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Architects: Activo Estudio
- Area: 240 m²
- Year: 2021
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Lead Architects: Leticia Celma, Daniel Ojeda
Text description provided by the architects. Juantana is a single-family house built in the Loma Pyta neighbourhood of Asunción. This was the first housing commission for the studio, and there was no stylistic or material basis of reference for the project, so the essence of the house was centered around defining its habitability from the experiences of the individual, to understand the daily life, the functionality, the character of the spaces and the relationship between those who inhabit it. All these factors are synthesized in Casa Juantana through a process that defines the main conditions as spatial efficiency, adaptation to the site and the application of high-impact, low-cost solutions.
Spatially, the project is divided into two levels: a ground floor with the social and service areas, the living room, dining room, the gallery, a study, as well as the kitchen, the laundry room, the bathroom and the storage room. The upper floor in turn contains three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Geometric order and rigor define the spaces that follow similar proportions, with a
symmetrical distribution, which accentuates the contrast between the intimate and the social, between the front and the back, between the top and the bottom, without losing the functional relationship.
Regarding the adaptation to the site, preservation and contact with nature is understood as the primary objective. The house is implanted in a way to conserve the unevenness of the terrain, seeking to modify the ground as little as possible and to preserve the existing vegetation and enhancing it as part of the architectural compositing. The trees interact with the house both as an extension of the covered space and also as a climate regulation system. The fundamental idea of using natural light as a formal element also arises, a relationship between the properties of materials and orientation, which allow the hierarchization of spaces without the need for limiting spatial definitions. The qualities of the space are reaffirmed through the use of the light.
Diaphanous and versatile spaces, the liberation of the corners by means of more slender structural elements and the continuity of the openings define the social areas. Contained environments bathed by the lights filtered both by the vegetation and by artificial filters and overhead lights form changing, introspective and intimate spaces.
Materially, the construction solutions are traditional techniques, a reinforced concrete structure and brick walls. Also, alternative techniques are integrated, such as the use of concrete floor bricks to improve thermal inertia, filter walls to protect the rooms from excessive sunlight and the use of skylights as lighting and heat dissipation elements. The wooden staircase integrates the different levels with an intention of lightness and spatial warmth.
