This house is the continuation of a recurring exploration in our work, which seeks to understand the ways of living in a typical suburban lot on the outskirts of Quito, surrounded by single-family homes, halfway between the countryside and the city.
The terrain, flat and barely elevated above the street, has no special characteristics, except for the possibility of enjoying, from the upper floor, distant views toward the east, the presence of a couple of old carob trees that we set out to rescue, and, especially, a pleasant climate almost all year round, which allows for constant interaction with the outdoors.
The project is structured around the relationship between two bars arranged perpendicularly to each other. By approaching the peripheries of the lot, both define the most important space of the house: the garden, which generates and is generated by the project itself and becomes the focal point of all activities.
The bar for social uses rests on the ground, parallel to the street. It is hermetic toward the public road and opens up completely toward the private interior. This volume is materialized entirely in concrete through a system of slabs, load-bearing walls, and deep beams.
Completing the composition, a second bar, transversal and superimposed on the first, contains the private uses. This volume opens toward the garden and captures distant views to the east and the morning sun, while denying any relationship with the neighboring house. The bar is built in steel and concrete, leveraging a system of point supports that allows the lower space to be left free.
The intersection of the two bars generates the family's meeting spaces and allows vertical communication between the two floors and the basement, which is dedicated to service and equipment areas—parking, machinery, storage, etc. This space overlooks a sunken garden that provides it with light and air.
The clients, avid readers and parents of two teenagers, requested a small library: a calm and quiet space that would allow them a certain isolation from daily life. It was then decided to take advantage of the length of the private use bar, placing the master bedroom at the end of the route. This is materialized as a steel and glass bridge, becoming a tool to disconnect from the daily hustle. The library is accessed from this bridge, and its glass volume, wrapped in a wooden lattice, is suspended silently, floating in space.
Beneath the private bar, a large open and covered space is generated, acting as a porch that integrates into the garden. From there, the total width of the terrain is fully perceived, and its limits coincide with those of the lot. This space is dominated by the sound of water falling from the reflecting pool on the ground floor to the basement.
The project is built with concrete, steel, glass, marble, and chonta wood lattices. The structure is always evident and easy to read.
A series of mechanisms are proposed that allow configuring different uses for specific elements. A sliding platform glides over the pool and can function as a bridge between the living room and the garden, a hot tub cover, a stage, or simply disappear. The kitchen can be integrated into or separated from the living room by a metal guillotine door that is manipulated at will. The window lattices are sliding, facilitating their cleaning, controlling the light, or framing different views. The TV cabinet is pivoting, and all windows can be stacked to completely integrate the interior and exterior.
We hope to have created a stage for life, capable of allowing varied possibilities and degrees of interrelation among its inhabitants, provoking changing, diverse, and enriching situations and experiences.
