For this house there were some programmatic requirements that differed from those of typical residential houses. There was a need for spaces that could accommodate religious functions and Buddhist practices-such as areas for giving food offerings to monks, or a chapel area-which required an atmosphere of calm and stillness and were completely different in character to spaces for other worldly leisure activities such as the Pool House. The client wanted a solution that was different from what can usually be found, so we had to come up with a design that could integrate these incongruous activities. The architects turned this spatial requirement into The Fifth Element, creating a new brief whereby the result was an arrangement that established a flow between these different spaces. The building is made up of three main sections: the first is clad in wood, to relate to the past, and houses the chapel area and the main living area; the section clad in grey stones refers to the present and has the areas for guests and social activities, and the white section of the building, which spans across the first two sections, signifies the future and contains bedrooms with views out towards the surrounding area. The open courtyard in the middle, which is created through the arrangement of the different sections, plays an important part as a divider of the different main spaces, but is also the central meeting point of the house, as well as an opening for sunlight and natural ventilation. When designing, architects have to come up with a form that conforms to the client previous experiences in some parts, while generating new experiences in other parts. These superimposed experiences crate the condition for a spatial arrangement and the mixing of materials that is original. The results are often interesting case studies, even for the architects themselves.