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Architects: Vicens + Ramos
- Year: 2004
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Photographs:Eugeni Pons
Text description provided by the architects. The construction of this single-family home was carried out on lot #26 of Las Encinas Neighborhood, in Pozuelo, Madrid. The lot, with a surface area of 14,077.83 m2, has a trapezoidal shape, with access from its southern end. Its borders have the following dimensions: 160.52 m to the north; 58.36 m to the east; 187.33 m to the south; 102.45 m to the west.
We decided to place the house near the access street, so that most of the lot could be used with privacy.
Conceived as a “geode”, the massiveness it presents with its large blasted granite cladding contrasts with the glass, which appears as a “hole within a rock, covered by a generally crystallized substance”. Nevertheless, this “geode” is not natural. Instead, the hand of man intervenes in it, and leaves its mark with the vertical fissures found on the blasted granite...
The house develops around two floors and one basement, and is inscribed in a 35- by 20-meter rectangle. The southeast corner of the basement has an overhang so as to create an entrance to the garage that is set in with respect to the general alignments of the house. In that set-in space we also find the entrance for the service staff, with a staircase that goes up to the first floor from the games room; next to the entrance we also find a small lift directly communicated with the pantry.
The garage allows for the comfortable parking of ten vehicles, and the space dedicated to the building utilities is right next to it. From the garage the home can be accessed through a pivoting door. The hall, with the main staircase and the elevator that provide communication with the upper floor is illuminated through a glass wall that allows for the vision of a sunken garden courtyard. The indoor pool looks out onto this courtyard, with a space for sauna. From the hall one can also access a projection room and a storage room.
The main entrance, through the ground floor, is accessed from the exterior parking courtyard through an offset that creates a low porch excavated within the constructed volume. The entrance hall has a double-height ceiling and a staircase and elevator open up to it, with skylights. The south bay of the building is used for the house service, and includes a guest bathroom, service living room, office, kitchen, pantry, washing room, and dinnerware and glass storage. It also has access to the basement stairs and the service staircase that goes to the upper floor.
The rest of the ground floor is occupied by the dining room, family room, a living room with a double-height section and skylights, a double-height office, and another porch that has also been excavated into the general volume of the house.
The upper floor is dedicated exclusively to bedrooms. The main staircase allows access to a hall that, on one hand, looks down into the void above the entrance hall, and on the other hand, opens up to the landscape through three openings in the form of courtyards, always set back from the perimeter of the general prism.
The master bedroom is found in the northeast corner. In the opposite corner we find the two guest bedrooms next to the service staircase, each with its own dresser, full bathroom and terrace. The rest of the plan is occupied by five bedrooms for the children, all of them with their own bathroom.
