Grounding the circle

The Round House
Kitchen Renovation in Oriental Mindoro, Philippines

The Round House is defined by movement. Its circular geometry creates a space that feels open, expansive, social, and constantly in transformation. 

While these qualities give the house much of its character, they can also make everyday inhabitation feel unstable, especially within the kitchen, where daily life naturally concentrates.

This renovation approached the kitchen not simply as a functional or beautiful upgrade, but as the grounding element of the house itself: introducing structure, rhythm, and clarity without erasing the openness and vitality that already gave the space its identity.

The kitchen was originally approached as a practical renovation project after severe termite damage forced the removal of most of the existing wooden cabinetry. What began as a necessary reconstruction quickly revealed a deeper spatial need.

The house carried a constant sense of movement: ideas expanding, objects accumulating, people gathering, conversations flowing from one space to another. The kitchen sat at the center of this dynamic, functioning not only as a place to cook, but as the social and energetic core of the home.

The openness and vitality of the space were part of its beauty, yet over time they had also created a feeling of visual and mental noise that made the house difficult to anchor in everyday life.

The intention of the renovation was never to erase that spirit or impose excessive control over the way the house was inhabited. Instead, the project sought to introduce more clarity, rhythm, and grounding while preserving the playful and expressive nature of the space.

This direction shaped many of the architectural decisions from the very beginning.

The removal of the damaged wooden cabinetry became an opportunity to rethink the kitchen as a more solid and open structure. Heavy concrete counters replaced enclosed storage volumes, creating a stronger sense of permanence and stability within the circular house. Storage remained intentionally visible through open metal shelving systems, allowing everyday objects to stay accessible without visually overloading the space.

Material choices followed the same logic. Calm mineral surfaces, textured earthy tiles, natural wood accents, and muted tones were combined to reduce visual noise while maintaining warmth, tactility, and personality.

The goal was not minimalism for its own sake.

It was to create a space capable of supporting a more grounded way of inhabiting the house without losing the creativity, openness, and spontaneity that already gave it life.

Existing Spatial Geometry

The first step of the project was to understand the existing energy of the space.

Every place carries a certain atmosphere: some spaces feel calm and grounding, while others feel expansive, stimulating, or constantly in movement. We experience these qualities intuitively through the body long before we consciously understand them.

To read these spatial tendencies, I map the geometry of the construction in relation to the land where it sits. In The Round House, the circular perimeter revealed a frequency associated with transformation and constant movement  -qualities that were already strongly reflected in the way the house was inhabited.

While highly stimulating creatively, the absence of a grounding structure also contributed to a constant sense of movement within the space, especially in the kitchen, where daily life naturally concentrated.

Rather than opposing the existing energy of the house, the intervention sought to balance it by introducing a second geometry capable of creating orientation, rhythm, and anchoring within everyday use.

Grounding Through Kitchen Design

The grounding strategy emerged through the kitchen itself.

Rather than introducing a rigid or enclosed structure, the intervention works with the existing circular nature of the house, organizing movement without interrupting its openness.

A new countertop structure defines an offset circle within the larger perimeter of the home, creating a second geometry capable of anchoring the space through everyday use. Built in heavier materials and organized around a clearer rhythm, the kitchen introduces a stronger sense of orientation and permanence within the constantly moving atmosphere of the house.

At the center of the kitchen, a generous island with a griddle creates a place for gathering and shared cooking, reinforcing the kitchen’s role as a social space rather than a purely functional one. From this central point, the counter expands toward the dining area through a Fibonacci-based spiral geometry, softening the transition between cooking, eating, and conversation.

During the construction process, the social intention behind the table began appearing in unexpected ways. One of the carpenters became deeply inspired by the geometric process and crafted the central spiral piece that now gives the table its sculptural form.

What was initially conceived as a subtle geometric gesture evolved into a shared creative moment between design, craftsmanship, and inhabitation. The process itself began reflecting the same openness, participation, and connection the space was intended to support once completed.

The intervention allowed the kitchen to remain open, playful, and deeply social while creating more structure, clarity, and grounding within the everyday experience of the house.

Restoring Circular Flow

The renovation also focused on restoring continuity of movement throughout the social areas of the house.

The circular geometry of The Round House naturally encourages fluid movement between spaces, yet several existing elements interrupted this continuity. The original pantry walls created visual and physical barriers between the kitchen, dining room, and living areas, compressing transitions and fragmenting the everyday experience of the house.

Rather than adding new divisions or eliminating essential storage, the intervention reorganized these boundaries through cleaner geometries and more permeable connections, allowing movement, light, and visibility to circulate more freely throughout the interior.

Existing glass doors were repurposed to create a pantry enclosure that remained visually open, balancing functionality with spatial continuity.

Additional windows introduced more natural light into both the kitchen and living areas, while lighter wall finishes reduced visual heaviness and reinforced a calmer, more breathable atmosphere across the house.

Materiality & Atmosphere

Material choices focused on reinforcing a more grounded spatial experience without losing the expressive and playful nature of the house.

Textured surfaces, natural tones, and heavier finishes were introduced to balance the subtle and expansive quality already present in the house. Rather than approaching materials purely visually, the project considered how surfaces would be physically experienced through movement, touch, light, and daily use.

One of the defining moments of the design emerged during the material selection process itself, when a dark textured floor tile unexpectedly became a central element of the project. The client repeatedly returned to the physical sensation of the material, imagining the experience of walking barefoot through the space and feeling its texture underfoot.

That response became part of the architectural direction. Grounding was approached not only visually, but sensorially: through weight, texture, tactility, and the relationship between the body and the space it inhabits.

Infrastructure as Geometry

The lighting strategy emerged directly from the constraints of the existing structure. Because the roof could not accommodate recessed lighting or concealed electrical systems, the project developed an alternative approach where infrastructure itself became part of the architectural language.

A network of exposed metal conduits distributes light throughout the kitchen following the main geometric axes of the house. Rather than concealing the system, the intervention allows it to become a subtle spatial drawing across the ceiling, reinforcing the underlying geometry of the space through lines, intersections, and rhythm.

Light points appear where different axes meet, allowing function and geometry to overlap naturally while bringing a greater sense of coherence and orientation to the kitchen.

Living the Space

One of the most meaningful moments of the renovation happened before the construction was even completed.

After the main kitchen structure had been built, the atmosphere of the house began to shift subtly. Spaces that previously encouraged constant expansion and accumulation started finding a new sense of rhythm and orientation around the grounded center of the kitchen.

The project never sought perfection or excessive control. Instead, the intention was to create enough structure to support everyday life while allowing creativity, spontaneity, gathering, and playfulness to remain fully present within the home.