The first time the site was visited, we discovered a property surrounded by vegetation and a viriety of very large trees, it was quite impressive. At that moment, we realized that this house needed to be designed considering it’s natural environment. The challenge was to design the building in such a way that it respected the land as much as possible taking advantage of it’s qualities.
The conditions of the site gave us the opportunity to develop the design of a house that originally was only for two people, the owner did not require more than one bedroom neither a space for "social coexistence", however, a couple of additional spaces were added to the program in order to receive guests outside the house if needed,integrating them into the activities of the house in the public areas, gardens, terraces and porch.
The architectural party is divided into four levels:
- Access.
- Two bedrooms for guests and the social area that includes two important functions; an open kitchen connected to the living room, dining room and terrace, with as much open space as possible to create a connection between the house and nature.
- The main bedroom.
- The creative area, which includes a music studio and a library.
Additionally, a perimeter garden was designed to subtly integrate the house into the natural landscape.
The architectural proposal had to fulfill certain regulations of the site, like making reference to some "typical" materials that seemed more of a limitation than a contribution, however the house design achieved to maintain a common language with the rest of the complex.Concrete volumes were resolved with certain elements of metal structure, which makes its reading very light, the treatment on the fifth façade is a game of textures and functionality that warns at the same time the constructive and functional system and the texturalization and color, so we have a range that goes from the traditional tile, till the stone that mitigates the sun to the solar cells that supply the energy to illuminate the exterior of the house and its machine room.
To be concrete, Casa AYG is an exercise to simplify the function, the use of the site's natural resources and the possibility of camouflaging the construction to maintain as little impact on the site as possible.
Team:
Architect: Miguel de la Torre
Photography: Jaime Navarro
