Cubo House

Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán

CUBO HOUSE

D' Argenio Saravi Arquitectos

CIVIL ENGINEERING
Isidro Galeano

SANITARY INSTALLATIONS
Cecilio Benitez

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Paula D’argenio, Nicolás Saraví

ELECTRICAL INSTALLATIONS
Martín Piro

MANUFACTURERS
Alejandro Lo Grasso Casa De Luz, Ariston, Cañoplast, Climaplat, Damitech, Eps Alta Densidad, Guanzetti, Hidroplat, Hormicova, Imacova, La Casa Del Mármol, La Plata Cerámicos, Lajas Centenario, Loxon Ladrillos, Pinturerías García, Vidrioplat

METAL WORK
Jorge Pas

PHOTOGRAPHS
Luis Barandiarán 

AREA
105 m² 

YEAR
2018 

LOCATION
Ensenada, Argentina

CATEGORY
Houses

Text description provided by architect.

The house was conceived in a search for a new way of living, away from urban life, valuing the riverside landscape of the river Río de la Plata. The requirement transcended the basic needs for living, forced an existential reflection and assumed an experimental dimension of the project.

The tools adopted to tackle this project are the most essential of the discipline: the eloquence of space, the austerity of resources, material plasticity, light management, synthesis and abstraction.

Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán
Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán
Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán

The site imposes an urban route prior to the access that allows the coexistence of two rotated geometric logics: the fabric of blocks, parallel to the riverside and the diagonal of the route leading to the access.

The perception of the architectural object is markedly dynamic, always foreshortened, avoiding frontality. The house with its four free faces can be seen from multiple points of view, even from public space.

The “cube”, strongly conditioned by the mandatory withdrawals, is actually a square plan prism of 9.40m x 9.40m and 6.60m in height, and it is located at the back of the lot in order to optimize the sunlight.

Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán
Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán
Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán

The abstract prism houses both the interior spaces and the semi-covered expansion. The organizing of windows that pierce the outer envelope does not allow us to foresee the spatial complexity that awaits us when entering.

The entire space is organized from a new orthogonal system rotated in relation to the envelope.

Consolidating the centre of the square was avoided, which would subdivide the space into four equal parts, and “anchor” both geometries to each other.

Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán
Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán
Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán

On the contrary, the central support of the mezzanine is hung so that the ground floor is a unique space. The will to free the ground floor from intermediate support was a provocative structural challenge.

The mezzanine hangs from the roof slab with a central tensioner. The roof takes two different levels and houses a 24 x 80 cm beam that transfers the load to the envelope.

In contrast to the spatial complexity, the house was conceived as a mono-material piece of exposed concrete that reveals its facades in a sculptural way, both on the inside as well as the outside. For this, a constructive system was developed that allowed the insulation to be included within the concrete mass itself.

Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán
Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán
Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán

The wrapping wall is made up of three 8cm layers of concrete-EPS (expanded polystyrene) -concrete, cast simultaneously. The lightened envelope comfortably supports its structural role despite the concentration of efforts involved in solving the angles.

The definition of the object does not require detail or termination, it is intrinsically the structure. The concrete prism thus synthesizes the spatial, material, structural, and technological challenges.

Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán
Cubo House
© Luis Barandiarán

It hides a rich interior space whose geometries refer to the intersections of frames that characterize its urban insertion.


Cubo House
General Plan
Cubo House
Ground Floor
Cubo House
Top Floor
Cubo House
Rooftop Plan


Cubo House
North-East Elevation
Cubo House
North-East Elevation
Cubo House
South-East Elevation
Cubo House
South-East View


Cubo House
Axo
Cubo House
Axo


Cubo House
Diagram
Cubo House
Placement


Cubo House
Section AA
Cubo House
Section BB
Cubo House
Section CC