The House that Splits
The House that Splits
Voluar Arquitectura
ARCHITECTS
Voluar Arquitectura
LEAD ARCHITECT
Borja Lomas
MANUFACTURERS
Aluminios Castuera, Calvo Y Munar, Cortizo, Naturpiedra, Porcelanosa Grupo, Simon
COLLABORATOR ARCHITECT
Pablo Rodríguez
TECHNICAL ARCHITECT
Adolfo Álvarez
YEAR
2023
LOCATION
Madrid, Spain
CATEGORY
Houses
MEMORY: TIME AND EPIGENETICS
"In contrast to Newton and Schopenhauer, your ancestor did not think of time as absolute and uniform. He believed in an infinite series of times, in a dizzily growing, ever-spreading network of diverging, converging, and parallel times.
This web of time - the strands of which approach one another, bifurcate, intersect or ignore each other through the centuries - embraces every possibility." Jorge Luis Borges, The Garden of Forking Paths.
TIME
Albert Einstein showed us that space cannot be conceived independently from time; both concepts are mutually interrelated in an unbreakable way.
They intertwine to form the framework on which we exist and, like the two-faced god Janus, present the same essence, but with two tied polarities: space-time. Architects often talk about the qualities of space, but we seldom reflect on the temporal essence it carries.
Spatial limits and configurations imply different temporal perceptions. Because space without time becomes a static and flat image, loses its depth. This branching configuration, so distant from the paradigm of the Box or the unique homogenous space, pushes us to explore and understand it by walking it.
It encourages us to invest time and explore the temporal condition of space and how its possible paths and bifurcations form a riddle whose key is time.
A complete glance in a brief instant is not possible because there is no privileged point of view, no fixed perspective that represents and explains the entire dwelling. The house does not establish itself as a static stage; as we move, planes and gaps open up, and visual perspectives close successively and hide away.
With each step, the space changes and unfolds with our body's movement. Whether inside or outside, each viewpoint has particular and changing considerations throughout the day, and natural light writes, through changing shadows the continuous unfolding of time.
Its materiality, steel, also speaks of perpetual change, rusting over time like living matter.
The glass with its ever-changing reflections blurs the boundaries between interior and exterior, incorporating the garden into domestic space.
Only the curved mirror housed within can break with the conventional flow of space-time, distorting it to show overlapping spaces of impossible time and quantum superposition in an instant.
We cannot stop time, but we can build spaces that make its perception more noticeable, "densify time," even if it's just an illusion...
EPIGENETIC
Alvar Aalto said that "the most important model of architecture is nature, not the machine."
Branching is an effective method for conquering space in continuity allowing adaptation to a specific context and different situations. It is a common strategy in nature that we can see from the circulatory systems of living beings, plant growths or river arrangements.
Similarly, the bodies of the house branch out following lines that bypass the trees, closing towards the street, self-protecting from the north wind and unfolding towards the south orientation to find the best views of the landscape and dialogue with nearby forest.
Therefore, the final form of the house is a "found form," resulting from the intersection between the place and internal program needs, and not a preconceived and imposed form. The house is the result of a specific exploration not transferable to another context, an unrepeatable encounter."
The House of Forking Paths follows this creative process. It begins with a program that considers the genetics that the construction must contain to satisfy the needs of a family of Mediterranean culture, where the family nucleus is continually expanding by grandparents, relatives, and friends, requiring a flexible space that can be deployed or retracted according to the changing needs of each moment.
These genes or spaces are the instructions that mark and are linked to activities; however not in a direct relationship with space function. Instead, they will be activated and deactivated according to the different uses given by those who inhabit them.
The gene spaces take simple geometric shapes, basic familiar rectangular pieces in which spatial needs are analyzed in terms of surface, height, lighting frontage, and ventilation, as well as possible simple and effective furnishings. Strange distributions that could complicate or limit the free use of space or restrict the placement of standard furniture are avoided.
Once each gene of the program has been synthesized, they are distributed so that chains are generated, sequences of programs in terms of the degrees of relationship and linkage that have been established between them.
In this way, programmatic codes are created that are located both in the plan and in the section, depending on the degree of privacy offered by the space and its communication with the outside.
