architecture landscape sculpture
web_129 01.jpg

camera jewel house

camera jewel house

Camera_Jewel_House_London_Tonkin_Liu_House_Courtyard

camera jewel house
two buildings gaze at each other across a courtyard of water,
the house and studio for a photographer and a jeweller,
is about looking and being looked at

 

RIBA Future House Award 2004

 
 
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Camera_Jewel_House_London_Tonkin_Liu_House_Courtyard_night
 

In the courtyard, over the water, the house faces south while the studio faces north. The two facades reflect each other, making the courtyard a space of infinite reflections. 

The house is a jewel box. The jewels, whose honeycombed facades light each space, are objects for living; cooking, cooling, washing and storing. As night falls, the glowing jewels transform the micro-capillary street façade into a shadow theatre of light and movement.

 
 
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The studio is a camera obscura.  As the workday ends, the blind comes down, an inverted image of the house and its reflection in the water appear on the studio’s back wall.

 
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Camera_Jewel_House_London_Tonkin_Liu_House_Courtyard_projector
 

client private
location london, uk
size 430 sqm
status completed 2001
structural engineer atelier one