We live in an age dictated by visual noise and digital clutter, as though we are afraid of simplicity. Chaos has permeated every corner of modern life.
This is why architect Antoine Zammit and his team at Studjurban chose to respond to this with a gesture of clarity. Their latest residential project—an angular, light-drenched home in Kappara does not scream for attention. Instead, it invites stillness. The house, nestled on the edge of an urban periphery, is a bold yet refined expression of form, light, and restraint.
Studjurban has chosen to submit its project in Kappara in the upcoming MASP Awards.
“This project was about distilling architecture down to its essence,” says Zammit, founder and lead architect at Studjurban.
“We wanted to create a space where light defines geometry, and where the architecture allows for quiet reflection and a sense of clarity in the everyday.”
From the street, the house reads as a sculptural volume—clean, precise, unadorned. A single, monolithic façade reveals just enough to intrigue: a sliver of contemporary stands out from the 1960s stone across the front elevation, fronted by a discreet entryway slightly recessed into the wall. But once inside, the experience shifts dramatically.
What appears rigid from the exterior opens up into a fluid interior where natural light filters softly through skylights, clerestory windows, and carefully positioned apertures.
The floor plan unfolds across split levels, connected through a minimalist staircase, a transitional zone subtly bathed in natural light. The interiors are a study in tonal serenity – chalky whites, oak, polished tiles – each material allowed to breathe without embellishment.
“It is a deliberate avoidance of decorative excess,” Zammit explains. “Everything here is pared back. The materials are honest. The light becomes the main ornament.”
The home’s most striking feature may be its geometry: rigorous yet inviting, angular but never harsh. A dramatic ceiling plane in the main living area pitches diagonally, drawing the eye upward and out toward the sky through a generous aperture leading onto the pool area.
“There’s a quiet drama in the angularity,” says Zammit. “It’s not about theatrics but about precision. Every angle was drawn to capture light at different times of day, or to frame a particular view.”
Despite its sculptural stance, the house is designed for living. The open-plan green kitchen and dining area anchor the space, forming a warm nucleus around which more private volumes rotate. Bedrooms retreat into more intimate zones, buffered by transitional spaces that absorb sound and light.
There is an almost philosophical undertone to the work. Studjurban’s approach eschews architectural spectacle in favour of considered experience.
“We live in times where architecture is often driven by trends and icons. This house is a counterpoint to that. It’s about creating a place that feels grounded, elemental, even timeless.”
The result is a home that feels almost monastic in its restraint, yet deeply humane, a space where angularity doesn’t imply coldness, but rather intention. Where minimalism doesn’t equate to sterility, but to clarity. And where design is not an assertion, but an offering.
For Zammit, this project is part of a larger trajectory—a return to architecture as a craft of light, proportion, and simplicity.
“Good architecture,” he concludes, “should make space for people, for light, for silence. That’s what we tried to do here.”
