The house’s site has a singular geometry and is located in front of a lake which is southwestward. The fact that the best potential views are generated towards such a complicated orientation for sunlight at this latitude, results in a volume that not only opens towards the context, but is also protected to the sun incidence, generating a very peculiar volume and personality to the project.
The client, a young business man, wanted a modern house in which the relations with the context were maximized. At the beginning he asked if the site’s irregular geometry and it’s alignment restrictions would suppose such a complexity that the house would be pretty hard to design. After a preliminary analysis, the conclusion was that making a one floor house with all his requests and needs would be totally doable, but certainly the result wouldn’t be conventional schematically speaking.
The program includes a master bedroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, a large terrace with pool as a social area and the service areas. The program analysis and the site’s geometry were the basis for the first guidelines of the proposal, followed by the pursuit of creating a house versatile enough for different kind of social meetings… one of the client’s priorities.
The main access to the house is given across the terrace, following a diagonal primary axis that crosses the site from which the main spaces unfold. This axis also works as the division between the service spaces and the served ones. The living room, dining room and kitchen are conceived as one space that can be integrated (or segregated) to the bedroom and the terraces.
The service spaces of the house are designed to integrate the site’s different irregularities. The main bathroom can be integrated to the master bedroom by opening the beds head board, so it becomes a semi social space from which one can enjoy the landscape, chat, watch the tv…
Since the main view of the house (to the lake) is southwestward, a big wall was conceived on top of a low window, so it protects from the sun and at the same time allows a complete visual integration. For this element it was convenient to create some air chambers that allowed thermal insulation… So, taking advantage that the client is partner of a steel structure company, the proposed consisted on a concrete block wall covered with steel panels that generates a rich composition and shadows (by being embossed). This way three air chambers cross the wall from side to side... Obviously this allows a major thermal comfort and also generates an element of a significant sculptural presence in the project.
The house’s platform is “sculpted” in order to create the different levels and the water component of the house. This water component generates the pool, the water mirror in the access and a canal that enters the house –crossing it- and going out again next to the main bathroom. This way the water becomes a fundamental element of the composition which gives sense to many areas and allows that through it, practically any space can be reached.
