Hanging Home

Project Description

The clients – a family of three – needed to capitalize on their modest 250 square meters of land. While zoning regulations allowed only 40% site coverage, they presented the architect with a very demanding brief: an open plan living area, a separate dining room, two large bedrooms with bathrooms, an independent home-office, a study, a three-car garage, a pool, as much garden as possible and an area to enjoy their daughter’s piano playing.

After numerous hours of design planning and meetings, Briffa proposed cantilevering practically half of the house over the pool area, in order to liberate more space in the garden, while still falling within planning regulations. A scale model illustrated the proposal’s use of space, with a skillful juxtaposition of exterior and interior spaces, and the clients agreed to the design. The layout not only satisfied their brief, but also provided a generous outdoors area compared with the small side-terraces of similar surrounding properties.

From the street, a steel staircase bridges over the underlying front garden invites us beneath the sheltering white mass. High louvered doors, similar to traditional Maltese „persjani“, lead to the interior.