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Architects: Alejandro Restrepo-Montoya Arquitectura, Estudio Central
- Area: 450 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Alejandro Arango
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Lead Architects: Alejandro Restrepo-Montoya, Daniel Zuluaga Londoño, Daniel Molina Gallego, Hernán Ruiz Buitrago, Inés Tapasco Morales
Text description provided by the architects. In the middle of a mountainous topography that overlooks the valley on which Medellín is located, this home is integrated into the natural landscape through different levels, slopes and terraces. Accessing the house means discovering it through the topography routes. The first steps lead to a plain that is shaped by the configuration of the land where the parking lots, the social area and the service area are located. The arrival plaza hints at the main access as the resulting void between the geometries of its volumes.
This wall, which serves as a containment of the terrain and as a limit of the topography at the access level, configures a succession of spaces oriented towards the views over Medellín. At the access level, between the service volume and the studio, an open floor receives social activities and is projected outside through a terrace to contemplate the landscape. This terrace extends to a natural platform formed with the intervention of the original topography. This volume supports the higher volumes that contain the private zones.
A folded staircase next to the main access wall leads to the second level, made up of three volumes that contain the children's and parents' bedrooms, and a study in the middle of them.
Through the journey along the stairs, naturally illuminated with the filters and textures that come from a pergola located above them, the spaces on the upper level are discovered. These stairs lead to the central volume of the second level: a family room. On the second level, in the south and north volumes, the children's and parents' bedrooms are located, respectively. These volumes function as viewpoints, which extend their interior space to the outside with balconies that overlook the landscape. The house is a system of terraces, like eyes from the mountain, that look at different places in the valley.
The hallway that connects the bedrooms communicates towards the eastern side with a new outdoor room: a natural patio contained between the built volume and the slopes formed in the configuration of its location. This house is a system of spaces articulated by the topography and by the routes through the different levels of the interior space. It is the contrast between the firmness of a solid foundation, open at the ends of the circulations and in the front, like a covered viewpoint to contemplate the city. Above it, the three windows that observe the city form patios and viewpoints.
The base and the upper volumes were built with concrete pieces designed especially for the house, with three different sizes, to generate a texture with contrasts. Inside, surfaces made up of linear wooden elements sift and filter natural lights. This house has been designed so that it produces the energy it requires and so that it captures, from natural sources, water for its daily operation. The architectural designs have considered a system of solar panels that produce about 750 kilowatts monthly, which allows the house to be self-sufficient in its electrical consumption and deliver about 200 kilowatts per month to the local energy system.
A system of hydrosanitary filters located in the basement is connected to a water source on the lot. The architectural and technical designs have considered a system that filters and purifies the water, supplies the average monthly consumption of 18 cubic meters and stores the remaining water in reserve tanks. The hydrosanitary designs have also been designed to recycle the water used and subsequently supply the irrigation system in gardens, washing facades and exterior floors.
These windows towards the city, which emerge from a topography that is intervened to articulate nature and architecture, form different spaces so that family activities are permanently related to visuals, with natural light and with exterior and interior routes. It is a proposal to configure the domestic space as a permanent relationship between the activities of its inhabitants, the environment, and nature.
