In this project we were commissioned to design a single-family house that would dialogue with its immediate surroundings from an honest and contemporary position. Located in a plot with marked boundaries but visually open to the horizon.
A house that defends itself without isolating itself, that protects itself without ceasing to look, and that transforms its limits into habitable landscapes.
The location of the house offered a contradictory condition: being inserted in an urbanization, with nearby buildings, but at the same time having open views to a more distant and quiet landscape.
Faced with this tension, the strategy was to build an interior world that would protect the inhabitants without disconnecting them from their surroundings. The starting point was the design of an access courtyard, a central and contained void on which the house withdraws, generating a domestic atmosphere of welcome, seclusion and transition. This intermediate space acts as a filter between the street and the house, but also as an extension of the natural landscape within the boundaries of the plot.
The dwelling is formalized as a compact volume that opens selectively towards the distant views and closes towards the built limits. This decision generates an object that folds in on itself, protecting itself from the immediate environment through the architectural gesture. The access courtyard is key in this configuration: more than a passage space, it is an emotional and compositional core that organizes the circulations and allows the house to breathe inward, without being exposed to the gaze of others. Constructively, the object combines an exposed metal structure -precise and light- with concrete elements that give it mass, stability and character. The result is a sober architecture, where each gesture responds to a spatial or climatic need.
The envelope is conceived as a protective layer that reacts sensitively to the environment. Over the metal structure and the concrete planes, a skin composed of movable wooden slats is deployed, which act as solar control, visual screening and passive ventilation system. This skin becomes especially significant in the areas facing the access courtyard, where it filters the light and provides privacy without losing the visual connection with the exterior. Wood brings warmth and texture to a composition dominated by industrial materials, generating tactile and light contrasts that enrich the spatial experience.
