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Architects: Peñafiel Arquitectos, Valdivieso Arquitectos
- Area: 580 m²
- Year: 2017
Text description provided by the architects. The project is located in a large, sloping site characterized by the presence of a very green ravine extended all along its length. Different strategically placed bodies make up the total of a system of parts that while being autonomous function as a whole.
The house is located on top of the site with dominating views over the ravine, the surrounding hills and at the back, over the sea. It is composed of two floors. The first one large and horizontally orientated, comprised of exposed concrete, contains the lounge areas of the house. While the second floor much lighter and compact, made of wood, includes the master bedroom and sets over the generous roof of the first floor as a terrace.
The living and dinning rooms are set at the center of the first floor in one space only, that is separated by the chimney. This central space extends southward into the kitchen and northward into the entrance hall, spaces that articulate the transition between the common area and the private parts of the house. These spaces arranged at the ends of the floor contain the service bedroom in the south and the children’s bedrooms in the north.
At introducing two diagonals axes, in the kitchen and in the hall, the house’s predominating orientation takes a turn towards its ends, leaving the service area to the southwest and the children’s bedrooms to the northwest looking at the hills. All the areas are also connected by an interior hallway placed at the back of the house. This hallway runs through the house over its entire length from the bedrooms to the kitchen without having to go through the common areas.
This back circuit contains the stairs leading to the second floor: a carpentry room carefully designed as an extension of the upper floor takes down to meet with the first floor. This room completes the circulation system by giving the inner volume double-height fresh air and by covering the circuit with natural light through a large, 6 m wide by 4.7 m high window, that goes along the rise and completely exposes the stairs over the entrance patio.
Further down together with the pool, a half-buried BBC area whose roof works as an extension of the house’s garden, leans out over the ravine at the height of the top of the trees. A keeper’s house is located on the opposite side of the BBC area and a little further down to protect the access. Making the most of the ravine, the keeper’s house hides from the view of the main house.
The position and distribution of these isolated bodies in the ground determine a permanent circuit in the site, finally integrating the exterior to the home life, in a routine that goes through the inside and outside, between the protected space of the interior and the open landscape.
