Sustainable house

The project involved the full renovation of a 230m² family home in Girona. Being one of a select few houses built in the nature reserve in the 1970s, the house was protected and the volume could not be increased but the facade and interior distribution could be adjusted. ©Pol Viladoms The challenge was in turning a very ugly facade into something beautiful and breaking open the traditional maze of interior rooms and passages into an open plan airy set of spaces with an inside-outside flow and a celebration of the spectacular views over the surrounding forests. ©Pol Viladoms Despite its tight size, we were able to fit 3 spacious bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 separate kitchen-living-dining spaces, a machine and storage r... More

This project was to be a house for a family with greatly different ideas about what constitutes a house. One parent dreaming of a strikingly modern aesthetic, the other of a traditional house with a sloping roof, and with respect for the rules of Feng Shui. ZEST architecture had to find a way to interpret both these views and create a house that would feel like a home for the entire family. Adrià Goula The villa is located on a plot in the town of Alella, with views both of the Mediterranean, and the city of Barcelona. The design departed from the idea of making the most of the views to all sides. We developed a volumetric concept that is an intricate play with three different materials and various different heights. Because th... More

PROJECT OF A SINGLE FAMILY HOUSE LOCATED ON A VERY SMALL AND NARROW PLOT WITH A SINGLE STREET FACADE. THE PREMISE WAS TO MAKE A COMPLETE RENOVATION AND EXTENSION OF THE HOUSE WITH TRADITIONALS MATERIALS AND SUSTEINABLE CRITERIA, TRYING TO DEDICATE HOURS IN SELF-CONSTRUCTION AND WITH THE MINIMUM POSSIBLE COST. THE IDEA WAS TO RECOVER THE OLD STONE WALLS AND HIGHLIGHT THEM THROUGH THE NEW WOODEN STRUCTURE. THIS BINOMIAL IS THE ONE THAT HAS ENDED UP DEFINING AND GIVING CHARACTER TO THE PROJECT. THE NARROW PLOT ALLOWS A STRUCTURE OF LAMINATED WOOD BEAMS SUPPORTED BY THE MEDIANS, GENERATING OPEN-PLAN PLANTS OPEN TO THE FACADE. THIS FACT MOVES THE STAIRCASE, VERY LIGHT, TO THE BACK OF THE HOUSE, WHERE WITH OPENINGS ON THE ROOF, IT FAVORS THAT T... More

This backland site was part of a generous 4 bedroomed property that benefits from a mature garden, including listed trees and well established, mature boundary hedging. The site for the new property was chosen by our client for its minimal impact on the existing property. The result is a narrow, east-west orientated building plot, partially encroached by tree root protection zones and existing planting which is to be retained. The building plot also forms a stop-end to an existing 1970s mews, which is a dominant yet incomplete development pattern.Early stage 3D modelling highlighted three key amenity areas with optimum light throughout the day and the seasons. The building design concept was then developed to provide hard edges to avoid imp... More

The CETI Dome House is a one-of-a-kind design that combines the modern look of a glass dome with the practicality of a passive house that results in a sustainable eco-friendly home.This 140 square meter dome house is made by merging two domes, one of 10 meters in diameter and one of 5 meters in diameter. The large dome has a mezzanine of 45 sqm of floor space and the smaller dome is a very spacious 18 square meters of bathroom.The building of this dome house is scheduled for the beginning of 2019, with a turn-key budget of 375k euros.The dome is made with a steel frame and triple glazing laminated security Smart Glass which at a push of a button switches back and forth between a clear window panel and a non-transparent opaque panel.The glas... More

Our company Biodomes www.biodomes.eu designs and builds custom, one-of-a-kind glass, metal and concrete geodesic domes. We offer over 20 different geodesic dome models that can be sized and customized in a number of ways. We also build earth sheltered, green roof geodesic domes that can be insulated to passive house standards. Our goal is to create structures whose function is as important as their form, buildings that are beautiful and functional at the same time. Earth sheltered, glass geodesic domes represent the ultimate sustainable passive eco homes of the future and the timeless design and alluring aesthetics of geodesic domes offer unsurpassed versatility, they can be designed as ultra modern passive eco-homes, recreational spaces, i... More

Our company Biodomes designs and manufactures custom metal and glass geodesic domes. Our goal is to create structures whose function is as important as their form. Geodesic domes are extremely strong for their weight due to their omnitriangulated surface that provides an inherently stable structure, with a natural resistance to external factors like earthquakes up to 8.5 on the Richter scale , winds up to 320 km/h due to the aerodynamic shape and loads up to 20 tonnes per point of structure. They mirror the suns path thus maximizing solar gain all day, all year and they also distribute perfectly heat and sounds.The spherical design results in highly efficient and effective air circulation in both summer and winter. Less surface area makes t... More

Location: Costa Esmeralda, Buenos Aires, Argentina Design: María Victoria Besonías, Guillermo de Almeida Collaborators: Arch. Diorella Fortunati Land area: 1535m2 Built area: 218m2 In project More