The Exploded House designed by Global Architectural Development, the building is located in Bodrum which is a Mediterranean port-trade settlement in the Southwest of Turkey. This house reinterprets traditional dwellings in the area, yet its angular structure that fits into the clefts in the hillside, remains in keeping with the natural environment and when seen from above the pools mirror the surrounding landscape and the endless vista of the bay and help mask the presence of the building on the hill. The open-plan main house ensuring that it is light and airy, a must in summer. For secondary prevention, the roof of the building is covered with a pond that collects rainwater. The water cascades from the roof of one of the other buildings and then circulated back to the round, creating a natural cooling system for hot climates.
 

The outdated codes restrict new forms of architecture being introduced to the landscape. To overcome this and create more flexible building types, GAD creating a house made of three separate buildings – a metaphor for a single building that had “exploded” into many parts. Each individual unit, in accordance with regulation size 75 square meters, was built with one another in the narrow space between and connected by a glass atrium. Understood as a house, building each has a different function: a master bedroom and bathroom, kitchen and dining room, and guesthouse with an adjacent study room.
 

The central glass vestibule acts as the entrance to the building as well as the main living area with 180° vistas of the stunning landscape and bay made possible by floor to ceiling windows. Operated electronically, the windows have the capacity to slide open flush to the ground, allowing for sea breezes to flood the interior. This innermost space is the focal point of the house and is connected to the three houses by a series of concrete ramps that reconcile the building with the landscape. An additional slope that can be used as a sun deck and for light recreational activities descends to the contiguous swimming pool located on land set at a slightly lower grade from the house. From here the ramp leads down the hillside to an additional self-contained apartment building that is set within the land and hidden from the house above.