CARS

Alejandro Peral

• Architects

The house is located on the Yacht of Nordelta, on a 1000 m2 lot that slopes steeply down towards one of the neighborhood canals connected to the Luján River. One of the main features of the urbanization is its nautical character, which allows for a private dock in the garden and direct access to the Delta. The house seeks to adapt to the needs of a user with a particular interest in sports cars, motorcycles, and boats, requiring a program that is out of the ordinary. The language is defined by a marked geometric imprint, and the program appears contained in two intercepted volumes that result in a simple piece with a marked identity. The programmatic distribution is ordered on the two levels that the house has and separates the public spaces on the ground floor from the private spaces on the upper floor.

photo_credit Alejandro Peral — Alejandro Peral

The functions are articulated around a clear central double-height axis that divides the floor in two and contains the vertical circulation. As we approach the house, the main volume of the upper floor appears, seeming to defy gravity and framing the bedrooms that face the front, generating a large semi-covered outdoor carport area. This volume is intercepted by another one on the ground floor that prioritizes access to the house and forms the showcase for a competition motorcycle display area. Upon crossing this threshold, we are greeted by the organizing axis in double height, crossed by a glass bridge and staircase, which leads to the different spaces around the large internal glassed volume that contains the most unique place in the house: a workshop with two lifts that can accommodate four sports cars, visible from the surrounding public areas.

This space is developed in double height to accommodate the car lifts and has access through an independent staircase to a sort of "secret" music room and wine tasting cellar that overlooks the workshop on one side and enjoys open views of the river on the other. To the left is the kitchen, daily dining room with a service back, and to the right, a large living-dining room with the workshop exhibition window in the background. Upstairs, overlooking the river, is the main suite, flanked by two semi-suite bedrooms and a games room towards the front. The materials palette is reduced to a white envelope given by the continuity of floors-walls-ceilings, roofs with eaves covered in wood frame the views from the interior, which are enhanced through the faces of the volumes, dematerialized in large glass panes.

As a constant in this type of design, there is a desire to transgress limits, making the interior horizontal and vertical elements suddenly transform into exteriors, complemented by the use of large eaves that, from the inside, seem to extend outwards. The interior flooring continues its path towards the exterior, taking advantage of the strong presence of the water in the canal and the slope of the terrain, and allows for the resolution of outdoor situations with the pool as a linking element between the river and the social areas of the house.