Casa PECE is located in Tandil, southeast of the province of Buenos Aires and in the foothills of the Tandilia mountain system, one of the oldest in the world, in Argentina.
The meaning of the city's name has various origins. From honoring an indigenous chief who lived in the area, to the presence of a historic river that was called the same. The meaning that most attracts us is that of the study of indigenous words, where Lil, which could be a deformation of Dil, is equivalent to "rock" and Tan is said to derive from Thau, meaning nothing more and nothing less than "beat." . According to this analysis, Tandil then means "beating stone", making obvious reference to the Moving Stone.
The house is located in a gated community 15km from the city, in an environment that leads to abandoning urban activity and facilitates the development of more relaxed programs connected to the landscape.
The corner plot, measuring 46m x 41m, with a SE-NW orientation, left the layout and the idea of the home's division very defined. The fact of having a large plot of land gave us the possibility of orienting and locating the project with total freedom. The decision was to close the front and side S-SE, taking the entire width of the land to achieve the best views towards the mountains, also enhancing the virtues of all orientations.
Respecting the mandatory withdrawals of the neighborhood, by withdrawing 4m from the front and 3m from the side, privacy was gained. At the same time, a set of mature trees virtually delimits the limits of the land towards one of the streets and generates a space of diffused lights and shadows to enjoy at any time of the year.
The project is structured to enhance the landscape through a house with a linear layout. The PECE house wagon occupies as much of the front of the land as possible, covering and uncovering the landscape as the program and orientations require. This implementation on the ground, looking from the front to the back or from the back to the front, proposes different sequences and crossed visuals. Towards the mountains the landscape is framed and remains stopped, towards the horizon the field marks the immensity of the Pampas plain.
The assignment was to make an austere house, designed and comfortable to enjoy the harsh winter of Tandil and the strong summer sun. The program: master bedroom suite, guest bedroom, a bathroom that serves both inside and outside and a large covered and semi-covered social area.
We decided then to create a main façade, which we could call the rear part of the building, completely oriented towards the north, where each of the rooms that make up the house meet.
The house extends towards the mountains through a gallery, which has a height of 2.26m, lower than the interior of the house, which accentuates the horizontality of the project and, in turn, provides greater protection from solar incidence. The enclosure of the quiet part of the building was materialized through large sliding windows that, when opened, unify the interior spaces with the gallery, accentuating the interior-exterior relationship, in this way, the opening allows the expansion of the social housing sector to a large semi-covered space in close relationship with the exterior, which includes the grill.
The south façade, on the other hand, is a more closed façade, with vertical bands of masonry with an E orientation and some carpentry slits from floor to beam to gain views of the common space.
of the neighborhood, located in front of the street.
The location of the spaces is resolved based on generating the social area in the center of the home, articulated by an internal patio, the bedrooms are grouped at one end, while the service premises, such as the garage, are located at the other end. semi-covered and the laundry room.
In terms of materiality, such as the request for austerity, a traditional mixed construction system was used: modular structure of reinforced concrete and plastered hollow ceramic brick.
The black anodized aluminum carpentry plays in harmony with the light gray tone of the plastic plaster.
The fundamental premise was to appreciate nature and achieve a state of balance between the built environment, the pool and the natural green area, providing its dimension.
