Synthesis
Scroll
Architecture as narrative. Space as the page. A reinterpretation of Rem Koolhaas's Maison à Bordeaux, where the walls speak — and the floors remember.
Synthesis revisits the interiors of Rem Koolhaas's celebrated Maison à Bordeaux through architectural narrative — translating the key concepts and quotations from his book S, M, L, XL into visual elements and engravings embedded within the architecture.
The original stylistic language of the architect is preserved in the choice of materials, while a new layer of meaning is introduced through incised typography that activates every surface.
Each space in Synthesis evolves in two stages: a clay render to define structure, proportion, and the foundational flow of light; followed by a final render, where materials emerge to reveal the light's true tactile interaction.
Stage 01 — Clay model
Stage 02 — Final render
The studio — typographic engravings on the rear wall: S, M, L, XL.
Stage 01 — Clay model
Stage 02 — Final render
The threshold — where outside and inside speak the same language. The four letters, suspended in glass, become a typographic bridge between the two wings.
Synthesis does not merely preserve the Maison à Bordeaux — it lets the building speak. To inhabit becomes an act of reading; to descend, an act of remembering. Architecture is no longer the stage of the story — it is the page on which the story is written.
Stage 01 — Clay model
Stage 02 — Final render
Two wings, one gaze. Glass becomes filter and revelation — depth not as distance, but as the slow unveiling of one space through another.
Stage 01 — Clay model
Stage 02 — Final render
Each step, a sentence. Each rise, a thought. To descend is to read — and what is inscribed underfoot remains, even after the foot has passed.
Faithful to Koolhaas's stylistic vocabulary — concrete, glass, polished aluminium, warm timber — the material palette grounds the project in its original architectural register, while leaving the typographic surfaces free to speak.
Concrete
Opaline glass
Polished metal
Warm timber
"Space is not a backdrop — it is a sentence, waiting to be read."Synthesis — project note, 2024