distributing the previously centralized HVAC system into the glazing system, glass becomes a haptic transmitter. With Valentina Mele

Fresh Air Window

: The Fresh -Air-Window employs two back-to-back Central Processing Unit cooling sinks. This configuration creates an instant Heat Recovery Ventilator

: Traditional system: centralized heat-recovery ventilation;
Proposed system: distributed heat recovery ventilation along the entire building envelope

: Two back-to-back CPU cooling units form a Heat Recovery Ventilator

: Diagram of the heat recovery ventilation: fresh cold exterior air comes though the fins and is heated by outgoing warm stale air

: Air-Quality monitoring

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Walsall

The site is recognized as being an anchor in a larger arc formation originating in the old city center to the East and stretching west across to the New Gallery through the Splash development, to the LEX site. The proposal for two core programs: a flexible Performance space along with a Hotel, injects two potent public attractors and economic generators on this trajectory defining the arc as the new cultural spine for Walsall.

In order to create a necessary densification/intensification of activities within the boundaries of the site, all form is programmed not just once… but twice.

Digital Window

Calculating Wall

Khyber Ridge House

The house is distributed along a steep slope, developing diverse tactical relations to the landscape, the surrounding views and the internal functions or program of the house.

Made up of five levels, the lower level, a guest house is embedded in the rock for maximum privacy. Its green roof blends in with the landscape. In contrast the main living volume is formed by a cantilevering roof with a suspended floor projecting out of the slope. The cantilever is anchored by four 3 foot deep steel beams drilled directly into the rock face; its floor is suspended by four, 1 inch diameter stainless steel rods. With its glass enclosure, the effect created is of a floating open platform, revealing when occupied the full impact of the surrounding mountains. One is literally suspended in space and surrounded by the foliage of trees. The upper level bedrooms retreat back along the contours of the mountain producing discreet relationships to the surrounding views. As the inhabitants navigate these volumes, they continuously weave in and out of the terrain.

: Ari Marcopoulos

Date: Completed 2005

Carol Moukheiber and Christos Marcopoulos

Photography: Ari Marcopoulos, Frank Jones and Someone Else

Team:
Consultants: Yu Strandberg Engineering + local engineer C.A. Boom Engineering Ltd.
Contractor: Michael McGillion

San Jose

Octavia Blvd.

NMO Unedited

: NMinusOne Unedited

: Shoes commissioned by C1rca

: High-tops commissioned by C1rca based on the color scheme of the painkiller Phenaphen 30mg.

: Table designed in collaboration with Wonder inc. Materials: shipping pallet and 1/2″ blue glass

: Madrona Crescent Addition Vancouver 2006

: Required addition size

: Cladding concept for addition

: Cladding Sample

: Study for the “Disappearance of the Existing Building”

: Model of proposal

: First floor plan

: Second floor plan

: West Elevation

: South Elevation

: Model

: Sebastopol Bathroom. California, 2006

: View up into skylight

: Toothbrush, 2002
Hybrid of a toothbrush and vibrator.

: Suction Cuffs, 2012
These suction cuffs restraint devices are for spaces with lots of glazing: modernist homes, condos, and any other contemporary architecture with floor to ceiling glass.

: NMO SuperMotard, 2012
2002 KTM 200 MXC:
Behr 17″ Rims, 3.5″ Front, 5″ Rear, Cush Drive

: Mammal Works, 2000
Methane Sensor, spark capacitor and controller mounted on cow.

: White Monolith. Proposal for monolithic white tower in San Francisco, 2005

: Beach House. Nicarague, 2006

Sky House

The architectural components used to achieve the illusion of corporeal suspension, are simultaneously the essential ingredients for a low-carbon house in arid climates.

Sustainability in the service of pleasure. The house is half house half pool. The interior temperature of the house is regulated by the pool water. The exterior wall of the pool forms the interior walls of the house. The wall works as a heat exchange device. To maximize exchange, it is shaped as a series of stacked continuous cooling ribs, assuming a form for maximum surface to air exchange. The filtration system of the pool runs the water by a tank of Phase Change Materials (PCM) encapsulated in 7.60 cm diameter plastic capsules. During the day the PCM absorbs solar energy embedded in the water. At night, the PCM release that energy into the water and subsequently back into the house.

The roof is covered by 2.50cm of water, making the pool, hot tub and roof into a single reflective surface. The sky and its reflection in the water merge seamlessly. People walking on the roof deack appear to be floating in space.

The roof surface/deck is covered by 2.5cm of water

It renders the pool, hot tub and roof deck into a single reflective surface

The pool and roof surface are black, to increase the reflectivity of the water surface

A combination of mist makers and ultra sonic atomizers eliminate…

Interior View – On the left is the staircase leading to the roof terrace, on the right is the ribbed surface of the pool

View Living Room – The hot tub reveals its presence in the ceiling of the living room.

Pill Color Manual

The Studio (n-1) Placebo Color Manual gives you a color swatch of the most used pharmaceuticals. Consult the manual for colors that can potentially be associated with psycho therapeutic effects and placebo responses researched by the top pharmaceutical companies.

Medications are listed in Alphabetical order:

A
B
C
D
E
E,F,G
I,K
L
M
N
O,P
R,S
T
V,W
X,Y,Z

Previous (n-1) Site

nminusone.com version 1.0, we’re keeping it alive — some projects are still better viewed through flash animations.

Invisible House

: In the Invisible House, architecture is systematically removed from one’s visual perception.

: During the night, this is what the living room looks like…

: .and this is what it looks like during the day

: …including windows into: the outside, a fireplace, the Internet, T.V……

: …and at night

: Rounded corners turn the perception of the interior into a “virtual” void…. (Image: Massimo Bartolini)

: …only the objects which escape any form of permanence will appear.

: Interoir View

: Through a form of suburban camouflage, the exterior appears as being…invisible too!…

: At night only the essential gets illuminated. (image: Runway lights)

: Spaces are defined by perimeter demarcation. (Image: Hallway)

: Objects and people are detected by infra-red beams and…

: …acording to their presence in space subsequently illuminated.

: Hallway View

: Living Room View

: Schematic of ceiling and floor panels

: Still: The Invisible Man, directed by James Whale, 1933

On the interior, architecture is systematically removed from one

Ecumenon

Gallery House

The Gallery House is focused inward around a central hall. Each separate activity is set into the walls of the open space as a house on display for itself. Flattened against the wall in an image, each programmatic element is formally expressed on the exterior – a house turned inside-out. DS in Praxis, Issue 8

Mirror House

: In plan, the Mirror House seems to offer a clear delineation of public and private spaces. In effect, however, the one-way mirror renders their division ambiguous. Private spaces are hidden from view by the mirror

Pool House

: The Pool House brings two often linked programs into a kind of extreme collision – a full-height glass wall separates and attaches the pool and the master bedroom. Its full-height window-wall exposes the pool