A cross-shaped plan! I like symmetry!

The cross-shaped house, shown here in the option with mezzanine and the windows at the roof for the bedroom upstairs

I really like symmetry!
Balance! Stability and at the same time capriciousness and functionality!
 

The cross-shaped house, shown here in the option with mezzanine and the windows at the roof for the bedroom upstairs

 
Look at the human body, a tree, the earth, the sun, a lot of human objects, number of natural elements, almost everywhere, or better saying, everywhere the symmetry is more or less obvious!
 

The cross-shaped house, shown here in the option with mezzanine, bedroom and

bathroom upstairs

And at the core of the material: These atoms, these molecules, these quarks!
And the way the nature exercises itself from afar or all near:
Symmetrically! The gravity evidently.
 

A bigger view of the mezzanine

It seems that for its perfection the nature didn't find nothing better than the symmetry as a basis.
And on this symmetry, it modulates… to create this infinite diversity where it is sometimes hard to mark this symmetry even yet always omnipresent…
 

A view of the ground floor, option with mezzanine

And even this text also has as rule the symmetry:
Subject + verb + complement, there is the sentence! The axis of symmetry being the verb.
There is the sign of the symmetry of the mind!
 

A bigger view of the ground floor, option with mezzanine

So it is expected and natural to recover the symmetry so present in architecture:
The Parthenon, the big pyramids, even the humble house, the skyscraper…
Because all these constructions are submitted to the big laws of the physics, mainly the one of the gravity.
 

A view of the ground floor, option with mezzanine

So to stand up naturally, a construction must be in some manner symmetrical : There are two feet, there are two legs, there isn't for a tree a foot but several roots and several fanlike expanded branches! And even the leaned towers find their symmetry in a hidden part such a large foot in soil, such an anchorage to the rock!
We don't have choice: The symmetry is necessary to hold!
 

Interior view from living room to mezzanine

Symmetry equals balance!
 

Interior view from hall to dining room and  stairway

So this cross-shaped plan is evidently symmetrical and wants to illustrate it evidently!

While remaining eminently functional. And it is done naturally.
 

Interior view from dining room to living room

Break of symmetry!

But, in other hand, it is based on a certain break of symmetry:
A curve links a rectangle, then they get mutually in value by effect of contrast.

But again this contrast is repeated symmetrically and again the perfect symmetrical balance is recreated.
 

A view of the ground floor, option without mezzanine

Here is the rule of basis of this construction:
Obvious symmetry and modulation of this symmetry by effect of contrast inside a vast symmetry!

Symmetry according to the X axis, symmetry according to the Y axis, symmetry according to the Z axis.
 
And other variations can be made:
For example, identical two units of lodging can be united to become only one bigger adapting if needed for a bigger family.
 

A bigger view of the ground floor, option without mezzanine

It is also this modulation of symmetry that this cross-shaped composition declined in several versions will illustrate:

Only one level or two, three levels, and even as far as becoming a real dwelling tower.

But it also can be an offices building with a residential aspect or no… we will see!


In other hand!
 
In other hand, this construction will stay away from the usual town planning rule:
To align the constructions in a row, front yard and back yard,  a narrow yard to minimize the costs of the public infrastructures:
Street, sewer, aqueduct, electricity…

Rather each unit of this dwelling is leaned to three other to form this cross-shaped plan.
Between each a completely opaque wall, made of masonry or concrete, a wall firebreak and cut-sound! A nice visible or not brick masonry… continuation in outside wall in a small progress and accentuating the outside liberty for every condo or lodging.
 

A view of the ground floor, option without mezzanine

So a squarer yard more vast and private. All put ideally in a vast integrated whole where the rules of the usual town planning can be adapted to other considerations instead of strictly costs and simple geometry!

There is a quick outlook on this cross-shaped plan… and an exploration of its multiple possibilities!