HOUSE #1.130
Madrid, Spain
ARCHITECTS
estudio__entresitio
PHOTOS
estudio__entresitio (8), Roland Halbe
AREA
3000 sqft - 5000 sqft
YEAR
2013
LOCATION
Madrid, Spain
CATEGORY
Residential › Private House
This single-family house is comparatively large at a little over 5,380 square feet; the site is narrow, long, and sloped towards the south. Two different schemes are superimposed on top of one another:
a longitudinal one, based on spatial forking, and the one underneath, based on a finger-like configuration. As a result, the structure is a fractured mass, ruled by the rhythm of the roof outline.
Some other important aspects to the design are the growth against the slope, and the entrance through the umbilicus and permeable skins that thicken space boundaries.
On the upper level, there is a daytime pavilion with a metal roof structure that persists all the way through in visual continuity, with long views through a sequence of spaces.
Concrete supporting walls and glass enclosures are the other two vertical elements, blurring the idea of interior and exterior.
Rooms below are burrow-like, with nested openings in between them.
It is a formless project in the sense that it is impossible to obtain any volumetric understanding as a spectator.
This effect is due to the camouflage of the permeable skin with the concrete, and the perceptual dynamic of the light.
The permeable skin follows the same rhythm in the pattern of vertical lines as the concrete surfaces.
It is not only about the absence of frames — supporting elements are secondary, intentionally hidden, and as thin as possible.
The house is an inhabitable porous enclosure made by the superimposition of multiple layers with different density and permeability; and therefore, different degrees of interiority.
For this project estudio__entresitio were the architects as well as the general contractor; therefore, not only the art or process of building was in our hands, but also the act of physical construction.
