Ensamble Studio

Hemeroscopium House

Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio

HEMEROSCOPIUM HOUSE 

Ensamble Studio

ARCHITECTS
Ensamble Studio

LOCATION
Las Rozas, Spain

CATEGORY
Houses

AREA
400.0 m2

YEAR
2008

Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio

Text description provided by architect.

For the Greek, Hemeroscopium is the place where the sun sets. An allusion to a place that exists only in our mind, in our senses, that is ever-changing and mutable, but is nonetheless real.

It is delimited by the references of the horizon, by the physical limits, defined by light, and it happens in time.

Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio

Hemeroscopium house traps, a domestic space, and a distant horizon. And it does so playing a game with structures placed in an apparently unstable balance, that enclose the living spaces allowing the vision to escape.

Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio
Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio

With heavy structures and big actions, disposed in a way to provoke gravity to move the space. And this way it defines the place.

The order in which these structures are piled up generates a helix that sets out from a stable support, the mother beam, and develops upwards in a sequence of elements that become lighter as the structure grows, closing on a point that culminates the system of equilibrium.

Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio
Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio

Seven elements in total. The design of their joints respond to their constructive nature, to their forces; and their stresses express the structural condition they have.

By the way this structure is set, the house becomes aerial, light, transparent, and the space kept inside flows with life.

Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio
Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio

The apparent simplicity of the structure's joints requires in fact the development of complex calculations, due to the reinforcement, and the prestress and post-tension of the steel rods that sew the web of the beams.

It took us a year to engineer but only seven days to build the structure, thanks to a total prefabrication of the different elements and a perfectly coordinated rhythm of assembly.

Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio
Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio
Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio

All of our effort oriented to develop the technique that would allow to create a very specific space.

And thus, a new astonishing language is invented, where form disappears giving way to the naked space.

Hemeroscopium house materializes the peak of its equilibrium with what in Ensamble Studio we ironically call the "G point", a twenty ton granite stone, expression of the force of gravity and a physical counterweight to the whole structure.

Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio


Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio
Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio
Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio
Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio
Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio
Hemeroscopium House
Courtesy of Ensamble Studio


Hemeroscopium House
Sketch
Hemeroscopium House
Sketch


Hemeroscopium House
3bn Beam Details
Hemeroscopium House
Artesa Beam Details
Hemeroscopium House
1bn Beam Details
Hemeroscopium House
2bn Beam Details
Hemeroscopium House
Reversed Artesa Beam Details
Hemeroscopium House
Vierendel Truss Details


Hemeroscopium House
East Elevation
Hemeroscopium House
West Elevation
Hemeroscopium House
South Elevation
Hemeroscopium House
Section 02
Hemeroscopium House
Sketch
Hemeroscopium House
Axo


Hemeroscopium House
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carpentry details 02
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carpentry details 03
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Hemeroscopium House
crowning stone details
Hemeroscopium House
warren truss details


Hemeroscopium House
Ground floor plan
Hemeroscopium House
Second floor plan
Hemeroscopium House
Facade details 01
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Facade Details 02
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Facade Details03
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Facade Details 05
Hemeroscopium House
sketch
Hemeroscopium House
Structure Diagram
Hemeroscopium House
E pillar details


Hemeroscopium House
Model
Hemeroscopium House
Model
Hemeroscopium House
Model
Hemeroscopium House
Model
Hemeroscopium House
Model
Hemeroscopium House
Model
Hemeroscopium House
Model
Hemeroscopium House
Model
Hemeroscopium House
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Hemeroscopium House
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Hemeroscopium House
facade details 06
Hemeroscopium House
facade details 04

Ensamble Studio
T +34 911 730 166
Ensamble Studio
C. Alondras, 7, 28320 Pinto, Madrid, Spain