The Palto House, located in Tumbaco, is a single-family house designed for a young couple in Quito-Ecuador. The site where it is implanted is located in a corner lot, with plenty of endemic avocado trees, locally called Paltos. The shade that these majestic trees project is an extraordinary resource for keeping the temperature down especially on a sunny day, a common occurrence in the area, as for the fruit of the trees, the avocado is very valued.
This is how in an almost intuitively manner Palto House's design takes as a reference the cooling thermic effect that is produced underneath these big trees and has a main objective, to succeed in building a thermally efficient and cool house, in an area of Quito, where the variations of temperature along one single day are quite significant, having very high temperatures during the day and quite cold temperatures at night.
An initial concrete volume, on the ground floor level, works as a base for the second volume which has a larger proportion, in the second floor, allowing that all the social areas, that are at the front courtyard and backyard level, enjoy the cooling effect provided by the shade during the morning. On the second level, however, containing the private areas, the facades receive natural sunlight directly in the bedrooms and family room in the morning and getting into the evening, the sun is received not only through the natural filter of the Palto's leaves, but also through the wood brise-soleil which are located next to the main hallway upstairs. Through these passive techniques, the house maintains a cool temperature during the morning and a warm temperature during the nights.
The second-floor volume is a result expressed by the original lot's shape, accomplishing through a wide curve, that flows and is the guideline for all the other curves expressed in every corner of the volume, losing the 90 degrees, and bringing an aspect to the house turning it into a very specific object, making it unique for this location and impossible to replicate it anywhere else that it wouldn't be on this lot or next to the Palto trees.
The raw concrete texture shown in the first level serves as a base for the white volume that faces the front façade through the wood brise-soleil, meanwhile on the first floor, when facing the street. The house opens itself through large windows from side to side, accompanied by the Palto's shade from one side, and on the other side by the shade provided from a broad metallic structure, these are the material elements that reinforce the composition of this interesting and unique single-family home.
