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Architects: Arqbox
- Area: 280 m²
- Year: 2014
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Photographs:Nenad Radovanovic
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Manufacturers: Aquamec, Artesanal Mais, Bunese, Marmoraria Central, Nakid, Pedra cor, Piotto, Quac, Scrock, Smart Home, Tech Hous, Tecverd, Triangulo
Text description provided by the architects. House set in a 319 m² plot in a gated community in the city of Curitiba. The customer demand was to build a spacious and integrated residence, in which service and social spaces should be on the ground floor and private areas on the upper floor. At least bedroom suites, a family room and office, kitchen, living/ dining room, laundry and garage for two vehicles. Additionally, a toilet adjacent to the main access, a storage connected to the kitchen and a deposit to the garage were included to the program. The total area is 280,30 m², 154,70m² on the ground floor and 125,60 m² on the upper floor. The main challenge was to set the house at several levels to overcome the existing six meter slope. The garage was set first - at the lowest level to avoid a steep access. Then, the access was defined and the ground floor was proposed in two levels. Despite the area limitation, it was possible to create an outdoor garden space connected to the living room and service area.
The garage access to the kitchen is via a staircase that is hidden by a kitchen cabinet door. This allowed the creation of a an aligned panel as the kitchen background, which is fully integrated to the living and dining room. Amplitude and integration were demands of the customer and the ground floor reflects this desire the best possible way. The countertop on two levels spatially divides the kitchen and living room, which is completed with a barbecue area. The furniture arrangement facilitates the circulation and use, promoting visual permeability in every point of these spaces. Large glass planes divide the inner and outer space and also allow visual integration of both spaces. On the upper level the project avoid corridors, considered as lost spaces. Therefore, the family room functions as a integrating center between the bedroom and a small office, which can be hidden by a movable panel.
The constructive system is mixed: on the garage level and ground floor was used conventional system of concrete and masonry, while on the upper floor steel frame system - which is a structural system based on metal profiles covered with OSB panels outside and plasterboard inside. The staircase to the upper floor was made with reinforced concrete. The steps are clamped to the wall, which is also structural reinforced concrete. The staircase was maintained as exposed concrete, as well as the wall that goes from the entrance hall to the fireplace. The materials essence is often evident in this house, part of the architecture concept.
The modern architecture inspiration was essential, though appropriated to the current moment in which we live and available technology. On Casa Box, aspects as amplitude, clarity, integration and solidity were highlighted. The house shape turned out to be a result of the rectangular plan of the upper floor; a volume resting on its support points. The break between the upper "box" and the ground level walls, made with glass enclosure, gives a lightness to the whole - but it also has a functional purpose, which is to light up the interior environment of the garage staircase, for example. To highlight the break between the forms, different coating materials were chosen: the front facade of the ground floor has a bamboo panel that unifies a surface from the garage door to the social access door; on the top, the facade is only coated with light gray paint. Upstairs, the sides are covered with movable bamboo panels, which close the bedroom and private room openings.
The exterior panels are made of a aluminum structure and coated with resinated bamboo slats. They consist on large movable panels that integrate the opening of the inner room and bedroom spaces. The proposal sought to avoid traditional openings (windows) and used French windows on the upper floor sides to light appropriately the interior environment. As the orientation of these opening is East-West, it was necessary to provide sun somehow sun protection, and therefore installed the bamboo panels on the frames. To avoid a blind upper front facade, as a client request, a high window was inserted, slightly offset and set back from the facade plane.
