Brick House in La Eliana

Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares

Brick House in La Eliana 

Sanchis Olivares

QUANTITY SURVEYOR
Julián Gordo

KITCHEN CONSULTANT 
Cocinas Llorens 

CARPENTRY EXPERT
Ernesto Pastor

WINDOWS 
Juan Antonio Gil / Aluvista

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER
Jaqueline Ramón

MANUFACTURERS 
Ceramicas Mora, Cortizo

CONSTRUCTION COMPANY 
Atg Desarrollos

PERGOLA
Ernesto Pastor 

STONE SUPPLIER
Mármara Piedra

AREA  
198 m²

YEAR
2022

LOCATION
L'eliana, Spain

CATEGORY
Houses

Text description provided by architect.

In a decades-old established garden city, in the suburbs of Valencia, an old tennis court became a plot on which we were asked to build a single-family home.

Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares
Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares

It offered us a flat terrain, with surrounding vegetation as a backdrop, a large tree, and an old underground warehouse that became a swimming pool.

The lack of collective life in the streets of this urban model leads us to a typology that looks inwards, protecting and enclosing the exterior space in the search for the user's relationship with it.

Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares
Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares

The significant length of the plot leads to organizing the program in a spine, from the northern access area to the terrace at its southern end.

On the east façade, there are openings, gaps, and a courtyard that allow the morning light to enter the rooms, while on the western side there is a flat, opaque façade that seeks shelter from the sun under the surrounding vegetation.

In a reference to the surrounding residential architecture, the house is built with bricks made from white clay.

The size of each piece allows us to approximate the volumetric forcefulness that defines the exterior image of the project to the human scale.

Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares
Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares
Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares

This forcefulness culminates in the vertical element that shapes the "paellero", a key element in Valencian social life.

Located on the southern terrace, it is contrasted by a light overhanging pergola built from pine slats that provides a shaded outdoor space.

This pergola, together with the thickness of the enclosures, the cross ventilation, and the house's response to the different solar orientations, together form a system of passive measures that improve its climatic performance.

Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares


Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares
Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares
Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares
Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares
Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares
Brick House in La Eliana
Courtesy of Álvaro Olivares


Brick House in La Eliana
Ground Floor Plan
Brick House in La Eliana
First Floor Plan


Brick House in La Eliana
Section