Nominated as a finalist in this year’s World Architecture Festival, Carlo Calma’s ultramodern Escher-meets-Gaudi Brutalist era-inspired masterpiece is certainly a wonder to behold
It is an exercise in Brutalist sensibilities, a structure brimming with drama from exterior to interior. Its architect’s vision is realised in the form of raw concrete, oxidised material, textured stone, and bent wood. Carlo Calma describes it as an “architecture of exuberance” and “a living kinetic sculpture,” influenced by MC Escher’s complex tessellations and Antoni Gaudi’s striking structures, but replete with the edgy eccentricity that characterises his works. What is, perhaps, most intriguing about this particular home is the client himself, one of Calma’s most challenging to date: his very own father, Pablito.
“It was inspired by a sculpture I had on display at Assemblages, an exhibition I did together with Jay Yao at Provenance Gallery in 2016,” says Calma. “Our studio is fond of making sculptures that seem unreal, but are utopian realisations of case studies for homes, buildings, and cities.” One particular sculpture caught his father’s attention, which Calma then used as the primary inspiration for what he christened the Infinity House. And here is a fun fact: this sculpture has found its home in Taipei—in top chef and restaurateur Andre Chiang’s collection.
The concrete façade alone, protected with a special waterproofing compound that prevents ageing and discolouration, elicits a feeling of sensory overload. Varying geometric forms of all sizes intersect, overlap, and even jut out of the structure, creating a three-dimensional effect. There is fluidity; nothing looks lost in translation. But as it is situated in the middle of Makati, it sticks out as an object of interest and not as a sore thumb. “The playfulness begins at street level, continuing on to the pivot door—which is made of corsten steel treated in such a way that it looks like wood—that gives the sense of going down a rabbit hole,” says the architect.
Upon entry, one’s eyes may be drawn towards every which way—after all, Calma was thinking along the scale of a grand cathedral while conceptualising the open-plan main area. Undoubtedly, it is the weathered curvilinear corsten steel staircase that holds sway in the area. Calma describes it as a “sort of monster,” pointing out the eye-like detailing. Half-moon lights litter the high ceilings, designed in such a way to mimic birds in V-formation flight. An umbrella-like Moooi lamp hangs over a corner seating space imagined to be a visual representation of a forest, with sofas and accent chairs resembling rocks and trees.
