Reiken IV (Babylon)

It has served its purpose, but now it’s time. Once a family home, the house was later split up into eight student units. The building wears the traces of this transformation. Beyond its general ageing, the plot is almost entirely built over and fully paved.

So we unbuild. We remove mass, and living units. Front and back rooms are reconnected. What were once dull and separate spaces become sunlit, through-living studios. One per floor. Beyond the historical rear façade, the plot is left untouched. A compact urban garden now softens not only the site itself, but breathes into the wider block around it. The garden multiplies, not just across the ground but upward too. The rear façade becomes a layered cake: horizontal slices stretch from one party wall to the other. Some slide forward out of the plane of the wall. There, they become shading devices, balconies, suspended gardens. A butterfly flutters toward the open window, hesitates, then veers back to the flowers. The grass is still damp from the rain. You can smell it.