The Pompomist Picks

These extensions are an example of the growing trend to exploit the urban roofscape for new living and working spaces… A new way of increasing urban density by adding roof life to a specific site, whether is the countryside or the city.

Esker House

From this picture, this house doesn’t look all that. But wait until you see pictures of this house’s roofscape.
Esker Haus (according to answers.com, esker means a long, narrow, winding ridge of stratified sand-and-gravel drift.) is a residential unit constructed on top of an existing 1960’s house, located in San Candido, Italy.
Designed by the English firm, Plasma Studio, the project’s architectural concept has been developed as a parasite. The house was adapted to the old house’s roof forming a space which doesn’t have any ties with its host structure. Esker house creates its own unique shape and morphology.
The structure was built with a chain of steel and timber frames that bend and shift to resemble the surrounding landscape. The accessible roof and overall exterior geometry determine the interior spaces inside accentuating the flow throughout a split-level plan.





























Didden Village

Didden Village is the new MVRDV project and the first completed project in their hometown Rotterdam. Is a house extension built on top of an existing monumental building, but this addition is, again, not architecturally tied to its base. The addition’s concept was to create a mini-village on top of the building by tying the spaces with a series of plazas and alleys. Trees, tables, open-air showers and benches are added to give it a village feel. The house and ‘street furniture’ were given a blue poly-urethane coating to crown the monumental building… making it look like ‘heaven’.
These extensions are an example of the growing trend to exploit the urban roofscape for new living and working spaces… A new way of increasing urban density by adding roof life to a specific site, whether is the countryside or the city.