Just over six months ago, Ivana Alawi released a jaw dropping tour video of her childhood home in Bahrain. And when we say home, we actually mean a swanky two-living room, seven-bedroom mansion. Decked with gold accents and chic lounge furniture, the newly renovated luxurious property was passed down to the actress from her Moroccan father.
With that said, Pinoy YouTube’s resident architect Llyan Oliver Austria recently reacted to the said video, which now has over 13 million views. Llyan—who ranked fifth in the 2016 Architect Licensure exam—is most known for reacting to house tours online. Backed by his sense of humor and relatable tone, the architect makes his field accessible and understandable to us regular folks who know virtually nothing about...well, architecture.
Below, we list down a few totally random yet interesting facts that we took away from the architect while he reviewed Ivana Alawi’s home.
A breakdown on lot types.
From the looks of the video, Llyan presumes that Ivana’s house is situated on a corner lot, a.k.a. a lot found near the intersection of two or more streets. He says it’s one of the most expensive lot types “dahil marami kang opening towards the road.” Meanwhile, the most typical lot type in the country is an interior lot/regular lot which only has one open side, while its other three sides are bounded by other lots. Subsequently, the most expensive or premium lot homeowners can purchase is called a corner-through lot with three sides open to the road. “The more sides of your lot which is open to the road, usually mas mahal yung lote na yun,” Llyan explains.
Synthetic grass v.s. regular grass
Settling down in a dry and arid country like Bahrain? If so, much like the front lawn of Ivana’s mansion, Llyan suggests to keep to using artificial turf grass. This is to ensure a vibrant, green front yard all year round, and you won’t have to worry about heavy-duty maintenance either as opposed to tending to real grass.
Using wood for bedroom floors
Llyan says that using wood is ideal for bedroom floors as it gives off a warm feeling. It also won’t feel cold when you step on it with your bare feet, unlike other tiled floors. That said, it’s not commonly used in the Philippines. Why? The architect explains “Wood is very problematic due to moisture. Pag naging moist ang wood usually ma-dedeform siya pag hindi properly sealed ang wood na binili niyo.” His advice to combat this problem is to make sure that you only purchase Kiln dried wood, and have it applied with moisture sealer right after it’s setup on the floor.
Watch the full video below to learn more!
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