The house is located in the Cacique Upar Valley between 2 large mountain ranges on the edges of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta north of the city of Valledupar, Colombia. A city that is identified by its rich musical culture and hosts the Vallenata music festival.
The house is commissioned by a young family as a rest house and its design is influenced by the tradition of musical gatherings with a Vallenato group known as parrandas, which are traditional in the city of Valledupar, mainly during the festival of the Vallenato legend.
It is a project that takes up the Colombian architectural tradition by organizing its spaces around a central patio as is characteristic of the architecture of the Colombian colonial and republican period with a strong influence of Spanish architecture. However, Casa Alimar, far from repeating traditional schemes, instead proposes to reinvent them, proposing an architecture with a contemporary language that incorporates elements of modern architecture such as walkable flat roofs, and facades with large windows that take the exuberant landscape of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta inside the house.
The house mixes the typical materials and colors of the Caribbean region of Colombia, such as the use of white with earth-colored brick. White and ocher are the base colors that blend harmoniously with the wood tones of the furniture, ceilings, window frames and doors, and the typical plants and flowers of the region. The central patio incorporates the use of water through pools that, due to their green tones, evokes the stones of the Guatapurí river and allows the pool to become a mirror of water that reflects the interior façade of the house.
Being a region with a warm tropical climate, the design process incorporated the use of energy simulations, seeking the most appropriate conditions for reducing energy consumption. The building orients its windows to the north and south, avoiding direct morning and afternoon sun, with the use of eaves and sunshades to reduce glare and the direct incidence of the sun, while capturing the monsoon winds coming from the northeast. Thus, implementing bioclimatic architecture concepts such as crosswind circulation. The walkable flat roofs incorporate green zones and collect rainwater that is used to irrigate the green roof as well as green areas and gardens that border the house.
The interior of the house proposes that the spaces are integrated, avoiding divisions and allowing the circulation of natural air, with the social spaces on the north side of the house and the bedrooms on the east side. The program also incorporates a traditional Valledupar space such as the kiosk in which they organize social gatherings around a Vallenato music group. However, the traditional sloping roof of the kiosk is replaced by a walkable terrace that harmonizes with the contemporary language of the house. The terrace communicates with the rooms through a bridge that closes the central patio and allows you to enjoy the surrounding landscape, connecting all the spaces of the house.
